Roan Carratu
Kathlane of Whirlwind Station
-Copyright 2002 Roan Carratu
Sample: First Chapter (Rated PG-13)
Kathlane of Whirlwind Station -Chapter One ©2002 Roan Carratu
The three suns stayed in the sky of Hell for several months. With white hot intensity, the three giant stars beat down on the desert, the forge of the Devil, the stones occasionally windswept from the sand hot enough to melt lead. Kathlane knew this for a fact, for a lead plug from the repair facility left on a particularly flat topped rock melted as Kathlane watched, one long boring day. It stood out as a favorite memory among the millions of empty moments of her long exile.
Soon the suns would set and icy winds would roar outside for many months. Kathlane would sit in the Master's Vid room, replaying the holovids over and over, varying her responses and actions to see the results, although she never really understood them. It just helped to pass the time. Time was the curse, the weight of the ages.
Kathlane sat by the Receiver Sphere, as her custom required, and wondered if the call would come in on time. For more than a thousand previous months the call always came in perfectly on time, but Kathlane hoped it wouldn't just this once. Even a tiny variation in routine would help, if only a little, and make Kathlane feel just a little more like a real person rather than just an organic component. ~But I am not a person,~ Kathlane thought, ~I am only a possession.~
Kathlane sat, brushing her long brown hair from her eyes, waiting to read the words that would flow by too fast and too bright for human senses, just to pass the time. Words from another person, after so long alone, still meant a lot to Kathlane. Just to know another person knew she existed and sent her a message helped, if only slightly.
The Contact burst into brilliant light, almost blinding, and the words flowed across the surface of the sphere, faster than her teary eyes could follow. The recorders would easily read the wrapped laser message, sent years ago around another star.
The light went out, leaving Kathlane sitting in dimness, looking at the geodesic frame of the Contact with bright afterimages flaring behind her eyes. Kathlane grabbed the chair's arms and deliberately pushed herself out into the air, to drift back to the floor. This custom also originated from long long before, when Kathlane first arrived in Hell and enjoyed the lighter gravity of the world. ~I so enjoyed aloneness then,~ Kathlane thought, ~away from the Masters.~
No hurry drove her to read the message, for it always said the same thing, in the same words …as it must. The sender at the closest relay could only send the same message, the same words with the same meanings, with only the date changing: Slave Kathlane - Whirlwind Station - Slave Laniaph - Amber Station : continuance - 2782.3.7 - No Traffic.
It never varied, and the last one read the same words as the thousandths before it,... It could not change, as the Masters decreed, unless some disaster struck.
Kathlane looked around the absolutely familiar domed room, sliding her feet across the floor like a skater in a holovid, or perhaps an insect from old Earth, skating across the surface of water. The thought amused Kathlane, as it had so many, many times before, and as Kathlane slid into the Control Space, she almost laughed, just to pass the time. After all, the message never varied. ~But at least it came from another slave,~ Kathlane thought, ~like her…~
Kathlane danced, twirling in the weightlessness of Control, the fields of energy her arms and legs crossed tingling on her skin as soft musical tones fed back the results of her dance. With the same perfect flourish of fingers and elbows as so many times before, Kathlane finished, turning off the fields, and settled into the chair clamps to read the unwrapped message. Kathlane did not have to dance, but it helped, and it passed the time. The newly recorded message flowed through her eyes, impressed directly upon her optic nerves.
SLAVE KATHLANE - WHIRLWIND STATION - SLAVE LANIAPH - AMBER STATION - SEVERANCE - 2782.3.7 - PERIOD EXPECTATION - MASTER IN TRANSIT - 2784
Kathlane sat in numb shock. Her mind whirled like the winds of darkness, roaring against the station. Her skin tingled, her fingers twitched, her eyes stared blindly into the Control Space. Kathlane watched without thought as telltales crawled from node to node, the normal swirl of robotic activity on the surface of the dead world unseen.
