Chapter 4: Sold

"The next bit is where the uppity ones get angry," said Kate, mysteriously, "We have to get you trained for this afternoon, and trained to perfection you will be." Opening the desk drawer she took the neural whip out and laid it on the desk.

"What do I have to do?" asked Helen.

"I want you to imagine you are a fashion model and walk along that line on the floor showing off your overalls as though it was a high-class dress," came the astonishing reply.

Helen just stared at Kate in amazement, but when Kate picked up the neural whip Helen quickly said "Okay, okay, if that's what you want," and started to walk along the line swinging from side to side and pirouetting occasionally just like a fashion model.

Kate's next request was even odder, "I want you to do it again without the overalls."

"Why?" asked Helen.

"Because that's what you will have to do this afternoon, and in front of twenty or so people. You see, if a mine or support business wants staff they come and look at all the prisoners and then we sort out who gets what. It wouldn't do to send you to work in the concrete factory; you couldn't lift the weight. Understand?"

"But why naked?" asked Helen.

Kate sighed and picked up the whip. "Because that's the way we do it," she said.

Helen hastily took off her overalls and was relieved to see Kate put the whip down again. Blushing at the thought of an audience watching this little performance that afternoon, she went through the same routine again.

"Next, we want to see you stand still with your feet apart and your hands on your head, facing the audience," added Kate, "Then you turn round slowly and stop with your back to the audience."

Helen did as she was told, but wondered what this was about.

"Feet wider apart. Next you bend down and touch your toes," said Kate.

"But that would show all my ... my... " stammered Helen.

"Yes, that's what we want," said Kate, "Just do it!"

Helen did as she was told, but still was puzzled as to what was going on.

"Now, start again, and do the whole routine, now!" snapped Kate.

Helen hastened to comply, and at the third attempt she was able to do it to Kate's satisfaction.

"Put your overalls on and sit down," said Kate, "Look, honey, we get about one woman for every six men here, and not a tenth of those women are as pretty as you. You need to convince the people here this afternoon that you are worth buying and paying a..."

"Buying?" interrupted Helen, "Nobody can buy me!"

"Well, technically you are right, but they are buying your services from the prison, and I don't see a whole lot of difference," said Kate, "but as I was saying, if they pay a lot of money for you, they will take better care of you and treat you better. Well, most of them will. So you want to look as attractive as possible. It is in your interest, kid."

"What happens if somebody isn't bought?" asked Helen and was truly horrified when Kate replied brusquely, "They starve. There isn't any food or shelter in the prison here; just this building and it's locked when there's no ship in. Anyone unsold has to fend for themselves. They can't live away from the mines because there isn't anything. Nothing was growing here when the planet was first discovered; no plants, no trees, no birds, no animals, no insects, no people, nothing. Now we have a few areas being farmed, but the soil isn't good enough yet, so the crops are poor," Kate smiled, and added, not unkindly, "Now stop wasting my time and scoot."

Helen was then waved through the far door into a larger room with about twenty battered chairs and, at one end of the room, a small rostrum on one end of a raised stage about four feet off the ground. Helen realised that the "display" would be on here, which would expose her private parts even more in the toe-touching bit, because the audience would be sitting below the stage.

All the prisoners who had been processed were sitting around talking, except for a few who were curled up against the walls weeping. These, Helen surmised, were the ones who had been on the receiving end of the neural whip. All of the prisoners without exception were wearing overalls, so Helen assumed that their clothing had been taken from them to be returned when they left at the end of their sentences.

'Well, in that case, I will go back with only a torn smock, ' she thought.

Thinking hard, Helen decided that it would be best to take Kate's advice and to show herself off as much as she dared. She had been fond of dancing on Earth and she could do a very good high kick. One of those when she was naked would show most of them what they wanted, she thought, if she could bring herself to do it. And at the back of her mind was the threat of the neural whip if she failed to please Kate. Helen felt that Kate was a friendly individual who had taken a personal interest in her. It would be a smart move to be friends with one of the prison guards, and a woman at that.

