Call Girl

Chapter 35

Their new ship didn't have any glass so Kate didn't have to hunker down to prevent from seeing them. She was free to go anywhere she wanted inside their ship. However, she did stay far away from the ramp leading out of the ship and waited for Rick to come back.

"And?" Kate was waiting for him when he reached the bridge. She was the pilot after all, even if she was a little rusty.

"We have a research project. All I have is the location. One of their automated recon drones found the planet and that's all I have on them," Rick told her. He handed over the coordinates to Kate who took it and plugged it into the navigation system.

"Almost a month." Kate was a little shocked. This ship was faster than their old one so a month for this ship was a long time.

"Their empire is expanding. The next one may be just as far. I stopped to arrange a delivery of supplies which should show up tomorrow. So what should we do till tomorrow?" Rick questioned her and watched the love of his life grin back at him.

"I have a couple of ideas," Kate answered seductively since both ideas had a lot to do with the bed in their bedroom.

o- [:] -o

Kate had avoided watching supplies being loaded and was now, with a little help from Lucile, piloting them into orbit. Lucile did all the talking while Kate did all the flying.

"Course set. ETA is a whopping thirty-two days, eleven hours, and a few minutes to the system's edge." She was taking Lucile's advice and dropping out of FTL just outside of the system. "So we know nothing?"

"Almost," Rick said and shrugged. "We know it's a yellow sun. It has one habitable planet in the system. The planet size is close to equal of Earth. It's inhabited and no space flight was detected. After that nothing."

"Wonderful. They better not be a distant cousin of Zorgons." Kate really didn't want to see one of those again.

Rick laughed. "I seriously doubt it. However, I'm wondering just where my parents went this time." He'd thought they were really far away so running across them had been a surprise. Now they were gone again and since parents didn't need their child's permission they hadn't told him where they were going.

"Lucile? Are you sure they didn't say anything?" Maybe she knew something that they didn't.

That had Lucile showing herself. "They did not tell me anything, either. My records do show that they purchased a large amount of food so it is possible they do not plan to stop anywhere close."

Rick shook his head. For once he was totally in the dark. At least it left them with what to do for an entire month. Though Rick soon learned that Kate mostly had an answer for that. She had months of no sex to make up for and she had plans to catch up to all those lost months.

o- [:] -o

They'd been out on the edge of the system for two days, looking for anything. Lucile had indeed found no signs of any space flight. Even the orbit of the planet was clean. Still they made an FTL jump and parked in Rick's usual space, directly over one of the poles.

Kate had no reason to get all dressed up for this so she was dressed in some of her old Earth clothes. She was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes since Lucile had told her the weather was nice and no rain was expected.

"Ready?" Rick asked her as she wrapped her arms around him.

"No." Kate had been through two different transport systems and she hadn't liked either of them. The first one had hurt her ears and upset her stomach. The second one felt like she was being ripped to pieces and she was sure it had been painful. She had never used this one.

"Close your eyes. Ready, Lucile." With her eyes closed Kate didn't see a thing so she didn't see how this one worked. "You can open them again," Rick said.

Kate only cracked one eye open just in case. She indeed saw the sun shining down on them and there was a bit of a breeze. It actually felt pretty good. "Wow." She actually didn't feel a thing this time. "Remind me to thank your parents."

Rick glared at her. He was the one that had done all the work and she was thanking his parents? Oh well, they needed to get started.

Lucile had found them a mountainside to land on so they had a good view of the valley below them. "Here." Rick handed her something then took out a second pair and held them up to his eyes.

That had Kate doing the same. "Binoculars." She loved them. "What's with all the numbers?" There were numbers in red across the bottom and even more on the right side.

"The numbers on the bottom are distances to things that you're focused on and the ones on the right show the differences in height between that and us," Rick explained.

"Oh." Kate mostly ignored them and started looking around. "I have someone on a horse or what I think is a horse." Kate pointed at it and went back to looking.

"Look behind that one. About fifty yards," Rick said since he'd found something else.

Kate was looking at the red numbers as she moved her view and actually squinted to try and look closer. "Is that person dragging someone?"

"Zoom in closer." Rick stopped looking and moved Kate's fingers for her so she could zoom in and back out.

"He's almost naked!" Kate zoomed in on who was being dragged. Dragged was maybe the wrong word. His hands were bound and while he was walking or running he was being dragged behind the horse.

