“Uh, Jessa?” she asked, looking at the other woman. “I’m sorry but this bathroom doesn’t look anything like the ones back on my home world. Can you explain it to me? I mean, where is the sink?”
“The sink?” Jessa gave her a puzzled frown.
“You know—the place where you can wash your hands after you, uh…I’m looking for a source of water,” Elaina tried to explain. “To rinse my eye out.”
“Oh—you want the wash-all.” Jessa pointed to the red circle on the floor. “Go on. Help yourself.”
“Help myself to what?” Feeling exasperated, Elaina stepped forward to examine the red circle. There was a round hole in the center of it that seemed to lead down. But down into where? She leaned over to look into it.
“Elaina—” Jessa began but before she could say more, Elaina’s head went past the red circle and a downpour of warm water suddenly drenched her hair and face.
“What the—?” Elaina jumped back, sputtering.
Jessa looked like she was trying to suppress a giggle.
“I was about to warn you—if you want to take a shower, you ought to take off your clothing first.”
“I wasn’t going to take a shower but now I guess I might as well.” Elaina pushed her drenched hair back from her forehead. “Do I have time before we go have our audience with ‘his Supreme Exaltedness?’”
“I believe so.” Jessa smiled at her. “Just toss your garments in the corner and the maid will see to them later. Go on—” she added when Elaina hesitated, waiting for her to leave and give her some privacy.
“Um…we don’t usually, uh, bathe in front of people we don’t know on my planet,” she offered at last, when it seemed Jessa had no intention of going.
“What?” The other woman burst out laughing. “But then how do you get to know each other if you don’t talk while you’re bathing?”
“We…talk to each other in other places,” Elaina tried to explain. “We go out for lunch. We go get pedicures or manicures or see a show. We just don’t go around naked. It…makes us uncomfortable.”
“Oh dear.” Jessa looked worried. “Then I’m not sure how you’ll handle it when we all have to go to the Royal Baths.”
“The Royal Baths?”
“Of course! It’s the social center of the palace. Everyone who’s anyone goes there and if you’re lucky, you might even catch a glimpse of his Supreme Exaltedness himself with one of his favorite concubines.” Jessa’s triple-ringed eyes shone with excitement. “Of course—not one of his Needy Ones. They aren’t allowed out among the others where they might spread the Need to other, uninfected females.”
“The ruler—uh, his Supreme Exaltedness—keeps a bunch of women infected with the Need?” Elaina asked, frowning.
“Oh, yes.” Jessa nodded. “He has a whole harem full of them. They make the best lovers, you know.” She lowered her voice, as though telling a dirty secret. “The Need makes them absolutely insatiable.”
“But I thought it just made them want to be beaten…I mean spanked?”
“Oh no, my dear—that’s only part of it! The Need also gives you a sexual appetite that’s well-nigh unquenchable.” She sighed. “Don’t get me wrong—I wouldn’t want the awful social stigma that comes with it, but sometimes when my Master Waygu comes to me at night, I wish I could have just the tiniest bit of the Need. It might make it easier to submit to him and enjoy the way he uses me.”
Ugh! Elaina tried to suppress a shiver at the idea of being “used” by the plump, prissy Ambassador. Jessa was a pretty young woman who was probably at least thirty years younger than him. And she’d been given to Waygu like some kind of prize or trophy with no say in the matter at all. No wonder she didn’t feel any desire for the man who was supposed to be her lord and master.
“But as I was saying,” Jessa went on. “Everyone who’s anyone goes to the Baths and since your master is so important, you probably will too.”
“I see.” Elaina felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. She’d known she would have to wear something pretty revealing to fit in around here. But was she really going to have to get completely naked and take a bath in public? She didn’t hate her body but she didn’t exactly love it either—she was way wider in the hips than she really wanted to be and her thighs weren’t exactly skinny either. Showing herself off to everybody—especially Terex—was going to be excruciatingly embarrassing.
