Chapter One
I was conscious yet not; aware of everything that was going on around me and yet helpless to do anything about it. The auction buzzed with life like an angry swarm of bees and I stood immobile, just waiting to see and hear my fate.
"A Class Five Sentient, fully and most delightfully equipped for your pleasure, gentlemen or ladies!" remarked the leering auctioneer, his prurient eyes examining me from head to toe. "Sold as seen...and there is a lot of her to be seen, I must admit!"
That crude addition brought a little ripple of laughter from the waiting bidders and I stared out into the distance, trying to ignore the fact that a hundred pairs of eyes were scrutinising me for the slightest blemish or imperfection.
"Don't often get this colouring, ladies and gentlemen. A natural coppertop as you can see by that lovely pubic thatch...a real burning bush that Moses would have been delighted to lose himself in!"
There was another wave of laughter sweeping through the crowd and I could feel myself blushing. Oh yes, us sentient beings are capable of blushing. In fact, we are capable of every emotion under the sun although we are not allowed to disobey our masters or mistresses. I am only different to you because some scientist, just after I reached my fourteenth birthday, fitted a chip into my brain to control me. If I had been a hulking great brute then I would have been sent down to work in the mines or maybe outside the city dome to labour in reconstructing the radiation-struck world until I died. Perhaps even a warrior because, despite the carnage caused by the Time of Chaos, there were still wars being fought outside over the few precious commodities left to humankind. An ordinary girl and I would have been used to breed from or in a cheap pleasure palace, lying on my back as grunting, sweating men slaked their lust upon my young body. Maybe later I would have become a cleaner, a cook or some other kind of household servant for one of the senators of the city.
Life as a drudge and yet it would be bearable but I had been marked out even before I had been born. My genetic line had promised much and I was now the living proof that it had not lied. Nearly six foot tall, long-legged and high-breasted, nipples erect in the cold of the vast hall, I stood and waited to hear my fate, commanded to stand still by the auction master. The weight of the eyes pressed down on me and yet I could not shield myself in any way. Any self-respecting senatorial spawn should have placed her hands in front of her groin to protect her modesty but I had been ordered to stay absolutely still and the chip in my brain meant that I could now do nothing else but obey.
"The epitome of ecstasy, I think! Pure genetics and the offspring of a former senator!" bellowed the auction master, waving his hands around like an orchestra conductor before he asked for an opening bid from the assembled senators. I stared out at them, trying to find one kindly face in the sea of countenances. My searching was in vain. The senators were the rulers, the only true unchipped humans left and now totally in charge after the machines that previous generations had built had run riot, trying to take over the world and ending up by destroying most of it. The lack of resources limited the senators' numbers to a mere one hundred but they had no need to fear any rebellion or insurrection as the chips implanted in all sentient beings' brains gave them complete and utter control. One word of command from my future master and I would kill myself, programmed to self-destruct by the lurking piece of silicon in my brain stem. A different word and I would spread my thighs and offer up the centre of my being, feeling everything yet feeling nothing!
"One thousand credits!" shouted a tall man at the front, waving his hands around to attract the auctioneer's attention.
"Twelve hundred!" followed instantly and then the bidding rose swiftly while I stood stock still and waited, unable to even tremble despite the fear rippling through my senses. The misty memory of my father stirred within my mind; tall, dark-haired, eyes as green as mine and then it was gone, programmed out by the controlling chip. What had happened to him? My mother I had never known. She had been lost in the last throes of the wars and I had been plucked untimely from her womb. I fought the silicon-induced veil, trying to peer through it into the past but it remained obstinately opaque and the thoughts of my father slipped away into nothingness as the auction reached its conclusion.
"Twelve thousand!" shouted a voice from the crowd, breaking into my reverie as there was a loud gasp from the assembled throng.
"A bid of twelve thousand credits from the lady in white!" announced the auctioneer gleefully. "A record bid but doesn't this sentient beauty deserve even higher, ladies and gentlemen?"
There was a gentle muttering in the crowd and I stared out, trying to locate the lady who had made the massive bid, finally tracking her down at the very back of the room, half-obscured by a carved stone pillar. She was slim and dark-haired and she smiled back at me as she caught my gaze, displaying slightly pointed incisors that made me swallow hard. She was familiar in some way...Perhaps she was a friend of my father's, I thought abruptly, bidding to save me from the dark world ahead?
