Nestgorm pasted in his response first, and then read the society’s email. He noticed it was worded a bit stronger than usual.
“If it is found that you have been deceiving the Central Planet authorities in any way regarding the need to capture females by hypnosis for your species’ survival, we will take every possible legal action against you.”
“Haha! Right! What can they do? Nothing!” said Nestgorm, pressing the computer’s off button.
Chapter 22
Marroo flew through timeless and endless warp space, on his way to Earth in search of new, tantalizing prey. As usual, he passed the long hours on such a journey by considering the charms of his many alien love interests around the universe. But this time, something was frustratingly different. His thoughts kept turning to the Earth slave Antaska.
“Drat!” said Marroo.
Has my mind been polluted by contact with that lower life form female? he wondered. Maybe getting more Earth females isn’t a good idea after all.
After telling himself for several hours that he should turn back and head for the far reaches of space like the rest of the Woogah hunters, Marroo found he couldn’t do it. His desire to experience physical love with an Earth human female was too strong.
I’ll do this, and then that Earth slave will be out of my system, he decided.
To distract his thoughts from Antaska, Marroo decided to study educational information on the Verdantes.
The more I know about them, the better prepared I’ll be to deal with them, he thought.
A search of his computer’s database pulled up a list of several audio tapes. “Historical Case Study of Captured and Released Verdante Slave (Classified)” looked interesting. Marroo pressed a button to run the tape.
“This case study documents the capture of an adolescent Verdante female who was later released as an adult,” a male Woogah voice narrated. “It explains why the Woogahs now prohibit slave hunters from capturing Verdantes.”
Wow! I didn’t know that! thought Marroo.
He remembered how he had skimped on some of the required training material for his job.
The audiotape continued. “An eight-foot-tall Verdante female was captured as an adolescent. Because of her immense strength, superhuman speed, and naturally long lifespan, no genetic alteration was needed to improve her in those areas. However, her need for sunlight made it necessary to modify her with Woogah genes, as our species lives underground with a few exceptions.
“As an adolescent, she was a valuable worker, able to perform twice as much work as the other slaves. Although so much bigger, she only required the same amount of food as the others. Her only additional needs were large amounts of chlorophyll water and a larger bed. But after 400 years, this slave reached her full adult height and growth—over ten feet tall and weighing over 300 pounds—and that’s when she became a problem for her owner.
“Her immense size and strength was seen as a safety hazard. As you know, all slave owners genetically alter themselves to ensure their strength is superior to that of their altered slaves. They must be able to physically subdue them in case their hypnotic trance slips, and they become violent. Once this slaved reached adulthood, her strength was beyond what the Woogah genetic alteration procedure could accomplish for their slave owners.
“As this slave grew larger and stronger, her owner became concerned that he would not be able to physically restrain her while he administered hypnosis if her trance ever slipped before he had the chance to reinforce it. This is a rare occurrence, and the slave hadn’t slipped from her trance once during her ownership, but with any slave, the risk is always there.
“An even greater risk presented itself when the Verdante slave reached adulthood. Whether it was the effect of Woogah genes, Verdante telepathic powers, or perhaps the combination of both is unknown. In any case, the slave developed frightening hypnotic powers. When the plant owner looked into her eyes to check the healthiness of her trance, he found himself falling in love with her! Her own state of infatuation drove her to attempt to set the same kind of hypnotic trance on him, and her powers strengthened with each passing day.”
“No!” Marroo exclaimed in his solitary cockpit.
“The owner began to avoid her, but at night, he felt the relentless probing of her mind! He was driven nearly to madness. Finally, he returned her to the Woogah hunter who had captured her, demanding a full refund. After that, he was like a ruined man. It was as if he was caught in some unbreakable bond. He retired young from his work and returned below the surface to live with his Woogah mate and genetic offspring.”
“Not good!” said Marroo.
The tape continued. “The slave hunter she was returned to had no use for her and was desperate to get rid of her. Because the Verdantes had been petitioning in the Universal Court on Central Planet for her return during the 400 years of her captivity, it was decided that the best course of action was to negotiate with them. The Woogah lawyers did not reveal that they wanted to be rid of this slave but instead demanded concessions for her return.
“The boon granted to the Woogahs was a legal agreement that any humanoid female who went to the Woogahs of her own free will couldn’t be taken away without her consent. The Woogahs insisted this was their right under the universal law that allowed all sentient beings to love and live with whomever they chose, even if that meant living among another species.
“At the time, other than Woogah captives, there were very few examples of beings falling in love with members of another species. Although most beings didn’t believe that the females who were hypnotized by the Woogah were actually in love with them, the Verdantes agreed to these terms and convinced the Universal Court to accept them as well, thereby causing great misery to the loved ones of countless telepathic females throughout the universe.
