Chapter 22 - Treason
Anna hated the fact that she couldn't keep her eyes open for more than five
minutes without drifting off to sleep. Through most of the morning she drifted
in and out of her dreams, staying awake only long enough to eat more of the food
Guy put in front of her as her eyesight and strength returned. She rapidly grew
sick of sleeping, but first her exhaustion, and then Guy's insistence, kept her
flat on her back in bed.
"Damn it, I'm getting up," she called out to him suddenly, pushing herself up
onto her elbows.
"Stay there," he ordered from the room beyond, sounding distracted.
"No," Anna said under her breath, and with a groan of effort managed to sit up
in bed. "Oh, my," she gasped, holding her head and swaying as the world spun.
She barely noticed as the thin sheet covering her fell away to expose her
nudity, gentle curves and swollen breasts giving her a strangely beautiful look.
But she was determined not to give up, and with a visible effort pulled her legs
up to her chest, pausing again to lean forward on them and rest, breathing
heavily already. It was much harder than she had expected, and it scared her
that she was so weak in a place like this.
"I can do this," she told herself, her voice barely audible.
Placing her hands on the mattress, she turned herself to the edge of the bed and
slowly slid her legs out from underneath the sheet. Hanging them over the edge,
she gave her toes an experimental wriggle, smiling slightly at doing such a
simple thing. She glanced around the room, her eyes scanning the floor for
something to wear, but it wasn't really a surprise when she found nothing but
the cold, featureless steel.
"You think no clothes will keep me here?" she muttered, staring down at herself.
She was conscious now of the pull of her breasts, swollen as they were with the
milk her confused body was still slowly producing. They hung heavily from her
chest, areolae dark and large around her hard nipples, and she knew that there
was only one way they could return to their previous size again.
Silently hating her captors, she pulled the sheet from her lap and with a grunt
rose shakily to her feet. Her head immediately started pounding again, and she
was forced to lean on the side of the bed to keep her balance as the floor
seemed to tilt crazily. Despite herself she glanced nervously at the doorway,
hoping that Guy didn't choose this moment to come and check on her. Naked and
bent over the bed, her bare buttocks quivering as her knees threatened to give
way, she felt extremely vulnerable.
But her head soon settled down again, and Anna was able to stand unsteadily by
herself, bending back slightly to offset the foreign weight on her chest. She
could feel her strength returning slowly as she moved, and smiled to herself,
proud of her quick recovery.
Taking a deep breath, she bent down again and grabbing the edge of the plain
white sheet with both hands, pulled with all her meagre strength. It seemed
determined to stay on the bed, though, and she had to put all her weight into it
before it would come free from where it was tucked in against the wall. Throwing
it around her naked figure like a cloak, she made her way slowly to the door.
Cautiously she peeked out, taking in the hemispherical area that lay outside the
bedroom. The doorway she was standing in was off to the left side of the flat
wall, giving her a clear view of a space that could have easily fitted her house
if the ceiling had been higher. The curved wall was entirely made of glass, but
still unwilling to believe she was no-longer on Earth, the inky blackness beyond
made Anna suspect it was night.
She saw Guy standing at the front of the room, staring out into the darkness.
His shirt sat discarded on the desk directly behind him, and Anna was able to
make out the glint of steel around his lower body, from the base of his ribs
down to the waistband of his pants. She was tempted to move in closer to see
what it was, but then Julian moved, his jet black clothing making him nearly
invisible against the darkness of the windows. Her eyes narrowed with loathing,
and she unconsciously pulled the sheet tighter around her self.
"Why is he here?" she whispered, trying to calm the unease that was creeping
over her with the sound of her own voice. She took another look around the room,
but beyond the desk and a slightly sunken area in the middle of the room which
had seats set into it, there was no cover. Unless she revealed the fact that she
was up, she was trapped in the bedroom.
Taking a deep breath, she leaned out further into the room, looking along the
wall and noting the doors spaced along it. Stepping back to the relative cover
of the doorframe, she began planning her escape, trying to work out how fast she
could reach one of the doors before they noticed her. She would have to do
something about the dragging sheet first, and then hope that the door she chose
was a way out.
"Is there any word from the team?" Guy asked Julian, his voice carrying across
the room. Anna smiled to herself and gathering the sheet up around her waist,
stepped out into the room, hoping their conversation would provide enough of a
distraction for her to slip away.
"Last report, they were having difficulties with automated defences inside the
base," Julian replied. "They're several hours overdue now."
"Good. And what about fixing the generator?"
