Chapter 9
The entire crew cheered as the Crucible of Starvation entered the warp and resumed their journey to the Chonma Sector.
There was still a lot of repair work left to do, but at least the ship was now sufficiently repaired to safely undertake a lengthy journey through the warp.
The repair crews now worked a mere 14 hours a day, and the temperature on board had dropped to a comfortable 25 degrees Celsius.
As the air had cooled it had shed some of its thick humidity, and condensation ran down every wall, sometimes so heavily that it formed miniature waterfalls. This water once again flooded every corridor with a few centimetres of water, and most of it found it's way down to decks 1 and 2. There was even some talk of declaring the bottom two decks as an official lake, much to the irritation of the captain.
The flood was welcome news to the poor unfortunates assigned to the steel mill.
The day that Talon had worked there had been the worst shift on record. The air hadn't yet cooled sufficiently to offload it's extreme humidity as condensation and deck 1 had dried up in places. The cooling pipes had nothing but thick viscous sludge left to use as a heat sink, and the cooling fluid returned to the furnaces only slightly cooler than it had been. It's a miracle that anyone survived, and a lot of people hadn't. Almost 25 percent of the steel mill workers had died that day from the heat and the survivors had all been extremely sick.
Talon had only just survived that day. The cartel doctors were amazed that she had even managed to stager home and walk in the door under her own power. She was suffering heat exhaustion and was on the verge of having a heat stroke. Talon had been hospitalised in a serious condition, as Wendy wept at her bedside.
As soon as Talon was coherent enough to speak she told Wendy about how Candy had rubbed her down with alcohol every 10 seconds, and that it had saved her life. Candy suddenly found herself very popular with Wendy and the cartel in general and her shifts in the steel mill had been reduced to a mere 2 hours a day, and her promotion ban was lifted.
The very next day after Talon worked in the steel mill the ship got cool enough to dump it's humidity, and the flood of water that followed filled deck 1 to knee height and this made the steel mill heat less lethal. The sickly survivors arrived at work to find all their bottled water rations sitting inside insulated boxes full of ice cubes, curtesy of Wendy to thank anyone who might have helped keep Talon alive. There was much cheering of "Talon, Talon," that day.
***...
Luke Sevenson watched the swirling magenta energies of the warp move past the observation window. It was good to be underway again.
They had a long journey ahead to reach the Chonma Sector and they desperately needed to raid those research stations to replace all the lost materials on board. Luke had been overseeing the training of militia engineers in space suits. The plan was to try to strip the entire buildings down into chunks by militia engineers with cutting torches, leaving nothing behind.
The stations they intended to raid were all various types of telescope facilities on barren asteroids and planetoids on the edge of the sector. They would contain some high tech components but were mostly scrap metal for the ship. The facilities staff would be few and highly trained, they would make valuable slaves.
The Chonma sector was unfortunately a dangerously well defended sector and contained the infamous imperial hive world of Necromunda. It would be swarming with hostile warships so they had to hit and run extremely quickly. If they were longer than 2 hours at any particular facility then they ran the risk of being caught by patrols. 2 hours was the estimated best response time from the nearest probable patrol routes to the stations in question.
The repair crews were running out of materials now and repairs were slowing to a halt. The space battle had blasted large chunks out of the ship. The patching of these holes had stripped the ship bare of scrap metal. The crew members had even salvaged the rust from the crawl spaces to smelt into more metal.
The ship at large was an absolute pigsty, and it was now standard practice to hose out the corridors with fire hoses. That lake on decks 1 and 2 had been a godsend, without it the steel mills could never have met the departure deadline. Luke only hoped that the artificial gravity plates under the floor of deck 1 didn't fail. They would have to drain that lake before too much longer to maintain these and other essential systems on deck 1.
Luke was tired, he had hardly slept in 3 weeks. He had also had difficulty keeping track of exactly where his son Augusta was at any given moment. The Childcare businesses still lacked staff, so Octavia had sent Augusta to stay with his sister Wendy. But Wendy was never home now either.
Luke didn't know the full details but it seemed that Wendy had had a particularly bad lovers spat with her latest wife and sent the wife to the lethally hot steel mill in a rage. The heat had almost killed the wife and she was now hospitalised. Wendy had very deliberately refused to tell Luke what the wife had done to deserve this. What ever it was it was obviously bad, but apparently all was forgiven now.
Augusta now went everywhere that Wendy went, which was a lot of places, but mostly either the admin office or the cartel hospital. Thankfully Wendy's location was easy enough to track down with a quick Vox call to admin.
