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hair laid matted and bloody in the pool of blood that still oozed slowly from
her torn throat and stained her lovely form fitting white uniform! I was
unconscious by the time that Raspa and An'na found me lying there in a puddle
of blood beside the nurse. The puncture wound on my neck proof of what had
hap- pened to me, as was the Lorr venom still wet there on the side of my neck
where it had been sprayed harmlessly by her other sting!
"You were lucky, very lucky," An'na said to me, sitting at my bedside,
Raspa standing at her side, her antennae gently sway- ing back and forth, one
now splinted from having been broken in the fight with my attacker. I recalled
the nurse, how swiftly she had been killed and shuddered at the thought. I now
under- stood why it was said that no man could ever stand against a Lorr.
Against a creature that is as strong as a lion or tiger of Earth. While they
do not have the "endurance" of such creatures, the Lorr do possess amazing
strength, being able to draw upon powers that can be developed in humans only
under very unusual circumstances. On Earth they move slowly, our gravity
uncomfort- able to them, but don't deceive yourself that they can't move
quickly if they really want to, even under our gravity! True, their endurance
is short, but they can kill you in a few seconds, and that's all the time it
took Sisa, the insane Lorr who at- tacked me, to kill the night duty nurse
right there before me!
"I `sensed' danger," Raspa said, speaking with her antennae close to me
so that others would not overhear. I remembered how her ESP powers had saved
our lives before. An'na had shot the insane Sisa with a blaster pistol, a Lorr
weapon that fires ex- plosive bullets when the creature had attacked Raspa,
its bloody head and behavior leaving no doubts as to what it had just done!
"She was the one who Raspa disciplined for leaving you and your daughter
to drown," An'na explained. Sisa had been the Lorr Princess in command of the
battle-disc that had recovered my air- plane. Her fury at being disciplined
had lead to the events that I have narrated here in this story. She had sought
my death, and that of Raspa's. She came close to success too, only immediate
medical attention having saved my life from the dose of venom she had injected
into my neck. And that only because she had been able to only inject from one
of her stings, not both. Raspa telling me that had she stung me with both her
stings that I would have died in only a minute or so from so much of the
venom!
"I think we should allow our patient to rest," the doctor interrupted,
stepping into the room, glancing nervously at Raspa, who as First Princess of
the Lorr, possessed almost infinite pow- er over both the humans and the Lorr
here on Mars. The armed guard, a Lorr Warrioress with her laser armament
outside the door backed up by a Mars woman armed with a automatic blaster
rifle speaking of the recent events that had made news all over Mars!
"That is my own `professional opinion' too," I agreed. For- tunately
they had gotten to me in time, neutralizing the venom, although I had been
warned that it would be some time before my injuries were fully healed, Sisa
having almost torn me apart in the fight. The terrible ripping claws of that
insane Lorr Prin- cess having proved more injurious than any of the blades of
those I had fought back on Earth! I would be glad to go "back home". To a
world where I only had to face edged and pointed weapons!
"Aurora!" I smiled, giving her a grim smile, thankful to be alive after
everything that had happened to me here on Mars. The attractively figured
blonde giving me a warm smile in return as she sat on the edge of my bed, her
green eyes glowing down into mine. She was, I thought to myself, a woman
"burdened" by guilt. She is a very attractively featured woman, quite
beautiful. More so in my own "opinion" than was Queen Tulis, although that is
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of course just my own view of the matter. She reminds me much of Darlanis,
although her eye color and facial features are differ- ent. It is my "belief"
now that she is actually Darlanis' own mother, although just "how" this all
occurred I do not yet know. This last in any case explaining why Tulis acted
the way she did!
"You are a close `friend' of Darlanis, aren't you?" Aurora said to me,
giving me a smile as I then nodded and smiled back. Her lovely eyes now looked
down into mine. I knew she was an im- portant person here on Mars, being
Raspa's own "favorite" human. She is also a very famous "singer" here, her
songs of "love" be- ing extremely popular among the women of Mars, who admired
her. I have listened to her sing, and wept as she did so. She is the finest
singer I have ever heard either on Earth or Mars, I know!
"And you want me to keep from her that her daughter lives here on Mars,"
I smiled, suspecting that was the reason for this conversation we were now
having. I supposed Darlanis might ap- peal to Raspa for the return of her
daughter, although An'na was now "old" enough to make such "decisions" for
herself, I thought.
"I loved her father," Aurora spoke softly, her words almost like a
sudden blow to me as she sat there on the edge of the bed! "He was kind,
gentle, and I `gave' myself to him without reserva- tion." She had been the
Lorr's "ambassador" to Dularn, if such a term really applies here, the Earth
being a "conquered" planet.* * The Lorr maintain "embassies" in the major
capitols much like the nations of the Earth once did back in the Twentieth
Century.
"And An'na is her daughter," I ventured, wondering if it was true.
Aurora nodded, confirming my suspicions. Aurora going on to say that she
considered Darlanis an "unfit" mother, Darlanis at the time An'na was eight
years old being completely involved in building up the Empire of California
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