“You won’t be the only one,” he agreed as he reached for his headset. “Now let’s coordinate.”
We made ourselves comfortable on the couches, prepared the contacts, then pressed the headsets in place on the count of three. All outside sensation cut off immediately, then I found myself standing alone in a large clearing surrounded by giant trees. I knew I had just landed my disabled ship on the planet, expecting to find a research base where I might find help, but the only clearing where the base might have been found was entirely deserted.
I looked around at the trees again, hoping for some sign of the base or its personnel, and suddenly felt that I wasn’t alone. I was being watched from somewhere, and the thought made me shiver.
I turned to go back to my ship, running slightly to get there faster. I might not be able to fly the ship, but at least it was shelter. I’d close the airlock and stay inside, and hope that my S.O.S reached someone before my supplies ran out. I knew I would never be able to go into that forest for food.
I was almost to the foot of the ship’s ramp, when I screamed and stopped dead in my tracks. A man who looked just like Len was there, but it was a Len I had never known. He was unbelievably big and well muscled, wearing not a single stitch of clothing. I screamed again and cringed away from him, but he was on me in a flash. He threw me to the ground and over on my face, then bound my hands behind my back. I screamed for help, pleaded for mercy but it was all wasted breath. I was lifted to a wide, brawny shoulder, and carried against my will into that dreaded, brooding forest.
We went a long way through the trees, and I was quickly disoriented. My captor seemed to know exactly where he was going, stopping at long last before one of the mile-high trees. There was very little light, but he had no difficulty in finding his way about. His arms worked past my dangling legs, and then I was completely frozen with fear- he was climbing a rope or something up into the tree!
I hardly dared breathe while he climbed, for fear he would drop me or lose his grip and plunge us both to the ground. I kept my eyes squeezed tightly shut, praying to my Maker that I would survive the climb, and eventually my prayers were answered. He stood at last on a wide, long branch, and then moved closer to the tree trunk. In another minute we were inside the tree trunk, and I looked around with shock at a hollowed-out room. It wasn’t very big, but it was shelter without doubt, and the man threw me down near the wall at the very back of the room-cave.
He left me to go outside again, and I whimpered and pulled at the rope on my wrists. It was impossible to loosen it, but even if I had, there was nowhere for me to go. I’d never be able to climb down the way he had come up, and even if I miraculously found myself whole, untied, and on the ground, I would still be hopelessly lost. I was doomed to depend on the mercy of the man who had found me, and could only hope that he had mercy within him.
The man appeared again in the doorway causing me to gasp with fright. He came closer to stare down at me as I lay shivering, then he bent and said something in a harsh, guttural, totally unintelligible language.
“I don’t understand you,” I whispered to him. “Please don’t hurt me! Please have mercy!”
Anger creased his features, and he slapped me hard across the face, pulled my head back by the hair, and repeated his original demand.
“I don’t know what you want!” I screamed, terror strong within me. My cheek blazed hot where he’d struck me, my hair was being torn from my head, and I was at the mercy of a man who had no mercy.
He snarled angrily and shook my head by the hair, then released my hair. My relief was very short-lived, though, as the next thing he did was pull at my clothes. I was so petrified I couldn’t speak, but could only hope that my clothing would keep him from me. My hopes were as doomed as I, poor girl, for my clothing resisted being opened, but could not resist his tearing fingers. It was torn completely from me, and I lay before him, naked and entirely helpless.
I begged him not to take me, not to make me his body slave, but he would not have listened even had he understood. He was brutal in his pleasure, brutal and complete. He caused me agony with deliberation, and I could do nothing but I sat blinking on the couch, the contacts in my right hand, trying to shake off the last lingering effects of the real. I took a deep breath and looked over at Len, but he was still deep within the experience. His arms were bent at the elbows and his fingers were flexing, his body bumped up and down in a rhythm, and his face showed cruel, determined excitement.
I tossed the contacts back onto the console and stood up. The totally alien emotions the real had forced me to feel had also enabled me to break out of the experience. I was furious with Len for having brought me there, but I knew exactly why he had done it. He wanted the experience of humbling me, of making me a cringing slave, expecting the experience to stay with me long enough for him to take me physically in a master-slave way after the real had ended. Chances are that he would have succeeded, too, since reals cling to you for some time after their completion. If they complete. I took my shoulder bag from the floor near the couch, then headed for the door. I’d joined Len long enough in the real for him to be able to complete on his own. His frustrations would begin when completion found him all alone in the room.
The greeter stared at me curiously as I left, but naturally made no move to stop me. I stood outside the building for a time, watching people go by on the sidewalk, feeling a deep dissatisfaction that I couldn’t trace. All those months in the conference rooms in Dremmler’s sector had made me eager to be back on Central, but now that I was here, I wondered what it was that I’d missed. I finally shrugged it off, really looked around me, then made for Verasten Hardy’s place.
Vera enjoyed city life more than she cared for suburban living, so she had opted for an apartment in her original Neighborhood’s residential area in Tallion City. Some people maintained both house and apartment, but Vera didn’t want a house and I didn’t want an apartment, so we generally called one another if either of us had need of the other’s location. Vera’s apartment was all on one level, with the private living quarters behind the visitors’ rooms rather than above them, and Vera herself opened the door to me, then squealed in surprise.
“Terry, darling, I don’t believe it!” she gushed. “You’ve been gone absolutely forever! Do come in and tell me all about your marvelous adventures, I’m just dying to hear.”
I let her bustle me into her guest room, fighting back a grimace when I saw that her apartment had been redecorated with this year’s furniture. There were five heavy, dark blue chairs, two heavy dark pink couches, three low, hideously carved tables, a monstrously large, overdecorated hutch, and acres of thick, blue and pink patterned drapes on the windows. It took something of an effort, but I sat on one of the couches and smiled at her.
“Vera, love, your taste is always up to the minute. Do be a dear and save my life for me. I’m just dying for a glass of port Winsen.”
“Of course.” She laughed over her shoulder as she crossed the room. “I’ll have a glass with you. How long have you been back?”
“Only a few days.” I answered, watching her pour two glasses of port at the hutch. She carried them back to the couch, handed me one, then sat down beside me. “Has anything exciting been happening, or is it all the same as it was?”
“Most things don’t change.” She shrugged, sipping her port. “Jan has taken up with Rodmil Holper, and you’ll never guess why. But that reminds me. I’d better warn you before it’s too late.”
“Before what’s too late?” I asked in amusement, drinking my own port as she put hers down. “Vera, you always sound like the warning before crisis.”