Chapter 24
An hour later guards came into the room and first got the males, one after each other and after half an hour they came to collect all the women at once. They were herded up some stairs into a small room behind a stage. A well-dressed man with cruel eyes stood before them and explained in a cold distant voice.
"Good evening girls, as you know, you all wear a control collar. This is what's going to happen now, I will introduce you and then you will be required to mingle in the publicum and answer all questions they ask of you. If anybody touches you under your clothes, you are allowed to shout it out. If you flee or are violent you will get punished. Now go on out."
He led them onto the stage. The front room was full of men and a few women. Servants running around serving drinks and Bia and the others were paraded in front of the publicum and then seated on chairs at the back of the stage. Lecherous chants and obscenities were shouted during the show the auctioneer stood up to the front of the stage.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Now to the fun part of the evening. We have for you 9 gentle ladies of various age and condition. You know the rules; we will introduce and then send them into the publicum in a few moments and yes you are allowed to see and talk but you will respectfully not touch our ladies until you bought them. Let the show begin."
With these words the first woman was send forward and introduced to the masses then send into the publicum. When it was Bia's turn the auctioneer praised her pure status and her young age. Descending into the masses, men leered at her and mostly wanted a verbal confirmation if she was untouched. A few were asking what other traits she had, and Bia answered softly that her interest lay in bioengineering and hydroponics. She looked around but couldn't see Damon and when the 30 minutes of mingling with the crowd ended her nerves were shot.
Then there was the begin of the auction. The other women stood with her resigned on the stage and a few shed tears, fearing the unknown. Bia stood tall despite the uncertainty in her heart. If only Ceri were able to make contact. The auctioneer pulled women after women to the front, some were sold for just a few thousand credits and two even got into the thirty thousand range.
Bia was pulled forward second to last, the auctioneer praised again her pure status and the bidding started. Spotlights were on her that made it very difficult to see into the publicum, and yet she did not hear Damon or Zar bid for her when the prize for her topped out at 25.000 credits. Just before the gavel hit again another buyer started bidding against the first. This one still did not sound familiar, because it was a woman and when she finally won the bid for Bia for 28.500 credits Bia's hope for a rescue by Damon or Zar was crushed, tears of despair ran slowly down her cheek.
Bia was led back into the room with the cages by another guard, who told her in a friendly tone, when she asked why she was staying here.
"Girl you need to stay here until your buyer comes and gets you. But don't worry at least you were lucky enough not to end up in one of the whore houses." And left her alone in the room. With nothing else to do she tried to fall asleep and enter the thought scape. But because Bia was so weary about everything around her - she never reached the depth she needed to get there instead every sound woke her and let her heartbeat spike. It seemed the middle of the night or early morning, Bia couldn't tell having no light cycle or clock on her, when the guard came back with two men accompanying him.
"Girl, your buyer is here. Be a nice wench and remember they have the remote to your collar too." With those words the guard opened the cage and let one in. Bia noticed two things about the men. The first that entered the cell was tall and build like a runner lean and mean and still young. He wore a long knife and a blaster on his belt and moved with a smoothness of one who can fight. He clipped a thin metal leash into her collar. The second man waited outside and was older, burly with a pudgy belly grazing his middle but much better clothed. And both were neither Damon nor Zar.
Bia knew she needed to get out of any cell, cage or closed room anyway and followed without a fight. Cataloging everything around her and searching for a weapon or a way out. They came to a standstill in front of the pudgy man, who let his gaze wander appraisingly up and down her body. He grabbed her chin and inspected Bia like a piece of meat, greed and lust filling his eyes as he ordered them to follow him home. The guard pulled a hood over her head and she was led away.
It was disconcerting not to know where she was going, and the men began to quarrel in a different tongue than the common she knew. They had to be walking outside, cause in her thin dress Bia could feel the difference between shade and sun on her skin. After her ordeal in the last two days, Bia had no idea how many hours she already spent on Wandu or how much longer it would take for Damon or Zar to find her. When they later arrived at their destination, they entered a building and she was led to a chair, the leash unclipped and the taller of the two said.
"You can take the hood off, we are inside. Please sit now." Bia obeyed, her hands shaking taking off the hood and after looking around sat on the chair. The room was a common room of sorts, a sofa with a throw and two wooden chairs flanking a small table, it had two doors, one to the outside beside a window. It was high though, never had Bia seen rafters in a room, but over her were some, dividing the air above her into two stories. She couldn't find anything she could use as a weapon except maybe the legs on the chairs or the leash laying on the table. Beside knowing two languages Bia's only hint that she was the topic of their conversation were the gestures.
Not even a few words sounded familiar to her. She thought it was best for her to play the meek and shy female and wait for Ceri to connect to her again. Maybe she could get a longer sleep tonight and finally talk to her and find out where Zar and Damon are. While observing the argument she surmised they had to be family, both had the same brown eyes and nose, but where the younger man looked more rugged due to his formerly broken nose and square chin, the pudgy one had a drinker nose, knobby and reddish and a sharper double chin.
