Recruitment 1.11

[hr][/hr]

"Good morning!" Cindy called as entered the station's main room, pushing a cart with a large tub on it. "Sleep well?"

"Well enough," Taylor replied while having her golden orb weaver feed on one of the ants. Looking toward the tub, she asked, "Did you bring me a beehive or something?"

Cindy smirked and replied, "No, I didn't get this for you. I'm not even sure what else I can easily get my hands on, other than a hissing cockroach or something. No, this is a gift from a Professor Platt. According to the tag, it's a thank you gift for agreeing to be his daughter's friend."

"I'm not sure friends is the best name for our probable relationship," Taylor noted dryly. "Though I definitely appreciate the effort. And the bees." Cocking her head to the side, she added, "And the worms?"

"Worms?" Cindy asked.

"Yeah, there's a bunch of worms in there," Taylor confirmed. "I guess I can control them, too. Apparently."

Cindy nodded. "That's good to know. I'll let the proper people know."

"Good," Taylor said, heading over to tub. "Now I just need to let them out so they can stretch their wings a bit."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Cindy asked nervously. "I'd rather not get stung, even if I don't think it'll do much to me."

Taylor waved the concern off, even as she opened the tub. "They wouldn't sting you unless I wanted them to, assuming they even could."

"What do you mean?"

"These bees don't have stingers," Taylor replied. "They're perfectly safe." She had one of the bees land on her finger and held it up for Cindy to inspect. "See?" she asked, pointing at the bee's back end. "No stinger."

"Well, that'll make keeping them around once you're in your apartment easier, at least," Cindy commented. "Anyway, ready for today?"

"You gave me a lot to think about last night, and I'm a bit worried about that psychic's visit," Taylor said.

"That's understandable," Cindy stated. "She's planning to poke around in your brain a little, just to make sure it'll be safe for others to be be near you. That's bound to be stressful."

"Can she really ban me from traveling to certain planets?" Taylor asked, stroking the back of her spider with a single finger as though it were a cat.

"She has a lot of clout," Cindy began, "but not quite that much. What she can do, though, is put pressure on the Slut Life executives by threatening to keep her psychics from participating to force them to station you on a more limited range of planets."

"I'm… not sure I see the difference," Taylor admitted.

"There isn't really one, at least in the short term," Cindy explained, "but, in the long term, you'd still be able to travel normally."

Taylor sighed in relief. "That's good to know. I'm not sure I even want to travel between a bunch of different worlds, or if I'll be able to without a lot of help, but I was worried that if I could, I'd still be stuck with only a few worlds I could visit."

"I don't know anyone with that much authority," Cindy replied. "At least not without it being something much more serious. I mean, if your power eats psychics for lunch or enslaves any who come too close, that might be enough to get you restricted, but that's really unlikely."

"Isn't that what Mistress Fiorenza is coming here to figure out?"

"Pretty much," Cindy replied with a shrug. "I don't think it's terribly likely. Anyway, while we wait for her to show up, do you want to go over the different adjustments you can make to your contract?"

"Sure," Taylor replied. "It'll at least give us something to do."

"Alright," Cindy continued, "the first thing to keep in mind is that you can only select one of each set of adjustments. The first set has to do with the length of your run."

Taylor nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. I don't see how you could change the length of the show multiple times. What are the options?"

"Keeping in mind that the show defaults to one year," Cindy began. "The first option is to pay fifty credits to be done in six months. Since we're going to be putting you back when we got you, anyway, I wouldn't recommend it. The number of extra punishments you'd have to take to pay for it is likely to be unpleasant."

"It does sound tempting," Taylor admitted, "but you're probably right. Besides, I'm not sure six months would give me enough experience with everything."

"I'm sure you'd do fine with less than that," Cindy countered with a smile, "but the extra time wouldn't hurt, so long as you're careful when you fight."

Taylor smirked. "Oh, if things work the way I think they will, I should be alright."

"That's good to hear," Cindy replied. "Anyway, the second option is to extend your contract. Now, there's a good chance this would end up with you getting spanked, as the minimum length of an extended contract is five years, and it's hard to keep an audience interested that long. You can extend it up to a total of ten years and get an additional ten credits per year, including the initial year, which is nice."

"I don't think I'd want to be away from home that long," Taylor decided.

