A New Beginning

All eleven of us women are now pregnant! I haven't recorded anything here for several weeks but I thought I would take note of this exciting occasion. In fact, over the past several months about the only time I have recorded anything here is when something interesting happens.

Six of us are all well into our pregnancies. Laci Bianca and Elizabeth Dee are due to deliver next month and Regina Aurora in about two months. Natalie Amiee, Aleks Michelle and I are due the month following that.

We are so much into our pregnancies that Doc Yves won't let any of us leave the camp. Nor will any of the other men. They claim that it is too dangerous. They treat the six of us like we were delicate mantel pieces. Typical "expectant" father.

So, we stay in camp and do "household" chores. But I'm not one to be a slacker. Since the men won't let us women go out hunting and foraging, we women won't let them stand fire watch. We told them that it was only fair. They shouldn't have to do all the work. Besides, I promised them that if anything dangerous came into camp then whoever was standing fire watch would wake them. They all readily agreed.

Of course, it didn't take us a lot of persuasion to get them to agree. The two chores we all hate are garbage and shit detail and fire watch. Although it only takes about a half an hour to do the detail whereas fire watch is two hours long, between the two tasks I would rather do two fire watches than just one garbage detail. Nor do I think that I'm alone in that preference. We all really hate garbage detail. The worst part is the smell and fighting the roaches, bugs and other pests out on the lake bed. I guess that's the price we have to pay to live in Shangri La.

The evening we sat around and discussed the issue, a couple of the men also suggested that we women let the men do garbage detail. Their reasoning was that we shouldn't lift heavy loads. But most of the other men didn't want us to "forgo doing our duty," to use their words. They countered that the heaviest load was the waste from the James Cook, which isn't all that heavy -- only about ten kilograms. We women reluctantly agreed.

So, the women on the hunting and foraging teams now consists of Chantelle Dawn, Victoria Rose, Akira Carissa, Josephine Jasmine and Veronica Anne. But if the men have their way even they won't be able to go out foraging in the near future. Vickie and Veronica are both two months pregnant, Akira is six weeks and Josephine missed her period two weeks ago. Yves examined her the other day and said that she's about a month pregnant.

In case you're wondering, United Earth Space Agency provided Doc Yves with quite a number of pregnancy tests just in case some careless woman onboard the James Cook got pregnant. As with all voyages longer than three months, UNESA warned all the women onboard to be careful about getting pregnant as it would be very difficult to take care of any children born while in space on a long voyage. Yves brought all the tests with him.

Father Ray advised all the women who stayed with the living section to allow Dr. Yves insert IUDs in them. They all followed his guidance.

But I'm ecstatic over Chantelle. After I got pregnant she came to me and asked me for my opinion on what she should do.

She hadn't had sex with any of the men. She's only had sex with the bisexual women, Vickie, Josephine and me. But she wanted to be a part of our extended family and didn't feel that way because she wasn't pregnant.

I want to point out that none of the men have ever tried to have sex with her. They all accept her lesbianism and have never tried to bond with her. She emphasizes that she doesn't miss having sex with them, nor does she feel mistreated or neglected. They also accept my, Josephine's and Vickie's bisexuality and don't object when the three of us have sex together or with Chantelle.

But Chantelle wanted to add to our family by having a baby. She even talked about having a baby while we were still out in space, on our way to Europa. She wanted to settle down with me on Nuda Earth and then go to one of those clinics to be impregnated in vitro.

Anyway, she asked me what I thought she should do. I told her that she should just pick one of the men and ask him if he would like to be the father of her child. She selected Joseph. She said he seemed to be the most understanding and someone whom she could relate to. It took her two tries, both several weeks apart.

After each encounter with Joseph, she could hardly wait for Doc Yves to run a pregnancy test on her. The night before Doc gave her a second pregnancy test we slept together. We got up early that morning and showered together. It was great until she threw up while I was washing her back. After we cleaned up the mess, she looked at me with her big brown eyes and started to cry.

We hugged and through her tears she said, "Oh Toni, do you think I'm pregnant? I missed my period the other day."

"When Doc wakes up we'll get him to do another pregnancy test on you. Then we'll know for sure."

