The Roman Empire stood on the verge of conquering the stars, if Pullo could torture an innocent girl for the secrets of FTL travel. But when he fell in love with her beauty and courage , what then? Could he betray his Empire for a girl who was less than human?
OF DUSK AND DAWN
By
Gerard Whittaker
Of Dusk and Dawn.
By Gerard Whittaker
Smashwords edition.
Copyright by Gerard Whittaker, 2010
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Of Dusk and Dawn
From:
Department of Cosmic Guardians.
TIME, Aeden
To all Guardians.
Regarding: TERRA
World classification: Terra Alpha Prime.
Date: 3611 AUE. (From the founding of Rome) Ten years after the Earth- Aelder War.
Advice to all Agents: Leave this world the hell alone, we're in enough trouble as it is.
“For a few extra Credits she'll love you to death.”
Pullo was distracted, he glanced through the window looking down over Rome. Some of the scars left by the invasion could still be seen, despite ten years of reconstruction, surprisingly the Colloseaum had survived almost unscathed, but most of the government palaces had been razed to the ground by the totally unexpected attack by an unknown race of aliens.
He arrived bright and early for his first day at work in the Advanced Physics Research Unit only to be told that he needed help for his project. None human help. There were some tasks that mankind was too ill equipped to handle, and trying to reverse engineer a captured alien Faster Than Light drive was certainty one of them.
The Genesis Institute had a reputation for producing first rate Biroids for almost any task. While some were undeniably just glorified sex toys, most were personal assistants to high ranking politicians, scientists and bureaucrats. It was de rigour for all successful people to have a pretty little girl hanging on their shoulder, giving advice from her built in computer database. While modern computers were very powerful they were not sentient, so the garbage in garbage out equation had been raised to the highest power. The more powerful the machine the grater the damage caused by faulty programming. However, Biroids were truly sentient, were aware of what they were doing, and were subject to a rapid reprogramming from their master's belt if they made a mistake.
The building was only ten stories high, the highest permitted by Rome's antiquated building regulations. It had rank upon rank of arched windows overlapping around the circular tower, each window bay held a gilded statue of a long forgotten Emperor dating back to Marcus the First.
Pullo had landed his prize bioengineered racing bird on the tower's landing bay, thanking the giant swallow before going for his appointment. The stables he passed were half full of oversized birds and beasts, a by product of Biological Android technology. Although not all the stabled creatures were animals, at least one team of Biroid porters could be seen cleaning the trapp they had been bred to pull. Half a dozen pretty and very well muscled young women polished the light carriage with loving care. Four very tall and sturdy men lumbered into the stables, carrying a sedan chair that held a proud young woman, she directed her mounts to stop as far from the girls as they could. She had no intention of any fraternising between the two sets of porters whilst she was shopping. Pullo sighed in disgust on seeing four Centaurs pulling a light carriage from the institute, he had doubts about mixing human and animal genes.
“For a few extra credits she'll love you to death,” the salesman repeated.
Pullo snapped himself back to the present, and the comfortable office he shared with the salesman. “Sorry, I'm a bit out of sorts, jet-lag I suppose, I was in orbit this morning.”
“On the Daedalus ? Yes we keep up to date with the news,” he laughed at Pullo's surprise. “You can call me Jarle.”
“So you know who I am?”
“P. Marcius Rex, a young and surprisingly gifted scholar of FTL physics, from a rather ordinary backwoods province. Britannia wasn't it? ” Jarl reiterated. “I believe there is talk of a rank somewhere in your past. The Clan Rex has a venerable lineage.”
“Some chance, my family is old nobility, very old. But when my Pa passes on I've five older brothers in line before me for a parcel of land barely bigger than this office.”
Jarle chuckled in sympathy, "That is usually the way with old families."
"And don't I know it."
“So the Daedalus is nearing completion, and they need you to tell them when it's safe to activate the FTL drive, without killing the crew,” Jarl continued. “And for that you need a Biroid to do the fine tuning. Have I got that right?”
Pretty close,” Pullo admitted.
“Right, first things first. You'll be wanting a girl right? No offence but you would not believe some of the things we've been asked to create.”
“Just a normal every day human girl,” Pullo admited. “With an exceedingly high IQ.”
“Sorry, but we don't do Humans here!" Jarle snapped in outrage, "Never, ever think that a Biroid is human, they are not and can never be.”
“Sorry! I meant human looking.”
“Then that is something we can help you with,” Jarl said with a grin. “But remember, everything you decide here will be with her for the rest of her life. There are no second chances. Have you thought of a name yet? It might seem silly but the name can sometimes define the character.”
“I understand, I want a bright sunny character, so I thought of Dawn.”
