Chapter 9

"I called you all here to announce the opening of our new venture," Macario called out over the little group of Earthers. "Paleo-Hunt, Incorporated!"

A smattering of applause greeted his announcement. Amongst the group attending his grand opening, though, there was more confusion than approval in their faces.

Frank decided to help his friend out by asking what was on everyone's mind; "What's a Pay Leo hunt, Mac?"

"Anything it wants!" Macario laughed. "No. Actually, folks, the whole idea is that whenever a group of people want to go hunt some really dangerous prey, like saber toothed tigers, that person can contact us and we'll arrange a party to go back through time – into pre-human history so we don't mess up our future.

"I've just spent several months in the far distant past with my hot, fiery wife, Lisa," Mac proclaimed, grinning widely, "and Earth, back in prehistoric times, is a wild and beautiful land, full of danger and excitement! It was like a second honeymoon for us."

"But how did you come up with the idea of hunting extinct animals?" Jake asked.

"To tell you the truth," Mac replied, "I don't care if you don't want to hunt. But ancient Earth is so beautiful and exotic, I came up with the idea of hunting parties just so people could experience the far distant past. Whether you hunt or not, any party we take into that past has to be well armed in order to defend itself against the wildlife. There aren't any humans there for them to be afraid of. Yet."

"It sounds like a good idea..." someone started to say.

"That's the lamest excuse to butcher extinct animals I've ever heard," someone else shouted. "Somebody outta hang you out to dry for coming up with some asshole idea like that!"

Annalisa climbed up on the little podium next to Mac and Lisa. Using her mental powers to speak to everyone in their heads, she also spoke her words out loud, quelling any disorder that might erupt.

"All right! That's enough! You Earthers are new to this station and you need to learn and learn fast! The justices of this land, of which I am one, do not tolerate dissidence! Any disorderly conduct will bring you to face a justice in whatever district you find yourself. Also, any complaints, and I will admit that your complaint about murdering innocent wildlife is certainly valid, are to be brought before the justices, and are not to be acted upon by any of you. Vigilante tactics are simply not tolerated here. You got that?"

"Yer just one girl," another newcomer yelled. "How're you gonna enforce against Vigilante justice? Majority rules and always has! Twenty men would just walk right over you and do what they want!"

Grinning happily at the challenge, Annalisa leaped down off the stage and pushed through the crowd toward the man who had yelled out his challenge. Several of the men in the crowd who were with him decided that this young goddess, although she was incredibly sexy, needed to be taken down a notch or two, and formed a human barricade in front of her.

When she was close enough, one man grabbed her by the arm and yanked Annalisa off her feet, pulling off her top as he did so. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground and Annalisa was casually sliding a new, un-ripped garment over her bare breasts. Before she could get it on, however, another man ripped it out of her hands and tossed it away.

The garment whipped around in his hand and wrapped itself around his neck, then pulled him about ten feet up in the air before releasing him and letting him drop back down to the ground.

The other men were frightened, now, and also very angry. This young slip of a girl was showing them all up. A general surge of angry hands and faces assaulted her, now, and she was forced to form a mental shield around her body. Rapidly expanding it, she shoved all the men backward and they fell to the ground.

"I can do this all day," Annalisa grinned at one aggressive man who leaped to his feet and started forward to attack her. As he strode forward growling with anger, he vanished into thin air. Several others who had thought to join in the attack, backed away, instead.

"Where'd he go?" someone cried out.

"I will have order in my district," Annalisa proclaimed, not feeling the need to shout now that she had everyone's attention. "And I will insist on peaceful, civilized behavior."

With an over-accentuated gesture of her hands, she rematerialized her primary attacker on the ground in front of her. He was unconscious and bleeding from his ears and eyes. His tongue was swollen and half out of his mouth.

"It's amazing what ten seconds in outer space will do to an unprotected man," Annalisa mused, loud enough for her captive audience to hear. "If one of you knows CPR, perhaps you can revive him. His heart's still beating – he just needs a little help getting his lungs going again."

Picking up her blouse from where it had fallen, she slid it over her head and adjusted it around her bodice in the silence surrounding her. Then she turned and walked back toward the stage. No one bothered her this time. In fact, most backed away, giving her a wide path.

"I guess I ruined your announcement," Annalisa said, apologizing to Mac as she approached him. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Macario replied. "At least with you reprimanding them, no one got fried. I can imagine what would have happened if Lisa found it necessary to defend me."

"Ha, ha," said Lisa. "You don't think I have any self-restraint? I didn't interfere with Annie, did I? Huh? I let her handle the whole show. So go pick on somebody else or next time I'll let that monster bear eat you."

The group broke up shortly afterward. There were several men that still grumbled, but there were others who were interested in going back and visiting the distant past. Macario talked to them for some time, basically explaining about wormholes, time travel and his exotic pet phoenix and her special capabilities that made it all possible.

"It looks like you may have a little trouble with this group," Tanya said, coming up to greet Annalisa and Jake. "Most of those guys were factory workers back on old earth, and they have kind of an attitude about uppity females."

