Chapter 13: Meeting the Enemy

Amanda watched the drone plane on her right as the drone flew not more than ten meters from the stubby air car's starboard thruster fans. An identical drone plane was on the left. Farther behind the sky car and almost invisible were two human-crewed aircraft and several more drones.

"Amanda, release your safety harness and get in the back seat," Hank directed. "I need you to put on a slave collar, a dress and a pair of sandals because Eglin is a federal reservation. You know the law."

"You said that Florida was clothing optional everywhere," Amanda said as she unclipped herself from the seat. "I'm not complaining, Master. I'm just confused."

"Eglin Air Base is inside Florida State, but Eglin is federal property and state laws don't apply there. I thought you knew that, Amanda."

"My work was in the federal complex in Sacramento, Master. I rarely went on military bases," Amanda chuckled as she picked up a flat, rectangular box that measured 5 centimeters wide and was 35 centimeters long. "I wasn't a slave. I didn't pay attention to who was dressed. Now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing any naked slaves on military bases."

"Nudity is restricted on federal military installations in the service of good order and discipline," Hank explained. "There are slaves in the on-post brothel, some training activities require nudity of both slaves and citizen soldiers, and there are exceptions but normally the military post regulations require even slaves to be decently attired. That dress, Amanda, the black one. It is a tube and you just pull it on. And those sandals have 20mm heels. If that low heel is uncomfortable, you may wear the platforms."

"I preferred low heels, Master." Amanda giggled. "You like women barefoot?"

"I prefer women to be totally naked," Hank replied. "Slave collars included. I like the bare neck. Unfortunately, when you are in public I need you to wear a collar so that you can be positively identified. It isn't that I object to you being identified as a slave, Amanda; it is that I prefer total access. That is one reason most of my lovers have short hair--I get to nuzzle those necks and ears."

"Master, is my neck too short?" Amanda had smoothed the dress so that she was covered from just above her nipples to almost three fingers below her crotch. "If so, please have it surgically corrected."

"In good time, Amanda," Hank smiled at his slave. "Let me enjoy your uniqueness. And let me put your collar on."

Eglin Air Base used to belong to the United States Air Force. It was south of the old Interstate 10 freeway about 124 kilometers from Pensacola. Eglin was 240 kilometers from the state capital in Tallahassee. There were runways visible from the air, but instead of landing on a long runway the sky car and its two robot plane escorts used their vertical landing capability to alight directly in front of the big door of a bombproof aircraft bunker. It was no problem to park the sky car in front of the hangar and drive inside using the ground car mode. Hank shut off his engines and waited until a squad of soldiers in full battle armor assembled around the sky car.

"Time to face the music, Amanda. The procedure will be to separate us. I'll object, but you will be taken to a holding area." Hank frowned. "Amanda, you are going to have to look inside yourself. I'll be inside your mind, just find me there. Cooperate with your escorts and I'll have you brought to me as soon as I can. They aren't supposed to hurt you."

"I'm okay, Master," Amanda said as Hank opened the cockpit canopy.

The next several minutes were much like a game of Simon Says. Hank was puzzled at the "suspected felon" treatment but didn't argue. The result of attempting to assert his citizenship rights under the barrels of nine Direct Energy Weapon Sidearms (DEW-S) would have been waking up in the dispensary after being stunned.

The time for talk was in the interrogation room. Amanda, a slave, was treated different from Citizen Hank--but both were handcuffed to immobilize them. Both were stripped to their skin and searched, standard procedure for terrorist suspects. Hank was fitted with a control harness, a device that would permit a law enforcement officer to immediately immobilize a suspect in the same manner that the digital bio slave control implants did, only on a temporary basis. Amanda was also fitted with the harness even though she had full slave implants because the soldiers had the controls for their control harness and because for the soldiers Amanda's implants were not there. The soldiers only had access to a general slave disable command. The control harness permitted the soldiers to treat captives as if they were puppets, to walk even unconscious captive long distances by remote control.

Hank's mistreatment didn't last very long. He was brought before the base commander, the deputy commander, the base executive officer, a representative of the United States Air Force and Ned Saunders.