“Good choice. Height?”
“A few inches shorter than me, say 5 foot five. Long blond hair down to below her bottom and the deepest blue eyes you can imagine.”
“OK. Personality, we can go from very submissive to dominant. I'd say submissive, do you want her to enjoy lengthy periods of punishment, or one that will faint at the sight of a whip?”
“Mildly submissive, I'll need her to stand up for herself at work, but be compliant at home.”
“Understood. You will want the usual domestic and recreational package? Cooking and sex.”
“If she's living with me, she'd better be able to cook,” Pullo insisted. “And the other thing. She'll need to be able to monitor the full sensor spectrum a thousand times faster than I can."
“If they are paying, you'll get the best scientific package," Jarle assured him.
"When the Institute told me to come here I half expected them to insist that she was kept in a cell at work."
“She wouldn't be much use to you there,” Jarl laughed. "Of course there is nothing stopping you keeping her in a cage at home."
"I only found out an hour ago that she was going to be my property; so we could still work at home, I suppose.”
"No, she will belong to you twenty four hours a day for the rest of her life, so you might want to think of adding a few luxuries. How about phobias? We could fix it so that she's very claustrophobic, you could punish her by just threatening to lock her in a small room. Or alternatively, agoraphobic, you could keep her in a cell with the door open and she would be too terrified to leave.”
“No phobias,” Pullo insisted.
“Quirks? A bit clumsy, or as graceful as a ballerina?”
“Graceful sounds good.”
Ok, we are making progress. I'll activate the screen and you can doodle designing her graphically. There are thousands of shades of eyes and hair colour that fit you rather basic description. Also her figure needs fleshing out as it were,” he laughed. “I once heard this described as designing her from her genes to her jeans, meaning that you could pick every part of her including how she would like to dress.”
Pullo sighed, “And I used to think Atomic Physics was difficult.”
“Physics obeys known laws, but this is meddling with life, it's more art form than science.”
Pullo started on the 3D design program, and quickly found out that there was far more to growing Biroids than he had ever realised.
A life sized figure sprang into existence before his eyes, projected on a holographic field , it was blank of all detail, just a computer generated manikin. A row of control dials appeared on one side, with the option of flicking between various parts of the body; there was even a dial for the little toe. He twisted that slightly and the toe extended into a razor sharp claw, he rapidly dialled it back into a human digit. "I really don't need to be sleeping with that," he sighed.
Jarl asked, “There is a choice of body types, just flick through until you find the one you want.”
Pullo browsed through the database of body types, finding that there had been many customers before him who had wanted far from human variants. “A mermaid,” he gasped in shock. “And I thought the Centaurs were in bad taste, you can create beings that have never existed in the real world.”
“And your Dawn, has she ever existed?” Jarl sighed. “We don't ask questions, but compared to some of the creatures I've been asked to create, your girlfriend is a pleasant change from depravity.” He dialled the computer to a list of things that sickened even him.
Pullo took one look and rapidly turned away, gasping, "I thought these were tales from a drunken spacer."
"Then it must have been a very rich drunken spacer who commissioned them."
“Have you ever created children?” Pullo asked in anger.
“Not on my shift, but I'm sure it has been done. Look, the line between good and evil stops at the front door. How can you draw a line between a Biroid who looks eighteen, but is only eighteen minutes old, and a child who looks about eight but could be eighty years old? If I worried about the morality of this business I'd go insane.”
“I understand your confusion, my family used to deal in slaves,” Pullo admitted. “What age limits are there?”
“Most are birthed looking sixteen, we can stretch it to twenty five or so, but the younger the better for safety reasons. It's not good to leave them cooking for too long.”
Pullo turned back to the holo manikin, selecting a young, slim body of about eighteen. Every little detail could be modified at will, even her eyes could have a thousand shades of blue. He settled on large eyes of aquamarine with golden flecks that would glitter in the sun, long black eyelashes framed them to perfection. Delicate eyebrows swept over the eyes. Her nose would be cute and slightly upturned, her mouth warm and built to laugh.
Her body would be slim and graceful, with medium sized breasts that had large nipples that stood up proudly. Dawn's fair body would be free of genital hair forever, rich blond hair would be plaited into a long pony tail hanging down below her dainty bum.
Jarl gave advice on keeping Dawn from being lopsided, pointing out that it was time consuming to redial every part of her individually, when clicking a box on the holo screen would ensure that her symmetry was perfect. It took most of the day to polish the proto Dawn into a workable personality, with likes, dislikes, habits and phobias, she would hate untidiness and love to be loved.
“Ok,” Pullo sighed. “That's her. How long will it take?”
