by W. S. Antony
And each frenzied arc and bow of her body sent the electric phalluses plunging deep inside her once again to deliver their intimate shocks.
And Rebecca screamed and howled behind her bit, which stopped her biting her tongue in her distress.
The strokes fell relentlessly across her helplessly convulsing body.
A rosy glow spread over her breasts, belly, thighs and buttocks, while her cheeks were red with tears. She dripped with sweat and her thighs ran with glistening trails of lubrication, teased out of her puffed and pouting love mouth in autonomic response to the artificial cock that was reaming her vagina even as it flickered with electric fire. Her nipples, which should have shrunken out of sight in an attempt to hide from the stinging blows, were instead perversely erect and pulsing with blood. This made them even more receptive to the lashing thongs that curled about them and the jolts of blue pain they carried.
Now Jeni understood the use of the phalluses. They mingled sensual stimulation with pain and confused Rebecca’s responses. It made her more alive to everything being done to her, and added a new dimension of shame and humiliation for the onlookers to enjoy.
And they were enjoying it.
Intent, grinning or smiling, male and female alike, they ringed the chamber; all eyes fixed on Rebecca’s beautiful tormented body. Jeni gulped as she saw the three male prisoners had erections and were gazing at Rebecca with undisguised lust. Could Rebecca see them through her tears? All part of her punishment, of course, knowing she was giving strange men perverse pleasure through her suffering.
Yes, it was a pleasure to watch Rebecca suffer, Jeni had to admit. So was there a darker, crueller side to her own nature, or was it the knowledge that, after years of selfishness and wounding others with her thoughtless barbs, Rebecca was only getting what she deserved? No, Jeni thought as she bit her lip and squeezed and rubbed her thighs together in an effort to assuage the growing need filling her own wet cleft, this was a pleasure deeper and more basic than witnessing Rebecca’s overdue comeuppance. She was losing herself in the spectacle as she imagined what she would feel if it was her suspended within the hoop being shocked and beaten and impaled. She shuddered at the thought. Was there such a thing as masochistic empathy?
Rebecca gave a wretched, muffled scream, her body convulsed violently as though in the grip of a volcanic spasm, and then she went limp, her head lolling to one side. She hung from her cuffs, still twitching feebly from the shocks the phallus rods were sending through her, but too weak to respond further. The guards rested their arms and one lifted Rebecca’s head by the hair and peeled back a half-closed eyelid. After a moment he smiled and said something to his companion.
Jeni held her breath in wonder. Had Rebecca fainted from pain, or had she orgasmed violently? Jeni thought of her own experience on the testing chair in Mykran Rado’s laboratory. Neither she nor Rebecca had ever learned the results of their tests. Did the prison guards know? Was it on a file somewhere for anybody to read? What did it say about their response to such intense stimulation when pain and pleasure were so closely intertwined?
The crowd began to disperse. A guard freed Jeni from the wall and led her back to her cell, leaving Rebecca still hanging within the hoop. Jeni didn’t need to wonder why. She was on display as a warning to all who dared to think they could defy the Elysian way.
Back in her cell Jeni stood still as the guard removed her bridle gag. He was about to free her hands when he stopped and sniffed curiously. With a grin he slid his finger through her pubic bush and deep into the sticky warmth of her vulva. He brought it out and up to his nose. It glistened with her secretions. He sniffed and smiled at her.
‘So, you’re one of those,’ he said.
Jeni shivered, overwhelmed by his presence and her unfulfilled desire. Her hands were still bound behind her. He could do anything he wanted. ‘Master, please do it again,’ she begged in Elysian.
With one hand he grasped her by the hair to hold her steady, while the other he thrust into her.
A finger, two fingers slipping into her cleft, a thumb grinding against her hard clitoris. Now he had three fingers inside her hot, wet, love tunnel. Four fingers. Thrusting deeper up her, his knuckles rubbing the fleshy ribs. A terrible and yet wonderful pressure was building inside her.
