The Great Escape Chapter 20, Part 1 of 6

The Great Escape
Chapter 20, Part 1 of 6

Brad landed in Cloner City, which is ruled by Gloria, the Chief of the Cloners, and her Council, which includes Madam Law speaker and Madam Medic.

Carlin, a Woodlander, girlfriend, and future bedmate of Yael, who was once called Tamar, lives in Cloner City as a Junior, a temporary servant to the Cloner Council.

Wildchild, also known as Samothea, and her bedmate, Hazel, are presently staying with the Farmers, the tribe of Hazel's birth.

Solange, ex-chief of the Herder Tribe, lives in the Cloner City with her daughter, Tahney, and her bedmate, Ash. She serves on the Currency Committee.

When Brad arrived, it happened to be the weekly market day, so the city was entire of Herders, farmers, and Cloners.

On Celetaris, Danielle Goldrick leads the Samothea Project, which is dedicated to establishing permanent contact with Samothea, rescuing her brother, Ezra, and discovering what happened to Yumi Takahashi. Rosa Silverstein, once Danielle's pupil and now the Project's chief engineer, is a principal actor in the Samothea Project.

1 Brad in the Cloner City

Madam Law, the speaker, led Brad into the Council Chamber, where she sat with the other Councilors on throne-like chairs.

Every woman in the city tried to crowd into the hall. Some had to stay on the steps by the door, while others climbed the stairs to peek over the balcony.

Flanked by her Councilors, Gloria was most dignified as she graciously received the visitor from space.

"I'm Gloria, Chief of the Cloner Tribe," she said. "Welcome to Samothea."

"Thank you, Ma'am. I'm Brad Formast, from Earth, and I bring you greetings from Doctor Danielle Goldrick and the Samothea Project Team on Celetaris."

"My mission is to discover the fate of Ezra Goldrick, Yumi Takahashi, and the colony of Samothea. I'm glad to find the colony surviving so well. Are Yumi and Ezra here? I have messages for them both."

"I'm Yumi," the woman said, weaving through the throng.

"These letters are for you, Ma'am."

Brad took three thin pieces of paper from inside his grey air suit. There was a short note from Danielle introducing herself, a page from Michio Nakatani making an awkward but humble apology, and a long letter from Itsuki, her brother, telling her everything that had happened since she left.

Yumi sank to the back of the crowd to sit and read her letters, tears forming in her eyes.

"Is Ezra here, Ma'am? May I see him?" Brad asked.

Gloria explained, "Ezra is visiting the Herder Tribe. I will send it to him."

She addressed the whole assembly:

"Ladies, everyone will want to come and meet Mr. Formast, so will you set up the tents and marquees we use for the Cloner Fair? Galatea, will you please send out riders to fetch back the Tribal Chiefs and Ezra?"

This occasioned an argument between the feisty Herder braves, none of whom wanted to be away from the Cloner City, where so many interesting things might happen. The argument ended only when Galatea ordered three unlucky women to ride out. Reluctantly, they left to fetch their horses and set off for the Herders' Northern Camp.

"Mr. Formast," Gloria continued when it was quiet enough for her to be heard. "It will take a couple of days for the chiefs and Ezra to get here, so I hope you will enjoy the hospitality of the Cloner City while we wait."

"Thank you, Ma'am. ... Can you tell me something? Where are all the men?"

"There are none except for Ezra and Yumi's son, Hayate. Come and have some refreshments, and I'll explain."

While Brad joined the Councilors at the high table, Madam Law speaker tried to shoo away the inquisitive women who crowded the hall, but Gloria overruled her. Another visitor from outer space was such a fantastic event that excluding anyone from the excitement would be cruel.

The women settled down to observe the meeting, so the Juniors had to push through them to bring in glasses of fruit juice and rough oatcakes. Carlin was one of the Juniors who naturally caught Brad's roving eye as the girls curtseyed prettily and took orders for tea.

After Gloria told Brad the story of Samothea, she had a question for him:

"Do you have a schedule for your visit to Samothea?" she asked. "When do you plan to return to Celetaris?"

