Slave World (28 page)

“Would you be so kind then, to explain why it isn’t your fault,” his voice dipped dangerously low. “And why my authority is being questioned in front of the other slaves?” The fact he had called us slaves, including myself, struck a particular cord with me. What I was about to say and do went against everything I’d been conditioned to be since my capture. It went against my very nature in fact, but when you’re as pissed as I was at the moment, rational thought no longer applied.

All right, I’ll play your game, mister tough guy. What the hell could they do to me? I was a slave and had experienced pain unlike no other many times already from the electric hell my processor was capable of creating.

“Well, Sir,” I said sarcastically before steeling my voice. “We’ve been locked inside this damn building all night and most of the morning with no word as to what’s happening. We’re all scared with no one to comfort us but each other.” Now it was my turn to stand on the soapbox, throwing the situation back in his face. “We’re slaves, Sir, just as you said. Every morning is the same: there are people that wake us and tell us what to do, to guide our every thought and action, and today that comfort was gone. What are poor simple-minded slaves to do, when we didn’t have you here to guide our every thought? If anything, it’s your fault!”

One of the guards snarled in my direction, reaching towards the collar control pad on his armband. Here it comes; I was about to get the shit jolted out of me.
Fuck it, like I care any longer.
Nathan raised his hand sharply, stopping him.

“We depend on
you
, Sir, and you weren’t there for us. We were all scared and did the only thing we could; we took solace among each other because in the end that’s all we have. It’s not about respect, it’s about being human, Sir.”

Nathan suddenly looked worn and tired, eyes growing soft. He rubbed his temples with hands dried in blood. It was as quiet as a graveyard in the common area.

“Torri, get this place cleaned up and have them report back for assembly in ninety minutes; I’ll be going through the rooms later, so make sure they’re squared away. I’m going to grab a shower and a quick nap.”

“Yes, Mr. Burke, the punishment harness for any of them?” She was looking directly at me when she said it. There was a short pause as Nathan eyed me wearily.

“No, Torri, just get things back in order.” Nathan turned, heading for the door. “Margo, follow me.” No one moved. They were just as surprised as I was by the sudden change of events.

“You heard the Overseer, get your fucking pony asses moving, now! You have ninety minutes to get this shit cleaned up and report back for assembly, dismissed!”

I made my way out of the stables to find Nathan leaning against a tree with his back to me. His head was hung low, like he’d fallen asleep standing up. I slowed behind him, stopping several feet away.

“Guess I had that coming, didn’t I? I have to get out of here, Margo; I’m becoming just like them now. God, I hate this place, the people, the slaves the… the cruel arrogance of them all. You have no idea some of the things that go on here.” I wanted to hold him or say something comforting, but there were too many eyes about, to many surveillance pods. For all I knew they could hear every word he’d said already. I decided to play it safe.

“This kind of thing has never happened before? Leaving them unsupervised for so long?” He shook his head no. “Outside of our duties and training, there’s nothing else for us to do. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that something like this would eventually happen; many of us are engineered for sex.”

“I know, I know. I’m just tired is all; it was bad last night, Margo. A Specter got into the incubation building and killed off an entire generation of babies; just gobbled them up or sucked them dry. We had three killed and five wounded on top of that. Took us all night to track the bastard down and kill it. If there had been more than one of them…”

“Just one, what was it?”

“A blood drinker, something like a vampire I guess you could call it, but worse. They absorb light becoming invisible in the dark. I couldn’t even pick the thing up with multi-optics, and motion tracking was almost useless. The Specter’s are getting smarter, too smart. It could have got away from us, but that’s the thing, it didn’t want to, it came in closer, back tracking, hunting
us
in the end. It even took out the power, killed the lights around it.” I didn’t know what to say. “That goddamn Michael! His stupidity is going to get everyone killed. It could have gotten in the house, gotten to Donna or into the stables to you, and we might not have even known about it, until it was too late.”

“Nathan, please…the surveillance pods…” I pleaded, looking around. There was one less than thirty feet away staring back at me from a tree trunk. They could hear him.

“Fuck’em, like I give a shit if that bastard can hear what I say about him.”

“Please…” I stepped closer, almost reaching for him. Nathan turned to look at me with a haggard face, and somber eyes

“I’m sorry I yelled at you and everyone like that.” I knew he was venting, just trying to talk with someone about what had happened, and the anguish his mind was in right now. “I have to ask, Margo, did you have sex with any of them?”

I was taken aback by the question; he doubted me. What else could he think though? I looked just as frazzled as the rest of them, naked from the waist down. I stepped closer, so close I could smell the cloying stench of death.

“No, love, I didn’t have sex with any of them. I was in my room thinking of you,” I sub-vocalized so that even the sensors couldn’t hear me. It was a skill we’d all been taught in Fleet, for using throat mikes if needed. “I was worried about you.”