Jeni groaned, rubbing against him with desperate need. Her knees were turning to jelly. She shuddered, gasped and came, her hips jerking as her sex sucked greedily on his hand. Her legs gave way and she would have collapsed if he had not supported her.
With a chuckle he carried her over to her bed and laid her down on her side. He wiped his sticky hand on her hair, freed her cuffs and closed the cell door behind him, leaving Jeni simmering with spent lust; relieved and yet also guilty in equal and confusing measure.
When Rebecca was returned to their cell an hour later, Jeni appeared her normal self once more. Rebecca, however, crawled in unsteadily on her hands and knees. The guard accompanying her threw down a computer pad on her bed and said to Jeni, ‘She is to learn this by tomorrow. If she does not she’ll get more of the same, understand?’
‘Yes, master,’ Jeni said.
He left and Jeni looked down at Rebecca, who was crouched down and swaying slightly, her eyes unfocussed. Taking pity on her, Jeni helped her up and onto her bed. Rebecca clung to her feebly.
‘Please...’ she begged, ‘help me learn the language... whatever they want. I can’t go through that again, I can’t...’
Jeni considered for a moment. ‘I will, if you’ll do one thing for me.’
‘Yes, anything.’
‘Answer this question immediately and honestly. If you stop to think I won’t help you. Understand?’
‘What? Yes, all right.’
‘Did you have an orgasm when they were whipping you?’
‘Yes,’ Rebecca choked out, then she hung her head. ‘Yes, I did.’
Jeni stroked Rebecca’s naked back and smiled. ‘That’s all right, then. I’ll help you.’
Two weeks later Rebecca knelt at the feet of Narvok Tem and an administrator by the name of Arkos Zath.
‘This slave begs your forgiveness, and humbly asks to be allowed to serve the Empire of Elysium,’ Rebecca said in Elysian. If Rebecca harboured any resentment or hesitation it was well hidden. Her outward demeanour was contrite and biddable. Crouched before them on her hands and knees with a hopeful, expectant expression on her face, she looked more like a dog anxious to please its master.
Jeni, kneeling a little to one side, exchanged a quick smile with Cath, who was standing quietly behind her master. Had their days of intensive coaching paid off? As far as she could tell Rebecca had passed all the tests and responded quickly to commands, but it was up to the two men to decide.
They conferred for a moment in low tones, then Arkos Zath said, ‘We judge that prisoner D574, also known by the name “Rebecca Lamont”, has achieved an acceptable level of competence in the spoken language and knowledge of the elementary rules of behaviour appropriate to her station. She and prisoner D573, also known as “Jeni Weeks”, shall henceforth be transferred to an approved school of slave training and deportment. If they graduate successfully they will be sold at public auction, the profits from which sale shall be divided between the state and the slave school. While in private ownership these two persons will be accorded the basic rights appertaining to an Elysian subject slave. Such rights shall remain inviolate while they abide by the law of the Empire and live under its protection, or until their status is changed by official decree.’
Rebecca and Jeni both bowed to the men and said together, ‘We thank you, masters.’
The two men got up and left the cell. As Narvok did so, he nodded to Cath, who smiled and bowed back. When the door closed Cath ran to Jeni and hugged her.
‘You did it, you’re through!’ she said.
She turned a happy face to Rebecca
, who was getting off her knees, her submissive demeanour vanishing with the exit of the two men, and she only scowled back. ‘We’re going to be trained to be slaves. That might make Jeni hot and excited, but I don’t think it’s much to celebrate.’
Jeni glared at her, and Rebecca raised her eyebrows. ‘All right, thank you for helping me get through the test,’ she said stiffly to Cath, as though reciting the words. ‘And I suppose it will make a change to get out of this place.’
‘I know slave school will be hard at times, but at least there’s some purpose to it,’ Cath told them. ‘Once you’ve got through it you’ll soon feel part of normal life again. It’s easier to accept than you can imagine, if you give it a chance. And you two are bound to be bought by a good family, so you’ll probably have it pretty easy.’