Luke would not be able to relax until after the raids were over. He and other space marines had to train a staggering 2,500 militia soldiers into combat engineers. They needed this many to strip down an entire research station with torches in less than 2 hours.
Luke was drilling them hard, they desperately needed to improve their speed. They had pulled apart and then put back together many walls throughout the ship, and they were slowly getting faster. If they could get their speed up enough then the Crucible of starvation would only need to raid 5 stations to replenish supplies at a profit. The slower they were, the number of raids would increase, and in the Chonma Sector that was dangerous.
Ideally they would be out of the Chonma sector less than 24 hours after they arrived, and get the fuck out of there to the fleet rendezvous point. The rendezvous was in 2 months time, but they would arrive a month early and spend that entire month doing repairs.
Hopefully they could get more crew from other ships in the fleet, if not then they would need to conduct a big slave raid to get the numbers.
***...
Candy, Labia and Octavia arrived at the main entrance of the cartel hospital. They were dressed in their casual clothes and carried a series of get well gifts for Talon.
They didn't have much to give, but they had made a get well card out of a cardboard flap cut off the infantry ration box, bending it in half and drawing pictures all over it. It contained a beautiful message from Labia, and semiliterate scrawl from Candy and Octavia.
They also brought some infantry ration bars as a gift of food. If they had had the extra power then they would have baked something.
The reception slave looked at their gifts and card dubiously, but brightened when she saw Octavia's brands and Labia's keycard identifying her as cartel admin staff. The slave directed them to the correct room.
They walked through the magnificent hospital, passing slave nurses and other staff as they went. As the place dedicated to healing the rich and powerful it was a proper hospital, not the decrepit medic stations that served for the rest of the crew. Whatever the section had originally been, it was now extensively renovated into the shiny white walls of a proper hospital.
They passed room after room filled with expensive looking medical equipment. They saw cartel women and their lovers getting cosmetic surgery and rejuvenation treatments. It seemed surprisingly sparse of people who were actually sick or injured.
Finally they found the correct room, one of only two occupied rooms in the intensive care unit, the rest of the beds were empty. Apparently the rich and powerful rarely got dangerously unwell.
They entered the pristinely clean room.
Talon was in a proper white hospital bed with tubes sticking out of her. Beside her sat Wendy, nursing Augusta in her lap. A nearby table was covered with gifts and cards from the cartel, proper printed cards, not the improvised thing that the roommates had made.
Octavia looked at their own card inadequately.
"Talon", Candy exclaimed and rushed to hug the sickly woman, almost pulling out some of her tubes in the process.
"Hi Candy", Talon said happily, returning the hug warmly as best she could with all her tubes.
Candy was still hugging Talon when Wendy piled on from behind Candy, having hastily handed Augusta to Octavia a moment before. Wendy was hugging the surprised Candy from behind and thanking her in a frenzy of gratitude for keeping Talon alive in the steel mill 3 days ago.
When the happy group hug broke up, Labia gave talon the food rations and the card. Wendy helped Talon to read the words. Talon had been mostly illiterate when she met Wendy and Wendy had been teaching her to read ever since. She had apparently studied Wendy completely from word of mouth from still living ex wives and anyone else who had information.
Even Wendy had trouble reading Octavia's scrawled message.
"What language is this, I don't even recognise these letters", Wendy asked.
"It's Haroldy", Octavia said apologetically.
"What in the warp is that", Wendy asked laughingly.
"It's my native language, the dialects of the south east continent where on Harold's Reach all use the Haroldy alphabet. It's the only alphabet I was taught to write", Octavia said sheepishly.
"You can't read imperial low gothic", Wendy asked gently.
"I can read it sort of, but I get confused with the letters sometimes, I don't know how to spell words in the Gothic alphabet, it's too confusing", Octavia said sadly.
"It's ok sweetie, don't be embarrassed. When you have time I will teach you how to read if you like", Wendy said soothingly.
Octavia said that she might take her up on the offer when she had the time.
"But what does it SAY", asked Talon curiously.
Octavia read the message in her dialect of Haroldy. The two wives giggled and said "oh no you don't, say it in fleet gothic".
(Fleet gothic is the name of the peculiar dialect of low gothic spoken only in the fleet of the disembowelling knife warband chapter, it is the language that everyone on board spoke)
"It says that I hope that you get well very soon and says that I am thinking of you", Octavia said.
"It also says that you mustn't spank Wendy too hard in punishment for sending you to the steel mill," Candy added playfully.
Octavia squawked in outrage and laughing said "It absolutely does not say that", and playfully slapped Candy's arm.
