Steel World Inc. Chapter Seventeen

 

“There were tears to begin with, of course. In the first year at least.”

 

I hoped my face showed no expression at all. I didn’t want Mr Frick to suspect what I was now thinking. 

 

“Ashlyn had thought she was going into the clinic for some work on her nose. Well that was certainly true. She came out with a beautiful nose, far better than the one she went in with, but really I’d only paid for the nose job so that the more important operation could be done. I permitted her a few weeks to remonstrate, and then I declared that time was done. Can you believe, in those first few weeks she actually threatened me with divorce? As if I would ever permit a women to divorce me. Now years later she’s very happy and understands it was all for her own good. She regularly wins prizes at baking competitions held by the Free Companions of the senior families. She has a wardrobe of lovely dresses and shoes to wear. She has coffee mornings to go to; hair and nail appointments and beauty treatment spa days with the other ladies. Yes, she is very happy.”

 

I hoped my face showed no expression at all. I really didn’t want Mr Frick to suspect what I was now thinking. 

 

“We do not do that to Free Women in London,” said Magnus. “Nor on Gor. Free Women have free will. Either a Free Woman is modest, frigid and demure to begin with, in which case such an operation is not necessary, or she is a secret slave, a natural slave, in which case her nature will become readily apparent and we will give her what she craves, but is too scared to beg for – a collar.”

 

“The world is changing, Karl,” said Frick. “London isn’t dominant anymore. Our Free Women need our help if they are to be demure, modest and respectable. New Feminism is just the beginning.”

 

Magnus nodded. “So it seems.”

 

“Time is getting on,” said Frick as he checked his watch. “This has all been entertaining, but I should see and approve the quality of the merchandise before it’s loaded into the van. The fillies need to be at the airfield by six.”

 

“And I need to be going soon, myself,” said Magnus. He turned to me. “I have business in Amsterdam. It will take me away for a few days, but when I’m back, Simon, we shall talk some more. You’ve demonstrated you have potential, and I’m going to make you an offer when I’m back. It will be a very good offer.”

 

“Yes, Sir.” I gazed down at Miss Madison. She was chained by my feet.  But she was still my manager.

 

“If you’re thinking in terms of Emily, let me assure you she won’t be your manager going forward.”

 

“What?” Miss Madison glanced up, troubled by that remark. Why would she no longer be Simon’s manager?

 

“I’m moving Simon to a position with more authority. I’m putting him in charge of Enterprise Resource Planning and Modular Design.”

 

“But that’s my department!”

 

“You’re being reassigned, Emily. You’ll be moved to a non-operational division. You’ve been working too hard recently. You need an easier job, with less responsibility, and less authority, I think.”

 

Miss Madison looked up at me with alarm. I would be taking over her position in the company? She would, in effect, be demoted?

 

“You’re making a mistake, Karl! He isn’t dominant. He can’t handle that kind of responsibility. He won’t be able to handle the girls we procure. Not like me.”

 

“I think he’s handled you quite well,” said Frick. “What did you say to him just now? The words that came freely to your mind as you served him?”

 

Miss Madison blushed. “Those words didn’t mean anything, of course. I’m simply a good actress. You know the words didn’t mean anything.”

 

“Repeat the words. Just so we both understand what Simon inspired you to say.”

 

She blushed some more. “A slave called Emily offers her master wine. A girl called Emily is his to use, if it pleases him.” She seemed furious, but also completely helpless. “I thought it was quite a clever phrase. I’ve heard girls in the training kennels use them before, or words like them. I am a talented actress.”

 

Frick nodded. “And before that? The phrase before that, specifically?” 

 

"I am a slave girl. I serve you, kneeling and collared. I am wet and needy. Take me later to the alcove.” Mis Madison blushed. Perhaps she felt the words as she said them again. Felt them deep in her belly.

 

“Quite. I think he had you responding perfectly. Responding as a feminine woman does. A feminine woman who doesn’t have to search too hard to speak the words that she secretly feels.”

 

“I hate you all!” she hissed as she moved, the palm of her left hand supporting her weight as she lay on her side, sitting up. She shook her hair again and scratched her nails in frustration against the floor. “This chain! This collar!”

 

To the side, Mr Frick chuckled at her outburst. 

 

“I suppose you’re going to tell me that in Pittsburgh your women aren’t free to say things like that?” said Magnus with a smile.

 

“No, they speak like that all the time. It’s very familiar. We put up with it, if they are free.”

 

Magnus nodded. “Some things never change.”