Better get used to it, she told herself grimly. They don’t have a problem with nudity here—at least, the women don’t. If you want to fit in and find help for Gina, you’re going to have to deal with it.
And it was probably better to start now rather than later. After all, it would be less nerve-wracking to strip for the first time in front of the friendly—if somewhat ditzy—Jessa, than in front of a bunch of strangers. So instead of asking the other woman to leave again, she took a deep breath and started pulling off her sweater.
“There you go.” Jessa smiled encouragingly. “See—it’s not so bad. And your skin is such a pretty, exotic tan color. But—oh my goodness!” She took a quick step back from Elaina, her eyes going wide.
“What? What is it?” Elaina asked, wondering if she’d seen a rat or insect somewhere in the empty stone bathroom.
“You…your…” Jessa pointed at her breasts. “Are you certain you didn’t have skin contact with one of those Needy Ones you were trying to rescue?”
“No—why?” Elaina frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Your nipples—they’re so dark! It’s a sign of the Need when your nipples and your outer sex lips turn such a dark pink. The first sign, anyway,” she added ominously.
Elaina looked down at herself. Were her nipples just a little darker than usual? But no—it was just her imagination, she was sure.
“This is my natural coloring,” she told Jessa firmly. “Remember how you were just remarking on my tan skin? Well, this is part of it—I have darker pigmentation everywhere.”
“Oh.” The worry on Jessa’s face cleared and she gave a little laugh. “Oh, of course! Silly me.” She looked at Elaina anxiously. “I hope I haven’t offended you.”
“Not at all.” Elaina smiled at her as she slipped off her jeans and underwear.
“Anyway, it’s good you’ve got dark nipples—it’s considered very erotic,” Jessa informed her. “Because it looks like you’ve got the Need, even if you don’t.”
“I thought it was a disease you didn’t want to catch,” Elaina said, frowning.
“Well, we females don’t want to catch it, of course. But males can’t catch it. And I think they like females that have it. Because of the whole insatiable thing, I mean.”
Elaina frowned. “Isn’t there any way to cure it? What about…” She hesitated, watching the other girl closely. “What about the little healer that never fails?”
“The what?” Jessa gave her a blank look.
“You know—the little healer?” Elaina looked at her hopefully, trying again. “Can’t that cure the Need?”
“I don’t know what that means.” Jessa shrugged. “And anyway, there’s no known cure for the Need. Once you get it, you’ve got it for life—which isn’t very long, unfortunately, since it makes you die young.”
“That’s awful!” Elaina exclaimed. The more she heard about this disease, the worse it sounded.
Jessa shrugged again. “It’s just the way things are.”
“What happens to a woman with the Need if she can’t get enough, uh, sensation?” Elaina asked.
“You mean enough sexual domination and spankings?” Jessa asked. “Oh, my dear—I don’t know first hand, of course but they say the pain is terrible. Like an empty aching inside you can’t control without the help of your master. In fact, I’ve heard that’s what his Supreme Exaltedness Krumf the Fourth does when he’s angry at one of his concubines—he withholds both sensation and, even worse…” Her eyes got wide. “He withholds his seed.”
“So he refuses to spank them or s
crew them?” Elaina said bluntly, thinking the “punishment” sounded more like a reward. She hadn’t even met “his Supreme Exaltedness” yet but she already disliked him.
“Well…yes.” Jessa looked slightly shocked by her language but she nodded. “That’s right.”
“Why don’t the women—uh, the Needy Ones—just, you know, help themselves?” Elaina asked reasonably. “I mean, I know they couldn’t spank themselves but they could at least take the edge off by, you know…masturbating.”
“You mean by touching themselves?” Jessa’s voice rose to a scandalized squeak. “Do they do that on your planet?”
“Well…yes.” Elaina was beginning to feel uncomfortable and not just because she was standing there naked carrying on a conversation with a woman she’d just met ten minutes ago. “Don’t you do it here?”