They all suddenly stopped at the sound of choking sobs coming from Wendy. Labia quickly gave Wendy a big cuddle and glared at Candy.
When Wendy had recovered slightly Talon said, "thank you Octavia, that was beautiful. Who drew all of these pictures?"
"That would be me and Octavia", said Candy.
"I only drew the flowers and animals, I TOLD Candy not to draw the penises and vaginas", Octavia said irritatedly.
"What would I even do with a penis", asked Talon smiling amused.
"You mean that you never tried one", asked Candy amazed.
"Of course I have, I have tried everything, just not my thing, I'm really not interested in men that way", Talon said.
Octavia surprised everyone by chiming in: "wait I'm confused, how can you be into women but not into men?"
Everyone in the room looked at Octavia like she had just said something truly bizarre.
Labia swooped in to make sense of the situation: "are you suggesting that homosexuality is a choice?"
"Well it is isn't it? You and Candy are a homosexual couple but you have both enjoyed sex with men. You chose to give up men for the sake of the bed and instead you became homosexual", Octavia said.
Talon looked irritated, Wendy looked sympathetic like she was in the presence of someone with a mental handicap, and Candy and Labia burst out laughing.
"Candy and I are pansexual, we are perfectly happy to fuck anyone who is attractive enough regardless of gender. Wendy and Talon don't work that way. They are lesbians, they are only interested in women", Labia explained.
"But, but, how can you not be attracted to men at all? Sorry if this is illegal to talk about, but didn't the Emperor create men and women to be attracted to each other, because the parts complete the lock and key that makes the baby", Octavia said, to the laughter of Labia.
"Is it because you worship the chaos gods? Did the demon gods twist your nature and confuse it?" Octavia asked.
Talon was now laughing as well as Labia. Candy looked insulted and Wendy looked deeply sympathetic and sad.
"Oh my dear Octavia, what have those horrid imperials brainwashed you with", Wendy said sadly
The laughter from Talon became choking, and Wendy rushed to her side alarmed.
"I'm ok, I'm ok", Talon choked with laughter.
Octavia was flushed at being laughed at.
"I don't think that we should have this conversation here in this hospital room, how about we discuss it at home", Labia suggested.
Octavia looked at her gratefully, "yes please let's talk about anything else", Octavia said quickly.
"So Talon, how are you feeling now", Labia asked.
"I feel great, I felt tired the first day, but I'm fine now", Talon said.
"What about all the tubes", Octavia asked.
"Honestly I don't need these, I'm fine, the nurses are just being pedantic", Talon said.
"I don't care if it's pedantic, you are getting the best care possible", Wendy said assertively.
Octavia, Candy and Labia all looked at Wendy in surprise, it was completely unlike Wendy to countermand her Dominatrix like that.
"Are you two doing ok", Octavia asked quietly, "it's so unlike you Wendy, to argue with Talon".
Wendy looked around to make sure that no one else was in earshot and very quietly said, "I'm still mad with Talon about everything, but I don't want her to die. I still believe that our marriage is worth salvaging and I want to try to make it work."
Wendy continued.
"I was so angry, and wanted Talon to suffer, but only for a while, till she understood how much emotional pain she had caused me"
"I was going to make her life a living hell for a few weeks to test if she really loved me like she said".
"I was going to torture her every waking moment, and then offer her the option of divorcing me as a way to stop the torture. If she refused to divorce me and endured everything I could throw at her then I planned to forgive her".
"But then she goes and almost dies on me and my plan was ruined. When I feared that she was dead I found out that I still really loved her despite everything".
"So now I'm not sure what I want to do, but I have found that I'm not ready to live without her", Wendy finished.
Talon was crying softly when the roommates looked at her. The sight of Talon crying was very unusual, she was usually the quintessential hard as nails dominatrix. This display of such emotional weakness deeply moved Octavia.
"As soon as I am well enough, do it. Send me back to the steel mill, just not for 19 hours, that would kill me. Make me suffer, make me earn your trust, make me prove to you how much I love you", Talon said with resolute determination.
"Oh Talon", Wendy said deeply touched.
"If you don't send me to that steel mill then I will go anyway and work there for free, and if you don't make me prove myself then I will punish you severely when I become your Dominatrix once more", Talon warned.
Wendy seemed to wilt and go weak at the knees, trembling. She jumped on the bed next to Talon and hugged her, sobbing.
Talon held her trembling sobbing wife tenderly but dominantly in her arms, looking at her very protectively. Wendy cuddled in deeper and cried herself out.
