by Jessie Wolf
“How do you know all of this?” Taylor growls.
“I’m from Hellos. It’s not my fault he’s the way he is. Besides that person has no rights, outside of what its husband allows it to have. That’s the law. So guess what, if I want to fuck it in the ass, I can fuck it in the ass. Gen-aults are property, and nothing else. Shit, this one even has tits, and a built in chastity harness.”
The more I hear the madder I get. For my entire life I have heard of the barbaric treatment of the male brides on Hellos Prime, but I never knew it went this far. I look over at Morehouse who is doing his level best to cover himself up. Stepping back around the table so I can get a better look, I see what Stills is talking about. The cold, naked, and shivering person on the floor was more female than male. It’s only claim to being a male lay between its legs. Even that was pulled back between its legs in an unnatural fashion held in place by a pocket of very tight skin.
Bending down I lift Morehouse’s face to look at me. “How do you want to be called Morehouse?”
“Wh… wh… What do y…y…you mean?” the poor creature was scared out of its mind.
“Do you want to be called he and him or she and her?”
“I… I… I can decide?”
“Yes, honey, you get to decide, but can I make a suggestion?” when Morehouse nods his head. “You are very pretty and it might be better to go with the female pronouns.”
With a nod of her head she starts to shake violently and then burst out crying. Not just a little bit, but great soul wrenching sobs. “Taylor, do me a favor.”
“Whatever you need, Lady Maiha, just ask. I owe you my life, just ask and I’ll do it.” The big man states with pride.
“Please take this young lady over to the main house. When you get there I want you to find Lady Dai Etsu’s hand maids. Tell them they are to clean her up and get her dressed and fed. Then they are to take her to one of the spare rooms to rest. I’ll talk with her later this evening.”
“At once, my Lady.” Taylor says with a bow.
“Wait one damned minute here; I claim rights to that escaped bride. You just can’t take it from me without payment!” Stills hollers. “I know my rights to that property.”
“That! Is where you are wrong! You have no rights of ownership! You are not on Hellos Prime! You are on Hades! And here we do not practice the forced marriage of our children. Nor do we relegate them to the status of slaves. If you open your mouth one more time before she is out of here I’ll rip out your tongue.” I was screaming with rage by this time. I truly wanted to kill this man.
I watched as Taylor bent down and picked up the petite girl. I stop him before he leaves. “Morehouse, I’m sorry for the way you were treated, but there is one thing I need to know before you go. I need to know your real age.”
She looks at me for a few seconds “I’m twenty-one” when I cock my eye brow at her. “Ok, eighteen.” At my still disbelieving look “Ok already I’m seventeen; alright are you happy now. You can send me back to that hell. I’m sure Lord Steven will reward you for your trouble.”
At that name I realize just who was to be her husband, and what had happened to her family. “Hellos prime is a House Daniels holding isn’t it? You were to be his second wife correct?” Looking down she answers yes in a very small voice. “Well guess what you aren’t going back. Go on Taylor take her out of here. I have to deal with a rat before I can leave.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll make sure she gets to where you want her to be, and taken care of.” The big man walks out the door cradling the petite young girl in his arms as if she was a baby. As they are going through the door I hear her start to cry again, only this time it doesn’t sound like the soul wracking sobs of before, but a slow release of the tension of years of hiding.
Once the door is closed again, I turn on Stills. “You do know the penalty for rape, don’t you Stills?” I ask in a voice harder and colder than I have ever used. He nods his head yes and swallows. “I will give you one chance to gain lenience. To gain that you only have to answer one question. Were you the one who informed Rockwood of Morehouse’s status as a runaway male bride?”
Swallowing hard Stills gathers his courage and answers me. “No, my Lady, I was not the one to tell Rockwood about Morehouse. I wasn’t positive about Morehouse until we caught him coming out of his; I mean her shower naked like that.”
“Why were you torturing her like that?”
“I needed her to tell me, who is her owner-husband. Without that I couldn’t collect the full reward for her return.”
“How did you know she was a gen-ault?”
“The bar code on the back of her neck. All gen-ault male brides have them. It’s required by law.”
“What bar code?” by now the more I heard the more I wanted to destroy House Daniels. Arranged marriages may have become the norm across the Empire, but what Stills was describing was out and out sexual slavery in the guise of marriage through contract.
“It’s under her hair, just below the base of her skull. I didn’t find it until we got her in here.”
“So, you weren’t going to rape her? If you lie to me you’ll wish I had killed you. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Lady Nakatoma, I understand.” Taking a very deep breath and looking me in the eyes. “I was not going to rape her, my Lady. I was using the threat of rape to get her to tell me what I wanted to know.”
Before I lose my temper Dee De pops up her bio scans of Stills. From what I see I have to accept that he is telling the truth. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. “Very, well. I’ll accept that you’re telling me the truth, but I want to know why you used the shock stick the way you had.”
“Lady Nakatoma, you have to understand that one of the things they give to all gen-ault male brides is an extremely high threshold for pain. They have to have it to survive the training before they are married off.”
“What do you mean training?”
