[1]Hitchhikers of Gor
by Harold
This story is a parody of John Norman's Gor novels. If you've read them, no more need be said. If you haven't, the following should help to understand what's going on.
The planet Gor lies in the same orbit around the sun as Earth. It is always 180 degrees behind and thus always directly behind the sun, rendering it undetectable from Earth. The planet Gor is watched over by the priest kings, large, reclusive, insect‑like beings which inhabit caverns beneath the Sardar mountain range of Gor.
The human population of Gor is aware of the priest kings, but has almost no contact with them. Gorean civilization is primitive. The priest kings enforce a ban on modern weaponry. Persons who violate this ban are prone to suffer the mysterious 'flame death', a sort of spontaneous combustion.
Ar (not a typo) is the largest city on Gor. It bears a resemblance to imperial Rome. A large number of the citizens live in 'insulae' (the multi‑storied apartment blocks which proliferated in Rome). The use of the Roman short sword, public games, and a Latinesque vocabulary also link it to Rome.
Slavery is legal, common, and popular on Gor. There are male slaves, but they are relatively few. The big attraction is female slavery. Although the majority of women on Gor are free women, they are considered by the Gorean men as women who have yet to be enslaved (as a popular Gorean saying puts it: there are only two kinds of women‑‑slaves and slaves). Gorean males are 'real men' who feel that the proper place for a woman is on her knees. They are not like the wimps on Earth who don't have enough sense or manhood to beat their women into submission and lock them in the chains they all secretly desire. The Gorean men who know of Earth men hold them in contempt because of this failure to subjugate their women.
The Kurii are a race of space traveling savage beasts. They have come to our solar system from parts unknown and live in their steel ships out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. They desire the planet Gor (and Earth as well) but are held at bay by the superior technology of the priest kings. Nonetheless, their ships sneak in and land on Gor, plotting its conquest. To raise funds (apparently their own currency is not accepted on Gor), they abduct women from Earth to sell in the slave markets of Gor. They employ both Earth men and Gorean men to carry out these forays and maintain a network of agents on both planets. The priest kings likewise maintain a network of agents to counter the efforts of the Kurii.
Some Earth men know of Gor and some Goreans know of Earth, but both are a minority. The average female abductee is at first horrified to discover she has been enslaved, but eventually warms to the idea and embraces her bondage in the realization that it has always been her secret desire to be enslaved and forced to serve men. Few Earth men find their way to Gor. Those that do are invariably wimps who let women walk all over them. They are simultaneously appalled and turned on by the institution of female slavery but eventually discover their manhood on this barbaric world and start treating women as they deserve (and desire).
I began wondering
what would happen if a different sort of Earth man found his way to Gor‑‑a
man whose wife or girlfriend sported the occasional black eye or split lip‑‑a
man who was attracted to Gor by the institution of female slavery but who
hadn't quite thought the whole thing all the way through.
I had read all of the Gor books. More than once.
Over time, and for a variety of reasons (not the least of which was wishful
thinking), I became convinced that Gor actually existed. Having arrived
at this conclusion, I desperately wanted to go there. It was just the place
for a guy like me.
After considering a number of ideas, I conceived a plan that would
accomplish my goals. All good plans were simple, and by that standard, this
was a pretty good plan. I was going to stow away. All I had to do was find
a girl they were going to snatch and sneak aboard their ship while they
were engaged in her acquisition.
There were several things I knew from reading the books. They often
took women from New York. These women were usually employed in menial positions,
unattached, extremely beautiful (but not without room for improvement through
proper diet and exercise), and always snotty. They loved snotty women. Gorean
men being what they were, there was probably a shortage of snotty women
on Gor, making it necessary to import them.
Snotty women drove me nuts. That's why I wanted to go to Gor. An
appropriate reaction to some snotty bitch on earth could land you in jail.
I started hanging out on the downtown streets during morning rush
hour. I was looking for beautiful women on their way to work. When I spotted
one, I would walk up beside her and make a casual comment. If her reply
was sufficiently nasty, I would follow her from a distance to see where she
worked, then add her to my list. I would make the rounds every day, checking
up on the girls on the list and adding new ones.
One morning I visited the cosmetics counter of a large department
store. There was a new girl there.