"Still no word on how long it'll take," Julian told him, sounding angry. "That
bitch's father took several important components, and our allies aren't being
cooperative with replacements."
"Respect your enemy, Julian," Guy said calmly. "They are an annoyance, but they
provide a useful distraction. The generator is a complication we will deal
with."
Her bare feet soundless against the floor, Anna crept along the wall to the
nearest doorway. Her hands shook with impending freedom as she reached for the
doorhandle and turned it slowly, trying to remain silent. Pulling the door open
slightly, she peeked in… and her heart sank as she saw the small kitchen that
lay beyond; a dead end.
Silently cursing, she closed the door again and headed for the next one along.
Guy and Julian were still talking quietly, and didn't appear to have noticed her
yet. She still had a chance…
"Get back to bed, Anna, I won't tell you again."
Anna froze half-way between the first and second doors, looking like a deer
caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. She quivered for several seconds
with indecision, and then made a run for it, her feet slapping against the steel
floor and her soft brown eyes wide with fear and fixed on what she hoped was the
way out.
It took Julian only a couple of seconds to cross the room and block her. Anna
screamed in fright, both at being caught, and the speed with which he had moved.
She tried to turn and run in the other direction, but he easily grabbed her by
the wrist and like she weighed no more than a doll lifted her up into the air
with one hand.
"OW! Put me DOWN!" she yelled at him, the sheet falling away to leave her naked
and squirming in mid-air.
"Stop struggling," he snapped at her. In reply, Anna landed a kick square in his
chest. He might have been made from stone for all the injury it caused, but his
face clouded over with anger, and lifting her up higher, began to smack her bare
arse with his hand.
"FUCK YOU!" she screamed, twisting and pounding at his arm with her free hand to
try and get loose.
Slap! Slap! Slap!
"LET ME GO, YOU SICK FUCK!" But no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't
escape his iron grip, and her strength was quickly fading.
"Please… stop," she begged, on the verge of tears. The pain was nearly as bad as
the humiliation she felt as blow after blow was rained down on her defenceless
rear end.
"Please… help me!" Anna pleaded with Guy, who was leaning on the edge of his
desk, facing away from them. "Please… PLEASE!" she screamed, and burst into
tears.
"Julian," Guy said firmly. The grey eyed man ignored him, and began to hit her
harder, turning her thighs and buttocks bright red.
"Please… stop…" she sobbed, holding onto his hand with her free arm to try and
relieve the pain in her shoulder. "Please…"
"Julian, that's enough."
"Stop… oh… please…"
"Julian, stop it now," Guy ordered loudly, turning around to face them. Julian
paused, glaring at Anna as she hung limply from his grasp and cried. And then he
let her go, dropping her carelessly to the ground where she collapsed on top of
the sheet, quickly curling up into a ball with her hands held protectively over
her rear.
"Don't try to escape," Julian spat, and then bent down and tore the sheet out
from underneath her. Anna made a weak attempt to grab at it, but it was already
out of reach. Sobbing brokenly, she curled in on herself tighter, as if fearing
more abuse from the man standing over her.
"Leave her alone, Julian," Guy commanded, and turned away again.
"I enjoyed our little play together," Julian whispered, leaning over her so she
could hear. "I can't wait 'til next time!"
He straightened up and with a glare directed at Guy's back, walked off, taking
the sheet with him. Anna watched through her tears as he exited through the far
door, mentally noting it down as the exit for her escape. He had moved so
fast… nobody could move that fast…
"Are you okay?" Guy asked her from across the room.
"Are you okay?" He repeated the question when she said nothing.
"How do you think I feel?!" she screamed, and hugged her knees close, ignoring
the pain in her breasts caused by the pressure.
"I did not tell you to stay there for no reason," Guy said
"Does that make you feel good?" Anna raised her head to glare at his back,
blinking back her tears.
"I have my reasons," he told her wearily.
"Oh, there is a reason! That makes my butt feel so much better!" she said
sarcastically.
"Julian is dangerous. If I had stopped him straight away, he would hate you more
than he already does."
Anna sat up slowly, the cold steel floor taking some of the heat from her
buttocks and soothing the pain. Crossing her legs, she stared at him in silence,
burying her fears underneath the anger she felt looking at her captor.
"Fuck this," she spat, and stood up. Arms crossed defiantly underneath her
breasts, she strode towards the door.
"Don't try to escape again," Guy called out.
"Make me," she retorted. Naked or not, she refused to give up on freedom.
"There's no point," he told her, sounding amused.
"Why, are there a dozen guards outside?" She paused and turned to face him,
hands on her hips.