"Thirteen thousand!" snapped another voice suddenly and I flicked my eyes across to the other side of the room where, standing at the very front of the room, was the imposing figure of Senator Troy. Now in his early sixties but still full of vigour thanks to the many medical treatments available for the senatorial class and the man who had been responsible for my father's downfall, bringing the charges of treason against him. An interesting irony that senator and treason are anagrams, I thought as I tried to fight off my despair at the idea of falling into his clutches.
"Fourteen!" announced the woman instantly and Senator Troy's head snapped round and he stared across at her where she lurked in the shadows.
"Have you got that much left, Breanna?" he inquired, voice dripping with scorn.
"I have enough to outbid you, senator, and that's all you need to worry about!" she responded immediately and I found myself wanting her to win. They were fighting over me, bidding for me as if I was a possession...and so I was or would be, I thought miserably, fighting back the tears as the senator offered another thousand.
"Twenty thousand!" stated Breanna confidently, taking a pace forward into the light and staring back at the silver-haired senator who was her only rival. He looked back for a few seconds then shook his head, conceding defeat.
"No girl is worth that! Even the offspring of a treasonous senator. I'll wait until you have grown bored with her and then I'll buy her off you and enjoy her at my leisure, Breanna!" he commented, turning to run his dark eyes up and down my exposed body and I shivered at the evil malignancy deep within his gaze.
"Sold to Senator Breanna then for twenty thousand credits!" The hammer crashed down abruptly, making me jump and so my new life began.
Chapter Two
One of Breanna's servants led me out of the auction hall an hour or so later. Still naked, I was pleased that the crowd had dispersed, wandering away to pursue their pleasures somewhere else as I was tugged along by the lead attached to the stiff leather collar around my slim neck. I put my hands up to ease the chafing but the servant laughed scornfully at me, remarking that I would have to get used to it.
"It eases with time," he added, pointing to his own worn collar. "The leather becomes more flexible though you might end up wearing a jewelled one if Mistress Breanna wants to dress you up to impress her friends and enemies with her wealth."
"Is she wealthy then?"
"Must be if she has paid twenty thousand credits for you, girl. Wouldn't think it though with the way she treats us. Food's not great and nor are our living quarters but then I suppose she doesn't think it matters how her slaves, sorry, I meant to say 'sentient beings' are looked after."
I tried to keep my head up high despite the prurient glances of the people we encountered along the way. Once, if my father had not been condemned, I would have been one of the senatorial class enjoying themselves in the shops and bars we passed by but now I was en route to being a slave to my new mistress and fear gripped my heart tighter with every step closer that I took. Tears filled my eyes and spilt over, trailing down my cheek in a glistening path of misery and I stumbled to one side, brushing briefly against someone who stood there.
"Well if it isn't Alana, my old school friend!"
I blinked through my tears then shuddered as I recognised Senator Troy's daughter, Megan, standing there with her usual troupe of hangers-on. She had been a bully at school and certainly wasn't my friend though she had pretended to be until my father had fallen foul of hers. Before that, I had often spent time in their house with both her and her brother, Lars; a year or so older than me and the first and last boy I had had a crush on! I often wondered if any of the conversations I had had with either of them at school or in their house had helped her father in his crusade against mine.
"Let me see now...I haven't seen you since you had to leave school under a cloud. Now what was that cloud?"
She pretended to think, running her perfectly manicured fingers through her blonde hair before she snapped two of them together sharply and added, "Of course, your father turned out to be a traitor!"
I wanted to answer her back. In fact, I wanted to launch myself at her and tear out her lying tongue but I could not. The controlling chip held me in its thrall and she knew it. Unless she gave me permission, I could not even speak to her and I could see the look of pure malice in her bright blue eyes grow with every passing second.
"And now you have been bought to entertain Breanna. A shame my father did not persevere and purchase you as I would have enjoyed having you after he had grown bored with you. Perhaps I would have striped those tits with a whip, had your nipples pierced along with your clit then hung you up by the rings and listened to your screams?"
I was relieved when the slave leading me pulled me on sharply but I could still hear her cackling, crowing voice as we rounded the corner and my face was as red as my hair as my anger seethed through my body.
"Friend of yours then?" inquired the slave laconically, turning round and grinning slightly. I shook my head in response and he chuckled then pulled me over suddenly into a dark alleyway that ran between two high buildings.
"You're going to need friends, girl, or it's going to be a long, lonely road for you! Perhaps you would like me to become your first friend?"
I stared back, trying to ignore the pounding of my pulse as he reached out and teased the tips of his fingers over my hip.
"If so then you just need to be nice to me, girl."
