Charade

Acteon is a pre industrial UNESCO protected world classified in the Confederation Dossiers as an M class planet, colonized by humans in the year 2304, nine hundred years ago. The colonists were Naturals, eschewing technology in favor of an agricultural civilization. The settlers deliberately eradicated all knowledge of the other worlds in their histories, and, not surprisingly, became isolated and regressed to a feudal society. The world was now roughly equivalent to the Dark Ages of Earth in its warlike nature and level of technology. The colonists were assumed in Confederation Intelligence to have perished very soon after their arrival, and the recent rediscovery of the planet and its inhabitants required careful handling. It was decided that no contact should be made, and that its civilization should not be interfered with. Watchers were placed on the planet, to record and study its people and guard against outside interference. It's easy to become a powerful figure on a planet with inferior knowledge and technology, and this was precisely what the Societal Conservation Board was set up to prevent. The cultures lowest social caste were girls. girls were selectively bred for specific physiological and psychological traits. The -wardens of Acteon also developed a that the female slaves ingested with their meals, which affected their pleasure centers and made them quite docile and submissive at the same time. Every person of noble birth owned at least one , and marriages to slaves were not unheard of, though such marriages in no way nullified the girls' status, and a husband would commonly offer his wife- for guest's use. Not to offer would be discourteous, to refuse, in turn, was an insult to the host. A free woman who invested the also became a . Visits by Confederation citizens are not normally allowed as they may undermine the unique archaic culture. Not that confederation citizens don’t visit. That’s where the exchangers come in. The device was undetectable and required that the target and the maintain physical contact for ten minutes, to allow for full mental data transfer. Some citizens pay exorbitant money to swap their minds into the body of a willing Knight or free woman for a short time to experience this archaic lifestyle. Some pay to swap into the body of a lowly girl... such swaps are generally permanent given few slaves want to return to their former life, although some are temporary. Others visit Acteon involuntarily... This is based on the following tale: http://www.fictionmania.tv/stories/scifi/slaves-acteon.txt Cover by Fotzenglotz

Updated on May 13, 2025 by Abdulalahazred
Created on Sep 24, 2018 by Abdulalahazred