"No, there are no guards; but there is nowhere for you to go."
"What do you mean?" she asked slowly, a cold feeling settling on her heart.
"Come over and see," he said, gesturing for her to move closer.
Ignoring the fact that she was completely naked, Anna approached the desk where
Guy was standing. She was feeling a lot better now, and she was more than
confident she could avoid the old man if he tried anything.
"What am I supposed to see?" She halted at the corner of the desk and looked
into the darkness, her expression one of disinterest.
"Keep looking," Guy said, reaching behind for a small panel set into the desk.
Anna glanced up briefly as the lights dimmed, and then went out entirely. But
now she could see outside, see the murky brown that surrounded them, and the
stars shining through.
"What…?" Anna trailed off as she stepped closer to the windows. She felt a
strange terror rising up inside her, as the world she had known trembled under
the weight of what she saw. The stars were underneath her, but that was
impossible unless…
"I told you, and you didn't believe me," Guy reminded her quietly.
"No… You're tricking me," Anna breathed, shaking her head in denial. "It can't
be…"
"Your world does not have the technology to travel far from Earth. But you
aren't the only humans out there."
"I don't believe you," she whispered, her brown eyes following the stars as they
moved. They were turning slowly, and there was something blotting out the stars
to her left.
"It has no official name, so we just call it home," Guy explained, watching her
reactions as the curved blue crescent of the world came into view.
It would have been night below had the planet possessed an actual surface, but
the gas giant they were orbiting had only the ring of asteroids around it,
rubble of a moon long since destroyed. The area lit by the distant star revealed
a complex pattern of blues and whites, glittering in the light. It would have
been beautiful to Anna, if it didn't feel like the world had been pulled out
from under her feet.
"No…" she choked, placing her hands flat on the window and sinking to her knees.
"No, it… can't…"
And in that moment, she lost hope entirely. There would be no escaping; she
would never see her home again. She didn't even know where home was; which one
of the uncountable stars out there was the one she remembered shining down on
her. She was kneeling naked on the floor in a space station far away, and nobody
knew she was there.
"What do you want from me?" she whispered brokenly, staring at the planet below.
"I want you to go back and lie down," Guy replied evasively.
"Please… why?" Anna turned to look at him, her eyes glistening with tears.
"Go," he commanded loudly, his gaze on the floor at his feet.
Anna's face hardened in anger, and she straightened up.
"I'm not your slave," she spat. "You can't tell me what to do."
"Go," he repeated, pointing without looking up.
"Why are you doing this to me?!" she screamed, and then broke down sobbing.
"Fine," she choked when he did not reply. "If you won't talk to me…"
Standing up, Anna strode determinedly past him, and headed straight for the door
she had seen Julian use. She paused at her destination and glanced back over her
shoulder at him, almost hoping for a reaction of some kind. But he didn't move,
and with a dismissive sniff she hit the door control and walked out.
Placing his fresh cup of coffee on the table in his room, Seth sat himself down
in the wooden-backed chair and ran a hand wearily through his black hair. He was
troubled by what Julie had told him about her stay on the station, and yet it
all made sense. Their immediate concern would have been getting a canister of
her liquids for Guy, and then afterwards testing her resistance like they did to
Celina. If they hadn't underestimated her strength she would probably still be
there, but there was nothing he could pin his sense of unease on.
Picking up his coffee, he took a sip and shook his head, dismissing the feeling
for now. With one hand he dragged one of the folders off the stack in the middle
of the table and opened it to the first page.
He had stayed up late last night reading through them, learning the finer
details of Guy's experiments. The T-Series cloning and accelerated growing, the
harvesting machines, Celina… it was all there on paper.
"The J-Series," he read to himself. With another sip he sat up and continued to
read.
"Removal of genetic safeguards… improved resistance…" Quickly skimming over the
page, he muttered under his breath and began to look disinterested. Given the
utter failures they'd had in the other folders trying similar things, Seth
doubted he would find much of interest in the one before him.
He was about to place it on the pile of folders to read through later when one
of the words caught his eye. Blinking, he leant forward and read it closer.
"'Subject codename J-2, named Julian…' Julian…" His heart sank, and placing the
coffee cup down he quickly turned to the next page.
