Danny turned to his trembling girlfriend, and said, “Dawn, what the blazes is going on?”
In robotic movements, Dawn continued to stare at the screen as she took off her tie. Her eyes filled with tears and she slowly turned to Danny while she unhooked her top buttons and showed him the choker. “I woke up with it this morning. Can you get it off me?”
Danny ran fingers around the metal and he searched it with a magnifier he retrieved from his workbench. “There doesn’t seem to be any kind of a latch or anything. Heck, Dawn, it’s like it’s a single band of metal. Does it hurt? Do you feel anything?”
“My stomach’s a little upset, but I think that’s because I’m so scared. Danny, I’m afraid to call them, but I don’t want you to get into any trouble. Maybe I should just go home.” The thought of staying alone until she found out more petrified her, but Danny would lose his job and everything he had worked for if he got caught with her.
“Dawn, let me check what the chatter on the Internet says. If I have to, I have a way to break into a couple of government sites. You order us Chinese and let me see what I can find out.” Danny leaned down and gave her a kiss, and while he walked to the spare room housing his computers, he thought what a lucky man he was to have such a beautiful girlfriend.
A company on the other coast that boasted cutting edge equipment and systems had offered Danny a promising position. His ability was being wasted on redundant security coding, and he accepted the lucrative job even though he knew that Dawn would never leave her hometown. He had put off telling her for over a month, and now he was due to report in two weeks. Danny had decided to tell her over dinner tonight.
The situation with the collar intrigued him. Danny believed in a weird ideology of fateful events, and the fact that his girlfriend was one of the few unique people with one of the chokers seemed like a sign to him. He was carefully reevaluating his decision to tell Dawn about the job opportunity and considering whether to stay and keep her hidden while he discovered the mysteries of the collar.
Dawn joined him twenty minutes later, after changing into the spare jeans and tee shirt she kept at his house. Her hands rested on his shoulders while she looked at his monitor. “Did you find out anything else?”
“There’s loads of chatter that’s mostly speculation, so I’m digging into government sites. The trail seems to be narrowing to the Space Program.”
“You won’t get into trouble for this, will you?” Dawn asked.
“I’m bouncing off ten different servers and only spending a few seconds on each site. It should be okay,” he assured her. Although nervous for Dawn, Danny was excited to be testing his skill. Usually, he spent his time on the programming side of securing information, not hacking into it. “Here we go. This should be pretty safe and probably give us a better idea of what’s really going on.”
“What is it?” Dawn had not even delved into the land of computers other than word processing and a few games, because the extra bill for Internet service was more than she could justify on her salary. Most of what Danny had told her concerned technical things she did not understand.
“I found a sort of chat room the lab techs are using to discuss it. I’m hiding behind as a ghost observer, but with all the notes coming through so fast I don’t think anyone is monitoring for hackers.” Danny watched the screen for several minutes. “These guys are working on people with the collars. No one seems to be having any physical reaction to them, and they have isolated two of the compounds in the metal as something unknown.” Danny stared up at her and he brushed the choker again. “They think they’re from space, Dawn, and that’s why they’re trying to round up all the people with them.”
Dawn’s knees buckled, and Danny barely managed to swivel his chair to catch her. He noted the site he was on and quickly logged out to hide from discovery. He could get back into it later and hopefully learn more. “Come on, let’s go back into the living room.”
The door chimed with the arrival of their dinner. Dawn sat still and stared at the table while Danny opened the cartons. She finally said softly, “Danny, if we don’t learn anything new after dinner, I want to turn myself in. I’m so scared, and I can’t hide it forever… and now I’m afraid of the trouble you’re going to get into.”
Danny made her promise she would stay at his house, and if they did not know any more by morning he agreed she could call. Her timidity was one of the things he liked about her, and one of the qualities that kept the pretty girl involved with the geeky computer recluse. It also made it impossible for her to carry off the charade.
After dinner, he toasted her with the red wine. “Here’s to learning something soon.” They touched glasses and sipped, and then broke open their fortune cookies. A few minutes later, Danny was still gaping at the empty chair where Dawn had been sitting and holding up the strip of paper to read her future. She had dissolved into billions of particles and the white ticket fluttered to the table. Danny reached out for it and read out loud, “You will soon take a trip that will alter your life.”
Chapter II
Harvesting Rue
For a moment, Rue felt like she was floating in a black abyss. She settled down on a chilled metal surface. Her body felt light, almost weightless, as though she were in a dreaming state. Rue tried to open her eyes. She discovered she had no connection or control over her body and she could neither move nor speak. It seemed like everything but her mind was asleep.
Rue had no idea how long she had been lying in the paralyzed state, but once in a while she heard a soft whooshing noise. She was confused, and she tried to figure out what it could be. Panic began to take hold as she fought to wake up, and although Rue was more frightened than she had ever been in her life… she could not even tremble.
A long while later, she had the sensation that someone was standing near her. Rue heard garbled sounds, and something smooth ran down her side. If she could have moved she would have shivered at the gelatinous touch. The cool flat hands turned her head, and Rue felt a jab behind her ear… like a pinprick. Her head was turned to the other side and she was jabbed behind the other ear. While the flat hands began stripping off her clothes, the garbled sounds slowly began to make sense. Her legs were spread by a second pair of hands.
