DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Dawn, whole no. 5, August 1949

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Dawn, whole no. 5, August 1949

Page 11

And Bolton, unchected by the pirates, backed into a small cabin where he knew an emergency port and a half-dozen space suits were. In the forty hours since he had so weirdly been transposed intothis soft-fleshed man's body he had explored the ship from control blister to keel jets, a procedure that vastly amused the husky women of the crew. So it was that he knew something of the great ship's fittings and controls. 

Nor had the passengers attempted to stop his apparently senseless roamings and his insistence that he was not the 11am Boln they named him. Only Bint Chedo, the tiny pink skinned man who had tried to be his friend, had expostulated at his ungenthemanly behaviour.

"No man should try to learn anything about machinery or science", he had cried. "Women want their men simple and unspoiled by to much knowledge. And the smells, the dirt, the heat!"

He had flung up his slender hands in disgust. "All the ship is laughing at you, 11am starheart."

So Bolton had tried to explain that in his own age men were dominant, or at least equal with women in learning and strength. He had told him of his job as a crewman on the bi-monthly Moon-Earth passenger shuttle, and how he had so unexpectedly found himself in the LUHAUBA'a spacious cabin. But Chedo had shivered and he had given up trying to talk to him.

He moved now to the spase suits and from their sealed belly compartments extracted two fully charged parablasts which were fistsized weapons that could freeze a group of men into hour long immobility. These he fastened securely on improvised hooks of wire inside his full-flaring shorts, before going out to rejoin the others. 

An opportunity to use the weapons might arise sooner or later, and he wanted to be ready.

He was herded over to the weeping huddle of terrified men awkwardly trying to shink before the women's leering gaze as did the other men. He watched the LUHAUBA's crew closely guarded by the outlaws wheel great quantities of supplies and treasure through the air locks. He wasn't greatly surprised when the leader of the boarding party chose him for one of the twenty men slated for what Twentieth Century romancers termed: "a fate worse than death".

He knew that this rounded smoothly-fleshed man's body he wore so uncomfortably was very attractive to the female passengers. They had clustered about him attentively in the hours just passed----for all the world like a pack of would be male wolves of an earlier and lustier century huddling about a dimpling girl---and he laughed inwardly at the doglike devotion in their eyes.

They were forced through the the linking tubeway, all the timecasting terrified glances back at their raging stony-faced women, and then Bolton saw the last of the women release a flood of paralysis gas Thus were they making certain that no immediate pursuit would follow.

Bolton was astonished at the small numbers of the pirate crew Besides the twelve members of th boarding crew only five other women were aboard. He did not count the half-dozen others, bedraggled, boardless men who bunched together, tittering and giggling in shrill delight at their fellows predicament.

"Is this all your crew" he asked the handsome woman who had headed the boarders. 
The woman smiled, pinching his cheeck as she paused in her task of stripping off her space suit.

"That's right, starheart," she said mockingly. She slipped a brawny arm over Bolton's shoulders. "And I think you're going to like me better than your women on the pleasure spacer."

Bolton was infuriated to feel a warm flush of embarrassment flooding his face and his eyes shifting coyly away from the woman's bold gray glance. For a moment this strange body's instinctive reactions were stromger than his transplanted mind.

The woman pushed him away, gently, into a moaning knot of red-eyed men. Apparently, despite her words on the LUHAUBA she was the captain.

"Women," she said."We are not going to divide oru loot until we are several parsecs distant. We have captured a goodly supply of treasure, supplies, adn twenty soft-skinned men."

"But," she warned savagely, "until our loot is split and the lots drawn for the men, I must warn you to keep hands off."

The women bellowed their approved or disapproved of her words, and in the sudden burst of confusion Bolton unhooked his little parablasts and trained them on the women, he pressed the thumb studs, swinging the wreapon in a slow all-enveloping arc.

And the women down; speech frozen on their lips; their limbs contorted, and their eyes staring woodenly.