Hank was relieved to see his old friend Ned in this meeting. It couldn't hurt, he thought, that Ned Saunders was also Amanda's father. Ned wore a light polo shirt and Bermuda shorts with sandals to deal with Florida's muggy summer heat.

Ned made the introductions.

The base commander was Colonel Jason Mithras of the Capitallia Defense Organization Air Force. The Capitallian Defense Organization (CDO) consisted of the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Army, mirroring the old United States of America Department of Defense's organization. There were other forces that joined CDO during declared wars: the famed Coast Guard, the 38 state militias, selected private militias. Under the command structure the various organizations accepted orders from the senior CDO commander while remaining independent--more like allied nations than a unified military command. The reason Capitallia forbade federalization of the militias was to keep the massive battle power of Capitallia's armed forces from staging a military coup. Even in wartime the various militias would not become organic to the CDO. Capitallia's lawmakers feared their own militaries more than any external enemy.

At present the CDO was on high alert short of war. Capitallia had last been to war during the Secession. All CDO forces were wearing combat uniforms--if not actually armed and armored. The militia forces wore their service uniforms. Colonel Mithras was a stern-faced athletic man of medium height. He was in a CDO combat uniform with a Direct Energy Weapon Sidearm (DEW-S)in a belt holster.

The deputy commander, Colonel Mary Chamberlain of the Massachusetts State Militia, wore her state's blue dress uniform. She was a plain woman of middle age, a bit plump.

The third colonel was from the United State Air Force. Capitallia referred to the United States of America as the United States Remnant or USR. Colonel Charles Jackson of the United States Air Force was assigned to Eglin Air Base to help maintain the peace between the USR and Capitallia. Neither government wanted war. Chuck Jackson wore the Airman Battle Uniform with subdued insignia including the Missileer badge. He was tall and had gray hair, earned through 22 years of active military service. Senior officers nearing retirement were preferred for these important liaison duties because officers like Colonel Jackson worried more about serving their nation than advancing their dying careers. Colonel Jackson's career was ending because he cared more for his country than for his career. Official promotion policies such as this were the way the USR kept its own military from staging a coup--different nations, different bureaucratic doctrines.

Ned Saunders wore a light polo shirt and Bermuda shorts with sandals to deal with Florida's muggy summer heat. Hank barely suppressed a grin--Ned's presence would help to resolve Hank and Amanda's detention.

"Why is Doctor Dalton in restraints?" Colonel Jason Mithras asked.

"Sir, the OOD ordered it," the speaker wore full battle armor and the speaker's identity was completely concealed. It could have been a man or a woman under the layers of ballistic protection, chemical barriers, and other defensive gear. OOD is a military acronym for Officer of the Day, a 24-hour duty position that runs a military post's guard force and takes care of daily ceremonial duties such as raising and lowering the post flag.

"Who was the officer of the day?" Colonel Chamberlain asked. "It's Massachusetts day to command the base defense force."

"Second Lieutenant Gordon Venters." When the soldier answered Hank and Ned exchanged meaningful glances.

"Where is my officer now?" deputy base commander Colonel Chamberlain demanded.

"Ma'am, Lieutenant Venters took the slave to the holding pen," the soldier replied. In a series of questions the third officer, a man with a black oak leaf on his uniform and a nametape that read ROGERS found out that two soldiers were guarding Hank's sky car, one had gone with Lieutenant Venters and three had escorted Hank to see the base commander. The Massachusetts militia officer, the deputy base commander, ordered the soldier to call Lieutenant Venters.

"Colonel," the soldier said shortly after getting the order, "Corporal Jones reports that he was ordered to return to Hangar 13 and the guard house reports that Lieutenant Venters left with the second prisoner."

"Colonel Mithras," Hank stated, "my slave is in danger. It appears that Lieutenant Venters is not where he said he would be. Isn't' it unusual for officers under your command to disappear with someone's slave? Check the holding pen and if Venters isn't there with Amanda, find out why your officer of the day is AWOL."

"I understand why you are in restraints now," Colonel Chamberlain quipped. "He isn't shy, is he Ned?"