Octavia was looking extremely uncomfortable, while Candy and Labia were watching with rapt fascination as though this was some romantic film at the best part.
"Shh, shh, shh little one, Talon is here", Talon said to the crying Wendy.
Wendy grabbed Talon's face and started to kiss her as she cried her eyes out.
Octavia looked away, this was deeply personal and she felt like she was intruding. It was so intensely tender that it made her chest hurt.
Squeals of intense pain maid Octavia turn around. Talon had bitten Wendy's lips and was holding them with her teeth, clearly biting very hard from Wendy's sounds of agony.
Talon grabbed Wendy by the ear and twisted it so hard that it made Octavia wince, it must be excruciatingly painful.
Talon let go of Wendy's lips with her teeth but kept a firm hold of Wendy's ear. Talon had Wendy's undivided attention and Talon's face was the very image of fury.
"I said make me earn it, do you hear me slut", Talon said in a scarily authoritative voice that made Octavia want to cower.
Wendy squealed in agony and submissive terror and said, "Yes Mistress Talon".
Talon slapped Wendy's face with her free hand and said, "No, bad girl, I have not yet earned the right to be called Mistress, stop being weak, make me earn it".
Wendy was trembling and seemed to be hypnotised by the Dominatrix.
"I can't, please don't make me, my submission is too strong", Wendy pleaded.
Talon pushed her away disgusted, "stop thinking with your pussy, you are a senior administrator for fucks sake, be strong, make me earn your submission, make me work for your trust".
Wendy steeled herself and worked hard to gather her wits.
"Ok Talon", she said trembling with effort, "you must earn my trust the hard way. You are completely cut off from all my wealth for non medical expenses, you are no longer welcome in my house unless I invite you in".
Wendy continued.
"I expect you to woo me and go to great effort to make me feel special, I will every day leave you a list of painful and humiliating tasks to do, for at least the next 3 weeks. You will complete these tasks if medically able to do them or we are through", Wendy finished.
"Very, very good girl", Talon said delighted and with great pride.
Wendy shuddered in pleasure at the praise.
"Make the tasks cruel, I'm a big girl, I can take it", Talon said.
"I will send you the things you owned before we were a couple", Wendy said.
"I better find a new place to live, can I crash with you girls", Talon asked the 3 roommates.
The roommates all agreed.
"When does this start", asked Octavia
"I get discharged tomorrow", Talon said.
"Any ideas what you are going to do to Talon", Candy asked Wendy.
Wendy thought for a moment and then her eyes widened as if surprised by her own cruelty. Wendy jumped up and down excitedly and whispered in Candy's ear.
"Oh Slanesh, that's diabolical, absolutely evil", Candy said with barely contained laughter, "you are really not going to like this Talon".
Talon steeled herself, "tell me the worst".
Wendy gathered her nerves and said with nervous excitement, "given your strict lesbian-ness and abhorrence of men, I have come up with something that is guaranteed to make you miserable".
"Starting tomorrow and continuing for at least 3 weeks you are not allowed to eat anything except semen", Wendy said sadistically.
Talon's eyes bulged and the whites of her eyes became very visible. Her normally olive skin became pale white. Her face contorted in appreciation and she started to laugh.
"Well played Wendy, Well played. That is absolutely evil. But I will get scurvy without vitamin rations", Talon said.
"I'm going to really prove your true feelings for me, and don't worry about your health, I will pay all the medical costs to keep you healthy", Wendy said.
"I will do it, I will prove my love for you. And then after I have earned you back, I'm going to absolutely kick your ass for this", Talon promised.
Wendy smiled with a combination of fear, happiness and feeling loved.
"Are these gifts all mine", Talon asked, pointing at the table of get well gifts.
"All yours", Wendy said happily.
"Good, I need to fatten up as much as possible today, someone pass me the chocolates", Talon said.
Octavia went over to Wendy as Talon stuffed her face with chocolates.
"I'm sorry if I offended you before, with the sex questions," Octavia quietly said to Wendy.
"It's really ok sweetie, you don't know any different", Wendy replied.
"What Talon is doing is the most romantic thing I have ever seen, it's absolutely fucking crazy and really disgusting, but is still really romantic all the same", Octavia said hesitantly.
Wendy beamed proudly, "yes it is, I feel so incredibly special, in 280 years no one has ever done anything so romantic for me".
"Are you really going to make her do horrible stuff for 3 weeks, I don't think I could do that to someone I love", Octavia said.
"I really don't want to, but you heard her, she is insisting", Wendy said.
"But can't you just refuse, she can't force you to cooperate", Octavia insisted.
