Some treasures are hard to find, and harder to hold onto.

Gems of Ordon

by Cleo Kraft

Chapter IV

The hova-car took me into the underground garage of the house and palace of my new master, Gurron Harrkar.

Before I had a chance to say anything, the driver parked the car and yanked me out of the back seat, clamped his hand over my mouth and hurried me along into an elevator.

The elevator ascended up a few floors and I was led down a white corridor and into a room filled with strange and horrifying devices that looked like a cross between torture gizmo and high tech experimental gadgetry.

A doctor in a long white lab coat stood there waiting for me. "Oh, the
new princess model," he said. "Wonderful news, Gribsly. You are dismissed."

"Thank you, Doctor Karbak," the driver, Gribsly, said bowing as he backed out of the room, closing the door on his way out.

The Doctor took me and placed me in an iron body cage and closed the door.

"What are you going to do to me?" I asked worriedly.

The Doctor picked up some sort of scanning device and started waving it slowly up and down my body, just inches away from my naked flesh.

"Standard things," Karbak replied smiling at what he saw on the scanner display window. "Just standard things, my dear. Your new master will be pleased. A genuine princess clone. Not many people can spot them on sight like Gurron Harrkar, you know. That is why you were picked out and brought here without having to go to the auction house with the others. Harrkar has a particular fondness for princess clones, you know. You ARE an
original, I presume, and not mind swapped?"

Not knowing what was the best answer, I took a guess and said yes.

"Double good," Karbak said clasping his hands together. "Then there are two orders of business that must be attened to before I turn you over to your master. A pattern lock, to prevent chemical body alteration methods, and a mind lock, to prevent some greedy mind swapping fool from trying to steal your beautiful, immortal young body."

"Is that really necessary?" I asked gulping. If the Doctor did lock me into this body like he was suggesting, even if I escaped, I'd be trapped like this forever. An idea that wasn't at all pleasing to think about right now.

"Necessary?" the Doctor asked laughing. "Why, my dear, I should think you'd be thanking me for what I'm about to do for you. Besides, your master is a jealous man with picky tastes. If he were to find out someone stole the mind or altered the body of one of his slave girls, he'd be furious. So yes, my angel, mind and body locks are quite necessary for princess clones and indeed all of Gurron Harrkar's servants. Now don't worry, this isn't going to hurt a bit . . ."

He pressed a hypo up to my arm and I felt a slight pinch as a DNA pattern
locking chemical was injected in me.

He set a mind locking cap atop the body cage I was in, and I heard humming noise come from above my head and I felt dizzy for a moment but the sensation cleared up fast.

"There we are," Doc Karbak said smiling at me. "All done. Now wasn't that easy? Now you're a protected investment."

He opened up the body cage and let me out.

"One more thing," Karbak said. He took me by the left wrist and placed golden bracelet on it, clamping it shut. "This identification bracelet will forever mark you as slave girl Lacey, property of Gurron Harrkar. Once worn and the clasp shut, the bracelet can never be removed. If you try to escape, you won't get far. All the spaceports on Neptune have scanners for this certain type of bracelet, as do most other public places on the planet. If you are in a place you do not belong, the bracelet will sound an alarm and reveal you as a runaway slave girl. You will then be brought back here and punished. Additionally there is a way we can track you down with a homing device that locates your bracelet. So you see, running away is a useless endeavor and I urge you
never to even consider it. Now if you'll please step outside, one of the guards will escort you to your new master."

Karbak opened the door and led me out into the hall where a black robed guardsman stood there waiting.

"Come with me," the guard said grabbing me by the arm and leading me down the hallway.

We walked through a low doorway and down some marble steps and out into a large room. A skinny, forty-something black haired man sat at a great oak desk and looked up at me.

"Is this her?" the man asked looking greedily at me.

"Yes, master Harrkar," the guard replied. "Slave girl Lacey, just as you wished."

"Slave?" Harrkar asked with a raised eyebrow. "Bah! I have many slaves, Korby, and many toys, though this one shouldn't be treated much different from the rest, however I think for the most part this new girl will become my new hunting companion." He turned to face me and continued,"I'm told you're quite skilled with the crossbow. Is this true?"

