(Conference Room, BSN Nightforge, orbiting Nuevo Edo)
“And you say this Nightforge of yours was originally a superdreadnought that you captured in battle?”
Commodore Mollen chuckled as he nodded to one of the government officials who had come to ‘officially’ meet with the Black Star company. Once the light of the battle with the ‘demons’ had reached Nuevo Edo, it was impossible for the government to hide the existence of ‘visitors from home’. That had prompted Premier Fukuya to arrange an official welcome, with the planetary news agencies along for the ride. The Commodore had agreed, and set the meeting to take place on the Nightforge, where he offered them a tour of the impressive mobile shipyard’s facilities.
“Yes, unfortunately time has not changed human nature, and it seems that when we do not have threats from the outside, we are often content to find them amongst ourselves. In this case, the younger son of the Terran Emperor decided that he would be a much better than his father, and all the others in front of him in the line of succession. He was supported by several high nobles and military leaders who wanted the wars of expansion to start again. There was an assassination attempt on the rest of the imperial royal family, but he didn’t get them all, and so there was civil war.”
Fukuya smiled as she watched the Commodore glaze over the full impact his ships had had on that war. Honestly, five warships and a modified freighter had destroyed many times their tonnage in enemy ships and materiel, and had proven to be critical difference makers at several points, according to the primer on recent galactic history his ships had sent them. Oh, the reports hadn’t come out and said that, but she could read between the lines as well as any politician, and the raw numbers were fairly clear that this ‘Merida’ faction was losing before the Commodore gave them a trump card that no one knew how to counter until it was too late. Combined with the… predatory tactics he had shown against the Amazons, as people were now calling them, it would have been a nasty shock.
“The Nghtforge, which had a different name back then, had been too badly damaged to continue service as a superdreadnought when they surrendered to my forces. Honestly, two thirds of the crew were dead, and large parts of the center of the ship had been opened to vacuum thanks to the pounding it had taken. So I had the idea to turn it into a mobile shipyard which I’d use to support this expedition.”
Fukuya smiled at that, and said, “She certainly is an impressive ship, Commodore. It makes me wonder what we could have accomplished had we had access to the same wonders that you did.”
Mollen nodded to her, and said, “Well, we can’t change the past, but if there isn’t too much political ill will against ‘outsiders’ coming to visit you, then we might be able to set up something more permanent here as a new branch for the Black Star Company. Your long exile from the rest of civilization would be over.”
“Commodore Mollen, is it true that the majority of your crews are male?”
The man turned to look at the suddenly blushing Minister of Science, and smiled at her. “Oh yes, and I happen to know that there are more than a couple scientifically minded ones in the fleet that would enjoy having a long, hard, stimulating discussion with you, Minister.” There was polite laughter as the minister’s face went crimson, but Fukuya could see she was excited about the prospect. It had been far too long for most of these women since they’d seen a man outside of the Breeding Halls.
Fukuya decided she ought to speak up to prevent any ‘confusion’. “We have already spoken with the Commodore, and have agreed to the construction of our first starport built to modern specifications outside Kyoto. The crews of the Black Star Fleet, and any traders that may come to Nuevo Edo, will be free to walk around there, regardless of gender. I have spoken with some of you already, but there will be lotteries for all women on the planet, with the prize being a week’s stay at the starport for ‘recreation’. Government employees are exempt from the lottery, to preserve fairness, but a similar program of leaves is being planned for our military members. And before you ask, yes, we do plan to ease the restrictions on our male population as well, now that we can contact the rest of the galaxy again.”
“But what about the Demons?”
“The Amazons, as we are now calling them, have been driven back. We will continue pressing that advantage in the coming weeks. Those of you who have seen the sensor logs of the most recent battle no doubt understand that the ships of the Black Star Navy have a sizeable tecnological advantage over the Amazon forces. Because of this, and the information we were able to gain from the first-ever interrogations of Amazon forces, we have hired the Black Star Company as mercenaries to take the fight to the Amazons on our behalf, and neutralize their threat to Nuevo Edo.”
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That got a moment of stunned silence, and Fukuya was glad that Mollen stepped up next to her to fill the void. “We will, of course, not speak of the conditions of the military contract between Black Star and Nuevo Edo at this time. It is Black Star policy not to comment on ongoing military operations, for obvious reasons.”
And then something Premier Fukuya dreaded happened. One of the Assemblywomen, who happened to be a key figure in the Partidad de Libre Uso, got the attention of the Commodore and the cameras. “Commodore, I am Assemblywoman Maria Sanchez, of the ‘Free Use’ concept that has been proposed in the recent legislative session.”
