This work is copyright 2000 by Xaltatun of Acheron (A Pseudonym). It may be posted on the Internet to any free forum, provided it is not modified in any way, and provided that this notice is included in its entirety. It may not be sold, or included in any compilation that is sold, or posted on any forum that requires a fee for access, without my written permission. My permission will require payment, terms to be negotiated. For purposes of this notice, sites guarded by Adult Check or similar packages are considered pay sites. Posting on any site must include this copyright notice.
Adult Content Warning - this story may contain adult themes, including a rather cavalier attitude toward sex. If you are under the lawful age for such materials (18 in most jurisdictions) or if you would find such material offensive, please go elsewhere.
OK - now on to the story -------
Kerry was enjoying her walk to her apartment from classes when she noticed an unattended car with its trunk open. Being normally curious, she walked over to look at it. Sound behind her! Something pulled over her head, stuffed into her mouth! Strong hands on her body, arms and legs twisted into new patterns. It hurt, but only grunts came out. She felt herself stuffed into the trunk. Bands on her arms and legs so she couldn’t move. Thud! A wave of pressure as the trunk slammed shut.
Her body moved back and forth as the car moved under it, started, stopped, and turned. It felt like she was being poked, prodded, and shoved around. Terror rising as the tossing continued unabated. She felt herself lose control, and the stench was overpowering. Her gorge rose in her throat. It occurred to her that she couldn’t throw up with her mouth stuffed. Fear of death clears the mind wonderfully. She breathed deeply and swallowed.
Finally, the jostling stopped. Silence. Muffled sounds. A car door creaked open and then slammed closed. A crow cawed. More silence. She heard a click above her, and then the movement of air as the trunk lid opened. Hands grabbed her; pulled her out of the trunk. She staggered a couple of steps and then stood. OWWWW! Pain assaulted her as her circulation returned.
A voice. “Shit, you shit yourself. A real mess to clean up. Well, clothes off first. You won’t be needing them for a while anyway.” She felt hands grab and rip her shirt off. Her bra went next, none too gently. Then the man unbuckled her belt, unzipped her pants and shoved them down her hips to puddle around her feet. She stumbled and almost fell as he ripped her panties off.
“Step out of them.” She hesitated and the strap landed with a thud. OWWWW! She fell forward onto her hands and knees, her hair disarrayed around her head. “Pull your feet out of that mess, and stay on your hands and knees.” She complied. “Hold still.” She heard something slither. Whoosh, cold water from a hose. The stream hit her back, ass. “Spread your legs.” She complied. The stream hit her nether parts. Cold. Shivering. Eventually, it quit. She felt the warm afternoon sun as she knelt there dripping. “Stand.” She struggled to her feet, unable to see. “That’s better.”
“Hands behind you.” She hesitated again. Whap! She staggered, but didn’t quite fall. She put her hands behind her. He twisted her arms up so her hands are by opposite elbows. She felt pressure against her wrists and arms. Snap, click. She’s been equipped with cuffs. She tried to move her hands. No way, they were anchored to each other like they were welded.
“Straighten up. Good girl. Now, the rules. You’ll be here for a few days. When daddy comes across with the money, you go home. Understand? I thought you would. You’ll wear your blindfold all the time. That’s for your own protection as well as mine. What you don’t see, you can’t tell someone about. I’ll feed you, water you, and exercise you. Otherwise, most of the time you’ll be chained in the cabin, and you’ll be bored out of your mind. Too bad. Just hope your daddy sees reason, and forks over the money quickly.”
Clinking sound. Something cold and heavy across the shoulders, around the neck. Pulled around. Click. It sounds like a lock, final. You feel a stab of warmth from your sex. Wet. You can smell yourself. Embarrassed at your reaction. Warmth on your skin. Blush? Oops, more embarrassment. “You liked that, didn’t you? Kinky. Pity you’re a virgin. Return you to your father the same way I got you.”
Pull from the pressure around the neck. She moves in the direction indicated. “Careful here, steps.” Cautious feeling. Ow. Stubbed toe. Need to be more cautious. Up the steps. Another tug. Pressure one way, then another. A tug to stop. The chain slithers between her breasts. Over her shoulder. Sound of metal on metal. Click! Another lock. Probably chained to the wall. Test it later.
“Here’s your spot. You’ll stay here except when I’m walking you on your leash. There’s a pad on the floor you can lie on. I’ll tuck you in at night.” The footsteps walk away. She hears a door creak, thud close. Then the only sounds are the chirp of birds, the song of the crickets and the muffled sobs of a scared, gagged girl.
