Rebels of Vulvar (Vulvarian Saga Book 2) Read online

  J. K. Spenser

  Rebels of Vulvar

  Vulvarian Saga Book 2

  First published by Sage Knight Press Ltd. 2020

  Copyright © 2020 by J. K. Spenser

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  J. K. Spenser asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  J. K. Spenser has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

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  Contents

  1. A Statement by Tobias Hart

  2. An Unexpected Visitor

  3. Troubling News

  4. Back on Vulvar

  5. Haela

  6. The City of Nisa

  7. Training Cohort

  8. The Raid

  9. The Escape

  10. The Confrontational Commander

  11. Anax of Thiva

  12. The Council Address

  13. My Companion

  14. The Army Marches

  15. Dabar of Nisa

  16. An Ungrateful City

  17. Revenge

  18. On The Run

  19. End of the Quest

  20. Vengeance Plan

  21. An Unexpected Welcome

  22. Imprisoned

  23. The Mines of Nisa

  24. The Uprising

  25. The Battle Joined

  26. Friendships Renewed

  27. The Journey Begins

  About the Author

  Also by J. K. Spenser

  1

  A Statement by Tobias Hart

  Many years later, as I faced execution, I, Tobias Hart, was to remember that distant afternoon when my birth mother revealed to me she was an extraterrestrial being. At that time, I had recently arrived on the barbaric planet Vulvar the first time. The mysterious Goddess Queens, absentee divinities of Vulvar, existent but remote, had abducted me from a campsite in the wilderness of southwest New Mexico and had transported me in a spacecraft to their world. They had intended to use me in their breeding program.

  Because of a genetic disorder, most Vulvarian males are born sterile. After learning that human males of Earth were genetically compatible with Vulvarians, the Goddess Queens began missions of acquisition to Earth, where they abducted fertile males and brought them to Vulvar.

  Vulvarian females universally regard sexual intercourse, which they refer to as copulation, between males and females as disgusting and perverted. In fact, the Vulvarian government considers the sexual act between male and female a severe crime for which the government executes males who engage in it. Likewise, they view the human procreation ritual as practiced on Earth as primitive and revolting. Thus, on Vulvar, medical technicians harvest the seminal fluid of captive human males. They then use the male reproductive fluid to inseminate Vulvarian females so that the alien race might continue to procreate and avoid extinction.

  Vulvar is a strange world compared to Earth. During a catastrophic war that occurred over six-hundred Vulvarian years ago, most Vulvarian males died. The time of men was over. Females became ascendant. Once they seized power, Vulvarian women became cruel and ruthless rulers. Females enslaved all the surviving males, and as has been their custom since, all males born on the planet since females came to power. The sole purpose of men has become serving the will of their female masters. That applies equally both to native-born Vulvarian males and to the human males Vulvarians abduct and bring to the planet for breeding purposes. Vulvarians enslaved me during my first visit to the world.

  However, my time was cut short as a slave and a male used for breeding. The Goddess Queens found themselves in need of an archaeologist, specifically an Egyptologist, which coincidentally was my field on Earth. The deities made me an offer. They asked me to undertake a dangerous expedition to an isolated, inhospitable region of Vulvar to find and recover an ancient artifact they valued and wished to possess. In return, they promised me if I found and recovered the object, they would set me free and return me to my native Earth. At the time, I desperately wanted to return to my world and agreed to take on the mission. Despite the extreme danger and small chance the quest would be successful, I went.

  Along with eight Vulvarian females, I traveled from the city of Thiva by sailing ship to an ancient city called Saba, also referred to on Vulvar as the City of the Dead, to search for the artifact. War had ravaged Saba hundreds of Vulvarian years past during a devastating planet-wide conflict.

  When we arrived at the dystopian nightmare city, our party encountered terrifying mutant humanoids that did their best to kill us. One of my expedition companions, a Vulvarian warrior, was killed. I narrowly escaped death myself after being captured and briefly held prisoner by one race of mutants. But, ultimately our quest was successful. After I deciphered clues from a historical journal to the whereabouts of the artifact, my cohorts and I found and recovered it. We carried it back to the city of Thiva, where we then turned it over to the Goddess Queens.

  Oddly, by the time I had returned from the quest, I wished to remain on Vulvar. I’d fallen in love with a Vulvarian woman named Idril. She had commanded the warrior detachment that had been part of the expedition to Saba. As a result, I had changed my mind about returning to Earth. I wished to stay on Vulvar with the woman I loved. Nevertheless, it was not to be.

  Unmoved by ideals like love and fairness that can occasionally sway human actions, the Goddess Queens ignored my wishes and returned me to Earth as they had promised. Their concern is always and only the accomplishment of their mysterious ends. To accomplish those ends, they regard mortals as nothing more than useful subservient instruments, sometimes helpful in achieving their collective wills.

