“He…he marked you? How?” Penny asked.
Claudette only shook her head.
“During the Unification Ceremony, of course. You’ll see. Targ is his name. He’s well and truly hypnotized—never stops talking about what a pleasure it is to ‘serve the Shining Star’ and ‘contribute to the Glorious Cause.’“ She made a face. “And he breeds me every night like clockwork during the Mandatory Breeding Hour. Gods, I hate him!”
“You can’t be serious,” Penny whispered. She felt so dizzy now she had to sit down and put her head in her hands. “This can’t be right. I can’t be stuck here—I’m not even supposed to be here! I’m supposed to be on Yown Beta on an interstellar archeological expedition! Not stuck in a cult compound about to be given away to some man I’ve never met in order to have babies the rest of my life!”
“Keep it down!” Claudette hissed. She gave Penny a swift kick that made her yelp. “Don’t you go having hysterics on me,” she snarled under her breath when Penny looked up with a wounded expression. “I haven’t had anyone to talk to since my friend, Kensey was recycled, but I’ll have you recycled too before I’ll let you get me killed with your damned blubbering!”
“S-sorry.” Penny gulped, trying to get the words out without bursting into tears. “It’s just…this is a lot to take in all at once. And you make it sound so…so hopeless.”
“It is hopeless.” Claudette’s hard gray eyes softened just a little. “But at least you know you’re not alone,” she added. “You’re not the only one immune to the whispers. Just be sure you don’t let any of those orange bastards know it, though, or it’s off to the recycler for you and the next day, you’re on the breakfast plate.”
And with those not at all encouraging words, she picked up the basket of leaf trimmings and left, locking the door to the exercise yard behind her and leaving Penny all alone with her dismal thoughts.
Twenty-Seven
In the next few days, Penny’s body began to change and not, in her opinion, for the better.
First her pussy became sensitive and swollen. She always waxed before she went on a long expedition—it saved time and trouble in personal grooming in her opinion—so she was still smooth enough to see how obvious the problem was.
At first she was worried she might have gotten some kind of alien infection somehow, but she didn’t have any kind of itching or any other signs of disease. It was just that her outer pussy lips were swollen and her clit seemed bigger and much more sensitive when she examined herself surreptitiously in the shower.
This was uncomfortable enough, but at least it could be hidden. However, the other changes in her body most definitely could not.
Not long after she noticed the changes between her legs, her breasts began to grow. She’d been a respectable size C cup since high school, but now she was suddenly a double D! Or she estimated that she would be a double D if she was allowed to wear a bra. But she and the other prisoners were kept in the shapeless white scrubs with no undergarments at all.
Penny would have thought she was imagining her breast growth, but the scrub top told a different story. It kept getting tighter and tighter every time she put it on until, at last, she had to ask Mother Toone for a larger one because she couldn’t get it over her much-larger breasts one morning.
The NeverBreeder attendant looked pleased.
“Why, of course you can have a bigger top, my sweetie,” she cooed at Penny. “And don’t you worry about a thing—you’re just getting extra ripe and fertile for your first breeding.”
“I…I am?” Penny tried to smile but the idea of being “bred” by some man she didn’t even know was horrifying.
“Well, of course my sweet!” Mother Toone opened her yellow eyes wide. “Your Forever Mate, who you’ll be joined with during the Unification Ceremony.”
Penny was intensely glad that Claudette had already told her about this. She was pretty sure she couldn’t have kept the calm and happy look on her face if she had just been finding out she was soon to be married to a complete stranger that moment from the NeverBreeder attendant.
“Oh, of course,” she murmured. “That sounds…lovely.”
“And so it will be!” Mother Toone exclaimed. “All these lovely ladies lined up to wed with the males our Glorious Leader has picked for them! And you’ll be happy, my sweet! For the Shining Star is never wrong. Every couple he puts together is as happy as can be, all their lives long.”
“I…I’m sure they are,” Penny mumbled, still smiling as hard as she could.