“No!” Jessa’s triple-ringed eyes were wide and shocked. “It’s an offense punishable by flogging or worse to touch your master’s property without his express permission.”
“Your master’s property? Are you actually talking about your own body like it belongs to someone else?” Elaina demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
“It does belong to someone else—to my master,” Jessa protested. “And it’s not good for a female to…to give herself pleasure. It corrupts her mind and defiles her body.”
“Says who?” Elaina asked dryly. “Let me guess—your master and every other man on this planet, right?”
“It’s a proven scientific fact,” Jessa told her earnestly. “But even if it wasn’t, your body isn’t meant to give you pleasure—it exists for the pleasure of your master and the bearing of his children.”
“That’s…I…you…” Elaina couldn’t even begin to think what to say. Feminist principles of empowerment rose to her mouth so fast they choked her silent. She wanted to argue with Jessa, to try and show her the error of her ways, to teach her to love and cherish and own her own body. But what good would it do? Jessa was stuck in a relationship that was more akin to bondage than marriage and she was living on a planet where everyone she knew was in the same kind of situation.
What am I going to do—start a feminist revolution right here? Elaina asked herself. She wasn’t some great political leader. She’d never even really thought of herself as a feminist until she got here and saw the twisted state of the Nixian society. No, she reluctantly decided, she would have to let it go…at least for now.
“Look,” she said at last. “All I can tell you is that I’ve been masturbating pretty much all my life and I’m perfectly healthy and sane. My body is my own and I use it to please myself and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Oh!” Jessa gave a little moan of pure anxiety and looked around, as though someone might be listening. “Please, Elaina—don’t talk that way! And whatever you do, don’t touch yourself anymore, especially not at the palace. They have monitors everywhere.”
“Monitors that can tell when you’re having a little fun?” Elaina raised her eyebrows. “I really doubt that.”
“It’s true!” Jessa insisted. “How do you think they know when the girls in the Need harem get out of line? Please, Elaina—promise me you won’t.”
It seemed like an odd thing to promise her new friend but it wasn’t like she found anything about this place remotely erotic.
Oh really? whispered a little voice in her brain. Not even the idea of submitting to Commander Terex and calling him "Master?"
Elaina pushed the thought hastily away. “Fine,” she said to Jessa and shrugged. “I mean, it’s not something I have to do. I’m just saying I’ve done it all my life and it hasn’t affected me adversely. Okay?”
“All right.” Jessa still looked troubled. “Because if you get caught doing that—touching yourself—you’ll be punished and people might think you have the Need. Because no one who wasn’t infected by the Need would do that. Do you see?”
“If you say so.” Elaina sighed. “Look, I’d better get going if I’m going to be ready in time.”
“Yes, you should,” Jessa agreed. “You know…” She nodded pointedly down at Elaina’s crotch. “You’re going to have to de-hair yourself if you’re going to the palace.”
“De-hair myself? You mean shave?” Elaina looked down at the neatly trimmed brown thatch of curls between her legs.
“I’ll get the depilatators.” Jessa ran off and came back with a wide-mouthed, blue stone jar. She opened it and pulled out a fat, squirming green thing that looked like a cross between a slug and a caterpillar. “Here, you just put one of these on your mound and it will clean you off nicely.” She tried to hand it to Elaina who backed away.
“No way,” she said flatly. “No way am I putting a slug on my privates!”
“They don’t bite, silly! They just nibble away the hair.” Jessa giggled. “It actually tickles quite pleasantly.”
“Yeah…I’m going to take your word for that.” Elaina frowned. “Don’t you have any kind of a razor or hair removal crème or anything like that?”
“Well, we do have the laser remover but that’s usually only for small, fine areas—like between your eyebrows.”
“I want to use that,” Elaina said firmly. “And you can put the delightfully ticklish, hair munching caterpillar back.”
Jessa shrugged. “Suit yourself. Just hurry and take your shower. We’ll be going to the palace soon and you need to look resplendent.”