“About a month to grow her, and another month to program her skills and personality." Jarle stood to shake hands, "I'll give you a call when Dawn is ready.”
“I was expecting sooner than that.”
Jarl sighed, “Sorry, but we are not a fly by night company, we have a reputation to uphold, Dawn is not just for the next few years but for life. If you wanted one off the rack you could have saved us a lot of work.”
“No, I've heard great things about your company. I'm sure she'll be perfect.”
“Don't forget that Dawn's programme commands her to love you, and when you marry... She's bisexual in that way. When you have children she will love and care for them as if they were own.”
“I know,” Pullo said gently. “My farther has had a Biroid for years, not a top range model like Dawn, but one who'd been through a dozen owners over the years before he bought her. She always wanted to be a mother.”
“Even we can not do that,” Jarl laughed. “No Biroid has ever had children, not with her master or even another Biroid. They are not built for it.”
Pullo signed the documents and was escorted around the gleaming establishment on his way out, seeing the stasis vault where completed orders were awaiting collection. Very few were sports, mainly young woman and men grown to do tasks that no human would, or could, do. One row of fifty identical blond girls was on the way to the orbital defence satellites to work in the brothels. Ten men, who towered over Pullo, had been bred immune to radiation and were built to work in fusion reactors, whilst they were still running.
He saw one girl having surgery, with implants being fitted inside her body. Both her hands had been sliced open and the surgeon was removing her finger bones and fitting them with cybernetic replacements. "One of the new Doctors," Jarle said with pride. "She'll be equipped with enough diagnostic sensors to find any ailment just by shaking your hand. Her stomach holds a life-support system that will keep you going while she fixes you with inbuilt surgical lasers. Hell, she could probably perform a heart transplant on a battlefield."
"This is more like it," Pullo sighed. He glanced at the girl's docket to see she would be called Zandra. "At least she will save lives, and not be just a whore."
There was an argument from ahead, two technicians were arguing over a dark girl who stood naked in the hallway. “I told you to check the nutrient level,” the oldest was shouting.
“I checked it last week,” the junior technician replied. “How was I to know maintenance was running a systems check and forgot to turn it back on?”
“Because we pay you to look.”
Jarl hurried over, “What the hell happened?”
“This idiot has just ruined a perfectly good specimen,” the senior technician sighed. “Take a good look at her, she's near-sighted, can't even read!”
Pullo glanced at the Biroid, seeing a dusky skin, short black hair and large black eyes. She was still dripping nutrient fluid from the maturation tanks, and glanced around like a newborn.
Jarl snapped, “Then we can't sell her. Take her to the recycling chamber, whilst I call the owner to apologise for the mistake.”
Pullo interrupted, “What will happen to her?”
“Right now she's worth more as spare parts,” Jarl snapped. “We can't sell her, the owner won't have her, and we have a reputation to keep.”
The senior technician grabbed the Biroid's arm and proceeded to drag her away. She glanced at Pullo with sudden understanding and fear of imminent death. His mind did a double take as a spark of pure inspiration struck him like a sledgehammer.
“Wait a moment,” Pullo snapped. "I'm thinking. She's totally blank right? Never been programmed? No implants? To all intent almost human?"
Jarle sighed, "That's right. What's on your mind?"
"I think we can use her to test the FTL drive," he laughed. "She can't be worth much as she is."
Jarle objected, “We can sell almost every part of her for transplants.”
“How much are we talking?”
Jarl snapped a figure that took Pullo's breath away.
Pullo called his boss at the institute, “That problem we have with the residual radiation, I've just figured out how to test the boundaries, we use a Biroid to calibrate the effects of long term exposer. Not one weighed down by programming and implants, but a pure virgin test subject. We wouldn't dare do that with volunteers. Yes sir, I'm at the Genesis Institute now and we have a likely test subject.”
Pullo listened for a few seconds and shut his communicator down. “He's agreed to rent her for the experiment, if she dies we'll cover the full cost, but if she lives then we'll send her back.”
“Not with an irradiated body,” Jarl snapped.
“It's not that kind of radiation it manly affects the mind. It either kills you or not. Look, we can do this.”
“I'll draw up the documents. From now until the end of the experiment she belongs to you, and then she will be returned for recycling.”
“Fine. Has she been named yet?”
“Give us a chance,” the senior technician laughed. “She's only ten minuets old.”
“She's kind of dusky,” he mused. “I think I'll call her Dusk.”
“Don't get attached,” Jarl warned him. “She's already dead. This is just prolonging her agony.”
“No, her agony is just about to start,” Pullo said sadly.
