by Johnny Stone
“Me too, Sandy, me too.”
Chapter Eleven
Interlude
The Tower, Perdition.
Penthouse Suite.
The sky was shrouded in a hazy gloom of perpetual dusk, dancing with erratic flashes of static electricity, as the floating orbs of spacecraft went about their hectic business on a world dedicated to fueling the appetite of humanity’s needs. A dark megalith known simply as The Tower stood at the epicenter; the largest inhabited structure ever built by man.
Donovan Burke gazed down from heaven through an automatic tinting window at the sprawling metropolis below, the undisputed master of a two billion citizen industrial machine of his own creation. There were nearly 50,000 employed in this building alone, and it was but a fraction of his total power laid out on display. He bought and sold worlds, corporations, and even something as commonplace as human beings on a daily basis, with the same indifference that another person might change their clothing. For a man like Donovan it was an insatiable hunger for more power and wealth, never sated. Enough was enough, until there was nothing else to acquire and control. It wouldn’t be long before his nomination to the Federation Council was ratified, and after that...
He flexed his aging hand into an iron fist, smiling. Even death would be a dream once he was inducted into the ranks of the Immortals. Nothing would be beyond his grasp then, and with his direct influence and unhindered economic backing, the Federation would enter a golden age of prosperity unheard of since the Renaissance Period or Information Age of the 21st century.
A ray of sun peeked through the clouds, an alien thing to those going about their meager existence 5000 meters below, illuminating Donovan’s office in warm hue of orange and red, matching his current mood. Bad PR and unwanted attention was the last thing he needed at the moment, and that was exactly what Nathan had dumped in his lap. It had always been that way with him, though, make a mess regardless of the consequences and walk away, leaving it for others to clean it up. Every minor detail was an emergency to Nathan, and he thought the world revolved around him. I want… I need… Well, he could sit and wait on hold until the end of time for all Donovan cared, while he contemplated the most prudent solution for dealing with the unexpected turn of events that he’d soiled the Burke reputation with.
“Nathan,” he scowled bitterly, reaching for his centuries old scotch on the rocks on a nearby end table. He was too kindhearted, too gullible, and too soft… He had always been their pampered, little baby. And to think, father had wanted him to sit at the head of his Burke Industries instead of Donovan, even after he’d run away to play soldier like an abstinent child acting out. Nathan had never taken a serious interest in the family business, unlike Donovan, he’d dedicated himself to it as was his birthright dictated, honing his mind for a single purpose. Morality in the world of mega-corporations is nothing more than a stifling dream that hampers growth, and Nathan would have ruined Burke Industries in a matter of decades with that kind of an attitude. He would have ruined everything that Donovan had worked his entire life to one day have, and that couldn’t be allowed to happen, ever.
Some well-laid plans took only hours, while others took years of patient waiting to bear fruit. The untimely death of his parents fell into the latter category, and had closed the book on who would sit at the head of Burke Industries once and for all. It was a shame it had to come to that; Donovan had truly loved them in his foolhardy youth, but they had turned their back on him first, and regret was just as foreign to him now as the concept of mercy.
The notion that Nathan was now a wanted criminal if all the recent press was to be believed, which he didn’t for a moment, would in essence remove him from the equation once again. It was a partial solution to an escalating problem brewing back at the Ranch; the Landowners were in an uproar and calling for immediate action on his part, but the worst of it was that Donna had finally regained her memory.
All Michael had to do was sit back and collect his money, maintaining the status quo at the Ranch and keep Donna sedated and out of the picture with Nathan looking after her. It was a perfect and well-calculated ending to all his problems in one neat little package. The fool couldn’t even do that much, involving her in his fledging pornography empire while inciting a slave rebellion in the process. What’s more, is he had upset Ashley, and set her pet project back by nearly a year. Michael had gotten what he deserved in the end, and good riddance to incompetent trash.
A moment of honest remorse, something he hadn’t felt in some time, flickered briefly through his mind. Donna could have been a part of it all, but instead she’d thrown her lot in with their parents, Nathan, and ethical naïveté. The doctors had initially said that they expected a full recovery on her part in a matter of months after the ‘accident’ and now years later it looked like it had finally happened. Her two most recent calls had been troubling to say the least.
Things would have been so much easier if she’d been killed outright, another loose end tied and forgotten. She was far too dangerous and knew too much, things that would destroy his personal and professional reputation if they came to light. That couldn’t be allowed to happen, no matter what the last shreds of his humanity demanded. Old plans needed to be altered now and new precautionary measures taken on all fronts. The time for callous decisions and drastic measures on his part was rapidly approaching.
“Hi, Dad.”
Donovan turned with a genuine smile as his precious little girl bounded across the angel-soft white carpeting of his office wrapped in a towel, recently out of the shower. His little Ashley, with her long mahogany locks, running loose and wild, and the flawless glean of rosy skin that shimmered with inner heat, glistened with the residual water. She was so raw, so alive, and so breathtakingly perfect in every way. She was so much like he remembered his mother in younger days, yet so much more. She was already a seasoned professional at the age of twenty-four, a prodigy with a razor-sharp mind and the business savvy of an executive twice her age, all hidden beneath a misleading shell of buoyant youthfulness. When combined with her innate mastery of the fine art of subtle manipulation and devious cruelty that nearly matched his at times… Why Donna had disowned her from the moment of her birth had always remained an enigma to him.