“Fine. I’ll take a shower if you take those things away and bring the other hair removal thing that’s not alive. It’s not—right?” Elaina asked.
“No, of course not. It’s just a laser that burns away hair.”
“Okay.” Elaina nodded. It didn’t sound extremely safe but she would still rather risk the laser than have her private lawn mowed by the very hungry caterpillar.
“Suit yourself,” Jessa put the green slug things back in their jar. “I’ll get the laser.”
She left for the other room again and Elaina went and stood in the red circle of the wash-all. Immediately, she was drenched by the flow of warm water. She was beginning to wonder about shampoo when she felt a drizzle of something cold come down on the top of her head. Reaching up, she found it was thick and syrupy with a floral scent. When she rubbed it into her hair, it made bubbles.
Oh, okay—so that’s how it’s done.
After the shampoo was rinsed away, she felt a second cold drizzle which seemed like it might be some kind of conditioner. Then, to her surprise, when that was rinsed away, she felt something else come down on her head. She rubbed it into her hair but before she could rinse it out, the water stopped abruptly.
“Hey!” She was left there, shivering and naked, with her hair still full of alien hair product, whatever it was.
“Oh, you’re finished!” Jessa came in and handed her a think, slightly furry sheet which turned out to be extremely absorbent when Elaina wrapped it around her shivering form.
“I’m not finished, though—I still have some stuff in my hair,” she protested, even as she pulled the towel tight. It felt good to be covered again—if only for a little while.
“Oh, that’s just to make your hair shiny and give it a pleasing scent for your master,” Jessa said carelessly. “Come on—I have the laser all heated up and ready to go. Let’s remove that unsightly hair so we can get you ready for the palace.”
Elaina sighed and allowed herself to be led into the other room. Honestly, when she’d been picturing what her adventures in space with Commander Terex might be like, this scenario had never even entered her mind.
Being dropped on a planet that was like a cross between The Handmaid’s Tale and 50 Shades of Grey and being given a choice of whether she wanted to burn the hair off her coochie or let weird alien caterpillars chew it off just wasn’t as glamorous as fighting star-beasts or flying through worm holes, which were some of the things she’d imagined.
She just hoped that Terex was having a better time than she was and that they could find what they
needed here quickly and get off this sexist hell hole.
* * * * *
“There. Now you’re dressed according to your station.” The male attendant who had helped him get dressed stood back and clasped his hands, smiling approvingly.
“Thank you.” Terex stared at himself in the 3-D viewer appraisingly.
He was wearing a pair of tight fitting black trousers and a long white robe that hung straight down to his ankles and showed his bare chest. The robe had a deep blue border, which seemed to symbolize social status and rank. His tall black uniform boots had been polished to a high shine and he had been given a ceremonial weapon, rather like a sword with a curving blade and a jeweled hilt, to wear at his waist.
The outfit complimented his new pale skin and triple-ringed eyes and he mentally blessed Yipper for giving him the ability to change his hair, eye, and skin color so easily. The little Tolleg surgeon was a genius, and no mistake.
I should fit in nicely—as long as I don’t say the wrong thing, he told himself. He needed to seek out information on the male he was impersonating and make sure he had his story straight. In fact…there was an information and communications console in one corner of the large, airy guest room he’d been given to change in. The console looked much like some outdated Kindred technology Terex had used when he’d been stationed on a more primitive trade world in his youth.
“Excuse me,” he said to the attendant. “But if we have a little time before our audience at the palace, I’d like to rest.”
“Of course.” The attendant bowed deeply. “I will leave you for now, Master Valdor, and alert you when Ambassador Waygu is ready to go.”
“Thank you.” Terex nodded at him and waited until he was out of the room to go over to the console.
As he had suspected, the technology was extremely easy to access and was definitely Kindred in origin. So at least some of the Lost Kindred’s culture remained on this strange world. He just wondered what had happened to so thoroughly eradicate or bury the rest of the Kindred belief system.
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