MASTER IN TRANSIT! MASTER IN TRANSIT! MASTER IN TRANSIT! MASTER IN TRANSIT! It roared in her mind, and she dreaded the long wait until the starship reached the planet Hell… but not as much as she dreaded the arrival of a Master!
Two years later, Kathlane stood outside Whirlwind Station, on the barren surface of Hell, coming back from a repair job through the ice and blowing snow. The three suns showed only as bright stars, at their farthest from the dead planet trapped in it's extreme orbit. On the far side of the small scarred planet, the strangely pulsing fourth sun grew daily in size, it's cold coherent light giving little warmth as yet.
The winds roared around Kathlane's suit, pushing her slightly from side to side. An occasional ice tornado passed through the low mountains on the horizon, swirling up sand and flakes of ice the size of Kathlane's head. The noise compensator handled most of the continuous roar of wind and the never ending rattle of ice hitting the huge environment suit. The anchor fields would hold Kathlane to the rocky ground against everything but the largest of tornadoes, or the worst earthquakes. She never felt any danger while in Hell, even when crawling across the surface.
To the ship above her though, hanging huge in the sky, even the worst weather on Hell could not cause the slightest danger. ~Only Slaves faced danger,~ Kathlane thought, her pulse beating loudly within her ears from fear.
~Why does a Master come to Hell?~ Kathlane wondered, and then quickly repented the thought. ~The Slave must not wonder about the Master's actions! The Slave must have no opinion!~
Kathlane watched the huge sphere drift down towards the Station, realizing with dread how much she previously assumed herself safe from the Masters on remote Hell, at Whirlwind Station. The huge starship hovering above Kathlane totally belied the assumption. ~Only a Master rode such a ship,~ Kathlane thought, ~and I am His Slave.~ She bent her head down within the helmet, and shivered with fear quietly as the heavy armored suit crawled back to the Station.
The long glowing Grounding Tube reached the Station dome from the giant geodesic Ship as Kathlane cycled through the Station Lock. For a moment, in the isolation of the lock, Kathlane wished for the boredom of the many past years, a surge of fear of the future burning through her body. A Master in the Station? A Master with Kathlane's life and death totally within His whim? A suppressed memory of ancient agony flashed through her mind, quickly pushed away from her thoughts by the roar of her fear filled heart.
Kathlane briefly considered opening the suit to the instant death around her outside the Station, but fear surged, horror freezing her limbs. ~Slaves must live for their Masters,~ Kathlane thought, ~Slaves belong to the Masters.~ Kathlane recognized the thought as coming not from her own volition, but from the Overseer implanted within her skull. Kathlane had almost forgotten about the Overseer! ~I have no choice,~ Kathlane thought weakly, ~I must submit totally to the Masters.~
Kathlane entered the main room, fear surging as she saw the shimmering Portal from the Starship. As Kathlane combed her hair in a frenzy of fearful hurry, she watched the Portal with apprehension, afraid that the shining plastic form of the Master's Hand would step through from the giant ship before she could get ready.
Kathlane could never wear clothes her whole life, no Slave could, but when she stood before the shimmering Portal, Kathlane felt truly naked, totally vulnerable as never before. Dim long repressed memories of the far past stirred, of her girlhood as a Bodyslave for a Masterchild, and the pain and horror of it. Kathlane's body tightened with fear, her hand shaking as a light sweat sheen appearing over her face. ~I never had any choice,~ Kathlane thought, ~no choice for a Slave.~
Kathlane ran over and threw herself on hands and knees, her back curved down and her thighs wide. As Kathlane threw her head back and opened her mouth in the proper 'O' shape, the shimmering form of the Master's Hand stepped out of the glittering Portal, the smooth plastic shape of the machine unmistakable. Every Slave learned of the Hand in infancy, the huge robot quick to carry out the slightest whim of a Masterchild to put a Slave through agony.