Dusk was showered and fitted with a crystalline webbing at her throat, waist, knees, elbows, wrists and ankles. “Standard restraining device for hazardous Biroids,” Jarl explained. He forced Dusk's wrists together behind her back, and the crystalline bands locked together. Then he pushed her elbows together, sealing her arms in an unbreakable bond behind her back. She gasped in pain and shock. “The bands will adhere to just about anything, including wood and plastic. And the collar has a proximity security device, you'll find out what happens if she ever strays more than twenty feet from you.” He handed Pullo a tiny remote, “This will deactivate the collar and track her down if she runs.”
“Follow me,” Pullo snapped at Dusk. She followed him, scampering rapidly to escape the Genesis Institute, escaping one death sentence for another kind of torment. He led her to his bird and strapped her into the tiny rear seat, then climbed on before her, fastening his flight straps. At his command the Swallow took flight, soaring into the air.
Dusk could not believe the flight, or the world she flew over, she had not been programmed with an advanced education of life on Terra in the thirty sixth century.
It was late when Pullo landed at the APRU. “This is where I work, the Advanced Physics Research Unit,” Pullo explained as he led Dusk through the security doors. She was scanned and monitored by remote cameras, nothing she would ever do would be unobserved and recorded.
The main lab was taken up by a copied alien FTL drive module. It could not be activated, but the wave front it generated was focused into a small heavily shielded room. Pullo showed Dusk inside the room, and to a transparent plastseel chair in the centre. “This is your station, I'll strap you down here and watch you through the monitors.”
“Will it hurt?” she gasped at last.
“Oh yes, not much at first, but as I start to understand how the wave affects you I'll slowly increase the dosage. The first setting is one, the last is ten. If you can survive till ten the experiment will be a success.”
“Will I be dressed?” she sighed.
“What for? Listen Dusk, I'll try to explain this simply, I know you weren't given a proper education. We have been masters of our own solar system for nearly a thousand years, but could never build faster than light ships, and so have been limited to our own system. Ten years ago Terra was invaded by a Alien army. We won, just, but now we're using their own technology against them. We have a ship nearing completion that is going to hunt them down and make them pay. The Daedalus is a asteroid ship nearly ten miles long, she's heavily armed and armoured, and when she finds the alien home-world there is going to be hell to pay.”
“Why are you telling me?” Dusk gasped.
“I'm letting you know how important you are to the program. You will show us how to shield against the alien radiation, and it is going to hurt, but you will be fighting to protect mankind in your own way. Your pain will let us reach for the aliens and strangle the life from their throats.”
“Then you will do it anyway, why ask me?”
“I'm not asking, I'm telling what I'm going to do to you. You are just a lab rat, nothing more and nothing less.”
He took her to a cage in his office, freed her arms from behind her back, long enough to feed her the usual tasteless Biroid gruel, then fastened her wrists and ankles. He left her lying on the cage floor, bound and helpless, covered by a dozen security systems and guarded by half a hundred men. Dusk regretted silently begging Pullo to rescue her, she could have been safely dead by now.
At dawn the next day Pullo had Dusk cleaned and strapped her into the transparent chair, as soon as she sat down the wrist and ankle bands sealed to the chair. He fastened her knees and elbows to the chair, and ran a cross strap between her breasts, holding her chest down tightly. Last he fitted a band across her forehead, locking her head against the neck rest.
“Just a bit of surgery first,” he patted her trembling shoulder in reassurance. The probes slid into her flesh with sharp pain. Then he started shaving a patch of her short black hair at the base of her skull.
“Please, can you take away the pain?” she cried out.
Pullo started, he glanced at her for the first time as a woman and not a thing. Her skin was a light olive tan, with full breasts that dipped slightly before reaching upwards with prominent nipples. Her face was of classical beauty with a high forehead and large intelligent eyes of deepest ebony. Her nose was gracefully swept and proud. And her lips were warm and sensual. Her bared cleft framed a peeking clitoris, or perhaps more than one. Short black hair reached to just below her shapely ears, pushing forward into points on her hollow cheeks. He smiled involuntary, admiring her beauty, only then remembering that she was already dead.
“No Dusk, you need to feel the pain of the experiment, but I can do this.” He gave a local anaesthetic to where he was drilling the probe into her brain. The pain instantly vanished.
“Thank you,” she sobbed. “I'm thanking someone who's drilling into my brain!” she gasped aloud.
“This is a permanent implant,” he explained to reassure her. “It will connect your brain to the computer, so everything you think, feel, see, hear and smell will be recorded for all time. Everything you feel we will know.”
“I'll save you the trouble,” she gasped, “I hate you!”
“That's my girl,” he laughed. He sealed the brain implant and opened up the chair, the back lowered, the legs raised, and soon she was laying on a table. He pulled the armrests apart, swinging them up behind her head. Then the leg rests were pulled wide apart, leaving her fully exposed.
