EXTRACT FOR
Mistress Of Planet Dominatrix
(Jed Darke)

When PE5673 was first discovered there was little fuss made. It was earth like, slightly higher oxygen concentration, slightly lower nitrogen concentration, and no industrial pollutants. Indigenous life contained a wide variety of flora and fauna, with the most intelligent life form the initial survey found being about the same intelligence as an earth sheep. Most of the plants and all the animals analysed by the first survey were edible to humans (later surveys found a few insects and small reptiles that were poisonous, to varying degrees, if eaten). The largest land animal was slightly larger than an earth cow, vegetarian, and made an ideal beast of burden. Although many of the animals would attack if threatened, only one appeared to consider humans as a possible food source and so liable to attack unprovoked. Three species of plant had stings of comparable strength to an earth stinging nettle, and two had stronger stings, one of which was potentially lethal if stung in sufficient quantity (but you would probably have to roll around naked in a large patch of the weed to get this high a dose). 



In short, PE5673 would have been the ideal planet for colonisation if it had been closer to earth. However, since it was a long way from the mother planet, transporting colonists that far would have been expensive, let alone the cost of transporting essential supplies (or rather 'supplies that colonists considered essential' which is not the same thing, PE5673 was sufficiently earth like that the colonists could have been dropped naked with no supplies whatsoever and survived, but with a [very] few exceptions, most colonists considered a reasonable amount of technology an 'essential supply'). 



Since, at the time of its discovery, there were plenty of planets nearer to earth that were sufficiently earth like for colonisation (many more than were needed by earth's expanding population) and PE5673 held no excessive mineral (or other) wealth to make colonising it exceptionally attractive, the planet simply got noted and its details filed away. There were more interesting and useful discoveries being made nearer to home. 



Over the years humans colonised more and more planets, and over time moved further and further from Earth. But the need for new planets was never enough for PE5673 to be a viable colonisation prospect. After fifty years the initial excitement of exploring new frontiers died down, and the colonised planets settled into usual human patterns. This included territorial wars, both between nations on multi nation planets, and between entire planets. As usual money and resources were spent on war rather than exploration. Also the death toll of these wars helped to keep populations stable, so the urgency of finding new living space was no longer a pressing concern. As a result, about a hundred years after the start of the big 'galactic colonisation' bid, it was mostly over. Both the need and novelty were gone - the 'fun' had gone out of it.



Of course there was still some colonisation. Mostly by groups of private individuals, sometimes by governments, and occasionally by rich people looking for some pointless way to spend their vast fortunes. But still PE5673 was too far away to be an attractive proposition. 



And really it still is. 



But in the earth year 2314 Nysa Ordell at last got enough followers (and consequently, and more importantly, enough money) to start her dream colony. Her views were unpopular enough with the general public for her to think it a good idea to set up her colony well away from any inhabited planet. So she spent weeks going through the records of expeditions to the further galaxies, and eventually decided on PE5673, simply because it was the furthest suitable planet on her side of the universe (if you are going to spend a fortune crossing 'empty' galaxies, there is no point in spending more money crossing populated galaxies first). 



Nysa Ordell's dream was a planet run only by women. Women in control, women as the only human population. Of course they would take men as well, but in Ordell's new world men would be classified as animals, not human. This meant that the human population (the women) could treat them how they liked, and do what they liked to them. However before starting her colony Ordell changed her mind about classifying men as animals, instead she gave them a classification of their own. Unimaginatively she called the kingdom (in the biological sense of the word) 'malumans', a contraction of 'male humans' and decided that her new kingdom was above plants but below animals. This was because she abhorred cruelty to animals, but had no reservations against cruelty to men (in fact she quite enjoyed cruelty to men), so felt that 'male humans' had to be classified below animals. The name malumans was not just a contraction of 'male human', Ordell also liked the name because she had been a student of ancient dead earth language French, and so to her 'malumans' also sort of meant 'sick or diseased humans', and as far as she was concerned, this was a perfect description for men. 



Unsurprisingly she had plenty of female followers, but surprisingly nearly half the people who wanted to live in her new dream world were men. And it was mostly from the men that the money to start her colony came. This was not because men still earned more money than women, but because in Ordell's new world men would no longer be able own anything (they were below animals, and how many hamsters do you know with a house, a car, and a second mortgage), so had to give all they owned to the new colony. Women, however, would still be human, they would need money on the new planet, so could only give a part of their money as a donation to start the colony (in most cases only a very small part). So ironically the new 'women only' planet would be 90% funded by men. In fact it would never have been possible without the men's money. 



But Nysa Ordell was unaware of this irony, and if she had in fact though about it at all, she would have considered it fair and just that the men pay to be subjugated. 



So in late 2315 Nysa Ordell, 5398 other women, and 5198 men set off to PE5673. No one 'owned' any unpopulated planet, you just turned up and claimed it. So that is what they did. The area around the landing site was portioned off into properties for the women to set up homes. The men were made to do all the work. Outside this new city, land was portioned off as farmland. To start with, men were communal property, the majority of their work was in setting up the new colony. But once the city was finished and the farms running the men were shared out among the women. Those most in need of men for work that was important to the community (such as the women who ran the farms) were first given the men they needed to do the work. Once these important needs were met, the remaining men were distributed by lottery. Since over seventy percent of the men had gone to about twenty percent of the women for 'work important to the community' this meant that there were about 4300 women without men and only about 1500 men for them to fight over. So the majority of women did not get a man. 



