Slaves of Elysium (10 page)

As their guards drew them to one side out of the flow of traffic, the commander marched over to a particular desk and spoke to the soldier seated behind it, pointing back to Jeni and Rebecca as he did so, clearly reporting his find.

While Rebecca dropped her head to avoid the glances of the passers-by, Jeni looked around curiously. Long banners hung from the ceiling, adorned with symbols and devices that meant nothing to her. Mounted on the far wall, however, was a large glass or plastic panel bearing what looked like the outline of a roughly crescent-shaped landmass. Branching threads ran across it that might have represented rivers, while other points were marked with coloured gems. Major cities, perhaps? Was it a map of the land they were now in? There was no clue to its scale, so she had no idea how large the land itself was.

Looking further round the chamber Jeni saw something she had not at first noticed, perhaps because nobody else was paying it any special attention. By the wall just a few paces from them was a naked young woman with dark hair and the same tint of skin as the soldiers. She was bent over on her elbows and knees, to which were strapped large polishing buffs linked by short chains, and on which she shuffled forward. There was a small wheel under her midriff mounted on a bicycle-like fork fastened to a wide belt locked tightly round her waist. Mounted on top of this belt, so that it rested in the small of her back, was a transparent cylinder the inside of which was grey with dust. From the front of the cylinder two flexible hoses ran down over the woman's shoulders to the head of a wide brush, the short handle of which fitted to a ball-gag that was strapped into her mouth. The other end of the cylinder contained a kind of bellows arrangement, actuated by a curving rod which ran down to the centre of a short bar linking cuffs about the woman's ankles. The rod ran through a ring mounted on the end of a short metal shaft, which protruded bizarrely from deep between her neatly rounded buttocks, the other end of which could only have been lodged in her anus.

Jeni gazed in disbelief as the woman shuffled forward and lowered her head, pressing the brush to the floor. Taking more of her weight on her forearms and the wheel under her belly, she began bending and straightening her lower legs, pumping the bellows to suck the dust from the floor. As she did so, what could be seen of her face under the straps took on a strange expression. At first Jeni thought it was the effort of pumping, but then she noticed a short springy arm curved from the side of the anal-mounted shaft holding the guide ring and up between the woman's legs. As the bellow's rod moved through the ring it set the shaft rocking in its fleshy socket, and this movement was being transmitted to the cleft of her vagina. Jeni could only guess what was mounted on its end, but it was evident the effect it had on the woman. She had been transformed into a living vacuum cleaner, condemned to masturbate in public as she worked.

People who could build flying disks could surely make powered vacuum cleaners, Jeni thought. But if you had slave power, perhaps you would not always want to use them. What nicer than a pretty girl forced to humiliate herself as she cleans your floors? The strange thing was that nobody else in the room was paying her any particular attention, except to walk round her as they passed. Was it such a common sight in this land? She saw that Rebecca had also seen the unfortunate woman and was gawping at her in undisguised horror. The same thought must have been going through her mind as was going through Jeni's: would that be their fate too?

The commander returned from the desk and signalled to their guards to follow him. They went briskly down a long corridor, Jeni and Rebecca shuffling frantically in their hobbles to keep up, to a door at the far end. The commander knocked and entered, and they were led in after him.

The large room beyond was cluttered with strange assemblages, gleaming metal rods, disks of coloured plastic and silver wires, which gave the impression of complex machinery without resembling any familiar device. Floor-to-ceiling shelves were filled with a miscellany of smaller items, suggesting a store of subcomponents and spare parts.

A small man, dressed in what Jeni was beginning to think of as a civilian white tunic, was bent over a bench, busy on some job of work. Standing attentively beside him holding a tray of glittering instruments was a pretty young black woman. She was naked except for a silver collar and cuffs round her wrists and ankles, and a belt of similar material encircling her waist. A narrower band of metal ran down from the belt and disappeared into the cleft between her glossy, well-rounded buttocks. As she turned slightly, Jeni saw two large silver rings pierced the thick dark buds of her nipples.

The commander respectfully attracted the small man's attention and presumably related the story of Jeni and Rebecca's capture. The small man nodded amiably and said something to his slave assistant, who put her instrument tray down and scurried quickly to one of the storage racks. As she moved Jeni saw her pubic hair curled though a metal lattice depending from her belt, while her cleft itself pouted behind a slot lined with fine spikes. Wide enough to pee through, Jeni realised, but too narrow even for the girl's own fingers to enter.