Too bad the younger one never wandered near her chair and always rechecked if she was still sitting here or she could have grabbed for his weapon. He is either used to guarding or fighting, especially with his movements being very fluid and at the same time his movement were very economical, never did his arms leave the core pillar of his body, meaning, he knew exactly where his center of mass sits and even with greater gestures he also moved the rest of the body.
Most people don't do that, they usually flail their arms and then move because they need to, like the smaller man. He flailed around, shout and his gesture force him to move around, that way he looks like he is taking up more space than the other. No definitely not a fighter thought Bia, especially because his breathing already accelerated, and his head turned an ugly tomato red.
Despite that every gesture towards her felt like an invisible knife pointed at her, Bia relaxed and lost most of her fear while observing them. They really have to be used to shouting, but she guessed the smaller man will soon run out of air, as worked up as he is. Despite having a big family, she never really had a chance to see people in shouting matches. Yes, her cousins would quarrel but usually one would win and it's over or Marr would step in and cleared everything up quickly. They came to an end and the younger one seemed to have lost his argument, because he just gestured to the other and then to me and went to the wall to stand against it and watch what happened next.
The smaller man left the room and came back with three tumblers filled to a third with a brown liquid. He gave Bia one and also the other man, he then turned to her and with a smile gestured to the younger man.
"That is Nick and my name is Hamilton and I am the one that bought you. Please don't be scared, I know how foreign and frightening that concept to be owned by someone is for you, but I promise I will take care of you. I saw you on that stage and did not think of enslaving you but freeing you and becoming your husband. I bought you to be my wife and start a family with me. The wedding will be in two days and I promise you; I will be the best husband ever. To the future." He lifted his tumbler in a toast and waited for Bia to do so.
During his speech Bia eyes widened in disbelief and she got angry, and when he wanted her to toast him, she slowly stood up, set the tumbler on the chair, crossed her arms, lifted her chin and said in a firm voice.
"No!" Hamilton took a step back, surprised by her vehemence and started again to regain a reddish hue in his face while Bia explained in a steely voice.
"I am bought by you as a slave, collar and all, I am here without my consent; If you think for a nanosecond, that I am willingly trade in my former freedom to be a meek little wife for you without a fight, you are sorely underestimating me. I will not marry you, period." Hamilton stared at her for a second then his face turned even uglier red and he sneered at her, stepped up to her and grabbed her hair, bending her head backwards.
"You will do as I say bitch, and you will be my wife. If I have to break you down and build you back up; that's okay too. You only have one job here and that is to spread your legs and get knocked up." He slapped her hard enough for her to lose her footing and kicked her in the stomach. Bia rolled to her feet, breathing through the pain and noticed with a glance the distaste in Nick's eyes. She straightened up and evaded the next kick from Hamilton who shouted at Nick.
"Grab her you fool." But Nick just remained at the wall and said coolly.
"Not my job and you know it." Hamilton growled and retrieved the remote from his pocket and shocked Bia into crumbling to the floor. Before she could react, he kicked her again and shocked her for five seconds. But instead of stopping her screaming and writhing her body began to shake violently and she fell into a seizure for a few minutes. Nick paled, then ran to her, checking her mouth and prying it open to insert the back of his knife between her teeth.
"Shit, why doesn't the remote stop shocking her." Hamilton asked panicked.
"You idiot, she has a seizure, the collar probably just jump-started it. Didn't you check first if she had a clean bill of health? Oh, who am I asking you just wanted her ass." Then Bia stopped seizing and Nick noticed her body relaxed but her breathing stopped completely.
"Shit, shit, Ham, come here, she stopped breathing. You need to breathe for her." Nick checked her pulse and finding none began stretching her flat on the carpet. He stretched her neck backwards, checked her mouth, found the right spot for lung compressions and began compressing her chest 30 times and ordered Hamilton to pinch her nose shut and breathe two times into her. After a minute Bia took her first independent breath again and her heart was working again. Nick sat back onto his haunches and pinned Hamilton with a hard look.
"Now you will tell me exactly what was in her medical file. You wanted her; so make damn sure you don't kill her." Hamilton brought up her file in his DOA and sent it to Nick, then he began to read it and found the notice that the electric collars should be avoided to be used because of her elevated metal levels in her body, he also found the notice that she be handled with care and extra nutrition until she gained at least 5 pounds. Disgusted Nick ground his teeth while Hamilton fumed and cursed up a storm as he also read the file.
"These bastards sold me a broken bitch. I should kill them all. She isn't even worth her prize if she can't fulfill her role."
"Come on Ham, you had to know there's more to her with that low a prize. It's your own damn fault if you couldn't be bothered to read her file beforehand. You know there are no refunds and reclamations." Nick, who also read her file removed the collar.
"Hey what are you doing?" He chucked it at Hamilton head.
"This thing will kill her, if you decide to kill her yourself use a blaster, a knife or your fucking fists. But I will not stand by cleaning up after one of your rages, because you had your finger just a smidge too long on the remote. Find another way to break her or set her free but no more of this shit. I never wanted to be part of this fucking shit anyway. Two fucking damn weeks, you couldn't wait until I am free from here, could you?" Hamilton stepped back from the wrath in Nicks voice.