“Ah, Senora Sanchez, yes I am aware of the law in question. While I personally have no issue with any lovely lady coming up to me and demanding that I have sex with her on the spot, I am the owner of a multi-ethnic, multi-species company, and must think of the best interests of all my employees, just as Premier Fukuya must think of the best interest of all Nuevo Edoans. As such, I must say that while the law has promise, without a means of ensuring consent on both sides I cannot in good conscience support such a measure, or allowing my crews to go to areas with such measures in place.”
Fukuya did her best not to smirk as he paused, letting the ‘no men’ threat hang in the air for a moment, before he continued, “However, among the advances in technology we will be introducing as we bring trade to this system, are wearable communication devices like the bracer you see on my arm here. When combined with the display in the glasses I’m wearing, it provides a variety of effects. However, for the purposes of the proposed law, it could be set to provide a ‘halo’ in other wearers’ HUDs, showing that they consent to be used. This simple system would allow those who wish to engage in such behaviors license to do so, but would not force it on those who have moral or ethical objections, or who simply need a break from all the ‘activity’.”
Ooh, that devious man. Fukuya smiled into the cameras as he said both yes and no, and offered to sell them technology to make it workable. But she ought to change the subject quickly before that damn Sanchez suggested he offer another kind of ‘product demonstration’ on live TV. She took a breath, and said, “We are also happy to announce that we have come to an agreement on the construction of our first orbital shipyard, capable of producing ships that would be able to travel faster than light, like those of the Black Star Fleet. This, combined with the knowledge we now have of how the Gateway Network functions, will give to all Nuevo Edoans that stars, letting us break free of the world that sheltered us for so long, and go off into the unknown, exploring new worlds as our ancestors did long ago.”
(Feucht, Germany, Earth)
Gemroth snarled at the cowering gauz girl. “Damn it, Mina! How many times have I told you that you have to be careful with the boiler! You let the steam get too low again! Now hurry up and start stoking that fire! We have plenty of wood, so I want to be moving on. Long way to go until we reach the safe zone!”
Mina sobbed as the cruel man hit her with his hand. She was used to pain. She’d been born a slave, the gauz daughter of a guaz slave who’d been the favorite toy of a human master, the product of that master ‘breeding’ her mother with another gauz slave to ‘improve the breed’, like they were show dogs. They’d have been better off if they were. No one hit the show dogs, they were too expensive. But slaves were cheap. So she was used to pain, but she sobbed anyway, because she knew that the pain givers liked it, and if they didn’t get what they liked, they hurt her more.
She hated her current master more than the others, though. They were well off, and only hurt her if there was a reason. Her new Master was insane, and obsessed with finding some man she had never met. Since the Plague had wiped out technology, and this madman had captured her, she had prayed for death, but death never came for her.
She focused on stoking the fire, doing her best to look busy while she was actually taking her time. Her ‘Master’ didn’t want to hear her talk, so she didn’t mention the bandits that she’d spotted closing in on them. Maybe death would finally come for her?
(Temporary Science Lab, Requiem)
Calling the refurbished cargo containers that were currently gracing the surface of Nuevo Edo’s moon, Requiem, a ‘Temporary Science Lab’ was giving it a good bit more credit than it deserved. The whole thing was basically several large boxes with a bunch of cameras set up to observe the proceedings, with two occupants in each box: a drone, and one of the captured Amazon women.
Now, normally such things were completely unnecessary, but the owner of the company had specifically mentioned that there was to be absolutely no risk to the fleet from the trials that were about to be done. They had to know how the indigenous population of the world they were about to attack would react to the proposed solution. Thus, they needed to test.
Physical tests should have been unnecessary, since they already had significant data on those effects. But the Amazons were different in many key ways from the prior ‘test subjects’, so they needed a good mental baseline to use before they could sign off on whether the compound could be used safely. And while they were conducting trials on the mental changes, if any, brought on by exposure, it made sense to pair those tests with physical ones, to ensure that there were no hidden surprises in the production version.
There were six Amazon women in the containers, each of them naked save for a metal chastity belt that held two large phallic shapes inside them. They were separated from the drones by shimmering energy shields. In the first ‘cell’, the drone produced an odd, mechanical-sounding voice. “Volunteer 01, complete the following puzzles within the time limit. Compliance will be rewarded. Failure to comply will result in negative consequences.” As if she needed any idea of what those rewards and consequences were, the vibrators in her pussy and rear alternatively started buzzing, and then delivered an electric shock directly inside her. And she couldn’t pull the things out of her.
Gritting her teeth, the Amazon got to work, as the message was replayed in the other cells.