"I hope it's a little girl. I want a little girl."

I just smiled at her. I was very happy for her.

"Just think. If you have a little boy and I have a little girl . . . well they could grow up and have their own children. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

"It would be more than wonderful. It would be great," I answered her.

Now she's three months pregnant.

Yesterday morning Doc Yves pulled his first tooth since returning to earth. Well, he didn't actually pull it; he knocked it out. He left all his dentistry equipment onboard the living section of the spaceship. He knew he wouldn't be able to fill a tooth after landing, so there was no point in bringing the stuff. He advised us to chew the sap of the sweetgum tree to help us keep our teeth clean.

Besides, he says this dentistry skills weren't all that good. He only received a nine week training course just before leaving MC3. The only reason UNESA gave him that was so that they wouldn't have to hire a dentist.

So when David developed a tooth ache, he didn't have any tools to do anything. He had no alternative other than to knock the tooth out.

He had Anthony whittle the end of a small piece of tree branch down to the size of David's premolar. He placed the peg against David's tooth and hit the peg with a hammer. It was over in a flash. But David didn't feel a thing. He was too drugged up.

We found a plant that Doc uses as pain killer. It looks something like mistletoe with its little white berries but these berries are larger, about the same size as a cherry. Also, its leaves are bigger. The juice from the berries is a very potent drug.

If you rub the juice from the berry on your skin, it deadens your skin for about an hour. In fact, just picking the berries causes your fingers to go numb. Eating just a couple of them are enough to put you to sleep for several hours -- they are very bitter and leave your mouth very dry. Doc named it Drugberry.

Anyway, he rubbed the juice from a Drugberry on David's gum. After a few minutes, he started banging away on David's premolar. Like I said, David didn't feel a thing.

That's enough for now; I'll write more later. It's late, almost zero four hundred. I'm on fire watch with Chantelle. Our watch is almost over. She wants to sleep with me when our watch is over in a few minutes. I don't think we'll have sex though. Having sex while I'm pregnant is too uncomfortable. So, the two of us will probably just snuggle up next to each other. I like doing that; it gives me a feeling being needed and loved.

This afternoon Laci gave birth to the cutest little girl I've ever seen and Beth followed a couple hours later with a beautiful baby boy. Beth's boy is the spitting image of his father. She named him Yves. Then she added a middle name, Adam, because he is the first "man" born in the New Earth. We are all very excited.

Laci's baby girl has her mother's mouth and chin but her eyes and nose clearly belong to David. She named her first daughter Eve Marie, saying that she felt obligated to name the first girl Eve after Beth named the first boy Adam. She named her Marie after me. I was touched.

After that, the men stuck to their word and wouldn't allow any of us women leave camp except to go to Lake Hope to go fishing and swimming. We had to fight for that. It took almost an hour of discussion before the men finally gave in.

We women stood our ground; none of us wanted to be cooped up in the James Cook all day or even in camp. Right now, going to the lake is the only diversion we have in our daily activities. It's a time to relax and unwind. We all love to go skinny dipping. So, whenever we go fishing we almost always go swimming after or end up playing a sensuous game of touch tag amongst ourselves.

Swimming in Lake Hope is more refreshing than a shower. In fact, if the weather is good, several of us will frequently walk to the lake just before sunset and bathe there. Both Laci and Aleks say that it's a lot easier than fighting the shower door. We tease them over that, especially Laci. When she goes she will frequently do as we all do and walk there in the nude, wearing only her dinosaur skin shoes and carrying only a towel and her crossbow.

We've gone swimming there since almost day one here -- ever since we discovered that there were no monstrous dinosaurs or alligators lurking there. Everyone loves it, especially our skinny dipping and sensuous games of tag. We women weren't about to let the men take our only leisure activity away from us -- that's how our skinny dipping and sensuous tag got started!

A couple of the men thought that the strain of walking to the lake might harm our unborn babies. But I reminded them that it's only about a five minute walk to the lake. It's more of a chore to do garbage detail.