“From that point on, the Woogah hunters would not make the same mistake of capturing a Verdante female. Not knowing the real reason behind the decision to return this slave, the Verdantes began their policy of prohibiting their females from traveling in deep space. We Woogahs have allowed the Verdantes to remain ignorant in this matter because if they knew the truth, the would likely exploit this weakness. Other species would exploit it as well.
“Therefore, please note that it is forbidden to reveal the information on this case to any person without classified clearance. Remember: Our planet’s healthy economy depends on your discretion and professionalism!”
Marroo chuckled to himself.
“Those Verdante fools!” he said mentally.
He often talked to himself on long journeys to break the endless silence.
“How fortunate that I happened to play this tape!” he said. “With my luck, I might have flown past a Verdante adolescent on Earth and grabbed her. I wasn’t planning that, but there’s plenty of Verdante adolescents walking around on Earth—seemingly unsupervised. What a mess I’d have made for myself. They might even take away my hunting license for that! Phew!”
Marroo wiped a hand across his sweaty dark blue brow.
He looked on his computer screen at the list of remaining educational tapes on the Verdantes. For some reason, he had lost interest. This flight was beginning to feel exceptionally long.
Marroo leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and considered the pros and cons of cold flight storage.
Chapter 23
Antaska stood for almost an hour listening to the taped orientation for her new work in Nestgorm’s factory.
“The workers in this department are called raw supply specialists,” said the tape. “Your job will be to run and climb as fast as you can around the factory collecting bags of various molds that are required by the product production department. You will take the supplies from the shelves and put them in your backpack. It’s specially designed to expand to hold as much as a typical slave can carry. Once your backpacks is full—and your taped directions will tell you exactly when that is—you will run to the delivery area and deposit your mold
bags into the correct delivery chutes.”
The tape continued on with detailed directions for this work. Antaska’s brain, empty of memories and now genetically enhanced, easily absorbed all of the information.
“Your audio device will direct you where to get the required products,” Nestgorm’s voice continued. “Because you have been enhanced for physical strength, you won’t need rest periods. Your daily work cycle will be continuous without stopping other than for three fast meals served during the sixteen-hour workday and four strictly regulated bathroom breaks. Remember: I will be watching you and timing you. I expect you to show me your love by working your very hardest. Your reward will be listening to my voice on your tape each day.
“Now your orientation is complete. Push the button for your first task, and get to work!” the voice of Nestgorm ordered.
Antaska pressed the button to receive her directions and then took off running as ordered.
“Go to aisle 23, row 15,” ordered Nestgorm’s voice.
Antaska dashed toward her first work assignment and was surprised to see how fast she was able to run, although she couldn’t remember her life before waking in Marroo’s bed.
Hour after hour, Antaska raced through the plant as ordered by the audio device on her backpack. A compilation of Nestgorm’s vocal tones allowed the device to give whatever directions were needed in his voice. Females of many alien species wearing similar backpacks raced past with dreamy smiles on their faces. They ignored Antaska and she ignored them.
In her state of mental befuddlement, Antaska paid no attention to her surroundings, focusing only on her need to please Nestgorm and thereby please Marroo. Hundreds of humanoid and semi-humanoid females rushed about the factory performing their assigned tasks. Whether skinned, scaled, furred, or feathered, they all moved like love-sick robots, including Antaska.
Antaska dashed down an aisle crisscrossed with a flurry of slaves racing past each other to collect and deliver their assigned products. The factory packed a huge amount of stored mold into its available space. Bags of mold were stacked on shelves to the full height of the ten-story high building. To get the mold stored above their reach, workers climbed with enhanced speed up and down tall narrow ladders attached to grooves from the floor to the ceiling, allowing them to be slid down the aisle as needed. Antaska reached her first destination.
“Obtain two bags of mold type 231567338,” ordered the voice of Nestgorm. The molds were numbered sequentially, and Antaska was able to locate the bags a third of the way down the aisle and about five stories up. She was surprised again when she realized that she could clearly see the numbers all the way to the top of the shelves.
Antaska pushed herself to move faster as she completed her assignments, obtaining mold bags and taking them to the delivery chutes. Concentrating on completing her work, she forgot Nestgorm’s troubling words about staying here for the rest of her life. Her knees, feet, and legs grew sore after several hours of running, bending, and climbing. She began to feel tired and short of breath, but she kept going.
Finally, the voice of Nestgorm blasted throughout the warehouse. “Attention all slaves, you will report to the feeding room at the end of aisle 10. That is all.”
At once, all of the slaves stopped work and ran toward aisle 10. Antaska ran with them. She entered one of several open doorways that led into the vast utilitarian dining hall, crowded with enough long tables to seat all of them.
