The Metal Maiden Collection (23 page)

“Uh-oh,” Brian said.

“Problem?”

“We’re headed into ogre country. They’re not necessarily friendly.”

“Trust the sheep,” Mona said tightly.

Elasa nodded, appreciating the relevance of the saying. Indeed, Bunky was not alarmed. Up this close, Elasa was coming to appreciate his moods. He was an ordinary lamb, with a couple of remarkable exceptions.

Soon the path was blocked again, this time by a huge hairy man shape: an ogre. He stood about half again as tall as Brian, and was broad in proportion. Elasa was amazed at the difference between the ogre and the elf; they were aspects of the same species? They could interbreed? That could be mischief of another nature.

The ogre spoke, addressing the Ewe. “This is Ogre Country, sheep. We’ll let you pass, per our pact, but what about these six other freaks?”

The Ewe bleated.

Evidently the ogre understood her. “Yeah? They still gotta pay. You know the rule.”

Pay? Elasa did not like the sound of this.

Bunky bleated. Elasa had heard that tone before.

Brian lifted his mirliton and played more classical music.

The ogre took stock. “Maybe so.”

More ogres appeared, but neither Ewe nor Lamb evinced alarm. Neither did Vulture or Python. “Something’s up,” Mona said.

Then one ogre bent down, put his arms about the Ewe, and lifted her into the air. She neither fought nor protested. In a moment she was supported by a harness similar to the one Elasa was now using with Bunky.

“Definitely up,” Elasa agreed. She knew that no one could even touch a sheep without approval, and not just because of the hidden knives. The precognition made it almost impossible. The Ewe was not merely tolerating this, she had expected it.

Then the other ogres closed on the other members of their party. One put his huge hands on Python, picked him up, and wrapped him around his body. Vulture flew up to perch on that ogre’s shoulder.

“They’re carrying us!” Mona exclaimed. “The Ewe made a deal!”

“Yes she did,” an ogre agreed. This one seemed to be female, but was almost as hulking as the males. “Transport for music.” Then she put her hands on Mona, lifted her up, and set her in a harness in front. She sat facing forward, her head just below the ogresses head, her body before the chest, cushioned by the massive bosom.

A male ogre picked Brian up, still playing his mirliton, and set him in a similar harness.

The last ogre came for Elasa, another female. She lifted Elasa together with Bunky effortlessly and set them in her harness. Now they were five ogres carrying seven members of the party.

They moved out. The pace seemed leisurely, but Elasa could see that humans afoot would have had to run madly to keep up. The forest foliage was fairly whizzing by.

“I believe I know you,” the ogress said to Elasa. “The metal maiden.”

Elasa had known the ogres could talk, but was nevertheless startled. “You are correct, but how did you know?”

“Word gets around. We knew there was a mission to Ram’s Island which must be special, because it is out of turn. The ewes are not breeding at the moment. That suggests exchanges from Earth, perhaps scientists coming to study the vampires. Then when I picked you up I was immediately aware that you are not flesh. You have to be a humanoid robot. Since you are not being employed as a fembot, you must be self-willed. There is only one such robot we know of.”

“The metal maiden,” Elasa agreed. “I am here to deal with a dangerous vampire variation, being invulnerable to their depredation. But my presence here, indeed my absence from Earth, is not being advertised. It’s a private mission.”

“It shall remain so. I asked only out of curiosity. We have not seen your like here before.”

“Hardly surprising,” Elasa agreed. “But I am surprised by
you.
I assumed—no offense intended—that ogres were relatively dull brutes. You do not seem at all dull or brutish to me now. May I ask your name? Mine is Elasa.”

“Mine is Oria, a variant of Oriana, meaning ‘girl of the white skin.’ My skin is white, if you could see it under my black body hair. We are human variants, and retained our minds despite the change in our bodies. All the variants did. Of course that may not hold true for the next ExplEvo. Meanwhile we do what we can, hoping for redemption.”

“Redemption?”

“From ignorance. My passion is science, but little of it manifests in the backwoods of a colony planet.”

“Science?” Elasa was surprised anew.

