Chapter 5

By the end of four weeks, I had been visited at least once by every one of the female overseers. They pronounced me to be the best fucker on the planet, and I guess that must be true. It certainly seemed that all of the female overseers were taken with me and considered me the jewel of the serfs. Unfortunately, I found out that not all of the overseers felt the same way about me.

One afternoon, I was running an errand for the queen when I came upon four male overseers walking toward me. Just as I was about to pass, one of them ordered me to stop. Of course I did, and that was when the trouble started. The overseer who stopped me asked, "Where are you going, Hank King?"

"Master, I am on an errand for Her Majesty, the Queen. She wants me to deliver a package from the library to her at the palace, and I am running late. Please excuse me so that I can make the delivery."

"Don't lie to me, you smart ass. I know that you have been fucking all of our wives, and I want it to stop right now."

"But, Master, that is at the order of Her Majesty. I can't stop without disobeying her. It is out of my control."

"Okay, I'll make it possible for you to stop fucking anybody." With that, he tried to kick me in the balls with his shod foot. I must be very lucky because I was able to dodge the kick. His shoe did leave a mark on the side of my thigh, though. I did not fool around, but took off at a dead run for the entrance to the palace. I was naked and the overseers were fully dressed, so I was able to outrun them. I ran inside and told the serf at the reception desk that I was there at the queen's order.

Those were the magic words, and I was led off to see the queen just as the overseers showed up. They were stopped at the reception desk by guards with guns, so I never saw those four again. I was led into the queen's chambers and gave an attendant a package. The queen said, "Hello, Hank, it has been some time since I last saw you. My goodness, you are out of breath. Why is that?"

It may have been foolish, but I related what had happened to me with the four overseers. "Your Majesty, they are waiting for me at the reception desk, and I am afraid of what they will do when they catch me. It may be that the least they do is smash my balls."

"God damn them! You just leave them to me." She picked up her telephone and called the desk. "Are those four overseers who were chasing Hank King still there? ... Okay, tell the guards to detain them until I figure out what to do with them. Oh, tell the guards not to be too gentle with those fools."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Now I won't have to run back to the library."

There was a little bit of chitchat before I left, but she released me before long. She had thought of another movie that she wanted to see. It was a Shirley Temple movie from the star's very early days. That was one I was going to have to dig for.

I walked quickly back to the library so that I could start my search for the movie she wanted. On the way, I considered what I could do if I was ever accosted like that again. Actually, out in public, there might be nothing that I could do, but the situation might be different in private. I decided to consult the computer for suggestions of what I could do. Certainly, I could not get away with carrying a weapon, but there might be something else that I might do.

I found the requested film and three more with Shirley Temple that looked promising, so I suggested to the queen that she try them all. She thought that was a wonderful idea and had me start the first one right away. I linked the rest of the movies in the same way as I had done the "I Love Lucy" shows and called the queen to tell her that the movies were ready and that four were linked.

By the way, I never did hear exactly what happened to those four overseers who had tried to hurt me, but I did hear that whatever it was, turned out to be very unpleasant. One rumor had it that they had all been castrated with a hammer, but that might have been wishful thinking on somebody's part.

I did search the computer's memory banks for a way to protect myself, and that was when I found out about martial arts. A little study of the files had me set up a learning machine session for Krav Maga and Stick Fighting. I took a two-hour run on both subjects and then went through the muscle-memory routines. By the end of a week, I was a killing machine that only a bullet could stop. I hoped never to have to use these skills, but I was now prepared if it ever became necessary.

****

There was another five-months delay before anything significant happened. At last, there was a girl among the serfs who had reached her 14^th birthday. The queen was informed, and she set herself up as matchmaker. The girl, Mary Nav (by this time, the name of Navigator had been shortened), was to be married to me. Actually, that was to keep the queen happy, because the custom of fixed couples had been pretty well destroyed by the way the overseers commandeered any serf for sex if he or she struck their fancy. People still lived together as couples, but that was totally ignored by most people, both overseers and serfs.

Anyway, the queen ordered that Mary Nav and Hank King were to be married on the next Sunday. Who knows how she came to pick that day, but even the king could see the irony in the situation, so he agreed to preside at the ceremony. My new wife was to live with me at the library, so we received a new bed as a present from the queen. Big deal, all she had to do was to order the replicator to make a double bed and have it delivered to the library, but I guess it was the thought that counted.

My old bedroom was too small for the new bed, so another bedroom was added to the library. The old bed was left where it was. I totally missed the significance of that until later.

We went through the farce when Sunday came, and we were escorted to the library. The entourage even included the King and Queen in all of their Majesty. Mary and I were the first people born on Hafh (the current abbreviation of Home Away From Home, and pronounced like "half" with the "l" left out), and this was an event of note.

Of course, I was wearing nothing, but Mary was wearing a white veil that covered her face until I moved it aside to kiss her as part of the ceremony. We marched to the library and went inside. The rest of the group, Lords and Ladies, Overseers, and serfs were all treated to a party which included beer. This was the first time the serfs were allowed anything with alcohol in it. Of course, the party ended in a riot with 70 serfs killed and 16 Overseers dead. Yes, a grand time was had by all. No children were killed because their mothers had the sense to chase them away when the riot started.

Mary and I were on our own in a way, but I knew that several surveillance cameras had been installed in our bedroom so that the lords and ladies could laugh at our antics at their leisure. Therefore, no matter what our feelings might have been, we were committed to at least one fuck for the cameras. Mary was scared almost to a state of shock, but I managed to calm her down and explain the facts of life to her. I promised to be gentle and not to penetrate her until I was sure that she was ready for it. Thank God for all of that training in foreplay that I had received over the last few months.

Mary took off her veil, and I threw it in the trash. We knew that it was just another dig at us and our social status, so we had no interest in keeping it around. Hopefully, that was going to piss off somebody among the lords and ladies. Fuck you, you scum! Yes, I was including the queen in this group because I knew that I was just a toy as far as she was concerned, and I would be discarded as soon as she became bored with me.

Oh, well, back to the situation at hand. I had calmed Mary enough to get her to lie on the bed, but now the hard part was going to start. I had to make her forget that we had a jeering audience and only to think of ourselves. "Mary, how much do you know about sex and fucking?"