"I don't blame you," Cindy agreed. "I usually only recommend it for people who are getting an entire second childhood or want to focus on getting an entire education out of it."

"That seems reasonable," Taylor agreed. "So, what's the next option?"

"Next is signing on forever," Cindy said. "I haven't signed anyone up for it, and I can't actually think of any reason I'd recommend it for anyone. There's plenty of other options if it's a fetish for them or something, including simply signing up for another ten year stint once their current one is up."

Taylor sat thinking for a few minutes before saying, "I keep trying to think of a reason someone would want to sign up for that, but the closest I can think of are taken care of by either keeping the apartment or getting a planet. I mean, I could see someone trying to trick a person into picking it, but that's about the only reason I could see someone doing so."

"That's pretty much my thought as well," Cindy agreed. "Now, to get off of that lovely topic, we have the final option. You can decide to become a sex slave. You get one hundred fifty extra credits and will be on the show for five years. At that point, you get auctioned off to the highest bidder. It's not something I recommend, but I've seen people take it."

"I can't see that ending well," Taylor opined. "I haven't heard of many rich people who are both willing to buy someone and likely to treat them well, even in fiction."

"There's a few," Cindy replied, "but it is a rather large risk. Much less risky is paying the fifty credits to be able to choose who'll get you at the end of your show, out of your owners."

"It's still not something I would choose," Taylor said, "but it definitely sounds a lot better than being auctioned off."

Cindy nodded in agreement. "If I hadn't been planning on working for Slut Life when I signed up, I could see myself having taken that option, had I known how great my owners would be at the time." She chuckled. "The hardest part would have been choosing only one to be my new master. I'm much happier with the more casual relationships I'm maintaining with some of them."

Taylor blushed. "If you say so. I don't think I'm going to take any of those options, though."

Cindy nodded. "They really aren't worth it in your case. Especially since you actually want to go home."

"What are the other adjustments?" Taylor asked.

"They're a mishmash of different options," Cindy answered, "though you can only pick one of them with this contract." Scrolling the screen down to the correct section, she continued, "The first one won't apply to you, since you don't plan on having any kids during your run, and are only going to be here a year anyway." Before Taylor could comment, she continued, "Personally, I don't think the second option is worth it, but it does give you something to do if you somehow have extra credits when you're done. Basically, you can cash any remaining credits you have in for $1000 each."

"That sounds like a pretty good deal," Taylor noted before thinking about it and adding, "if I weren't already getting a couple million dollars."

Cindy nodded her agreement. "Most people who would care about the money easily make enough for that option to be pocket change. It's only really useful in some fairly specific cases."

"I'll keep it in mind," Taylor said, "but I'm pretty sure I can get more use out of some of the cosmetic options than out of a couple grand."

"Extra long tongues are always a good party trick," Cindy noted, waggling her very long tongue at Taylor and causing the teen to blush. "Anyway, the next option is an option to change a punishment somewhat. You can choose between breast milk, semen, or sexual fluids instead of the fluid you should be using for that option."

"I'm not sure what to say about that," Taylor admitted.

"That's fine," Cindy said. "You aren't planning on taking any of the punishments it'd apply to anyway, so it isn't really worth worrying about. I just thought you should know in case you do end up picking one of those punishments later."

"Thanks," Taylor said. "I'm pretty sure a glass of breast milk would be less disturbing than a glass of semen, or something."

"It'd be good for your bones, at least," Cindy agreed. "Moving on, we have a new identity with valid identification. It's pretty useful if you change your appearance enough, though you should be young enough to get away with it unless you go overboard. It's also good for witness protection type issues, but that doesn't apply to you. Either way, it costs fifteen credits. Nothing terrible, but not an insignificant amount."

"No," Taylor mused, "I don't think I'll be needing that. I don't plan on having anything that drastic done that can't be explained by the puberty fairy."

"Right." Cindy looked back at the screen and continued, "Next is a vacation, but it can't be selected unless you have an extended contract. It would get you a week to yourself, free from owners and punishments, once a year. And finally, we have a safe word. Basically, you'd pick a word and could use it to stop whatever is going on when you use it. Of course, that's bad for ratings, so abusing it will have it taken away."

"That," Taylor said. "I want that."

