Chapter 1

"You know something, Diana?"

"Francine?"

Diana looked up from her magazine and glanced at her haughty imperious friend. They were in a cafe having a morning coffee before parting to go separately home. It was unpleasantly wet out in the square and they sat in the warmth, putting off the evil hour of going out to get soaked in a frenzied dash for their respective cars.

"I want to be a slave!"

Diana almost choked! What an idea! Francine obeying some brutal taskmaster, dutifully complying with his every whim! Proud Francine who had never yet been in a situation she couldn't control. But she suppressed her impatience and made an interested noise. Francine explained her sudden desire, breathless in her eagerness.

"I read this book, Diana - a week ago when I was in hospital for a day. It was so amazing. So utterly out of this world. A proud and beautiful girl was abducted by aliens and taken to a planet where lovely proud women are enslaved by brutal primitive - really incredibly macho masculine men."

"What was it called, Francine? The book?" Diana had a pretty shrewd idea! Diana read widely, if not too well, and in her day had consumed enough rubbish to fill up a multitude of landfills.

"Something like "Captive of Gor". I left it behind for another patient to read. It was written by an American who is a very distinguished philosopher."

"Distinguished, my arse! He's a hack of the worst kind. Churns out these turgid novels by the dozen. How did you ever manage to read it, Francine? I once had to write a thesis on him and it almost killed me! He's just about the most tedious writer ever! Apart from the bits where some poor bitch gets flogged or branded or raped, they're so boring - so repetitively written, it's bloody unbelievable!"

"So you've read them, too!" Francine smiled her superior smile.

"Almost the whole corpus, more's the pity! Total sexist, male chauvinist crap. The man should be torn limb from rotten stinking limb by a group of carefully selected female executioners appointed by the women of the world to administer feminist justice of the roughest kind! How could YOU of all people be atttracted to that kind of sick macho fantasy?"

Francine reddened slightly. She saw the justice of her friend's remarks. But the book, terribly written as it was according to her lliterary critic friend, had stirred something deep within her. She knew herself ready to be a slave. But perhaps not the slave of a coarse and unpleasant man. On reflection she realised that that might not be too nice. Francine was fastidious to a fault and men could be such pigs! But she refused to abandon the idea of servitude completely.

"Perhaps I should be the slave of a woman, Diana. One who would destroy my pride and make my life hell from dawn to dusk, bringing out a woman's innermost desire to be the property of another and far stronger being."

Diana was forced to agree that it would do Francine good to be taken down a peg or two! But how amazing that the girl should have come to such a conclusion herself! Of all her childhood friends, Francine was far and away the haughtiest.

"Maybe there is another planet, Francine! One ruled by vicious and brutal women who enslave men and - maybe occasionally the odd woman!"

"That would be nice!" said Francine dreamily.

"Or even a planet ruled by women who enslave only women. Maybe they humiliate their female slaves in front of men. Would you like to be raped by men at the behest of your mistress?"

"Certainly not!" Francine grimaced. "It's bad enough being made love to by Roger. And he went a VERY good school and has the loveliest manners. He always washes his prick before making love."

"So you want to dictate the terms of your enslavement, darling! Just like you. Always have to be the one to set the rules!"

"I'd endure anything short of rape, Diana. Anything!"

"Once you were a slave, you couldn't control what happened to you. You couldn't enforce any contract. Slaves don't have contracts. For Heaven's sake, let's talk about something sensible, darling! Oh, look! The rain's stopped. If we dash, we might just make it before it starts again."

The girls paid the bill and ran across the town square to where their vehicles were parked. They kissed affectionately and parted until next Wednesday.