Description
by John Savage
The Kr’ll, humanoid though they may be, are cruel beyond belief. Female prisoners are not merely confined; they are tortured and tormented and abused. Their naked bodies are subjected to whippings, painful restraints and indignities no woman should have to endure.
In a desperate battle to save her world from the evil Kr’ll, Marlena t’Vonder of the Haylon Space Forces is captured. She soon finds that the Kr’ll prison authorities take great delight in making her life miserable, and record the abuse for broadcast on the entertainment channels. But something else is happening at that prison and, unknowingly, Marlena is the centre of it. There is a deeper purpose behind the special video footage of her that is being sent directly to the Emperor himself…
Published: 3 / 2010 No. words: 60,000
This server wore only those very tight leather panties and her wrists were joined by shackles allowing just a dozen inches between them. From the way she did her task quickly and without mishap, it was apparent that she was used to being so shackled. Her ankles also bore a small chain between them, but she confined her steps to the limits of that chain, as if she had been walking so tethered all her life. Her skin was pretty much a normal flesh tone, but there was a rash of freckles around her neck and across the top of her forehead, just peeking out from under the black, short-cropped hair. Her eyes, when they met Marlena’s, were a lovely shade of pale pink. She was young, her breasts firm and her skin smooth. But there were faded lines crisscrossing her bottom and both the backs and fronts of her tights. A whipping had been administered sometime in the not too distant past.
As the girl slowly spooned the warm porridge, their eyes met. That morning, the serving girl had kept her eyes downcast, and Marlena had seen nothing but defeat in them. This women was different. There was still intelligence in those pale eyes, still some spark of life not yet beaten down by the harshness of the Kr’ll.
“I am Marlena. What is your name?” she asked between spoonfuls.
The girl quickly glanced over her shoulder. The guard was looking the other way, watching another cell. “I am Shala,” she whispered.
The words were strangely accented, but recognizable after a fashion. The conversation came in short bursts and carried on in whispers. “How long have you been here?” Marlena asked.
“About six months,” was the reply.
“They train slaves, I understand. Are you one?”
“They also punish prisoners,” Shala whispered with anger. “When they came to my world, I attacked one of them. So I’m a prisoner instead of a slavegirl. I am here to be punished, not trained.” She glanced nervously over her shoulder but the guard was not paying attention to her. “For the rest of my life,” she hissed. “Like you are.”
Marlena had to ask what was foremost on her mind. “Is there a way to escape?”
A look of fear passed over Shala’s face. “You do not want to try. The penalty is most terrible.”
“I want to try,” said Marlena firmly.
“You will die.” It was a matter of fact statement.
The meal finished, Shala had to go. Before she and the cart moved on to the next set of cells, she cast a concerned glance back to Marlena.
The meal went a long way to make her feel better. Now if someone would come along and removed those ropes that where hurting her arms…
Someone did come along about half an hour later, but that guard did not remove the ropes from her wrists. Instead he removed her totally from her cell and marched her off with a rope noose around her neck for a leash.
Marlena tried to memorize the corridors and lift tubes, but it was a formidable task in that underground maze. Finally they stepped out of a tube into a section where the walls were no longer carved from stone but a clean, dull white. The floor changed to carpet, a welcome change upon her bare feet. In that section she noted Kr’ll coming and going as they marched down the corridor, none of them seeming to even notice the naked and bound prisoner. Perhaps that was a common sight in this section.
She was taken to a small room that reminded her of a medical examining room, complete with a table, cabinets, white walls and a bright overhead light. There were two chairs, but the guard did not order her to sit and she was too afraid to take the initiative. So the two of them stood there until a Kr’ll came in. He wore a long, bright red coat and said nothing, but looked Marlena up and down carefully. Then he turned to the guard and said something in Kr’ll. The guard immediately grabbed Marlena and pushed her face down onto the table. The padding was cold against her breasts as he held her there. With her arms still bound, there was nothing she could do beyond kicking her legs, and that did not seem too wise. Whatever they were going to do to her, they would do it. And use any amount of force and/or pain needed to get it done.