"It's really not as useful as you'd think," Cindy said, "and it costs a full twenty credits for something you can have taken away."

"I don't care, I want a safe word," Taylor insisted. In the background the crickets began chirping an oddly unsettling note.

"I'm not going to stop you if you really want one," Cindy said placatingly. "It's just a lot to spend on something they can decide to take away from you."

"Cindy, think about it," Taylor began. "If something is pushing me too far and I can't stop it, what'll happen?" She gave Cindy a moment to think before continuing, "I'll probably swarm them with bugs. I'm sure that would get me into even more trouble."

Cindy nodded seriously. "You're right, I hadn't thought about that. A safe word is definitely a good idea in your case. I'll have to see if we can get you a discount or a refund on it or something, since it'd be more for the others than for yourself. I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks," Taylor said. "I want to be a hero, and starting out by attacking people isn't really the best way to do it."

"No problem," Cindy replied. "It's what I'm here for. Anyway, that's the last part of the contract, so all that's left is picking what you want on it and submitting it." Looking at her watch she added, "And we should be getting company pretty soon. Want to go for a jog before Mistress Fiorenza gets here?"

Taylor stood and stretched. "That sounds good. Once she leaves, do you think I'd be able to talk to one of those guards?"

"It shouldn't be an issue. What about?" Cindy asked.

"I've been looking through the magazines they gave me, and I think I've narrowed things down for a few options," Taylor explained, "but I don't know enough about them to really make a good choice. One of the guards should have a better idea if what I want would work."

"I'll ask one of them to come up when Mistress Fiorenza leaves," Cindy promised. "But if you want to get a jog in first, we should get started. She should be here in an hour or so."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Taylor grumbled, making her way out of the room.

[hr][/hr]

Psychic Mistress Fiorenza Campos made her way to the station's portal with a purposeful stride. While she did appreciate the looks she was getting from those she passed, she had little time for simple pleasures at the moment. She had an appointment to keep, after all. She nodded to one of the guards as she approached. Unlike a number of the people she had passed, they were maintaining a mostly professional outlook.

"Morning, Ma'am," the guard called out. "I see you're scheduled to see Miss Hebert?"

She did notice a strange hint of amusement under the professionalism, but that was fine. With boring jobs like guarding, it was important to find little amusements where you can. "Yes," she replied. "I am. Is there anything I should know before heading up?"

"She just finished working through most of the contract," the guard replied, "so she's in a pretty good mood. That said, she seems to have something against telepaths. I'd suggest telling her exactly what you're going to do before doing it and back off if she tells you to." His smile turned feral for a moment as he added, "Unless you want to be attacked by ants."

"Thank you for the advice," Fiorenza said, taking it as the serious warning it was. Ants were a minor nuisance at most, but even a small colony would be unpleasant to deal with if it attacked en masse."I take it she decided to not have a Psychic as one of her owners?"

"Oh," the guard said, shaking his head in amusement, "that's putting it lightly. If Cindy wasn't so curious about you guys sending two messages, they wouldn't even have known you were coming."

Fiorenza blinked. She could tell he was telling the truth, and that was a troubling thought. "I didn't realize she would be that adamantly against psychics. I hope my presence won't cause any difficulty."

"Nah," the guard said, waving her concerns off. "You should be fine. Taylor's a good girl. Very pragmatic. So long as you don't try to attack her or anything you should be fine." Waving toward the portal, he added, "You might as well head on up. They're waiting for you."

"Thank you," she replied, making her way through the portal. She caught herself in the entrance room, regaining her bearings after the disorientation caused by leaving so many minds behind in an instant. "I hate portals," she grumbled. She much prefered the comfort of travelling on a proper starship, even if it was much slower. Once she had regained her composure, she made her way deeper into the station, heading toward the two minds she could feel.

"Hello," a fairly young voice called as she approached. "You must be Mistress Fiorenza," the black haired youth continued once she had entered the room. "I'm Taylor Hebert. It's nice to meet you."

"How did you know I was there?" Fiorenza asked curiously. "I know I don't make that much noise walking, and you were greeting me before I even made it to the room."

Taylor smiled, and knelt down, placing a hand on the ground. When she stood up, she had an ant on one of her fingers. "I had this little gal wait on a web I had my spider string across the door in the entrance room and had her hitch a ride once you came through. We thought it might be good practice."