“Will you rape me?” she sobbed.
“No girl, I'll not do that.” He inserted two final probes between her legs, forcing them deep inside. “These are to keep you nice and clean, I don't want you making a mess on the floor.” Both probes started to release warm water inside her, and suck away the excess. “I had considered muting you, or even a lobotomy,” he mused. “But this is more fun.”
“For who?” Dusk gasped in terror.
“You must be able to feel the pain, and talk about it afterwards.”
“This is wrong, you know that,” she gasped.
“Is it wrong to sacrifice a worthless life to save millions of men, women and children? Dusk, I'm not doing this because I enjoy it.”
He strapped a gag between her teeth, “This is to protect your tongue, I don't want you biting it off.”
Dusk could only stare at Pullo in horror as he cleared the room. She saw the shielded door slam shout behind him, and could only glance left and right as the head strap held her immobile. The minutes ticked by, and seemed to turn into hours, and at every second she expected to be hit with alien agony, but nothing happened. Inside the white room there was no sense of time, it could be minutes or hours later but she would never know.
Pullo entered the chamber, brushing crumbs off his shirt, “Sorry about the delay, we're having technical problems.” He removed her gag.
“Couldn't you let me know?” she begged. “Drink, can I have a drink, please sir?”
“It might upset the instruments. You'll be fed and watered after the experiment.”
“But that could be hours, and I've not eaten since last night.”
“You've only ever eaten once,” he agreed. “Sorry Dusk, you'll have to bear it a bit longer.” He replaced the gag and left her alone.
She was almost dozing when a field of unimaginable agony wafted around the testing chamber, it seemed to permeate Dusk's helpless body through every pore in her dusky skin. She struggled to scream around the gag, her bowls let loose in terror, to be washed away in an instant by the hoses. The agony lasted only for a split second, then vanished as though it had never been. Her thrashing body sank back against the bonds, she lay panting for breath.
Pullo entered the room, his face exultant. “We did it, we got the bugger to work.” He started to free her, extracting the anal probes first. “I'll bet you're glad now I used these?”
He freed Dusk, and helped her to stand on trembling legs. “That's it for today, the technicians are readying the device for tomorrow.”
“How much more can I take?” she gasped in terror. “How much was that?”
“One milli second at setting one,” he laughed. “By tomorrow we should have it up to five seconds, a few times a day.” He bound Dusk's wrists behind her back, and led her through the door into the crowded corridor. The lift towards his office opened before them, but as Pullo entered a crowd of exited technicians pushed passed Dusk, forcing her to one side as the doors hissed shut. She stumbled against the wall as the lift shot up, and as Pullo travelled beyond twenty feet her security collar activated, sending currents of power flashing around her brain. The first shock was mild, the second one less so, and at five second intervals the shocks grew in severity.
Dusk stumbled to the floor, screaming. Pullo ran down the stairs, and saw her thrashing on the floor, he clicked off the remote, she slumped lying still, gasping for breath. He let her recover, and helped her to stand, half carrying her to his office.
“I think that from now on I'll use a leash,” he sighed.
Dusk could only nod in approval. Being led around like a dog beat being fried by electricity.
In Pullo's office he let her sit on the floor, and gorge herself on the Biroid gruel. It was supposed to give all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals a healthy Biroid needed, he tasted a bit on his finger and spat it out. But Dusk finished her bowl and looked up asking for more.
“It says one bowl a day,” he insisted.
“Does it say how big a bowl?” she asked.
He mixed another half bowl and watered her.
“Is this my life now?” she begged him. “To be tortured and treated like an animal?”
“Dusk, my dear girl, you are a animal! Biroids have no legal rights, anyone could kill you and only risk facing a fine. Get used to it. If you'd had the full education program you would understand.”
“And when you're done with me, you'll send me back to be cut up! Master Pullo, please no.”
“This I cannot change,” he said sadly. “I'm only renting you.”
The following day it happened again, this time she had five shots of power that left her wanting to die. The next day it went up to seven shots.
The first week passed by without a break in the terror and agony. It was only on Sunday that she was left in her cage, but of course she didn't understand, she had no concept of a day of rest. Pullo forgot to feed her and that night she slept hungry for the first time.
On Monday the routine continued, with the shocks growing ever longer. Pullo warned her that soon they might move on to the second setting. Dusk could hardly believe that there was still nine more to go.
As Pullo locked her up at night leaving her still bound at wrists and ankles, she lay sobbing for a life she had never known. All she knew of life was torment and bondage.
Some of the lab technicians came around at night to torment her, pushing sticks through the bars forcing her to squeal.