The door creaked open again. “Damn, girl. Did you flunk toilet training? That’s twice in one day you’ve shit yourself. I should make you clean it up with a toothbrush. I’m not going to have you in the cabin if you do that. Out you go.”
Click! Then I felt the pull as he yanked my leash. “Up, girl. You’re going into the hole.” I came to my feet, none too steadily. “Forward. Watch your step.” Good thing he said that, I’d forgotten about the steps. He pulled my leash this way and that. “Stop.” I stopped. “On your knees.” I hesitated. OWWWWW! I fell onto my knees. “Crawl forward.” I crawled. It felt like a concrete box around me. “Good girl. Just stay there until I come for you. If you shit yourself again, you’ll have to live with it.”
Click. THUD! That sounded awfully final.
How long it was, I have no idea. CREAK! The door to my hole opened. “Out of there on your knees, girl,” he said.
I crawled out. “Now, sit back on your heels. Good.” I smelled food. God, was I hungry.
“Hold still. I’m going to take the gag and blindfold off.” The blindfold came off, and I could see his face. Or rather, I couldn’t. He wore a black bag over his head, with holes for eyes, nose and mouth. He looked like he was wearing mirror glasses under the hood.
“Here’s the rules. You’re going to ask me for each bite. If you try to yell, or bite my hand, it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt you. First bite, now.” He broke off a piece of sandwich and held it in his hand.
I stared at it and kept my mouth shut. He pressed a button on the remote on his belt. OWWWWW!
“Please?” I forced it out. No way did I want to give this idiot the pleasure. But I was hungry.
He held it up to my mouth and popped it in. I waited for his fingers to get clear before biting down. I wanted to bite, but the last jolt still echoed painfully.
He held a glass up with a straw. I looked at it.
“Please.” I tried to put a tone of pleading into it. It wasn’t real hard.
“Please what?” he said. The water stayed out of reach. I tried to think. Now what did he want?
“Please, sir.”
“Better.” He brought the water to where I could get the straw. Heaven. Or something.
He held up another piece of sandwich.
“Please, sir.”
“You can do better than that, girl.” The sandwich stayed out of reach. Better than what? Oh.
“Please, master.”
“Very good, girl.” He put the bite into my open mouth. I chewed, swallowed. He looked at me.
Eventually, he said “What do you say after someone gives you something, girl?”
Oh. “Thank you, master.”
“Much better.” He looked at me again.
“Please, master.”
“Please, what? Please give me a whipping? Please put me back into my hole? Please rape me?”
The way I felt, that last sounded real good. “Please give me another bite, master.”
He broke off another piece of sandwich and held it in front of my mouth. After a moment, I got the idea. I stretched out my neck, and took the piece from his fingers.
The meal went on from there. At the end, I said “Your slave girl is full, master. Thank you for feeding her.” It almost felt natural.
Kerry was being exercised again. Master was wearing his usual black hood. Suddenly he stopped and froze in place. Kerry paused at the end of her movement, and turned to look. A big man, a gun pointing at them. He was wearing blue jeans, a red plaid shirt, leather boots, some kind of neck ornament, and an ornate wrist brace.
“Relax. Just act sensible, and nobody’s going to get hurt. Kerry, back on your heels, hands at your sides. Good girl. Now stay there. Now you, since you probably haven’t let Kerry find out your name, I’m just going to call you ‘hey, you.’ Nothing disrespectful, but I don’t think you really want Kerry to know your name, now do you?”
“I’m from Exchange. Ever heard of it? No? Well, you have now. I’m buying her from you. Exchange will handle the negotiations with her father. You’re out of it. You need to be out of here pronto. The Feds are about five hours behind me. You’ve got enough time to tidy up and get the hell out before they get you surrounded.”
“How does 20Gs sound? Not enough, too bad. That’s what you’re getting. Here, catch. Steady, girl. There’s a thousand in that package, in 10s and 20s. Also a bankcard and some identification. The account has the rest of the money in it. The account is certainly traceable, but the Feds don’t know about it yet. When you get the money out of it, we’ll make it go away, and cover it up. Why not all in cash? Don’t be stupider than you look already. Try to put that much in small bills into a bank, and drug enforcement will be over you like lice on a hound.”
“Don’t take that remark about stupid to heart. You’ve done a real nice job with the girl. We like that. We want people with your type of skills. But, believe me, you don’t really want to go through our training program. Most don’t make it. You just might think that a nice soft jail term being a sex toy for some drug lord is preferable.”
“Don’t believe me? We’ll be in touch if you get in real, terminal type trouble. Then you can make a decision about which devil you prefer to deal with. Meanwhile, get your ass out of here. I’ll take care of getting rid of the evidence. Go, scat, vamoose.”