"We're still finding new things she can do with her abilities," the redhead who must be Miss Matos replied. "I'm Cindy Matos. Good to meet you, Mistress Fiorenza."

"Pleased to meet you as well," Fiorenza replied. "But, please, call me Fiorenza. While I am here in my official capacity as the school's Headmistress, neither of you are my students. We shouldn't need to maintain quite as much formality as I must with my charges."

"Alright, Fiorenza," Cindy said with a friendly smile. "Why don't you tell us a bit more about what you hope to find out today?"

Fiorenza noticed that Taylor was also listening intently. "As I said in my message, we are unsure how a biological supercomputer being attached to your brain would affect those of us with telepathy. In the interest of public safety, I feel this potential interaction must be examined more closely, before you are exposed to the general population."

"What do you need from me?" Taylor asked. The girl was definitely wary. She would need to proceed cautiously.

"Simply by standing here without needing to protect myself, we've already proven that you are not an exposure risk," Fiorenza explained. That had been her greatest fear, and she was glad to see that it was unfounded.

"What do you mean by that?" Taylor asked, showing a commendable curiosity as well as healthy caution.

"Simply being in your presence will not be enough to cause issues," Fiorenza elaborated, "though you may still be able to affect psychics if you make the attempt or if we attempt to read or influence you. With your permission, I would like to test each of these scenarios. While I will not attempt to restrict your movement if you refuse, it will give both of us a better idea of what you are capable of and what issues having psychics in your vicinity could cause, should they be less than disciplined."

"I guess that makes sense," Taylor began, "but I'm not really comfortable letting someone try to Master me, even if it's just as a test."

"Master?" Fiorenza asked, quirking an eyebrow toward Cindy.

"It's the term used on her Earth for people who can control others," Cindy explained. "Considering most of the ones who can affect humans have decided to be villains, I can understand why she's hesitant."

"Hm." Fiorenza thought for a moment. "I'm really not sure what I can do to reassure you that I won't do anything untoward, beyond giving you my word as one of the premier trainers of psychics across the multiverse. Ethics is most definitely covered in detail. It has to be with the influence we can have on others."

"And if that isn't enough," Cindy added, "the guards on the ground have been switched out and given orders to shut down the portal if anything weird happens. It'd take quite a bit of time to get through quarantine after that."

"You have M/S protocols in place?" Taylor asked with a sigh of relief. "In that case, I guess I don't mind testing whatever it is you want to test."

"Thank you," Fiorenza said graciously, deciding to not mention how she could place mental commands subtly enough that they'd slip through such precautions. It wouldn't accomplish anything productive, and she had no intention of doing so to begin with.. "Now, before we begin the first test, I have a question." Taylor gestured for her to ask, so she did. "When you take control of an insect, are you able to release that control, or is it permanent?"

"That's a bit of a hard question to answer," Taylor replied. "I always know about all of the insects in my range, and can control them at will, but I can also let them continue acting as they would without my influence. I usually let the ants take care of themselves, for instance."

"Good." Fiorenza continued, "I want you to try to control me."

"How?" Taylor asked. "You're not a bug. If it weren't for the ant, I wouldn't even have been able to track you earlier."

"Hmm, give me a moment, dear," Fiorenza said. "I need to think on this." She gave the matter a few moments of thought before proposing, "The next thing I wanted to test was if attempting to properly contact your mind would have any additional effects. If you were to attempt to gain control at the point between making contact and trying to exert influence, we can test your ability to control psychics who are attempting to control you. It might not answer the initial question, but it is a good starting point."

"I can try," Taylor said doubtfully.

"Alright, I'm making the connection now," Fiorenza said, before nearly toppling over. Grabbing the side of her head with one hand and steadying herself with her other hand, she barely kept herself upright. "That is quite the unexpected experience," she commented. "If I had to guess, I would have to say the supercomputer you're connected to is handling a large amount of your neural activity."

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked. The girl obviously did not have a comprehensive, or even a fairly rudimentary, understanding of how the brain and mind worked, which, Fiorenza supposed, was not entirely surprising, considering her age and where she'd been raised.