"Where's the regular girl?"
"I don't know. She didn't show up this morning and she doesn't answer
her phone. It's not like her.”
"Was she here yesterday?"
"Yesterday was her day off."
"Thanks."
Maybe her employer didn't know where she was, but I did. This was
another thing that fit their pattern. They always took a girl on her day
off so that it would be a day longer before she was missed. I knew they'd
take more than one woman. I only hoped this one was among the first and
that they were still in town. I rushed off to check the others on my list.
She was walking by as I stepped out the door. Tall, blond, gorgeous,
she radiated hauteur. She wore a long dress which tended to conceal the
lineaments of her figure, but I'd seen all I'd needed to. I caught up with
her at the corner.
"Pardon me, miss."
She turned her gaze icily toward me, but did not deign to speak.
"Tickle your ass with a feather?" I inquired.
"What??"
"Particularly nasty weather," I clarified.
"Get lost, creep."
The Gorean slavers were still in New York. There was no way they
would leave this bitch wandering around loose. I followed her.
She was carrying a small
bag of groceries. It occurred to me that she was out shopping on a weekday
morning. Either she didn't work, or this was her day off.
I followed her onto the subway. When she got off, she walked about
a block and went into an apartment building. I noticed a moving van parked
out front. I hung around outside, keeping an eye on the van.
While I waited, I checked the contents of my backpack. It contained
items I thought would be necessary and useful should an opportunity for
departure present itself. I rummaged through it hoping I hadn't forgotten
anything.
After about 45 minutes, two men came out carrying a box about 3 feet
on a side. They opened the back of the truck, put the box in and prepared
to leave. There was already an identical box in the truck, which was otherwise
empty.
As the van pulled away, I dashed up behind it and clung to the rear.
The truck headed out of town. We were going north. About noon, the truck
stopped at a small roadside café. I waited until the two men were inside,
then followed them.
The men were seated at the counter. They didn't look up when I came
in. I sat at a booth where I could watch them, but there wasn't much to
see, just the backs of two guys in moving company uniforms. One was rather
burly, the other slight. I could hear them as they ordered. They spoke English
without discernible accent.
I ordered the largest meal they had, since I didn't know when I'd
get a chance to eat again. I ate hurriedly and when the waitress brought
pie to the guys at the counter, I got a doggie bag, paid, and went outside.
I climbed up on top of the van. This was not only more comfortable than
clinging to the rear, but left me less visible to other motorists.
The van continued north for another hour, then turned off on a side
road. We started driving around a maze of back roads in the woods until
we came to a clearing. The truck stopped at the edge of the clearing. I remained
on top of the truck.
About dusk, a large black disk descended silently from the sky. A
small section of the outer rim slid open and a man stepped out. He was wearing
coveralls and boots. He looked to be more an earth man than a Gorean, but
he spoke to the men in the truck with a rather odd accent. As they conversed,
I slipped down on the far side of the van and stole quietly through the
woods until I reached a point of concealment nearest the disk. When the three
men opened the rear of the truck and climbed inside, I crept into the saucer.
The interior wall of the ship was lined with large transparent cylinders.
All but two were occupied by naked slumbering girls. It looked as though
I had made it just in time. The boxes in the truck contained the last two
women. There was a gap in the bank of tubes opposite the entrance. What
appeared to be a control console sat in the gap.
I squeezed into a spot between the end of the console and the adjacent cylinder,
which contained a short dark haired girl.
It was amazing that my simple minded plan had actually worked, but
here I was. I was here mostly by sheer luck, but I felt I deserved some
credit for recognizing the opportunity for what it was when it presented
itself.
The three men entered the ship carrying an unconscious naked girl
and installed her in one of the remaining cylinders. It was the girl from
the cosmetics counter. The men left and returned moments later with the blond
bitch, placing her in the final cylinder. The moving men turned to go.
"I wish you well, Octavius," said the larger mover.
"I wish you well, Robert."
One thing about many Gorean males was that they exhibited a level
of pomposity in their everyday speech that was both humorous and annoying.