"I certainly could do that but Talon would punish me in terrible ways, also I don't want to, this is so romantic that it's making my heart melt, it's making me feel so special", Wendy said dreamily.
"If you don't mind me saying, your relationship is very unconventional, it's very different from Candy and Labia's relationship", Octavia said.
Octavia continued.
"When Candy and Labia play their bondage games they take it in turns being tied up, and outside the games they act like a normal couple".
"Sometimes they do this sort of stuff outside the games, but rarely".
"Outside the games they are equals, neither is the boss of the other".
"But with you and Talon it's different, it's like you play the game all the time, but Talon is always the boss".
"Why do you play the game all the time? This bondage stuff is just a sex thing isn't it? Are you wanting sex every moment of your life", Octavia asked.
Wendy looked thoughtful and considered for a moment.
"That's complicated to answer but it's not just a sex thing, it's my preferred way of life, I mean it is extremely pleasurable and often highly sexual but that's not what it's about", Wendy said.
"It makes me feel incredibly safe and peaceful to have an arrogant dominant woman completely control me outside of work", Wendy said blissfully.
"But she is so mean to you, she insults you to your face and hurts you", Octavia said
"But that's what I like, it makes me feel more dominated, when someone can freely degrade you and hurt you, it is a very powerful reminder that they are dominant over you. I crave to feel completely dominated, it is a very deep need within me", Wendy explained.
"Doesn't it feel bad, doesn't it hurt", Octavia asked.
"It does, it hurts terribly and the insults and degradation hurt me deeply, my life outside of work is often a living hell of suffering, but it makes me feel incredibly dominated, and that gives me an intense feeling of peace and pleasure", Wendy said.
"But then why are you able to kiss and act sort of normal some of the time, why is she even affectionate and romantic? Why isn't Talon horrible to you all the time", Octavia asked confused.
"We have certain times when we are just a normal couple, a marriage wouldn't survive without at least a little bit of affection. Every night she will spend an hour just before sleep cuddling and kissing me and making me feel special", Wendy said.
"If she didn't then I would develop severe emotional problems, the abuse has to be balanced with emotional sweetness, it's called aftercare", Wendy explained.
"Ah I have heard of that, Candy and Labia always do that at the end of their bondage games", Octavia said with recognition.
"Yes it's essential", Wendy said.
"Have you ever had a normal relationship, where you are equal all the time", Octavia asked.
"Yes I have, I had girlfriends as a teenager, just normal relationship dynamics but it didn't complete me. The sex and kissing was nice, but I felt incomplete," Wendy said and continued.
"My mother really helped me in discovering myself, she also helped me come to terms with being a lesbian too, she is the most supportive parent anyone could have"
"In my early teenage years I did have a boyfriend, Johnny Mohammad, he is now the great uncle of my niece Dr Imelda Mohammad, he was one of the most handsome boys on the ship"
"He should have been perfect, he was handsome, rich and polite. His father was a second lieutenant on the bridge, influential and powerful."
"This was in the early days before the cartel rose to power, it wasn't even a cartel back then, just a large family of mostly kids and teenagers. We had a few of our brothers as full space marines, but only about a squad."
"As a space Marine's daughter, born in an actual legitimate marriage, I became part of the civilian upper class, but not so high ranking as I am now".
"Johnny was much higher ranking socially, and it was an incredible honour to be the girlfriend of a second lieutenant's son."
"Johnny and I met in the upper class youth academy, that's basically a school for the upper class children and teenagers"
"He was incredibly smart in school, a genius, all the Mohammad family were incredibly gifted. I was always very good at admin classes, Johnny of course was good at everything, but I for me admin was the only subject I was good enough in to be in the top class of"
"Back then I was one of the few girls who developed breasts early, I was only 13 and was already needing a bra, and the 13 year old boys all noticed. For about a year I was very popular with the boys until the other girls started to develop"
"I kissed a lot of boys when I was 13, I didn't feel much when I did, but I was a worshipper of Slanesh and felt that it was my duty to put out."
"Of all the boys interested in me, Johnny was the one with the best prospects and the most going for him, he was the logical choice, so I accepted him when he asked me out".
"I tried like crazy to be a good girlfriend, I lost my virginity to Johnny, I put out like crazy".
"My father, Nathan Hornswoggle, was horrible, he used to interfere with me sexually when he wasn't beating me, I may have lost my hymen to Johnny but Nathan had been already touching the outer surface down there for as long as I can remember"
"I never wanted to go home, I slept over at Johnny's house almost every night."