‘Sold like animals, you mean,’ Rebecca said bitterly.
‘No, you will have rights, like Arkos Zath said. You’ll learn them during training. Just do what you’re told and you’ll do fine.’
‘Will we see you again?’ Jeni asked Cath.
‘Possibly, once you’re sold and if you behave well. You know my master’s name, so you can always find me. Favoured slaves are sometimes allowed to visit other slave friends, and I want to know how you get on. Maybe I can get my master to take me to the slave sales and I can see who buys you.’
A little shiver went through Jeni. How nice to have a friendly face watching her being sold! What a thing to contemplate.
‘So we settle down as the slaves of some nice bourgeois local family for the rest of our lives,’ Rebecca said, her scorn on the brink of true despair. ‘I don’t want to do that, do you understand?’
‘No, you can win your freedom if you show you respect Elysian ways enough to accept serving as a slave first,’ Cath said earnestly. ‘Eventually you can petition the council and become a free person. That’s the law.’
‘And how long will that take?’ Rebecca demanded.
‘Ten, twenty years, maybe more.’
Rebecca looked horrified. ‘I can’t wait that long! I’ll be old!’
Cath frowned in thought, looking at each of them intently, and when she spoke again it was as though she was choosing her words with care. ‘There’s something about Elysium that I haven’t told you before, but you’ll notice soon enough for yourself when you’re allowed out into the city, so you’d better know now.’
‘Is it something bad?’ Jeni asked.
Cath smiled. ‘No, quite the reverse, but it’s strange and takes some getting used to. You won’t see many children and no old people, at least nobody who looks old the way you think. Elysium has a very low birth rate, just enough to keep the population steady. Medical science has been practiced for a long time here and has become very advanced. It can keep you young and healthy far longer than back home. And slaves get the same treatment as everybody else. You’ve probably already had the starter shots, along with a sort of combined broad spectrum inoculation and long-term contraceptive. You don’t have to worry about social diseases or getting pregnant here.’
Jeni was gazing at her in surprise. ‘We did have some injections. Was that what they were for?’
Rebecca interrupted, her eyes bright with wonder and urgent curiosity. ‘How long do you stay young for?’ she demanded.
‘Well it’s not fixed, but I have heard of people over three hundred years old.’
‘Oh, my God!’ Rebecca exclaimed.
‘So you see, even if you have to serve twenty years before you earn your freedom, you’ll still look just the same as you do now.’
Jeni was smiling. ‘That sounds wonderful. Thanks for explaining it to us, Cath. It will make things easier.’
‘It’s really true?’ Rebecca asked, as though still having trouble believing what Cath had said.
‘You’ll soon see for yourselves,’ Cath said. She shrugged. ‘For instance, how old do you think I am?’
‘Twenty,’ Rebecca guessed, taking in Cath’s slim figure, firm breasts and unlined skin. ‘Maybe twenty-two.’
‘I was twenty-three when I came here. And that was twenty-six years ago. I’m almost fifty.’
Chapter 9
An hour after Cath had gone, Jeni and Rebecca were still trying to adjust their thoughts to accommodate her startling revelation. Then a guard entered to prepare them for transfer to slave school, bringing with him something that temporarily turned their minds from abstract matters: two pairs of white strappy sandals.
Jeni fell upon them with almost as much delight as Rebecca.
They were the first items of proper clothing they had been allowed since their arrival, and the simple pleasure of putting them on was beyond measure. They walked up and down their cell under the guard’s indulgent and amused gaze, getting used to the feel of footwear once again and admiring them like little girls with their first adult shoes. That the sandals were simply made and no doubt a standard slave issue did not matter. They were being allowed to dress once again, however minimally.
And the other items the guard brought reminded them that their status remained unchanged. First were metal chastity belts. Jeni shivered as the cold, curving metal thong was pushed between her buttocks and the triangular plate, with its small guarded hole to pee through, pressed against her pubes. The broad waist strap was locked tightly about her middle just below her navel and she was secured.