The men started gabbing, crowning together away from Bolton as though he were a madman.

Saving...

And Bolton, unchected by the pirates, backed into a small cabin where he knew an emergency port and a half-dozen space suits were. In the forty hours since he had so weirdly been transposed intothis soft-fleshed man's body he had explored the ship from control blister to keel jets, a procedure that vastly amused the husky women of the crew. So it was that he knew something of the great ship's fittings and controls. Nor had the passengers attempted to stop his apparently senseless roamings and his insistence that he was not the 11am Boln they named him. Only Bint Chedo, the tiny pink skinned man who had tried to be his friend, had expostulated at his ungenthemanly behaviour. "No man should try to learn anything about machinery or science", he had cried. "Women want their men simple and unspoiled by to much knowledge. And the smells, the dirt, the heat!" He had flung up his slender hands in disgust. "All the ship is laughing at you, 11am starheart." So Bolton had tried to explain that in his own age men were dominant, or at least equal with women in learning and strength. He had told him of his job as a crewman on the bi-monthly Moon-Earth passenger shuttle, and how he had so unexpectedly found himself in the LUHAUBA'a spacious cabin. But Chedo had shivered and he had given up trying to talk to him. He moved now to the spase suits and from their sealed belly compartments extracted two fully charged parablasts which were fistsized weapons that could freeze a group of men into hour long immobility. These he fastened securely on improvised hooks of wire inside his full-flaring shorts, before going out to rejoin the others. An opportunity to use the weapons might arise sooner or later, and he wanted to be ready. He was herded over to the weeping huddle of terrified men awkwardly trying to shink before the women's leering gaze as did the other men. He watched the LUHAUBA's crew closely guarded by the outlaws wheel great quantities of supplies and treasure through the air locks. He wasn't greatly surprised when the leader of the boarding party chose him for one of the twenty men slated for what Twentieth Century romancers termed: "a fate worse than death". He knew that this rounded smoothly-fleshed man's body he wore so uncomfortably was very attractive to the female passengers. They had clustered about him attentively in the hours just passed----for all the world like a pack of would be male wolves of an earlier and lustier century huddling about a dimpling girl---and he laughed inwardly at the doglike devotion in their eyes. They were forced through the the linking tubeway, all the timecasting terrified glances back at their raging stony-faced women, and then Bolton saw the last of the women release a flood of paralysis gas Thus were they making certain that no immediate pursuit would follow. Bolton was astonished at the small numbers of the pirate crew Besides the twelve members of th boarding crew only five other women were aboard. He did not count the half-dozen others, bedraggled, boardless men who bunched together, tittering and giggling in shrill delight at their fellows predicament. "Is this all your crew" he asked the handsome woman who had headed the boarders. The woman smiled, pinching his cheeck as she paused in her task of stripping off her space suit. "That's right, starheart," she said mockingly. She slipped a brawny arm over Bolton's shoulders. "And I think you're going to like me better than your women on the pleasure spacer." Bolton was infuriated to feel a warm flush of embarrassment flooding his face and his eyes shifting coyly away from the woman's bold gray glance. For a moment this strange body's instinctive reactions were stromger than his transplanted mind. The woman pushed him away, gently, into a moaning knot of red-eyed men. Apparently, despite her words on the LUHAUBA she was the captain. "Women," she said."We are not going to divide oru loot until we are several parsecs distant. We have captured a goodly supply of treasure, supplies, adn twenty soft-skinned men." "But," she warned savagely, "until our loot is split and the lots drawn for the men, I must warn you to keep hands off." The women bellowed their approved or disapproved of her words, and in the sudden burst of confusion Bolton unhooked his little parablasts and trained them on the women, he pressed the thumb studs, swinging the wreapon in a slow all-enveloping arc. And the women down; speech frozen on their lips; their limbs contorted, and their eyes staring woodenly. The men started gabbing, crowning together away from Bolton as though he were a madman.