Now I realized why Lacey was bought before going to auction. She had skill probably few other slave girls possessed, and certainly a talent had never even considered before. The crossbow? I never even handled any kind of weapon before in my life. What was I going to do now? Tell Harrkar I wasn't skilled at all in hunting, or should I lie my way out?

If I told him I was no hunter, what would become of me? Would I be reduced to scrubbing the floors with the other slave girls or would Harrkar have me executed instead?

If I lied and said I was skilled in the use of the crossbow, then what would happen to me when Harrkar found out otherwise out on a hunt?

Fortunately I didn't have to come up with an answer because my new master waved his hand to one side and said,"Bah! Such talent might come in handy in case of an emergency, my dear, but you can be rest assured I won't be trusting you to handle any weapons for quite some time. At any rate, none that are loaded. You will however be trained as a spotter, and of course assist the cook from time to time at each camp." He looked at me and laughed, saying,"I bet you never knew Neptune had a wilderness, did you,
nor mountains covered with snow, but you see my dear, this asteroid that hovers over the dangerous atmosphere of Neptune isn't really Neptune at all, nor was it even close to being earthlike as it is now, but I have accumulated great wealth, my dear, and purchased this little hollowed out rock and turned its innards into a vast mountainous paradise of snow and pinewood forests. An asteroid no longer, but a world, my dear. A world populated by many dangerous creatures. Have you seen or heard of the red tiger of Mars, the two headed lions of Africa, the abominable snowman of the Himalayas? I have them all, and more than that, some of them have been
genetically altered into more ferocious beasts than mankind could ever have imagined possible, and you, my dear Lacey, you will accompany me on the greatest hunt of all hunts, for we're not just hunting animals, my dear, we're hunting through them on our path to find something even more rewarding than the mere taking of a life." He paused and addressed the guardsman standing beside me. "Korby, you'd best leave now."

"Yes master Harrkar," Korby, the guard, said backing out of the room and closing the doors behind him.

Alone now with me, Gurron Harrkar continued,"Lacey, my dear, please have a seat here beside me." He gestured for me to sit on a stack of pillows beside his throne and I did as he instructed, then he went on. "In my business I don't often get a chance to make friends, Lacey. The servants all fear me because of my occasional temper, and I must admit that though I've never killed a slave before, I've come pretty near close to it, so this time I wanted to do things differently. I wanted to obtain a slave girl skilled in the hunt and saved from the horrible experience of the auction blocks so that I could personally mold her into the perfect hunting companion, and hopefully, some day, something more than that."

He pressed a button on his armrest and the platform we sat on rotated about one hundred and eighty degrees and black curtains parted before us, revealing a fantastic scene through a huge rectangular window.

We sat there looking out from the top of a snow clad mountain and down past rows and rows of pine trees into a vast, forested valley below. The sky was overcast and patches of fog huddled low inbetween the trees here and there as far as the eye could see.

"This is my hollow Earth, Lacey," he said. "Or rather, my little bit of
Neptune. The deed to this asteroid says it's called Ordon, but I like to call it my hollow Earth. Some time ago, just after the asteroids were assembled as they are now over the atmosphere of Neptune, a Captain's journal was discovered among the ruins of an ancient alien city at a place called Moray, I believe. I think the place is mainly just a kelleniualite mine at present, but was once home to an alien civilization. Anyway, the journal was written by a man called Sam Hollandsworth. You must have heard of him. I believe he discovered the catacombs of Mars and the core pyramids of Edokka. I was able to obtain Captain Hollandsworth's journal just after the great assembly of Neptune's stratospheric population grid. When
discovered in that journal that a particular asteroid called Ordon
contained some of Hollandsworth's buried treasure, I had to purchase this chunk of rock to see for myself if I could find the loot. Since my father was a fairly wealthy man, the owner of seven kelleniualite mines, I was fortunate enough to have the means to obtain Ordon for myself. This asteroid was not hollow originally, but I had it mined so thoroughly that it became hollowed out. In the process, I had the foresight to have it terraformed internally and mountains were sculpted as the mining continued. For ten years this went on and no treasure was ever discovered. Finally the main brunt of the mining halted, and obtained animals to populate my little hollow Earth so that I could gain
at least a little pleasure in hunting lives to console me in my continuing quest to hunt treasure. Now, my dear Lacey, my world is littered with unfinished mining tunnels that I've converted over into vastly complex caverns. On my hunting trips I bring with me several servants to prepare my meals and care for my needs. I also bring with me a team of miners and some musicians. We hunt until we get to a cavern, and then I let the miners toil and work for awhile to see if they can help locate the treasure. Then we turn back and hunt once more until we all arrive back here in my little castle. Now you will accompany me on the hunt, Lacey, and perhaps bring me some much needed luck. I have done almost everything imaginable to find this treasure. I have even sought out fortune teller, and that is why I have sought out you, Lacey, because I was told things that eventually brought you to me. `A woman skilled in the hunt . . . Someone who lost everything' . . . Ah, but the details of what the fortune teller told me are unimportant now. What is important is I have you now, Lacey, and together we must find the treasure."