“Specifically, quantum mechanics, though I also have a general interest in other disciplines. All we know is what we knew when our fathers colonized this planet. We cherish that, but long for further information as it is discovered. Did they ever find the Higgs Boson?”

“Yes, they finally did,” Elasa agreed.

“So the Standard Model is confirmed?”

“Yes, but mysteries remain.”

“Oh, how I long to visit Earth and study those mysteries!”

“Just as my friend Mona, here, exchanged to study the precognition of the sheep. Maybe you can exchange similarly.”

“No. Student exchanges are extremely limited, I think because of budget cuts, and only normals are invited.”

“Normals?”

“Those who appear most classically human. Somehow an Elf qualified, in your friend’s case; we’re not sure how that happened.”

“Elen Elf seduced and married an exchange student from Earth. That qualified her.”

“I doubt that option is available to me. Ogresses are not winsome like Elves.”

“Yet it should be your mind that counts, as that is all that is exchanged.”

“What should be is not necessarily what is,” the Ogress said sadly. Elasa now thought of her as capitalized, as it seemed the Elves were also.

Bunky bleated.

“Oh?” Oria asked. “Are you sure?”

The Lamb actually nodded his head.

Elasa was startled again. “You understand him?”

“Well enough. It is not linguistic so much as feeling. He picked up my passion for Earth science, and indicates that you can oblige it if you choose.”

“I can authorize an exchange program that includes Ogres?”

“Yes. He is sure.”

“But I’m just a nobody, a housewife with no political or economic influence.”

Oria laughed. “You’re the first and only conscious humanoid robot. The whole world knows of you, and so do we, from the network that spreads out from the Normals’ village. Spacemen talk, especially when being entertained by pretty colony girls.” She frowned. “Just not about quantum mechanics. And the Ewe bowed to you, the second time in a decade.”

“Mona was the first,” Elasa agreed. “But we can’t say we properly understand what it means.”

“It means that your future actions will profoundly affect the sheep, and probably the planet. So you will have power.”

“I don’t see how,” Elasa said. “But I will promise you this: if by some mischance I do get the authority, I will see that the student exchange program is broadened to include the other human variants, here in Colony Jones.”

“Oh, thank you! That is the most wonderful news I have had in my life.”

“I only hope the sheep are right, this time,” Elasa said. “I am tremendously impressed with what they can do, but this does seem out of reach.”

“It is not. We trust the sheep.”

Elasa became aware of the route they were traveling, because her feet were getting wet. The ogres were fording a forest river. It came up to just below her bottom in the harness. She was glad that Mona did not have to endure the numbing chill water. She also saw that there were ripples in the water, as of lurking crocodiles. Brian continued playing classical music on the mirliton, paying the ogres for their service. Elasa was coming to really appreciate that service. This would not have been a pleasant excursion, on their own.

Farther along they came to a small desert, or at least burning hot black sand. The ogres handled it, barefooted. Beyond that was a pleasant pasture with fruit trees and tall grass. The ogres stopped. “Rest stop,” Oria announced. “Half an hour.”

It was clear that Brian and Mona were glad to stretch their legs and go into the brush to catch up on natural functions. So were Vulture and Python, though they remained close to Bunky, guarding him as they relaxed. Elasa checked the nearest tree, and found that its ripe fruit was like a cross between an apple and a pear. She harvested several, and presented them to Brian and Mona when they were ready. The Ewe merely grazed, efficiently.

Soon they were remounted and on their way again. Brian resumed his music. Elasa recognized the current piece:
Marche Slav
. The ogres were marching to it.

They came to a hot narrow valley. Here the ogres paused. The Ewe bleated. Satisfied, they moved on across the valley.

“That’s interesting,” Oria remarked. “The Lamb knows there is weather danger here, not the HiLo, but similar in its devastation. We had to have the Ewe’s approval, to be sure of safe passage.”

“You really do trust the sheep.”

“Oh, yes. They know.”

Then they came to something alarming: a sharply angled mountain slope leading down to a river of lava. “We need to cross this?” Elasa asked. It looked to be too steep to maintain footing.

