Planet of Pain (27 page)

‘Take Kitten to my chambers,' Annamarie said to Helen when Jo was secured. ‘Bathe her and find her something suitable to wear. And try to do something with that mane of hair. If she makes a fuss you may spank her.'

Helen led Eli away. The girl went meekly enough, perhaps as a result of the threatened spanking, and when they'd gone Annamarie drew up a stool and sat close to Jo.

‘Tell me, Josephine,' she said, ‘how old are you?'

‘Twenty, mistress.'

‘Really? Just two years older than your friend Eli. You could almost be sisters, couldn't you? Except that she's dark and you have fair hair; all over, I see.' She brushed Jo's pubic hair with the back of her fingers. ‘I really must talk to Helen about getting you two girls shaved.'

Jo felt heat rise to her face. Annamarie was obviously trying to embarrass her, and given her vulnerable position, not to mention her emotional state, that wasn't too difficult.

‘So…' Annamarie said, drawing the word out to almost a sigh, ‘let's have a proper look at you…' Her hands reached out and Jo's stomach contracted as with unexpected gentleness Annamarie spread her labia. ‘Delightful,' she purred softly. ‘You know, I always think of a rose.'

‘Mistress?' Jo said, her voice tight.

‘A pink rose,' Annamarie said. ‘That's what a vulva reminds me of. The shape of the petals, you understand.' She raised one hand and made a rippling movement with her fingers. Her eyes glinted with amusement. Jo took a deep breath and forced herself to relax. Letting Annamarie see how nervous she was wouldn't achieve anything.

Annamarie returned to her examination, totally absorbed, stroking Jo's slit with slender fingers, teasing her clitoris and scraping it with her long fingernails. After a time she sat back and unclipped from her belt a slender cylindrical object as long as her hand, silver in colour, with a copper ball the size of a cherry at the tip. It looked like a stylus, the sort used with a tablet, but Jo had an uneasy feeling it was nothing so innocent as that. Annamarie pulled the copper ball and the stylus telescoped out, doubling in length.

‘Do you know what this is?' she asked, and Jo shook her head. ‘It's called a seraph. Sensory-enhancement-something-or-other… I can never remember. It stimulates the nerve-endings in very specific ways to mimic various effects. There are controls here at the base, can you see?'

She moved the thing close to Jo's face and pointed to two rings – one red, one blue – and between them a fixed, graduated scale. ‘You select the particular effect you want with the blue ring, like this.' She twisted the ring in question, which clicked round as she made the adjustment, then dabbed the seraph's copper tip on Jo's belly. Jo jumped. It felt exactly as though she'd been pricked with a needle.

‘This next effect's like the fusers you must have used in practical electronics.'

Another adjustment. This time she touched it to the inside of Jo's thigh, midway between knee and crotch. It felt hot and Jo flinched again.

‘There are other modes too, such as abrasion, and pressure, as if you were being nipped with pincers. And electroshock, of course. The list goes on and on.' She didn't demonstrate these others, for which Jo was thankful.

‘The red ring sets the level of pain,' Annamarie continued. ‘It goes from one to nine, but right now it's on two. Nothing to make a fuss about; not yet, anyway.'

Again Jo was reminded of Major Tucker and his ‘toys', though this device was more sophisticated by far than the baton. Jo knew why Annamarie was taking the time and trouble to explain all of this to her – she was deliberately prolonging Jo's misery by drawing things out in this way.

‘This is my favourite, though: scalpel mode,' Annamarie said, turning the blue ring again. And then, to Jo's dismay, she turned the red ring also. ‘I need to increase the level for this particular demonstration, so you'll get the proper effect. Let's try six.' With her left hand she spread Jo's labia once more, and then, with careful precision, she drew the seraph across her clitoris.

Jo shrieked and her hips bucked up off the seat, but she didn't rise far because the restraining strap around her middle dug into her belly, holding her down. Annamarie watched as Jo strained upwards, trembling violently.