“Here you go, my dear.”
Mother Toone got Penny a larger scrub top and nodded in approval as Penny pulled it on.
“Now then,” she told Penny. “You just let me know when your nectar comes in—it should start any day now.”
“My…nectar?” Penny asked in confusion—this was something Claudette hadn’t told her about. “What’s that?”
“Why, it’s a kind of sweet honey or dew that drips from your nipples,” Mother Toone informed her. “Once it comes in, you’re ripe to be bred by your Forever Mate. And you’ll be needing him to help you with it—which he will, of course, during your Mandatory Breeding hour each day.”
Penny felt like her smile was beginning to crack.
“Is…is that so?” she managed to get out.
“Oh yes, sweetie, it’s so.” Mother Toone smiled at her. “So as I said, let me know when it comes in. It’s sweet and sticky and it can make a real mess if it’s not drawn out at least once a day. So we’ll hook you up at the suction station if it comes in too much before the Unification Ceremony.”
“Suction station?” Penny asked faintly. “Uh, never mind,” she added, when Mother Toone started to explain. “I think I can figure that one out on my own. But what about…” She hesitated, not sure how put the other embarrassing question she wanted to ask.
“What about the swelling in your nethers?” Mother Toone asked brightly. “Why, that’s just another sign you’re getting ready to be bred. I know it’s a bit sensitive down there.” She nodded at the baggy crotch of Penny’s scrubs. “But never you fear—the minute you’re matched to your Forever Mate, his seed will ease the ache, I promise.”
“His seed? It will?” Penny asked faintly. “I mean, of course it will. Thank you, Mother Toone. Um, excuse me—I think I need to…to use the restroom.”
“Hurry back dear,” the NeverBreeder attendant advised her. “You don’t want your lovely breakfast to get cold. We have some tasty sausage links for you today—juicy and meaty and delicious!”
Wondering what—or who—was in the breakfast sausage, Penny nodded and fled before her smile could break completely.
She ran into the communal bathroom, which adjoined the dorm room, and shut herself into one of the stalls. Ripping up her scrub top, she examined her breasts and nipples anxiously and saw they had turned from pale pink to a dark maroon.
Were her breasts really going to swell with some kind of weird nectar? And what was causing this change in her body in the first place? Was it in the food they were feeding her?
She was scrupulously avoiding all meat, now that she knew what was in it. She used the flavor sticks on everything else though—could it be something in those? Or was it the ubiquitous protein shake she had every morning? It had actually become Penny’s favorite part of the day because she could make it into anything she wanted from a delicious frozen coffee drink to a sweet treat from her childhood. But maybe she ought to stop drinking it. Maybe—
She heard the bathroom door open and someone walked in and took the stall next to hers.
“It’s a glorious day in the Compound,” a familiar voice said loudly.
“Claudette?” Penny whispered back.
“It’s me. Saw you tear out of the dorm in a hurry. You’re not cracking, are you?” The other woman sounded concerned but Penny wasn’t sure if she was more worried about her mental health or anxious that Penny might give her away as someone else who wasn’t truly hypnoti
zed and under the control of the Compound.
“I’m okay,” she said, trying to keep her voice low and steady. “It’s just…you could have warned me about the breast growth and the…the nectar I’m supposed to start producing any day now. Mother Toone told me about it and it kind of freaked me out.”
“That’s just a side-effect of the Mother’s Milk,” Claudette said complacently.
“The Mother’s Milk?” Penny asked. Nobody had mentioned the term again after her first day at the Compound and she’d almost forgotten about it.
“That’s the white liquid you drink every day,” Claudette told her. “The one you use the flavor sticks on.”
“What? But you told me that was just a protein shake!” Penny hissed. “How could you lie like that?”
“I have to do my job, don’t I?” Claudette demanded defensively. “You know what would happen to me if I started warning everyone what the Mother’s Milk does?”