“It is the route. The route changes with eruptions and quakes, but at present this is best.”

Now the ogres proceeded carefully. They stepped out on the slope, big bare feet seeming to grip the stone. They stepped ahead, forming a line.

Elasa remained absolutely still. She was invulnerable to most things, but not to boiling lava. If the Ogress slipped and they fell in, they were doomed. She was sure Brian and Mona were similarly nervous.

The ogres did not slip. They slowly made their way across, with their burdens, and resumed speed beyond the slope. They came to a broad orange plain flush with tall grass. Now the ogres paused to lift them down to the ground. “Journey over?” Elasa asked.

“No,” Oria said. “This is wolf country.”

“And they attack in packs,” Elasa said. “I have heard about that.”

“Yes. We can protect you, but we need to be free to use our weapons. You will walk in the center of our defensive circle.”

They made the formation, with the five ogres outside, wielding their giant clubs, the seven travelers inside. Elasa still carried Bunky; that would enable her to protect him. They started across the field.

Nothing happened. Did the presence of the ogres dissuade the wolves from attacking? Or were they simply gathering their pack?

When they were well into the field, the attack came. A dozen dire wolves charged in from all sides. Five clubs smashed into them so hard that their bodies flew back the way they had come, broken.

But the remaining seven leaped over the bodies of their comrades and smashed into the ogres before they could recover their swings. The ogres grabbed them and squeezed them in bear-hugs. Elasa could hear ribs cracking.

That left two wolves. One came at the Ewe and was promptly skewered. The other came at Bunky, and was met by Elasa’s small fist. Directly on the nose, staving it in. That made the giant beast pause momentarily. It evidently had not realized it was not dealing with a weak woman, but a machine. Then it tried to bite her. It still had not caught on. Elasa put both hands on its mouth, against its teeth, and moved them apart with a force no human could match. The jaw hinge was popped apart, leaving the wolf unable to bite.

She saw the Ewe looking at her. She realized that the sheep had known she would do that. So had Bunky. Elasa herself hadn’t known until the moment; she had simply done what offered. Normally she tried never to show her strength; it was not ladylike.

Then their formation moved on, leaving twelve hurting wolves behind.

“Fortunately it was a token effort,” Oria remarked beside Elasa. “They had to make a show of force, because this is their territory, but they knew they could not prevail while the sheep was with us.”

“A token effort!” Elasa exclaimed. “They are all dead or dying!”

“They sent expendable youngsters. If they had been serious, they’d have sent twice as many.”

“And we would have been lost?”

“No. The sheep would not have crossed the field. We trusted her to know the parameters.”

Elasa shook her head. This was not her world.

Beyond the field the ogres put away their clubs, picked up their burdens, and resumed their rapid trek as if it had never slowed. They waded through a quicksand bog almost with enthusiasm, and crossed a bridge over a vent that showed lava far down in its deep cleft.

How could their party ever have made this journey on its own? It seemed impossible. Then Elasa realized that the Ewe had known the ogres would help, and counted on it. It had always been part of the plan.

Not far short of nightfall they came to a larger body of water. The ogres halted well back from its bank. “Here we must leave you to your devices,” the ogre leader said. “We do not care to tangle with the vampires. But we will be ready when you return.”

Brian stopped playing his mirliton and set it aside. “Thank you, ogres. We truly appreciate your assistance.”

“Your music is lovely.” Then the ogres retreated.

“Let’s make camp for the night,” Elasa suggested. “We can tackle the vampires in the morning.”

The others were glad to agree.

Chapter 6:

Vampires

In the morning after they had cleaned and eaten, Mona surveyed the situation, walking along what turned out to be an inland sea with Brian and Elasa, but at a reasonable distance, so as not to evoke the vampires. The scene seemed placid, with fairly ordinary trees resembling oaks, elms, birch, beech, and hickory, buttressed by ordinary shrubs and grasses. In the sea was an island large enough to support a fair community of trees and creatures. That would be where the rams lived. There was nothing to suggest any horrible danger. That was of course one of the deceptive things about this whole planet: it masked its dangers.

