William and I were on a more or less routine reconnaissance mission when it the incident occurred. If you are at all familiar with trans-dimensional travel most of the excursions are undertaken by people like William and myself, historians AND theoretical physicists. Truth be told I'm better at both of those skills than William but we make a great team, both across the dimensions, and in the bedroom. Usually, the work is routine. Most of the time, we just park our craft in orbit and monitor the earth in whatever dimension we are exploring. The Transdimensional Excursions Review Board does not have an explicit "noninterference" doctrine but it is damn close. We can reveal ourselves only to a very narrow range of alternate earths all of which must be on the cusp of discovering trans-dimensional travel on their own. Some say the TER Board is paternalistic, I prefer fraternal.
Investigating parallel earths is a bonanza for historians. Lots of questions answered, unfortunately, just as many left unresolved. Sometimes we go on specific retrieval missions, capturing long lost media broadcasts or even landing seconds before disaster strikes to retrieve irreplaceable items before they are lost forever. We tell ourselves that once these alternate worlds achieve trans-dimensional capabilities we will return their purloined booty. In the meantime, all those baubles look great in the Louvre, The British Museum, and The Smithsonian.
Although the actual purpose of our mission was classified, I can assure you that William and I were not up to anything TOO nefarious. It should have been a milk run. But milk spoils unexpectedly from time to time. I'm not clear on what caused the malfunction. I suspect that the even if all the geeks and number crunchers on the board were to tackle the problem they MIGHT be able to resolve the question as to what went wrong, probably buried in excessively opaque verbiage on what should have been a simple cause and effect report. I'm inclined to believe that it was one of those mysterious null-space ion storms that we still know next to nothing about. In any event ...
We were on our way home when every indicator in the cockpit winked out. It was even worse than the worst case scenarios we diligently train for. We were elsewhere when the storm or whatever it was hit us. A blind man without a cane in a cave would have had a better sense where he was. William tried everything he knew. I tried everything I knew. We blinked back into reality deep in the atmosphere of some alien earth. The equipment came back to life just as mysteriously as it had died, but all we could do was initiate the emergency landing protocol and brace for landing. We hit hard and everything went dark.
I woke up an unknown time later stark naked between the sheets of a supremely comfortable canopy bed. There was a lovely pink cast on my right wrist and when I lowered the covers I found a neatly stitched wound beneath a bandage on my left thigh. Whoever had taken me in did a splendid job in tending to my wounds. I gathered that I had been unconscious for several days because the wound on my thigh had already healed a bit. I was a bit startled to discover unmistakable evidence that I had been given at least one bath while I was unconscious. Everything I owned was missing, William's engagement ring, my earrings, my bio-monitors, even the star I wore in my pierced navel. I sat up in bed and called out a soft, "Hello?"
A very beautiful woman, she could not have been more than twenty-one parted the flaps of the canopy bed. She was straw blonde, with a trim lithe figure. Like me, she was completely nude, save that she wore an elaborate collar about her neck. Her pretty face lit up and she replied, "You are awake that is wonderful. The Master will be SO pleased."
"The Master?" I asked in return.
"Yes, the Master is your benefactor. We have tended to you at his request. Now that you are awake we can all breathe easier. We will not be punished for improperly caring for you."
"Punished?"
"The Master in benevolent, he never punishes unjustly." the woman said as though reciting a mantra. The universes, all of them, spun about me for a moment. Tentatively I asked,
"Where are my clothes?"
"Your garments were strange, sister. We had no idea how to remove them so, I'm afraid, that we had to cut them off of you. Not that you need clothes in the presence of the Master in any case."
"Now hold on!" I tried to interject. "I have no idea who this "Master" character is, but I'm not about to greet him in my birthday suit."
Before the pneumatic blonde could respond to that question I stated, "I had a companion with me, a dark haired man about my own age."
The collared blonde woman replied. "All of your questions will be answered by the Master. He informed us that you are from a strange clime and that our ways may not be your ways. In his benevolence, he has provided this robe, to shield your modesty."