By the fourth week she had reached level four, the agony was ever more mind-blowing, but she found the strength to resist.
The errant lab technicians came around almost every night, then one of them managed to copy Pullo's key. With the security cameras switched to an endless loop Dusk was pulled from her cage to be whipped by the technicians. Only an unexpected visit by a guard forced the technicians to push her back in the cage and pretend nothing had happened.
The torture now continued in the only place she had considered safe. Night after night she was tormented in Pullo's office, but she had not the right to complain. She was a animal.
Pullo returned to his office from a staff meeting, to see Dusk hanging from the celling being whipped. He flew into a rage and threw the technicians from the office. Cutting her down he lay her on the office settee. “How long has this been happening?” he asked in quite anger.
“The abuse over a month, but last week they got the cage key.”
“And you didn't mention it?”
“I'm a animal, what right have I to complain how I'm treated by a human?”
“Every right, you belong to me.”
“But you're only renting me. Master Pullo, they threatened grave things if I spoke, one said he would recalibrate the device to increase the power, and either kill me or ruin the experiment.”
“That they dare not do, for it would be treason of the highest level. Dusk, if that happened, they would take your place.”
He stood and fastened a leash to her collar, freeing her feet. “You are not safe here girl, come with me.” He led her from the Advanced Physics Research Unit and flew her home.
She entered the small apartment with curiosity, never having seen a place where people lived. He fastened her ankles again and left her lying on the sofa, going to bed late.
But sleep would not come. Pullo knew the reason, but to admit it, even to himself, would betray everything he was taught to believe. If he had taken Dusk weeks ago she would have been just another sex toy. But the reason he was not taking her now had an even more profound significance. He was treating her with sympathy! Then he realised that by not taking her now the implication would be even more fundamental. The cyclic logic drove him awake. He was damned if he took her and damned if he did not take her.
He arose naked from his bed and walked to the living room, to see Dusk staring at him with large black eyes. He sat next to her, gently laying his hand on her shoulder.
"If I'm going to die soon,” she gasped, “I'd rather not die a virgin. There must be more to life than this.”
He bent to kiss her, and the result was astounding. She kissed him back as if her life depended on it, the touch of his lips sent liquid fire racing around her body. He gazed into her dark eyes, looking into her tortured soul. In shame he pushed her face down to kiss his swollen groin, and she accepted him into her mouth gladly. With bound wrists she held his throbbing manhood as she swallowed him, her body burned with life as she gave him pleasure. As she aroused Pullo he guided her by a few sharp slaps on her bottom.
Pullo accepted her ministrations as long as he could, then flipped Dusk onto her back and forced himself inside her, feeling her moist readiness accept him. He thrust again and again, forcing himself ever deeper into the virgin womb. Dusk bathed in delight, her every sense on fire as he fucked her, multiple waves of pleasure lapped against her brain, again and again, growing ever stronger as he took her without mercy.
She came again and again, crying in ecstasy until he finally shot his load deep inside her. They rolled over, collapsing together. He lay panting next to his lab rat and did the unexpected, he freed her wrists and ankles for the first time since buying her. Dusk lay in his arms, feeling free for the first time in memory. “My Master,” she could only whimper.
In the morning Pullo bathed with Dusk, and showed her how to cook breakfast, allowing her to eat real food for the first time in her life.
She turned in the door, allowing him to fasten her wrists and elbows together, and bent her head to let him fasten the leash to her collar. She glanced back to the apartment, sobbing.
“Today we go for level five,” he warned her.
“Yes my Master,” she sobbed. “Thank you.”
The day started off with an half hour at level one, then decreasing time limits for increasing power levels. By afternoon Pullo increased the limit to level five, and she fought to resist the agony. But Dusk's recent unexpected joy gave her the strength to endure the mind blowing agony.
That evening she stumbled towards her cage expecting to be locked up all night, but Pullo surprised her again and took her home. This time they made love on entering the apartment, he forced her to kneel and open her mouth. Again she held his groin with bound wrists and accepted him gladly into her mouth, coming to orgasm herself almost as soon as he shot his load down her throat. “Master,” she sighed, “you like me like this, bound and helpless?”
“My family has always owned slaves, for two thousand years we have taken them any way we liked.” He shrugged, “It is who you are Dusk, why hide it?”
“I like being a slave Master, but not a animal." She gasped in confusion, "I could love you and hate you at the same time.”
“You have never begged for mercy Dusk,” he said with approval. “I like that, it shows courage.”
“Would you have taken pity on a lab rat?” she sobbed.
“No.”
“Then I shall never beg for mercy,” she said with conviction.