Softly Nick gathered Bia off the floor and brought her upstairs to his room and put her down on his bed. Then he descended back to confront Hamilton, who already had another tumbler filled and sat on the couch.
"Uncle. Can you explain to me, why you bought that girl upstairs? And don't give me this bull shit about wanting to have a family that may be your excuse for her, but I don't buy it."
"Look boy, I don't care if you like me or believe that I want to build a family. I do want somebody to take over and I need an heir pronto bevor I am too old. You certainly aren't any help either." Nick cooled his mimic before the rage he felt could show.
"Oh, and why oh, why may that be, uncle dearest? Every woman in this family died and you did nothing. Heck you even let your own sister get fucked to death without lifting a finger."
"I couldn't save her." Hamilton roared into Nicks face.
"Don't tell me you couldn't have sold your ship and paid her dues." Arctic fury shaded Nicks answer when Hamilton took another drink and threw his glass against the wall.
"It is not that easy. You make it sound if I did not want that. I was too late, I was just two days too late. She was already dead when I had the money, instead I got settled with a ten-year-old who has a chip on his shoulder the size of Wandu. And look where we are now, you still think you can handle everything better than me and that I am the cause for every evil on this planet. I need an heir and you are out."
"Then by the stars adopt one. Why do you need a wife? Believe me I lived with you for long enough you are not good husband material." Hamilton sighed sadly at Nick's reply.
"Because... I don't want another fucked up kid on my conscience. Yes, you are right I could adopt but whoever I get, will be fucked up by me anyways. I need not a wife but a mother for whatever kid I get." Nicks eyes strayed to the ceiling where Bia rested as he exhausted asked.
"And your brilliant plan was to get a girl barely legal age and mold her to your fantasy of a loving wife? Did you just thought with your dick when you were bidding? There were other much more appropriate women for that. And even if those weren't to your liking you still could have employed a woman to help you rear a kid. But no ... you had to bid on the one virgin up there and when she did not at once leaped at your oh so gracious offer you clobbered and punished her into cardiac arrest. Please tell me how you think that will be going tomorrow when she wakes up?" Tired Hamilton sat down, took Bia's tumbler and chucked it down. Resignation and weariness in his voice he conceded.
"Yeah; I fucked up, okay? I saw her, and I wanted to own her ass. I mean did you see her? She is stunning, and I didn't care what her file said. I needed to have her, but when her fear evaporated here, and she stood up to me I got so angry. Never had a woman let alone a girl stood up to me, even your mother respected me, but she threw my offer into my face." Nick looked down at his inebriated uncle.
"You are a moron. Hamilton, that girl was reared probably where she could freely choose a husband. But yet at age 20 she still was a virgin, and you think after only being a slave for a few days she has to react like one and be happy about her new lot in life? Well you fucked that up good. I think she will only lay with you if you manage to shackle her down and take her against her will. Well, you always can resort to using some date rape drug should be easy enough to come by." He exclaimed sarcastically. Hamilton felt like he slapped him.
"Shit Nick, what can I do? If there is any fight left in that bitch, she'll kill me in my sleep, but I need an heir."
"Did you ever think that that there is your problem? Women are not bitches. They are human beings even when they are slaves. Yes, some are whores and sluts, but all in all you have to treat them with the same respect you want to be treated. And what you need isn't an heir." Nick paused for a moment to let that sink in before he continued.
"You need an apprentice. Go to the orphanage and ask for kids, who want an apprenticeship with you. Don't adopt them, foster them, if you need somebody to look after them hire one. Then - when you are ready to have an heir, you will have somebody who learned from you, and will be glad you chose them as heir. You stubborn old fool, if you asked me beforehand I gladly would have given you my advice." Hamilton nodded, pouring himself a new drink.
"Apprenticeship, that could work. Boy if you already have all the answers; what do I do with that bitc... ehm I mean girl?" he backpedaled after Nicks furious look.
"I don't know, keep her as help, try to break her and use her as lust slave, sell her to somebody, kill her or set her free. It's not that you would miss the credits. If you want to set her free, I can take her with me in two weeks. Otherwise she is your problem. I mean she is stunning, but she has more backbone than it is healthy for a slave, if you sell her she'll probably die soon, cause another idiot will shock her to death."
"Yeah you are right Nick." Said Hamilton, looked to the ceiling and began fiddling with his DOA.
"Well it's late Nick, I'm going upstairs. Where did you put her?"
"For now, in my room, if you want to fuck her now, you need to carry her over into yours. There is no way you do that in my room." Hamilton wobbled to his feet.
"Never mind that, I am too smashed for that." Nick cleaned up and began to walk upstairs. He hated his uncle's work and nearly everything on Wandu. But at least he could make sure the girl was safe until tomorrow. He entered his room, put the covers over her, pulled up a chair and put his feet on the end of the bed and went to sleep.