"No he isn't Mary," Ned said. "Jason, there is something you need to know—Hank and I captured a kidnapper named Gordon Venters aboard the Constitution in Boston Harbor back in '90. That was when the East Coast was deciding if they would join Capitallia or remain part of the USA or even form their own nation. The shooting war was over. Aztlan had signed a cease-fire agreement with Mexico and Capitallia. Hank embarrassed that Gordon Venters by storming the sides dressed as pirates. Gordon Venters was sentenced to lifetime enslavement for piracy after Massachusetts joined Capitallia."

"That Gordon Venters is still alive," Hank said, "but Gordon's son died several years later. The Venters had a family tradition of service in the Massachusetts State Police. It was a routine domestic disturbance call and the battered wife fatally knifed Officer Venters. It is a coincidence because the son was named Henry like me--he preferred to be called Harry."

"You had contact with the slave's family?" Mary Chamberlain asked. "What did you do with him?"

"Gordi became my slave twenty-three years ago," Hank explained. "I rescued Gordi from a mine when the corporation owning him went bankrupt. My slaves reconnect with their families whenever possible. It keeps them human. Slave Gordon's anti- slavery bent hasn't changed because that is part of who he is--and the reason he kidnapped the Capitallian delegation to Boston. Mind control can be very precise. I didn't even try to change Gordi's mind about slavery. All my slave has to do is comply with my rules and obey my orders.

"Gordi is in Pensacola and even though still a slave is working with a security corporation. Colonel Mithras, if you are going to court martial Lieutenant Venters, may I send Slave Gordi to speak with the lieutenant and counsel before the court martial?"

"Don't I have to determine that a crime has been committed first?" Colonel Mithras asked.

"Sir," the soldier reported, "Neither Lieutenant Venters nor Slave Amanda is at the holding pen. Gate Four reports seeing the OOD and a woman leaving the post."

"Was that in the official sedan?" Colonel Mithras asked. "Militia men have trouble divorcing duty from politics. They don't have the same indoctrination in military ethics as those of us on active duty. Massachusetts has a history of anti-slavery activity."

"Yes, the only anti-slavery Senator was murdered in Las Vegas hours ago," Ned said. "She was from Massachusetts and her slave killed her before committing suicide."

"That's impossible," Colonel Chamberlain stated. "Senator Sherri Westliegh didn't own slaves. She was a member of ASP (Abolish Slavery Party) and never owned slaves."

"That fits," Hank said. "The other murdered senators were killed by their slaves. Their murders were impossible. Slaves are unable to harm their owners- the mind control is that good. But as to my slave Amanda, she volunteered for enslavement so that I could treat her for attachment disorder. Being kidnapped is a bump in the road to recovery. I think that Lieutenant Venters took Amanda to an off-post apartment. Was Venters TDY or is he permanent party?"

"We have 12 month temporary duty," Mary Chamberlain replied, "but due to a shortage of available on-base housing, all one-year temporary duty officers are paid per diem and live on the local economy. I don't know why he took the official sedan."

"Speculation on my part," Hank offered, "but cars do break down. Was there a car pool? Do your officers share rental cars? It was possible for Venters to drive down along Interstate 95, I suppose, but the chance to steal a slave and put her on the Underground Railroad into the USR cropped up. Was Venters a member of the Abolish Slavery Party?"

"Officially the Massachusetts State Militia holds that a citizen's politics are private," Colonel Chamberlain said. "I don't keep track of my officer's political attitudes."

"This is awkward," Colonel Jackson of the United States Air Force said. "My sympathies are anti-slavery, I'll admit. I'm not here for the Underground Railroad, though. I'm helping to prevent a war between Capitallia and the United States."

"Nobody wants a war," Colonel Mithras said. "We don't suspect you of conspiracy, Colonel Jackson."

"That's good," the USAF representative said. "Ned, why do you care about this slave? I thought that slaves were regarded as livestock here."

"She's my daughter and Doctor Dalton's patient," Ned explained. "Amanda volunteered for enslavement because Doctor Dalton is the best psychologist in the nation. Amanda will live with Doctor Dalton as his slave until they both determine that she no longer has issues with intimacy."