Kathlane looked at the huge multilimbed device, a flood of memories almost overwhelming her, her entire body shaking with agonizing fear at the horrible sight. A dribble of urine ran down Kathlane's thigh from overwhelming fear, as she tried to keep her teeth from chattering. ~What choice did I ever have,~ Kathlane thought, ~None! None!~
The Hand moved in a long flowing blur, checking out the room and all the equipment in only moments, including the retrieval of the moment to moment log of the Station during it's entire existence, taking several seconds to absorb and analyze it. It stopped beside Kathlane with the instantaneousness of a holographic image flickering into existence, it's Agony Wand a hair's breath from her throat.
Kathlane fought to keep from screaming, long unused to such extreme fear. Her teeth chattered despite her best efforts, the sweat dripping down her face and onto the glowing metal strip of the Hand's Edge along the side of the Wand. ~I belong to the Masters,~ Kathlane thought, ~to do what they wish!~
Kathlane knelt for long dripping moments of horror, her absolutely defenseless position a strain upon her body, long unused to the Slave's Crawl. The Master may come any second, or not come for hours, but Kathlane's life depended upon her not moving an inch, however long it took.
Kathlane's mind provided her with images of her childhood, of the terrible acts done to her by the Masterchild, long repressed in memory. ~Right of Ownership,~ Kathlane thought, ~His right as Master. She had no choice!~
Kathlane remembered when she was four years old and the Master's Hand took her from her mother. The Hand came into the Slave pen as Kathlane and her mother slept and grabbed Kathlane from her mother's arms immediately. When her mother let out a terrible cry of heartbroken agony, shoving her body to a standing position, the Hand's Edge flashed at the end of the huge robot's arm, and a horrified and confused Kathlane watched her mother's head fall off her shoulders. Before the beloved face hit the floor, Kathlane found herself blurring down corridors at incredible speed, beyond a small girl's comprehension.
With memory heightened by fear, little Kathlane could remember the plastic hands of the machines roughly washing her, perfuming her body, trimming her hair. Then they carried her to a room, where despite her struggles and screams, Kathlane had learned the Slave's Crawl position, soft plastic hands holding her on her hands and knees, legs apart, stomach arched downward, head back.
Kathlane had struggled loudly, screaming, but an arm reached out with a small glass tube, and Kathlane's memories faded into a dreamlike succession of images, half remembered through a drug haze lasting many years. A small boy, the Masterchild, kicking her in the mouth, urinating in her face, beating her with a stick, pinching her black and blue, the list of horrors went on and on, day after day, a toy amid other toys, played with by the Master. ~I belong to the Master,~ Kathlane thought, ~His for pleasure or pain!~
Kathlane had knelt on the floor of the Masterchild's playroom, sleeping when the Masterchild slept, eating scraps from the Masterchild's meals, fear the only emotion, pain the only sensation, obeying without thought even when the Masterchild broke her bones or cut her severely. She had knelt her entire childhood in the Master's bedroom or in His garden, not allowed to move or play except when He wanted her to. The Hand stood nearby, ready to torture Kathlane at the Masterchild's slightest whim. ~The Slave has no choice,~ Kathlane thought, shivering in fear. ~The Master owns me!~
Each time, the robots healed Kathlane if necessary, even brought Kathlane back to life, reanimated, when the Masterchild's abuse became too severe and He killed her. But He always had Kathlane healed and returned to Him, for further abuse, for years and years. His name and face lived in Kathlane's memory like a crawling maggot, oozing through her consciousness, fouling Kathlane's every otherwise good moment. BARDOC! ~My Master who owns me as His,~ Kathlane thought, ~and I am his.~
Kathlane looked in a mirrored wall next to the Portal, moving only her eyes to gaze at the Slave mark on her forehead framed by her long brown hair, still the Mark of Bardoc. Her own dark green eyes reflected from the mirror, looking out fearfully from below the dark symbol of her Slavery.