They sounded like they were in an old swashbuckler movie, or worse, the
Renaissance Festival. ("Well struck! He will not soon forget the might
of that blow, I'll wager." Stuff like that.) This was casual banter,
you understand. God help you if one of them should get on his high horse
and really get pompous. I've chosen to mark such utterances in italics, not
so much to highlight them for the reader (it's painfully obvious as it is),
but because it amuses me to do so.
The movers tromped out and the hatch closed behind them.
"You can come out now," announced Octavius. "They're gone."
I stepped out from behind the console, my .45 leveled.
"Do you know what this is?"
"It's a larger bore than a 9mm. I'd say it's a .45."
"Quite right," I said. "So we aren't going to try any funny business,
are we."
"I fly space ships. I'm not a moron."
"Fair enough," I said. "How did you know I was here?"
"Ever hear of a motion detector? Did you really think you could walk
around in this ship without my being aware of it?"
"I didn't hear any alarms or anything."
"As I said, I'm not an idiot. Did you think I'd let you know I knew
you were here until I was ready? You're not the first guy to come up with
this idea. Most trips I have a stowaway or two. When two show up, it's often
quite amusing when they first encounter each other."
This was an unexpected turn of events. I just stood there with my
mouth hanging open.
"Would you mind putting the safety on that
cannon? You're not paying sufficient attention to it."
I put the gun back in my pack. This guy was way ahead of me. I would
need my wits more than the gun. It would also be counter productive if I
absentmindedly shot him.
"I hope you're not planning on toting that thing around on Gor."
"Hold on," I said. "You're going to land a spaceship on Gor and you're
worried about my .45?"
"I'm not going to be there very long. You are."
"I was hoping not to have to use it. I just thought it might help
keep me alive while I learned the ropes."
"That's a fairly sensible idea. Gor is always dangerous, and it can
be deadly if you're not acclimated. How many rounds
in your pack?"
"200."
"That's conservative compared to most. I've had guys come aboard
with a thousand and more. There was so much lead in their sack they could
hardly walk. I'll let you keep 50. If you have to use even half of that,
you'll never make it there."
"Let's back up a minute. I'm not sure I understand all this. You're
actually offering me transport to Gor?"
"Yes, I do it all the time. It's a six week trip and I enjoy the
company."
"Six weeks? I thought you flew at the speed of light or something."
"Gor is about 17 light minutes away. We go way slower than that,
and not in a straight line. We just barely graze the orbit of Venus."
"But six weeks? How much food have you got?"
"I've got more than enough for both of us."
"But you've got all these women. Why would you need my company?"
"We can decant a couple of women when we get horny, but you'll want
to keep them gagged. They tend to spend all their time weeping and wailing.
They're not very good company."
"You do this all the time? I still don't get it. Why?"
"Like I said, I enjoy the company."
"So why don't you bring a helper. You'd have company coming and going."
"Well, there is one other reason. The introduction of strangers to
Gor helps promote a certain amount of instability. The priest kings will
eventually note your presence and have to expend effort and resource monitoring
your activities. You won't want to use that .45 after they become aware
of you."
"So I'm to become an agent of the Kurii?",
I asked.
"Not an agent, a decoy. They'll watch you to see what you're up to.
You won't be up to anything. Therefore, they won't be able to figure out
how your random activities fit into the grand scheme of things. You'll help
to disguise and confuse their perceptions of the activities of our real
agents. That's also why you get to keep the gun. It exaggerates their idea
of your importance."
"So why are you telling me all this? What if I tell them."
"I'm telling you because it doesn't make any difference if you know.
They'll watch you, but they won't make contact. If you try to contact them,
they'll withdraw. Even if you made contact, would they believe you when
you claimed not to be an enemy agent?"
"So now what?"
"So now we get to work. You've got 6 weeks to learn Gorean. You're
going to need to know it."
The six weeks passed very quickly. Octavius worked with me every
day until finally I could speak passable Gorean. The last week we spoke
only Gorean. I still had an outrageous accent, but I could at least communicate.
Every few days during the voyage, we would uncork a couple of women.
They would all need to be revived, fed, exercised, etc. to keep them healthy
during the long trip. I didn't gag the first one I brought out. Octavius
didn't say anything; he knew I would have to find out for myself. Fifteen
minutes later, she was gagged. After that, all the women were kept gagged
the entire time they were conscious except when they were being fed. We kept
them bound during use. I particularly enjoyed the blond bitch.