They returned to the inlet where the paddle-boats were tied. There were three, and any one was large enough to hold their full party. Not that they planned to cross to the island. They would use one to go far enough out across the water to attract the vampires. Then Elasa would do her thing.

“Now I need to test the pheromones,” Elasa said. “I will need to borrow Brian.”

“Borrow him,” Mona agreed. What choice did she have?

Elasa dabbed moisture behind her ears, like perfume. She went to stand before Brian. “Try to resist me,” she said.

“That should be no problem,” he said, sniffing. “You’re not my woman.”

Elasa merely waited. “Oh, damn,” Brian muttered. “I’m hard as rock.” Suddenly he grabbed her, kissing her and running his hands over her body. She acceded without showing emotion. “I don’t want to do this.” He ground his hips against hers. “Stop me!”

Elasa caught his wrists in her hands and held him helpless. “But if I let you, you’d be in me now.”

“Yes! I can’t stand it! I’ve got to have you!”

“Mona, wash me off.”

Mona dipped a cloth in the sea, and used it to wipe Elasa behind the ears. In moments Elasa let Brian go and he stumbled back, breathing hard. “It works,” he said.

“That is what I needed to know.”

He looked at Mona. “I’m sorry. I’m ashamed. It just--”

“I understand,” Mona said, kissing him. “It was a test. Now we know what makes the vampires so potent. Time to get on with the mission.”

“Time,” he agreed, relieved.

They selected a boat. “Now how many of us go out to sea?” Mona asked. “I don’t think we all need to board.”

“Brian must,” Elasa said. “To attune the vampires, assuming our theory is correct. That means you too, Mona, to shield him. And me, to tackle the male vamps. I don’t think the animals need to put themselves at risk for this.”

They looked at the four animals. The Ewe was grazing, with Bunky nibbling. Vulture and Python paused, then departed, doing their hunting. That meant that all was well, by their definition.

“Yet not necessarily easy,” Brian said. “They just know that we will handle it, one way or another.”

“Maybe also that their presence on the boat would mess up our project,” Mona said. “The male vamps might orient on some of them instead of us.”

“And we do want them orienting first on the human male,” Elasa said. “So that we can identify the exceptions and take them out. Shall we take our positions?”

This was the aspect Mona didn’t like. It wasn’t that she objected to sex with Brian, but she hated teasing him when she was pregnant. But it had to be done.

They stripped, boarded the boat, and took their places. Elasa stood at the prow. Brian mounted the pedals, while Mona sat on the padded stool before him. She spread her legs and carefully took him in. They held each other for balance. They were ready.

Elasa loosed the mooring rope. Brian started paddling. The paddle-wheel turned. The boat moved slowly into the sea.

Now Mona suffered a spot siege of apprehension as she looked past Brian’s torso on either side: would the vamps really appear? Or would the three people turn out to have exposed themselves to embarrassment for nothing? Certainly no vampires were in evidence. The water was calm, with the only ripples being those made by the wake of the boat as it moved.

Then small white balls of mist formed just above the surface. They floated there, expanding, drifting toward the boat.

“Oh, my!” Brian said.

“What do you see?” Elasa asked.

“Breathtakingly lovely nude girls,” he said. “Exactly as described: high-breasted, wasp-waisted, with marvelously flowing tresses. Some are brunettes, some blondes, some red-haired. They are walking on the water, or maybe floating just over it. Every movement of their bodies is magic.”

Indeed, Mona felt his member swell within her. He was reacting to the vamps, who evidently reached into his mind to read and then project images of his ideal sexual partners, along with pheromones to guarantee his reaction.

“What do you see?” Brian asked somewhat breathlessly.

“Blobs of mist,” Mona said.

“I will answer later,” Elasa said, sounding surprised. “I will say it is not what I expected.”

The mist balls floated close. Brian reacted further.

“We can’t see what you see,” Mona said. “Tell us.”

“One is coming close now,” he said. “She has jet-black hair to her waist, like Mona on Earth. She says her name is Lova, and she is to be my playmate of the hour.”