Finally after about fifty minutes of discussion, I looked over to Doc Yves, who had been quiet during most of the debate. I gave him an imploring look. He nodded and then told the men that as long as we didn't over exert ourselves once we got to the lake, then he saw nothing wrong with us walking there to fish or swim.

Later that evening I told Doc that I was going to sleep with Chantelle that night. From the look he gave to me during the debate over us women going to Lake Hope, I thought that he wanted to sleep with me, even though we wouldn't have sex. But he said that he wanted to sleep with Beth and their new baby. He is a very understanding man. We all are.

That's the kind of relationship we all have here. None of us are jealous of each other. None of us have "claimed" someone or something as their own property. For example, we have eighteen crossbows; one for each of us who goes hunting. But we keep them hanging on pegs inside the James Cook and whenever we leave camp, we just grab one. Although each of us usually takes the crossbow made specifically for them, no one complains if someone uses "their" crossbow.

We share everything, including and especially our "lovers." But then with just twenty of us here, that's the only way we're ever going to survive as a group.

Since the men will only allow us women to go to the lake, we have been doing a lot of traveling back and forth to it. We all bring our crossbows and spears or clubs along with us. One or two of us will stand watch for alligators while the others hunt for fish. We seldom come back empty handed. When the fishing is done we play tag.

Regina's baby girl was born last night! It's been a week since little Yves and Eve were born. Regina's water broke while we were watching a 1962 movie; To Kill A Mockingbird starring Gregory Peck. I've read the book. It's an excellent story that teaches of the evil inherent in ignorance, prejudice and racism.

Anyway, Doc Yves and Beth ushered her into the infirmary while Chantelle babysat Yves Adam. The rest of us were too excited to finish watching the movie so we called it off until the next evening.

Regina delivered about three hours later and named her new baby girl Niño Esperanza which is Spanish for Hope Child. Regina is not sure who the father is; she thinks its Juan. She looks just like Juan, both Regina and Juan are Spanish. On the same evening Niño was born Beth asked Doc Yves to circumcise Yves Adam.

There are only the two hunting and foraging parties now, both minus us women. The morning after Niño was born, Joshua's new hunting party went west looking for game and Anthony's new hunting party went north hunting and foraging. Anthony's party came back about noon with three Daffyducktus and five sacks full of fruit and vegetables, enough to last us more than a week.

They found a fruit that resembles coconuts. They're not really coconuts but we call them that because that's what they taste like and what they look like. But their skin is more like avocados; tough but not as hard as a coconut. They are also much smaller than a coconut. They are about the same size as a large onion and they have four large seeds inside them.

Joshua's party came back a few hours later with the carcass of a small souropod that we had never seen before. Except for its coloring, at first we thought it was a juvenile Apatosaurus that they killed or possibly an overgrown Cheshire cat.

Its neck was almost 1 meter long and its whip-like, tapering tail was a little over 2 meters long. It stood 1.5 meters at its hip and it had a head about a half a meter long. They first discovered the dinosaur in a grove of "crabapple" bushes. They weren't crabapples; they just looked like them but tasted like lemons. They also picked some of the crabapples for us.

Anyway, this green souropod with orange and red spots on its back was eating the crabapples. As Joshua's party was attempting to sneak up on the beast for a better shot at it, it must have caught their sent. It ran out of the grove and into a nearby field. It then began to whip both its head and neck back and forth.

According to Joseph, this motion could easily confuse a predator as it might not know which end was the head and which was the tail. Meanwhile, its tail was producing a loud crack, which they said sounded like a shotgun blast. None of the hunters wanted to get near its dangerous whip-like tail.

They formed a semicircle in front of the beast and each shot for its heart. It took all four of them -- Joshua, Joseph, Louis and Leonard -- to put a crossbow bolt into its heart before it collapsed dead. After, they gutted the beast and trussed it up to carry it back to camp. Then they collected two sacks of the crabapples. The Whiposaurus tastes something like turkey.

I'm due in a week or two and my belly is so extended that I can barely move around. It's such a chore for me to get around that I've even given up going to the lake. Yesterday, I felt so bad I didn't leave the James Cook until about fifteen hundred hours. Chantelle brought me some baked fish and biscuits for breakfast around ten.