"Lost . . . everything?" I asked. "Skilled . . . in the hunt?"

One out of two wasn't bad I guess.

He nodded and took my hand and said,"Lacey, you must help me find the treasure. You must accompany me on the hunt. Prepare yourself. We leave at once."

___-----___

"Snow boots, my lady," Gwendelin the cook said as she handed me a pair of white knee-high fur boots and buttoned up my blue tiger fur jacket. "Keplur was right, my lady. Master Harrkar was seeking a new hunting companion."

"Who's Kepler?" I asked as I put on my boots.

"Why, he's the head hunter," she replied tossing me a backpack. "That is, he was until Harrkar fired him."

"Head hunter?" I asked.

"Oh, my!" Gwen exclaimed with her hand up to her chin. "Certainly not THAT kind of hunter, my lady. Though we do have some savages about the wilderness to add to the games Master Harrkar likes to play, though not any head-hunters that I'm aware of. What I mean to say is: Keplur was first in charge of the hunting parties, that is, under the Master of course, and until you replaced Keplur's position. Though I wonder what Master Harrkar wants a slave girl for. Such responsibilities belong to men like Keplur, not to a common slave girl such as yourself. You must be a fine hunter, my lady, to be so lucky to be chosen for this. A fine and wonderful hunter."

"How long have you been here, Gwen?" I asked.

"Oh, since the start," she replied waving her hands at me like it wasn't a big deal. "Oh, but after the first few years you get used to it. That is if you live long enough. If the beasts don't kill you out on the hunt, you still have to survive the Master's fits of temper. Why, Kepler alone has been nearly killed twice ten times already if it's been a dozen. Oh, but don't you worry about a thing. Nobody's died at the hands of our Master and besides, Dr. Karbak is good at bringing the dead back and around again as long as the body hasn't been dead for too long and everything is pretty much in one piece."

Though I was short, Gwen was even shorter still. She looked like a pretty eighteen year old woman with long black hair draping down her back and over her shoulders, but the way she talked it sounded like she was much older than that. Perhaps she was in a permanently youthful body such as mine and confined to slavery forever.

She wore an outfit similar to mine. A tiger fur coat, only hers was red, as were her boots.

"When do we leave?" I asked.

"Right now," she said ushering me down some stairs and through a pair of double doors and out onto a snow packed clearing beside some trees.

To my left stood ten miners wearing gray pressure suits without helmets. On their backs were heavy black backpacks with mining tools strapped tightly in a crisscross assembly.

On my right stood another ten men in green tiger skin fur suits and black boots. These were the hunters and they carried a wide assortment of weapons from spears and rifles to plasma grenades and razor sharp skabuls (or whips). Certainly these hunters were not slaves or they wouldn't be armed so heavily. Perhaps they were friends and associates of Harrkar, invited along for the sport of the hunt.

Gwen and I stood among eight other servant girls that were coming along for various duties from cooking to tent pitching.

Ten more men marched out from the doors of the gray stone castle walls. These were the musicians. A small marching band wearing bright yellow tiger fur suits and shiny white boots. Apparently Harrkar wanted live music to accompany us along on the hunt, though I don't understand why because such an assembly of instruments would almost certainly frighten
away even the most ferocious beasts before anyone had a chance to do any killing.

"What are THEY for?" I asked Gwen while pointing to the musicians.

"The celebration," she shrugged. "Though we've never celebrated much. I think the Master is reserving them for something special. Perhaps rare beast that hasn't been killed yet. Who knows? You'll hear the drummer probably, and perhaps Henry, the vocalist, but don't expect much from any of the others."