…Subject grew to an approximate age of 27, indicating success from an increased
dosage. Base template application was successful; however a failure in the
loyalty template similar to the C-Series (Subject C-6, 'Celina') indicates
further changes to brain structure. Tests show template application resulted in
episodes of total lapse of morals and possible delusions (Appendix 3), however
the Subject's mental abilities are not measurably impaired. Telekinetic strength
remains high…
"Oh shit…" Seth hurriedly turned back the page, paying more attention to the
words of the summary. "They did it… they finally did it…" His heart pounding, he
began flicking through the numerous pages in the folder, taking in the equations
and chemical formulae. They were radically different to the previous folders,
and yet the work looked familiar to him… familiar because he had written most of
it 18 years ago.
"They got my notes…" Feeling ill, he paused over one page, noting the changes
they had made. There were good reasons he hadn't made the same changes with
Julie, and the consequences terrified him.
"Guy, how could you…?" Closing the folder, he got up and nearly ran for the
door. There was something he had to check.
Guy hadn't lied to her; there were no guards outside. Anna was alone and naked
in the well lit hallway that curved off either side of her, the distant echoes
her only companions. Picking a direction at random, she headed down the hall,
arms held tightly underneath her swollen breasts to stop them from bouncing
painfully as she walked.
She sniffed intermittently as she walked, knowing how pointless her display of
rebellion was. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and the slumped shape of
her shoulders gave her a pitiful, hopeless appearance. She was scared and lonely
and had no idea where she was anymore; the corridors looked all the same to her.
She wanted to believe that it had been some sort of trick, to deny what she had
seen so she could have some hope of returning home. But she couldn't think about
anything but the blue planet, impossible for her to understand and yet always
there, a constant reminder of how far away from home, and from hope, she was.
Lost in her thoughts, Anna didn't see the body until she almost tripped over it.
She halted and immediately began to tremble, the blood draining from her face as
she noted the unnatural arrangement of limbs.
"Um… hello?" she called to the corpse. Fear turned her voice into a squeak, and
she began to back away, her breath coming in short, sharp bursts.
"A… are… y… you…" she stammered, and began to sob in terror.
"Dead?" finished a voice from behind her. "Yes."
Anna had no time to run as she was grabbed around the waist and then thrown
screaming up against the wall. The air was torn from her lungs, and her head
rang as it hit the hard steel, stunning her momentarily.
"Nobody will hear you," Julian said, sadistic satisfaction in his voice. "You're
all mine."
"Please… don't…" she choked, trying to breathe with the pressure he was placing
on her chest.
"Are you afraid?"
"I…" she gasped, weakly trying to grab him so she could push him back and get
some air. But he seemed elusive, and she couldn't even touch him…
"You are now," he breathed, his grey eyes glinting with a happiness born out of
insanity. Seeing the pure terror in Anna's face, he relaxed his hold so she
could speak, relishing the way she hung limply and coughed. He knew there wasn't
enough time for him to play with her like he wanted, but he was too impatient to
wait for another chance. And if he couldn't have her, then no-one would.
"What… what are you?" Her soft brown eyes, wide and filled with tears, focused
on him, begging silently for him to let her go.
And then Julian stepped forward out of the shadows, walking over slowly until he
was close enough to reach out and gently run the back of his hand up her cheek.
"I…" he began, pulling his hand back to lick her tears from his skin. "…I am the
last person you will ever see."
With what sounded like a series of wet gunshots, her legs bent horribly below
the knees, bones breaking like plywood under the brute force of his mind. Anna
convulsed once and then went limp, her eyes wide and vacant as she blacked out.
"Skip!" shouted Celina, throwing her yellow card down on the pile and grinning
excitedly.
"Evil," Kate muttered, and stuck her tongue out at the blonde sitting next to
her in the circle.
"Don't be a sore loser Kate," Julie teased, selecting a yellow card from her
hand and placing it on top.
"Yeah, Kate," Susan said with a grin, changing it to red with her own card.
"Just because I always win, you pick on me!" Kate waved her remaining card at
them.
"Draw two!" Celina exclaimed, and threw the red card down, almost quivering with
enthusiasm.
Muttering under her breath, Kate added two cards to her hand. Seated on the
floor in Celina's room, the girls had been playing for the last half-hour during
which Kate had won all but one game. Julie had suggested it as something fun to
do, and to help Celina feel more comfortable here, but she was keeping a close
eye on Kate at the same time.
She had been woken up around midnight by her awareness of Kate, and the fear
that filled her friends' emotions. Leaving Simeon still sleeping, she had gone
down and comforted her friend into the early hours of the morning. She had been
hoping that the worst of it was behind them, but sitting there with her hands
restraining Kate's to prevent her from sucking her thumb, she felt her anger
boiling.
The scars Moira had left went deep, and it was still a long way to recovery.
