Chapter 2: Lorna CB351286: First encounter

Lorna’s quarters on the Dog Star Six consists of a narrow bed with a small overhead locker. Her nearest neighbours are across the narrow aisle and at the head and foot of her bed. The dormitory module, as the quarters are called, contains sixteen beds laid out in two lines of eight head-to-toe beds, either side of an aisle. A pair of net curtains drawn around the three open sides of her bed are the only privacy offered. A second passenger module, about three times the size of the dormitory module, provides kitchen and bathroom facilities, as well as a multi-purpose area for recreation and dining. The entrances to the two modules open onto a circular atrium, with a vertical ladder providing access to the deck levels above and below their quarters. While the women are allowed to roam the ship, all sensitive areas are securely locked behind remotely controlled steel doors. Lorna has so far counted five androids watching over the women, and crewing the ship.

The women are informed that it will take nine weeks for Dog Star Six to reach its destination. The spaceship has obviously been refurbished, and its human crew replaced by androids controlled by a relatively modern Artificial Intelligence. To Lorna, that makes sense. No human crew would be eager to smuggle an illegal cargo of slaves halfway across human occupied space, to a destination that nobody in their right mind would voluntarily travel.

The relative lack of entertainment is an issue resolved early in the development of space travel, well before the invention of hyper-fast drives that shortened long distance journeys to weeks rather than years. Aphrodisiac compounds that boost both men’s and women’s sex drive are inserted into the food cubes. The theory is that having sex often enough will make people more tolerant towards the lack of other entertainment. Years of studying the effects space travel has on humans has shown the theory to have merit. The food cubes on Dog Star Six are all laced with an aphrodisiac compound, so it isn’t long before all sixteen women feel the need to satisfy a sexual urge.

Apart from Caitlin, who was already a prisoner of the raider’s ship when Lorna boarded, the other women on Dog Star Six are strangers to Lorna. They originate from different parts of the Tenth or neighbouring sectors. However, communication isn’t a problem, as all sixteen women speak the common language used throughout the outer sectors.

Lorna’s first sexual experience on-board Dog Star Six occurs when she’s in the kitchen choosing a food cube for her next meal. Gemma HD544402 approaches her from behind. Gemma runs her hands up Lorna’s thighs and over her arse in a generally recognised invitation to have sex. Lorna’s own hormones trigger in response and she feels the beginnings of an arousal. She turns around and studies her assailant. Gemma is about five years older than Lorna, and she has obviously kept herself fit. In the squalor of the settlement ghettos, it is far too easy to let your fitness slide. Since the private corporations that operate the settlements have little interest in prolonging the lives of their residents, they only provide basic health and fitness facilities. Each person is expected to be responsible for their own well being.