Ashley was also his one self-admitted indulgence, like a glimmering crack in the wall of his viciousness. She had been pampered like no other, always having the best of everything that life had to offer while growing up, from her schooling to material possessions. Despite being his adopted daughter at infancy, she was his pride and joy and his hopes and dreams for the future for Burke Industries; she would succeed him after he took his place on the Federation Council. If she succeeded him, that is.
His smile never wavered, but his thoughts turned dark. Another unexpected and disappointing turn of events was Federation Security successfully infiltrating one of her Hu-Animal research facilities on Earth, while snooping around several others discreetly scattered about. All of them within Federation space had needed to be abandoned, tens of millions of credits worth of equipment destroyed, along with hundreds of valuable human and AI resources put to the sword to protect Burke Industries. Ashley had tried to keep the truth from him to cover-up her security failure and that had been the most infuriating part of all. She should have known better than try to hide anything from him, in addition to allowing something like this to happen in the first place. She might consider herself a master of the game, but she still had much to learn, and every master was once an apprentice. She seems to have forgotten that in her un-tempered youth.
Ashley stopped several feet in front of him rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, impatiently gnawing at her bottom lip. So precious… What a shame it’s come to this. Now protective walls would need to be built and painful sacrifices made to protect his reputation and Burke Industries as a whole. Not even his most prized possession could be excluded in this case. This would be her greatest test, her trial alone to navigate as she le
arned the dark truth of what it truly took to sit at the head of his legacy on day. She would either sink or swim, there was no other way for her to learn this lesson, but in either case Donovan would be properly prepared for both contingencies.
“Are you going to be much longer? I’m so excited to show you my new toys!”
Donovan closed his eyes with a deep breath, drawn back to the matter at hand.
“No, not much longer. I’m trying to decide what to do about your Uncle.”
“Let him burn,” she shrugged with the innocent smile of an angelic she-devil. “It’s his problem, and we have more pressing matters at the moment.”
“As much as I agree with you, it is our problem, a Burke problem.”
“True, so why not just kill him and be done with it? For what he did at the ranch, he deserves it.”
“Once again I agree, but your mother needs to be placated for the time being. If I had your uncle killed now, it would only make matters worse. She’s dangerous, more so than he is, and something like that may lead her to make irrational decisions.”
“Are you afraid of her?” Ashley asked incredulously.
“Of course not, but I respect her. A wise man once said to me, that you should keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.”
Ashley paused for a moment, staring at nothing for a moment in deep contemplation. Her thoughtfulness grew guarded, becoming a sidelong glance as if seeing the unspoken truth between them for first time.
“I don’t know why you bothered letting either one of them live for this long,” she finally said shaking her head in disgust. “So what if they’re family, they’re both in the way, especially mother now that she isn’t a dingy moron any longer. I don’t like it.”
“If she only knew what a ruthless little bitch you’ve become…”
“I had a good teacher, so she doesn’t, and she won’t until it’s too late.”
“No, dear, she won’t. On a brighter note, you’ll be taking over management of the Ranch within the next month. I’ve already begun taking steps to replace those mercenaries your uncle currently has guarding it with one of our own security teams, and we already have the full support of the Land Owner’s Association behind us in the event that your mother protests the transition of power. After the situation at home has stabilized you can begin construction of your Hu-Animal R&D facility, and you will personally oversee the project from that point on. The entire concept was your idea after all, and I think it’s about time you’re rewarded for all your hard work.”
“Really? Good. It’s about time I got what’s mine,” Ashley pouted, slipping back into her roll of deceitful innocence with a shy smile. “I just wish uncle hadn’t stole away my prototype breeding pony, I was looking forward to seeing the results of my first third stage upgrade.”
“I know, dear, and you’ve been so patient about all this, but soon things will be set right and the Ranch will be yours to do with as you please with all the toys you could ever dream of. The Phase 2 pets do seem to have become quite popular back home already, and I have no doubt that under your guidance it won’t be long before Bio-Dyne Engineering is the leading manufacturer and distributor of natural birth, modified slaves throughout the entire Outer Rim.”
“You’re so sweet.” Ashley smiled, craftily so. “Don’t be too long with uncle; I’m anxious to try out my new toys, and I know that you are too. I’ve been teasing you about them all week. Are you ready to see them?”
Donovan managed a hasty nod, feeling the blood rush to his cheeks when Ashley giggled, dropping her towel, bouncing off naked in the direction of the master bedroom like a wicked nymph. She came to a sudden halt at the top of the landing, looking seductively over her shoulder. The relative calm of the suite was split by a shrill whistle, and a commanding summons.
“Ponies! Come!”
Donovan’s breath caught in his chest when he felt the steady vibration of heavy footsteps resonating through the floor, approaching from the foyer. Ashley had kept her new toys, the first generation of live birth genetically enhanced pony slaves, hidden from him for the last hour. They were the final product of years of research and a hundred million credits, and what he saw round the corner of the main room, lumbering to a stop next to her, could only be described as horrifically arousing and shockingly perverse.
