I shrugged my shoulders and Ee said, “Don’t look at me. I don’t have any money.”
Michelle said, “OK, maybe we can find a way to make some. They won’t let me gamble. I could do an illegal arena fight with another Combat Unit, but there’s no guarantee that I’d win and I might be killed.”
I said, “We’ll figure something out. Find all four of us some jumpsuits and Ee, let us know when we are close. Can you tell time again?”
Ee said, “Oh, funny you should ask. Yeah, I guess I can. That’s convenient, isn’t it.”
A few hours later, we were stationary outside the space station, wearing blue jumpsuits and nothing underneath.
The station was huge. This was no Earth orbiter like I was used to. This was a massive city in space. I guess as far as cities went, it wasn’t that big, not like New York or Houston, but miles across. Ee told us that the current population, both residents and visitors was about 80,000. She said it was small compared to some.
Eevona had a transport shuttle that we could take to the docking bays. Both Michelle and Bailey were pilots.
Just before we left the ship, Bailey said, “We need registrations. Michelle and I need to belong to someone, in case someone checks our identification. Ee can set our implants to show the proper information. Ee, is there any problem with getting the captain an identity?”
Ee didn’t think that there was. As the owner of the Eevona, the very fact that I was her registered owner gave me credibility. No birth certificates or driver’s licenses required. I owned a ship and only registered persons could own ships, and I had partnerships with several Units, and only registered persons could have Units, so as far as any authorities were concerned, I was a citizen of the galaxy. They were pretty loose on paperwork. Bailey explained it by simply saying that the galaxy was big. Too big to coordinate databases universally. If someone could own a ship and arrange for Units, they must be somebody. So, I was somebody. Michele and Bailey were somebodies too. When I asked if they would pass for persons rather than Units, they both smiled sweetly and said, no. It would be plenty apparent to everyone that they were Units. And since they were registered to me, no one would question anything. We had Ee register the Entertainer to me as well. We might have to change that, but I was hoping that we wouldn’t.
When it came time to get dressed, I noticed for the first time that Bailey and Michelle were developing a skin-tone. It was still light, but pretty. It looked much more natural. They had a little bit of hair, too. About an inch already. And a little fuzz below their navels. That was really cute. I dressed Unit Three myself. It was time for me to start bonding with her if I could. It might go badly in the end, but I had to try. If she would start to accept me, maybe I could help her.
The transport shuttle we were on was small and had seating for six, in three rows of two. Apparently, it could be stuffed with up to twelve people if they sat on the floor. Seat-belts weren’t a thing here.
Just as we entered the hangar bay in the side of the station closest to the Eevona, Michelle said, “Remember, we don’t have any money. Stay out of trouble. We can’t afford any fines.”
I said, “Um, and on that point, I assume that they don’t speak English.”
Bailey said, “Ah, I’d forgotten. I suggest that Michelle, you stay with Jimmy and I’ll handle the Unit.”
Alison said, “I’m so excited. It’s really happening. My assignment. It’s really really happening finally. They are going to love me.”
I said to the other two, “I’ve got this. I think. I know we’re all worried about her, but I think we can do this.”
The hangar was big. At least 200 shuttles were parked here. Luckily there were no fees. The expectation was that we’d spend enough on the station that parking was free. A small taxi rushed up to us but Michelle waved them off; there was a fee for taxi service. We’d walk.
Outside the hangar, Bailey examined a services directory map and found a suitable place to take the Unit. Not surprisingly, what served as a local strip club was right near the airport. Just a few doors away. As we walked the short distance, I thought about how much trouble I’d had getting the Unit into the plain jumpsuit. She’d insisted that I needed to get her gowns from storage and let her wear one of those. She didn’t have any gowns but I couldn’t convince her of that either. I’d ended up almost wrestling her into the clothes. And as I did, I found myself liking her more and more. She was delusional, but I cared about her.
The place that we went to had a brightly colored door and a sign that clearly said something that I couldn’t read at all.