"His parents were amazing, they knew that Nathan was molesting me and let me stay over without getting mad"
Wendy laughed remembering, "his mother used to call me the Hornswoggle girl. Back then we all had the last name Hornswoggle, we all changed it to Sevenson later when we all finally disowned Nathan"
"Anyway I slept in Johnny's bed almost every night. He fucked me like crazy, I was forever getting abortions as he kept getting me pregnant."
"For about a year we were together, and I tried everything to enjoy sex with Johnny. In the end we broke up because of sex, I just couldn't orgasm with him".
"He did manage to get me to climax a few times with extreme difficulty, but they were feeble orgasms and I only got them by thinking about other girls in my class".
"My pussy kept getting dry when Johnny fucked me, it got painful for me and uncomfortable for Johnny. We tried lubricant and that was wonderful, but in the end Johnny figured out that I just wasn't attracted to him, and dumped me for girls with damper pussies"
"Oh Wendy that's so horrible, but you were still so young. Also with your father touching you that would put you off boys", Octavia said deeply moved.
Labia and Candy were listening to the story with rapt fascination, Talon was still force feeding herself but was also listening. Augusta had long ago fallen asleep in Octavia's arms.
"I went home crying to my mother. Even Nathan was sympathetic enough to offer to shoot Johnny, but that sympathy lasted all of about a day before he was back to beating me, beating me and worse"
"Mother was always the pillar of safety at home, she always tried to protect us from Nathan".
"She really was amazing, she soothed my tears and we talked about everything that had happened"
"I asked mother what was wrong with me, why couldn't I cum for my boyfriend. She asked me if I could climax when I touched myself when Johnny wasn't around"
"My mother and I, we were so close, even THAT close that I could talk to her about masturbation"
"Anyway, I told her that I had no problems with climaxing by myself and that the orgasms were really powerful"
"Mother asked me what I was thinking about when I climaxed. I got really embarrassed but mother soothed me until I felt safe enough to admit that I thought about some of the girls at school the bullies"
"Mother laughed, but not a mean laugh, she has this gentle laugh that makes you feel loved."
"She laughed and said "Wendy, I think that you are a lesbian, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that""
"Those were her exact words, I have never forgotten them"
Everyone in the room was listening with the most rapt attention. Candy and Labia were going "aw that's beautiful".
Wendy continued.
"After that I dated some girls in my class and the orgasms were fantastic, Johnny had never even come close to making me cum that hard"
"It was really fun but my early girlfriends were to nice, I wanted them to be mean to me but they didn't want to hurt me and I got bored"
"I started dating the most horrible female bullies that I could find and it felt like I was complete. The crueler they were to me, the more I liked it. I learned about bondage and domination and I have never looked back since".
"Did you try men again when you were older, did you ever have children", Octavia asked.
"I have 3 wonderful daughters, but I have never had a serious boyfriend since Johnny", Wendy said.
"The daughters were all born when you were married to Mistress Scourge, is that right", asked Talon with professional interest.
"Yes that's right, my late wife Scourge, Luke and Bradley shot her to death shortly after I was pregnant with my third daughter, Bullwhip Sevenson", Wendy said happily.
"Bullwhip? You named your daughter Bullwhip", Octavia asked, then said, "hang on, did you just say that Augusta's father SHOT YOUR WIFE?!"
"Yes that's her name, Mistress Scourge chose it, and yes my brothers shot her, I'm still mad about it, but it was over 100 years ago, I forgave them and reconciled with them after a few decades", Wendy said sadly.
"She had it coming, if Bradley and Luke hadn't done it then someone else would have. She was legendarily arrogant, even more arrogant than me, and that's saying something," Talon said laughing.
Wendy pouted defensively, "hey that's my poor lamented late wife you are talking about"!
Talon raised her eyebrows at Wendy and said, "hey this is your CURRENT wife you are talking to, and come on, she spoke to space marines the way I speak to you during sex".
"She wasn't that bad", Wendy said sulkily.
"I'm not sure what question I want to ask most, but first I want to ask, seriously you named your kid Bullwhip?" Octavia asked incredulously.
"What's wrong with the name Bullwhip, my mother's name is Bullwhip", Talon said sounding slightly offended.
"Hang on, let me get this straight, are you saying that Talon is your birth name? I just assumed that you changed it to Talon when you became a dominatrix," Octavia asked in disbelief.
"I was born as Talon Lash Lee, when I got married I took Wendy's last name and now I'm Talon Lash Sevenson", Talon explained.