Its weight and rigidity made it impossible to ignore, even though it was not actually painful to wear. Jeni felt a delicious thrill of alarm at the thought that she could not remove the device that enclosed her so intimately. It made her more helpless and controlled than ever. She saw Rebecca barely concealing a look of disgust as her belt was clamped around her. How shamed she must feel to think that a Lamont should be subjected to the indignity of wearing such a primitive device intended to curb her sexual activity. A touch of a controller button and their wrist cuffs pulled their arms round behind them until they clicked into place at the back of the belts.
Finally, transparent gag bridles were put on them. Jeni surrendered to the pressure of the straps as they encircled her face and head. She realised that for the first time each of her major orifices was plugged or sealed over. Somebody else would decide when she could use them to eat or drink, to excrete, or to have sex.
As they were led out of the small white cell that had been their home for almost a month, Jeni felt an odd sense of disorientation. They were leaving behind the certainties of the prison routine and the pleasure of Cath’s regular visits. What would take their place?
Three other girls, similarly restrained, were waiting in the corridor in a tight line, linked by short rods that resembled slender dumbbells with ball-like ends, which were force-locked to their collars. Presumably they were also destined for slave school. How odd, Jeni thought, that she had exercised with these girls every day, yet she did not know any of their names. Like herself, the only identification they bore were prison numbers stamped on their chests.
Jeni and Rebecca were added to the line, with Rebecca at the head and Jeni at the rear. The spacing rods clicked against their collars, allowing them to turn sideways, but holding them rigidly spaced in their line. And there they were; five naked, bound slave girls all in a row. There was a name for such a thing, Jeni remembered. A coffle, that was it. They were going to be taken to slave school in a coffle.
A guard took up position at the front and another at the rear. The leading guard pointed his controller at Rebecca, and her right foot immediately stepped forward. Jeni felt her own right ankle cuff twitching to follow and she let it guide her. Left, right, left, right. Out of the cell block they marched in perfect time, the bars linking their collars allowing almost no give, compelling them to move as one. It was as though they had been merged into a single creature with five pairs of legs and no will of its own.
They marched out through a ground floor lobby set in the mi
ddle of the base side of the Erekthion, past a steady flow of people dressed in the same mix of tunics and uniforms Jeni had seen when they were first brought in. When they were halted to let others pass the coffle marked time on the spot mechanically, their new sandals slapping softly on the stone tiling like some clockwork toy.
When the way was clear, they passed under a wide portico supported by square stone columns and out into the open air. They were turned left, still keeping in step, and headed off down a broad street away from the Erekthion which rose above all other buildings. Jeni blinked in the bright warm sunshine as she was marched along, turning her head this way and that as far as she dared to try to take in the sights. Though they had lived in the middle of Ceroth for so long they had only glanced the city proper briefly from the air.
The main streets were of uniform width and were paved with rosy sandstone slabs. They seemed to be entirely given over to pedestrian traffic, with no provision for wheeled vehicles. The reason why was soon apparent as a flying disk of a similar design to the one that had captured them glided soundlessly and sedately overhead, following the line of the streets. Perfect duel purpose use of space, Jeni thought. And assuming whatever mysterious power supporting the flying disks did not fail, no risk of traffic accidents.
The buildings flanking these boulevards were mainly of simple block design, two or three storeys high, with almost featureless external walls except where they were pierced by a few narrow slit windows and ground level awning-covered entrances. These, Jeni guessed, were shops, from the signs and devices hanging on the walls outside to advertise their wares. Her facility with the written language was not yet sufficient for her to be able to read the signs at a glance, but a pair of boots clearly suggested a cobblers, and a sheaf of corn a bakers.
Most of the roofs were flat as far as she could see, but some showed the curve of domes or had light canopies strung over them to ward off the sun. Jeni saw nothing like open front gardens and wondered if the inhabitants of Ceroth, like others living in similar climates, invested all their horticultural interests in roof gardens or internal courtyards.