She pulled a bit of cloth from a hook on the wall and held it open for me. Not knowing what else to do. I stood, tested my leg, found it more than adequate to support me, and slid on the robe. Not that it concealed much. It was very short, exposing nearly all of my legs to a few centimeters below my crotch. At least it did a decent job shielding my, always too large, breasts from view. The woman handed me a brush and held a small mirror while I dealt with my, as usual, unruly hair.
"What's your name. Honey?" I asked her as I brushed.
"I lost my name when I came to reside with the Master. Once I was called Lucine. We girls simply refer to each other as "sister." A name would not improve our service to the Master and would fill us with pride."
"Well, sister Lucy, I'm Kathleen. You can call me Kate."
Lucy flushed with color as though I had just slapped her on the butt "Oh, no! Unless instructed by the Master I shall call you guest or sister."
"Suit yourself, Lucy." I replied before stating, "Where's the bathroom?"
She looked at me strangely until I made a peeing sound, then her green eyes lit up and she led me to an elaborate side room lined with bidets and sinks. I felt much better with an empty bladder After a moment to collect myself I said,
"Well, I suppose I am as ready as I will ever be. Take me to your leader."
I'm not sure what I was expecting. Some preening aesthete, a pockmarked walrus, I was sure at least that the guy would project "asshole" like a pulsar or some ancient lighthouse. What I found instead was a tall, brown-haired man in his late thirties to early forties who was model gorgeous and obviously in fantastic shape. His complexion reminded me of mocha coffee. His shirt, if that's what you call it, was translucent, so that every eye could spy his impressive abdominal muscles and well-cut pectorals. He was seated on a raised chair. Naked collared women attended to him and officious looking men presented papers for his signature. Power corrupts in EVERY universe.
Lucy coughed slightly and the Master turned his attention to her briefly before giving me the once over with his huge brown eyes. I felt just like a lamb in the presence of the big bad wolf. To his credit, after his initial leer, his countenance wore a neutral expression.
"Ah, our beautiful guest has awakened." NO man should have a voice that sexy I thought upon hearing him for the first time.
With a wave of his hand, the room emptied save for a few guards and a guy in a weird hat. "Come forward, beautiful one. No harm has come to you and we treated your wounds with precision and care. There are, however, many questions we wish to ask. What is the nature of your craft? What was the purpose of your mission?"
"Well, "sire" I replied, carefully. "Those questions are best left unanswered. I had a traveling companion, a man about my own age."
"I am well aware of your traveling companion." the Master stated flatly.
"Then he survived? Can I see him?"
"Yes, he survived with only a minor concussion. He refused to answer my questions so I have dealt with him accordingly."
"What did you DO!" I cried.
"Calm yourself woman he is unharmed. He IS, however, a guest of my jailer and he is personally kept under lock and key."
"How Dare you!" I began before one of the guards leveled a weapon at me and I forced myself to be silent.
The Master pointed to the man in the weird hat who smiled and stated. "What we DO know, woman, your craft is not of this earth, yet every test we have made demonstrates that it is from SOME earth. The same minerals, the same organic matter. One of our philosophers once hypothesized that if the universe is infinite then there must be infinite earths, you and your boorish companion no doubt began your journey on a brother earth."
I'm sure my mouth was hanging open in shock as the older man's extrapolation was closer to reality than I could have imagined. With a wry smile, he continued,
"The metallurgy is strange but within the limits of our science. The electronics should not take more than a few months to reproduce. My crew of sacred scientists will be able to copy your craft within a year. Of course, when we have completed our own copy of your vehicle, we will be able to determine its purpose, but I'd like to give my men some idea as to what they are recreating."
Trying to gather my composure I boldly asserted. "You no doubt tortured William to make him reveal that information."
The man in the funny hat emitted a loud guffaw. "As if torturing that dullard would generate any useful information."
"William is brilliant!"
"Says EVERY woman in love with a man" stated the Master.
I found my attention focused on the man on the throne.
"Here's the deal." he said smugly "You and your precious "William" explain your machine and help us create its twin and we will allow you two to repair your own vehicle. If the one built for me fully functions, I will release the two of you and allow you to return home in your original vehicle."