At last, we landed on Gor. Octavius gave me final instructions.
"Once you disembark, you'll be on your own. We're about 15 miles
from Ar. You should be able to walk there by sundown. This is a one way
trip. You will not be able to return to earth, nor will you ever see me again.
Open this parcel after my departure. It contains Gorean clothing, a small
sum of gold to sustain you until you can make a livelihood,
and a few other oddments you might find useful."
"One final bit of advice," he continued, "don't
let anyone know you are from earth. Those Goreans who know of Earth have
little respect for its inhabitants. They have a name for earthmen: phallus
minimus. A loose translation might be 'earth weenie'. Ar is to the west.
Keep the morning sun to your back. By the time it's overhead, it will be
obvious where Ar is."
"Thank you, Octavius. You've been most kind. Farewell."
"Live long and prosper," he replied.
I gave him a quizzical stare.
"Now that you know that Gor exists," he called, "I leave it to you
whether or not Vulcan does."
After the ship departed, I opened the parcel Octavius had left and
donned the Gorean clothing I found therein. I didn't put on the sandals.
If I was going to hike for fifteen miles, I'd rather do it in the hiking
boots I had on, which were already well broken in. I'd change to the Gorean
footwear just before entering the city.
I began my trek. The terrain was rolling grasslands. I saw neither
cultivated fields, nor roads, nor any other works of man. I trudged along.
It was early morning, so I had no problem heading west. I simply kept my
shadow directly in front of me.
After a couple of hours, I saw a grove of trees off to my right.
It sat on the grassland like a large oasis. I altered course slightly so
I could walk through the trees and be in the shade. They appeared to be conifers
and there was little undergrowth. Birds twittered among the branches. I
was actually making better time among the trees than I had been in the tall
grass. I passed what appeared to be the remains of a campfire, the first
sign of human activity I had encountered.
As I kicked among the ashes, I noticed a large animal about 100 yards
ahead. It seemed to be somewhere between the size of a leopard and a lion,
although longer and skinnier than either. It had more than four legs, black
fur, a long tail, and a long narrow head. It stood motionless, regarding
me as I watched it. I eased the .45 from my pouch. My movement seemed to
trigger it.
The beast emitted a shrieking hiss like a rabid tea kettle and charged.
It was fast! It was only about 30 feet away by the time I got a bead on
it. The slug hit the animal in the forehead so that the front end of it
stopped. The rear end kept coming until it was scrunched up like an accordion
and then the thing flopped over on its side, dead. That was one of the reasons
I'd brought a large caliber weapon. They do have stopping power.
The gun had made a hell of a noise, so I hid among the trees for
a while to see if anyone came to investigate. Once I decided all was clear,
I went over to the creature. I decided it must be a sleen, although I had
thought they were nocturnal. (I later learned that this had probably been
an immature sleen. Adult sleen were both larger and wilier.) It was a good
thing I had a firearm. I would not have wanted to tackle this thing with
a bow or spear.
I thought it would be better if I removed the bullet from the sleen.
I didn't want anyone to come along later and find a lead slug in it. I got
out my knife. (I had brought my hunting knife with me. It was a good quality
blade and I was fond of it. I had read of the wine tempered blades of Gor,
but the carbon content of my steel was more important to me than its alcohol
level. It was shaped as a tool, not a weapon,
nor was it balanced for throwing. I didn't know how to fight with a knife,
anyway.) A few miles beyond the woods, I cast the slug off into the grass.
I continued my journey. It was now about noon and my shadow was a
puddle at my feet. Fortunately, Octavius' prediction had been correct. It
was obvious which way led to Ar. Unfortunately, the reason I knew in which
direction Ar lay was because I could smell it. It was said of Paris in the
17th century that it could be smelt 20 miles downwind. Ar was obviously victim
to a similar flatulence. As I trudged along, the
stench grew in strength, waxing and waning with the breeze. So much for the clean pure air of Gor. This would take
some getting used to. I briefly considered altering my destination but after
the incident with the sleen, I decided that spending a night in the open
was not a good idea.
After a while, I spotted what appeared to be a road off to the north.