“I’ve already inserted the translation cells. What section is this one being transported to?” The voice sounded like a woman speaking through a tin can.
Rue felt her hand being lifted. “She’s one of the commissions for the warriors.”
“Oh, Garnell,” Ebby moaned. “She’s awfully small.”
“See for yourself.” Rue felt her hand being passed over to the owner of the other voice. The voices seemed to belong to a man and a woman, and they had a slight echo to them.
“They’ll turn them down when they see how fragile they are,” Ebby tried to convince herself. As further assurance, she added, “I bet you five she ends up back with Tradesmen.” She and Garnell had studied the species, but this was the first of the primitive creatures she had physically worked with.
“You’re on,” Garnell chuckled. “I think Hospitality will grab her before then.” He was fairly certain that Ebby was right. Whoever the warriors were that commissioned the exotic species, they would review her specs and not take a chance on the pet. She was not in a replacement lot, so when she failed with them, they would not have the option of procuring an Alidan.
Rue had no idea what the conversation meant and her panicked mind tried to remember what had happened. She had been at ‘Swindlers’ playing pool. Marshall said something about the collars. Has the government found me? Is this one of their facilities? She heard something rolled over by her.
The two people placed ankle and wrist cuffs of some kind on her and she wondered if the choker had made her insane. Perhaps, she was in a mental hospital. Rue was terrified at the thought of being wrapped in a straight jacket, and she continued her silent struggle to speak and tell them she was all right.
“I think we sh
ould get rid of this stuff, first,” the man suggested. Rue felt a spongy finger brush through the curls on her mound.
Oh god… help me. Inside, she was screaming hysterically.
A cool hand flattened over her heart. “She’s agitated, Garnell. Let me give her some dripanian.” Rue felt a quick stab in her neck, and then there was a rush of an instant calming sensation. The woman said, “You still think she’ll make it to Hospitality?”
“Well, she sure is hell isn’t going to make it with the warriors,” the man muttered. “Did they even profile this species before they commissioned them?”
Species? Where am I? Rue’s mind was clear and calm, but she knew she should be afraid. In the drugged state, she could not quite grasp the emotion.
“They can only go by Harvesting Procurement recommendations. Apparently, the species is known to humiliate easily,” Ebby replied. “You saw their profile on arousal and pain tolerance. I think that’s why the warriors want to try them.” Ebby flipped through the file, and she said, “The last species these two Officers commissioned was a disaster, and by the time they returned them, they were hardly worth the effort to train for labor.” She envisioned the ill-fated Miptriks and was relieved to note they had not been recommended as passable… or even probable… by her or Garnell.
Rue felt something attached to the cuffs on her wrists and felt herself lifted until she was clear of the table. Suspended by her arms, the cool hands moved her along some kind of track.
“Wait a minute.” Rue heard papers shuffle, and someone batted her hair. “This stays. Um,” Garnell scanned the instructions. “They have requested that we only remove the fur below the neck.”
Rue felt a thick collar strapped around her neck and her head was lifted until her chin rested on the hard shelf of the device. Her hair was wound up and a bag of some sort attached to the collar was raised and pressed closed on top, loosely encasing her head.
Once more her legs were spread, and she felt the smooth hands run down her shins and secure the ankle cuffs to the floor. A few seconds later, Rue heard a buzzing noise that was accompanied by a million needles piercing everything but her head. Even through the calming effects of the dripanian, she struggled within herself as the needles attacked her underarms and the sensitive lips of her labia. Ow… oh god, stop… oh, please. What are they doing to me? Why can’t I scream and make them stop?
The needles finally halted their attack and the flat hands brushed along her body. “Will she need another treatment?”
“No,” Ebby answered. “Their follicles are weak. Did you notice how quickly the fur burned off?”
“I just didn’t know if it regenerated,” Garnell answered. The Alidans and Farmoths had to be processed three times to remove their pelts.
“No, once the follicles burn, it’s done,” Ebby replied.
Rue felt her ankles released, and the bag and collar were removed from her head. She was moved back to the table and secured with her legs spread again, and a finger stroked her naked mound.
“Much better. Now we can see what we have to work with.” Suckered probes were attached to her chest, throat and abdomen.
“I think the dripanian has worn off enough to get accurate readings.”
Rue felt hands spread her bottom where it met the table, and a cool smooth bar was inserted into her rectum. She felt slow pulses that increased in tempo and intensity. At first, it was merely uncomfortable. Gradually, it became painful, and she heard, “Keep going, she can handle more. The stats say they can manage a seven and you’re only at five, now.”
Rue felt as though she was being ripped apart. The bar seemed to have expanded and lengthened inside her, and it was throbbing against her strained walls. Stop. Please, she wailed in silence. Finally, the torture ended.
“I’ll be damned,” Ebby chuckled.
Garnell replied, “That’s why I’m betting on Hospitality.”
Fingers spread her channel and Rue cringed inside as the bar was inserted so deep that it felt like it was touching her cervix. No… oh, god… nooo. The pain was intense, as the device expanded even further than before and battered her soft tissue.