"Now look at the person on the horse." Rick wasn't sure what the animal was either, but Kate had called it a horse so he went with that.

Kate looked and instantly saw a lot of cleavage. It was a woman and she was healthy looking. Her breasts were far larger than hers were. Long golden hair, but she was wearing a mask of some type. It mostly just covered the area around her eyes. It reminded her of one of those masks women wore to a costume ball to hide their identity.

Her long legs were exposed and her shoes looked like flip flops or something. "She's carrying a weapon." Kate saw a scabbard that clearly had a weapon in it.

"So where are they going?" Rick didn't see any building at all from here and began looking around to try and find one.

"She could be a police officer and he's her captive, maybe?" Kate theorized.

"That's one option. My money is that he's her slave," Rick countered and kept looking around to try and see where they might have come from and where they were going.

"Slave!?" Kate took the binoculars away from her eyes and looked at Rick.

"Look again at how he's dressed," Rick suggested and kept looking. He was thinking they were going to have to move.

That had Kate looking at him. Save for a loin cloth over his private parts he was naked and looked a little burnt, though both of them had really deep tans.

"Besides being almost naked I don't see anything that says slave." Kate didn't see what he saw.

"Zoom in again on him," Rick said. "He has a brand on his arm, he isn't wearing anything on his feet, and she's forcing him to run or fall and be dragged to his death."

"He's branded. Like cattle." Kate moved from him to her to try and see if she was branded like he was. "A slave and his master?" Kate stopped looking at them and looked at Rick again.

"Slave sales aren't unheard of. The family needs money so they sell a child. Or maybe people with little to no money are the slaves. Or perhaps it's how their society works. Did you notice how each is basically the same color?" Rick stopped looking at them and glanced at Kate.

Kate raised her binoculars again. "They remind me of Native Americans from the Old West a little." Kate lowered them and stared in that direction. "Earth had slaves once. Black-skinned people were considered to be inferior and they were made slaves by the white people in a number of countries.

"Oh, and Star Trek had a race that was black on one side and white on the other. Depending on what color was on which side said who was slave and who wasn't," Kate offered. "Are you thinking this is how their society works?"

"We won't know till we see enough of them. So where are these two going? That's what we need to see. Transport us up, Lucile. We need to move that way." Kate pointed and this time Kate saw both of them being broken up into flashing white lights and it really hurt her eyes.

They ended up back on the ship and Kate was still seeing flashes of light everywhere. She tried to keep her head from exploding. "My head hurts!" she groaned.

"Close your eyes next time," Rick told her.

o- [:] -o

Lucile had found them something and Kate had closed her eyes this time. Now they were both on a hill across from a settlement with a large stream between them.

"Down!" Rick dropped onto his belly and motioned for Kate to follow. He raised his binoculars to look the site over as did Kate when she saw him doing it.

"It's all women!" Kate exclaimed in a whisper. She saw nothing but barely dressed women all of which had big breasts, exposed middles, and long legs with sandals; they all wore domino masks. Though so far, as she moved from one to the other, she saw different masks. They seemed to vary in size and color.

"Not all of them. Look to the far side. There's a wooden pen." Rick was mostly looking that place over.

That had Kate looking with her eyes first before raising her binoculars.

"Almost naked men. All of them." Then they both heard someone scream and their heads snapped toward the sound. "They just branded one of them, I think!"

"Yes, but did you notice he isn't in the same enclosure as the others?" Rick questioned her.

That had Kate looking again, back and forth, back and forth. "You're right." Kate was amazed at what he'd seen already.

Almost like he had read her mind he said, "I've been doing this far longer than you have. Lots and lots of research, Kate."

"So what's going on here?" If he'd been doing this longer what did he see that she hadn't yet?

"See the platform in front of the ones that aren't yet branded?" Rick had moved on to the buildings and was trying to follow who went where.

Kate soon saw the platform he was talking about. It was made of wood like the buildings were. Though all the roofs were thatched. The platform looked smooth and easy to walk on. There were also some steps up to it.

"Okay." It was a platform. So what?

"It's an auction platform. They sell the men, move them to the other enclosure, and brand them based on who bought them," Rick clarified.

"Seriously?" Kate stopped looking and stared at Rick.

"Far right, very far right," Rick said so Kate raised her binoculars to look that way.

What she saw were four barely dressed men building something. However, she also saw two masked women with big breasts and each had a whip in one hand. "They whip them?" Kate was beginning to hate this place. This wasn't how living was supposed to be.