And this was where the trouble started. 



If you had asked the female colonists why they supported the project, most would have said something pretentious like "I believe that most of the wars in the world are started by men, most of the problems are caused by men, this is not man's fault, it is in his nature, natural selection has made him this way. But women do not suffer from a 'macho' impulses, women can make informed, intelligent decisions, so women should be the ones who really run the government." However if you had injected them with a truth drug before asking them this, most would have answered "Because I want a man as a slave." 



Unfortunately the mathematics of the situation meant that nearly 3000 of the women did not have slaves. Well over 50% of the human population (men did not count as 'human') did not have what they wanted. They had spent money, given up their old life, their homes, their friends and family, and were now living on a distant planet with very little technology but plenty of hardship, and they did not have what they wanted. So to say they were 'a little unhappy' is a gross understatement. 



Remember that bit about "most of the wars in the world are started by men"? Well within 2 years of founding their colony the woman proved that women are just as good at starting wars as men. Te result was a lot of fighting, a lot of death, and no real solution. True, most of the deaths were women, so there were now a larger percentage of men. But with 70% still going to women who needed them for 'work important to the community', there were still not enough to go around. 



The two main results of this war were: 



A group of several hundred women were expelled from the city (still at that time just called "The City" as it was the only one). Although these rebels were still technically part of the colony, and still covered by colony law, they set themselves up as a separate society. They were not allowed to take any men with them, and in time got over this deprivation by deciding that men were an undesirable evil. The only use for men, in their society, was for sperm. Eventually (many years after being expelled) they started stealing men from the parent colony to use for breading. Once the men had succeeded in making a woman pregnant, they were killed. And so were any male children. These rebels considered themselves the 'true' women and began to call themselves Amazons, after the legendary earth society. 



The other main result was that Nysa Ordell was deposed as leader of the colony, and a democratically elected government of twelve women took her place. 



To get round the 'man shortage' the new government spent a large percentage of its reserve finances sending a ship back to the nearest technologically established human colony to purchase a supply of the drugs that allowed women to choose the sex of their child, to ensure more men slaves were born. 



This was an unmitigated disaster. With the choice of giving birth to a 'daughter and heir' or a 'man slave', no woman would choose the latter. Consequently rather than solving the problem (at least for the next generation) they were worsening it. So the government brought in a law where no woman could give birth to a daughter until she had produced at least two sons. 



This led to the second war. 



More lives lost, the adult female population (not counting the Amazons) now down to less than 2000, there were nearly enough men for one each. What little remained of their reserve finances was spent recruiting more men. Eventually they reached the point where they had one man slave per woman (plus enough for 'work important to the community'). However by the time they reached this point they had got through their entire reserve finances and sold off a lot of the luxury items they had brought with them. They had also sold off their colony ship. The only ship they had was a small ten man flier (ten woman flier) with just enough fuel for a return trip to the nearest technological advanced system. This was to be kept for emergency. Only the most dire emergency would cause them to use it, because it was their final lifeline. 



This meant that the new government could abolish the law that said women had to have boy children. However they could not now stop women using the drugs that allowed them to choose the sex of their child, for fear of starting a third war. This meant that practically no boys were born. 



Nysa Ordell soon made political mileage out of this. She claimed that she had foreseen this problem and that was why she had refused to bring the drugs with them initially (this was not true, the real reason was that no one had thought of it). She spent years campaigning for her own return to power. However people liked the idea of democracy, so no one listened. 



What did finally swing it for her was the lucky discovery, on her land, of a diamond.



By the time the colony was established, diamonds in general were no longer valuable. Perfect diamonds, and every kind of deliberately flawed diamond, could be manufactured from coal. These were indistinguishable from natural diamonds in every way, but cost very little to produce. So now natural diamonds were only slightly more expensive than a lump of coal (which itself could be manufactured cheaply, from waste vegetable matter). However only diamonds of up to just over one centimetre across could be manufactured. 



Due to intense geological activity early in its development, PE5673 had plenty of diamonds. If diamonds had still been as valuable when PE5673 had been discovered as they were in the 21st century, people would have fallen over themselves to colonise it. But since they were virtually worthless by then, no one had bothered. 



However the diamond found on Ordell's land was larger than a golf ball. Far larger than a manufactured diamond could be made. A diamond this big was rare and valuable. Very rare and very valuable. 



During her campaign for power Nysa Ordell had claimed that her original intention was that once the colony was fully set up, they would use some of the reserve funds to offer women 'free' places on the colony as 'breeders of men'. These woman would not have to work, would have a life of luxury paid for by the state (or as close to luxury as life could be on a new colony). In exchange they would be expected to give birth to only male children, and plenty of them. Ordell also pointed out that as the government has wasted the reserve on measures that made the problem worse, this was no longer possible. But if she had not been deposed, the problem would have been sorted years ago. (This was all a lie, Ordell only thought of this herself when it was too late, but as someone wise once misquoted "Their are lies, damned lies, and political lies".) 