“I’m sorry, I had to ask.”

“I know, Nathan, it’s okay.”

“I’m going to get cleaned up and grab some sleep, I’ll see you later, love you.” He began walking away, wearily slinging his rifle.

“I love you too, Nathan,” I whispered, turning back towards the stables.

Interlude

Rupert finished his morning briefing while Michael continued to stare blankly out the window of his veranda, digesting the information, hands clasped behind his back in growing frustration. The Specter attacked two nights ago had only added insult to injury.
Almost forty thousand credits in damage, and five times that amount in potential slave stock, gone.
That was only a monetary concern, one that could eventually be recuperated in time. It was a much easier dilemma for him to deal with than his current source of jealousy, coupled with an unexpected sensation of unfamiliar possessiveness.

“Rupert, I want Margo excluded from all future breeding schedules, to include Cirus, and see that she receives a full genital rejuvenation treatment today. I won’t be sharing her with anyone from now on.”

“Yes sir, but what about the footage from the other day? Shouldn’t you discipline her-?”

“Pony 10 will be fine; Thomas says it’s only internal bruising. I’ve exempted him from normal duties for the remainder of the next week until he heals.”

“I believe she may have attacked Cirus as well. Her violent mood swings are becoming more pronounced, if not unpredictable, not to mention her outburst in the common area was a blatant show of disrespect towards the staff members and yourself. It could give the other slaves the wrong idea.”

“I could care less about that right now, what concerns me more is, Burke. His arrogance is growing, and he’s making no attempt at hiding it any longer in front of anyone, slave or not.”

“Yes sir, I think he may be influencing 18’s recent behavior. It’s obvious he’s growing out of control, even with Donna here. If it hadn’t been for the recent disruptions in the security footage, and the complied audio data that Harry pieced together, it may have gone unnoticed, including his affair with her. I had her stall thoroughly searched this morning for some sort of electronic jamming device, but Torri came up empty handed.”

“Burke,” Michael spit the word from his mouth. “He knows the sensor grid far too well. He’s no doubt been taking her into the jungle and fucking her behind my back ever since she arrived. I’ve never met a man with such boisterous audacity; he thinks that just because he’s ‘a Burke’, that he’s so damn special, that he can do whatever he wants around here.” Michael turned, eyes blazing with a snarl on his lips. “And now he’s making plans to take her away from me, to actually sneak her off Slave World? Margo is mine, and no one elses!”

Rupert took a step back in shock. He’d never seen his employer act this way towards a slave before. “Sir, isn’t that what you wanted though? He trusts her now, and would never expect-”

“I don’t want them spending any more time together than absolutely necessary from now on. Find something to keep Burke busy and away from her.”

“Actually, sir, he’s in the process of inspecting the perimeter fence and updating it. Harry is furious with him; Burke just pushed him aside, and took over the entire ranch security apparatus yesterday.”

“Damn him… Fine, if it keeps him away from Margo…” Michael’s face drooped in surprise. “Where did he get the money to upgrade the perimeter fence?”

Rupert cleared his throat in a rare display of nervousness. “He took it from the entertainment budget. I verified the withdrawal just before coming to see you. Somehow, he was able to acquire your security code; I’ve had it changed since then.”

“Damn that man!” Michael pounded his fist on the top of his new desk, wincing in pain. The result was much less spectacular than when Burke had done it.

Chapter Ten

I didn’t see Nathan much over the next two weeks. He never stayed long after the morning briefing, and from what I gathered in a hurried conversation with him, he was taking it upon himself to personally inspect each and every section of the perimeter fence and outlying sensor grid. I knew what he was doing was important and necessary, but it didn’t make his absence any easier for me.

Things never did return to normal after that terrifying night in the jungle, and the morning that followed. The way I’d defended myself during the free-for-all period of sex, and then stood up to Nathan in the common area, became a topic of discussion for some time among the other ponies. Somehow, which still blew my mind, I’d managed to save us all from impending punishment, not to mention prove to the other stallions that no one touched me, that is except the Master, and of course Nathan, unless I wanted them too. What was even stranger was I started to gain a small following after that, even among the brutes. They all treated me differently now; they treated me with respect. An invisible power shift had happened within the stables overnight when I became the beta pony, and the Alpha mare, having inadvertently removed Crystal from her long-standing position of invisible power. I was second only to Cirus now, within our animalistic hierarchy.

The others made room for me to pass in the hallway now, the way they did for the staff members, and offered their seats to me when I entered the dining room. The ponies I did sit with would respectfully wait to eat until my food arrived. Only after my first bite would they resume eating again. Many would ask me questions or my opinion on things, hanging on my every word. I felt like their mother in a way, the pony matriarch, and everyone wanted to be a part of my inner circle. I kept things pretty much as they were since I’d arrived; only Crystal, Roxy and Clover, the ones I considered my friends, were bestowed with this strange, newfound honor.

