In the semi-darkness of a Gothic mansion's basement two women in bathrobes stood in front of a row of tall, clear tanks. The smaller, lithe dark one looked up anxiously at the strongly built, older blond who in turn stared intently into the nearest tank. Inside a third women floated, naked, her hair waving gently in the current as minute bubbles rose in slow streams around her. She smiled dreamily at her audience and languidly waved at them.
"So she actually can breathe in there?" Mayor Shirley Kuttner-Gascogne asked?
"Oh, yes." Karl von Preussen, (MD, PhD, FAAAS and a couple of et ceteras) nodded soberly. "The fluid is not only hyper-saturated with oxygen but contains whichever blend of medications and amino acids that will best serve the patient's needs. Naturally, Alice is long past any need for treatment but she enjoys the sensations and is always glad to demonstrate for the unsure."
"Treatment. And what are you proposing to treat me
for
, Karl?" Shirley asked with a skeptical arch in her eyebrow.
Her husband answered from behind her. "
Cher
i, ever since our first encounters your approach to
l'amour et la sexualité
could be described in many ways. Ardent, enthusiastic, demanding, dominant and many more. 'Owever, at no time could one say you were softly compliant. It will be a new experience for you,
non
?"
The mayor pursed her lips and nodded slightly. Indeed it would be. One of her harem of toyboys had called her a bossy playmate and she had to admit he had her pegged. "And I would be released, all demure but available just in time for our Halloween party? It might be interesting being submissive for a change." Her face sharpened. "But this new condition will be temporary, right?"
The scientist laughed. "Of course, at least if you only spend a session or two in the tank. For permanent effect, treatment would have to stretch out over a month or more alternating between one day awake and a week in recuperative slumber."
"An entire week asleep?
"Hibernating, actually. Your pulse drops to around four beats a minute and you only breathe about a dozen times each hour."
The mayor looked down at her smaller companion. "And when it's done, Officer Boggs will be a more positive and happier person and an even better cop?"
"The first I can guarantee and the latter I would put money on." Von Preussen was emphatic. "Chief O'Shaughnessy said in the personnel file that she was already an effective officer but that developing a more benign attitude would make her a superb one. And you do want to be a superb officer, don't you Miranda?"
Miranda Boggs may have been slight but beneath her bathrobe wiry muscle rippled across her body. Physically she was tough as an old boot but the expression on her face now was vulnerable, beseeching. She nodded reluctantly.
Shirley laid a hand on her shoulder. "Mindy, you can see I never require anyone to take risks I'm unwilling to take myself. We'll be side by side, at least for the first week, and I promise that if you really don't want to get back in you won't have to. However, until you learn to control your anger and to decide when the law has to be enforced and when it can stretch a little, it will be a long time before you make sergeant."
Miranda took a deep breath, closed her eyes and clenched her teeth as she regained control. "I—I understand that part. But Doctor, what's with the cages? Can't we just climb in?"
The tall, bald man sighed. He took out a handkerchief from his coat pocket and cleaned his horn-rimmed glasses. "Really, young lady, I wish you could. Unfortunately there is one thing I can't control, the human panic reflex when first you try to breath under the surface. I feel so bad about that I've seriously considered sedating patients before suspending them but then I would have to balance the original sedative with those in the tank and I won't risk the possibility of getting it wrong. I've never lost a patient, thank Heaven, and I don't intend to start now. No, you have to be held under the surface until you finally gasp and take the fluid in. It's really very pleasant once you get used to it. Look at Alice."
Alice by now was almost asleep but she winked slowly as though she could hear the conversation. Perhaps she could, Shirley thought. Turning to another tank she whistled under her breath at the sight of a man sleeping peacefully as he hung suspended amid the bubbles. Yes, there was a smile on his face but far more prominent was the rampant erection sticking up from his crotch. It wasn't the biggest hard-on Shirley had ever encountered but it was impressive.
"Hmmm, it looks like he's having some interesting dreams."
"No doubt he is. It's a side effect of the medication mix. You have the most astonishingly erotic dreams in the tank. And very vivid ones, too. She doesn't admit it but I personally suspect that's why Alice is always so eager to return; it would have to be quite the orgy out here in the real world to match the one going on in her head."
Mayor Shirley smiled wickedly. "So it's good for you and a lot of fun, as well? Miranda, I see no downside. Hand the doctor your robe and we'll get started." She undid the tie around her waist and shrugged the garment away to Hercule's waiting hands. Von Preussen made a discrete double-take. The mayor had suggested more than once that he attend one of her notorious parties but he'd always been too preoccupied with his research and medical practice to take advantage of the offer. Now that the procedures were routine it was, perhaps, time for a change of mind.
Blushing even darker, Officer Boggs followed suit and with obvious reluctance stepped into the cage that would carry her up and into the therapeutic tank. Hercule carefully kept his face blank. Equally attracted to voluptuous women and smooth young men he noted that the supple policewoman did a good job of combining the potential delights of both. Yes, he was sure that any course of treatment rendering the girl warmer, less inhibited, softer and more compliant was a splendid idea. If the City hadn't already arranged to pay for it he would volunteer to do so at once.
Once the barred doors were closed and securely latched, the women heard machinery whirr as both cages lifted them off the floor and into the air. Two tanks sat empty and ready, domed lids open. The surface of the stuff within roiled slightly as a myriad of tiny bubbles rose to the surface and popped in a waxy, slippery way. An ominous iridescence glistened across the liquid and the women's eyes both went wide as they were positioned over their prospective vats. The whirring changed notes and they began their descent.
The fluid was bath warm with a greasy, almost obscene feel to it. Their feet submerged. As the stuff climbed her legs, Shirley thought it had an insinuating, unctuous sensation, like the hands of a lover hungry for her body. She shuddered appreciatively.
"Now remember," Dr. von Preussen called up to them, "the best way to do this is open your mouth and try to take a deep breath when your head goes under. Remember, you can breathe!"
Descending, Miranda felt as though the liquid was groping her thighs, then her sex and bottom. She tensed and as it flowed up around her taught breasts she let out an anguished scream. The stuff flowed into her mouth making her choke and cough and in desperation—inhale. In panic she banged fruitlessly on the door until suddenly a great calm spread out from her full lungs. She
could