"My schedule is flexible, Ma'am. I've enough fuel and food to last a month, but now I see the population of Samothea is thriving; I can stay as long as I like."

Brad said this with particular relish, seeing the way the women were looking at him, yet he felt the honest requirement to add:

"However, because I have such good news to report, I know the Project Team would want me back as soon as possible so they can plan to send more ships here."

"More ships?" Madam Law speaker asked. "For what purpose?"

"I suppose we will bring more people here ... er, engineers and people like that. Settlers, ultimately."

If Brad sounded unsure, it was because he didn't know the political situation on Samothea. He naively assumed that everyone would want more people to come, especially men, to restart their planet's colonization and bring modern technology, machinery, and medicine.

However, it seemed that this was something the women needed to discuss. Not everyone wanted more men to come, though Brad was sure they all were pleased to welcome him.

Brad could see he was being sized up and admired. He was used to female attention and rarely turned anyone away. He certainly wouldn't want to leave a planet of women on which he was only one of two adult men.

Brad leaned back on his chair and tried not to feel too satisfied. He resisted the urge to put his feet on the table.

Two days later, despite being charmed by the women of Samothea, Brad was sexually frustrated.

However, he was warmly welcomed by the Cloner Tribe - forty women competed to bring him treats or to engage his interest. It was all innocent, and it went nowhere. The women were incapable of lascivious behavior. They were too open and honest. They were also restrained by the Cloner Council's decision not to let anyone be bedmates with Brad until all the chiefs had been consulted.

Brad felt the delay keenly, having been alone in strict quarantine during his month of mission training.

A few things distracted him from the problem of lusting so ineffectually after so many available and willing women.

He chose light trousers and a shirt from the Cloners' store of unused men's clothes.

He was fed well but subjected to as much questioning as he could stand, testing his innate politeness.

He tried to be helpful, applying his handyman skills to help Yumi and Madam Scientist with the old-Earth technology store and making repairs where possible. His computer tabs a small pocket device, thin and light, covered with dull metallic foil to shield it from the x-rays packed up after a day, which worried him concerning his ship and the beacon for the return journey.

At last, the riders returned, bringing Calliope, Mirselene, Ezra, almost the whole Herder Tribe, and an assortment of lucky women from the other tribes. Everyone else who could be spared was on her way by foot.

The chiefs and Ezra met Brad under a tent roof in the field outside the city. With its open sides, Gloria's rule that everything should happen in public allowed the entire population of Cloner City to witness the meeting.

Brad bowed politely when he was introduced to Mirselene and Calliope. He repeated his greetings from the Project Team. Calliope was charmed, pleased to meet another good-natured and agreeable man. Still, Mirselene resisted liking Brad, jealous on behalf of 'her' man, when confronted by a younger, taller, and better-looking specimen.

Ezra himself wasn't the slightest bit jealous. He enthusiastically shook hands with Brad, keen to make friends. As Brad spoke engagingly about Danielle, Roger, and the Project Team, Ezra warmed strongly to him.

It was a peculiar feeling. Although he was satisfied with his thirty bedmates, whom he passionately loved, Ezra suddenly felt something he'd never felt in all the lonely weeks and months he spent aboard his spaceship: longing for female companionship.

Ezra realized, as a sort of revelation, how pleasant it was to spend time with another man.

They sat in a circle, waited on by the Juniors, surrounded at a distance by the irrepressible women of Samothea, who flatly refused to be left out of any conversation.

When the chiefs finally ran out of questions for Brad, Solange noticed everything and suggested that the men might be left alone to talk about 'man stuff,' unencumbered by so many nosy women. No one else thought that was a good idea except Gloria, whose judgment held sway, yet it took some effort to shepherd all the women out of the tent.

Finally, Ezra and Brad were alone.

"Fuck me, Ezra!" Brad said. "I know your nickname is 'Lucky Ezra,' but fuck me! You're the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in the galaxy!"

"I am lucky," Ezra agreed. "I hope I'm wise enough to appreciate my luck and not take it for granted."

Brad stared at him for a second and then laughed, punching Ezra playfully on the arm.

"No shit! Are you for real? I don't believe any man is that pious. Or are you trying to keep all the trim to yourself?"