It felt natural in a way though, and I held my head a bit higher because of it, while I assumed my role among them. It was the inevitable law of nature playing itself out, the way I saw it; I was better than they were in ways they didn’t understand, and they openly accepted the fact without question, after realizing it. It was just the way of things in the world, the strong will always rule over the weak, in any setting.

The guards, and especially Torri, eyed me warily though. What really gave me the creeps was that she never said a word to me outside of necessity any longer: no more threats, no more offers of privileges and no more secretive coercion in the shower. Maybe it would have been better if she had; at least I’d know where I stood with her other than the fact that her eyes gleamed with open hatred of my guts. It just felt like she was waiting for me to make a mistake, to open my big mouth again at the wrong time. I shut up and did precisely as I was told whenever she was around.

I had to stop hiding the jammer in my butt. The Master called on my services twelve times while Nathan was busy inspecting the fence, and it was too much of a risk with the spur of the moment summoning he often did when he wanted me. He liked to fuck me in the ass, usually with no lube. He said I deserved it that way. It really didn’t matter, because I enjoyed it; I always enjoyed whatever he did to me at the time.

I was the only pony he had sex with now, if that’s what you wanted to call it, and the others only viewed this as just one more testament of my place among them, elevating my status even further. I was the chosen one among the mares, the Master’s favorite. Just as Cirus supposedly held the Mistress’ favor, I now held his. I could have done without this ‘honor’ if given the choice.

I dreaded those moments while en route to the house, growing to hate the Master and his sadistic forms of abuse. Of course that hate gradually faded before disappearing all together once I came within range of the remote. By now I was able to figure out that it only had about a twenty-foot sphere of influence over me, thank god. One foot or twenty, it really didn’t make a difference when I begged and pleaded for him to do anything he wanted with me. Nathan must have spoken to him about the night of the party though; the Master still slapped and whipped me until I came like some sort of greedy masochist, but at least I didn’t require medical attention afterwards.

I felt nothing but self-loathing while I was being escorted back to the stables, leaking his undeniable dominance from me in the warm, sticky air like some sort of perverted scarlet letter of guilt. My glazed inner thighs and the throbbing heat of my cunt and ass afterwards became an ever-present reminder of my sole purpose on the Savota ranch.

Little else changed during Nathan’s absence. I exercised, building myself stronger like a good little pony was supposed to, and we still received our injection of who knows what. Of course Cirus still went to the pony girls at night fucking whomever he wished, that is, except me. He’d been giving me a lot of strange looks lately that were impossible to ignore, not the anger that I’d come to expect from him, but something else, and it made me anxiously uneasy in a way I couldn’t explain.

Despite my elevated status, I was starting to lose hope, falling into the rut of being a mindless slave for someone else’s amusement. The more I associated with the ponies, lived among them, the more I became like them. I whinnied more often, even when there wasn’t a need for it. I was becoming less and less human everyday it seemed, and I had no idea why. As time went by my mind began to grow dim; my only concerns became the simple necessities of life, serving my Master’s sexual need, and surviving.

I hadn’t realized how deeply Nathan grounded me until now – keeping me sane until he was gone. I missed him as I cried myself to sleep at night, wishing this strange and monotonous nightmare would end, but sleep brought me little comfort. I had strange dreams more frequently, dreams about the person that I used to be – fleeting visions of things that no longer mattered. Even stranger were my dreams as a pony; they were as exhilarating as they were terrifying.

They weren’t of me being the half creature like I was now, but a full-blown, four-legged horse. They were simple dreams, animal dreams - dreams of running across open fields with the sun warming on my glistening coat. Of serving my Master while he rode upon my back. Of breeding, not sex but of being a brood mare. I dreamt a lot about this. I wanted to bear young, to be taken by the Alpha of the herd, and much to my horror and delight, it was Cirus doing it. It was only right that the strongest mare would bear the young of our leader, wasn’t it? It was my duty in life now.

I would wake shaken and sweating, disoriented and ashamed. I came in my sleep on a regular basis it seemed. I took little comfort in the fact that I’d finally been able to master my waking mind in this area. All I wanted or needed was Nathan, yet it seemed like he was agonizingly gone from my life more often than not.

I continued to slip further and further into a seemingly endless spiral, much faster than even I would have thought possible. The name Margo Winters had little meaning any longer; it was nothing but the title of a stranger, of my past when I was someone or something else entirely. There was a new creature rearing its head inside me, clouding my every waking moment. I was afraid that if things didn’t change soon, the person I once was would disappear forever.