Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 20:30:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: taarob <taarob@yahoo.com>
Subject: Slave 3

This is a work of fiction.  I love getting email so if you
would like to contact me you can at taarob@yahoo.com or if
you'd like to see some other things that I've written you
can go to my web site at http://www.mygaystories.com .


Slave 3


Caesar has been in Gaul with his army for almost nine years
and the senate's fear of him has increased beyond measure,
Pompey has been maneuvered into a position in opposition to
him and Rome is once again on the verge of civil war.

                    ------------------------------

The sounds of the wharf surrounded us and seemed strange
after days of hearing only wind and waves.  Water lapping
against the sides of ships, slaves moving raw materials off
of some ships and loading finished good onto others and
always the gulls hovering overhead, waiting.

Traxos stepped down carefully onto the deck of the Eagle.
He was a man who must have been beautiful in his youth but
now, approaching fifty, his comfortable life was beginning
to work against him, his once black hair was turning gray
and heavy jowls hung from his face.

The ships crew had erected a sheet of canvas that we might
be spared the sun as we sat and talked.  Traxos lowered
himself slowly to his folding chair.

He shook his head slowly.  "It seems like only yesterday you
were a boy."  He sighed.  "Your father is well?"

"Quite well."  My father had freed Traxos more than fifteen
years ago.

"Of course I saw him only a few months ago when he was
staying at his villa."  He shifted in his chair and the
light caught the gold rings on his fingers.  "He
was....uncomfortable.....with the political situation.  I
take it that that has not improved?"

"No.....quite to the contrary actually and it is the reason
for my visit.  Production of all weapons must be maximized.
Spearheads, bolts, arrow heads, swords and chain mail, all
must be at least tripled.  I am continuing on to Alexandria
to increase our grain shipments from there and you must
contact our agents in Sicily and Sardinia and have them buy
all that they can get.  Everything is to be shipped to our
northern warehouses.  It is probably best that this be done
without drawing attention to your efforts, the usual drill."
The grain would stay good for up to three years, the weapons
for a thousand.....perhaps two.

Traxos produced a bit of chain mail from his clothing.  "A
new design, stronger and more flexible than the old.  We can
produce a thousand sets a month, more if you authorize
additional slaves."

"Do what you must.  We'll need at least ten thousand a month
until this time next year, maybe more."  A faint breeze of a
smile passed quickly across Troxos' face.  I wondered how
much he was making off of this new design.  I didn't care
deeply and neither would my father, we understood that this
was the way that things were done.

Traxos and I agreed on production figures and I authorized,
on behalf of my father, the increased expenditures for
slaves and raw materials.

One of the most important points of our stop was to pick up
an elderly Greek gentleman of quiet demeanor. Servanos was
the best pilot my father and his pirate allies had been able
to find in many years of looking.  His almost magical
ability to read the skies, the waves and the stars made him
worth his weight in gold.  We didn't pay him that much, of
course, at least not in sesterces but rather in security,
enough money to be comfortable and provide for the future,
but more importantly a safe place for him and his family.
He was one more of the thousands who depend on my father for
a decent life.  With the guidance of Servanos it wouldn't be
necessary for us to hug the coastline all the way to
Alexandria but could instead cross Our Sea and travel
directly to Alexandria.

                    ------------------------------

The wind is at our back and the great sail is full and is
pulling us quickly forward over the water.  The sun is
beating down hotly and most of the men are naked or nearly
naked.  My bodyguards are sharpening the tools of their
trade, the ships crew are scrubbing the decks and making a
thousand and one minor repairs.  The ballista have been set
up on deck and the ships crew have been practicing with
them.  They're unbelievable, it's like watching a bow shoot
trees through the air.

Bara is leaning against a mast that rises from the deck
behind our cabin and attaches to the roof of it, I'm lying
between his legs with the back of my head against his chest
and his huge arms around me.  We're both naked.  Marco
walked by and glanced up at us and smiled, then he slowly
shook his head.

Bara and I could never be seen this way in Rome but here at
sea the only ones to see us were my slaves and employees.
You can't ever completely stop slaves from talking but then
that would mostly be to other slaves.  No citizen is going
to pay much attention to what slaves are discussing and
besides everyone has their secrets.

Islands came and went, appearing on the eastern horizon like
bits or gray brown nothingness and then receding away from
us leaving me to wonder what I had just missed....or been
spared.  The sun was intense but was mitigated by the
cooling breeze and the salt spray off of the endless ocean
and Bara erected a piece of canvas over our perch on top of
the cabin so that we might not suffer its most intense rays.
This also afforded us a bit of privacy as the ends of the
canvas hung down and were tied to the roof.  The crew and my
bodyguards had done much the same on various parts of the
deck.

Bara fed me bits of dried fruit that Traxos had given us
before we left and it felt a sensuous thing to be taking
food from Bara's fingers and then licking the remaining
sweetness off of them.  He smiled at me every time that I
did that, an odd little smile and then pulled my face to his
and kissed me while making a strange sound in his throat,
almost like a growl that a beast might make.  How conquered
I was by this boy, how defenseless against his love of me
and mine of him.

The day drifts languidly into night and in our cabin I'm
lying on my stomach naked.  Bara is straddling my thighs and
massaging my back with his huge hands, his erect penis lies
like a log on my backside.  Bara is immense compared to me
and sitting on my thighs he covers me completely.  He
stretches out fully on my back but still supporting his
weight on his elbows and knees.  His erect sex is beginning
to work it's way into me and I lift my head a bit as he
kisses the side of my neck and his large hands kneed my
shoulders.