"I'm not a female," Annalisa said, smiling. "I'm a goddess, and a justice. The sooner they make that distinction, they more readily they'll accept the fact that I've pretty much run this entire district by myself for nearly a hundred years, and they don't stand any chance of running me out. I treat my people well, and my people love me. These newcomers will learn to do that, as well. If not love, I insist on their respect."

"They weren't being disrespectful of just you," Tanya replied. "They're disrespectful of females in general – especially those who are in charge. I've had trouble with them before. You'll need a tight rein to control them."

"Thank you for your advice," Annalisa told her. "I will keep your words in mind."

Tanya smiled back, knowing that she was being politely dismissed – perhaps not in such a way that she thought Annalisa wanted her gone, but she didn't really want her advice, despite the fact that Tanya thought it was needed. But perhaps Annalisa had handled men like them before. There was some industry and logging in this northern district, as well as farming, and Tanya knew as well as anyone that the harsher the environment, the more independent (and unwilling to be controlled) men tended to be.

One thing was certain, Tanya realized – Annalisa handled people a lot differently than Béla ever had, as far as she knew, anyway. Béla had always been interested in finding out why people did the things they did and tried to correct problems on a personal level. Annalisa didn't seem interested in other people's personal affairs so long as they were quiescent and didn't hurt each other.

Of course, Tanya didn't know that Annalisa's fierce independence derived from ruling by herself, aided only by the distant Praetor at university. At one time, the goddess Beth had been co-justice with her, but had long ago abandoned her post to journey to Earth with her sister goddess, Béla. Now that Beth had returned (in the form of Lisa), she showed no interest in resuming her old position, even though Annalisa would have welcomed the help despite the fact that Lisa seemed as caustic and difficult as Beth had ever been.

In the meantime, Annalisa was really pleased that Macario and Beth, or rather, Lisa, had come up with a way for her half-wild humans to blow off steam. Hunting parties to Earth's distant past seemed to be a good idea to her. Real adventure and excitement – "Man Against the Elements" – always seemed to make people happy, and, to be truthful, not much ever happened in New Eden. Paradise was really a very, very dull place to spend eternity.

Word spread around the little moon like a wildfire (which they had never had, by the way, so that concept was alien to them) about Macario and Lisa's new hunting project. As soon as the spring planting was done, a party of fifteen men was put together to go into the past and bring back a dinosaur to stuff and mount. More expeditions were in the planning stage for when this group got back.

Tanya and Tabatha decided to join the first group, giving Lisa some much-needed help with organization. She didn't need any help in creating a wormhole that would penetrate millions of years into time – she had plenty of power for that. Tabatha, of course, was really helpful when it came to aiming the other end of the wormhole so that it actually hit Earth someplace where dry land occurred.

Tabatha and Tanya went through first to make sure their projected campsite would actually be habitable.

"Wow! It's hot!" Tanya gasped as she stepped through.

"And the air's so thick, too!" Tabatha mentioned. "I wonder what makes it so heavy? I feel like we're way below sea level."

"I don't know," Tanya replied, gazing skyward. "But the sky seems a lot ... deeper, you know? There's a lot of air up there!"

"The atmosphere pressure here is definitely greater," Tabatha said. "That would account for the heavy flow of hot air we got when Lisa opened the wormhole."

"Wonder what happened?" Tanya mused. "I mean, between now and the future? There was a lot less depth to the atmosphere in the twenty-first century, you know."

"Dunno," Tabatha replied, looking around at her first view of prehistoric Earth. "Close encounter with something large, I imagine ... maybe something that blew off the entire atmosphere. Remember those wooly mammoths they found at the North Pole with tropical plants in their stomachs? They were frozen solid in a matter of just minutes. A sudden lack of atmosphere could account for that."

"But that's unbelievable!" Tanya exclaimed, staring at her reincarnated daughter. "What could cause such a thing to occur?"

"I dunno," Tabatha grinned at her dearest friend and once mother. "Wanna go find out? Whatever blew off the atmosphere also tilted the whole planet so that what was the equator became the North and South Poles."

"I'm not sure I want to try living through that," Tanya conjectured. "Do you mean to say that for a time, Earth didn't have an atmosphere?"

"Well, it probably had some," Tabatha replied. "Not everything on the planet died – and the oceans would evaporate enough to create a new atmosphere in just a few days, I imagine."

The girls walked along for a while, chatting amicably about many things – the obviously violent beginnings and endings of life cycles on what they'd always considered their tame little world, where a good campsite would be, what bagging their first dinosaur would be like. And what would happen to all of them in the future of New Eden if something so drastic as casually flipping a planet off its axis and blowing off its atmosphere could happen as recently as fifteen thousand years ago and nobody even knew about it.

"I think we should relocate the wormhole exit to that mountain over there," Tanya said, changing the subject to something more comfortable to think about. "See that stream? It'll be a good source of water for our camp."

"I'll race you there!" Tabatha grinned and disappeared.