Gurron Harrkar marched out of the castle and walked past us to stand at the lead. He wore an armored silver pressure suit with his helmet strapped to his back. In his left hand he carried a long, black blaster rifle. In his right hand was what appeared to be a compass, though what good that might do in a hollow world was beyond my understanding.

"Hunters split up," Harrkar ordered and they formed a V-formation with five on each side and Harrkar taking the lead. The band arranged themselves in two columns of five each to the left and right of the slave girls (including myself), and the miners brought up the rear in two rows of five men each.

"Half-core rightwards," Harrkar said speaking to his compass and the thing leapt from his hand and darted down through the trees and stopped about ten yards away, hovering there, waiting. He turned to all of us and said "this way!" and started marching knee deep in the snow towards the compass.

We followed Harrkar down the gradually sloping mountain and towards the valley below.

"Half-core forward," Harrkar ordered his compass and it sped off down
a snow-packed meadow. He turned to face me and handed me a pair of binoculars. "You're the spotter, Lacey. Get used to it. Let me know when you see anything moving out there, and that includes the natives."

"Natives?" I asked.

Harrkar laughed and replied,"I hired two tribes of Indians to make things more interesting around here. One tribe's friendly, the other isn't. I'll let you guess which is which."

"You don't actually kill the-," I started.

"Kill the Indians?" Harrkar asked. "No. I'm cruel but not that cruel. Though they have the right to try and attack us if they want. At least one tribe does, that is. The other tribe assists me sometimes by sending out scouts to look for our prey and warn us of the hostile tribe."

"Then this is all some sort of elaborate game?" I asked as we continued to march along through the snowy meadow.

"Yes," Harrkar replied. "You could call it that. Like I said before, though, this is just something to make the treasure hunt more interesting. If you've been hunting for this treasure as long as I have, you get to appreciate games like this. It makes the days more interesting, don't you think? Anyone can dig for buried treasure, but this way I've made finding the treasure half the fun in my little hollow Earth."

I put the binoculars up to my eyes and scanned up ahead through the trees. There were three gray wolf-like creatures dashing inbetween the trees up ahead. The wolves were coming right for us.

"Wolves I think," I said lowering the binoculars and pointing forward.

"Let me see," Harrkar said taking the binoculars from me and having a look for himself. "Those aren't wolves . . . those are sharbolvs. I had them specially engineered. Cross a shark's jaw with a wolf and a bear's body and you get sharbolvs. Nasty creatures, but not as bad as some of the others." He handed me back the binoculars and turned to the hunters on his left and called out,"Sharbolves!"

A hunter to my left took aim with his grenade rifle and fired at the beasts. A small explosion sent the creatures flying apart in little bits and pieces in smoke and flames.

"Next time save one, Zabston," Harrkar said angrily to the man who fired the grenade. "Those are expensive hides you just obliterated, you know."

"Yes sir," Zabston said lowering his weapon and looking down at the ground in shame. "Sorry, sir."

"That's alright, Zabston," Harrkar said. "You didn't know. It's your first day but from now on reserve those grenades for the Oltdarneth if we ever run into one."

"Yes sir," Zabston said.

"And that goes for the rest of you," Harrkar commanded. "I want hides intact if possible. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" the hunters cried out in unison.

I scanned the forest up ahead as we continued to march onward across the snowy meadow.

"Nothing up ahead," I reported, lowering my binoculars.

"Check again," Harrkar instructed, pointing to a motionless blue spot crouched atop a fallen log some hundred yards away. "Now take a hard look at the jacket you're wearing."

I looked down at my blue and black striped jacket. It was the same material as the creature stalking us up ahead.

A blue snow tiger.

"Snow tiger!" Harrkar called out to the men. "This time I want the hide!"

The drummer started beating his drums and while we all marched on, two of the hunters ran off ahead with their rifles aimed at the tiger.

Two shots were fired, then another, but it was too late. The tiger fled back into the woods. A few snow covered trees shook here and there, scattering snow to the ground up ahead as the beast hurried off away from us.

The two hunters returned to rejoin us, disappointed they failed to shoot the snow tiger.

