“I’m pleased to report that you’ve taken the Prime’s vigorous efforts with no difficulty whatsoever,” Gerdoh said, actually sounding as pleased as he claimed to be. “It’s almost as though you’ve been accustomed to use of that sort, but such an idea would be ridiculously outlandish. Most probably you’re merely adapting well, and we need to do no more than remain alert against any possible future difficulties. The Prime is extremely fortunate in having chosen a woman so well suited to his situation, and we, of course, are even more delighted than he.”
He’d been moving around as he spoke, doing something I couldn’t see with the Sec in the way, but that didn’t last. He reappeared at the foot of the table and moved around to the other side of it, then gestured at the null with the injector he held.
“Turn her a bit more toward you and hold her still, Adjin,” he directed, back to being partially distracted. “She won’t enjoy this, and I don’t want her jumping at the wrong time and hurting herself.”
“What are you doing?” I demanded, vaguely wondering if words as shaky as mine could be called a demand.
The Sec had shifted his hold to turn me part way to him, the ankle bindings and his hand clamped tight to my thigh keeping me just the way Gerdoh wanted. I hated the idea of being given any more injections in that madhouse, but laboratory animals are never offered their choice. The needle went into me just above the Sec’s hand, and this time it hurt enough to make me cry out.
“There, there, it’s just about all done,” Gerdoh soothed mechanically as he paid attention to what he was doing, finally withdrawing the needle no more than an instant before I would have screamed. “We do have to be sure you’ll continue being able to accept what Prime Kel-Ten wants to give you, and my superiors were somewhat displeased with the way you attempted to refuse allowing Prime Ank-Soh’s touching of you. The Prime may have been amused by the novelty of the thing, but there’s really no reason for him or any other Prime to have to be subjected to something like that. If the next occurrence of a similar happening shows you being more amenable, your dosage will be reduced again.”
I detested self-satisfied voices like Gerdoh’s, almost as much as I detested the way the null ran his hand slowly over my bottom before letting me go completely. The Medical man had already turned away to rid himself of the injector, of course, and I just lay there on the table, tears trickling down my cheeks. I suppose I would have been happier if the tears were from frustration or anger, but even I was incapable of giving me happiness in that place. I was too miserable to be frustrated, too sunk in hopelessness to be angry, and pulling that ridiculous shirt back down to the middle of my thighs did nothing to make me feel better. Even a full uniform wouldn’t have kept me from being a walking invitation to violation, and the tears I cried were the terrible tears of helplessness.
By the time Kel-Ten came back for me my ankles had been freed and I was simply sitting on the table, but the flow of tears from my eyes hadn’t stopped. He was no longer covered in sweat and his gold outfit had also obviously been cleaned, but the grin he walked in with faded when he saw me. A heavy coldness darkened his light gaze as he strode to where I sat, and Gerdoh was already speaking even before the Prime’s arms went around me.
“Now, now, Prime Kel-Ten, she’s quite unharmed,” he said more hurriedly than soothingly, his nervousness obvious even to me. “She’s merely begun feeling the effects of her injection, effects which are making her extremely unhappy. She’ll need seeing to in the near future, but I would recommend not sooner than after lunch. A touch of discipline will do her no end of good, and we were asked by her section head to administer punishment to her if we found an opportunity.”
“Oh, yes, I’d forgotten about that,” Kel-Ten said, raising my face with one hand to examine me critically. “I can see from the way she’s blushing and squirming that is the only thing wrong with her, so you can stop thinking about which direction to run in, Gerdoh. And since I owe her some punishing of my own, I’ll take your suggestion about after lunch and may even add to it. I was going to cover one of my three rings after lunch, and if she doesn’t show me something to change my mind, I’ll make her sit there and watch.”
“An excellent thought, Prime Kel-Ten, an excellent thought,” Gerdoh laughed in relieved agreement, finally coming away from the side of the Sec he’d almost put himself behind. “Just to show my appreciation of your noble generosity, understanding and cooperation, I believe I’ll tell you now of the decision made by my superiors. They’ve concluded that an experiment of sorts is definitely in order, so they’ve altered the rules in regard to this female. When her first fertile period arrives, it’s you they mean to assign to cover her. In that way you won’t need to give her up for the time, and afterward there will be other high Primes doing the same. If her percentage turns out to be significantly higher than the norm, other unconditioned females will be experimented with. ”
“Say, now, I really appreciate that,” Kel -Ten said with a wide grin, his arm tightening possessively around me, his tone clearly delighted. “I can see you people are going out of your way to please me, and I won’t forget it. Come on, sweet thing, let’s go to lunch.”
He took my hand and pulled me off the table, then strode out of the room with me hurrying behind. He whistled as we moved along, obviously in the highest spirits, and didn’t think to glance in my direction until we were almost back to the bank of lifts. Once he did the whistling cut off abruptly, and he stopped to put a hasty arm around me. I wasn’t crying any longer, but if I looked the way I felt my face must have been absolutely ghastly.
“Now, now, none of that,” he said in the softest of voices, for an instant giving me the crazy impression it was Gerdoh who was speaking. “I know what’s bothering you, but you can’t let it. You have to accept it the way we agreed you would, or at least wait until we can discuss it in private. Do you hear me and understand what I’m saying?”
There wasn’t much for me to do besides nod, which didn’t in any way change anything. Despite all the open spaces in that part of the complex, I could feel the walls closing in from all sides. My body was burning, the arm Kel-Ten had around my shoulders making it considerably worse, and I finally understood to the very core of me that when it came time for him to see to his newest assignment, I’d have no choice about accepting it. I’d find it necessary to pull him to me rather than push him away, and then it would be irrevocably done.
“I’ll bet one of your problems is that you’re hungry,” Kel-Ten said with a smile after seeing my nod, his free hand smoothing my hair as he began leading me forward again. “It’s been hours since breakfast, and as soon as we get some food in you, you’ll be right back to snapping at me again. Come on, it’s not much farther.”
At least he was right about that. The doors to the dining room were only a short way beyond the lift area, and they opened into a much fancier dining room than the first one I’d been taken to. Crystal and silver sparkled among gracefully beautiful flowers, but here, too, the opulence went from high to higher. We made our way past tables filled with males and females together, lovely music keeping step with us, until we reached the very center of the room. There was a single, smaller table there, the decorations golden rather than silver, and the only ones to sit at it were we two.
“You’d laugh if I told you how many of my distinguished peers tried angling for an invitation to join us for lunch,” Kel-Ten said as he deposited me in a chair then took the one next to it himself. “They all wish they’d gotten to you first, the ones who are real men, I mean. For a little while I was thinking about using one of the high tables in the low dining room instead of coming here, but I changed my mind. I certainly don’t belong there, and now you don’t either.”