As they waited and more prisoners came in, Helen was wondering what sort of work she would have to do, and how much her duties would include sex; from the display at the auction she assumed that there would be some sex involved and that she wouldn't have much choice in the matter. Presumably, with only one woman for every six men, there would be a fair few men who never got any sex at all. It certainly looked as though she would have to be careful about where she went after dark, because she might well be attacked by a man desperate for sex.

Finally, Kate came into the room and said, "Right, all of you to the back of the room, behind that screen. Now!"

Helen was amazed to see that the whipped ones, who she had thought would never get up, ran to obey.

'Really, that neural whip must be hell on Earth ... hell on Csadia, ' she corrected herself.

When she went behind the screen she discovered that it was made of one-way glass and she could see everything in the hall. People in overalls like hers began to come in and sit down, and a few dressed in nicer clothes sat at the front, though the clothes did not always fit too well. Helen remembered the fat prisoner and his suit, and then realised that the prisoners' clothes were not to be stored careful against the day of their release. They were obviously sold to the richer members of the mining community. But if they were rich, why did they have to wear prisoners' clothes? She added this to the list of questions she had, like were there no children on the planet? Hadn't any of them had embryos brought out when they came here?

The chairs had been moved up close to the stage so that the audience had a good view of the prisoner on display. Helen blushed to realise that she would have no secrets left when she had done her parading.

The men were auctioned first, starting with the oldest and weediest men who were quickly sold for only a few credits. They went through exactly the same routine that Helen had been taught, and then Kate acted as auctioneer taking bids briskly and selling one after another. Kate conducted the auction from the rostrum to the right hand side of the stage, with a chair beside her.

As each prisoner was 'sold' two large solid-looking men just below the rostrum would take the payment from the audience member and hustle the prisoner out to wherever they went next. One thing Helen noticed was that they were using old-fashioned metal coins, rather than electronic cards, to pay for their purchases. Suddenly it dawned on her that this went with everything being so shabby; this was a very backward planet.

Looking at the prisoners as they were displayed for sale, Helen realised that the men's 'things' came in a variety of shapes, and that the ideas she had had during her rapes, from the sensations in her cunt, did correspond to the different lengths and thicknesses on display. Bitterly, she noticed that nobody had one as small as Mervyn's.

Some of the men were now obviously keen to look good and were showing off their muscles and the prices rose quickly. Then one young man stood on the platform showing off his huge prick. He played with it to get it hard and obviously thought it was a real asset; Helen felt sure was bigger than any she had seen or felt inside her.

That thought came unbidden, and Helen still did not understand how she could have such thoughts; she had always been taught that the private parts of people's bodies were not to be thought about. He was sold for twelve hundred credits after some brisk bidding and Helen was a little shocked to see that it was a woman who bought him. So there were women owners here, as well as men, among the bosses, and this one was quite old but clearly wanted a toy boy.

The first woman to be auctioned was also the first prisoner to cause trouble. It was the woman who had spoken to her and Kate described her as Maria, thirty-seven years old and convicted of killing her husband. The woman refused to take off her overalls, so Kate threatened her with the neural whip.

"I'd rather die than strip in front of all these men," shouted the woman.

"Your choice," said Kate, and touched her with the whip.

Oddly the woman did not scream but dropped, like an empty sack, unconscious to the floor and Helen thought at that moment that Kate had killed her. The two men assisting with the auction came forward, obviously knowing what to do, lifted the woman up and efficiently stripped her. She was not in the prime of life and her breasts and belly sagged. Her wispy pubic hair was turning grey, more so than was the hair on her head.

Her head was lolling drunkenly as she tried to regain control of her senses and recover from the neural whip. Then they walked her through the routine Helen had been taught and by the end of it she had recovered enough to be left standing on her own. Helen realised that there must be variable settings on the whip.