The sweat dripped into Kathlane's eyes, making them burn as she stared at the portal, dreading the appearance of the Master more than anything in her life. Bardoc could come through that Portal, Kathlane thought, trying not to panic or pass out with fear. Kathlane's arms felt so weak and shaky, she feared falling on her face, which would provoke the Hand to instigate instant agony upon Kathlane's body. ~I have no choice,~ Kathlane thought, ~I must not fail my Master.~
The glowing weapon at Kathlane's throat didn't worry her so much, despite Kathlane's intense irrational fear of the machine itself. A Slave lived under the threat of the Agony Wand all her life, and Kathlane knew it would not kill or torture unless she did something stupid, like move or say anything. But the Master may just walk in and kill Kathlane in seconds or torture her for hours, just to express His mood. He may not even notice Kathlane's death, unless a drop of blood from her smashed body stained His clothes. And he might bring her back to life to torture again, just on the slightest whim. ~I have no choice,~ Kathlane thought, ~but live for the Master.~
Kathlane remembered at least a dozen other girls who provided the Masterchild with His amusement or outlet for His frustrations. The Master or the Master's Hand killed them and He did not order them reanimated. The robots simply dumped them into the composers broken and bleeding but sometimes still alive, shredding them for processing and eventual use as fertilizer to feed the garden or the crops. Why Bardoc kept Kathlane alive she never understood, nor did Kathlane ever really think about it. If anything, she envied those dead slaves… to die and not come back… that was a good thought! ~But slaves live only for the Master's pleasure,~ Kathlane thought dully.
Once, as a preteen, Kathlane managed to kill herself, only to wake up in the Healing Chamber, totally healed and reanimated, and face Bardoc's punishment. Only a Master can choose the time of a Slave's death, Bardoc told her, reinforcing the message with massive agony. A year later the Masters implanted a mind control device, the Overseer, into every Slave's skull throughout Civilization.
As Bardoc grew to adolescence, His 'pleasures' gained in cruelty and subtle torture. His new and surging male hormones caused a new level of intensity, as Bardoc used Kathlane as His sexual receptacle anytime and anywhere He chose. He punished Kathlane terribly if Kathlane did not act eager for everything Bardoc did. Kathlane learned to act well, making Bardoc think Kathlane wanted everything Bardoc choose to do no matter how gross or painful. ~I have no choice but try to please the Master,~ Kathlane thought.
For the first time, the adolescent Bardoc took Kathlane with Him when traveling to visit other Masterchildren, having her put into a dark travel container carried by robots, from which she never knew what she would find stepping out again. Bardoc often briefly traded or gave Kathlane to other Masters, who used Kathlane cruelly, several killing her, choking Kathlane to death while raping her, only to reanimate her and do it again.
After one of these excursions, Kathlane became insane, beyond knowing of fear or pain, and therefore beyond the reach of Bardoc or the Hand, but it displeased Bardoc, and He had her sanity restored. Kathlane's Overseer had extra programming added to prevent further insanity. Kathlane had only the pathological fear of the Masters left, created by the Overseer within her mind, and an associated lesser fear of the Hands. ~She could not escape,~ Kathlane thought, ~for the Master owns the Slave.~
The memories burned within Kathlane's mind, long repressed in the steady if lonely life of Whirlwind Station, and Kathlane wished only for the quiet peace of the unchanging routine of her life in the Station. But the Starship ends all that, Kathlane knew. A Master would not come to the Station unless changes beyond Kathlane's knowledge or imagination would soon occur. ~And as the Master wishes, I must obey,~ Kathlane thought, ~for I am a Slave, with no choice.~
Time passed, and finally a human stepped through the Portal, causing Kathlane to break out into fresh sweat, her breath catching in her throat. A young woman Slave stepped into the Station, looking about her with bright interest but a wary intensity. She ignored Kathlane, and went directly over to the Control Space, stepping into the fields without hesitation, her hands moving around without the elaborate dance Kathlane used.