Silence. A car door slams. A motor starts up, sound of car driving down the road. Silence.
“Kerry, get up, walk over to that tree. Good, now just stay there. This is going to look strange. I said stay there. OWWWW! Now get back up, that shock didn’t kill you. I’ve got control of your collar. Don’t forget it.”
He turns back to the clearing, points the gun at it. Suddenly, everything in the clearing begins to churn. The cabin breaks up. The hole she has spent so many hours in collapses on itself. The churn continues, as bricks, stone, glass, trees break up into ever-finer chunks. Everything settles down. Its obvious something was there, but there is no way that any simply human agency could tell what. A year from now, there will be a meadow, with no way of telling that it hadn’t always been a meadow.
Kerry is standing with her back rigid against the tree, looking like she would have preferred seeing a ghost. The man smiles at her.
“Lesson time. Any sufficiently unfamiliar technology is indistinguishable from magic. Walk down the path. There’s a pickup about a hundred yards down. No, you don’t get any clothes. You don’t need them now. You’ll get what you need when we get where we’re going.”
“Get in the passenger side. Remember, I can put you down faster than you can do anything. Buckle yourself in and relax. Nothing is going to happen to you, at least if you behave, and your daddy comes across with the ransom.”
“Choice point, Kerry. The next minute or so will be much easier on you if you close your eyes. You don’t have to, but the world outside isn’t going to make very much sense for a minute or so. If you like amusement park fun houses, enjoy the sight.”
The world suddenly flattens out, color drains away. Then everything begins to distort in twisting almost patterns. Flashes and washes of color, making no sense whatever. Neither matching nor mismatching. Chaos that makes ordinary ideas of chaos appear positively orderly. Patterns that the human mind never evolved to handle. One totally mad light show.
The chaos begins to look like it might be a distant relative of order, or at least of vanGogh. It dissolves into a pleasant looking place, with neat, immaculately kept lawns and beautiful buildings that merge into the landscape as if an architect who knew what he was doing had designed them. Brilliant midday sunlight, with a black, star studded sky.
Kerry exhales. She hadn’t realized she had been holding her breath. “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
“A fan of the classics! You’ll do well until daddy ransoms you. We’re here. Exchange. Get out, and I’ll show you around. This building is where you’ll live while you’re here. You’re on the second floor, here in room 10. Where’s the knob? There isn’t one. There’s a magnetic latch, but it isn’t under your control. Take a quick shower, there’s clothing laid out. Just a second, there’s a quick little recollaring ceremony.”
“On your knees. Good. Head down, lift your hair up with your hands. Good girl. Perfect.” A quick buzz, and she feels the control collar fall away. “This is Exchanges collar.” A tightness around her neck. Click! “You’re now locked into Exchanges computer system. The computers always know where you are, and will take action if you try to do something you shouldn’t. Do I need to demonstrate it? No, I thought not. Take your shower and get dressed. Jeans and a T. When you’re done, turn right and join me at the end of the hall. About fifteen minutes, OK?”
The shower was luxury beyond belief after days of being hosed down with cold water. Dress. The clothes fit. They feel like they’ve been tailored for her. Some captivity. She’s beginning to think she might like this part. Where’s the catch???
Time to join her new owner, before he begins to wonder where she is, and does something about it that she might not like. The end of the hall opens out into a little nook, with several round tables, like a mini-restaurant. He’s sitting at one of the tables, with a snack. “Hi, there you are. Grab something to nibble on, and join me. I’ll fill you in on the situation.” He waves at the sideboard, there are rolls, sandwich fixings and a pitcher of what looks like milk.
She makes a sandwich, pours milk and joins him. “I could get to like this place. So far. It’s nothing like durance vile.”
“True. This is Exchange. You did notice the sky on the way in? We’re no place you’ve ever heard of. You can’t get back without us. You can’t do anything to more than mildly inconvenience us. Why shouldn’t your stay here be pleasant? Our economics are very different from yours.”
“Here’s the deal. While you’re here, you’ll be working with several tutors. We’re going to insure that you don’t miss your education! I’m going to be real candid with you. If your father doesn’t fork over the ransom, we’re going to sell you on the underground slave market back on Earth. Two of your classes are going to be slave training. One on deportment and obedience, and one on sex and pleasure. No, you’re a virgin now, and you’ll still be a virgin when you go back to your family - or onto the block. There’s a lot of sex training we can do without actual penetration.”