  Upon my return to my home planet more than five years ago, I determined to write down the story of the exciting period of my life spent on Vulvar. I wished to set down in the words of an ordinary man a chronicle of the strange events that befell me during the months I spent there. Subsequently, I published the manuscript of the story of my first visit to Vulvar as Females of Vulvar. Anyone unfamiliar with that story, but who find themselves curious to learn the details, can read the entire tale in that book. For that reason, I will not recount further the previous narrative here. Instead, I will chronicle the equally extraordinary events I experienced during my second visit to Vulvar.

  2

  An Unexpected Visitor

  Upon my return to Earth against my will some five years ago, having lost the woman I loved, grief consumed me. The occasion of my abduction had resulted in the loss of an archaeo
logy professorship offered me by a prestigious West Coast university. Without a job, I returned to my boyhood home. I moved into the house where I’d grown up. My deceased adoptive parents had left it to me as part of the inheritance they had bequeathed me.

  For over a year, I adopted a hermit-like existence and drank to excess. But in time, I tired of that lifestyle. I tried to put my life back into some semblance of order. After becoming sober, I sought diversions. Distractions that might help me learn not to dwell on the broken heart I felt sure I’d never fully recover from. My adoptive parents, my father’s sister, and her husband had left me a generous endowment. I had a minor fortune in my bank account. I didn’t need to work, nor did I wish to. Archaeology no longer interested me as it once had.

  For a time, I traveled abroad a great deal. I read a good many books. And, perhaps because of the pitched battles against the mutant creatures I’d taken part in to a limited extent while on the expedition to Saba, I took a curious interest in learning martial arts.

  During a trip to Japan, I visited several samurai museums in the well-preserved historical town of Kakunodate, where the Bushido warrior caste had lived during the Japanese feudal era. I became enamored with the katana, the two-handed sword with a curved blade and single edge that the samurai adopted in the 1400s. I purchased a handsome, authentic katana as a souvenir at one of the museum gift shops. About sixty inches long and forged from special steel known in Japan as tamahagane, the katana is an elegant weapon.

  Upon my return home, having decided I wished to learn how to use the katana competently, I located and enrolled at a Kenjutsu dojo. Kenjutsu is the Japanese art of the sword. It entails all Japanese swordsmanship. The history of the martial art extends back to the days of the samurai and feudal Japan.

  I attended classes at the dojo thrice-weekly, where I practiced feinting, thrusting, jabbing, cutting, and parrying with the katana. I also mastered the graceful footwork that provides the foundation for all the swordsmanship skills. In time, I became skillful enough that even the sensei had difficulty defeating me when we sparred, despite his more considerable experience and competence.

  Besides the sword work, I also joined a local archery club where I learned how to place my feet, how far to pull back the bowstring, and how to aim. The first time you release an arrow and watch it soar through the air is magical. After I’d learned the basics of archery, I spent many hours on the range at the club honing my accuracy with the bow.

  Thinking back on it, I suppose I never gave up hope of someday returning to Vulvar, of perhaps being summoned back there to serve the Goddess Queens once more. Perhaps, at least subconsciously, that motivated me to gain martial skills that might prove invaluable should I ever find myself on Vulvar again.

  One early autumn evening, a little over five years after the Goddess Queens had returned me to Earth, I was sitting in my chair reading when the doorbell rang. While I no longer lived like a hermit, it was not my habit to socialize with others. I had made the acquaintance of none of my immediate neighbors. For that reason, I knew it unlikely the visitor at my front door was a social acquaintance of which I had few, or a neighbor. The hour was too late for deliveries.

  I speculated the person who had rung the doorbell was likely a door-to-door salesperson. I had no interest in speaking with a sales representative. So, inclined to ignore the doorbell, I returned to my book. It seemed a safe assumption the person at my front door would soon depart in the absence of any response.

  The doorbell rang a second time, and then a third. By that time, the persistence of the person at my door had annoyed me. Putting down my book with a sigh, I got up and strode to the door. The doorbell chimed a fourth time. I fully intended to give the unwelcome caller a piece of my mind for disturbing me at such a late hour.

  Turning the lock, I threw open the front door. I opened my mouth to speak but paused in surprise with my mouth agape. Standing before me was a tall, lanky young woman wearing a black hoodie sweatshirt, black tights, and a pair of high boots. Long thin braids she had plaited in her shoulder-length brown hair framed her strikingly attractive oval-shaped face. Her emerald eyes sparkled when her mouth formed a wide, bright smile. It had been over five years since I’d last seen her, but I recognized her immediately.

  “Hail, Tobias Hart,” the woman said. “It has been a long while.”

  “My god, Phaerl!” I stammered. “What are you doing on my doorstep!”