They appeared to be third stage stallions, more animal than man now, but he’d never seen anything quite like these two before. He could almost feel the weight of their heavy, monstrous breathing from across the room. Donovan estimated their bulky, light brown height at over nine feet; more than the largest stallion currently being produced, and their physique was grotesquely muscular, like glistening leather overtop cords of wrought iron. Glossy black leather studded bands were wrapped close to their hoofed feet, with a matching collar seated snuggly at the base of their horse-like necks, resting atop bulging trapezius muscles. Dangling from the large ring in the center of their collars were simple chain leashes that rattled lightly between the valleys of their inhumanly large pectoral muscles. That in itself was enough to make Donovan gawk in open fascination and aching desire, but it was the other modification that his twisted daughter had endowed them with that were the most startling and unexpected. To begin with, they had no arms.
The ponies could have been engineered without them, but it looked as if they’d been removed recently, now ending just below their thick shoulders and capped by black leather sewn into their skin. The travesty of humanity continued in the form of piercings and rows of rings laced through their hide like living fabric, some still inflamed around the points of entry. A mask of stiff leather was wrapped around the front of their faces, covering their eyes, bolted into their thick, horse-like skulls, rendering them blind. Their ears hung low under the weight of metal links and interconnecting chains that were looped through dark, pierced nipples.
“They’re incredible, dear, but why are they muzzled? Are they dangerous?” Donovan asked cautiously.
“Oh yes, or they used to be, and one of the reasons why I removed their arms is in case of these two. They killed five test girls during the fielding phase, fucked them to death then ate them. My sweet, little boys are so naughty,” she cooed evilly, stroking the side of the nearest pony’s snout that ended in a cap of metal mesh wired through its skin. The pony’s tongue, long and exceedingly thick, snaked through the feeding gap in the mesh and slid across Ashley’s wrist and forearm, leaving behind a slobbery trail on her flawless skin.
“These two in particular are designed to recognize you and I by scent, something like their parents, and they’re voice-controlled drones now, no traditional armband controllers. They would never dream of hurting us, but as far as other people go… These were actually experimental combat variants to begin with, with a taste for raw meat. Just to be safe, I fed them before coming over.”
“Why,” Donovan took a hesitant step closer. “Why use combat ponies for sex slaves, and why give them a taste for human flesh?” One of the ponies turned in his direction looking sightlessly through him, as if it knew exactly what was going to happen tonight.
“Don’t be silly, dad.”
Ashley knelt beside the pony brute, reverently lifting its plump, inhuman cock in her hand, bouncing it heavily in her palm with the delicate sound of slapping meat. It quickly grew stiff, distending to its fully erect length like an engorged piece of sausage while bulbous testicles jiggled stiffly beneath it.
“An element of danger always makes sex more invigorating, you know that.”
Donovan’s pulse continued to race when Ashley began to stroke its cock, milking a sticky strand of pre cum from the blunt tip. It wobbled in the air like a shimmering trail, elongating, reaching for the ground before finally breaking, landing on the carpet.
“They’re always ready at a moment’s notice,” she whispered, kissing the thick, rumpled folds of foreskin near the base. “They can fuck for hours, as long as I command them too.” Her hand moved along the vein
-shrouded rod, and Donovan noticed that she’d implanted free roaming metal ball bearings just beneath the skin for extra stimulation. “I can’t wait to feel it inside me for the first time, makes my pussy water just thinking about it.”
“Me either, I mean…” Donovan was truly flustered now, lost in a rare moment of temporary surrender and sexual giddiness. Ashley was in control at the moment, and these were her wonderful playthings, her toys. He had to remember his manners, or else.
“Will I get a chance to…? I want it to hurt me; I want to be its whore.”
“Maybe,” Ashley stood with an evil grin and took the leashes of both ponies, leading them slowly to the bedroom. “So my little bitch is anxious to get his ass ruined? You want to taste that delicious pony cock in your mouth? I’ll think about it,” she giggled. “Or I might just make you watch while I’m ravaged all night long by these two brutes. Oh, what suffering that would be for you, wouldn’t it?”
Donovan quickly dropped to his knees in panic. She wouldn’t dare do that to him – she couldn’t. He was so hard, and his ass was already clenching, suckling desperately at the image of those wonderful cocks.
“Please… Anything, I’ll do anything for it.”
“You’re so cute when you beg.”
Ashley rounded the corner at a lazy, sauntering pace, and his objects of desire, with their firmly muscled, well-rounded asses and free flowing tails faded from view.
“Don’t be too long, or we may just start without you,” she called jokingly out of view, while Donovan was left shaking and sweating, gasping for breath. The bitch, the little bitch…
He almost considered leaving Nathan on hold, but he hadn’t gotten to where he was today by putting pleasure before business no matter how tempting it may be. Let Nathan have what he wanted, this time; it was only one ship, and arrangements could be made to explain it disappearance for a period of time. He’d deal with all of that later, when in a clearer frame of mind.