"That's alright," Harrkar said. "There's plenty more where that one came from. You'll get your money's worth, men, if you're patient enough." He turned to me and said,"Let that be a lesson to you, Lacey. Sometimes even binoculars aren't as good as the naked eye. Try and use a bit of both, would you? Thanks."

We continued walking through the meadow and towards the forest.

"You're new here, aren't you?" a blonde slave girl asked me from my right. "My name's Nina."

"I'm . . . Lacey," I told her, still feeling a little squeamish about my new name that reminded me I was a woman now and no longer a man.

"You're a princess model," she said in almost a whisper. "I know all about it. My friend got to be a princess model. I hear they sometimes use a swap. Did that happen to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Nina," I replied and looked once more through my binoculars.

"So it did happen to you," Nina guessed, speaking softly so only I could hear. "I see . . . Well, we can talk about it later if ya want. Just don't let the Master know. He'd probably get real upset if he knew you were swapped. I bet you miss your old body. I bet you weren't as ugly of a girl as they told you before you swapped. Anyway, talk to you later, Lacey."

___-----___

We made it down the mountain and into the valley where Harrkar led us into a cave and we setup camp.

Harrkar and the miners continued onward into the cave to go dig for treasure somewhere while the hunters remained just outside to stand guard. The musicians quickly put up their tents as us women were just finishing our own.

Gwen quickly began preparing a few camp fires and started the dinner.

"Come on," Nina said taking me by the arm and leading me off through a narrow side passageway. A small torchlight in her other hand helped guide us around and down the passage and out into an underground pond.

Nina removed her boots and then her fur coat.

"Come on," she said wading into the pond.

"I'm not going in there," I said looking around for the others. "It looks too cold."

"The water's just fine," Nina assured me splashing some water at me. "Come on in, fraidy-cat."

"Without any clothes on?" I asked. "Without a towel?"

"Live a little," she said splashing me again as I stood there on the black gravelly shore.

I pulled off my boots and then quickly removed the rest of my clothes.

The cave was surprisingly warm, even though a cool breeze blew in every
now and then.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Is it safe?"

"Come on," she urged. "What are you waitin' for?"

I took a few steps into the water and realized it felt pretty warm.

I lowered down into the three foot deep water and looked at Nina and asked,"What are we doing this for?"

"What do you mean?" she laughed. "Don't you KNOW???"

"Know?" I asked puzzled. "Know what???"

"You're the new girl," Nina said tilting her head down and raising her eyebrows. "The new girl . . . get it?"

"Get what?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you?" she asked making a circle with the thumb and pointer finger of her left hand while sliding the pointer finger of her right hand in and out of the circle. "New girl . . . get it? What do you think old Harrkar bought you for anyway? Do you think he wants to have sex with a sweaty, dirty slave girl? Come on. Don't tell me you weren't briefed about this. Look, tonight's supposed to be my turn with him, but since you're new, he's going to want you as well. That usually means you're going second, but that's not so bad. In fact, you get to sleep with him the rest of the night. You lucky girl, you. Anyway, try and wash up as best as you can. You don't want to make a bad impression on the Master."

"Look," I said standing up in the pond. "I don't want any of this. just want out of this deal."

"Don't we all, Lacey," Nina said and sighed. "Don't we all."

"I mean it," I said angry and frustrated now. I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to be a woman, and I didn't want to have to go through with sex from the other side no matter how curious I really was to find out what it's like. "I mean it, Nina. I'm not supposed to be here. I want to escape."

"Oh my!" she exclaimed. "Don't let the Master hear that or you're finished."

"I can't have sex with him," I insisted crossing my arms under my breasts. "I won't do it."

"Maybe he'll be too tired once he's through with me first," Nina joked.

"It's not funny, Nina," I said. "I can't do it."

"Of course you can, girl."

"No," I said. "I mean it. I'm not going through with it. This isn't even
my body."

"I know that, dear," she said. "You're a princess clone. You've been
swapped, but really now, Lacey, compare your old body with you're new one and you'll see you're a pretty lucky woman. Why, do you realize there's at least a million women who'd die to have that body you've got right now?"

"But I'm not a woman."

"What?" she asked.

"I said, I'm not a woman," I repeated. "I'm a man. I got shanghaied and when I woke up I was on this slave ship - oh, it's a long story. Anyway, they made a mistake. This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm a man, not woman, and I can't have sex with another man, and you've GOT to help me escape from here!"

