Slaves of Elysium (13 page)

‘Maybe not. I'll have to find out. Perhaps I'll find the right master or mistress for me here.'

‘Oh, how romantic,' Rebecca said contemptuously.

‘Why shouldn't I wish for that? It might happen. It's no more unlikely than how we came here in the first place. And meeting Cath was reassuring. She seemed quite content.'

‘Because she's another masochist like you,' Rebecca retorted. ‘Well, they'll never make a slave out of me. I'd never serve anybody like that!'

‘As you said, I don't think we'll be given any choice,' Jeni pointed out. ‘You may just have to make the best of it, at least until we learn how things work round here. Hopefully Cath can tell us more when she comes for the language lessons.'

A little later two trays of food were slid into the cell through a slot in the door. The portions were laid out in moulded hollows in the trays. Apart from some segments of fruit and cheese, the meal consisted of thick wafers, both sweet and savoury, or small pasty-like pastry pies. No utensils were provided, so it was clearly intended to be eaten with the fingers.

Rebecca waited until Jeni had sampled each item before trying it herself. Jeni could not place all the flavours, and one wafer was highly spiced, but it all seemed freshly prepared and the portions were adequate.

They finished the meal and slid the trays back out of the door slot. Then investigating the sanitary recess to wash her hands, Jeni found a nozzle that dispensed liquid soap and a button that blew hot air from vents. There was also a recessed showerhead in the ceiling. These discoveries delighted Rebecca and she took over the cubical for a shower and vigorous hair wash, as though trying to remove not only the dirt and grime she had accumulated over the last few days, but also the memory of strangers' hands on her skin.

She looked more relaxed when she was cleaned and dried to her satisfaction, but still tugged regretfully at her hair. ‘If only I had a comb,' she said.

‘I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask,' Jeni suggested, and knocked on the cell door, trying not to sound impatient. Eventually a panel slid back revealing a guard's face.

‘Please, can we have a comb?' Jeni asked as meekly as she could, holding up her own tangled locks, then pointing at Rebecca's fluffy mane and miming combing through it. The guard frowned at her antics for a moment, then grinned in sudden understanding.

‘Ka trimvo,' he said.

‘Yes, a comb, “ka trimvo”,' Jeni repeated. The panel closed and she heard his footsteps receding down the passage.

‘Do you think he understood?' Rebecca wondered doubtfully, but a minute later the door panel slid open again and the guard handed through a small plastic comb.

‘That's very kind, thank you so much,' Jeni said warmly.

‘Why did you thank him like that after what they've done to us?' Rebecca asked, after the guard had gone again.

‘Well, he didn't have to get us a comb. And it never hurts to be polite.'

Rebecca still looked puzzled. She had never needed to think like that before. Perhaps she would learn to in Elysium.

As Jeni took her turn under the shower she wondered about the conditions of their imprisonment. On one hand they had been stripped of their normal rights and dignity and subjected to the most intimate and humiliating testing. On the other their cell was warm and clean, they had good food and basic but adequate sanitary facilities. How many prisons back in the world she had thought of as home offered so much?

But was it possible to have humanitarian scruples and keep slaves? Perhaps they maintained standards for their prisoners out of simple practicality? They might simply have decided that comfortable, well fed prisoners, or indeed slaves, were less likely to try to escape.

Or perhaps it was a matter of pride in their society. The style of their essentially simple dress and air of antiquity about the great stepped pyramid was deceiving. Jeni had to keep reminding herself that they actually possessed advanced technology. And if their civilisation was as old as Cath had suggested, perhaps they had used that technology to refine the art of slavery as they progressed. There was no need to keep slaves in squalor to exercise control over them when you had such things as magnetic collars and cuffs, or whatever the force was they used. And they would not want to have smelly unkempt servants around them if their own standards had risen accordingly.

Jeni felt her reasoning was plausible. It might help her understand this strange new land. And if one consequence was that she could keep herself clean and well fed, she was not complaining.

She finished drying herself and had just lain down on her bed when the cell lights dimmed to a dull red glow, which remained constant. Presumably it was night outside.

‘I suppose we're meant to sleep now,' Rebecca said. ‘But how can I sleep after what's happened.'

‘It could be much worse,' Jeni said, turning over on her side and trying to ignore Rebecca's petty griping. What would the new day bring? There was so much to learn. Well, she already knew the Elysian for comb. That was a start.

 

Prison routine began early when the cell lights brightened, presumably with the dawn, waking Jeni and Rebecca from deep, exhausted sleep. They yawned and stretched and looked at each other uncertainly, wondering what was to come.

Rebecca became embarrassed at using the squat toilet, insisting Jeni stayed as far round the corner from the recess as the cell allowed. When it came to her turn Jeni tried not to care about whether Rebecca could see her or not, suspecting they should get used to a lack of privacy even while performing their most intimate functions. She found there was a button on the wall behind the toilet that directed cleansing water jets bidet-like when she was done, and then flushed clean the shallow pan. If this was a standard fitting in each cell then it confirmed her speculations of the previous evening. This was a mature society with refined standards. That might work in their favour, but it also suggested there would be many rules to obey, and who knew what the penalties for breaking them might be.

Breakfast trays were slid through the door slot. The meal was lighter than supper, consisting of moist cubes of what tasted like cereal mixed with diced fruit. They ate quickly and returned the trays, and Jeni was just wondering if she could mime their need for toothbrushes and toothpaste when the door slid open.

