by Alan Horn
"What education and training do silver women receive?"
Their education is basic and about equal to high school in the U.S. Slave training. No technical training."
"What education and training do gold women receive?"
"About equal to Ph.D in the U.S. We all receive specialized training in a useful field. Nothing technical. Slave training."
What are Draks?"
"Draks are a sapient species that developed in a different dimension. They are known on Earth as vampires. They exude a chemical like a pheromone that people on Earth find irresistible. They can shift between dimensions as Thal males can. They are not intelligent and are regarded as pests by Thal. They feed on other species, such as Earthlings. Their perfume does not affect Thal."
"What will happen to you?"
"I have a master who I will serve. I will receive more education and training in fields that my master is in charge of. I will have children by my master. Any boy I have will become a Thal master and have full Thal powers. The fate of any female child I bear will be determined by the one choice I am allowed to make. If I stay here, she will become a gold slave. If I choose to return to Earth, she will go with me and become a normal Earth girl. If I return to Earth, after the child is grown, I will be able to return here if I so choose."
"If you take a girl child back to Earth, what will happen to her?"
"She will receive priority on the Selections evaluation. She will probably be brought here when she is thirty or so, unless she develops some strong nexus on Earth>"
"Would you want such a fate to befall your daughter?"
"Oh, yes. This is a much richer environment. I hope the status of women will improve over time. Even so, better a slave girl here than a free woman on Earth. I love it here already."
"How long will you live?"
"Barring accidents, suicide, or homicide, I should live over 2000 years."
What about silver women?"
"Pure slaves. They will always be tightly controlled and they will not bear young."
"Why?"
"Long ago, women of Thal were free and had the same powers as men. A large group of them conspired with Draks to kill many Thal men and take control of Thale. They were defeated and the men took away their powers and enslaved them. The institution of female slavery has worked well for Thal men. Their ability to read minds has convinced them that all women can not be trusted. It appears to be a genetic survival mechanism for women to seek more power. For themselves and especially their offspring. Thal policy is to love all women and give them rich, fulfilling lives. And keep them scientifically ignorant, mentally powerless, and physically restrained. Silvers can have administrative and artistic careers, but no technical knowledge permitted them."
"Right now, Julie, how do you feel about being a gold slave here?"
"I feel like I'm playing a role, a game. I like almost all of it. The chains are sometimes annoying and always degrading. Its not so bad since all women are enslaved. And they mostly make it harder to do some things, not impossible. I love the sex and I love my master. I'm excited about all I can learn here. Since I will be able to choose to go home, this all seems temporary. Of course the long life is unreal. There's so much I could do with thousands of years to work. I guess I feel lucky to have such an opportunity."
"Julie, you were not chosen by chance. The selection teams choose only the best women from Earth. You will see that for yourself. Your first assignment is the North America selection team. Where are you to report?"
"Downtown, 1190 Arches Way, 14th floor, room 1." Gad, I did know it. My brain was filling in the gaps from the education session. The data popped up when I needed to know it, but I couldn't find it without a need. They seem to have taken 'need to know' to a whole new level.
Cotys locked my hands behind me and took me to a door. "This will be an adventure for you, going out in public by yourself. You need to get used to it. Remember that Master is always aware of you and will protect you if needed. Now go."
She opened the door and nudged me forward. I was scared. I was on a driveway or wide path leading slightly down to a bigger road. I could see men and women on the road, and ponygirl drawn carts. As before, all the women were naked and chained like me. I clattered my way down the path and knew I should turn right. I was careful to avoid contact, even eye contact with anyone I met.
The streets became more crowded as I walked. Soon, I had to walk more slowly and twist and turn a lot to avoid collisions. Once again, I was shocked to see how happy all the slavegirls were. They were all smiling and greeting each other. I watched them and tried to copy their behavior. Soon, when a slave came close, I would read her name tag and say, "Good Morning, Megan." I got a few sullen acknowledgments , sometimes ignored completely, from silver girls. I didn't blame them.
The native girls were enslaved because of something their ancestors had done. They had no hope of improving their lot. While I had been enslaved, I at least, could choose to be free and go home in the future.
Strangely, I could see the male point of view too. The women had betrayed their race with murderous intent. The women had admitted dangerous creatures into their homes. The men could also see the women's thoughts and decided they were too dangerous to let loose. Besides, what male didn't relish the idea of a bunch of compliant, beautiful women in his harem. I certainly liked both the lusty women and the fantastically strong, virile males. They were superb lovers.
Chapter 7: My Job
I turned automatically as long as I didn't think about the route. I found the building and walked in the open doorway. I looked for an elevator but didn't see one. I found a red circle on the floor and watched a girl walk in and stand on it. She said "twelve" and vanished. Teleportation instead of elevators. I had to try this. I walked onto the circle and said "Fourteen." Instantly I was elsewhere. It looked like a garden. Plants everywhere and paths winding through them.
A tall slavegirl with gold fittings and free hands walked up to me and asked, "Are you Julie?" Her tag had 'Alana Property of Heclam' on it.