"There is a problem," Hank said. "Lieutenant Venters has Amanda. He took her off post. We can find him very quickly but we must find him. Amanda doesn't want to escape. What is the fate of such slaves in the Underground Railroad? I fear that they may kill Amanda when they find out that she is a true volunteer. Criminal organizations have to maintain security. We can track Amanda by her RFID chip--she is a full slave and not merely indentured."

"Afraid not," Colonel Mithras said. "Those control harnesses damp out RFID chip signals. It was a security measure to prevent captives from being tracked while in custody. But we can track the control harness itself."

Colonel Mithras issued the appropriate orders. The soldier saluted and left the room.

"Now, Doctor Dalton, we have something else to discuss," Colonel Mithras spoke while staring right into Hank's unflinching gaze. "What happened? Why was there an explosion behind your air car?"

"We were tracking you in the air corridor and suddenly there was an explosion," Colonel Jackson said. "Did you drop something?"

"Ned, what am I cleared to say here?"

"I'll do the talking, Hank." Ned said. "It was an assassination attempt by unknown players. They used an obsolete stealth drone. You weren't tracking Hank on radar--you used transponders."

"We used an AWACS radar," Colonel Jackson said.

"The radar on the current AWACS is not capable of spotting the MQ-47 Kite armed reconnaissance drone at distances beyond 100 kilometers," Hank stated. "I was 186 kilometers away from AWACS at the time of the explosion. You wouldn't have seen those F-22's escorting us either if not for their transponders. Stealth coatings reduce the radar reflection signature. Your AWACS had other fish to fry and so their racetrack flight path had a blind spot that the attackers exploited. Mommy Dalton's little boy Hank was low on your priority list--but I do thank you for the protection your nation provided. I didn't spot it until it was--"

"Hank, I'm telling this!" Ned snapped. "As Hank said, he spotted the drone and watched it as it closed in to firing range. Hank managed to short-circuit the missile arming system so that it detonated when the drone's controller tried to fire the missile. We did track the controller. It was on another aircraft that is currently landing in Tampa. It was a Columbian Common Carrier aircraft registered in the USR--I mean, USA. The plane is being met at the Tampa International Airport by Capitallian national police and representatives of your consulate. We're impounding the plane under dual custody of both governments until it can be searched for the control device."

"You allow private citizens to have electronic countermeasures on their private aircraft?" Colonel Jackson asked. "We don't even allow our citizens to have handguns!"

"Let's not get into a political argument here," Hank said. "We'd all only lose. Unless, Colonel Jackson, it is the official policy of your government to protest people surviving criminal assault inside your borders. If that's the case, when will I be extradited to stand trial for the crime of not being murdered while under the protection of the United States Air Force?"

"Hank!" Ned shouted. "Colonel Jackson, Hank is a loose cannon. He was like that when he was my gunnery sergeant. I was a member of Benton's Raiders and I was on both the Snakefly operation and the rescue of the hostages held aboard the 19th Century frigate Constitution. Hank's a colonel in the militia more to keep him under military discipline than anything else. Sometimes he's activated. Several months ago there was an illegal slavery ring in Central Florida. Non-citizen legal residents were disappearing. Hank ran the slaver ring to ground, gave my office all the evidence he had uncovered and we were able to round up the criminals and rescue several illegally enslaved people. Colonel Chamberlain might disagree, but Hank is on the side of the angels in the slavery game. He is the inventor of the Dalton System, a slave control bio digital implant that has a removable interface module. Most bio digital implants are not removable, at least not easily nor safely. Hank also pioneered the Rehabilitation Services."

"Soldiers needed to readjust to civilian life," Hank explained. "Slaves were even more dependent than soldiers. Soldiers and slaves both needed to learn to fend for themselves after years or decades of having everything provided for them. Freedom is a habit."

"Hank!" Ned muttered, "I dress him up and he still acts like a barbarian!"

