Chapter 14: Reception

The porterbots who were moving the cages into the terminal were rather badly scratched and looked, and in some cases sounded, in dire need of repair. The one moving her cage had a squeak that would not have been left uncorrected for ten minutes on Earth. Jacqui thought that this was perhaps because the Authorities were uncaring of the prisoners' welfare, but it didn't make sense in terms of efficiency to use defective equipment.

Jacqui noticed with a sinking heart that the women prisoners were being kept separate from the men. She expected that indicated another set of leering men making crude offers of friendship and help in order to get a free fuck or something worse. She shuddered as she thought of how the bastard on the space ship had tricked her.

Then a woman with a badly scarred face came into the room. Her left eye was almost buried in scar tissue where a cut had run from the top of her left ear across the left eye socket and down to just below the edge of her mouth. The eye was virtually closed, but it soon became obvious that she was still able to see out of it. It made it impossible to judge her age, and Jacqui wondered why she had not had it treated to correct the disfigurement. A new face didn't cost that much, surely?

The woman launched into an obviously much practised speech of introduction.

"I am Kate, called 'One-Eye' but not by the likes of you, and not to my face by anyone. I have the unfortunate job of sorting you out and arranging assignments. We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. I have a persuader here which I will not hesitate to use."

Kate held up a thin rod about a foot long with a shiny tip. Jacqui gasped as she recognised a neural whip, which could cause pain ranging from nasty through unbearable to a level that would literally cause most people to die. They were strictly illegal anywhere on Earth and it was practically a capital offence to possess one, yet this woman was waving one about as though it were a child's toy.

"I see that a lot of you don't recognise it," Kate continued, "they are illegal on Earth but here on Csadia we are a long way from the Earth's policebots, so I will demonstrate its power for the benefit of the uninitiated."

She walked over to one of the cages and which held a fat, well dressed, self-confident man.

"I see you had friends at the spaceport, or on the ship, to supply that lovely suit. I, personally, have a use for it; take it off and give it to me as a present. It would look good on my husband."

The man smiled and shook his head, saying, "A junior clerk like you doesn't scare me. You are right, I have very important friends even here on Csadia, so be a little more careful how you talk to me."

Kate gently placed the end of the device on the back of the man's hand and the man screamed in agony. It became apparent to all present that he had been unable to control his bowels and had pissed and shit himself.

"Not so bold now?" sneered Kate, "Now I'll have to clean the trousers before I can give them to my husband. Get that suit off now!"

She motioned towards him with the device as if to touch him again.

Jacqui thought she had never seen anyone undress as fast as this man managed. She had taken and received pain leading to pleasure many times and it had sometimes left weals or cuts on her body temporarily; she knew enough about the neural whip to know that it left no marks on the body but had damaged the man's mind for ever.

Kate looked round and asked, "Any questions or objections?"

Apparently she did not expect any, and Jacqui didn't think that this was quite the right time to bring up the problem of her return to Earth. In any case, Kate left the room almost at once, carrying the fat man's suit.