 

“What is different in Pittsburgh is that our Free Women don’t hold positions of authority. You know, Magnus, that I am a committed Gorean. I admire every aspect of Gorean culture, and the six months I spent on Gor when I was sixteen - when the Fricks routinely send their young sons away to learn and experience first-hand - those six months were a time of exploration and study that I shall never forget. I love Gor with all my heart. But I have never understood why Goreans in the service of the Steel Worlds routinely assign Free Women to their most sensitive operations.”

 

“They make good agents,” said Magnus.

 

“They do not,” said Frick. “They are commonly vain, over confident, arrogant, sexually frustrated, rash, unable to inspire the unhappy men who are required to work for them, and worst of all, they are incompetent. The North American families do not assign women to roles of authority. If we want something done properly, we use ex-Spetsnaz mercenaries. What we don’t do is assign overall command to someone called Miss Audrey Hamilton-Jones, who has a French Dresser full of Victoria’s Secret underwear back at home.” Frick looked down at the soft, helpless Miss Madison, chained close to his feet. “No wonder London is no longer ascendent and the North American families lead the way in the West.”

 

“Karl, please, you can’t move me sideways to manage another division!”

 

“I think that is the least of your concerns now, girl,” said Frick. He turned his attention back towards Magnus. “Are you really going to pretend you didn’t hear anything?”

 

“Perhaps now isn’t the best time,” said Magnus. He didn’t look very happy. “Shall we go and inspect your consignment?”

 

“First things first,” said Frick. “Are you really going to pretend you didn’t hear anything? Is this what you have become, Karl?”

 

“She’s an English woman. She isn’t Gorean. We make allowances. We obviously have to make allowances. The way they dress in England, for example. If we applied Gorean culture for Free Women without exception, then almost every woman in London would fall short in their choice of clothing.”

Frick waved that aside. “That I understand. It’s the same in North America. Women are not veiled and they expose their lower legs and bare arms, like slaves. It will change in time, of course. We will teach them how they comport themselves in future. We all understand that. But some things can’t be overlooked, can they?”

 

I didn’t know what Frick was getting at, but Magnus obviously did, and I sensed he had hoped the subject wouldn’t be brought up. Miss Madison sensed, too, that something was now wrong, but like me she didn’t understand what that might be. 

 

“Shall we talk about this in private, Willard?” suggested Magnus.

 

“Why?” He gazed down at the chained figure of Miss Madison again. “What’s done is done, isn’t it?”

 

“What are you talking about?” asked Miss Madison. “I don’t like this roundabout way of talking. You’re talking about me, obviously.” She shook her head, arrogantly. “I have served the wine, and now I want to be freed.”

 

“You declared yourself a slave,” said Frick. “Do you have any familiarity with Gorean merchant law? The moment a Free Woman declares herself a slave, whatever the context, she instantly becomes one. Her legal status is irrevocably altered. She cannot take back the words. The simplest form of doing so is of course to utter the phrase ‘la kajira’, meaning ‘I am a slave girl’ in English. Gorean law makes it easy and convenient for the female to submit, though out of courtesy she should speak those words while kneeling, perhaps bowing her head and crossing her wrists as she offers them to a man for binding.”

 

There was silence for a moment as Miss Madison considered and then rejected that.

 

“This isn’t funny, Karl.” She sat up on the floor and touched her collar. “Mr Frick’s joke is in poor taste.” When Magnus didn’t immediately reply, Miss Madison quickly added, “I would like this chain removed. I want this collar removed. At once!”

 

“Simon, do you have the key?” Miss Madison looked up at me.

 

“I do, yes.”

 

“Good. Give it to me.”

 

I felt Frick’s eyes warning me now. I did not give Miss Madison the key to either the chain or to the collar.

 

She looked frustrated.

 

“I suppose you want to unlock the chain yourself, to prove some sort of mastery over me, Simon.” She shook her hair in an angry manner. “Very well, if that makes you happy.” She tilted her head so that I could easily access either the lock clasp on the collar ring, or the lock on the collar itself. I of course reached for neither. 

 

“I said I want to be unchained!”

 

“Are you really that stupid?” said Frick to Miss Madison. “You enslaved yourself, under Gorean merchant law. You have been a slave now for over fifteen minutes. You are no longer a Free Woman.”

 

“No!” There was fear in her eyes, but also a realisation that Frick wasn’t joking. “No, please!

 

“Nadu!” he said.

 

To my surprise, Miss Madison did as she was told without protest. It was almost as if she knew only too well what might happen to a slave girl if she was in any way disobedient or slow to respond to a command from a man. As if the penalties might be severe to a magnitude infinitely beyond the penalties applied to a recalcitrant Free Woman. She adopted the nadu position that I had seen before, kneeling, with her thighs parted, her back straight and the palms of her hands resting on those lovely thighs. I have to admit it is a beautiful way for women to be posed before a man. How natural it looks. 