That night he showed Dusk how to cook again, sharing the meal with her. Only after making love did he free her, and she always awoke in his arms bound only by her love. Never was she allowed to dress in any way, if she even thought about it he would give her a quick slap on her behind.
The days carried on with torment and love. Sometimes Pullo went to great lengths finding new was to restrain Dusk and use her without mercy. He even bought a long roll of soft rope and practiced binding her with it in a hundred different ways, then taking her as she begged him for the mercy of sex. Every day he would torture her, and every night love her.
She always awoke in his arms, showered with him, helped to cook breakfast, and then let him bind her and lead her from the flat back into torture.
Level seven was reached and passed at the end of week six, Dusk was managing to hold on even longer than before. Her will to resist grew ever stronger the more they made love. But she knew her time was short, for on reaching level ten the experiment would be over, and she would die.
The torment increased daily, as did her pleasure. Pullo seemed to want to ease her pain with his love, but he too knew her time was running out. The experiment was proving a great success, their level of understanding of the alien drive grew daily, and soon they expected to find a way to protect the human crew of the Daedalus. And then Dusk would die. There was no way around it, for he had signed the contract himself.
On the first day of the ninth week the Genesis Institute called to report that Dawn was ready for collection. It took Pullo several seconds to remember who Dawn was. His fascination with a dream had been occulted by a living woman in dire need of his help. He collected his new personal assistant that night and took her home, leaving Dusk bound to his bed. Dawn wore a short white dress of shimmering material, her long blond hair was pulled back from her beautiful face and platted into a long ponytail. She was everything he had ever dreamed of in a woman, but that was before he had seen Dusk's courage.
Dawn saw Dusk on the bed with confusion, she had been specially commissioned, and was far more qualified to assist Pullo than the tramp bound to his bed.
“Dawn, don't judge Dusk until you see what she has to endure every day. And if you still think you're a better woman you can take her place.”
The personal assistant sat naked watching her master and rival making love through the night. Somehow her disparaging glare drove them on ever further.
In the morning Dawn saw a new side of the lab rat, as Dusk willingly allowed her master to bind her to the testing rig. Pullo insisted that Dawn watch as Dusk was tormented at level eight for half an hour. The periods of agony grew ever longer, as they searched for a few seconds of level nine.
That night Dawn half carried Dusk back to the apartment, sobbing for the crying lab rat. The personal assistant cooked that night, feeding all three. Later Pullo bound Dusk to his bed and took her unmercifully, until even Dawn had to complain. To Dusk it felt like a going away present, her time was almost up.
The Advanced Physics Research Unit was in uproar when they returned in the morning, the success of the level nine experiment had brought out the brass, and the Unit's director had forsaken his comfortable office to oversee the final phase of the experiment in person.
The Director watched the recordings of the last test. He turned to Pullo in glee, “I've heard great things about you my boy, and this proves them all right. You're in line for a reward.”
“Then give me the test subject.”
“You can put her down once the test is over.”
“No sir, I mean give her to me.”
“Impossible, the contract was signed.”
“Sir, in our culture it is common to reward the courageous. I've never seen a braver woman than Dusk.”
The Director turned to see the Biroid, who was standing with arms bound tightly behind her back. He admired her look of determination, “How old are you?”
“Sixty four,” she snapped, “days.”
“Lords of all, what have we done? I thought she was a surplus model, not a new born.”
“She has defective eyesight, and was scheduled for spare parts, she still is after we are through with her. But Dusk's courage has saved the program ten years research.”
“I still can't authorise the expense.”
Pullo turned to the lab rat and freed her arms, “Report to the test rig, we're going for level ten.” Dawn looked on in sympathy as she took over the testing computer.
“Yes my Master,” she said determinedly. Without escort she walked to the testing rig and sat down, her manacles snapped tight, locking her down firmly. Pullo showed the Director how he bound Dusk to the machine.
The Director looked down as Dusk was spread wide open, “If I freed you, I could find a more comfortable life for you.”
“My place is with my Master,” she said with determination.
“After all he has done to you?”
“I live but serve my Empire,” she insisted. “As does he.”
“You love him!” He glanced to see Pullo gently patting Dusk's shoulder. “And he loves you!”
Pullo inserted the gag and cleared the room, in the chamber next door he ordered the wall removed, revealing a glass wall showing Dusk squirming in her bonds. “This is one side effect of Dusk's torment, we produced a shield to protect against the waves of terror.” He nodded and Dawn started to raise the power level, one notch at a time.
“Level one reached,” Dawn sang out. “No problem.”
Pullo stated, “Level two.”
“Reached, no problem.”
After ten minutes Pullo stated, “Level three.”
“Three it is, no problem.”