"Yes. I guess I am expected?"
"Of course. Turn around and I'll free your hands."
After being unlocked I turned back. "Now what do I do?"
"Come with me. I'll get you started and explain how this works." She walked down one of the paths and I followed her. We didn't go far when she turned off the path into an alcove of greenery. The alcove held a chair like the training chair at Attas's house, without the male member. Rats.
"This work center selects Earth women to come here, like you were selected. When you sit in the chair it will interface with your mind. It will show you information about a woman. If you want anything besides what it chooses to show you, just frame a question in your mind. You are doing the initial screening. Just decide whether the person you are reviewing should be rejected or not. When you reach a decision the chair will start with a new candidate."
"So I'm not making a final decision?"
Anyone you will reject and your reasoning will be reviewed by a supervisor, probably a man. If he agrees, your candidate is rejected. After you've been here a few days you will review forty or fifty women each shift. You can take a break whenever you want. If you are judged to be not working hard enough, Attas will be notified."
"How long is my shift."
"We all work four hours each day."
"Fifty women in 4 hours? That's less than 5 minutes per candidate!"
"You will find your mind and the chair work much faster than using your eyes and hands like you would at home. Now just sit in the chair and think 'GO.' Use 'STOP' when you want a break." She walked away.
GO and STOP. My user's manual. I sat on the chair. It was more like a lounge. I raised my legs onto the foot and straightened out. I lay back and looked at the plants overhead. Much better than my office in Manhattan. I tried to relax and clear my head. I thought, 'GO.'
I almost jumped off the chair. Light and color and motion swirled around me
. It was like floating in an IMAX theatre. I was hovering in the air, 20 feet above a crowd of people on a sunny street. I was looking into the face of a young woman. There was a golden aura around her. She looked to be in her early 20s, red hair, good figure. She was with two other young women. All were dressed for hot weather and they were laughing and talking. A female voice spoke to me and said, "the candidate is Ariel DeAngelo. She just graduated from college with a degree in microbiology. She will begin a job in three weeks. Her parents live in Arizona."
I watched her for a little while then said, "show me her childhood."
I watched her grow up starting when she was 5 years old and ending as she graduated from college. I watched her lose her baby teeth, go on her first date, lose her virginity, and fall in and out of love. Time must have passed, but I couldn't feel it.
"How long have I been here?"
"You sat down four minutes and 33 seconds ago, Julie."
WOW! Almost twenty years of her life in 4 minutes. WOW! Well, I wondered, would she be a good candidate? I liked her so I said to myself, "I don't think she should be rejected."
The voice in my head said, "All right. Here is the next candidate."
I was shown another thirty candidates and only rejected five of them. Two were addicts, one was bulimic, and two were kleptomaniacs. The voice said, "Julie, your shift is over. Return here tomorrow morning please."
I saw my surroundings again and I felt rested, like I had napped the whole time. I stood up and walked back to the teleport circle. Alana was waiting for me there and locked my hands behind me. "See you tomorrow, Julie."
I said "one" and was on the first floor. I didn't think about where I was going and my body seemed to know. After a few minutes of walking I thought I would explore just a little. I went straight when my body started to turn at an intersection.
I made it to the far side and felt a tingle in my nose, like my ring was vibrating. I had never felt that before. Was it a sign I was not to wander? I walked slowly ahead a few steps then I felt a definite shock from the nose ring. It didn't hurt much so I went a little further to test it. Three more steps and I got a stronger shock. This one made my eyes water. I turned around and let my body lead me home.
I was more tightly controlled than I imagined. I was being watched but didn’t know if the watcher was a person or a machine. I would ask for permission to wander a little. After all, I would do a better job of selection if I knew more about the place.
At home all women / slaves were treated alike independent of whether we wore gold or silver. We all did minor domestic chores. I never saw anyone prepare any food. The food might have been prepared by magic, someone out of sight, or a Star Trek replicator. The food was excellent and well presented.
We ate in a large room, six diners to a round table and ten or twelve tables. Our numbers varied. When Attas was present he rotated among the tables. There was always at least one man at each table, sometimes two. I was surprised, but the atmosphere was cordial, collegial and sexy. OK, its hard to imagine a collegial meal where the women are absolute slaves of the male third. But it was. The men were always polite, not demanding. We all ate at the same time. There was an air of expectancy I didn't understand. It always felt like the last meal before we all embarked for D-Day. The women flirted with the men and each other. I half expected some of them to spread their legs on the floor in the middle of dinner.
There was a lot of competition for the men's attention during dinner. But nothing ever happened there. Afterwards though...
We all had small rooms of our own. They were comfortable and small. We could have some private time in a room we could call our own. They had doors that would only open to the girl that lived there and comfortable beds big enough for two or three. We didn't own anything, being property ourselves. But sometimes we were entrusted with something, like my violin. It was a relief to have a secure place to store it. We each had a private bath with shower. We were expected to give ourselves an enema after dinner to be ready for any gentlemen callers.