‘It hurts, I know,' she said, with mock sympathy. ‘That's because you've just been circumcised. You felt it, didn't you? You experienced what it's like to have your clitoris sliced off. It wasn't really cut off, of course: that's the wonderful thing about a seraph. There's zero tissue damage. Absolutely none. The pain lingers for a few minutes then just melts away, and you're back to normal once more. Which means, of course, I can circumcise you over and over again, as often as I wish, and each time it will feel the same. Such a clever little device. I've no idea who invented it, but he or she deserves a medal.'

Jo experienced the strangest of sensations. It was as if her mind rose so that she was looking down on the scene from a high vantage point. She saw the cluttered room quite clearly; saw herself, and a woman bending over her wielding the dissecting tool. The tableau held for several seconds and then she was Jo once more, sagging back in the chair, and Annamarie was speaking to her.

‘Now then, I need you to do something for me, Josephine.'

Jo made no reply. She was still trembling violently and tears coursed down her cheeks.

‘What I want,' Annamarie said, ‘is for you to be very brave and not scream. Can you manage that, do you think? I do so hate a lot of fuss.' She treated Jo to a smile that was full of cruelty, and raised the seraph.

 

An hour later, leaning heavily on Helen's arm, Jo made her way back to their quarters.

‘A hot shower, as hot as you can stand it, and then bed,' Helen said. ‘Have another hot shower when you wake, then I'll come and give you a massage. You'll feel like a new woman afterwards, I promise.'

Jo nodded, wondering why Helen, who she'd thought of as the enemy, was being so nice to her.

‘It's just muscular,' Helen went on. ‘You've been straining against the straps, that's why you hurt all over. It's better if you can stay relaxed. Easier said than done, of course, when the pain's bad.'

Jo remembered Bel saying something similar all those weeks ago aboard
Dauntless
. Jo had fainted in the chair, and when she surfaced she felt just like this, aching in every joint and muscle. ‘Where's Eli?' she asked.

Helen shook her head grimly. ‘Worry about yourself, not her. Your friend's an expert at looking after number one, believe me.'

That seemed harsh and unfair, but Jo was too weary to pursue it. Tomorrow, she told herself, she would find a way to see Eli tomorrow.

 

 

 

Tomorrow duly arrived, and after the shower and promised massage Jo found she did indeed feel a whole lot better. She would even get to see Eli, too; they all would, Helen said. Annamarie had ‘entertainment' planned, at noon precisely. She told them to be ready at a quarter to twelve, bathed and naked; which told Jo more about the entertainment than she cared to know.

At the appointed time Helen came for them. They followed her to the lounge, where they found Annamarie waiting, lying on one of the couches with a naked Eli snuggled beside her. Perry stood alongside, watchful and silent as ever. Of Siggi there was no sign.

‘Time for some fun,' Annamarie said as they lined up in front of her. ‘At least, I shall enjoy it, but I'll be very surprised if you do.'

She rose from the couch, telling Eli to rejoin her friends, and she did so but with no great enthusiasm. Jo hardly recognised her. Her dark hair was up in an elegant coil, her make-up lent her an alluring, exotic air, and her skin glowed with a golden tan. The biggest change of all, however, was that she didn't spare Jo a second glance: she had eyes only for Annamarie. It wasn't hard to see what had happened; Eli had switched guardians from Jo – who had done such a miserable job of it – to someone who could truly protect her.

They all trooped through into the playroom, at one end of which was a raised area perhaps five yards square. It was to this that Annamarie led them.

‘I have four sessions planned,' she said, ‘one for each of you. We'll start with a little game I call Awawa to determine the running order. You'll work in pairs for this: Kitten with Josephine, and Stella with Bel. Helen will now get you ready.'

Helen led the four of them up the steps onto the dais and had them stand in line, with Stella at the end, then Bel, Eli, and Jo. Helen proceeded to tape short wires to their nipples, each wire terminating in a round black plastic sphere as big as a walnut. They were surprisingly heavy for their size, and Jo felt her nipples being tugged downwards by the weights. It was uncomfortable, certainly, if not exactly painful, but when Helen handed Annamarie a miniature controller Jo suspected all that was about to change.