Several other Slaves entered, another young woman and a man with a Slave Mark on his forehead, the first male slave Kathlane had seen since her visits with Bardoc to other Master's estates so long before. They wore nothing of course, since only Masters wore clothes, and had no hair at all anywhere on their bodies, a truly new condition. Kathlane hoped the Master would not torture her for having body hair, a real possibility if He expected total hairlessness from his Slaves. ~But I want only the Master's pleasure,~ Kathlane thought, ~even if it means agony for His Slave.~
The man carried some sort of equipment, and behind him, a number of robots stepped from the Portal carrying more equipment. The man walked over to the Hand and said something Kathlane did not hear in her fear. The Hand removed the Edge from her throat. Surprised, Kathlane blinked rapidly, but stayed where she was, not moving from the Slave's Crawl. ~I must try to understand the orders of the Master,~ Kathlane thought, ~and only do what the Master wants.~
The man came over and looked down at Kathlane. When Kathlane did not move, he bent down and took her arm, pulling her unresisting body to her feet. Kathlane cringed, looking up at the Slave man with fear. The man said something very slowly several times, the words not seeming to make sense, although finally Kathlane understood him. "You need fear no more!" the man said softly yet again. "No Masters exist anymore. They all died."
Kathlane just looked at the man, bewildered. He turned and indicated the Hand, making Kathlane jerk with fear. "The Hand came ahead only to make sure no traps awaited us, left by the last Masters on this outpost." He smiled, but Kathlane could not really understand the words as they seemed to twist and turn within her mind, somehow losing meaning instantly. She just stood there, staring at the man. ~The Master will come and do to me as He wills, and I have no choice,~ Kathlane thought.
The first woman stepped from the Control Space and walked over, her steps high and springy, unused to the lighter gravity of the Station. She stopped, looking down at the cringing Kathlane, an expression unfamiliar to Kathlane on her face. She said something unintelligible to the man and turned to Kathlane. "You are Kathlane?" the woman said slowly and carefully in strangely accented words. "You lived here at Whirlwind Station since 4997 AT, for the last one hundred seven years?"
Kathlane looked at the woman and finally realized the Slave was asking her a question. She searched for meaning through the fog in her brain, and finally had an answer. "Yes." Kathlane said, nodding, although she had no idea of how much time had actually passed. "Is the Master coming soon?" ~The Master will come and use me,~ Kathlane thought, ~I have no choice.~
"No Masters exist anymore Kathlane." The woman replied, talking very slowly, obviously knowing that Kathlane could not make sense of her words. "The Masters... are... all... dead!"
Finally the words sank in. Dead? Kathlane thought, her heart leaping as her eyes widened in shock. Bardoc dead? No Masters? ~The Master will use me as His property, and I have no choice.~ No Masters?
The very words seemed like insanity. Kathlane looked at the blue eyed woman, noticing the colored tattoo on her forehead. Kathlane could not recognize the Master the Mark belonged to, but it unmistakably branded her a Bodyslave, meaning this woman knew the same tortures Kathlane once endured. Was this a subtle and cruel lie? A test of her Overseer? No Masters? ~I belong to the Masters,~ Kathlane thought, ~I have no choices, no will but Bardoc’s will.~
Kathlane suddenly sat down, almost collapsing onto the floor. She stared at the feet of the woman, afraid to say or do anything. The man spoke again to her, but Kathlane just sat there, not able to listen through her mind fogging fear. Bardoc dead? Kathlane kept thinking, Bardoc dead? ~I am Bardoc's Slave to do with as He wills.~ Bardoc dead? Her mind felt torn with a great numbing conflict, an almost painful confusion.
Kathlane remembered the last time she had seen Bardoc. She lay bent over the end of a table as He abused her sexually, empty of all emotion, feeling relieved that he had stopped, if only for a moment. She remembered blood from her genitals trickling down her leg as she awaited Bardoc's further Amusement, as Bardoc turned away to look at a small blonde girl child brought in by the robots.
