Deep Space

Chapter 36

Farrin Gnarff was waiting for the landing party to return from Sol5g. His freighter swung lazily in an eccentric orbit that brought them close to the moon at one point but pitched out far from it at perihelion so as to afford an easier escape from the clawing gravity of the giant world that the moon circled.

By his estimate there had been perhaps 300 women on Sol5g, the last remaining in the Sol system. Reports from the surface indicated that the operation to collect them was proceeding without difficulty. The sightless women had welcomed their rescuers, and had gone with them to the shuttles. It was only as the landing shuttles lifted off from the surface that the blinded victims began to become concerned over more than their inability to see.

By luck Anyara and Denyes had ended up on adjacent couches as the shuttle had taken off. Sol5g was tiny, the thrust needed to escape its gravity small, but even so the acceleration was evident to the women on board. "What is this, where are we going?" Anyara called out.

"Anyara, its me Denyes, here beside you," Denyes responded.

"Keep silent in the cabin," one of the landing party barked, clacking with a claw at his charges.

Horrific realisation came to Anyara. "Gnarriott," she hissed to her friend. "They're Gnarriotts. They weren't wearing space suits – that's just, just – how they are."

"Silence in the cabin," the voice barked again before another voice was heard over the cabin's public address system; Farrin Gnarrff.

"Welcome aboard, women of Sol5g," Gnarff began. "It is fortunate that our ship was at hand to come to your aid. The rain of flares that your colony suffered appears to have done permanent damage to your eyesight. Luckily we are able to provide help. We are on route to the newly established colony of Sol women on Forgwin 5 there we will arrange for you to be cared for properly. I am sure that you will appreciate that we do not have medics qualified in the Sol physiology, we will arrange for you to have proper rehabilitation as soon as we reach Forgwin 5. I should warn you, though, that all indications are that the loss of vision is, unfortunately, irreversible."

"Oh no," whimpered Anyara, "what is to become of us?" She lay on the couch sobbing, what use could there be could for a sightless astronomer?

The Gnarriott, however, knew what use they could be put to and what use could be made of the other Sol5g women, too. Over the next month the women of Sol5g were to learn of their future fate as Gnarff's freighter headed back towards the Forgwin system. Mostly they were left on their couches but from time to time one of Gnarff's crew would venture into the cabin and select one.

Clamping one claw across the woman's mouth to silence her, the Gnarriott would use his other claw to grasp her at the back of her neck and force her to her feet, so she could be dragged from the main cabin to one of the rooms surrounding it.

The claw across the mouth would stay in place until the Gnarriott had used its other claw to tear enough of the girl's clothing from her to stuff her mouth and tie her wrists. While none of the Gnarriott were likely to be disturbed by the cries of the women or their struggles the ritual bondage of sexual partners was a feature of the Gnarriott culture, springing from a time when the females of the species had larger claws than the males and the high pitched screaming sounds of sexual arousal produced by the females could fracture the exo-skeleton of under developed males.

With their chose partner bound and silenced, the struggling and whimpering only served to arouse the Gnarriott males further. Then the brutal, sexual assault would begin.

At the end, the girl would be returned to her couch, sometimes sobbing, often shocked into a catatonic silence, her clothing torn and barely covering her.

Standing Orders on the freighter insisted that none of the women should be killed. Gnarff was known to ruthlessly enforce discipline on the ship and so all the women survived their ordeals –at least physically. In any case as Gnarff said, they should learn what to expect in the Forgwin5c Colony – without sight they would need to work harder than others to earn their living.

Gnarff was looking out across the women's cabin as the ship closed in on the Forgwin system. The place looked a mess. The women were now chained to their couches – it was only by rationing access to the shackle keys that the officers had been able to keep the crew rota running. There was too much of a temptation for crew to slope off to the cabin whenever there was a quiet moment in their watch. Hardly any of the women had much in the way of clothes any more. In each of the surrounding cabins there was now a pile of tattered rags left from previous rapes; a Gnarriott would simply grab whatever he needed to restrain and silence his selected woman, leaving the rags when he was finished, dragging her back to be shackled into her seat. The place stank and the cabin echoed with the sobs of whichever women had been most recently violated. Gnarff gave the order that even the tattered remnants of skirts and blouses that some of the women clung to were to be removed. All shackle key issues were to be suspended, the women were to be hosed down and the cabin cleaned ready for arrival.

By the time that Gnarff's freighter was matching orbits with the Thallaxapod, the deck officer was able to report that all of the 317 Sol 5g women were now able to walk and were fit enough for transfer to the surface of the Forgwin colony world.

Gnarff wanted two of the women for his own use. Denyes Daforn and Anyara were taken from their couch and lead to Gnarff's cabin. The other 315, blind and naked women were made ready for The Colony.