Mona saw the mist almost touching him, but all she heard was the gentle swish of a passing breeze. She was flattered that the image of his ideal woman was herself in her original body.

“She’s going to kiss me.” Then he stiffened, against her and in her.

“Cover his mouth,” Elasa rapped. “Their kisses are dangerous, because of the pheromones.”

Mona put her face up to his, displacing the mist, and kissed his mouth. Gradually his body relaxed. The vampire was no longer infusing him. She might look like mere mist to Mona, but her impact was obvious.

She eased up on the kiss. “Is she gone?”

“No. She’s floating just above me, spreading her legs wide, using her fingers to pull apart her—her labia, to expose her—her--”

Mona knew he was searching for a polite word. “Cleft.”

“Yeah. Now she’s trying to get close to me in front, but you’re in the way. She’s mad.”

Mona felt the light brush of mist against her back. “I’ll bet. Tell her to go fuck herself.”

“She heard that!” he said. “She’s furious!”

“Good.”

“Is there anything else yet?” Elasa asked.

Mona looked around. “Oh, my!” she breathed, echoing Brian’s first comment.

“You see her?” Brian asked.

“Not her.
Him.
”

“Who?” Elasa asked.

Mona described what she saw. “One supremely handsome man, a virtual Adonis, lean and muscular, with the world’s most formidable member. Oh, how I’d like to get that inside me!”

“Oh, you would?” Brian asked, nettled.

“Sorry. Must be the pheromones. There’s just this enormous sexual urgency.”

“You’re teasing me.”

“No. Just saying that now I appreciate what you are experiencing. The sight of pure sex appeal and damn the consequences.”

“I don’t see anything but a waft of gray mist, where you’re looking.”

“You’re not female,” she retorted.

“Greetings, fairest damsel,” the male said. “I am Magnus, the most virile lover you will encounter. But there seems to be a lumpy obstruction. Get rid of it so you can welcome my passion.”

Mona realized that now Brian’s body was shielding her the way hers was shielding him. Such was the power of the pheromones that she wanted to separate from Brian so she could enjoy the complete attention of Magnus. But she did know better. “Sorry, Magnus; I can’t oblige.”

“You’re talking with it?” Elasa asked.

“Am I ever! This guy is passion incarnate. He’s got the most beautiful member I’ve ever seen.”

“The first male vampire,” Elasa said, satisfied. “I am activating my pheromones and the other.” She faced them, striking a pose, her breasts high, her legs spread, hair flaring out behind her. She had one of the world’s finest figures, by no accident. “Magnus! She’s occupied. But I’m not. Come to me.” But would the vamps take her for a living woman?

“Well, now,” Magnus said appreciatively as he sniffed the air. He left Mona, to her peripheral disappointment, and moved toward Elasa.

Elasa was not at all coy. She opened her arms and enfolded the male. Mona saw his huge erect penis orienting on her cleft as if prehensile, as might be the case. It found the place and pushed in, slowly and deeply. Mona suppressed her jealousy; she had wanted that divine member sliding into
her
channel. In an instant he was thrusting vigorously, surely spurting his illustrious elixir of love. And Elasa was taking it all in, exclaiming with rapture. “Oh, Magnus! What a stud you are! Where have you been all my existence?”

Mona was disgusted. Elasa was using her faked fembot charms that any person could see through. As if mere penetration evoked divine rapture.

The copulation continued for minutes. Mona could see that member pulsing as it continued to slide in and out. It seemed that his ejaculation was not the mere spoonful that a human man could muster, but a cupful or more, coursing steadily through that hot conduit. Elasa took it all in, endlessly ecstatic. How could Magnus fall for that act?

“I feel you reacting,” Brian said.

“As I felt you,” she agreed. “He is delivering the world’s most voluminous charge of semen.” And it could have been hers, if only.

“All I see is a waft of mist up against her front. She’s pushing into it as if it’s alive. Ridiculous!”

“Asked and answered.” He simply could not see the Adonis.