"So how did things with Simeon go?" asked Kate slyly, grinning at Julie over her
cards.
"Oh, fine…" the young Dominant said evasively, fighting to keep her face
neutral. Recovery might be months away, but she found it reassuring that there
was more of the old Kate emerging every day.
"It was just 'fine'? We heard you screaming down here!"
"You did?" Julie's face filled with panic, and she unconsciously moved her arms
in closer to protect her nipples.
"No," Kate said, revealing the lie. "But now you have to tell us!" The girls
giggled as Julie's face fell, realising she had been tricked.
"Evil," Julie muttered, repeating Kate's earlier comment as she put down her
card.
"Come on, tell! Help me out here!" Kate looked to Susan and Celina.
"Do we have to talk about it?" Susan asked quietly, already blushing.
"I want to know!" protested Kate. "And you won't tell me anything about Trig
either!" Kate leant forward across the circle towards Susan, grinning widely.
"So… is he big?"
"Find your own boyfriend," Susan snapped hotly, and hit Kate on the nose with
her hand of cards.
"OW!" cried Kate, her pride hurt more than her face.
"You deserved that," Julie laughed.
"Sorry," Susan whispered, embarrassed and blushing from her sudden outburst.
Selecting a card, she added it to the stack.
"Wild… red!" yelled Celina.
"You don't have to call out the card so loud," Kate pointed out, rolling her
eyes at Celina as she put down her own card.
"Sorry," the blonde girl muttered, looking chastised.
"You can call it out if you want," Julie added. "Kate is just teasing."
"Oh!" Grinning again, Celina turned to Kate and narrowed her eyes. "You're
evil!"
"Skip, Uno!" shouted Susan, looking excited to be so close to winning. Celina
whined in dismay as she lost her turn.
"Not you too!" groaned Kate. "I'll just have to do… this!"
"No!" cried the other three girls.
"She had one card!" added Celina, looking heart-broken.
"Ah, I win again! I am so great!" Smiling smugly, Kate lay back on the carpet
and stretched lazily. "It's so hard being me; I should get a medal or…" She
finished with a yelp as 108 Uno cards landed on her face, scattering everywhere.
"What… who?" she spluttered, sitting up and looking around in bewilderment.
Spotting Julie with a giant, guilty grin on her face, she began gathering the
cards spread around her.
"Throwing cards at me, I'll get you all!"
The feeling of heavy footsteps through the floor made her pause, and a second
later the door burst open and Seth hurried in.
"Dad, what are you…" Julie trailed off as he shut the door and turned to face
them, looking pale and haggard.
"What do you know about Julian?" he demanded, looking first at Julie before his
gaze settled on Celina.
"Why do you care about him?" asked Julie, confused. She turned to Celina and
faltered, seeing the pale, worried expression on her new friend's face.
"What's going on?" ventured Kate nervously.
"Celina?" said Susan gently, putting a shaky hand out to touch the girls' thigh.
"I… I'm okay," Celina whispered, and gave Susan a weak smile.
"Do you know anything?" Seth looked down at her, and Julie was about to protest
his abrupt behaviour before Celina responded.
"The folders don't lie," she told him grimly. "He is the monster you think he
is." At this, Seth's face fell as his fears were confirmed.
"Are there more like him?" he asked wearily. Celina shook her head in reply.
"But then why now? Why the suicide tactics? There's more than enough evidence in
our base to let his so called allies know he's been screwing them over… they're
going to be more than angry"
"They will kill everyone they can," Celina agreed sadly.
"Wait… 'kill everyone'?!" Standing up, Julie stepped in front of her father and
glared at him. "What are you talking about; who is killing who?"
"You can't let them hurt the girls trapped there!" Susan cried out. "They can't
do anything!"
"We'll try our best to help the girls escape," Seth reassured her. Tired of
being ignored and kept in the dark by him, Julie exploded.
"Hey, I asked you a fucking question!" she shouted.
The room fell silent, and for several long seconds nobody moved.
"Watch your mouth," Seth said slowly.
"Fine, ignore me." Violet eyes filling with tears, she stepped around him and
opening the door, ran out.
"Julie!" he called out, and leaving the other three shocked girls standing in
silence, hurried after her.
"Julie, come back!" he said, standing outside the door. "Don't walk away!"
"And why not?" she asked over her shoulder. "It's what you did."
Seth winced at the hurt in her voice.
"Because I'm your father," he replied carefully, taking a step towards her.
"You are not…" she screamed, turning around, "…my father!" And then she burst
into tears and ran off.
--
Thanks go out to slavelucy
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