The slaves entered in assigned order and went to their assigned seats. Antaska followed the directions on her tape and seated herself on a hard gray plasti-mold bench attached to a hard gray plasti-mold table. The orange-furred humanoid female seated on her right dug into the food on the plate in front of her, ignoring Antaska.
Another slave, a humanoid female with black and white striped skin and long silver hair, dropped down on the bench on the other side of Antaska and also immediately began eating without taking any interest in the other slaves around her. Antaska noticed the colorful physical features of the slaves on either side of her, but she also noticed that she was hungry, almost starving. All of the slaves, including Antaska, pulled off their gloves before eating, and placed them possessively in their laps.
Antaska began gulping down her food and water. The food was a bland but nutritious mold and fungus gruel that contained all the nourishment the slaves needed to fuel their work. No resources had been wasted on flavorings, textures, variety, or the appearance of this single blended food product. But it felt nutritious as it went into Antaska’s stomach. It also seemed that no resources had been wasted on cooking or chilling the food. It was room temperature—neither hot nor cold.
Antaska looked around the room at the hundreds of females shoveling gruel into their mouths. In their befuddled mental state, these hypnotized females didn’t seem to notice what the food looked like or tasted like. But Antaska noticed. It had a sour, spoiled flavor, and she thought that most humanoids and even animals wouldn’t eat it unless they were starving. The gruel had a mushy consistency from various unidentifiable lumps of ingredients that had not been completely blended. Antaska noticed the unappetizing flavor and texture, but she had worked hard, burning thousands of calories, and had eaten nothing that day. Because she had no memories of her past, she was disturbed to find that she had no memories of eating anything before this meal. Like the others, she shoveled the food into her mouth as fast as she could, even though she had to stop herself from gagging on the disgusting mixture.
When the food was all gone, Antaska was still hungry. She looked around the room. Most of the others had empty plates or were almost finished with their food. In a far corner of the room, a group of love-struck looking females stood near large tubs. The slaves stood still and waiting.
Antaska, with her now-enhanced sense of smell, knew that the food must have come from those tubs and wondered if she would be allowed more if she asked for it. Just as she had made up her mind to approach the kitchen workers, the voice of Nestgorm boomed again throughout the feeding room.
“Attention all slaves, you will press the button on your audio instruction device and get back to work. You will work very hard if you want to please me. That is all.”
Rapidly and orderly, without any pushing or shoving, the slaves rushed from the room to their next assignments, Antaska among them.
Sitting in his office, Nestgorm used his surveillance system to observe his newest slave. He was pleased to see that her behavior exactly resembled that of the rest of the slaves in the room. She devoured her nutritious but tasteless mold-based meal in record time. Tracking her work progress from the morning, he saw that she had not only met but exceeded the average productivity expected from a new worker.
This one has turned out to be a wise investment after all, thought Nestgorm.
He had been concerned that the hypnotic trance supplied by Marroo may have been faulty.
So despite the insistence of my younger relatives that it’s time for me to start training my replacement and think about retirement, I’m still the best businessman on the planet, he told himself.
Nestgorm had no life outside of his work plant and wasn’t looking forward to retirement. He knew that once a young apprentice came up to train, it would only be a matter of time before the young pup would take over everything. This is exactly what had happened when Nestgorm as a young man came up from the deep underground home caverns to train with his predecessor.
After so many thousands of years, Nestgorm could still remember how anxious he was to get the old man out of his way and gain control of the plant. Now Nestgorm would most certainly be pushed aside and have the choice of either sitting in his quarters doing nothing or moving back to stay with his family underground. Neither of those options appealed to him. But he also knew that he had to consider what was best for his business, his large extended family who benefited from his great wealth, and the Woogah citizens who benefited from his products. It would truly be irresponsible to work until his death
without having trained a new manager to take his place.
Perhaps it can wait just a little while longer, he thought wistfully.
He leaned back in an old and worn but comfortable chair made many years ago from the finest mold products.
Chapter 24
Antaska’s long, grueling day finally ended after three more super-strenuous work periods with breaks for two more meals. Each slave was allowed one fast bathroom break during each work period, regulated by their audio devices to avoid crowding. Just as Antaska thought she would collapse from the pain in her feet, legs, and back and her sheer physical weakness, Nestgorm’s voice was heard throughout the warehouse.
“All slaves, report to your sleeping quarters. That is all.”
Because she was new, Antaska’s device gave her additional instructions.
“Proceed to the end of aisle 57 and exit the building from the nearest door. You will walk from there to barracks door 12 and enter. Your sleeping cubicle is number 1250. You will wait in the shower line and shower before entering your cubicle.”
With extreme relief, Antaska limped toward aisle 57.
hypnoSnatch (Xeno Relations Book 2) Page 15