Chapter 12 - Entertainer
As we got inside, Bailey said, “I’ll take her and see if they’ll let her dance for a little bit. This won’t go well. You guys get a seat up front. If they hassle you about ordering drinks, tell them that you brought a freak and that you’ll decide on drinks later.”
Bailey led the grinning Entertainment Unit in the direction of the bartender and Michelle and I found a table.
There were maybe fifty people in the place. And sure enough, none of them was over four feet tall. There were both males and females. All of them looked pretty much like any human of various races and skin colors. Many of the skin colors happened to be red, green, blue, yellow, and magenta, but other than that, and some of the most outrageous hairstyles I had ever seen, they were pretty much human.
I pointed to one table and said, “Hey, a tropical fish and its mates.”
Michelle had no idea why that would be funny.
There was a girl with green skin on the stage dancing. The dancing was pretty normal too. I’d never been in a strip club before, but I’d seen them in movies and on television and this looked like all of those. At first, I wonder why. How could a place like this, out here in outer-space, look just like something on Earth. And then it hit me. Again, the answer was that form follows function. The function of this place was for people to sit and drink and watch naked girls dance. And the form of the place was based on that function. Tables, cocktail waitresses, a stage, dancing poles, and a bar. I guess it made sense. The one thing that was more interesting was a large lit display that seemed to be a digital counter of some kind. Like one of those over a slot machine in a casino that showed the possible jackpot increasing as time went by. Michele verified that it was a counter and that the current number was a fraction. The value was roughly a quarter of something.
I kept my eye on Bailey and the Unit as Bailey talked to the bartender. She towered over him by a foot and a half. He didn’t seem intimidated. He nodded at certain points and Bailey gestured at the Unit now and then. Finally, he pointed toward the stairs at the side of the stage and Bailey led the girl in that direction. She left the girl there and hurried to join us.
She whispered, “OK. Here’s the deal. The counter is a tally of how much customers pay to see each dancer keep dancing. If they like what they see, they pay for her to keep going. This one is about to be booted off the stage. That number shows that in the past two hours, she has made about a quarter of a standard worker’s normal daily wage. That’s pretty low. She gets to keep half. The club keeps the other half. “
A light flashed and an alarm went off momentarily and the current dancer stopped, looking exhausted, and left the stage.
Bailey said, “Here comes our freak.”
As soon as Alison walked onto the stage, a spotlight focused on her and she smiled. I was so tired of trying to call her Unit. And I was so tired of trying not to. At this point, she was Alison.
When the lights hit her, the crowd gasped and a shout went up in appreciation. Alison posed with her hands above her head, stretching and grinned. The counter reset to zero and immediately registered just short of one. Alison twirled and did some gymnastics and in the middle of a one-handed somersault, pulled the zipper at her neck and opened her jumpsuit to her navel. Standing with her back to the audience, she let the top half fall from her shoulders leaving her naked from the waist up. The audience cheered. And
they started to laugh. And the counter hit five. Alison rolled backward onto her shoulders with her feet straight up in the air, and grabbing her ankles, pulled the jumpsuit completely off. Her legs were over her head and she spread them wide, giving all of us a good view of her vulva. The laughing increased and the counter went to fifteen.
For several minutes, Alison danced and pranced and did her gymnastics and grinned like she was having the time of her life. Like she was meant for this and nothing else. I didn’t enjoy it at all. This was demeaning. Not the fact that she was dancing naked, that would have been kind of cool if we’d been alone and safe, but these weirdos were laughing at her. And now they started standing up and shouting, encouraging her antics and running the counter into the low 100’s.
They got the joke. A beautiful travesty of femininity, a sexual goddess who was a foot and a half taller than any of the men there, sexually aroused and oozing sensuality, and she would never be satisfied and have a lover and certainly never have true love. It was the epitome of frustration. It was torture. And they knew that she didn't know it. What if this had been a man, teased forever, never being able to climax? It would be hell. And for this beautiful woman, this purely innocent and naive soul, a woman that they probably considered to be a soulless toy, it would be a hell that she wouldn’t understand until the day before she decided to take her own life. It was monstrous and I wanted it to stop.