She was quiet for a moment while she pondered over what I said.

"You know you'll never be able to prove that to me now," she said. "I think you'd better just forget about it. Whoever you were before can't possibly make any difference to you now, even if you were a man, which I don't believe by the way, and don't even think about telling Harrkar any of what you just told me because he'll kill you whether it's the truth or not."

"But it IS the truth," I assured her. "My real name is Jack Larnstrom, not Lacey. I was born male and I'm in the wrong body now. I got all dressed up as a disguise until I could figure a way off that slave ship but then they thought I was so ugly that I needed to be swapped into a prettier body, so then I did, and I couldn't get out of the mess, and then it got worse. This girl named Shawna realized I wasn't a girl at all before because someone found out about my old body. Anyway, I was supposed to get a second chance. I was supposed to be able to get my old body back but another princess clone who had the same model body as me got mixed up in this and she took my place. Anyway, if I don't get back to Gamma Station and clear all this up, I'll be stuck like this forever."

"You're forgetting one thing," Nina said. "You already are stuck like that forever or didn't you get the full treatment at Dr. Karbak's lab when you arrived?"

"Then . . . that pattern lock and body lock . . ."

"Are very real," Nina finished for me.

"And this princess clone body

"Is virtually immortal, yes," Nina said nodding. "Almost all princess clones are immune to the effects of aging. You're stuck at that age for good. What are you, a twenty-one? Yes, I think you're a twenty-one chronohalted princess clone. A brunette too. Oh well, nobody's perfect. Well if you want to be a blonde like me and have more fun, there's some bleach back at the castle, or you could just dye it blue to match your jacket over there. Hmmmm . . . Ordon blue . . . yes, I think we've got that in stock."

"What'll I do?" I asked looking around for some secret exit out of here.

"I'd bleach it blonde if I were you," she replied.

"No," I said. "That's not what I meant. What'll I do to get out of this mess? I can't stay this way forever. I've got to get my old body back."

"Well good luck, Lacey," she said. "You're stuck pretty good, aren't you? I'd just get used to it if I were you. Get used to your new life and forget who you were before because there's nothing you can do about it so don't even try."

"I'll make a run for it then," I said snapping my fingers once. "I'll grab one of those grenade rifles from the hunters and I'll find a way back to the castle and off this rock, that's what I'll do. I'll escape."

Nina pointed to my left wrist and said,"I'd like to see you try. With that gold bracelet you're wearing, you won't get far and when you're returned back here you'll have to answer to your Master for running away. I'd hate to see what happens to you then. Man or not, when Harrkar get's through with you, you'll be nothing but a mindless little sex slave, whipped into submission and locked up for good in a tiny little dungeon cell. I've seen it happen before to a few of the other girls. You don't want to suffer the same fate. If you really were a man before, then welcome to the other side, but I know you couldn't possibly have been a man. A real man would have tried to escape back at the body swap machine right? So then what are you doing here in that body, huh? Tell me that. If you're such a man then why didn't you put up a fight to keep your old body? Either you're lying to me or you went along with it because you knew you'd like being a woman. Tell me I'm wrong . . . You can't, can you? Know why? Because you know I'm right and you can't prove otherwise, so get used to your new body, girl, because you'll be living in it for a long, long time."

She was right. I was just panicking now because she said I'd be expected to have sex with Harrkar tonight and I wasn't prepared for this. Initially went along with the body swap hoping to find a way to escape on Gamma Station but there just wasn't any opportunity for escape. Oh Nina was right, I could have fought my way out of there if I really wanted, but what if they killed me for impersonating a slave girl? I guess deep down I was curious about what it was like on the other side of humanity but certainly it was subconscious then because I really was afraid for my life. I didn't know how to get out of the mess I got in, so I just went along with it and let them swap me into this girl's body.

Then there was the gegrothin I tried on after the swap back in my quarters aboard the slave ship. I was curious to find out what it felt like to wear one because only women could ever physically get away with wearing gegrothin because the crotch grabbing feature in the material would just cripple a man if not kill him outright.