After I came downstairs, I just lounged around for about an hour or so. Then I ate some Daffyducktus, potatoes, honey and bread for supper and went back upstairs to my sleeping area. They say your first pregnancy is the worst. I hope they're right.

Aleks and Natalie both have cramps. Yves ordered the three of us to just sit and relax until our babies are born. The only good thing about it is that Doc took the three of us off garbage detail. None of us objected.

Chantelle killed an alligator all by herself! It was a monster of an alligator, almost 5 meters long. It entered our fishing and swimming area with, as Chantelle said, hunger in its eyes.

Most of the women had gone fishing and swimming. Natalie, Alex, Beth and I stayed in camp with the babies; Doc was with us also. The rest of the men were all hunting.

The gator was able to enter because we still haven't finished the fence. I guess that's because Gatorhogs and alligators seldom bother us. Besides, what we have built so far is sufficient to trap fish, making it easier for us to spear one. Most of us believe that the fence we have is enough. I don't think it will ever get finished.

I can't remember how long it's been since a Gatorhog came into our area. The last alligator to come into our area of the lake was over three months ago. It was only about a meter long. I don't remember who shot it. I hadn't gone to the lake that day. Chantelle and I stayed in camp working on some hides.

The two of us are close but our pregnancies have drawn us even closer. We do a lot of things together now that previously we hadn't done together.

This most recent alligator was swimming ever so slowly toward the women who were spear fishing. Chantelle, Akira and Vickie were standing guard with their crossbows. They were discussing their pregnancies but Akira and Vickie had their backs turned toward the entrance of the fence we have in the lake.

Let me point out that the part of the lake that we have fenced off for our fishing and swimming area is an oval about fifty meters wide by about twenty meters out from the shore at its farthest. The bamboo fencing runs from the shore on both sides out toward the middle. The middle five meters is the only part that is not fenced in. There is a small, smooth rock almost dead center of the oval. Those who stand guard sit on it.

Anyway, according to Chantelle the alligator was heading straight for the other women. She said she hadn't noticed it approaching the women until it was about three or four meters from them. But she took careful aim and shot her bolt straight into the gator's head, right behind its left eye.

The gator violently splashed in the water, frightening the women. It turned over a couple of times. Then it floated belly up; it was dead. Chantelle just looked at the other women and smiled; her crossbow was already reloaded and ready for another shot if she needed it. Chantelle is the best shot among us women, better than some of the men. She seldom misses her mark.

They asked her why she didn't warn them of the approaching alligator. She answered that there wasn't time. She didn't see it until after it had already entered our fishing and swimming area. Besides, she knew she could kill the beast with a bolt from her crossbow.

Since we've killed a couple of monsters with our crossbows, several of the crew has become more brazen when attacking dinosaurs, even the smaller ones. I hope that no one gets careless. Whenever anyone goes out hunting I always remind them to be careful.

Anyway, the women dragged the gator onto the shore, gutted it and carried it back to the camp along with the fish they caught. That night we had a choice of fried alligator, baked fish or stewed Hawkosaur for supper. Anthony's team killed two Hawkosaurs on their hunt. Joshua's team just collected some corn and crabapples. What meat David, Yves and Josephine didn't cook for supper they smoked. Naturally, I ate the alligator along with some potatoes from our garden.

Natalie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy this morning. She woke up complaining about four in the morning. Doc Yves and Beth helped her into the infirmary. Justin was born about an hour later. Natalie said that she named the child after her own father. He looks just like Joshua except for his hair and his eyes. He has Natalie's green eyes and his hair matches her long, naturally red hair.

The next day the rainy season hit us. At least I'm going to call it a rainy season. It rained every day, all day for nearly two weeks, maybe ten days. I really didn't count. I think it skipped only one day. Don't get me wrong. I love the rain. Everything smells so fresh after a good afternoon shower. But everyday for more than three or four days in a row is too much for me.

During that time no one did any hunting except for Joshua, Anthony and Thomas. It was too wet to do any hunting. We ate from the food we had in the smokehouse and our garden. But the three of them did manage two hunting and foraging trips. The first time they went out they came back empty handed but the second time they killed a Chantelleosaurus.