The guard motioned for them to leave the cell, and they were marched down a short corridor past other cells until they came to a larger chamber illuminated by a roof light. Obviously it was the prison exercise yard. Half a dozen other naked women prisoners, also bearing numbers on their chests, were already running round a small oval track, edged with copper metal control strips.

They discovered their purpose when the guard indicated they should join the other runners, for as they stepped onto the track their cuffs sprang into life, pulling their legs forward and back while their arms pumped in contra motion, and at the same time their collars began to deliver sharp jolts of pain. By reflex they began to run round the track in time with the insistent movements of their cuffs, and as they did the jolts from their collars faded away.

It was very simple, Jeni realised. While they pounded round the track at a steady speed keeping pace with the other runners all was well, but if they slowed down their collars began to sting in warning. And so they ran on, knowing they would do so until either they collapsed from exhaustion, or else their guards permitted them to stop.

As they ran Jeni observed their fellow prisoners, and saw they were looking at Rebecca and herself in turn from the corners of their eyes. The pair of them did stand out; all the other prisoners were either copper or olive-skinned, with dark hair.

She became fascinated by the sight of the rounded buttocks of the girl running in front of them, and how they rolled in regular motion. Further round the track she could see the girls side on, watching the toned motion of their breasts. Did hers look as pretty as they trembled and bounced in time with her stride? She could hardly blame the guards for grinning as they oversaw their charges taking their enforced exercise.

Round and round they ran, with Rebecca panting and gasping a few paces behind her in an obviously laboured manner. Jeni knew from all the tennis she played that Rebecca was fit enough to stay the course, and suspected she was putting on a show of distress in the hope that she would be let off. If that was her plan then it failed, as none of the guards showed any indication of excusing her from the prescribed exercise regime, and eventually she quietened down and saved her energy for running.

Jeni noticed there were more copper strips and plates set about the walls of the chamber, while inside the ring of the track were an array of large copper hoops, posts and bars mounted in the floor. She wondered what they were for.

Finally a guard called out something and operated his controller, and Jeni felt the external force leave her cuffs and sank gratefully down to her knees, breathing heavily. Rebecca looked relieved, but the exercise period was far from over. They were allowed a minute to get their breath back then the guards began placing the girls about the room, and the functions of the hoops, posts and plates became clear.

The hoops, standing on their edges taller than Jeni could reach, were for star jumps. A girl put inside found her cuffs compelled her to spring from standing erect with hands above her head and feet together, to arms and legs outstretched and back again, her breasts bouncing heavily as she did so. Vigorous toe touching could also be enforced by the hoops, ensuring each girl reached up as high as possible, curving her supple back, and then bent all the way down until her palms were flat to the floor.

The vertical poles were for squat stands. The girl stood with her back to the pole, hands cuffed behind it and ankles each side of its base. She then had to squat down until she sat on her heels with her knees wide, then stand again, all the while her collar sliding along the pole held her head up and back straight.

Horizontal poles laid against vertical posts acted like barbells. The girls had to raise them off their shoulders like weightlifters, their pectorals standing out as they strained against the invisible loads, and only when they had fully extended their arms did the force briefly disappear, then they had to lower them again for the next lift.

With wrists and collars secured against wall plates, girls had to lift and then splay their legs, pulling them as high and wide as they could until, aided by the controlling forces, their knees were pressed against their shoulders. Doing this repeatedly while keeping their legs straight worked their stomach muscles and groins so that the tendons stood out and the strain showed in their faces.

Of course the guards knew the best positions to watch their charges perform each exercise. They stood where they could see at close quarters buttocks being thrust out towards them as though in invitation, breasts bouncing, and thighs spread wide to reveal the pouting lips between.

Jeni and Rebecca took their turns with the rest and inevitably attracted the guards' particular attention. As they were bent and stretched the men curiously stroked and patted them, occasionally catching hold of a bobbing nipple and giving it a playful tweak. But once again most of the interest was directed at their blonde hair, both on their heads and the furry deltas below their navels. Each area of growth was closely examined to see if it was the same colour to the roots, with locks and tufts drawn out painfully tight.

Jeni saw Rebecca clenching her teeth in an effort to contain the outraged words she would have liked to spit at the men for taking such liberties with her. But the effort of continuing with her exercises while the impromptu examinations went on diverted her ire somewhat, and she remained silent except for a few squeaks and groans of despair.

For herself Jeni found the exercise hard but satisfying, giving her a more thorough workout than she had even known before. As for the handling it was frankly arousing and surprisingly easy to accept as normal, because it was done without any trace of guilt on the part of their guards. A group of young and attractive naked females were in their charge, helpless to resist, so what was more natural than they should take advantage of the situation? But it had not gone beyond a few pinches and a little fingering. Would more happen later, or were there rules and limits unknown to her that the guards were observing?

But if worse, as it were, was to come, would she accept that so readily? Would she rebel, or was she slipping by degrees into accepting as normal and natural a life of slavery and confinement and all that entailed?

Jeni and Rebecca were worked as hard as the rest for an hour, until they ached all over and dripped with sweat. When the exercise period was over they were returned to their cell, where they took delight in showering and easing their muscles. The relief was so great that even Rebecca briefly forbore from complaining about what they had been put through. Jeni wondered if her former employer would ever learn to appreciate life's simpler pleasures.

They had only just sat down on their beds when the door opened and Cath was led in. The guard freed her leash and went out, leaving the three of them alone.

She was clad in the same collar and belt she had worn the previous day, with the addition of what looked like a small locket dangling from her left nipple ring. Jeni tried not to stare at the ornament as it swung from its fleshy mount, and as Cath seemed quite unconscious of it she said nothing.