The girl returned with a device consisting of a short glass wand embedded with a tracery of fine wires clipped to the side of a red plastic rectangle. The small man detached the rod and ran the end over Jeni and Rebecca, both front and back, while studying the plastic rectangle. This, Jeni saw, held a small illuminated screen. After a moment he said something to the guards, who pulled the metal tape from their mouths with painful briskness.

The small man tried out what sounded like half a dozen different languages on them, inviting them to respond, but all were meaningless. Then he held out the rod like a microphone and nodded encouragingly, mouthing words. He wanted to record their speech.

Rebecca babbled as though she still couldn't accept the evidence of her own eyes. ‘Please, there's been a terrible mistake. My name is Rebecca Lamont. Tell the British Console. Tell him I'm here...'

But the man had evidently heard enough and turned the rod to Jeni.

‘I don't understand your language and I'm sure nobody here speaks English,' she said simply.

The small man, who Jeni suspected was the local equivalent of a scientist, took in whatever the screen showed him and said something else to the guards. She and Rebecca were marched over to one of the odd machines. It was another assembly of coloured plastic struts and panels, with thicker silvery pipes running through it as well as fine wires, and resembled nothing so much as a hi-tec version of medieval stocks designed to hold somebody standing but bent forward. The half-sections were folded back revealing holes for the neck and wrists and even, in a low-set panel, for the ankles.

At the sight of the device Rebecca began to struggle and shout, and the commander was drawing his baton to shock her again when Jeni quickly blurted, ‘She's too frightened, I'll go first,' and nodded meaningfully towards the stocks.

Of course they didn't understand her words but she hoped they would recognise her intention. A pointless show of resistance would only annoy their captors, she thought, for which she might be blamed as much as Rebecca. Obviously these people kept slaves, but the black girl was apparently being treated more considerately than that human vacuum cleaner out in the entrance hall. Cooperation might win them some favour.

The commander smiled in approval and nodded to the guard. He stripped the tape from her wrists and removed her hobble. Jeni, heart pounding, shuffled her feet into the ankle holes then bent forward and placed her neck and wrists in their proper positions. The scientist touched a contact on a panel mounted on the centre post and the matching halves of the stocks silently closed over her with mechanical precision. She gave an instinctive tug but she was held fast, her bottom thrust out and head facing downwards. She said aloud for Rebecca's benefit, and partly to reassure herself, ‘There's no point in annoying them. Best do what they want and we might get better treatment.'

As she spoke she felt a tingling where the sections of plastic touched her. Then came a slight vibration running through the frame of the stocks, a brief sensation of hot then cold, followed by a change in the pressure about her neck, wrists and ankles, then the sections of the stocks smoothly unlocked and folded back. Cautiously, Jeni stood up.

She was now wearing a silvery set of cuffs and a collar identical to those of the black slave girl. Surprisingly they were not as heavy as they looked, but they felt solid and were apparently quite seamless. Somehow the machinery within the stocks had cast them all in place in one piece. Would they have to be cut off? Would they ever be removed?

Shivering inwardly, Jeni tried to sound offhand as she held out her wrists for Rebecca to see. ‘You see; it didn't hurt at all.'

‘I won't wear those things,' Rebecca wailed.

‘I don't think you've any choice. Do you want them to use that electric baton again?'

Still looking frightened, Rebecca allowed herself to be placed in the machine, and a minute later she too was cuffed and collared. She and Jeni stood huddled together, uncertain what would happen next.

The scientist picked up a round-edged rectangle of coloured plastic like a slim mobile, with metallic buttons on the front. He pointed it at Jeni and Rebecca and pressed one of the contacts. Jeni felt prickling pain under her collar, as though she was being stung by dozens of wasps, and beside her Rebecca was shrieking and tearing at her own collar, but it was quite immovable. Then the pain went as suddenly as it had come, leaving them dizzy with shock and surprise.

Before they could recover themselves the scientist touched another button, and Jeni's wrist cuffs seemed to take on a life of their own, as though they had become powerful magnets, pulling her arms together until the cuffs met with a metallic click. In a panic she tried to separate them but they would not budge. Her ankle cuffs snapped together, throwing her off balance so that she toppled over into Rebecca, and together they collapsed to the floor.

As she wriggled Jeni saw the scientist's slave looking down at them impassively, as though she had seen such things many times before. Jeni forced herself to relax.