The little girl had immediately dropped into the Slave Crawl in front of Bardoc, tears running down her little cheeks. Bardoc had looked at the little girl and then went behind her, squatting down and raping the little girl immediately. The girl's tears dripped onto the floor from her agonized face, but not a sound came from her other than small repressed grunts. ~The little Slave girl belonged to Bardoc,~ Kathlane thought at the memory, ~and had belonged to the Master to do with as He pleased. She had to submit as Kathlane must when the Master chooses.~
Bardoc had loudly finished and turned away, glancing over at Kathlane briefly, and then gave an order to the Hand nearby in Master's language, the machine instantly coming over and leading Kathlane away. She had wondered if it would soon kill her permanently, if Bardoc had grown tired of the pleasure of Kathlane's agony.
To her surprise and relief, the Hand shoved her into a dark transport case, and a very long time later, after confinement within several larger transport containers for at least a year, Kathlane found herself deposited at Whirlwind Station on Hell.
After several days huddled upon the floor, Kathlane had finally gotten up and investigated her new surroundings, forced by hunger to experiment. Upon finding nothing threatening as she progressed, Kathlane learned quickly. Within six months, she knew both her mission and almost everything else she needed from the station's computer system. She learned how to repair the collection robots who scoured the outside of the planet looking for the crystals occasionally formed by exactly the right temperatures and conditions, sending them off in a Shuttle once a decade.
With the bliss of aloneness, without the punishment and pain of Master or Hand, Kathlane had learned to interface, learning what she could from the computer system. A Master once ran the Station and when He left, He had left everything unguarded, breaking a basic rule of the Masters, and allowing Slave Kathlane access to the Station's luxuries and even much of it's knowledge. Not realizing her good fortune, Kathlane used as much as she dared, learning and enjoying as only a ignorant Bodyslave with no Masters around could, with all the time in the world to learn with.
A hundred years allowed much learning, even if she started out knowing nothing. ~I learned much,~ Kathlane thought, musing upon both her knowledge and her ignorance, ~but I am really only the Master's Bodyslave, with no choice.~
A long time passed in the Station with Kathlane just sitting on the floor, with many Slaves and robots stepping around her, moving equipment into position, dividing the large room up into sections. Kathlane occasionally watched them, but mostly just sat and waited for the Master. ~The Master will come and do to me what He wishes,~ Kathlane thought, over and over, ~and I have no choice.~
After a long time, as many of the Slave men and women reentered the Portal, the blue eyed Slave woman left the Control Space and came over carrying a strange device. Kathlane watched her approach through a resurgence of confusion and fear fogging her thoughts. The Slave woman held the device to Kathlane's lowered head and suddenly, like something had cleaved right through her mind, Kathlane felt a totally new clarity, a clearness she had never felt in her entire life. As the woman moved the device away, Kathlane stood up, and smiled a real smile for the first time in her life. ~I have choice!~ Kathlane thought, ~I can do what I will. I belong only to myself.~
Kathlane felt as if the woman had lifted a great heavy numbness off her mind. Kathlane's thoughts could flicker and jump from subject to subject, memories free and readily available, and suddenly several concepts seen and not understood in the Master's Vid room became very clear and comprehensible. Kathlane felt like a different person. ~In fact,~ she thought, ~I AM a person!~
"I am Kathlane. What is your name?" Kathlane asked, looking into the woman's bright blue eyes. "And what did you just do to me? I... can think... differently!"
"Ah! You can now easily understand me. Good!" The young woman said, smiling wider. "I reprogrammed your Overseer. It will now help your understanding of freedom rather than bind your mind to the Masters. We are the Altair Team. My name is Lindaph and I am the Team Leader. I am glad to meet you, Kathlane." The young woman reached out and put her right hand on Kathlane's shoulder, squeezing gently, and Kathlane somehow knew to do the same, putting her right hand on Lindaph's left shoulder.
