Not that it matters, but the accident was really my fault. I had no business being in the parallel universe projector to begin with. At the very least I should have disconnected the power line from the booth before I tried to re-calibrate its orientation circuits. Who knew that getting an early start to the day would have such negative consequences? Naturally, when Doug arrived to work he was going to turn the equipment on. I'm not an especially tall woman, plus I was on my knees. The opaque lower half of the booth completely masked me from vision. Usually, Doug notices me. Even in this day and age, few women enter the parallel physics field, and certainly none of the few others in my field launched their academic career via a beauty pageant scholarship. Yeah, the old guys judging the contest were wolves and pigs from a long gone era but their money was just as good as anybody's. It was always fun disarming the nerds with my looks AND my brains. I'm 1.65 meters tall, keep myself a trim 47 Kilograms. The judges in those contests always enjoyed looking at my long legs and very nice sized ta-tas. I'm most proud, however, of my blue eyes and cascading locks of light brown hair. In any case, I just had time to stand up and catch Doug's eyes and read the look of horror on his face before the electronic beam surrounded me and sent me... elsewhere.
It's not completely hopeless, the chip implanted in the bone under the skin behind my left ear means that if I am able to sit tight for a few months the computers back in the lab SHOULD be able to lock onto my location and bring me home. But it might take much longer. Since my departure occurred when the circuits were set at random, the lab will have no idea which parallel universe I am in so they will have to search all of them and that takes time, which means I have to make myself as comfortable as possible here, wherever here is.
I tumbled out of null space and materialized just above, and then plummeted into a raging river. I struggled in the torrent of rushing water, the current well beyond anything I had ever dealt with or seen. I had time for two thoughts. So this is what drowning is like and at that my chip would, at least, allow them to bring my corpse home. Then, every light in all the universes went out.
I awoke to a splitting headache stark naked between the sheets of a very comfortable bed. A not entirely unpleasant face stared down at me He was African-American and somewhere between sixty and an eternity. He wore a medical smock and a serious expression. As soon as my eyes were open he flashed a little light in them while he took my pulse with his other hand. I was in a smallish room I tried to speak, but coughed like a madwoman for quite some time. When the coughing fit passed, the man handed me a tumbler of blue liquid,
"Drink this, Miss, It will help clear your lungs."
What would you do? I figured that whoever he was, he hadn't rescued me just to kill me. As I scanned the room I spotted bundles of drying herbs and a long wall of glass jars containing all sorts of liquids and solids. I peeked under the sheets and noted that there were bruises an scratches, most of them treated, on my body, it was as though I had been dragged over a pavement. Apparently he was the local doctor. I tipped the tumbler to my lips and downed the liquid. It tasted a bit like whiskey but much mellower. It went down very easily and gave me an inner warmth. I returned the glass to the old man's hand. My headache and the burning in my chest began to ease.
Despite sounding like a cliche my first words were, "Where am I"
"Where else would you be, Miss? You had a nasty tumble in the river, bounced off a lot of rocks. Luckily we fished you out in time. You appear quite intelligent, why did you try to run away?"
"Run away?" I asked.
"Obviously, even though you've shown no signs of ever having been collared and are unbranded, where else could you have come from? Rich man's private stock no doubt."
"I'm not grasping you," I said my mind trying to make sense of the man's words.
"Don't play dumb, Missy, that NEVER works out for your kind."
"My kind?"
The man's expression became cross and he said "What did I tell you about playing dumb? You nearly drowned in that river but you have no head injury, just a few abrasions and about a dozen small cuts. You are very lucky. You really should not have run away, however. The bonding men around here are known as the gentle sort."
"Bonding men?"
"Keep up the stupid act, Missy, and I'll flog you myself."
A voice piped in from the next room, "Hey, Doc, is she safe to travel yet?"
The man tending me replied, "A few minutes, She's being recalcitrant."
He turned to me and said, "How many fingers am I holding up."
"Three."
Next, he made me extend my arms and touch the tip of my nose with each index finger.
He used a tongue depressor to examine my mouth and then had me stand and walk in a small circle. Even though he was a doctor, it felt strange being naked in his presence. I thought every hospital provided a garment of some kind for patient modesty. But the rules of one universe need not be obeyed by another. He gave me a brush and a small piece of leather to smooth out and tie back my tangled hair.