‘Stand to attention!' Helen snapped. Eli alone failed to respond to the command, and Helen was obliged to push and prod her into position. Once they were all set the woman went down again and placed a chair in front of the dais. Annamarie sat, looking up at them.

‘Keep as still as you can,' she said. ‘Most especially I want you to keep your arms by your sides. Kitten, do you understand?'

‘Yes, mistress,' Eli said meekly.

‘I hope so,' Annamarie said. She pressed a button on the controller, all four of them flinched in unison, and all bar Stella gasped. It felt to Jo as though someone had stuck pins into her nipples, for a second or two, and then the sensation was gone. ‘As the goads are merely taped to your nipples,' Annamarie said, ‘it would be the easiest thing in the world just to pull them off. The first woman to do so loses the game, however, for herself and her partner. The losing pair will go last in the sessions, and the later ones are the more severe. Does everyone understand?'

There were unhappy nods all round.

‘Very well,' Annamarie said. ‘First I shall increase the power a little to make things interesting, and programme the sequence…' she tapped keys quickly, ‘…and now we can begin.'

She gave them a long look, a smile playing over her lips. Her finger hovered above the controller and Jo braced herself. The finger jabbed down and Jo flinched, then she realised nothing had happened. There was no pricking sensation, no pain of any sort. Annamarie was toying with them.

But only with three of them. Stella was standing stiffly, her arms rigid by her sides.

Annamarie laughed softly. ‘Did I forget to mention? You'll feel it one at a time.'

The three of them looked at Stella, who was clearly suffering, though precisely how much was hard to say. But even as they looked on nervously Stella sagged, and now it was Bel who gasped and went rigid. Jo began to count in her head: one-supernova… two-supernova…

When she reached five Eli whimpered and rose up onto her tiptoes. Jo faced forward, took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly, trying to relax. Any second now…

The pain hit, worse than before. Jo stiffened as the others had done, and her chin lifted. She counted to herself and at five, right on cue, the pain stopped. For her, that is, though not for the group. She heard Stella gasp and knew the controller had been programmed to cycle automatically.

‘As Stella is now discovering,' Annamarie said, ‘the level increments each cycle: by zero-point-two, to be precise. Simply put, the longer it goes on the more it hurts.'

It reached Eli just as she finished speaking, and Jo thought the girl's reaction was indeed more extreme, but there was little time for speculation, for just moments later it was her turn again, and most definitely it was worse. She clamped her jaw and fought the pain, keeping it inside the way Stella did.

And so it went on, round and around, becoming less bearable with each circuit. Almost as bad as the pain itself, Jo found, were the intervals between, watching the thing moving towards her down the line like some malevolent beast. She fully expected Eli would be the one to cave in, but the young woman proved surprisingly resilient. True, her distressed cries were louder than anyone else's, and her jerking more pronounced, but her arms remained resolutely by her side.

In fact it was Bel who called a halt, tugging the goads off her breasts and throwing them on the floor. Jo was sure she had done it deliberately, holding out just long enough to make it convincing.

‘Bel,' Annamarie said dryly, ‘why am I not surprised?'

The woman, Jo realised, wasn't fooled for a second.

 

Helen brought the four of them down off the dais, Annamarie having declared the running order to be Kitten, Jo, Stella, then Bel. As Awawa winners, she reiterated, Kitten and Jo could expect more lenient treatment than the other two.

‘Very well,' Annamarie said in conclusion, ‘let the fun begin.'

Eli was led to a waist-high bench and made to lie on her back while the other three held her. At Annamarie's instruction Jo and Stella held the girl's ankles, raising her legs and spreading them wide apart, while Bel grasped her wrists, keeping Eli's arms above her head. Annamarie unclipped the seraph from her belt.