As I got closer, I could see that it was indeed a road. It was cobbled and
ran generally east and west. If Octavius had dropped me a little farther
north, I could have walked to town on the road, instead of tramping through
the wilderness, although I suppose an isolated area was a more appropriate
place to land a spaceship.
As I stepped onto the road, a man was passing in a two wheeled cart,
pulled by a beast I could not identify, but assumed to be some sort of tharlarion.
"Tal," I greeted him.
"Tal," he replied. "Anatawa phallus minimus
desu."
"How could you tell?"
"The boots, dummy. Lose the boots."
"Oh, yeah. Thanks. Hey, does Ar smell
like that all the time?"
"Smell like what?"
"Never mind." I had my answer.
I sat down on the edge of the road and changed shoes, then continued
my journey. The cart rumbled away over the cobbles. As I ambled along watching
the cart disappear into the distance ahead of me, I wished I still had my
hiking boots on. The Gorean sandals were not only uncomfortable, but too
thin for walking on cobbles.
I could see Ar! It gleamed white in the
distance. I'd been looking forward to my first sight of glorious Ar, but
it wasn't much at this distance. As I got closer, it got worse. The place
was a bit of a dump. I suppose at least some of it was a result of the depredations
of the Cosians (walls half torn down, laundry hung on the high bridges and
walkways, etc.), but whatever the reason, I was unimpressed.
I entered Ar through what I assumed was the main gate. People and
beast drawn wagons came and went. There were a couple of armed guards at
the gate, but they ignored everyone, including me.
I had decided to call myself Vitalis of Urp. My real name, Alf Cramden,
would have raised eyebrows on Gor, so a pseudonym was in order. Vitalis
was, of course, a typical Gorean name. Urp was a fictitious village which
I had invented to spare myself the embarrassment of meeting any actual inhabitants
of the place I claimed to be from. It's location
varied, tending to be as far as possible from wherever I was at the time.
The next couple of days were spent in exploration. I wandered the
city, spending the night at various inns, spending the days at paga taverns
and public games. There were a number of parallels between Ar and imperial
Rome. The Roman mob seemed to be one of them. Many of the men I saw at the
games seemed to have little else to do. I reflected that Cos had best keep the grain ships coming.
I rented a room on the upper level of a somewhat rundown insula after
a few days. I needed a place to stay, and I needed to find some sort of
a job. There was enough gold in my pouch to last a while yet, but I didn't
know how long it would take me to figure how to make a living here. But before
I got serious about job hunting, I needed to go shopping. I wanted a slave
girl. After all, this was the main reason I'd come to Gor.
There were a number of slave markets scattered around. After checking
them all out and watching some auctions to see how they worked, I returned
to the one that had seemed to be least expensive the next morning. One of
the things I'd learned about auctions on earth that seemed to be the same
here was that the first few lots went cheap because it took a while for the
crowd to get warmed up and start bidding. I saw a couple of guys there that
I had pegged as dealers the night before because they bid on every lot but
always dropped out early. They had their price in mind and wouldn't go over
it. Even so, they bought a fair number of lots. If I got a girl for one
bid over what these guys were willing to pay, I could be sure I was getting
her pretty close to her wholesale value.
On the third lot, I won the bid. She was a small agile girl with
long dark hair, dark eyes, and creamy skin. She was young, about 19 or 20,
and had been sold into slavery to pay family debts. I was her first master.
I paid the auction house, signed the papers, tied her hands behind her, and
led her home on a leash.
"This is your new home, Alice." (I had named her Alice after an old
girl friend.)
Alice looked around, wrinkled her nose, and said, "Yes, master."
She was unimpressed with her new home.
It didn't matter how Alice felt about her new surroundings. She was
a slave. Nonetheless, it was embarrassing to have your slave look with disdain
upon your home. I decided the way to begin this relationship was with a
good beating. That would set a proper tone and let Alice know who was boss.
I had beaten up my share of women on Earth, but I'd never actually
tied one down and whipped her. However, I undertook the task with enthusiasm.
Alice screamed and cried and begged to be allowed to be pleasing, so I assumed
I'd made my point.
Over the next few days, Alice fell into the routine of being a slave.
She was a good hearted girl and tried her best, but she was a bit of a klutz.