“We need to get a nine out of this one,” Ebby noted.
Garnell studied the unusual folds within the pink slit while he monitored the embedded testing rod. “No problem, Ebby. I’m at seven now, and there’s not too much blood.”
Aahhh… oh god… stop. Rue pleaded to pass out, and she was not sure she could in her paralyzed condition. When the bar was removed, the pulsing cramps continued for several minutes. She felt a cloth wipe inside and around her bruised core, and the pain disappeared.
Hands tilted her head back and the bar passed through her lips, touching the back of her throat. They’re going to suffocate me, Rue’s panicked mind screamed when the bar slowly thickened.
“Watch the oxygen levels,” Ebby warned. “The profile chart states that they can be trained to control their breathing but it’s not natural to them.”
The bar began plunging down Rue’s throat, and even in her static condition her gagging reflex produced retching shudders as it slowly pumped towards her stomach, retreated, and pushed down her throat again.
Garnell placed a finger on her throat. The reaction of the woman intrigued him. “Do those spasms always occur?”
“I don’t know, but it might be why the warriors find the species so interesting,” Ebby suggested. “I would think it could cause intense pleasure around their cocks.”
Garnell kept his fingers on her throat and continued to enjoy the gripping muscles. “I wonder why more of them weren’t commissioned?”
The insane banter went on while Rue struggled to breathe against the torturing, tubular device. Her throat was raw and the retching cramped her stomach.
“Okay, let’s hold to five,” Ebby ordered.
Rue felt the bar plunge deep and remain imbedded in her throat while her muscles spasmed around it. Her airway was blocked, and inside her terrifying silence her body rebelled. It seemed like forever before it finally pulled back and she could get air into her burning lungs.
“That’s it for the preliminaries. We agree that she is passable?” Ebby asked.
“Yes, I think we can continue.” Garnell was surprised the species had made it this far.
No. Let me go. Please, no more. It was as frustrating as it was frightening not to be able to communicate. Rue felt thin bars inserted back into her sore rectum and channel. Dear god, not again. Please.
The smooth fingers manipulated her nipples until they beaded, and clamps gripped lightly on the tips. Another smooth digit spread her denuded folds and stroked her clit out from under its protective hood until it stood stiff enough to also be clamped.
“The warriors don’t want a pain profile?” Garnell asked.
The papers shuffled, and Ebby answered, “No, they just want to know the species can accommodate their size and has the ability to be aroused. They indicate they will be able to discern the pain threshold.”
“Like they did with those Miptrik zombies they sent back to us?” Garnell scoffed.
Ebby looked up at Garnell. “They probably figure if we do the pain profile, we’ll pull them.”
Garnell smiled and he shook his head. “Well, I guess they discovered a way to get around the Frital Union’s ‘Proclamation of Commissioned Species’ Rights’.”
Rue felt low current through her nipples and clit begin a slow pulse that almost felt like stroking. At least it was not painful, and as the current increased she found herself uncomfortably aroused.
“I’m registering moisture at two.” The woman sounded excited as Rue felt her juices leak from inside her.
“Anal and vaginal muscles grip at two and a half. This is unbelievable… no wonder the warriors want them. We should call Procurement before we leave this quadrant. They may want more of them.”
Ebby was very pleased with the possible discovery of another compatible species for the warriors. “No, Garnell.
The planet is a two hundred year harvest with a strict limit of one hundred pets. If the species survives their claiming ritual, without being pulled, we’ll have to petition the Union. The warriors have no voting rights, so it would be better if Harvesting initiates the request for the scheduling change.”
Rue was not paying too much attention to the voices while she felt herself carried to climax. Oh… how she wanted to thrust her hips towards her release. Her mind became infused with the need to orgasm.
“We have definite tight clenching at four.” Ebby was astonished with the results from the fragile creature. Apparently, they were quite passionate. “This is amazing, Garnell. I think she’ll erupt at five.”
“Do we bring her back down?” Garnell was fascinated with the pet’s reaction to their testing.
Ebby quickly shuffled through her notes. “No, they want to know how many eruptions are acceptable without endangering her.”
Rue felt the orgasm rip through her, but other than a slight gasp and the internal clenching of her walls, she remained still. The pulses continued, and another climatic eruption swiftly followed. Oh god… oh… stop… oh. The current turned off after her fourth climax, and Rue experienced a shadowed feeling of shudders continue to ripple through her.
“Look at the moisture,” Ebby exclaimed, clapping her hands.
“I’m telling you, I wish I could grab one of these for Harvesting,” Garnell chuckled.
Ebby agreed. “It’s too bad they don’t let us commission.”
Garnell gave Ebby a hug. “I’ll get her cleaned up and transport her, while you set up for the other female.”
Rue felt herself being wheeled away, and she surmised that she was on some kind of gurney. She did not hear any clacking of wheels though, and the ride seemed much too smooth. She was taken through a series of doors; at least, that was what she thought the whooshing sounds were. Rue heard a beep and another door. The gurney was pushed through and stopped.
“Little small, isn’t she?” The deep raspy voice came from a man standing beside her.
Harvesting Rue Page 4