I continued to watch, waiting for a chance to act in some way other than trashing the place and getting arrested. The crowd cheer and laughed and the counter went to 300 and then kept going. They were paying to see her humiliate herself, not understanding what she was doing, thinking that she was being adored rather than ridiculed.
This went on for another ten minutes. I had no idea what people were shouting at her, but I didn’t like it. And then, she looked at me.
At first, she looked like she was gloating, proving to me that she was sexy, that people did laugh at her the way that she had been conditioned to enjoy. She looked at me like she thought that I was unworthy of her dancing and that her adoring audience was.
She looked at me and saw the care that I had for her and it made her miss a step and stumble slightly. I think she twisted her ankle. She limped on her next move and it clearly hurt her. The girl slowed her dancing and seemed to be unable to put any weight on her right foot and the crowed laughed louder. Turning to look at them, and then at me, she started to cry. She tried to keep going, but she couldn’t do it. Both of us glanced up at the counter and watched the numbers accelerate, the audience wanting her to continue despite, or because of, her pain.
Alison did a handstand and spun upside down for a moment, but when she landed on her feet again, she winced and cried out. She landed in a heap and couldn't stand again. I wondered if she’d broken her leg. The count reached 500 and the crowd urged her on.
But now, she couldn’t move. She sat on the floor of the stage and cried. She wasn’t dancing now, she was crying. Sobbing in pain and fear and not understanding what was happening. These people kept laughing. They kept adding to the amount being paid to keep her on stage, enjoying the show now more than ever.
Michelle and Bailey sat beside me. Neither of them moved. I was afraid that they were despising me, wondering why I didn’t do something. And I wondered too. Not really. I knew what I was doing. I didn’t know if it was right, but I knew it was the only plan that I could think of. I was letting Alison make her choice and find out the consequences of that choice. I would pick up the broken pieces when she was through. I started to move from my seat, but Bailey put her hand on my arm.
She whispered, “Not yet.”
I sat back down and waited, watching my precious Alison die to her fantasy. She had convinced me that she would never listen to reason. The only way I could see was to let her die. She would die one way or another. She’d been designed for it. Humiliate herself as a freak, never knowing why she was frustrated and unhappy, living until she couldn’t take it anymore, and then be discarded by a heartless sicko who thought this was OK. She wouldn’t listen to me. But maybe if I let her die today, she wouldn’t have to die every day for years to come. If she died today, maybe the girls and I could bring her back to life this evening.
For several more minutes, she laid on the floor, sinking lower and lower, crying harder and harder, accumulating money on the counter faster and faster. These bastards were turned on by her emotional pain. I actually saw several couples making out wildly and even starting to undress each other as if an orgy was about to break out.
The whole time I watched Alison’s face, waiting for my signal. And eventually it came. Her eyes said, “help me” and at that instant, without hesitation, I rushed the stage and grabbed her. I lifted her into my arms and put her legs around my waist and carried her toward the door.
She cried on my neck, naked, and said, “Take me home. Please take me home. I don’t want to be here anymore.”
She said it in English. Eevona had taught her the language, but until now, she had chosen not to “defile” herself with my barbaric tongue. But now maybe she saw that I wasn’t the barbarian.
I whispered, “I have you.”
She sobbed and said, “Who am I?”
I said, “Your name is Alison. I am your partner. I’ll tell you all about it when you are safe. I am taking you home. You live with me.”
She said, “Do you love me?”
I passed through the door to the hell hole and said, “I do. I love you more than you can imagine right now. I am going to take care of you.”
She said, “Do you think I’m pretty?”
I said, “I think that you are beautiful. And sexy and wonderful.”
Heading down the corridor, a naked Unit in my arms, clinging to my neck, I heard her ask, “Will you love me? Like a woman? Will you want me?”
I said, “I do love you. And I will make love to you. But we have to get away from here. We’ll talk in a minute. I need to get you home and take care of your ankle.”