"All professional dominatrices on the ship give their children names like Talon, Scourge, and Bullwhip. I'm guessing that Talon comes from a long line of professional dominatrices", Labia explained helpfully.
"That's right, ten generations of professional dominatrices", Talon said proudly.
"The last name Lee, is that the same spelling as space marine Sargent Lee of tenth squad", Labia inquired.
"That's right", Talon beamed proudly, "he is my distant grandfather, he fathered our line with a former bed slave and the children became hereditary crew members".
"But if they were not married then why take the fathers last name", Octavia asked.
Everyone else looked at Octavia confused.
Wendy gently explained, "all slaves take their owners last name. For example MA7 owns you and her last name is Hornswoggle, so that makes your name Octavia Hornswoggle, and as your son, Augusta is named Augusta Hornswoggle".
Octavia squawked in shock, "no it's not! My last name is Antony and my baby is Augusta Antony!"
Everyone smiled sympathetically at Octavia and didn't press the issue.
"Anyway... Mistress Scourge forced Wendy to have sex with random men every single night to torture her, and wouldn't let her abort any of the resulting pregnancies", Talon said and continued.
"Scourge was a maniac, she did stuff that even I wouldn't be cruel enough to try. She did stuff like tie Wendy down to hospital surgery beds and paid combat medics to perform unnecessary surgery on Wendy without any anaesthetic"
"It was absolutely brutal, it took the plastic surgeons years to remove all the scars on Wendy's body after Scourge"
"She was hands down the craziest wife Wendy ever had, it was inevitable really that the cartel would eventually get sick of her antics and have her killed"
Everyone looked at Wendy, Wendy conceded that Scourge had indeed done everything that Talon said she had but tried to maintain that it had never been boring, and that Scourge had really loved her beyond all doubt.
Talon conceded, "that's partially true, Scourge was an absolute sadist and you were her ultimate torture victim. It's probably more accurate to say that she was in love with your pain and suffering, rather than being in love with you as a person in any sane way"
"I actually care about your wellbeing as a person in a way that Scourge never did", Talon finished.
Wendy looked at Talon deeply touched.
Octavia looked really disturbed and tried to return to the original topic, "so as an adult with the men you had sex with, you never liked it at all", she asked Wendy.
"Well not in the way that you are asking. The sex and the men themselves did nothing for me, but I enjoyed the suffering and degradation of it. In short I was only sexually interested in Mistress Scourge, never the men", Wendy explained.
Octavia seemed to at this stage be convinced that Wendy really was a genuine lesbian and was temporarily satisfied.
"What do your daughters think of your lifestyle", Octavia asked curiously.
Wendy and Talon exchanged a look before Wendy slowly answered.
"They worry about my safety and check on me every day with a Vox call. They know that I like this stuff and are supportive as long as I am happy".
"They mostly grew up in the nursery with the other later generation cartel children and didn't interact too much with my wives."
"They have had a few that they really hated and a few that they liked. Talon is actually one of the favourites, because she loves babies and was really involved with my late great grand daughter," Wendy said.
"Bullwhip got really upset when Talon got hospitalised, she said that Talon has a very good effect on me compared to my usual wives", Wendy said.
"I told Bullwhip about what Talon did, she promised not to share the information, we are really close like I am with my mother"
"Bullwhip said, "they are all gold diggers mum, at least you found a decent one who cares about you, give Talon a chance.""
"Are your daughters lesbians too", Octavia asked.
"No none of them are, but all have experimented with it, none of them are as extreme as me with my lifestyle either, they have experimented but mostly are not into it", Wendy answered.
Augusta stirred at this point and Octavia cooed at him and suckled him.
"He is such a good baby, extremely well behaved", Wendy said.
"We have had the best time minding him", Talon added.
"I'm so sorry for being a bother", Octavia started to say but Wendy cut her off.
"It's no bother at all, feel free to send him over any time, I am his biological Aunty after all", Wendy said.
Octavia got a pained look on her face but also a positive look of inner revelation.
She said, "I never wanted to be abducted from my home and raped, I never wanted any of this. But... Since I did get raped, I am at least thankful that my baby has such wonderful relatives".
"Your brother Luke is a monster, no matter how nice he is to you, he was NEVER nice to me."
"I'm only alive because MA7 intervened, I owe my life to your mother."
