Rebels and Witches

Synopsis

Synopsis Rebel In the 22nd century while mopping up Russian soldiers in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska, a squad of 5 is sent to try to locate a missing officer. They are the giant Rocky who stands 7’8”; the medic Shorty, Ace, a Tagish Indian, Dante, the sergeant, and Rostia, a the communications specialist and a failed gymnast.They fall through a wormhole into the same world the missing officer, Major Kateo Redwolf, fell into. They agree to stick together as a unit as they explore. They discover a species of hominid descended from bears, the ferocious Kulagti, who they follow down to Rivertown, a port on Lake Owantsa. Here they meet three other hominids: the Stregha, descended from felines, the human Allings, and the very abused Nagas, descended from snakes. These people accept the aliens and help them learn the language. But the Kulagti river master chases them and during the chase the squad fires their rifles to kill them. The Kulagti puruse them and there is a bigger battle with the slaying of about 20 of them. The squad seizes their camels, armor and weapons. During their flight Shorty dies of a heart attack. They find a city, Eirsulieville. Rosita goes in to scout, and sells her goods to a merchant for a large sum of money. She goes to the Temple of Universal Love to ask the High Dakini Sharmadi for shelter, which is given to them. The dominant religion is the sex and love cult of Luryavan, structured just like the Catholic Church but entirely run by women. They see free love as their divine misison but finance themselves by being bankers. They own so much property they have considerable political clout. The missing Major in the interim has become the second most powerful executive in Luryavan, known now as the liberator the Mala Keya, and even before the squad lands he is determined to seize their weapons because he does not want this civilization to discover gunpowder. Dante et al live in the library copying books and learning the language. Rocky winds up stir crazy and makes a spectacle of himself, angering the Dakinis and creating a split in the squad's unity. He despises the cruelty of the Stregha and speaks with Nagas in general terms of the right to revolt, which a spy overhears and reports to the commander of the Imperial Eagles garrison. This is on the same day that Keya arrives to confront them. He relies upon his status as their officer to demand the surrender of their weapons. Rocky and Ace flee to the Naga ghetto where they recruit volunteers to raid cities to free endslaved Nagas. Rosita and Dante remain loyal. Keya determines to head off Rocky et al at vulnerable cities, but Rocky evades him by setting up camp in a cave in the Lost River Canyon land. They ally themselves with the Red Turban Bandits who are only in it for the money. Determined to find them, the Dakinis do dream magic to locate them. Rosita goes to pose as a returning friend and destroys their weapons. She also gets a lock of his hair to enable Sharmadi to cast a spell on him to make him more pliable to the Dakinis and their pacifist desires. Rocky and the Red Turbans lay seige to the capitol city Gondul, a city still in ruins after an earthquake. The garrison commander is an honorable man but his staff is cowardly and wily. Keya insults an officer by calling him a coward. Rosita has a formal duel with him and kills him handily. When the rebels breach the walls, Rosita and the Dakini Garella encounter him at the riverfront where he is trying to liberate enslaved Nagas, an affront to the three bandit near him who are claiming them as slaves. Garella's appearance dazzles Rocky and that gives the bandits the opportunity to stab him in the neck. A fight enuses in which Rocky kills his attackers. The last one attacks Rosita who easily kills him. Rocky's death grieves Rosita and Garella feels guilty about the spell's unforeseen consequences. The story weaves divided loyalties, a grand mission, and the difficulty of assimilating into such a strange world. The story is erotic with no explicit sex.