Even though I've traveled to several parallel words, the first day in a new universe always takes some getting used to. In the past, I have always known where I was going and what to expect when I materialized. Nobody but nobody went on random jumps. I felt pretty sure that the first thing the Institute would do after they retrieved me, IF they could retrieve me, would be to fire me. I could not imagine how much of a bill my search effort was going to ring up. I would not go to prison but I'd be out of the parallel physics field in any capacity but researcher. On the other hand, they might be so happy that they were able to track me down they might give me a promotion because of all of the new universes they had uncovered. Whatever my fate, that was a future that, hopefully, would take care of itself.
I pushed those thoughts away and tried to focus on the here and now. Something told me that I was in trouble, but I could not deduce exactly how or why. I completed every task the doctor had me perform. When I was done he smiled and stated,
"You aren't hurt at all, Missy. You are very lucky." After a pause, he nodded and said, "It was a pleasure meeting you."
Then the man stood, turned and said in a loud voice, "You boys can take her now. But please be gentle."
Two very large Black men entered the room. They were carrying fetters and a metal collar. I screamed in terror.
"Oh settle down, Missy." the largest of the two men said. "I'm sure even a private stock bitch like you has been chained from time to time. Real funny, stealing clothes and trying to make a break for it. Of course, the river stopped you, you stupid bitch, none of your kind is smart enough to stay free for long."
"My kind?" I asked.
The shorter of the two men yelled out, "Hey doc, are you sure she's OK?"
"Yes," he replied laconically. "She is perfectly fine. She's trying some innocent act, but I don't buy it for an instant. She should snap out of it when she realizes it is not going to win her any sympathy."
The larger man, who had a shaved head and a demonic goatee, glared at me. "Listen up!" he said, "You can either be obedient or I can force you. Don't make me pull the hard ass act on you. We ran your prints, you are unregistered property so we are taking you to the assessor's office. I expect a pretty little thing like you will bring my partner and me a nice bit of change. Even without papers, you'll make fine breeding stock. You don't know how lucky you are that we found you in that river before you drowned. Then again, your soft life of off-the-books stock is at an end. You really should not have run away."
My mind was running in all directions at once. Always, when transported to a new world I had a backstory, documents, and a convincing alias to go with it. Fear as I never felt before seized me. Never had I felt this alone before, not in the frightening New York where Nazi Germany had won World War II. Not in the world where dinosaurs never became extinct. Not in the world where plague wiped out ninety-five percent of the world's population and not in the world occupied by vampires. I envisioned all of the parallel universes, a near infinity of possibilities, a near infinity of worlds and not a soul I knew or cared about had any idea where I was or how to reach me. I was off the map in every way imaginable.
The larger of the two huge men took a step towards me. In fear I tried to run, it was a fruitless effort. The other man grabbed a hold of me and pinned me to the floor.
"Didn't your master ever teach you obedience?" he asked in an exasperated tone. With astounding dexterity and sense of finality, the two men slid on the ankle fetters, the manacles, and the collar. All were attached with chains which they shortened so that I could only take tiny steps. My hands were cuffed behind my back, meaning I had no way to shield my nudity. They stood me on my feet, handling me in an impersonal way.
The largest man produced a ball gag and waved it under my nose.
"If you keep your mouth shut I won't have to muzzle you. This innocent act ends NOW! Understand?"
I nodded my head and bit my lip. With a man on either side I was marched out into the daylight. I found myself in a small city, not unlike those of my own earth. The sky was a deeper blue and I could not place the trees or shrubbery, but everything else was the same. The words I had heard in the doctor's office and the actions of the hulking man on either side of me, made me realize that I was in for a world of hurt. Then my eyes drank in the entire tableau. Across the street was what looked like a town hall. Several black men and women supervised while white men in chains mowed the lawn with push mowers and swept the sidewalk or painted trim. The realization of where I was and what I was hit me with the suddenness of a punch to the jaw. The men who had chained me were marching me towards a van-like vehicle. I screamed and tried to root my feet to the pavement.
"Ah hell, girl, you were doing so well, too." said the larger of the men who had taken charge of me. He removed a long thin article from a belt about his waist. He touched my skin with object and I felt a painful sting of electricity.
"Move it, gal or I hold this in place until your bowels fail."
With no alternative, I allowed myself to be led to the van. Inside, I was belted to a seat and my collar chained to the wall. There was an older naked woman already seated as well as a naked boy who appeared to be about eighteen. He had what looked like nasty whip marks all over his torso.