Dusk lay bound as waves of insane agony wafted around the testing rig, her love was the only thing protecting her.
After another five minutes, “Level four.”
“Four it is sir" Dawn replied, "she's in severe pain, but holding on.”
The Director could seen Dusk screaming through the wall, and the look of anguish on Pullo's face.
“Five, and keep it up for twenty minutes.”
“Five and holding," Dawn gasped, "She's doing fine so far.”
Dusk felt as if the entire world was screaming insanely inside her mind . She glanced sideways and glimpsed Pullo, they shared a brief moment of love.
“Six,” Pullo insisted. “Keep it up for ten minutes.”
“Six reached sir, subject is stabilising.” Dawn could only watch in disbelief as her sister in bondage took all the agony and terror they could throw at her, squirming and screaming but holding on to her sanity.
“Seven, ten minutes.”
The director watched Pullo torturing the woman he loved, from duty. He felt humble. “How many times is this?” he gasped.
“A hundred and two,” Pullo answered automatically. “Raise to level eight. I'll tell you when to stop.”
“Eight it is sir, heart fibulations." Dawn stated, "Nothing serious, yet.”
“Raise to nine.”
“Nine sir, she's in real agony now, heart's pumping like there's no tomorrow.” Dusk lay screaming her heart out as the insanity lashed again and again her battered mind, body and soul.
“Pullo, you've made your point, back off now.”
“No sir, the experiment is not over yet. Level ten!”
“Ten it is sir, she's in real trouble." Dawn snapped, "Stop it, for Hathor's sake.”
“Maintain until I tell you otherwise.” The minutes crept by as Dusk's body seemed to grow fainter, almost as if coming apart molecule by molecule. She was beyond screaming now, all the air had long since fled her lungs.
“Pullo, the test is a success,” the Director snapped, “and the subject is freed into you custody. Now stop it before you kill her!”
Pullo sighed, “Level nine.”
“Achieved, heart fluctuations lessening.” Dusk felt her body for the first time in minutes, and regretted it for everything ached in time with her beating heart.
“Eight.”
“Eight and going down." Dawn sighed, "I'll take it from here sir. You get ready to free her, I've the crash team on stand by.”
“Director, one last request, I want her reach the status of slave. Never again will she be subject to this ordeal.”
“You're pushing it Pullo, Biroids can never be raised to slaves. Slaves are human, Biroids aren't.”
“But Dusk was never formally accepted as a Biroid,” Dawn pointed out. “She hasn't the tattoos or the final programming.”
“As such we could pass her off as a clone,” the Director mused.
“Level one and under sir,” Dawn interrupted. “I'm shutting her down.”
Pullo started to free Dusk, pulling the plugs from her anus and removing her gag. “We did it my love,” he whispered. “You've just gone from lab rat to my slave.”
“Then I'm not coming back to the Genesis Institute?” she gasped in delight.
“The only place you're going is home to my bed.”
“Will you dress me, or free me?” she asked in sudden hope.
“No, I like you just the way you are.” He snapped the leash to Dusk's collar and fastened her wrists and elbows together, kissing her soundly. She felt her blood start to boil in need of a reminder of what love was.
It was two hours before they could get away from the celebration. Dusk was standing near the lift door with Pullo holding her leash, waiting for Dawn to join them.
“Master, do we have to leave right away? We have a perfectly good toy right here.”
Pullo glanced at the chair, and started to grin. “Dawn, make sure the wall is down and the safeties are engaged, then come back and guard the door.”
“Right sir.” Dawn returned a few minutes later to find Dusk was once more fastened to the machine, with her legs spread wide, and Pullo was taking advantage of her predicament. Dawn bent down to kiss her sister slave, and both girls were surprised at the result. Dawn began to undress and offered herself to her master. She lay across Dusk's body face down, kissing her, as Pullo entered his assistant for the first time. He took them both in turns, driving them both wild as they kissed each other with ever deeper longing.
As Pullo pulled Dusk home he noticed the self satisfied grin on Dawn's face. “Just how many pleasure points did I decide to give you?”
“I'm feeling three, so far master. But there are places you have yet to explore.”
“I think I might need a second leash,” he laughed. “And how many do you think Dusk has?”
“Her docket was misplaced, so we'll never know just what she was created to do, but I'd say at least five. Certainly one in her lips.”
“So that's why she comes to orgasm so readily, sometimes we're only kissing, and sometimes not.”
“”I've the same problem, or blessing, depends if I'm working or not,” Dawn sighed. “Just a kiss can send me to orgasm. You're serious about leaving her naked?”
“Most of the time, and you too at home. By the way, neither of you need to wear panties, I want nothing getting in my way.”