“All male brides are sent to a special school ran by House Daniels where they can do whatever they want to them short of leaving a scar. At the school they do whatever it takes to break them for their husbands, to make them behave as meekly as possible, and do whatever they are told. The male brides from Hellos Prime are the most obedient of wives. That is why they are so often the second wife to some rich ass hole.” The man was telling me everything I need to know for tearing down House Daniels.
“Thank you for telling the truth Stills.”
“Does that mean you’ll show lenience, my Lady?”
“Yes, it does. I am a woman of my word.” I stood there for moment thinking. “You said you’re from Hellos Prime correct?” After he nodded he head yes. “Well, seeing as how you were so eager to turn over one of your fellow soldiers to become a male bride, and sexual slave. I think that you should take his place. How does that sound?”
“No! You can’t do that to me! I don’t have the gen-mods to survive. I’ll be dead within a week!” the man was pissing his pants at the thought of becoming what Morehouse had been fated for.
“Oh! You’ll have the gen-mods, why they’ll even reset the clock for you. Gene-therapy is one of the most common things now days. Oh. Sure you’ll be sick as a dog for a few days and you’ll feel like you’re walking through Hell, but it’s no more than you deserve.”
When Stills hears this he charges me screaming at the top of his lungs. Bad move on his part. With two well-placed strikes I knock him out. At five foot eleven and two hundred pounds the gen-mods will have a lot to work with. As I stand there my eyes fall on the underwear that was used to gag Morehouse while this piece of shit tortured her. I think of all the emotional abuse that young girl has gone through. All her life she was told that she was someone else’s property and had no say in what she was to become. Sure she probably had everything she could ever want, but the one thing she craved the most. The freedom to be herself.
For too long she has had her voice muted by those who only saw her as a piece of property.
To have her screams of pain muted here as she was tortured by one of my House troops so he could turn her over for a reward made me sick. I barely get to the trash can before heaving up my lunch. I have done some terrible things in my life and even in the last week I have crossed a line I would never have in the past. In the last few hours I have maimed, tortured, and terrorized three men, all in the hope for a quick way to end this war and save the Empire I have spent the last seventy years serving. I heaved until I had nothing left in my stomach. I get up and wipe my mouth and leave.
In the hallway I find a pair of Med. Techs waiting to go in. I know that I must tell them of his punishment, but what I really want to do is run away and hide. I can’t do that though, I am the Head of House and it’s my job to sentence this man. “He is to be taken back to the temple and given the Gen-modes for him to become a Hellos Prime male bride with one change. You are to make sure he has no voice what so ever. After that you’re to put him on the first drop ship to Hellos Prime in a deep sleep tank with orders not to be opened until the school signs for it. Am I clear on this?”
As one they bow saying “It shall be done, Lady Maiha.” When I return their bow and turn to walk away one of them stops me and hands me a small packet. “It’ll help ease your stomach, my Lady. Those of us who are part of the Temple have been watching you closely. We know what you do goes against your very nature. The fact that you have lasted this long shows you to be one of the finest Head of House in a very long time. Your adopted mother, The Lady Dai Etsu, could not have done this. Yes she was a great Reverend Mother, but she doesn’t have it in her to fight a war like this. Her heart sees only the good in people; this is a good thing for a Reverend Mother, but a bad thing in the Head of House. Should you have need, Lady Maiha, come to the Temple any time of the day and the Reverend Father and Mother will meet with you.” When the man finished, he turned to his partner and proceeded to do their jobs.
I suddenly feel the need for the restroom. Hurrying to the first one I see, I almost take the door off its hinges as I enter. I make it to the toilet just in time. I was wrong about there being nothing left in my stomach. That’s where Alice found me. Down on my hands and knees with my head in the toilet. “Oh my God! Maiha, are you ok baby. Come on please talk to me!” it must have been the panic in her voice that finally got through the fog that was clouding my mind.
“I’m fine baby, I’m fine. I just needed to throw up. Give me a hand please. I need to wash out my mouth.” Alice helps me stand up and walk over to the sinks. Turning on the water I take a few seeps to rinse out the foul taste before using the packet the Med. Tech. had given me in the hallway. Within a few moments my stomach was settled down and I was feeling better.
Once I have myself back under control I give Alice a hug. “Baby, I need a break, a long one on some quiet little beach where no one knows us. That ain’t going to happen though is it? I have to go back out there and deal with one more man that I know is unjustly accused. Come on let’s get this done.”
“Maiha, kitten, this one will be over quickly. Combs is right across the hall. There is no one in there with him, and he is waiting for us to come in.” the sound of her voice, so calm and peaceful, restores my resolve to see this through. As we leave the bathroom we are stopped by the two Med. Techs. I had sent into the room with Stills as they rolled him past us on a gurney. “Maiha, where are they taking Sergeant Stills? He’s a pretty good NCO. We could use him on the battle field.”