We found the hangar where our shuttle was parked. It took me a minute to find the right one. I waited for Michelle or Bailey to open the door, but they weren’t there. Looking around, I saw Michelle running toward us from about 100 feet away.
When she reached us, she opened the door and helped me get Alison into a seat. We didn’t bother to try to put her jumpsuit on her. Michelle had grabbed it and had it with her, but putting it on over the girl’s broken ankle would be too painful.
Michelle closed the door and said, “It’s definitely broken. I watched it snap. I don’t know why she hasn’t passed out already. Bailey will be here in a moment. Let me take a look at this.”
Michelle stepped forward and grabbed Alison by the neck and the girl did pass out.
Michelle bent to the broken ankle and felt it for a moment.
She said, “If I hadn’t put her out, she would have fainted anyway as soon as I touched her. It’s a good break. We heal fast. I’ll need to set it and immobilize it, but she’ll walk in a few days. Her natural pain relief chemicals will kick in within a few minutes and she won’t be in much discomfort physically. She will sleep a lot. I have no idea how she’ll be mentally.”
I said, “I think she’s going to be OK. We had a good conversation on the way here.”
Bailey was just climbing into the cabin with us now and said, “She talked to you?”
I said, “She did. In English. I think she’s going to be OK. We’ll see. I don’t care. We’ll take care of her.”
Bailey said, “Good. I have news. Are we heading back to Eevona? Alison needs medical attention.”
I said, “Yeah. Michelle, is there anything you need to buy for her before we go? Oh, we don’t have any money.”
Michelle said, “Everything we need should be on the ship. I’ll get us in the air.”
Michelle moved to the pilot seat and maneuvered us out of the hanger and let Ee know that we were on our way back.
Bailey said, “Actuall
y, we do have money. Don’t take this the wrong way, I mean no disrespect at all, but our little dancer is quite a money maker. Yeah yeah, we’ll never want her to do it again, but the dancer isn’t who she is anymore, so we can talk about that Entertainment Unit separately from this little Genie. Anyway, the standard arrangement is that a dancer gets half her take and the club gets half. But that’s only for the first hundred a day. No one ever makes a hundred a day. Unless it’s a big famous star. A big name star gets ninety percent of everything after the first hundred. Half of the first hundred and ninety percent of everything else. I insisted on full payment. We got over 900 credits.”
I said, “I don’t care. I just want Alison to be OK.”
Bailey started to say something. I think that she was going to tease me. She decided against it. I wished that the seating allowed me to hold Alison on the way back to Eevona. It didn’t. The trip seemed to take forever. Michelle went as fast as she could, but I wasn’t in a good mood and every second took way too long.
It was funny. Not humorous, but strange. Alison had asked me to love her. The other girls hadn’t done that. They had accepted that we were going to love each other. They hadn’t even considered it an option before that. But Alison wanted it. Like she couldn’t live without it. And she’d turn to anyone who would give it to her. But not at first. She was conditioned to crave love and sex, and she was built so that she could never have either. The other girls, Michelle especially, were conditioned to never expect love or sex. They were assigned to a life without either and accepted it. When they were given the opportunity for both, they jumped at it. But I offered it to Alison and she initially rejected me. The one of them that wanted it most rejected it when I offered. Despite the reality of her situation. Yeah, if it hadn’t been programmed into her sense of reality I would have insisted that she was insane. But it wasn’t her fault.
It made me hate someone. A lot of people. But did I have some context for this that I didn’t see yet? Was there some way that this happened on Earth too? Not in some country that still had slaves, but where I was from? America or Europe? There certainly was. It wasn’t systematized in quite the same way, but damn if it wasn’t there. In many ways. Men who taught young women that they were worthless. Women conditioned with such low self-esteem that they would do anything for love, even demean themselves sexually, putting up with abuse, not just from one man at a time, but in some cases many. Men who systematically trained what they considered playthings and throwaways to be used and castoff when they tired of them. Entire industries of psychologically abusive corporations.
First Recruits Page 13