Firefly

Chapter 4

Kate watched as Rick filled out this very long form then signed it. That same form went onto a screen as light ran across it from below. What that did Kate had no idea. She also watched him give him money.

Carol waved to her, "Come on, Kate, follow me in my workshop.''

"Go on, I'll be here when they're done," Rick told her.

The two women entered a room resembling a medical practice, undoubtedly dedicated to piercing. There were instruments everywhere of all shapes and sizes. And in the middle, a gynecological chair.

"Take off your clothes, slave.'' Carol had seen both tattoos on her hands.

Kate began to lift her t-shirt over her head when Carol turned to her, "No, just the shorts."

Kate was surprised but obeyed. She untied her shorts and took them off. She slid the piece of fabric over her legs and was naked to her waist.

"Get into position.'' Carol pointed at the chair.

Kate hesitated for a moment looking at the seat but quickly put herself in a comfortable posture, her legs spread, her feet in the stirrups.

Carol grabbed her stool, her instrument table, and put on a pair of surgeon's gloves. She opened a tube of cream, put a dab of it on Kate's pubis, and carefully spread it out. She spoke again when she applied the cream at the base of the clitoris, "Relax, it'll be better." She continued for a few seconds before inserting a finger into her pussy.

"Perfect. Your clitoris is ready, so we'll be able to pierce. Ready?''

"Yes, " Kate replied in a voice that showed she was not very sure. She was a slave so what choice did she really have?

Kate took a deep breath and shivered as Carol applied a fresh antiseptic wipe then suddenly a terrible pain stabbed her. Carol had passed the needle through the clitoris hood. She quickly removed it and passed a gold ring instead, closing it and allowing the device to seal itself closed.

Kate could feel every beat of her heart directly in her clitoris. It was incredibly painful and pleasant at the same time.

"That's it, it's over," Carol said. "Be careful. It's going to be painful for a few days. Keep your hands away from it all except to clean it and avoid infection."

Carol handed her a box of tissues, "Wipe off the cream and wet, it's not great for the rest. Now we have to go find Mike!" Carol left her sitting in the chair.

Soon a man replaced her. "I'm Mike, I'm here to apply your tattoo." He had his own table and made sure her pubic area was clean and free of any hair. "This will be a bit painful but it's small so it will only take a minute."

Kate watched him use a device that sounded like a drill since it buzzed a lot and instantly there was a small amount of pain. It took him only a minute and he was finished with the device. Then he rubbed a stick filled with something over it. "Here, see for yourself." Mike handed her a small mirror so Kate could see what those two had done to her. She saw a ring that had a tiny bulb attached just above her clitoris. It went thought the hood just above it. Just above all that she saw three small letters. RC's

"The ring contains all of the information your master provided us with. Now if you two ever get separated and someone runs a scanner over you they'll find the ring that will tell them how to contact your master and tell him how to come retrieve you," Mike explained. "The letters are simply a reminder to whoever gets this far that you are owned by someone. Someone who does not share."

That had Kate looking at it all again. Her previous master hadn't tagged her in any way, save for the tattoos on the back of both of her hands, let alone like this. She smiled. Rick wanted to keep her and if she got lost he wanted a way to find her again. Rick wanted to keep her!

Mike took the mirror from her. "Remember what Carol told you. Don't touch it except to clean it to prevent infection. If you or your master see any discoloration that means it's infected. Give it a couple days and you should be good."

"Congratulations slave. You have a master that wants to keep you and this is about as permanent as it gets." Mike got up off his stool. "You can get dressed now and go back to your master."

Kate walked back out to Rick, smiling until she suddenly realized that if she wasn't careful that new ring would tap the top of her clit, sending waves of pleasure through her body.

"All done?" Rick asked her, knowing full well what they had done.

"Yes." Kate looked again at all the clothes he had bought her. "You want to keep me." That was assuming they had told her the truth, that she was never going to be parted from him again. Unlike her previous master who beat her Rick had actually barely touched her let alone strike her.

"Of course." Rick thought it was a stupid question. "We can go back to the ship now. Unless there's something else you want?"

Kate shook her head. She couldn't think of a thing. She already had more than she'd ever had before and that was when she was still with her parents.

"Can you walk or should I put you in the cart?" Rick smiled as he teased her since he knew just what that ring was going to do to her. Between the shot he'd already given her, the two more yet to come, and that ring, she was going to find just walking a new experience.