               -------------------------------------------

The morning brought haze that lifted as the sun began to
climb.  Unfortunately the morning also brought pirates.  A
pair of triremes that we had spotted upon waking had moved
to intercept us and grew steadily larger as the distances
closed.  What had originally been seen as black spots on the
horizon became enormous ships with over a hundred rowers
each and twice as many fighters.  They were well separated
and accompanied by many smaller boats, thus making it
impossible to go around them.  We, of course could have
turned back but that wasn't a consideration at least not at
the moment.

Our captain dropped the sail and hove to in the water.  We
sat perfectly still as our own pirate flag was raised.  The
huge ships slowed and then stopped, the hundreds of oars
being raised while figures other than the fighters appeared
on their decks.   On the one hand the flag we were flying
told them that we were the property of one of the oceans
most dangerous pirates, my father, indirectly of course, and
on the other hand they recognized the ship and knew that it
carried valuable cargo.  It always did.  They made their
decision.

The pause had gained us advantage.  The triremes had moved
closer together and the smaller vessels had hung back.  The
captain came over to me.

"Sir, we must move quickly.  I propose that we sprint to
starboard.  The trireme on the right will try to block us
but we're much faster and we'll be firing our ballista at
him which, considering the type that they are, will be a
surprise to him.  It isn't possible for the other ship to
stop us once were under way and have clear sea ahead of us.
Our major worry is that they'll have ballista too and we'll
also take a lot of fire from those archers."

"Are your fighters ready, Captain?"  The man showed no fear
at all and seemed as excited as a man making room for an
unplanned event into his usually busy day.

He laughed.  "More than ready, Master!  This is what they're
trained for and when they can make significant amounts of
money.  Believe me, they're ready." I knew that the men were
paid a huge bonus for this kind of fighting and they came to
hope for it.  One battle like this one, if we won, could pay
for a small farm for each of the men.

I turned to Marco.  "Your men, Marco?"

He smiled at me.  "I haven't let anyone kill you yet,
Master!"

I turned to Bara who stood behind me.  He held a tall
rectangular shield and wore a sword.  I nodded to him and
looked into his blue eyes.

Marco moved forward and spoke to Bara.  "You'll have to
watch for the arrows.  I know that you've never seen this
before and it's......well, it's hard to prepare for but the
arrows will be falling like drops of rain but they are much
deadlier."  Marco turned back to me.  "I would be much
happier if you would stay in the cabin."

I looked at the Captain.  "We're wasting time, let's move."
I smiled at Marco.  "Relax, if I'm taking up too much
attention I'll go into the cabin......but only if I have
to."

Marco turned to Bara.  "Use that shield to protect him!"  He
pointed at me.  "Remember, if he dies we all die!"

Hundreds of oars on the triremes dropped to the water and
our captain began shouting orders.  As the big fighting
ships began to move towards us the Eagle sprang forward
bearing off to starboard.  At the same time our own fighters
lined the deck with shields lined up in front of and above
the deck.  Behind this overall shield our fighters loaded
the ballista with four meter arrows tipped with large cones
of volcanic rock that had been soaked in pitch.  These
flaming missiles exploded into a ten meter wide cloud of
fire when they hit something solid.  This had been my
father's invention, well, at least he took credit for it
although I always suspected that it was his chief engineers
idea.  Whenever I asked him about it he went into a spasm of
rapid-fire blinking which was a pretty good indication that
it hadn't been his idea.

The big ship to the right was beginning to close with us
just as we were trying to slip past it to the open sea.  We
were moving with great speed about a hundred meters from the
trireme when the first volley of arrows came towards us.
Marco called a warning and Bara quickly pulled me back
against him with one hand while covering us with his shield.
It sounded, in a way, like someone had thrown a gigantic
handful of stones that were now thudding to the deck.  I
couldn't see anything but I could hear some of the arrows
hitting the roof of our cabin right behind us.  Then when
the thudding stopped I looked out from Bara's arms and saw
the big ship turning to port to try and head us off.  I knew
that this was our moment and at a command from the captain
our missiles were lit and then the huge bows fired, sending
six long fire tipped arrows towards the big ship as our own
archers let fly a volley.  The regular arrows at this
distance and against that behemoth were useless but three of
the missiles hit their mark and almost the entire side of
the larger ship was engulfed in flame.

The rowers on the starboard side of trireme seemed to be out
of commission and for several moments the larger ship seemed
out of control and began to turn quickly to starboard since
the only rowers still rowing were on the other side of the
ship.  The normal movement of the sea was now in opposition
to the big ship and waves slapped heavily against it's side
as it's huge ramming prow plunged into and out of the water
with the rhythm of the waves.  Just as the fires that had
been started by our missiles seemed on the verge of going
out something volatile caught fire and there was a huge
flair up on the top deck of the ship causing bright orange
and yellow flames to leap skyward as the fighters on the
deck began to scatter.  Moments later and the Eagle was free
of the trap, her attackers to her port and behind her and
her speed steadily increasing.  Our men were cheering and as
I turned to look back I saw the pained look on Bara's face.

"What Bara?"  He looked confused and frightened and then
looked down to where blood was pouring out of his leg.

"I'm sorry, Master......an arrow, I think."