Straightening up, Fiorenza explained. "The amount of sensory information you're processing is, frankly, absurd, even accounting for the amount of overlap you're receiving from the ant colony and bee hive. I can confidently say that very few psychics would choose to use your senses if they could at all help it. At least not without removing every insect form the vicinity first, which I'm sure you would notice." Shaking her head, she added, "I am ready for you to proceed."

"Right," Taylor said. "Um, I can't really tell you're doing anything. And I still don't know how I'm supposed to do anything to you."

"Well, that's a relief," Fiorenza said. "It is definitely safe for psychics to be around you in general, then." Hesitantly, she added, "There is one last thing I would like to test. It is possible for psychics to implant suggestions into your mind. With your permission, I would like to attempt to do so, in order to see what would happen."

"What are you planning on having me do?" Taylor asked.

"I'm planning on using a fairly common parlor trick, as it is easy to do, fairly obvious, and easily undone," Fiorenza explained vaguely. "For purposes of not influencing the results, I would prefer to not inform you of what, exactly, I will be doing."

"No thanks," Taylor said. "That's not very specific, and I'd rather not have anyone mess with my head."

"What if she tells me what she plans to do and I'll let you know if I think it's reasonable?" Cindy offered.

Taylor hesitated, but Fiorenza refrained from nudging her thought processes in the correct direction. While it would be a decent test in and of itself, it would also ruin any trust she had built so far, for far too little gain. Finally, the girl answered, "That'll work, I guess."

Giving the younger girl a nod and suppressing her sigh of relief, Fiorenza made her way over to Cindy and whispered in her ear. Sure, she could have transferred the information telepathically, but she had a feeling Taylor would not have appreciated her doing so. Once she was done conveying her plans, Cindy stepped back and said, "It doesn't sound that bad at all."

"Alright," Taylor said. She was still hesitant, but was putting on a brave face. "What do you need me to do?"

Fiorenza quickly made the change, making note of a completely baseline resistance to the suggestion, and said, "I just need you to walk over here, please."

"Sure, no problem," Taylor said, before failing to stand up. "Wh-what's wrong?" she asked, already starting to panic. "Why can't I get up?" Several crickets hopped into the room, chirping up a storm. Closely following on their heels were a veritable river of ants.

"Taylor," Fiorenza loudly said, trying to catch the girl's attention before the rising panic set in too deeply. "It's alright! I just made your subconscious mind think your legs don't work. It'll take but a moment to fix it." Taylor was already beginning to hyperventilate and the insects were starting to amass in numbers large enough to be worrisome. Fiorenza quickly removed the compulsion before gently saying, "Try standing up, now."

Shakily and hesitantly, Taylor rose to her feet. "That was not fun," she stated.

"No, I suspect not," Fiorenza agreed. "However, it did yield important information that will help you stay safe. Provided the psychic making the attempt stays away from using your senses or affecting your connection to your insects, you are no more protected from psionic attacks than any other normal person."

Still shaken, Taylor asked, "Is there anything I can do to stop that from happening again?"

"Without being psychic, there is only so much you can do," Fiorenza admitted. "Though there are some meditation and mental exercises that can help. If you like, I can see about sending you a book on beginner's techniques."

"I'd appreciate that, thanks," Taylor said, calming down significantly. Simply having the promise of a goal to work toward seemed to do the girl a world of good. It was a shame she was so averse to being a telepath. Drive like that could take her quite far, indeed.

"That is all I was looking to test," Fiorenza said. "And, unfortunately, my schedule is quite busy. Is there anything else you'd like to ask before I make my exit?"

"Not that I can think of currently," Taylor replied. "Did you have any, Cindy?"

Cindy shook her head. "No, I'm good. It was nice to meet you, Fiorenza. I'm sure I'll be talking with you again in the future."

"Yes, that does seem likely," Fiorenza agreed. "Taylor, I wish you luck in the coming year. Have a good day." The teenager wished her goodbye as well, and she made her way off of the station. She had much to think on. Biological supercomputers that were both connected, and not connected, to a person were really rather fascinating, and she would love to learn more about them. Unfortunately, it looked like having a good way to study the phenomena from a psionic standpoint would be some time off, as Miss Hebert was not likely to consent to the in depth psionic scans needed, and was probably not the best candidate, regardless, if she really did see the world in such overwhelming detail at all times.