I tried on the gegrothin back then because I was curious and when I put it on, I was excited by how it felt. It was a wonderful and comfortable experience. Something no woman could ever really describe to a man. It was exotic and thrilling to wear that gegrothin. I realized then that there might be some little advantages to being a woman and wearing a gegrothin
was certainly one of them.

I may not have consciously wished to be a woman, but now I realized it must have been a mixture of the subconscious and fear and an undeniable bit of curiosity and the ability to let someone else make that decision
for me. In a way, it was Shawna who made the decision for me. All I did was go along with the whole thing. I could have told her who I was. I could have pleaded with her to help me out of the mess I got in, but in the end I was satisfied at least on the subconscious level about going along with the swap. Perhaps even more than that. Perhaps even on the conscious level to a reasonable degree. After all, I let it happen, didn't I? I let them do this to me and I never put up a fight. Not even once.

Did I really deep down wish for this? Did I actually want to be a woman
and not a man?

If Nina was right, and I knew she was, then I wanted this. For some reason I wanted to see what it was like to be a girl. I let it happen and now here I am. Female forever.

The mind lock and pattern lock certainly must be reversible. What if they realized a mistake like this had happened and honestly wanted to help me change back to my old self? I know it's unlikely that I could ever expect such cooperation from Dr. Karbak or Gurron Harrkar but I've been told that every action must have an equal and opposite reaction so therefor there must be a way to reverse all this. There must be. If not then the best could ever hope for is to somehow escape and make my way back to Mars and though I'd still be stuck as a woman, I'd at least be a free woman with more options in life than I currently have now.

I sat back down in the pond and looked down at myself, then at Nina.

"If it's the sex you're worried about, I'll try and keep Harrkar busy longer than normal tonight, okay?" Nina offered. "I can't promise anything but I'll try. Though you'll have to face him sooner or later anyway, I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, Nina."

"Don't mention it. The least I can do for a new friend is get screwed for her, right?"

___-----___

It was pretty obvious that Harrkar and his band of miners didn't locate the hidden treasure. They were all disappointed and gloomy during dinner and then everyone went off to their tents for the night.

Nina and I shared a tent together, and the other girls paired up in their own little tents.

It wasn't long before Harrkar came by and took Nina off to his tent on the other side of the cave.

I lay there in my sleeping bag and listened to Nina's moans which gradually got more and more frequent and excited while I also heard Harrkar's tent rustle a bit every now and then.

No matter how I tried, I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about how it was my turn next to have sex with my new master. The thought was repulsing to me, but as I lay there and listened to Nina's excited moaning and the crisp, rhythmic rustling noises coming from my master's tent, I started to get oddly turned on by it all. Whatever Nina was doing or whatever master Harrkar was doing to her began to sound more and more like fun and became more and more curious to experience it for myself, to see what it was like.

I realized it was almost like waiting in line for a roller coaster you've
never been on before. I was both frightened and excited, and I was next in line. As soon as Nina rolled back in the station, it would be my turn
on the roller coaster ride.

My first roller coaster was one of those old wooden one's on the boardwalk. Waiting in line made me nervous and afraid, but I wanted to ride the roller coaster because it sounded like fun. Oh, but it didn't look like fun. The whole structure looked dangerous and rattled about as the cars zoomed up and down the hills and drops and around the twists and turns. The screaming cheers of fear and excitement faded in and out somewhere in the distance and I got more and more afraid of what I was about to do. Waiting in line for my first roller coaster was much like what I felt right now.

I felt really afraid but also curious and excited about it all at the same time, and being next in line and hearing what was going on to Nina was just like being right up there in between the yellow gates, gripping onto the guard rails for dear life as my knees trembled and my stomach filled up with butterflies.

Nina moaned and paused, and moaned and paused. It was just like listening to those riders of the roller coaster as they went up and down the hills.

The master's tent rustled and shook every now and then and it was just like that old wooden framed roller coaster rattling above me as I realized the current riders were nearby and would soon be returning to the station.

My turn was next and when Nina parted the tent flaps and came back in
our tent, I knew I was up next.

"Your turn," she said smiling at me and shrugged. "He insisted. Sorry."

I didn't want to go. Just like when I was a kid and it was my turn to get in the roller coaster car, I wanted to turn back and run back down the line and to safety, but it was too late now. It was my turn and it was just too late to back out and there was nowhere to run.