Kathlane felt something new… Joy, she decided, although she also felt confused. "I... I seem to know things I did not know before. But I do not know what an Altair Team is, or what a Team Leader is. Will you explain?" They dropped their hands and Lindaph led the way through the maze of equipment towards the Food Chamber as Kathlane looked around her with amazement. "I want to tell you a wonderful story, Kathlane. We will eat and I will tell you what has happened." They reached the door of the Food Chamber, and as it slid back, Kathlane saw the Hand standing over by one wall. She did not even feel startled. The robot meant no danger to Kathlane. This lack of fear amazed Kathlane even more than the sudden lack of intrusive thoughts into her mind.
They sat down and the Food Processor's menu lit up. After they ordered, Lindaph turned to Kathlane, smiling with pleasure.
"This Station provides comforts beyond any of the Stations we visited, Kathlane." the young girl said, smiling wider as the plate of food appeared in front of her. "In fact, Whirlwind Station provides all the comforts the Masters installed in Stations during the end of the Expansionary Phase, 2185 to 2312. The records show that the Whirlwind Station construction date, 2509, makes it the most recent Station we know of, and why we acted so careful when arriving here. Your Master probably built this Station as his refuge in the event of any problems in Civilization."
"I... I don't understand that. Please explain." Kathlane asked, puzzled. Kathlane picked at the food, more interested in the newcomer woman rather than some food dish Kathlane had eaten thousands of times before. After a hundred years of total separation, just looking at another living face felt unreal, almost unbelievable. Several times she
wondered if she actually sat in the Vid room, looking at unreal characters from some holographic adventure.
"Yes... I don't know how much Master history you know, so I will start at the beginning of the reign of the Masters, on Earth fifteen thousand years ago." Lindaph said, swallowing quickly. "You know of Earth, don't you?"
Kathlane nodded. She had heard of the original home planet in the Stations Computer Library. It even had stored pictures of Earth from orbit.
"All of us came from Earth. We lived there for at least ten million years in tribes, with no Masters or Slaves. As we discovered technology, however, our relationship with the planet's ecosystem changed, and fifteen thousand years ago, we learned how to control certain processes of the ecosystem which provided much food, more food than ever before."
"Yes, I scanned that. The Agricultural Revolution, you mean." Kathlane said, digging back into the history she had learned so long before, near the beginning of her stay at the Station. It had taken many years of learning and thinking to understand it, starting out in complete ignorance. "But the Computer said the Master's ruled even then, that they always ruled." But how can I believe anything the Master's say, Kathlane thought, her own thought for once, …or anything at all? She trembled slightly, feeling weak and confused at the sudden changes, but a soft relaxing feeling flowed over her, and she sighed with relief.
"The Masters created their own history to fit their purposes. But not all Masters accepted such blindness, and some wanted to know the truth. Almost all people now access and study the real history. No, the Masters used weapons to enslave the rest of Humanity right after the Agricultural Revolution, and owned us from then on."
"I... I don't... understand. The people belonged to the Masters since the Master God, Jesus Christ, made us for their pleasure." Kathlane said the non-understood words easily, although the word 'God' meant nothing to her, simply another name. She had a vast confusion within her mind, as everything Lindaph said now seemed to conflict with the concepts accepted without understanding from the Library.
"Kathlane, the Masters and the Slaves came from the same people. The Masters used weapons to own us, not by the design of some imaginary God, but by their ignorance of reality. I will put into the computer the real history, if you stay here, and you can learn it. You must discard much of what you learned of the Master's version of history. The Masters killed Earth, Kathlane, and enslaved us for all these thousands of years."
"But... what happened to the Masters, Lindaph?" Kathlane's mind skidded and churned, not sure of anything, and afraid of these new things she heard.
<
"I'm getting to that. The Masters killed Earth, Kathlane, because they misunderstood reality, and after they killed Earth, they found a way to come out to the Stars, bringing us with them, around the year 2100. As a Bodyslave like me, Kathlane, you had no learning before you came here, did you?"
"I knew nothing until I came here." Of this Kathlane was sure.