“Your other classes will be on your school subjects. You’ll be working one on one with tutors, so you should make good progress. You might actually learn something!”
“By the way, there’s a secret to the slave classes. If you resist, you’ll get those patterns programmed into you so they’re automatic. No choice. If you lean into the training, you will come out of it with options. You can go into slave role whenever you want to, and come back out when you want. That can be fun. Did you ever see the Borg on Star Trek? Resistance is not only futile, it is counterproductive.”
“Your morning classes are slave deportment, history and communication. Your afternoon classes are pleasure, mathematics and practical technology. It’s after lunch, so your sex tutor will be along shortly. Ah, here she is. Enjoy.”
A day had passed. It was lunch again, and she was enjoying it with the man with no name at a small table on the lawn. They had finished discussing her classes.
“Kerry, its time to talk with your father. He’ll sound like he’s sitting over there. He will be able to hear anything you say. What can you tell him? Well, you can tell him anything. Except one thing - you can’t tell him what I paid for you. This is going to be a negotiation. I’m going to try to get as much for returning you as I can, he’s going to try to get off as cheaply as he can. We both understand the game.”
“Watching it could be fun for you. Just try not to get yourself involved emotionally. You can’t really affect the outcome positively. He loves money, and he loves you. He’s going to have to make a real cruel choice. When you go back, he won’t be able to avoid seeing a price tag on you. Can you duck out? No, you can’t. You have to be here anyway to talk to him, convince him you are alive and reasonably well. If you have problems with the discussion, you can talk it over with one of your slave trainers. If he doesn’t buy you, you’ll go to auction. You might as well get used to it. Even if he buys you back, there will be a lot of times in your life that people will be looking at you as an opportunity to make money, not as a person.”
“The call is going through now. I’ll talk first, then you can talk to him, and then I’ll negotiate. Of course, things may not go that way - you know what happens when plans collide with reality”.
“Mr. Johnson. I’m calling from Exchange about your daughter Kerry. She’s here with me, and we need to discuss arrangements for reuniting you. What? Oh, we’re not the person you were dealing with earlier. He’s out of the picture. We bought Kerry from him. What? You’re surprised. I thought you understood investments. We saw a chance to make a reasonably easy profit, and we’re taking it. We’ll discuss the financial arrangements in a moment. Kerry - it’s your conversation.”
“Hi, dad. I’m fine now, I think. I’m not really sure. This place is bizarre. Also cool in some ways. The food’s good, I’ve got my own room, and a bunch of tutors. They’ve been pushing me like my brain’s going to come out of my ears.”
“The guy that kidnapped me? Well, I never saw his face. He always wore a bag over his head whenever he saw me. Yucky. He had me in a hole in the ground except when he was feeding me or exercising me. I was going nuts. No TV, nothing to read, nobody to talk to. This place is like day and night.� Both at the same time.”
“What do I mean both? Well, I can see something that doesn’t look like the sun in a black sky with stars. It feels like a pleasant spring day. We’re not on earth anymore. I don’t think.”
“Oh. Well, believe what you want. They keep telling me ‘any sufficiently unfamiliar technology looks like magic’. I’m beginning to believe them. There’s a little brook on the grounds that runs uphill part of the way. Except if you’re standing in it, it feels level.”
“What are they doing to me? You mean, besides confusing me? Well, like the man said, I’ve got a set of tutors. They’re hard. I can’t fake them out. I’m learning that it’s a lot easier on me if I don’t even try. How? Well, I’m wearing this collar. The other guy had me wearing a dog training collar. This one is different. It’s hooked up to the computer that runs the place. They aren’t happy with me; it hurts. I’ve learned. That’s the downside.”
“Have I been threatened? Dad, these people don’t threaten. They don’t need to. They’ve told me that if you don’t buy me back, you’ll never see me again. They may sell me on the underground slave market, or they may induct me into their organization. I’m trying not to think about it. They both sound awful. What’s awful about being here? Well, in one sense, nothing. The people have been nice. I just get the creeps whenever I notice that they think of me as so much money on the hoof, and they are perfectly comfortable with it. And they tell me that most of their trainees don’t finish the course sane. The ones that do are really different; they are part of the organization here. Remember the Borg on Star Trek? The same thing, only worse, lots worse.”
“The other option. I told you that they don’t threaten. This one is actually enjoying her slave training course. And this one is being blown away by the sensuality course. What’s that? Sex. Straight and kinky. No, I’m still technically a virgin, and I’ll come back to you intact. If they sell me, my new owner will get the pleasure of deflowering me.”
“I miss you. Tell mom and Kevin I miss them.”