‘Don't fight it,' she hissed to Rebecca, and gradually she too calmed down and they both lay still in their bonds.

Another touch of a button and the cuffs separated. The scientist indicated with a gesture that they should stand, and they both obeyed swiftly. He nodded, as though satisfied the devices were operating correctly, and said a few words to the soldiers. They turned and filed out of the room. The commander flashed Jeni a last knowing smile, then the door closed behind him.

Still holding the controller, the scientist indicated they should move over to a corner of the chamber where an arrangement of copper-coloured metal disks was set flush with the wall. They were grouped in sets of five: three in a row at about shoulder height with two below them at floor level. The scientist positioned Jeni and Rebecca with their backs to two adjacent sets of these plates, activated the controller once more, and they were pulled hard against the wall, their collars clanging against the centre plate of the top row while their arms were bent and jerked backwards until the cuffs locked against the two side plates, holding their wrists at shoulder height. Then the same invisible force pulled their legs apart until the ankle cuffs clicked onto the two plates at floor level.

And there they were, spread flat against the wall and absolutely helpless once again. The scientist satisfied himself they were secure, took hold of a lock of their hair in turn and examined it closely as the commander had done, gave their nipples a thoughtful tweak, then returned to his work on the other side of the room.

Rebecca snivelled miserably, slowly shaking her head as though she could not believe the sudden change in her status. From socialite to slave in a few hours.

Jeni, by contrast, felt no self-pity, only a growing sense of wonder at what would happen next. It was desperately arousing to be so helpless, both physically and mentally; to be in the hands of slave keepers who could do anything they wanted with her. The thought made her nipples harden and a warm slickness filled the cleft between her labia. Was such treatment not what she had secretly longed for, even if she could never have imagined it would be visited upon her under such strange circumstances? Perhaps this unknown land was where she should have been all her life.

 

 

 

Jeni and Rebecca remained secured against the wall while the scientist continued with his work, whatever it was, assisted by the pretty black slave girl. The pair hardly gave them a second glance. Rebecca was silent, apparently too numbed by recent events even to complain.

For her part Jeni was filled with a wild cocktail of emotions; a burning curiosity to understand the strange new land she found herself in, mingled with instinctive trepidation and occasional shivers of panic as the reality of her situation returned to her. Every so often she flexed her muscles against the unyielding bands that held her in place. She did not seriously expect to free herself, but she could not help testing her restraints, aware of the way they accentuated her naked vulnerability. It was how a slave would be secured, of course, and a little thrill coursed through her at the idea. She looked at the sets of restraining plates set into the wall. How many other women had been held prisoner here before her? And what had been their fate?

The scientist giving an order to his slave girl interrupted Jeni's contemplations. He used the word ‘Noni' in a way that suggested it was her name, and even if she had been stripped of her clothes and liberty, at least it seemed she still had something she could call her own.

Following his directions the girl brought over beakers of water, which she held for them to drink from. Jeni took some comfort at the small consideration; it seemed their captors were not totally inhumane.

‘Thank you,' she said, as warmly as she could to the girl, hoping the sense got through, then added questioningly, ‘Your name is Noni?'

The girl gave a curious smile, and then nodded.

 

It was rather more than an hour after they had been secured to the wall that a newcomer entered the laboratory. He was a man of the same type as the others, with a reddish skin and strong nose, dressed in a white tunic with richly embroidered hems and carrying a light blue sash across his shoulder. He was leading a slave girl by a chain leash. She had a mane of wavy dark brown hair confined by a headband and her skin was of a much lighter tint than his. Like Noni she wore a metal belt to the rear of which her wristbands were fastened, so that her hands rested in the supple curve of her back above her neatly rounded buttocks. Except for her restraints and strappy sandals, she was completely naked.

The scientist greeted the man and conversed with him intently for a few minutes, from time to time pointing at Jeni and Rebecca. The newcomer nodded, spoke a few words to his slave and then led her across to the two captive women. Meanwhile Noni was ordered to fetch the recording device, which she brought over and held at the ready.

The new slave girl knelt gracefully before Jeni and Rebecca with the man still holding her leash standing behind her, and Jeni couldn't help thinking she was like a dog settling at the feet of its master.