"Trim?"

"You know, skirt, pussy, tail."

"I know what the word means. I don't think anyone should refer to women that way, especially not the women here."

Brad stared at him again, this time in a moment of self-realization.

"Oh, God! Ezra, I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. Sometimes, my mouth works on its own. Look, I respect women, and I do; it's just that I haven't been with a woman for a month."

Ezra was unimpressed, though he was prepared to give Brad a second chance.

"That reminds me," Brad said. "Hestia sends her best wishes."

"You know Hestia? What reminded you of her?"

"She was the last woman I had sex with."

"Oh!" Ezra smiled. "How was she? I mean, how is she?"

Brad smiled as well.

"She was - I mean, she is - fantastic. She's friends with your sister, you know. Hestia told me how they met, but I didn't pay that much attention. I was distracted by other stuff, you understand."

Ezra understood. He'd been distracted by the gorgeous Entertainer plenty of times himself.

As Brad tried to recall the story, Ezra began warming to him again, thinking it was a peculiar camaraderie, bonding over a woman they'd both slept with. Soon, they were telling each other tall tales, as all planetary prospectors did, talking of missions gone wrong, disasters narrowly avoided, and being sent out with the wrong equipment or inadequate supplies.

Brad was about twenty years younger than Ezra, but his stories were the same, expressed in more recent slang.

The chiefs and Councilors who followed Gloria from the tent to discuss Brad's status during his visit to Samothea finally reached an agreement. Carlin was sent to invite the men to the market square to hear the judgment.

"Thanks, Carlin," Ezra said. "We'll follow you in a minute."

When the pretty girl cursed and left, Ezra said to Brad:

"I can guess what the announcement concerns, so will you do me a favor?"

"Anything."

"There are some women whom I'd like you to avoid. One of them is Carlin."

"You're talking about sex. Man! I'm happy to do whatever you say. It's a shame about that cute blonde girl, though. Are you saving her for yourself?"

"She's a good friend," Ezra said meaningfully, "and a sort of daughter."

"Sorry, man, it's my mouth going off on its own again."

Madam Law speaker stood on a podium in the market square to address the crowd.

"Ladies," the Law speaker said in her rasping voice, "the Council has ruled about Brad Formast, our visitor from Celetaris. Because Ezra is sexually forbidden to the women of the Cloner, Farmer, and Miner tribes, our rule is that Brad is available to anyone from those tribes who wants to become pregnant."

"Pregnant?" Brad asked. "What do you mean, pregnant?"

"I assume you know the word, young man," Madam Law speaker said, "so I can only guess that you're opposed to impregnating the women of Samothea. Don't worry; we won't insist you remain here to help raise the children unless you want to, as Ezra does."

"No, I don't mean that, Ma'am. I mean, I can't make anyone pregnant."

"You can't? Are you impotent?"

"Certainly not! I mean that I had a contraceptive shot four months ago. The shot lasts a year."

"I understand what you mean by a 'contraceptive shot.' Why would you take such a thing?"

"You know, to avoid complications. I'd just earned a good bounty for a prospecting job and partied for three months. I didn't want to think about contraception. Or does it make any difference, you know, to her?"

Brad tailed off ironically, just as his prospect of getting any tail also seemed to tail off.
There was a hush in the crowd as Madam Law speaker addressed the Councilors.

"As Mr. Formast is temporarily sterile, is there any point in any woman taking him as a bedmate?" she asked.

"Man-sex is just as much for love and fun as for procreation," Solange replied.

Other opinions existed, but Gloria cut the discussion short by asking Madam Law speaker what the law said.

"There is only the law against adultery, Madam," she said, "which we have agreed to ignore in Ezra's case."

"Very well, then that should be our ruling in Brad's case."

Madam Law speaker disliked the conclusion, but she announced it anyway.

"Ladies, the council rules that Brad Formast is permitted to any woman who wants him."

The crowd cheered loudly. When it was quiet, Ezra asked the Law speaker a question.

"Madam, did you say, 'any woman'?"

"I did."

"But what of the Outer Tribes?"


To be continued