"Men do the work because they have the muscle and if one dies or runs off they just replace him. Though I'm betting that one woman we saw earlier was out hunting for a runaway slave. She found him and was dragging him back here." Rick's teeth were clenched as he kept looking around.

So far he could see housing and had just noticed other buildings that might be meeting halls. Then a new noise had him looking to the right. Rick focused on that building. "A water wheel, so they're using water to do something."

That had Kate looking at him to see where he was looking and looked for herself. "On Earth we used water to grind grain to make bread with and other things. If they have enough wheels inside and belts they might be using it for other things. And they may be using iron to make things like those swords," Kate proposed.

"I'll make a research assistant out of you yet." Rick took his binoculars away from his face and smiled at her.

"At least they don't look like Zorgons." Kate was happy for that. "So how do we get closer if we want to get closer" She understood they were there to do research. But they could only do just so much way out here.

"Up please, Lucile," Rick called out. Kate quickly closed her eyes so she didn't get another headache.

o- [:] -o

"Say that again?" Kate was sure her husband had lost his mind.

Rick tried one more time. "You're a woman and woman are in charge here. What we need is something for you to wear and a mask design. That and a horse, some rope, and a brand design so they know I'm already owned by someone."

"You expect me to go in there on a horse, practically naked, and dragging my naked husband behind me so we can do research?" Kate still thought he was nuts.

"We both have a translator so we'll know what they're saying. All you have to do is act like you're in charge. Order me around. Just be you," Rick razzed her which earned him a swat to his arm.

"Perfect, just keep hitting me." Rick grinned at her only this time Kate glared at him instead.

Kate listed the reasons that should kill this idea. "As much as I hate this idea I don't have the boobs for this and I've never ridden a horse before in my life. Besides, I'm not branding you!"

"Wear a push up bra. I can handle the brand after we chose one and we just need a horse you can practice on before going into the village," Rick countered. "I can't go in there alone."

Kate tried to get out of what he was planning. "Can't you just make yourself look like a woman wearing what they are wearing?"

"You're my mate and I'm asking for my mate to help me with the research. Your nanites will protect you, I can hide a weapon, and Lucile will be watching both of us. We can do this." Rick didn't see anything they couldn't overcome.

Kate groaned and fell backwards onto their bed and tried to think about what he wanted her to do.

Then Rick pointed out why they couldn't just go in immediately. "One thing we need to do is decide where we're coming from since we'll be strangers here. So we need to find a place that isn't too far. I'm supposed to be walking from there while being dragged behind you," Rick reminded her. "We're supposed to be here for six months, you know."

"You're certain we can't just tell them not to come here and kill these people. They clearly aren't a threat to them." Kate kept looking at the ceiling, already knowing his answer.

"Today no, but the client thinks long term. Will they end up being a threat some day?" It was just what Kate knew he was going to say.

"You better hope I'm up to this." If she screwed this up they would both end up in trouble. "I suppose I have to learn how to use a sword and a whip too?" Kate raised her head to look at him.

"I'm the slave and you're my mistress, so yes." Rick watched her drop her head back onto the bed and moan.

o- [:] -o

Kate found that her modern bra was showing so it had to go. She wasn't sure what she looked like now. Her top was small and she was showing a lot. That she didn't really have a problem with. She had been a call girl at one time so was used to this.

Her shorts were well, short. She had a belt that held her sword and she had a mask that Lucile had designed for her. It was a little big but they were hoping the size and color of mask meant something. Social standing, perhaps.

As for the horse, that turned out to be simple enough. But learning to ride it was another matter entirely.

Right now Kate had her sword out and was hacking away at this log while spinning and turning and trying to pretend she was a ninja. The whip was, she soon figured out, a lot harder to learn. At first she couldn't hit a damn thing with it.

At the moment she was sitting on a log eating while Rick was trying to pretend to be her slave and was sitting in the dirt eating his meal.

The sound of a horse got both of their attentions. Now both watched as a woman rode toward them, towing her male slave behind her.

"I am Mistress Val'de'Stim." She had her hand on her sword just in case.

"I am Mistress Yahsid'al'Yugah," Kate responded. Lucile had come up with the name and since they had practiced this Kate placed her hand on her whip. "I am headed for the next village, hoping that it is larger." She was coming from a small farm with no real village. At least that was their story for now.