With the discovery of the diamond the colony was 'saved'. It could be sold and the money used to fund what Ordell claimed to be her original idea. The only fly in the ointment was that among the laws that the new government had brought in was one that stated that all found items on private land were the property of the land owner. So the diamond belonged to Nysa Ordell. 



The price Ordell demanded from the colony was steep. She would only allow the diamond to be sold to fund the setting up of a 'breeders of men' program if she was first returned to power. 



The government objected, this was now a democracy, it was not a dictatorship. But as Ordell pointed out, being a democracy meant that the people decided who ruled them. So let the people decide. An election to choose a leader. But this time not an election to choose the twelve people who run the government, but an election to decide if the people wanted an elected government or a dictator. 



This was 23 years after the founding of the colony. The youngest original maluman (male human) was now 46. There were a handful of younger malumans from the brief time that women were obliged to have male children, but not many. But there were lots of PE5673 born women who had reached the age of majority and now counted as adults so also wanted their own slaves. And they outnumbered the PE5673 born malumans four to one. In other words, there were a hell of a lot of woman without slaves again, and even those who had slaves, had family or friends without. Plus, most women wanted more than one slave.



Not only was the man shortage back again, but the men that were available were getting old. Not only did all the women on the planet feel it was their right to have a male slave, most of them felt it was their right to have a young, viral male slave to keep them 'entertained'. 



So Nysa Ordell won by a landslide. Only ten women voted for the government (and the twelve people who were currently in government had a vote, so at least two of them had to have voted against themselves). 



Ordell once again became 'supreme ruler' of PE5673 not just for her lifetime, but for all her descendants. 



Or at least it would have been for all her descendants if fate had not got one more ironic twist with which to torture the colony's founder. 



When she had been deposed Ordell made a big thing about the drugs that allowed women to choose the sex of her child. She said that they were 'evil'. When she was reinstated she had to change her tune a bit, because they were necessary to ensure that the 'breeders of men' had only male children, and also because she realised that she could loose power again if she banned them, but she still had to claim that she considered them 'morally wrong' so as not to contradict herself. The result was that she herself could not use them or she would look like a hypocrite. And fate, with that sadistic sense of humour it has, decreed that she would only have male children. These obviously became slaves, they could not rule. So when Ordell died, her dynasty died, there was no daughter to take over as ruler. 



Instead she named Kekona Derush as her successor. Kekona was a close friend of Ordell. She was also furiously dedicated to the idea of female superiority and male slavery, she was an even bigger supported of Ordell's ideals than Ordell herself! Her eldest daughter, and so the person who would follow her into power, was sired by one of Ordell's sons. By earth standards Kekona's daughter was Ordell's granddaughter. So By making Kekona her successor, Ordell guaranteed that her genetic line would return to power. 



Kekona was a popular ruler, because Kekona was a better politician, and a better liar than Ordell. Kekona was able to convince the people that she always acted in their benefit and never in her own benefit (the reverse was usually true). Although there were a few women who saw through her and were not happy with her rule. 



But there was one thing that a large proportion of the public held her responsible for. It had happened when Ordell was still alive. There had been a revolt by the malumans. This was a surprise to everyone, but with hindsight it was an inevitable event. The original males on the planet had been volunteers. They had come to PE5673 because they wanted to be subservient to females, they wanted to suffer at the hands of cruel women. But now the stock of malumans was being increased by breading. All men born on the planet were automatically considered slaves. And the majority of them did not like this. And the fact that many of the women enjoyed amusing themselves by torturing their malumans was liked even less by the indigenous males. So when there was enough of them, they revolted. The revolution was put down by the women. And the women now realised that their surviving malumans did not like being slaves (a fact that many of the women enjoyed, it added more zing to the torturing of a slave if she knew the slave really hated being tortured, and really meant it when he screamed for mercy). 



Despite the fact that the revolt was inevitable, most of the female population recognised that their cruelty escalated it. And the fact that it was rumoured that the revolt started in slaves owned by Kekona, coupled by the fact that it was known that Kekona was exceptionally cruel and sadistic in her treatment of her slaves, led most of the population to blame Kekona for the uprising. And since most women had lost money and slaves during the revolution, and many had lost friends or relatives in the battles, this was held against Kekona by many women. 



At the time Kekona became supreme ruler of the planet it was still called PE5673. Most of the inhabitants simply called it PE, which was actually an abbreviation of 'new Planet - Earth type', which was not a good name for a home planet. It was Kekona who decided to rename it Dominatrix as her first new law after Ordell's death. There was some opposition, but not much. Not surprising, since most of the original colonists had come to the planet because they liked the idea of owning man slaves, this name was popular with the majority of the planet's people. 



By the time Kekona died the planet was fully established. As expected by everyone (and planned by Ordell) Kekona's daughter not only inherited her land, she also took her place as the new supreme ruler of Dominatrix. Her daughter's name was Brianna Derush.