Amanda was oblivious to her surroundings when the Hostage Rescue Team dynamically entered the small apartment belonging to Gordon Brian Venters III. Venters was sitting in the living room when the phone rang. He was astonished when the comm station informed him that he was under arrest and that he was to stand where he was with his hands on his head or he would be stunned. The door to his apartment flew off its hinges and fell to the floor as six heavily armored police entered. Venters recoiled and was summarily stunned.

The rescue team found Amanda sitting in the bedroom singing a song about castaways. She smiled at her rescuers.

Lieutenant Gordon Venters shivered in his underwear in the air-conditioned holding cell. Three guards, two in armor and one in combat uniform, opened his cell.

"Sir, your defense counsel is waiting," the officer in combat uniform said. "Please dress and follow us."

Control harnesses work best when in direct skin contact. It will work with less efficiency through clothing--just adjust the voltage and accept less functionality. Hank and Amanda had been stripped because Lieutenant Venters had exercised his judgment that both were security risks. Venters wore his control harness and cuffs over his Massachusetts State Militia uniform. A few minutes later the prisoner was escorted to a small soundproof room. There was a table, two chairs and Colonel Chamberlain.

"At ease, Lieutenant. You aren't going to give me any more trouble, are you? No? Guards, leave us. I'll call when I need something."

After the guards left, Gordon Brian Venters the Third grumbled, "Nobody has the right to enslave another human being."

"I've been appointed as your defense counsel," Colonel Chamberlain said. "Believe it or not Doctor Dalton recommended it. Otherwise I might have had to serve on the court martial board. We're getting a pair of militia officers from New York and California to serve on your general court martial board. The president of the board will be Major General Nathan. They will be here in a week. Colonel Mithras will serve as prosecutor. I'd rather defend you, but the case against you doesn't look good. You all but confessed your guilt already. I might be able to get the court martial board to ignore that because you were stunned by direct energy weapon blasts and not in full control of yourself. You could have said anything if a clever interrogator prompted you. But the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. We were on full alert when you abandoned your post. You took an official sedan off post. You took a slave off- base to your apartment instead of putting her in detention after telling witnesses that you were taking Slave Amanda there. You abused your authority as a militia officer and as an appointed official of Capitallia--the OOD acts for Capitallia in accordance with orders. We were at full alert and you could be sentenced to death by firing squad as if Capitallia had actually declared war."

"Good. I don't want to be a slave."

"Oh, dear," Colonel Chamberlain said. "This is going to be more difficult than I thought. You have been charged with 21 counts under the CDO Uniform Code of Military Justice. Misuse of authority brings lifetime enslavement. Colonel Mithras says that death is too good for you. I can only advise you, but if you go before the court martial board you will most likely be convicted and sentenced to life as a slave."

"It isn't fair," Venters vented. "That man got my grandfather enslaved. He has to pay for that."

"Just what were you going to do with Slave Amanda? The Underground Railroad doesn't accept slaves because they are all chipped. They can be tracked worldwide. We can only help them escape being enslaved. Once enslaved, it's too late. Not only are they tagged for tracking, slaves have been brainwashed. Your infantile trick would only have resulted in good members of the Underground Railroad being enslaved. They never take in a processed slave. It is too easy for them to get caught. What were you thinking?"

"Well, I--"

"Gordon, are you ill?"

"No, Colonel."

"I think that you are ill. I can have you examined."

"Colonel! I am quite well, thank you!"

"Help me out, Gordon," Colonel Chamberlain snapped. "I'm trying to save youfrom a life of slavery! Do you want someone to destroy your personality and fill your head with all sorts of pretty little thoughts?"

"I'll kill myself first!" Lieutenant Venters shouted.

"Too late for that, deary," the militia colonel said. "You are under positive control until your trial. If you submit to examination I might be able to have you hospitalized and get the charges dropped. Or there is another way."

"What's that?"

"You can volunteer for slavery and become a citizen again in 12 years. That way you can at least pick who your owner will be. You won't have a dishonorable discharge on your records. We might even be able to accept you back into the Massachusetts State Militia."

"Twelve years! I can't do that."