I could tell that she admired this man that he might even be a decent man in her eyes, but she has to know the truth. I may lie to protect the people of this world, hell I’ll do it with a smile on my face, but I will never lie to her, no matter how much it hurts me. “He is being sent back to his home planet of Hellos Prime to become a male bride.” At the look of shock in her eyes I tell her why. “I found that piece of scum torturing Morehouse, to find out who was her owner/husband. Just so he could claim the reward for returning her. Trust me on this, Morehouse may be male, but she is very feminine in every way possible. I figure that her cup size to be about a B plus with a thirty inch chest. She has to have been binding them for the past two years. By the way she lied about her age she’s only just now seventeen. As for Stills, honey I know I have done some terrible things; and it sickens me, but that pig was torturing that poor girl for profit. I could have killed him for what he was threating to do to her, but I didn’t. Look can we finish this later tonight when we’re alone please?”
“Sure kitten. Let’s go talk to Combs.” I let her led the way as she opens the door across the hall form the restroom. It’s only after I step away from it that I realize it’s the men’s restroom. Talk about your OMG moments.
Stepping into the room that Combs was in, I had a very healthy blush going on. So not what I needed just then, especially in front of a full blooded Walkatonie. In all of my years in the service to the Emperor I have only met two others, and Combs was the third. There is a reason why the Temple of Eternal Bless tries to keep certain members of these people from causing trouble. And right now it’s starring me right in the face. Combs was what they call a ‘true blood’. Twenty generations of gene manipulation and select breeding had produced this young man. He was the picture perfect Aryan superman, over six feet tall blond hair and blue eyes. What an ancient dictator dreamed of creating during one of humanities darkest hours. This puts things in a whole new light.
When Taylor said he was a pure blood Walkatonie I thought he was like most of them, not a true blood. This is not what I needed. These people have a bad habit of going berserk on the battle field, hell in any kind of fight.
“Combs, I’ll come right to the point. I know what you truly are, and I really don’t need that kind of a headache. However I’m willing to give you a chance. Just like the others except for Morehouse. So are you on board or do you want me to buy you a ticket off planet?”
“Before I say yes or no what do you plan for Morehouse? What kind of deal is she getting?” he asked of me. I could tell that he really cared for her.
“For right now I plan on discharging her from the House Military and moving her into the main house.”
“As what, your pet freak?” he growled at me. Oh yes he definitely cared for her. Time to see how much he cared.
“No, just until she is well enough to be returned to her rightful owner.”
“You can’t do that to her! They’ll destroy her! You’re no better than that pig son-of-a-bitch Rockwood! If I wasn’t still in cuffs I’d fight you for her! Release me and face me one on one!”
I stop his ranting with one word. “ENOUGH!” when he settles down so I can speak in a calmer tone. “Combs do you love her?” when he doesn’t answer me “I said do you love her, because if you do you can visit with her in her new quarters in the main house. Oh by the way I decided to make her the new Head of Intelligence and Communications for the House military.”
I wait for a few moments to let what I just said sink in and what it meant for his friend. “Wait you’re not sending her back?”
“Nope.”
“But you are moving her to the main house?”
“Yup.”
“Why”
I start to giggle and so does Alice. “She is going to need all the help she can get if she is to be our new Intel-Com. Department Head. I can’t have her trying to pass herself off as a man when she looks the way she does.”
“So you’re moving her to the main house to help her, not to be your servant?”
“Alice are all men this slow on the uptake?”
“No. Maiha, they’re not. Then again you did kind of throw the poor boy a curveball there.” She tells me in a very smart-al-lick way.
“I don’t understand, why would you do that? It would be easier for you to just send her back?” Combs, was truly confused by now. “And why did you try to get me mad like that?”
“It’s simple; I needed to know if you can control your anger and if you were in love with Morehouse. You see I k
now you’re a true blood Walkatonie and that you have all the markings of a berserker. That makes you two things. First extremely loyal to the ones you love, and secondly very dangerous until you find someone to love.” I tell him very bluntly. “If you could not have controlled your temper the way you just did I would have known you were not in love with someone. I took a guess that it was Morehouse. So tell me, how long have you been in love with the young lady?”
Now that he had full control over his anger “Don’t you mean young man?”
“Nope I mean young lady. I talked with Morehouse and convinced her to stop trying to hide how she looks. Now do you want the deal or not. I can just as easily buy you a ticket off planet to whatever system you want?” I know he’ll take the deal. He can’t leave Morehouse.
“I’ll take your deal. So long as I can see Dana every now and then I’ll walk through Hell for you.”
“Is that her female name, Dana?”
“Ah, yes ma’am, will that’s what I call her when we’re alone. Look, I know that relationships between team mates are against regs and she’s sort of straight. Things just kind of, well, just happen.” I could tell that he was in love with the young girl.
“Corporal Combs, what you and Lieutenant Morehouse do behind closed doors is not mine or anybody else’s business. So long as it’s consenting you can do or be whoever you want. Now, what do you know about tactical Infantry Armor?”
“You mean the Land Warrior suits? Well there are four of them over in supply that are unassigned. Not that it’ll do anybody but me and Taylor any good. We’re the only ones that can wear the danged things.” He told me the very thing I needed to know.
“Good haul ass over to supply and draw your new battle kit, Corporal.”
“Um… ma’am I don’t mean to correct to you, but I’m only a PFC not a Corporal.”
“You are what I say you are Corporal. Now move out.” I order him.