An instant later, both girls appeared next to a magnificent waterfall. They both fell in love with the place instantly.

"This is it!" Tanya cried out joyfully. "Oh, Katie, I could spend the rest of my life here and be happy! That waterfall must be a thousand feet high! My house can be right there, and a little garden..."

Tabatha/Katie laughed in agreement. "I think we should look around a little more, though. We'll be infringing on an already existing ecology. There may be wildlife here that wouldn't appreciate our intrusion onto their turf."

An hour of exploration convinced the girls that this was indeed an ideal campsite and there were no animal trails or leavings to indicate that the area was inhabited at all.

Returning to the edge of the wormhole, Tabatha mind-linked with Lisa, one hundred and thirty million years ahead of her, but only a few feet away on the other side of the wormhole. Between the two of them, they centered the rear end of the wormhole on Tanya, who suddenly found herself back in New Eden.

"Well, it's really beautiful!" Tanya exclaimed to the group that was waiting. "You'll love it!"

And with that, they all walked into the hazy opening and disappeared, dragging their extensive camping gear with them.

It was late afternoon before the camp was completely set up. It was decided to leave the wormhole open in case a hasty retreat was required. The Necrotwins, all six of them, popped in before nightfall, sensing an exciting evening of fun and games. Of course, they intended to provide the fun with odds of two guys for every twin.

"Lisa invited us!" Holly said when someone queried why they were there. "She said we might be needed to help maintain order with so many single guys throwing their weight around."

"We're supposed to keep the edge off them, whatever that means," Haley added, and winked.

"There're going to be a lot of 'edges' to keep off with you girls running around with no clothes on," Tabatha remarked.

"Hey, leave da broads alone," one of the hunters yelled. "We like 'em naked!"

"Sorry," Haley chirped, grinning wickedly at Tabatha. "You're outvoted!"

She turned and slinked into the arms of the man who'd yelled out to defend her nudity and squealed as he began mauling her pert, young breasts. "A little help here," Haley called to her twin.

Then all three disappeared into the common tent – a barracks it would be – where each explorer had his own bunk around which all his equipment was piled. Tia and Tara were already inside with Lisa. They were very busy with six or seven guys in various states of undress.

"This is going to be an orgy," Tabatha complained to Tanya. "Think we ought to do something about it?"

"Yeah," Tanya grinned, "the girls are gonna need help. Let's join 'em!"

"Mom!" Tabatha cried out plaintively. "I meant in regards to 'controlling' them!"

"Wear everybody out!" Tanya quipped already shedding her blouse and slacks. "Then they'll all fall asleep – perfect control, I say!"

Tabatha watched, realizing she shouldn't be shocked at her pseudo-mom's behavior. All her life, Tanya had been willing to lead with her tits. This scenario wasn't any different. But she also felt that someone should stand guard.

"Why?" Murielle asked, coming up behind Tabatha and entering the large tent. "Why should anyone stand guard? If anything happens, Lisa can go back and warn everyone."

"Yeah," Miranda added, suddenly appearing on Tabatha's other side. "This night is for getting royally screwed by fifteen horny guys! Lisa'll watch out for all of us – she always has. Come on! They're getting ahead of us!"

The "M" twins waded into the growing group and found themselves being stripped naked. Squeals and moans emanated from the ever-growing body pile of naked flesh as Tabatha watched. Then a strong pair of familiar hands wrapped themselves around her waist, squeezing her tightly.

"Hi, Daddy," Tabatha grinned up at Frank as he hugged her and watched his wife performing for two guys.

"Don't you want to join the fun?" Frank asked, gently caressing her nipples so they would grow nice and hard.

"Well, I didn't," Tabatha confessed. "But if it's with you or Jake..."

"How about with both of us?" Jake Hedron, her husband, said from behind the pair.

Tabatha laughed as she turned around and kissed her husband in greeting. "I thought you two were going to stay on the farm. What changed your minds?"

"Well, Macario was talking about Lisa's plans for an orgy that included all of her twinned blood-sisters," Jake began.

"And we thought you might want us to join you," Frank finished the sentence his grandson had started.

"You guys are wonderful!" Tabatha exclaimed. "But let's go to my tent. I don't want to share you two with anyone else!"

"Not even Tanya?" Frank asked rather loudly, attracting his wife's attention. Tanya looked up, spitting out the cock in her mouth, and grinned at him. Then she went back to work as the guy grabbed her by her hair and rammed his cock back into her mouth.

"She looks pretty busy to me," Tabatha grinned. "Maybe she can join us later." Tabatha and her two guys, her current husband and her father from her last life, went out the tent flap into the warm night air.

"Wow! Look at those stars!" Jake said softly as he gazed skyward. "You know, we're the first humans to ever see those stars looking exactly like that..."

"There's Sirius," Frank called out. "It's the only star with that brilliant coloring ... But what's it doing over there? And where's Orion's belt?"

"It hasn't formed, yet," Tabatha told them. "And we decided that Earth's spin is a little different now than it will be in the future."