At last Magnus finished. He drew out his fine long member and floated blissfully away. Immediately the next handsome male came, embracing Elasa, thrusting into her open channel, as virile as the prior specimen. And she welcomed him as she had the first, fickle as she was. She seemed to want every drop of his liquid passion.

This one, too, took several minutes while Elasa exclaimed in continuous delight. They certainly didn’t stint their delivery! Brian and Mona, mutually unsatisfied, watched it all, though knowing they were seeing two different things.

In the course of half an hour Elasa went through half a dozen eager males. It seemed she had exhausted them all. Only then, with the pheromones fading, did Mona remember: those were vampires. They had not been delivering semen, but sucking blood. That was why it had taken longer; they did transfer a cup rather than a spoonful, in the other direction. Such was the power of the pheromones and illusion that Mona had blanked out the reality she knew. Talk of denial!

“I don’t feel well,” Magnus said. Indeed, he looked ill, and in moments sank down into the water. The poison was taking effect!

Before long the others followed. “They’re dying!” Mona exclaimed.

“So I see,” Elasa agreed.

“You see them? I thought you couldn’t.”

“I couldn’t see what you saw, but I did see the reality. It was amazing. Fortunately I was prepared, and the poison was effective. I feared it would not be.”

“The sheep approved it,” Mona reminded her. “They knew.”

“So they did. It paid to trust them.”

“Now let’s get off the water. The females are still after Brian.”

“Oh, yes,” he agreed, albeit it with a tinge of regret.

Brian pedaled and Elasa steered. Soon they were back on shore, safe from the vampires. Mona carefully disengaged from Brian. Their connection had worked, and they had protected each other, but it was not at all the way she would have preferred it.

Well back from the shore, when they were dressed, Mona followed up on her question. “What did you see, Elasa?”

“I’m not sure you really want to know. Maybe it would be better to accept that we have dealt with the male vampires and safeguarded the crossing for the next batch of ewes.”

Mona exchanged a glance with Brian. “We do want to know. We saw pretty girls or handsome men, or blobs of mist, depending on relative genders. We were largely overwhelmed by the pheromones. You, we gather, unaffected by the pheromones, saw neither. But you did see something. In fact you had copious sex with them. That must have been the true form of the vampires. We want to know exactly what they are.”

“You will not accept my conclusion that you would rather not know?”

“We will not.”

Elasa sighed. “Then I will tell you. The vampires are not human, or animal, or misty astral beings. They are carnivorous plants.”

Both Mona and Brian were startled. “Like the Venus Flytrap?” Mona asked.

“Yes, to a degree. They use pheromones to attract prey, the way some plants do. Buttressed by evocative illusions. Then they suck the blood.”

“That much we knew,” Brian said. “But plants? How can they have sex with people, even vampirish sex?”

“They grow under the water. They extend feeding stalks up above the water.”

“We saw no stalks,” Mona said.

“You saw projected illusions,” Elasa said. “The plants tuned into your minds and either fogged out the stalks, or converted them to seductive male or female images. The combination of pheromones and illusion is deadly effective.”

“You say stalks,” Brian said. “How can plant stalks have sex, regardless of pheromones or illusions?”

“In the case of the male illusions, which I suspect are much the same as the female ones, all that is real as far as the prey is concerned is the penis. That penis enters the vagina, locks in, and sucks out blood. I provided that blood, giving six males good meals. It is just as well there were not any more; they took most of my supply.”

“They poked their stalks into your vagina,” Mona said. “And sucked your blood. As they would have sucked mine. You’re right; I’m not comfortable knowing that.”

“The females,” Brian said. “How do they do it?”

“I believe that their stalks are thicker, at least at the end,” Elasa said. “So they form a hollow, a sheath that the penis can fit into. Similar to a masturbatory device; the rest of a female is not required, other than illusion. They take in the penis, clamp on it, puncture it, and suck its engorged blood.”

Brian looked as if he wanted to guard his penis with his hands. “Right again; I’m not comfortable with that knowledge. But I think it is better that we know it.”

“I’m still having trouble visualizing it,” Mona said. “I don’t see how simple stalks could accomplish so much. I should think they would bend, or break off, or something.”