"I can walk." She wasn't a baby. Kate soon found that if she wasn't careful that ring would hit her clitoris and it had already happened often enough that she was about to explode just as they reached the airlock to the ship.

"I'll let you get cleaned up. I'll put a load of your clothes in to clean them then you can decide what you want to wear today. While you do that we'll be heading for a mining planet." Rick went to his chair to pilot the ship.

Kate had been told not to touch it except to clean it and the second she did that she erupted and screams from the pleasure it was providing her. She had no idea what was happening to her but she really liked it. It was a pleasure she had never experienced before.

Kate came out clean and went through her clothes. Looking forward she saw Rick sitting in his chair and couldn't see her.

Kate chose a pair of panties, then a bra, followed by a pair of blue jeans, and a simple enough top. Socks and tennis shoes were last. Then she went about putting everything else away where she could find room for it. As she did that ring kept touching her clitoris.

She was already wet and all worked up when she came up behind Rick. She saw the tunnel from last time that told her they were in FTL. "All done," Kate said.

"Excellent." Rick got out of his chair and looked her over. "Well, don't you clean up nice. Spin for me, please?" That made Kate smile again and gave him a quick spin so he could see all of her.

"Medical for me, please?" Rick had two things he needed to do.

Kate felt that ring as she walked to medical and waited for him to pull the bed down from the wall.

"Hop up for me and lie down." Rick watched her do just that. Lying there like this the ring didn't touch anything really or at least Kate didn't feel it. "Any pain?" Rick inquired and she shook her head.

Then she watched him stab her with this tiny pin and place the blood into another tiny tube then into the wall. Then he took out a syringe and filled it with that blue stuff that sparkled. Just like last time he wrapped something around her arm, wiped a spot, then inserted the needle and plunged the blue stuff into her. Taking it back out he pressed something to that spot and asked her to hold it for him.

Rick looked at the blood results and was satisfied. "You're going to need one more shot in a couple of days. Before we arrive at the mining planet."

"May I ask a question?" Kate asked him, knowing that she had already asked him questions without asking first.

"I believe you just did," Rick teased her. Which had Kate thinking. She had indeed just asked him a question, however, that wasn't her question.

"May I ask another question?" Kate suddenly saw the trap she had gotten herself into. Rick grinned at her. He was teasing her.

"What's that bump in the middle of the floor?" She kept going around it all the time but couldn't see anything or figure out what it was.

It wasn't the question Rick was anticipating. He expected her to ask him about the blue drug he was giving her. "That's the cockpit to a short range P52 space superiority fighter. It's a little old and outdated compared to Alliance Technology. Though out here it's still state of the art.

"It has a massive Gatling gun straight down the middle. Then there are a pair of railguns, one in each wing. There are also four small mines that can be ejected out the back.

"I haven't had reason to use it, but I got lucky when I found it right after the war so I kept it. It might come in handy some day. In a pinch it can hold two people and be used to escape the ship if it ever comes to that."

He smiled at her and put his hand out to help her get off the medical bed. "Ready for lunch?" Just as he did that and closed up the bed that ring touched her clitoris. Kate hissed as she was just short of erupting yet again. She stood there trying to get a hold of herself while Rick took a couple of steps to the kitchen.

"You're not hungry?" Rick noticed she hadn't moved yet. He hid his grin since he understood what was happening. Especially after that last shot.

"I'm coming." Kate took a step and didn't see Rick put his fist in his mouth because of her statement.

Kate found hers, save for a drink, waiting for her by the time she safely reached the table and sat down. "Would my lady like me to pour?" Rick was willing to give her a break since he was betting if she stood up she could climax right then and there.

"Please." She would take anything so long as it wasn't coffee since she didn't dare move.

This time she found that lunch didn't require the oven. It was meant to eat cold since it was a sandwich.

"How do the clothes fit?" Rick had done his best given that that store was really cheap.

Kate smiled. "Pretty good. I'm not used to wearing shoes. I always went barefoot."

"You'll adapt. Where we're going you're going to need to make sure those big boots fit you with those socks on," Rick warned her.

"May I ask a question?" Kate asked him and saw him grinning wide. She bit her lower lip. She'd walked right into that one yet again. "What's going to happen? When we get there, I mean."