I had to beat her nearly every day. Alice brought me breakfast in bed each
morning once I made her understand what was expected of her.
On this particular morning, Alice woke me with a special treat. She
had squeezed some larma fruit and brought me a small cup of juice. It was
very tasty.
"You juice well, slave." (Oh, god, and already I was starting to talk like them.)
The next morning, she brought me coffee.
"Black wine, master", she announced.
"It's coffee, Alice. Call it coffee."
"Kaw‑phee", she said.
"No, Alice. It's coffee, with an 'f', not a 'ph'.
"Kaw‑fee."
"Better. Now change the 'k' to a 'c' and you've got it."
"Caw‑fee."
"Close enough, Alice."
Unfortunately, as Alice set the tray down, she tilted it, spilling
hot coffee all over me.
"Aiiee!" I leapt to my feet, shaking
my fist in her face.
"To the moon, Alice. To the moon," I roared.
"Which one?" she quavered.
Actually, that was a pretty good question. I had wondered about this
myself with regard to the red savages who used a lunar calendar. How does
a lunar calendar work when there are three moons? For instance, a certain
time might be called Fubarpegiwi, the moon during which the urts eat their
young. Which moon? One had to keep careful track to know which moon was
up at any given time. On a night when there was only one moon, it was not
clear to a casual observer which moon it was. The red savages did not seem
to be particularly avid astronomers. Perhaps the pte had not been early.
Perhaps someone had been watching the wrong moon.
Needless to say, this incident precipitated a particularly severe
beating for poor Alice, after which I untied her from the slave ring and
slung her over my shoulder. I sold her to a sleen keeper who lived nearby
as sleen feed.
It was instructive that I had sold Alice for nearly as much as I'd
paid for her. Her death had lowered her value very little. I resolved that
my next slave would be one whose value was more significantly influenced
by whether or not she was alive. What I really wanted was the blond bitch
from New York. I had asked Octavius about her. He told me to forget it, I
couldn't afford her.
"Forget it, you can't afford her," he had said. "A girl with her
attitude will sell for a lot more gold than you've got."
I wandered the streets trying to decide what to do with myself. I
had been a bus driver on Earth and didn't have any marketable skills on
Gor. Even though I had been a Teamster, I couldn't handle a team. I would
have to get some kind of income before I could buy another slave.
Actually, I could afford to buy one, I
just couldn't afford to keep her. Alice had been quite a drain on my finances.
Besides having to feed her, there was all this stuff she needed. Collar,
chains, whip, lingerie, cosmetics, it all added up. It is pleasant to
own women, as the Goreans say, but it isn't cheap.
My musings were interrupted by the sight of a man coming the other
way. He looked ordinary enough except for the suspicious bulge in his tunic
under the left armpit. After he passed me, I reversed direction and followed
him. A couple of streets later, he stopped to urinate and I caught up with
him.
"Do the priest kings know about that shootin' iron?" I inquired in
English.
"You're new here, aren't you," he replied, also in English.
"Yeah, I've been here about 2 weeks. How long have you been here?"
"About a year and a half. My name is Ed
Horton, but around here I'm known as Lysol."
"I'm Alf Cramden, known locally as Vitalis of Urp. This is so amazing."
"What's so amazing," he asked.
"Meeting another Earth man on Gor. The
coincidence is incredible."
"Not really. There's a bunch of us here. We usually don't have any
trouble spotting each other. I picked you out right away. I didn't know
you, so I figured you were a newbie. I was curious to see if you'd spot
me."
"You mean you all know each other?"
"Yes. We've formed a support group."
I began laughing uncontrollably. I laughed so hard I nearly fell
into the puddle Lysol was making.
"That was exactly my reaction when I first heard about the support
group," Lysol said. "A month later I joined. I live over by the Viminal
Gate. Drop by sometime."
"Viminal?"
"Yeah, you know. Poor Queen Victoria Eats Crow At Christmas. I somehow
suspect it's more than coincidence."
"Amazing."
We parted company. Two weeks later, I still hadn't found a job and
was almost out of money. I went searching for Lysol.
This story is continued
in the sequel, Support Groups of Gor.
Copyright 1999
by Harold
Haroldx@email.com