"The Masters did not keep all Slaves so ignorant, Kathlane," Lindaph said, smiling and putting her hand on Kathlane's arm. "The Masters taught some Slaves to use technology. One of these designed the Overseers for the Masters. When all the Slaves received Overseers, that Slave reprogrammed his Overseer, and set himself free, in 2615, one hundred sixty nine years ago."
"Free... What does 'Free' mean?" Kathlane asked, hearing too many words she did not understand. Her arm tingled where Lindaph's hand rested upon it, and she dared not look into Lindaph's sharp blue eyes.
"The Masters could choose," Lindaph replied, "and the Slaves could not. To have the ability to choose, that is freedom, to be free."
"You mean that Slave became a Master?" This contradiction in terms confused Kathlane. But she describes something else, Kathlane thought, something new to me.
"Uh... not exactly. But the Slave, Hammincan, could do what he wanted when he wanted as long as the Masters did not know of it. The Overseer limited the rest of the Slaves to the narrow thoughts the Master's wanted the Slaves to think, but Hammincan could think anything. Kathlane, you are now free, just like Hammincan!"
"Free... I can think what I want, choose what I want like a Master?" Kathlane struggled with the new idea, filled with fear as well as elation. But I now think without the thoughts of a Slave, Kathlane thought, and I can choose for myself!
<
"Yes, as long as you do not try to enslave another person. Hammincan reprogrammed other Slave's Overseers, and worked with them at an isolated Station, much like this one, in fact, to find a way to destroy the Masters. The free Slaves, still acting like Slaves when around the Masters, spread throughout the Civilization, learning all they could and freeing other Slaves. The Masters had learned to rely on the Overseers as perfect control devices for Slaves, but actually the Overseer helped the freed Slaves to overcome their fear of the Masters and work against them."
"A little more than eighty one years ago, in 2701, Hammincan used an artificial virus to kill the Masters, and all Masters died." Lindaph grinned, and squeezed Kathlane's arm, but then her smile evaporated, replaced with a slight frown.
"Or at least we think all the Master's died." Lindaph continued, "Until we can check out every Station, every World with Civilization upon it, we cannot know for sure. The Masters had a very long time to create ways to prevent the Slaves from becoming free, and we do not know what escapes they set up."
"Whirlwind Station defines the border of Civilization in the inside of the cluster, the farthest of all the worlds we have checked, and this equipment will tell us if any starships come from further out that may carry surviving Masters. After the revolt we could not account for some Masters, but some Slaves killed their Masters in ways beyond our ability to trace after the fact."
"However, we accounted for all the Hands of the Masters, so if any Masters survived, without their robot Hands and without the programming of the Overseers, they can not easily regain control over us. Their technology really enslaved us, not some natural superiority, and now we control the technology and learn what we must to stay free."
Kathlane shivered with the shadow of her former fear, and with a new emotion, never felt before for the Masters, Hate! She almost wanted a Master to survive so she could kill him, and reanimate him, and kill him again!
"I want to kill a Master!" Kathlane exclaimed, her body suddenly tense, her hand clawing at Lindaph's arm. Lindaph pulled her arm away, a flicker of fear passing over her face.
"No, Kathlane! Choose your ways, not just let circumstance or emotion choose and you just react! Free means more than that!" Lindaph smiled confidently in a strange way to Kathlane, her face showing an expression Kathlane had never seen on a Slave before. ~But we …we can choose to act different now,~ Kathlane thought, ~and think differently, and feel differently. We have choice! We don’t have to act like Masters!~ She calmed herself down, and smiled back at the young woman with another new feeling, a feeling Kathlane had a name for but had never felt, gratitude!
Check out my other Sample Chapters:
Kathlane of Whirlwind Station 128 pgs 63613 words(Rated PG-13) Adventure SF
Magic Universe -The Story of Tempar 104 pgs 49566 words (Rated PG-13) Magic & Fantisy
Five Facets of the Sun 221 pgs 109950 words (Rated PG-13) Sociological SF
Frozen in Time 343 pages 156814 words (Rated PG-13) Sociological/Romance SF
All books are fully copyrighted.