“Mr. Johnson. It’s me again. Time to negotiate. Oh, say hi to the FBI guy sitting across from you. Tell him the keyword is Exchange. It’s a place. He doesn’t know about it, but someone back in Washington does. They don’t like people to know we exist, and they like it even less if people know that they know about us, and aren’t doing anything about it.”
“Why aren’t they doing something about us? Well, give them credit. They tried. Where we are at isn’t on Earth. It isn’t even close. They can’t get here from there. They found some of the things we could do, and tried bringing some of the big science guys to figure it out. All they got out of them was how to fake it. And it was real clear that we aren’t faking it. Finally, they got too irritating, and we killed a few supervisors and executives. They got the point. Every once in a while a more than usually clueless politician finds out about us, and tries to “do something” with maximum publicity. We make our point again.”
“How do you know that you’ll get her back in one piece? Well, we could tell you ‘trust us’, but we won’t do that. No point. Also no point in your being so shook up that you disconnect your brains. Why would we mutilate someone we might induct into our organization? If we sell her, it would reduce her price. We’re not a charity, and altruism is just a meaningless word in the dictionary, but counterproductive we understand.”
“No, we don’t need to conclude our bargain right now. How will the turnover be done? You’ll deposit the money in an account we tell you. You’re surprised? Connect your brains, man! Of course the feds know about the account. They can trace it to their hearts content. It mostly goes to perfectly legitimate companies that supply luxury goods that we don’t manufacture here. And most of the money that goes into it is from people that get otherwise unavailable medical procedures. What? Well, we can cure most genetic errors. And we can do real sex changes. And quite a lot of cosmetic procedures. Functional hermaphrodites - real “she-males” are quite popular. Also expensive. Advanced technology and no need to deal with the alphabet soup can do wonders. Remember that. We may do business again, on a much more satisfactory basis for you.”
“Oh, yes. When the money is deposited, we will drop her off at a mall near you. You can send someone to pick her up. What mall? We’ll tell you afterwards. Just making a point. If the police want to waste their time, we can make it a very expensive waste of time. They should think budgets. There, that’s better.”
“How much? What do you think we would charge you? What? I know that ‘die laughing’ is a popular phrase, but I’m quite incapable of it, I assure you. Move the decimal point two positions to the right. No, I’m not trying to induce a heart attack. No, Kerry has been told quite specifically not to tell you what we paid the kidnapper for her. She was present, and she knows. If you’re wise, you won’t ask her afterwards, either. Oh, tell the FBI guy that we’ll have her make out a report for them. They can have it in a week. Otherwise, they are to leave her alone.”
“Yeah, negotiating with witnesses is a pain, especially when you don’t want them to know your financial condition. Tell the FBI guy to get lost. He can call Washington from his office.”
“That’s almost reasonable. It’s still too low. Double it, and we’ll take it. Yes, I know it’s going to hurt. That’s our policy. When we’ve got you over a barrel, if it’s high enough to hurt, and not so high you are financially ruined, it’s about right. No, you don’t have to get it today. Take whatever time you need to get it without too much damage to your finances. Just don’t take more than two weeks.”
“It’s been a pleasure dealing with you. Well, I really couldn’t expect that you would feel the same way now? Do you want to talk to Kerry again? She’s still here.”
“Of course she can talk to her mother. What would be a good time? Um... How about this? OK, we’ll call you at home. You want what? Well, we’ll decide if we drop the slave training and pleasure courses. You don’t have anything to bargain with. No, she won’t be any the worse for wear. She won’t turn into a nymphomaniac, or anything like that.”
“Well, Kerry, daddy transferred the money, so its back you go.”
She’s let out in the parking lot at East Side Mall. She closes the door, and the non-descript car drives away. She looks after it, and waves. She turns and looks at the mall. It looks smaller, tawdry. She shudders. She’s been through hell, and seen what might be somebody’s idea of heaven. It isn’t her’s. She makes a decision, lets her breath out, and walks into the mall. In two weeks, she’s lost a lot of illusions. The time spent at Exchange has stripped fantasy, and given her what? An appreciation of some of what she can do. This is her life, and seeing what she can make out of it seems better than the alternatives.
The twelve sided planet slowly tumbles through space. Its sun is a gravitational lens. There are other odd things about it. It doesn’t care. Oddness is in the mind of the beholder.
Author’s Afterword
This is the second fiction story I ever wrote, and it’s really showing its age. (You don't want to see the first one. Really. Trust me on that. The second chapter is new, which explains the style break. My conception of the Dodecahedron has changed significantly, partially because I decided to merge it into the same framework with the Community and Freehold stories.