Seen close to the slave appeared to be in her early twenties, with serious grey/green eyes, a slightly broadened but neat nose and sensuous lips. A silver ring hung from her nasal septum over her top lip, complimenting the rings that pierced the pale nipples of her shapely breasts. Thick dark fluffy pubic hair showed through the filigreed metal that covered and imprisoned her pubes. The same filigree work was visible on the broad, finely wrought band that encircled her slim throat. A matching collar and chastity belt, Jeni thought with fluttery feelings in her stomach.

‘My master, Administrator Narvok Tem, believes you speak English,' she said, shaping her words carefully as though recalling a language she had not used for some time. Her voice bore a slight but distinct American accent. ‘He will speak through me. You will answer his questions promptly and completely.'

Rebecca sobbed in relief. ‘Oh, thank God!' she gasped. ‘Tell them there's been a terrible mistake. They must give me back my clothes and let me go. My name is Rebecca Lamont. My father is Terrance Lamont, the banker. He'll have people looking for me. Call his London office... I can give you his number.'

The girl was translating this as Rebecca babbled her plea. The man looked annoyed and exchanged a few words with the girl, who turned back to Jeni and Rebecca and said, ‘My master has allowed me to speak freely for a moment to explain things to you, so you don't waste his time making any more foolish requests. Get this straight. You are slaves now. Forget your family or what you were in the past. That's all gone now. And even if he wanted to, my master couldn't call
London
. There's no such place here.'

As Rebecca stared at the girl uncomprehendingly, Jeni asked, ‘Can you tell us where
here
is?'

‘This is the Imperial Isle of Elysium.' She pronounced it, ‘Iliz-ium'.

Rebecca blinked. ‘The Isle of Elysium? Where's that?'

‘In the middle of the Atlantic, of course,' the girl said, ‘but not in the world you grew up in. I know this will seem crazy, but you're not in your world any longer.'

In fact Jeni felt no surprise at the incredible statement. It seemed to make sense of the sense of dislocation she had felt while they were lost in the fog. They really had been in transit, from one world to another.

Narvok Tem said something impatiently and the girl translated quickly. ‘My master wants to know how you got here, and if there are any more of you. It's a matter of national security. You must tell them the truth, or else they will make you.'

‘Our boat went down in a storm,' Jeni said quickly. ‘There were two men with us. They might still be out at sea or washed up along the shore somewhere. Please can you ask Mr Tem to have a search made for them.'

‘Tem is what you would call his Christian name,' the girl said. ‘It's how people are introduced here. But I'll tell him.'

She spoke rapidly to Narvok Tem, who nodded and said something back.

‘The military are already searching the beaches,' she reported. ‘A warning will be sent to ocean-going vessels to keep a lookout for your friends.' She hesitated, then added quickly, ‘You understand, if they're found they'll be made slaves as well. That's how they do thing's around here.'

Rebecca groaned in despair.

‘At least they'll be alive,' Jeni said.

‘Where did you and your boat come from?' Narvok Tem asked through his slave. ‘What was your objective?'

Jeni explained about the race from Bermuda to Nassau, the first storm, and the days they spent in the fog before being wrecked. The girl relayed this to Narvok Tem, who nodded gravely.

‘He believes you,' she said. ‘If the remains of your boat are consistent with your story, they won't need to interrogate you any further. This sort of thing has happened before.'

‘Is it to do with the Bermuda Triangle?' Jeni asked. ‘Is that how you got here?'

‘Yes,' the girl answered, and then spoke to her master again, who conferred with the scientist, and after a minute the two seemed to reach a consensus. Narvok Tem told the girl something, hung the end of her leash on a convenient hook set into the side of a stack of shelving and he and the scientist moved off to the other side of the chamber, with Noni at their heels. They gathered before what must have been the local equivalent of a computer terminal and a map appeared on the screen.

Jeni thought what a strange and bizarre sight the three of them must make: two naked women spread and bound against a wall with another tied like a dog kneeling before them. Yet two men who seemed to represent the ruling class in this strange new land evidently thought it so commonplace that for the moment they had left them untended in a corner while they dealt with more pressing matters. But of course, Jeni realised, they could afford to do so with absolute confidence, knowing that when they resumed interest in them their captives would still be exactly where they had been left. Slaves, she supposed, must at all times wait on their masters' convenience. The thought made her shiver with dark excitement.

Some of the stiffness went out of the American girl's spine as she relaxed slightly. ‘They're working out where the wreckage from your yacht may have come ashore and talking to the city council,' she explained. ‘Meanwhile, I'm to tell you what they're going to do to you next. They think it might stop you kicking up too much of a fuss if you know in advance.'