There was a lounge where we could congregate and have girl talk if we didn't want to be alone. In the evening we would be called to the lounge for music performances and dancing. Passive TV and movie watching seldom occurred. The men preferred live action.
During the evening we would try to arrange sex with the men. When the men joined us I felt that familiar potent rush of arousal. I saw the other slaves were similarly affected. It was obvious. The open mouthed stares and enormously flirtatious behavior were dead giveaways. Since there were twice as many women as men, we only got laid every other day or so. We played with each other but even though we got frequent orgasms, it just wasn't as good as with the men.
I was having a ball. This was like being on a cruise ship. Isolated and frequent sex with lots of men and women. The work was like playing. It was fun and exciting. These men were fantastic lovers. They literally read my mind. He would always know exactly where to touch me to get my best reaction. If I thought up his finger or penis or tongue or whatever would move up. I was able to subtly direct my own body's stimulation to its greatest pleasure. As soon as he touched me I would be in heaven. He would stretch my arousal to the max so I would have a thunderous climax every time. And he would keep me aroused through several huge orgasms before he would have his. Such control, such wild pleasure.
Punishment, if you could call it that, happened every Friday after dinner. Every girl would be hung from her wrists and whipped. Ten strokes plus two more for every black mark during the week. We took turns whipping each other. The whipped girl would flail her body through the first four or five strokes then moan and enjoy the rest. A skilled whipper could send the victim into orgasm by the third or fourth stroke if that was desired. Mostly all the girls had an orgasm unless they were really being punished. We frequently discussed the rationale behind the whippings. The men would never say. We decided it was effective in teaching us our place as slaves. At least we hardly ever gave our masters any trouble. On the whole, we enjoyed it too.
I enjoyed whipping a girl more than I ever thought I would. It was arousing to me to see her writhe in pain because of my arm. Then start to enjoy it, even to the point of orgasm. The sounds she made under my lash were just like those I made on my way to orgasm. And I usually pushed her over the edge to lusty orgasm in seven or eight strokes. It was quite enjoyable and fulfilling. I got so I could orgasm by ten strokes. I could have my own orgasm and give another girl one at the same time without our bodies ever touching. Outstanding!
The girls were quite accepting of me and my ignorance. They all worked hard at teaching me all the little things I needed to fit in. I didn't notice any difference between the gold or silver girls. The men treated us equally. I became friends with three of the girls and we hung out together when we could. Eileen and Jan were gold girls. Eileen was from Seattle and Jan from Tucson. My other friend was Ayn, a silver girl born here in Olympus.
I had become accustomed to being a slave. It really wasn't much different than being a lawyer. Someone was always telling you what to do. Except here, the sex was wonderful and frequent. I never had to shop for clothes or food and I never noticed my ankle chain anymore. I had adjusted. I was always surprised when my nose ring stopped me from doing something. That didn't happen often, though.
In such a polarized society I would expect the women to be unhappy but they weren't. At least, none of those in Attas's house were. The silvers told me most men only kept one or two women. Only the powerful men had more and Attas was one of the most powerful.
None of the girls could explain how the men got power or how it manifested. Money didn't seem to be used here and I saw nothing like commerce. The technology was fantastic as was the men's power. I would have thought that when power was unequal, there would be some signs of competition. None was obvious. All the men seemed respectful of each other and calm, even happy. Of course I was only seeing Attas's home and my job. Maybe the signs were elsewhere.
&nb
sp; Chapter 8 - Death in Selections
I was in my fifth month as a slave when the first sign of discord appeared. When I arrived at my workplace, all the slaves and men I had met there were in the fourteenth floor' foyer. The girls were all kneeling in two lines on the floor. The men were talking quietly with several men I had not seen before. The new men had red bands on their shirts. Police? Army? Judges? My arousal shot through the roof. Men! New men. It was all I could do to kneel in line with my raging lust taking over my brain.
One of the familiar men motioned for me to join the other slaves. I knelt at the end of the second line and waited. All the men except one walked along the path that passed my station. The remaining man stood and watched us.
After a moment he spoke. "The first people to arrive this morning found Elmira dead at her station. It appeared to be a Drak attack. The Proctors are investigating. You should not worry. Dimensional and temporal security at this facility has been strengthened. In a moment the proctors will see if you have any information useful to their investigation."
The men returned and one of the men with the red bands stood in front of the slaves. He said, " I want you to think about everything you sensed as you approached this building. We will scan you now."
I thought back, but didn't remember anything unusual.
He said, "All right. Thank you. You may go to your work now. The security here has been significantly strengthened and you should not worry." He turned and rejoined the other men. We all stood up and our hands were unlocked before we went to our stations.
OLYMPUS, KRATOS' OFFICE
"OK. What happened at Selections this morning?"
"Kratos, our investigation is not complete yet. A silver was found dead at her station when others arrived this morning. She had only been dead ten minutes when our investigators arrived. She usually arrived first in the morning. It was meant to look like a Drak attack, but it was staged. There was no Drak DNA in her body and they always leave some."