"You're next," Nina reminded me. "What are you waiting for? You don't want to upset him. Go on. If it's going to be too much, you might want to close your eyes and it'll be over with before you know it, but I'll bet you want to go again after it's done. You'll see. Harrkar's quite a ride, despite what you might think."

I got up out of my sleeping bag and wrapped my fur coat around me and crawled out of the tent.

I quietly walked over to Harrkar's little tent and parted the tent flaps.

"Come in, Lacey," he said in the dark. "I'm over here."

I crawled towards his voice and he quickly grabbed me by the arms and pushed me over onto my back on top of a sleeping bag.

"What-"

"Shhhh," he said covering my mouth with his hand while removing my fur coat with his other hand.

I was naked now, and even in the dark I could tell he was straddling there above and around me on his hands and knees.

He pulled my legs apart with one swift movement of his feet, then he found my arms and pinned them to my sides.

`Keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times,' I thought.

Even though it was too dark in the tent to see, I closed my eyes anyway and lay there, just waiting for this to be over with.

I felt him kiss me right on the mouth . . . I kept trying to imagine that I was being kissed by a woman and not a man but it was no use, I couldn't fool my senses. This wasn't the way a woman kissed. At least not that remembered anyway. This was much stronger and more forceful.

Then before I knew what was going on, he was in me. Both in my mouth with his tongue and up between my legs with a part of him that I didn't want to think about.

This was it. The first drop of the roller coaster.

He let go of my arms and I quickly brought them around so they were lying there on a pillow behind and above my head.

First drop and my stomach really felt it as he slid in and out of me.

I felt like I was flying.

I cried out and tears formed in the corner of my eyes.

It really was like a roller coaster!

First drop done, and now up the next hill

He gently caressed my breasts, sending chilling tingles throughout my body and I knotted my hands into fists as I anticipated the next drop.

Second drop and it was just as exciting as the first and I felt like I was soaring high in the air like an eagle and diving quickly down onto a lake.

It felt really wet between my legs now.

I didn't want the ride to end, and yet I didn't know how much more of this I could possibly take. My heart was beating so fast now, I thought it was going to stop and as my new master continued taking me further and further on this wild and wonderful ride, I realized that even though it was a bit rough just like my first ride on a wooden roller coaster, it was worth every moment just to be here right now experience this.

It went on and on and though I thought I couldn't possibly get any better, it actually did. It got more and more intense as the moments went by and I was moaning and laughing and yelling and squirming and the ride continued on and on. I kept waiting for the climax but it seemed like it would never arrive and then when I was about ready to claw my fingernails and rip the walls of the tent to shreds, I felt a rumbling through my body. A definite and uncontrollable rumbling through my body and suddenly it was like taking the whole ride and cramming it all into that one rumbling sensation
. . . and then there was another . . . and another . . . It kept continuing even though Master Harrkar was clearly done and already rolling off from on top of me.

I opened my eyes and through the darkness I saw bright colors. Reds and blues, pinks and yellows, greens and whites. Balls of light flashing there before me like some insane fireworks display. I closed my eyes again but the colors were still there and my body continued to feel the wonderful rumbling.

It was like getting off the roller coaster and getting excited all over again as another train rumbled and shook high above the station, but this was also like being on that train even though my body was clearly not. felt like I was flying through a sky full of fireworks that made by body tingle all over as I flew through them.

"Out," Harrkar said coldly. "I've changed my mind. I want to be alone the rest of the night. You're body might be nice to look at, Lacey, but you're just terrible in bed compared to the other girls. Now get out of here and leave me alone."

But the climaxes weren't over with. I didn't want to move. It was all so engrossing.

"I said get out of here," Harrkar said tossing my fur coat at me.

I slowly got up and wrapped the coat around me and crawled out of the tent on my hands and knees as climaxes continued to jolt through my system, forcing me to pause in mid-crawl every now and then.

I got up out of the tent and slowly walked back to my own and crawled inside.

Nina was already asleep so I just quietly removed my fur coat and snuggled back inside my warm sleeping bag.

I stayed awake for awhile as my mind obsessed over the intense climaxes I experienced tonight.

Then I fell asleep and dreamed of roller coasters filled with princess clone passengers, all identical to myself and all along gratefully for ride after ride after wonderful, magical ride.