“I’m not going to drink any more of it,” Penny vowed. I’ll find a way to hide it or flush it or pour it down the sink.”
“It wouldn’t matter by now if you stopped drinking it and never had any again,” Claudette told her. “After three days, the Mother’s Milk makes permanent changes in a woman’s body. They just keep giving it to you as long as you live in the dorms to be sure you get good and ripe for breeding.”
“So…these changes in my body are permanent?” Penny asked, looking down in horror at her new, much-larger breasts.
“They are.” She could almost hear Claudette shrugging. “Don’t worry—you’ll get used to it.”
“How can I get used to the idea that my breasts are going to start leaking some weird, honey-like substance and some man I’ve never met before will be sucking it out of me?” Penny demanded.
“Shhh! Keep your voice down!” Claudette hissed. “I don’t think the restrooms are bugged, but I can’t be sure. Gods know they bug every other damn place in the Compound—including the Love Huts where all us breeders live.”
“Love Huts? Is that what they call those little white cottages we saw on the way in here?” Penny asked.
“Uh-huh. Everything at the Compound has a pretty name attached to it,” Claudette said sourly. “The tiny fucking living quarters are ‘Love Huts.’ The sticky crap that comes from your breasts is ‘love nectar.’ The way your crotch gets all swollen and so sensitive you want to scream is the ‘breeding need.’ And of course, you get raped daily during the ‘Mandatory Breeding Hour.’ It’s all just Gods-damned glorious.”
She sounded so bitter and hopeless, Penny would have cried for her if she hadn’t been frightened half out of her mind.
“Claudette,” she said urgently. “We have to get away from here! Can’t we make some excuse to get near the gate and then hide until they open it again and slip out?”
“And then what?” Claudette demanded from the other stall. “Go hide in the Deadly Jungle and die a horrible, painful death by poisoning the first time a leaf brushes your skin?”
“We could stick to the road where there aren’t any plants,” Penny said stubbornly. “We could try to get to where the NeverBreeder scouting parties dock and sneak into one of their ships and get taken back to Hell’s Gate Station.”
“You’re dreaming,” Claudette said flatly. “You need to stop it now, Penny. These kinds of fantasies are only going to get you recycled and portioned out at the meat market or served up on the meal trays.”
“I can’t give up hope!” Penny protested. “I don’t want to be married off to some man I don’t know and be…be raped by him every day for the rest of my life!” She could barely get the words out, her throat was so tight.
“It’s not so bad after you get used to it.” Claudette’s voice sounded gray and colorless—hollow, Penny thought. “I used to wish I could talk my idiot mate out of breeding me all the time, but he’s too much of a zealot for the Glorious Cause to ever skip a Mandatory Breeding Hour. Besides, that’s when he sucks out my nectar. And if he didn’t impregnate me so regularly, I’d have been recycled ages ago. So there’s that, anyway.”
“What if you could talk him out of…of breeding you, though?” Penny asked. “I mean, do you think that’s possible? Would someone who’s under the influence of the hypno-whispers be able to listen to reason?”
Claudette barked an ugly laugh.
“Talk him out of it? When have you ever been able to talk any male, hypnotized or not, out of wanting sex? Besides, there’s the Spice to contend with.”
“The spice? What spice?” Penny asked.
“The kinds that drives even the mildest, kindest male to rape,” Claudette said dryly. “And believe me, the NeverBreeder scouts aren’t out there looking for the mildest and the kindest. They’re picking males who already have high testosterone levels and the Spice just drives their sexual desire through the roof.”
“What spice are you talking about?” Penny demanded again, irritated that the other woman wasn’t answering her question. “Is it the male equivalent of the Mother’s Milk?”
“You could say that,” Claudette muttered. “Only it’s airborne—constantly circulating through the air supply of the entire Compound. So it isn’t like a supplement or a food you can stop eating or drinking. Every breeder male inside the atmosphere dome that’s over this place is breathing it in every minute of the day and night and believe me—it makes them horny as a belrusian bear. So I’m warning you now—get ready to be plowed the minute you and your ‘Forever Mate’ get back to your ‘Love Hut’ after the Unification Ceremony. He’s going to need to breed and you’ll just have to take it.”