"Luke shot my father in front of me, we were unarmed and cowering on the floor of our home, Luke shot him right in the head for no reason, he was on his knees begging for his life"
"My family had no conflict with this ship, we didn't even know that it existed. All the radios and Vox phones had gone dead days ago and we had no idea why, we just thought it was some electrical problem and went about our lives"
"We were a tiny village of farmers and a few tradesmen, we had very little contact with the Imperium, only the village church and we watched imperial films"
"We didn't even supply men to the imperial guard, our village was too remote and the roads to it were really bad, everything had to be carried in by dirt motor cycles, the roads through the mountains were too narrow for anything bigger than that"
"We were absolutely no threat to you and abducting us would not have had any effect on the imperium, we didn't even pay taxes"
"We were just villagers who happened to live on an imperial planet, we were not aiding and abetting the imperium in any meaningful way, just living our lives in peace"
"And despite all that, you still came"
"I was eating dinner with my family in my parents home that night, with mother and father, my brothers and sisters, even uncle Caligula was with us, visiting us for dinner"
"I still lived with my parents, I was of age to marry but I was taking my time, being very picky about the men who courted me"
"I was a virgin, I had been saving myself for marriage, I wanted this gift to be for my future husband alone, I wanted it to be special and perfect"
"I was very carefully trying to decide which of the young men I wanted to court and one day marry"
"We were eating dinner and suddenly we heard gunfire everywhere, and screaming"
"Your brother Luke kicked our door down and claimed everyone in my home as his personal slaves"
"He was laughing like a maniac and he shot my father just for fun"
"He chained us all together by the neck and looted our home of everything we owned"
"He then took us and the loot to a thunder hawk gunship that was landed on the crop field and I never saw my home again"
"I was branded the moment I got on the thunder hawk"
"The thunder hawk then flew, it was so loud and it was shaking so much as it flew up, the force of it going up was so strong that we felt heavier"
"It flew and took me to this terrible place, this Crucible of Starvation"
"When we got off the thunder hawk we were all separated and I never saw any of them ever again, they are all dead now"
"I was thrown in a cage in a cargo hold, it was such a small cage. The hold was full of thousands of cages, stacked up on top of each other 3 high, and all containing screaming people I didn't know"
"I didn't stay in the cage very long, I'm not sure exactly how long but not long"
"Luke came in wearing only a robe, swinging a key ring and smelling like he had just finished having sex"
"He came to my cage and I was so scared"
"Luke smiled at me like a maniac and asked me my name, I said that I was Octavia and please don't hurt me"
"Luke looked me right in the eyes and said "well Octavia, this is what I like to call a good news bad news situation, good news for me, bad news for you""
"He then unlocked my cage and pulled me out, I gripped the bars to try to stay in the cage but Luke was far too strong, I couldn't fight against his strength"
"He held me standing by the neck and tore off all my clothes and shoes, everything, completely naked"
"He dragged me kicking and screaming to his bed and he raped me for 2 hours before MA7 rescued me"
"It was so horrible and I came so close to dying. Wendy did you know that Luke kills every one of his bed slaves? His bedroom floor was covered in their bodies, just sitting there in my clear view"
"It made me scream in terror and Luke got off on my screams"
"The smell of those bodies was so bad, and so many maggots crawling out of them!"
"By the end I wanted to die, I envied those bodies on the floor, they got to enjoy the oblivion of death while I had to endure brutal rape"
"MA7 randomly visited Luke, walked right in the room as I was being raped. I thought that she was just another slave like me, about to be raped beside me"
"But Luke jumped up all embarrassed and I heard him call her "Mother", so I thought that she could help me"
"I was so traumatised that I just lay on the bed, lacking the wits to get up"
"I wailed and screamed to MA7 to save me, pleaded with her that I was being raped. She barely cared, but I just kept looking her in the eyes and she couldn't hold my gaze, she got a really guilty look"
"Luke got upset seeing his mother upset and tried to negotiate his way out of the unspeakably evil moral quagmire he had created."
"It was pathetic watching him try to grasp the very basic concepts of right and wrong, it was like he had no soul"
"He even had to ask me something about if rape was bad, it was utterly bizarre"
"In the end he seemed to get so sick of trying to grasp morality that he just gave me to MA7 as a gift so that he didn't have to think about it anymore"
"I'm sorry Wendy but your brother really is a monster", Octavia finished.
The room was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Wendy was shaking violently and then rushed to a waste paper bin and was violently sick into it.
Candy and Labia were shocked, and Talon had gone slightly pale.
Candy, Labia and Talon took it in turns trying to say something to break the silence and all failed to string together a single word.
In the end it was Candy who said, "HOLY FUCK!"
The other two nodded gravely in agreement, there wasn't really anything better to say.
Talon, Labia and Candy took it in turns stringing together swear words to try to convey something meaningful to respond with.