"It's a mine." Rick wasn't sure what else to tell her. "He digs out the ore and puts it into crates or something. We put into the cargo hold of the ship. There." Rick pointed and Kate turned to look. "He pays us to haul it to a processing plant. Our job is to make it past any pirates that decide to show up. Most of the pirates are in small groups and not usually well armed. They tend to bother cargo ships since none of those are armed and move slowly.

"Then when we land we unload the cargo and he pays us for delivery. After he processes it he sends the money to the miners account just like he is going to do for us. Then if he has enough we go back and do it again. None of us actually use real money. It's all done using transfers, or at least it is for this miner. Others may do things differently."

It didn't sound too dangerous to her depending on just how dangerous these pirates were. "Then what?" Kate queried.

"We find other cargo that needs to be moved. It's what I do. I've been doing it since the war ended. My first year I worked for a cargo company but I wasn't comfortable working like that." Rick shrugged. "So I bought my own little cargo ship and did a number of trips. I've only had this baby for about two months. This will actually be my first cargo trip using it."

"So nothing happened the other times?" Kate was still focused on these pirates.

Rick waved his hand at her. "Nah. Remember space is big and those pirates have to be in the right spot at just the right time or they don't see anything and neither do you." He wasn't concerned. Besides this time he was armed and running a railgun was cheap. Now all those missiles were another story but if you knew where to look it could be cheap. Dealing with those guys were the real pirates.

Rick took hers since she was done and put it either in the trash or in the small dishwasher.

"Clean clothes?" Kate asked since everything needed cleaned regardless of how it looked.

"LAUNDRY!" Rick smacked his forehead and Kate smiled. He was still handsome, a little silly, really nice, and occasionally a little funny. And he was treating her like no one save for her parents ever had.

Rick got up and saw that Kate wasn't following him. He grinned but offered her an out. "If you're tired you can stay right there."

"I'm coming." Kate got up very carefully. However, by the time she'd made it to her bed and where she had stored some of her clothes she only needed one more touch before she was going to scream. It also had her whimpering.

"The laundry is here next to the bathroom. You just open this door and this is the unit. It's a combo unit. It first cleans and then dewrinkles." Rick looked at what needs to be washed and divides it out based on colors and what he thought it was mad of since a few didn't have tags any longer.

"The unit's already loaded with nylon beads that sit in the outer of two nested drums. When both drums rotate, the absorbent beads fall through the mesh of the inner drum to tumble with your laundry, where they dislodge and trap dirt. After the wash cycle finishes, the outer drum stops moving and centrifugal force pushes the beads back through the mesh into the outer drum, where they await your next load. No detergent, fabric softener, or stain remover needed. Then just ten minutes on tumble dry and your clothes will be done. It'll buzz when the cycle's done. Then you can do the next load."

Rick left her to go to the living room area. Kate wanted to follow but didn't dare move. "You might want to wash it again," he called to her.

Kate took that opening to go into the bathroom and wash, however the second she touched it to clean it she screamed and whimpered as she slowly calmed down. The pleasure was so very intense. She had never known anything like this before in her life.

Kate managed to finish washing and putting her clothes back on. Then she walked slowly and carefully toward Rick who was standing at something. When suddenly she heard music.

"What's that?" She knew it was music but didn't recognize who.

"Bob Marley." Rick saw a blank look on her face. "You don't know Bob Marley?" Rick couldn't believe it as Kate shook her head no. "That's unacceptable. This was the greatest album ever made. …Ever." Rick turned up the volume so she could hear each note easily.

"He had this idea. He believed that you could cure racism and hate, literally. Cure it by injecting music and love into peoples' lives. One day he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally. The Alliance came to his house and shot his family down. Two days later he walked out onto that stage and sang. Somebody asked him why? He answered, 'The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I?' …Light up the darkness."

Kate saw tears running down his cheek and couldn't stop herself. She reached up to wipe them away for him. "He meant something to you?"

"Yeah. After I found his music it got me out of the war. I quit. I'd done a lot already and didn't need to do more. Maybe too much in fact." Rick sat down on the sofa and wiped away his own tears. Tears he was sure he had run out of long before now. "I got a lot of people killed that didn't have to die. All because I was following orders. Those tens of thousands are dead because of me. The war could have been over. But no, I had to follow orders." Kate sat down next to him.

She didn't have an answer for him so she just held onto him and tried to take away some of his pain. She didn't get it. In fact she knew very little about the war itself. She was old enough to know it existed but she didn't feel like it had ever touched her life. Maybe it had, but just not directly that she could remember.