"Just a moment. There's somebody to see you." Colonel Chamberlain stood up and moved to the door. She opened the door and motioned someone inside. A slender woman with large breasts entered, wearing a slave collar and a blue dress. The woman was shorter than the other two people in the room and appeared to be 19 years old, the earliest age that a person can volunteer for enslavement in Capitallia.

"Gordi!" Lieutenant Venters exclaimed. "Why are you here?"

The woman's brown eyes and brown hair matched Lieutenant Venters.

"You are looking good, Trey," the girl said.

"Trey?" Mary Chamberlain asked.

"Yes. I was Gordon Brian Venters Junior and I named my son Henry because nobody deserved being a junior or being called a number." The slave girl put her arm over Trey's shoulders. "I was Gordon Brian Venters, Junior, Trey's grandfather. We called him Trey because he's Gordon Brian Venters the Third."

Gordi told her story: She had been a male and an older one at that prior to the wonders of modern science bringing about her rejuvenation as a young girl. The man that she had once been so many years ago was charged with the crimes of kidnapping, attempted murder and terrorism in Massachusetts. He had been convicted after a long trial and sentenced to life enslavement. At auction, that man had been purchased by a coal-mining firm from Colorado--the name was Blake Pitt Mining. The long hours in the mines, strenuous work and harsh working conditions had taken their toll.

"This was in the early days of slavery, mind you," Colonel Chamberlain responded. "The founders of Capitallia intended from the outset to create a just system of penal slavery but national legislation establishing uniform standards and protections for slaves were not immediately enacted. Instead a dozen states enacted their own penal slave laws, with some states prescribing reasonable standards for slave maintenance and medical care, while other states, including the coal mining state of Colorado, had few meaningful standards and no procedures whereby civil liberties organizations could challenge slave management practices in court. The formal slave advocate system wasn't around when you were enslaved. Some slave owning companies took advantage of ambiguous or lax laws to run their slaves ragged."

"You got that right! For example, the company that owned me castrated slaves under life sentence to prevent fights. I lost my nuts the day I arrived because I had been convicted of violent crimes. It was company policy for using lifer penal slaves--if they had a violent history or if they fought in the mines, or were disobedient, they got clipped. Even term slaves were sometimes clipped, though an owner then had to stand the cost of restoring or replacing the severed testicles at time of manumission. Eventually the prohibitions on slave abuse became effective but by then my owners had gone out of business."

Gordi explained that the male she had once been often wished that he could die while in the mines. Gordi mentioned that if Hank had been there 'Professor Dalton' would give a long lecture on the Ludlow Massacre--sitting through that lecture was almost as bad as being in the mines! Things changed when citizens formed slave advocacy agencies. These agencies saved many slaves' lives.

"Whether we wanted to live or not", Gordi continued, "the slave advocacy organizations won us the right to live. When I first started working in the mines loss of life from cave-ins, accidents and bad air were common. I started noticing that accidents seemed to happen quite often to slaves that were too old or injured to be productive workers."

"That changed in 2114", Colonel Chamberlain interjected, "with the passage of the "Criminal Punishment & Debtor Satisfaction Act". Now if a mine owner has a lifetime slave that is no longer physically fit for the work he has to first try to sell him or her for other work that he might still be able to perform and record the attempt with the county clerk. In the early days after the Act if he didn't sell, the owner had to request authorization to euthanize the life slave from a Board of Euthanasia. Today a full jury trial is required before a lifetime slave can be snuffed."

"That's just for those of us sentenced to life enslavement as punishment for a crime," Gordi continued. "No one under a term indenture or voluntary enslavement would ever be snuffed."

"Anyway, I was all used up after my mine slave years and I was ready to die. I was missing fingers and toes and my left arm was useless. I was almost blind and deaf. But fortunately for me this was a time when there was some exciting new research in life extension. My new owner put me in a tank for several weeks. When I woke up I found out three things: Hank was my new owner, I was in a girl's body and I liked being a girl."

Gordi explained that human fetuses all begin female and the reclonation chambers more easily rebuilt humans as female--at least as far gone as Gordi had been. Cloning wasn't perfected, nor were the nanites that sculpted new bodies. Gordi had to endure multiple trips back to the chamber during the years she had been Hank's slave.