Trabbian Justice

The next morning, after a light breakfast, the Americans were driven in a police van to the courthouse and brought inside. Outside the courtroom, the women were met by Sata. She asked them how they were.

"Nervous," they replied as one. She told them that the presiding judge spoke excellent English, so all the proceedings would be conducted in that language.

Sarah asked if it was OK to appear in the shorts, T shirts and sandals that they were wearing.

Sata assured them that in a tropical country like Trabbia, they were less formal about dress in court. She advised them that unless they were asked a direct question by the judge they should let her do the talking. They would be asked how they plead and all they should say was "Guilty". If they were asked a question, they should try to answer with a simple yes or no.

The Americans filed inside and sat in the first row beside Sata. Baran sat on the other side of the central aisle. The clerk had everyone stand as the judge, a rather short middle-aged man with wire-rimmed glasses entered. After some preliminary business, their names were called. The judge asked the attorneys if a plea bargain had been agreed to. They both said yes. Prosecutor Baran described the deal and the judge asked the defense attorney if that was what was agreed to. She said yes. Then the judge asked the defendants to rise.

"Jennifer Collins, how do you plead?"

"Guilty, your honor."

"Are you pleading guilty because you are in fact guilty?"

Jen looked at Sata, who nodded. "Yes, your honor," Jen replied. The judge repeated that for each of the other three defendants.

The judge looked down at the four women in front of him and began speaking. "This is a very sad case. You were all invited here to Trabbia by the government to do important work on our historical treasures that would have enriched both our country and the world. Instead you chose to violate our laws. And this, after having seen the consequences of such violations in person. Had you chosen to go to trial and been convicted, I would have had no hesitation to sentence you to the maximum punishment. Since you have made a plea bargain with the prosecution, I will respect that, though I honestly think a harsher sentence would have been in order to send a clear message."

"Jennifer Collins, Sarah Motello and Priya Narayan, I sentence each of you to 8 strokes of the judicial cane to be delivered on your bare buttocks under the procedures of the Department of Corrections. Once you have recovered from your punishment, you will be expelled from Trabbia and barred from returning for 10 years."

"Susan Gelden, your case troubles me even more than that of your students. You recruited them to come here and were responsible for their welfare while they were here. It was your job to see that they were aware of our laws and respected them. Instead, you participated with them in the illegal and immoral activities. You should be ashamed of yourself. I sentence you to 12 strokes of the judicial cane to be delivered on your bare buttocks under the procedures of the Department of Corrections and to expulsion from the country with a 10 year bar on returning. Guards, please take the offenders into custody."

The judge gaveled the proceedings to a close, as the guards handcuffed the women and marched them out of the court room to a holding cell. About half an hour later, they were taken out of the cell and placed in a Dept. of Corrections van and driven to Warden Noba's prison.

Priya's heart sank as they passed through the double barbed-wire fence, which they had passed through before as visitors. The van pulled up in front of the intake unit where she saw the Warden was there to greet them in person, smiling broadly, with six muscular female guards beside her.

"Good day, ladies," Noba announced. "Welcome to our facility once again. It's good that you are paying us a return visit, this time as offenders rather than honored guests, so that you can get a different perspective on our justice system than we could offer you the first time. Since some of the guards speak very little English, I thought I would accompany you through intake."

"First, let me inform you of our rules. The most important one is that all orders from staff are to be obeyed instantly and without question. If a guard says 'jump', you jump. Failure to follow orders at any point can result in additional strokes being added to your punishment at my sole discretion, something I can guarantee you don't want. Also, any violation of any other rules will be punished most severely."

"Your first stop will be intake. There, you will be searched and issued prison clothing. Then you will be taken to your quarters where you will remain for the evening. Tomorrow morning, you will be taken for your physical and then, assuming you are medically fit, punishment will be administered as prescribed by the court.

I know you are familiar with that in the theoretical sense. Tomorrow you will experience how it feels for yourselves. Afterwards, you will be taken to the prison hospital for treatment. You will remain with us until you are sufficiently recovered to be released and then you will be taken to the airport in Pranda and escorted onto an international flight. Now, follow me please.

Noba led them into a tile floored room with a small table against one wall which had a box of surgical gloves and a tube of KY Jelly on it. Priya, as a pre-med student, had a pretty good idea what uses those would be put to. Though air conditioned, the room was quite warm from the presence of the four prisoners and seven staff in the confined space. "Strip," shouted the Warden, "Everything off. Let's go. All your clothes go in the plastic bag with your name on it. They will be returned to you when you are released."

'So,' Priya thought, 'This is where it begins, the process of literally stripping the things of their previous life from them, to leave them totally at the mercy of the pitiless correctional system that will soon flog them brutally.'

She wanted desperately to run, but she knew that if she resisted, the guards would seize her and disrobe her forcefully and she would earn extra lashes. Seeing no option, she slipped her sandals off and placed them in the bag. The tiles felt cool against her soles. Then she pulled the T shirt over her head, noting that her friends were doing the same. Next, she slipped her shorts over her hips, letting them fall to the floor, bending to pick them up and deposit them in the bag, leaving her and the others in the bathing suits they had worn on that ill-fated swim that had landed them in this mess.

"Keep going, ladies, we need you naked so we can search for contraband. Move it!" Noba shouted.

Priya couldn't hold back a few tears as she complied, reaching behind her to untie the top and take it off, then lowering the suit bottom to stand naked beside her equally naked friends and professor in front of the fully clothed guards and warden. Priya could feel herself blushing in shame, even though everyone present was female. She knew that tomorrow she would have to strip for her caning and that there would be men present then.