 

But I could tell from Miss Madison’s expression that this wasn’t now some sort of consensual bondage game. This was very real to her. 

 

She trembled uncontrollably as she knelt there.

 

“Willard, she is unaware of Gorean merchant law. She is unfamiliar with the words of enslavement that a Free Woman may speak on Gor. She wouldn’t have spoken those words had she known.”

 

“That makes no difference on Gor. Self-enslavement is self-enslavement. Are you going soft, Karl? After all these years surrounded by Earth women? You don’t even own a personal slave, do you?”

 

“I have no need for one. I have a kennel full of slaves in this house. I use them as and when I wish.”

 

“A man needs a personal slave in his own collar. Or a dozen or so, in my case. I would swiftly grow bored with just one.”

 

It occurred to me that Karl Magnus didn’t really want to enslave Miss Madison. I found that interesting. He seemed to care for her. Was he… in love with her?

 

“But she isn’t on Gor, and so Gorean merchant law doesn’t apply. She is an Earth woman living in London. Again, we have to accept the reality of the situation and make allowances, Willard,” said Magnus.

 

“Listen to you, Karl. You’re Gorean, yet I sound more Gorean than you do. Do you have feelings for this girl?”

 

“No.” Karl’s face was impassive. 

 

“Are you secretly in love with her? Do you somehow imagine she is exempt from the collar, no matter her behaviour?”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous, Willard. We are not on Gor,” said Magnus. He seemed uncomfortable with the accusation. 

 

“Ah, so, if we were on Gor…”

 

“Then, yes, that would be different. She would be enslaved. But this is London, on Earth. I could not tolerate such words from a Free Woman on Gor. But Miss Madison has never been to Gor.”

 

“Except, she has,” said Frick with a winning smile. “And so, by your own admission, Karl, she has enslaved herself.”

 

“I have not been to Gor!” said Miss Madison. I could see she was telling the truth. Although I still had no idea what they were talking about. They made it sound like some other planet entirely. Preposterous. It was some sort of mass delusion in this house. 

 

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Karl, but this house and grounds is Gor. As are the other embassy houses across the world. We consider the properties to be an extension of Gorean territory, and therefore all laws on Gor apply here with equal measure. The moment the girl stepped over the threshold, she entered Gor. And by your own admission, you cannot therefore ignore her declaration of self-enslavement.”

 

There was no mistaking that Magnus was now trapped. Frick had delivered an argument that Magnus could not repudiate. 

 

“Karl, please,” begged Miss Madison. She did not dare move from her slave position. “I didn’t know! I didn’t know!” 

 

“This is Gor,” said Magnus, sadly.

 

“And so?” prompted Frick. 

 

“You are a slave, Emily. You have been for the last twenty minutes.”

 

“No! Pease, no!” Her collar chain jingled as her body shook.

 

“Do not break position,” warned Frick. “I will overlook your failure to call men master since you were enslaved, as it appears you are an ignorant barbarian, but you will be careful to speak clearly and appropriately from now on.”

 

From the rising and falling of Miss Madison’s lovely breasts in that tight tunic, I could see panic was setting in.

 

No, Magnus didn’t seem happy with any of this. Again, I thought that was very interesting. 

 

“One question remains, of course,” said Frick. “At present she is a slave, yes, but she hasn’t been claimed. Who then will claim her as his property?”

 

On an impulse I began to speak. “I…”

 

I was silenced as Frick raised a finger in warning to my face.

 

“Not so eager, boy. It’s not your place.” He smiled. “I can understand your desire to own your first slave, but in this house our host has precedence.” He gazed again at Magnus. “Do you claim this slave?”

 

He had little choice, it seemed.

 

“I do.”

 

“Kiss the feet of your master,” said Frick.

 

Miss Madison sobbed as she moved and lowered her lips to Karl’s shoes. I watched as she licked and kissed them. 

 

Frick seemed to guess what I was thinking. “He won’t free her, boy. That would be a sign of weakness. There is a saying on Gor: only a fool frees a slave. Isn’t that right, Karl?”

 

Magnus nodded. 

 

“But don’t worry, boy. You’ll own your first slave in good time.” He slapped me about the shoulder. “All good things come to those who wait. Come with me. I think you’ll enjoy viewing the merchandise I’m flying back to Pittsburgh this morning.”

 

“I am away in Amsterdam for a few days, Emily,” said Magnus as the girl looked up at him with a pleading expression. “You will be caged in the kennels in this house with the other girls until I am back. I will brand you myself on my return.”