  Phaerl was among the warriors who had accompanied me on the expedition to Saba. While I reject any claim to heroism, which the narration of the episode might seem to entitle me, I had saved Phaerl’s life during the expedition. I do not regard myself as a heroic man. But, I believe my mind is such that I act subconsciously to a perceived duty without spending a great deal of time thinking about it first.

  In the instance where I saved Phaerl’s life, without thinking and in complete disregard of my safety, I prevented her from falling to her death from a damaged bridge while we were under attack from a pack of rabid mutants. Later that same day, Phaerl returned the favor by helping save my life. From that day onward, for my part, at least, I considered us like brother and sister.

  “The Goddess Queens sent me to find you,” Phaerl said. “Might I have words with you?”

  Dumbly, I stood aside and beckoned her to enter.

  “Yes, I’m sorry,” I said. “Please, won’t you come inside? I’d never want it said that I’d turn an old friend away from my door.”

  Phaerl stepped inside, brushing past me so I might shut the door. I directed her to the den. After looking to her comfort there, I retired to the kitchen, where I opened a bottle of extra dry Cabernet Sauvignon. I carried the wine and two glasses back to the den.

  After filling our glasses, I sat down on my chair and gave Phaerl my full attention. While I cared little about any message from the Goddess Queens of Vulvar, I resolved to listen with courtesy to what my friend wished to tell me.

  “I still can’t believe you are here,” I said.

  Phaerl smiled again and then took a sip of wine from her glass.

  “Yes,” she said. “I can imagine it is somewhat shocking to see me here on your planet. But, I’ve been on Earth for several of your months now.”

  “To what purpose?” I said.

  “Completing a tour as an agent of the Goddess Queens,” Phaerl said.

  “What does that mean?”

  “I facilitate the missions of acquisition. I am due in a few months to rotate back to Vulvar when another will replace me here.”

  “It’s a common assignment?” I said.

  “Yes, for the warriors,” Phaerl said. “Your mother, Laena, long ago once served a tour here as an agent of the Goddess Queens. That is how she met your father.”

  “How did you know where to find me?” I said.

  “Your mother recalled your adoptive parents had this house. She expected you inherited it and might be living here.”

  “Yes, by the time the Goddess Queens returned me to Earth, I no longer had any reason to move to California,” I said. “I moved into this house, with the intention of it being temporary. But, as you see, I’m still here.”

  “I’m pleased. Otherwise, it might have been difficult to find you.”

  “How is my mother?” I said.

  “Laena is well,” Phaerl said. “The council elected her Anax of Thiva the past Vulvarian year. She sends her love.”

  “And, what of Idril?” I stammered. “Is she well?”

  A look of sadness passed over Phaerl’s face like a shadow but disappeared in an instant.

  “I will speak to you of Idril,” she said with care. “But, you must hear the message I’ve brought first. Once I have finished, Idril’s circumstances will become clear.”

  “Very well,” I agreed, but in a manner not bothering to hide my feelings of concern.

  “The Goddess Queens have need of you, Tobias Hart.”

  “They have need of me?” I laughed with scorn. “Your p
recious Goddess Queens ripped me from the arms of the woman I loved and banished me back to Earth when they finished with me.”

  “Yes, I can understand your feelings of bitterness,” Phaerl said. “But, may I continue?”

  “Yes, Phaerl. Please understand I do not direct my anger at you. But, in honesty, I have little interest in ever serving the Goddess Queens again.”

  Phaerl nodded, then said, “Perhaps. But, perhaps what I have to tell you may change your mind.”

  “That is unlikely,” I said. “But, you may continue.”

  3

  Troubling News

  For almost an hour, Phaerl related to me a fantastic tale. A human named Russell Cooke, a slave, abducted from Earth and taken to Vulvar for breeding, as the Goddess Queens had done with me, organized and led a group of other slaves in a successful revolt. After escaping from a city called Nisa, located some distance south of Thiva, the band of rebels had fled into the lightly populated hinterlands in the foothills of the Eimgas Mountains, east of Nisa.

  The area soon became the base of operations from which Cooke and his followers launched raids on nearby farms and villages. The rebels seized weapons from a military arsenal and formed a small but well-armed force. Wherever they raided, they freed slaves, most of whom rallied to them, and the slave army grew ever more substantial and robust.

  Less than two months after the revolt, Cooke’s army of rebels returned to Nisa and besieged the city. They handily defeated the small cohort of Vulvarian warriors there and captured the city. Cooke and his men seized and jailed the Anax of Nisa along with the members of the city council. They put some of the council members and some priestesses of Nisa to the sword. Other females in the city they enslaved. They freed the remaining male slaves in Nisa. Many joined the rebels, pledging their loyalty to Cooke. Firmly in control of the town, Cooke appointed himself ruler of the Nisa and surrounding area.