The Warden indicated a taped line on the floor. "Stand with your toes on the line, facing me, arms by your side." The women quickly complied.

One of the guards went to stand in front of Priya. Wearing gloves, she started at her head, feeling inside and behind her ears and inside her mouth. Priya glanced over to see that each of the other Americans was receiving the same treatment. The guard lifted one arm, palpated in the armpit then worked her way down to the hand, feeling in between each finger, then did the same on the other arm.

Then, she ran her hands down the young student's body, taking time to lift her breasts to see that nothing was hidden underneath and to feel between her legs and behind her knees. When she reached the feet, she lifted each one in turn, examining the soles and feeling between each of the toes. Priya had little choice but to stand quietly and let the guard do her job clinically, as a shopper would examine merchandise in the supermarket.

"Spread your legs!" Noba ordered. The women complied, spacing themselves along the line at the guards' prodding, moving their feet until they were approximately shoulder width apart. One of the guards stood in front of Priya and lowered her hand to the girl's crotch. She inserted her gloved index finger into Priya's vagina and moved it around, feeling every part of the cavity. Priya had to restrain herself from crying at the humiliation of this violation.

The guard said something in Trabbian. "Bend over and touch your toes," the Warden helpfully translated. Priya complied, having no doubt what assuming this posture would mean. The guard squirted a glob of lube on her index finger, moved behind Priya and slid it into the crack between Priya's butt cheeks. It felt cool and greasy. Her finger found the anal ring and pressed against it. Priya's body naturally resisted the intrusion, clamping the sphincter down.

The guard slapped her butt and said something in Trabbian. "Relax your sphincter. She's going in one way or another, so you might as well do it the easy way," the Warden translated.

Priya forced herself to relax and the guard pushed her finger in, up to the second joint. Priya felt an uncomfortable pressure as the guard probed the linings of her rectum looking for any foreign object. Finally, the guard withdrew, pulled off the glove and threw it into a red pail. Another guard handed Priya a pair of plain white cotton underpants, a green T shirt and a pair of blue shorts.

Put these on," the Warden ordered. "Of course, you will have to take them off for your caning tomorrow, but for now you can wear them."

"You may have noticed that there is no bra. That is for security reasons. We cannot allow prisoners to escape their just punishment by hanging themselves." Priya dressed quickly and the guard handed her a pair of flip-flops, which she slipped onto her feet.

As Priya was dressing, she saw that other guards were performing the same rigorous search on the other women. Once they had all passed inspection and were dressed, Warden Noba and the guards walked them through the camp to a small hut with four cots, a small table and a toilet and sink. Motioning them in, the Warden said, "I hope you will be comfortable in here. Rest up because tomorrow is a big day." The door was closed, leaving the American women to choose their cot and lie down to think about what awaited them.

As soon as the four women were alone, Priya found all the emotion of the last two days welling up inside her. The forced blowjobs to the officers, the arrest, the sentence, the strip search-none of these were things she could even have imagined a few days ago. And ahead was the worst of all, the caning. Priya found her eyes filling with tears, and her body shaking with fear and hopelessness. "I don't think I will be able to take it. It will hurt so much," she sobbed

Susan rushed to put her arms around her student. "Yes, Priya, it will hurt terribly," she told her, stroking her hair, "But those two girls we saw managed to stand it. They're probably home now and healing. They aren't stronger than you; anything they can do, you can do, too."

Priya wasn't sure Susan was right, but what could she do except to try to get through it? There was no escape now. Sure, there was a medical exam, but even though she wasn't an athlete like Jen or a runner like Susan, she did hike some of the mountains around Dorsbury. Anyway, she was 19 and healthy and she knew there was no chance Dr. Fong, that horny bastard, would let her off.

Jen joined Susan in comforting Priya. "I'm scared too, but here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do everything I can to remain silent and not give those pricks the satisfaction of hearing me scream. I don't know if I'll be able to, but I'm going to try."

Sarah said, "You go girl. Me, I'm not going to keep silent. I'm going to scream like hell at those fucking bastards."

"I hope you're joking, Sarah," Jennifer said. "That bitch warden would just love to give you extra strokes, I'm sure. I really need you have some skin left on that cute ass."

"Yeah, OK, I'll be good," Sarah replied. "I'll keep my real thoughts about those fuckers to myself, though I guess I might scream

Susan remained quiet. Priya knew that with 12 strokes to take, she faced the worst ordeal of all. She realized that if anyone needed comfort it was her professor. She hugged Susan and, throwing caution to the wind, kissed her gently on the mouth. "Susan, I know you are the strongest of all of us," she reassured her.

"I hope so, Priya, I hope so," Susan replied.

After they had all vented, they sat there quietly. What can you do to pass the time confined to a small hut waiting to be flogged? There wasn't room to pace more than two steps. There was no TV in a Trabbian prison. They waited, played 20 questions, chatted. They were served dinner, which was edible but not much more.

Eventually it got dark. Priya lay on her back on the cot, staring at the ceiling. She thought about how she wouldn't be able to do that for a while. She heard the breathing of her cell mates and tried not to think about tomorrow. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep for a while.

At some point during the night, she found herself awake and imagined herself having to strip before a crowd of men and women and being strapped to the flogging frame. Much to Priya's disgust, she felt a tingling in her loins. 'God, I'm getting aroused by the prospect of being caned,' she thought.

Priya was disgusted with herself. She forced herself to think about something else, anything else. Maybe she slept an hour or so more. Then she saw that it was getting light. It was Punishment Day.