“That’s awful!” Penny put her head in her hands. She felt cold all over—a deep chill that had settled at her core and wouldn’t thaw. “Claudette, I can’t go through with this,” she whispered. “I have to find a way to escape—have to get out of here before the Unification Ceremony!”
“Good luck with that,” Claudette said unsympathetically. “Every door in and out of this place is locked to the retinal scans of the NeverBreeders who work here. Even I have to wait to get in and out until one of them comes to help me and the Breeding and Conception Center has been my job assignment for the past twelve cycles.”
“There must be some way!” Penny pleaded. “Some time when they’re taking a break or leaving for the night or some point when I could slip out when nobody is watching!”
“Haven’t you been listening to a word I’ve been telling you?” Claudette’s voice from the other stall was harsh. “Somebody is always watching around here! Even in the Love Huts—if you don’t do your duty and breed in the bed chamber at the Mandatory Breeding Hour, they’ll know it. And you know how they’ll know it? Because they’re always watching!”
She took a deep breath and blew it out in a frustrated sound.
“Look, I don’t have any more time for this. This is life in the Compound and there’s absolutely no escape unless you want to end up in the sausage grinder. So get used to it or die—those are your only two choices, Penny. That’s it. I’m sorry.”
She got up and the stall door banged shut as she left. There was the sound of water running in the sink and then the door to the bathroom opened and shut, leaving Penny alone.
I can’t cry, she told herself, even as the tears leaked down her cheeks. I can’t. If I show any emotion other than happiness to be here, they’ll suspect I’m not hypnotized and I’ll end up in the sausage grinder, just like Claudette said. But oh God—what am I going to do?
It was at times like these when she wished she could pray—wished she could reach out to a higher power who had everything under control—who had a plan, even though she couldn’t see it—
“Courage, daughter,” a soft voice whispered in her ear and then the entire bathroom seemed to fill with a warm, comforting presence.
Penny took a deep, surprised breath. It was like someone had come to her when she was standing out in the cold and wrapped a warm, cozy quilt around her shoulders an
d given her a comforting hug.
“What…who?” She looked around but there was no one there—except there was. Penny could sill feel the presence wrapped around her like strong, loving arms.
“Courage,” whispered the voice again. “Things seem dark now but you will prevail.”
Then the presence and the voice that went with it were gone as quickly as they had appeared. But somehow, Penny still felt comforted.
She wasn’t sure what she had just experienced or who had been talking to her but she felt better—stronger and less hopeless. Maybe despite the scary situation she found herself in, things would still work out all right.
Penny sniffed and blotted her face with toilet paper. She would splash some water in her face and tell Mother Toone that she’d gotten something in her eyes and rubbing had made them red. No matter how hopeless things looked, she couldn’t let herself give up.
Even if there didn’t seem to be any point in doing anything else.
Twenty-Eight
“Now, now, stop fussing with your Unification dress! It’s supposed to be worn this way.”
Mother Toone parted the long, feathery strands of the billux grass top that Penny was wearing so that it showed her breasts—now heavy and full with nectar—and the leaking tips of her nipples.
The billux grass plant was one of the few on Yown Alpha that wasn’t poisonous and since the long strands were soft and colorful—deep blue and turquoise and jade green—they were used to make special occasion clothing like the Unification dress Penny was wearing.
The “dress” was actually a sleeveless top worn in a band just above her jutting breasts and a long skirt worn low on the hips that went almost to her ankles. In the outfit, Penny thought she looked like a hula girl—an obscene one.
“And the bottom has to be worn like this,” the NeverBreeder attendant continued, reaching down to part the long feathery fronds so that they framed Penny’s swollen pussy.
“But…it’s so revealing,” Penny protested.
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