‘I don't want to hear it, I just want to go home,' Rebecca said desperately.

‘Get this into your head,' the girl said firmly. ‘Even if they let you, you can't go home. This is another world. Call it a parallel universe or alternate dimension if you like. I don't know the science and it doesn't matter. You came here on a one-way ticket. There's no going back, ever.'

‘Well, thanks for being honest with us,' Jeni said, as Rebecca slumped miserably in her bonds once again.

For the first time the girl smiled. ‘That's okay. I remember how I felt when I first arrived.'

‘What's your name?'

‘Cath. Catharine Morton.'

‘I'm Jeni Weeks. You were from America originally?'

‘Yes. Maryland.' She shook her head ruefully. ‘God, it seems a long time ago now.'

‘How did you get here?'

‘I was on a private plane heading for Puerto Rico,' Catharine explained. ‘Out over the ocean we hit this terrible electrical storm. The plane came apart in mid-air and I simply fell out. Except there was this glowing fog between me and the water, and I fell through it... and kept falling and falling. I thought I was going mad, or else I'd died and that was the afterlife.'

‘That sounds quite like the fog we were lost in,' Jeni said.

‘It does,' Catharine agreed. ‘I think it's been around that bit of ocean for a long time. Anyway, after what seemed like forever I hit the sea hard, though not as hard as I should have done. Then I was carried along by the currents for a couple of days and was washed up here more alive than dead. Give them credit; they saved my life, which was more than the doctors back home could have done. When I was well enough they put me through slave training, and eventually I was sold to Narvok Tem. I've belonged to him ever since.'

‘How do you...' Jeni began awkwardly, ‘how do you cope with being a slave?'

Catharine smiled. ‘It sounds silly, but you just get used to it.' She shrugged as though to indicate her current state of subjugation. ‘Being kept naked, the restraints, acting submissive, taking punishments, the whole lot. After a while it just becomes part of everyday life, which it is round here. That makes it easier, actually; it's so normal and so many others are in the same situation you forget after a while. And Narvok's not a bad master. He makes more of a show at being strict when we're out in public, of course, and I'm on my best behaviour too. If I did anything to embarrass him he'd have to punishing me to save face. But back home he's easy enough to please. He's a confirmed bachelor type, so I don't have a wife to keep happy as well. He can be quite funny at times, in a dry kind of way. Sometimes on his days off we...'

She was looking wistfully over at Narvok as he bent over the screen on the other side of the laboratory. Then she gave a shudder. ‘That's enough about me. I've got to tell you what's coming next. First, Mykran Rado over there, he's sort of the city's chief scientist and inventor, will give you both a test to measure your pleasure/pain thresholds and sexual responsive index. That's as uncomfortable and intimate as it sounds and might freak you out, but take my advice and let it happen. You can't fight it anyway. Then I'm to give you lessons in basic Elysian, enough so you can begin your slave training. Once you graduate you'll be sold at public auction.'

Rebecca stirred, lifting her head and tugging at her bonds. ‘They can't do that to me,' she groaned desperately. ‘Not these filthy dagos, not anybody, do you hear?'

Jeni wondered again at the streak of blind prejudice that tainted her former employer's mind. Where had it come from?

Catharine was scowling contemptuously at Rebecca. ‘You'd better get down off that old colonial high horse of yours and learn to keep your lip zipped, girl, unless you want me to translate what you just called them. Skin's got nothing to do with culture or whether you treat people right. Millions of people back in our world were effectively kept as slaves or worse, even in modern times, and plenty of white folk played their part. At least here it's open and honest and there are rules about how it's done, which you'd better learn fast if you know what's good for you.'

Rebecca was silent, still angry but realising her words could get her into trouble.

‘We'll learn the rules,' Jeni assured Catharine. ‘Is there anything else you can tell us that will help?'

Catharine smiled wryly. ‘Too much for the time we've got now, but basically, obey orders. Do what they want and they'll go easier on you. Actually, you two already have a lot going for you.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘Blondes aren't common around here, so I wouldn't be surprised if you were kept together as a pair. With luck you'll be bought by some high status family and end up having it pretty easy. I don't mean you won't still be total slaves and have to do things you can't imagine right now, but you'll probably avoid most of the drudgery and heavy labour side of the deal.'