Round 1, Day 1 - Morning Explorations Pt. 2

Shortly after Daisy arrived at Terminal Insigne, she found herself in a toilet stall, furiously shoving her hands into her suit to appease the deep and pervasive heat that was spreading from her crotch into her bloodstream like molten lust. Her heat seemed to strike at least once every couple of hours, and it wasn’t getting any easier. At first, she’d tried to resist doing anything about the sensation, reasoning that that was exactly what the damned robot and whatever perverted audience that was watching her probably wanted, something she refused to give them.

She’d looked at the BP store while she’d been getting ready and been appalled by the options. The Wincest transformation made her sick just to consider. She recognized there were some potential strategy considerations for the Bisexual transformation but decided that, given the women who were current potential targets, it wasn’t worth it. The potential upgrades for her cow and bell transformations were mostly useless. The cow one had a massively expensive upgrade that would limit it to half the day, but it would also cause her to compulsively moo in her cow form. The ones for her heat were at least somewhat more useful, but not by much. Most of them focused on the random aspect of her heat cycle, replacing it with certain stimuli, but they all had one central flaw: they let someone who knew the trigger activate it. She knew she could see the others' transformations, so it seemed logical to assume they could see hers too. The last thing she needed was for Jenna or Aaron to be able to turn her into a heifer in heat whenever they wanted. One option would remove the randomization and replace it with a fixed timer, but it stipulated that certain actions would speed up the clock, which she expected was meant to serve as a training tool.

You could always get rid of the heat the old-fashioned way a traitorous part of her mind reminded her, and she immediately crucified the thought and all the images that came along with it. She had no intention of letting that useless fuck Aaron get anywhere near her and, while she wasn’t paying attention to the discussion that the others were having in the chat, she had still had enough time to notice the gender disparity in the area she’d arrived in and see how heavily protected the men were. She didn’t think it would be impossible for her to find a man to seduce, but she suspected that would not be without consequences and, given the only men she had seen so far, she was horrified to realize that Aaron might actually be considered attractive for a man in this galaxy. Plus, she reminded herself, there was nothing in her transformation that said that sex or even pregnancy, which C2 had insisted was impossible, would stop the heat from recurring.

No, for now, all she could do was find somewhere where she wouldn’t be humiliated by her need to get herself off occasionally. She had to assume that, in a place with this many women and so few men, there must be a place to buy a vibrator somewhere, maybe one she could keep in her suit like the damned one the robot had forced on them during the challenge, but under her control this time.

When the heat finally broke, she cleaned up and started looking for her destination. It wasn’t long before she found signage pointing her towards exactly what she was looking for.

When she arrived, she realized that she probably hadn’t even needed the signage. The building she was looking for was built into one of several large columns that served as support for the ring’s structure, with one being present every quarter mile or so through the center of the ring. From the listings on the outside, it appeared that the towering structures were also used as offices for the management of the station’s infrastructure and, more importantly for her purposes, station security. As she approached the building, C2 messaged her.

She did, but only briefly. It was clear that neither Aaron nor the other women, nor the audience, wanted to give her a chance. Even her own sister had barely said two words to her since the show had started. Leaving her with escape as her best option. Assuming that C2 was watching somehow, she looked up and gave a general double middle finger to the sky.

As she was about to dismiss the terminal’s holographic screen, she noticed the ongoing conversation between the other Earthlings. It appeared that Jacqueline had found a local she was pumping for information, was sourcing questions from the others, and was reporting back. She’d begun to feel quite irritated with the new woman and her constant reports. She honestly felt it had been a huge waste to turn the two men into women, especially since they had both been much better specimens than Aaron.

Aaron had been nearly her last choice for eligible targets when she had briefly worked at the shop. The pond had been pretty sparse to begin with, but she wasn’t one to turn her nose at any potential resources, especially since she had been nearly broke at the time. She had tried working her charm on both of the now-transformed men, but Serena (Why couldn’t she seem to think of his old name?), whom she had deemed worthy of being at least a fun lay, had already been dating Sarah at that point. The other woman had her claws sunk deep into the assistant chef, leaving him highly resistant to her attempts. Meanwhile, Jacqueline, who had been the real potential prize as co-owner, had been annoyingly adept at resisting her various attempts at subtle seduction, even though he was single for the whole time she’d worked there. When she’d tried the direct approach, he had thrown down some bullshit about how it wasn’t appropriate for the co-owner to date an employee, but she had felt a distinct resistance that she wasn’t used to seeing from the men she typically pursued. She’d tried sniffing around under the suspicion he might be gay but confirmed through some of the other staff that they had definitely seen him date women and pointed out that he had a daughter, as though he'd be the first gay man with a kid. That had only left Aaron, a particularly flamboyant waiter, and the attractive male cashier who was well known for rejecting any overtures of romance and who, according to rumor, spent most of his free time getting stoned. And then, she’d overheard Jacqueline and Delia plotting, and her goals had realigned, making Aaron the target to pursue.

Aaron’s refusal to get with the program had caused enough of a stink to trick her bitch of a sister, who had long been her ever-useful doormat, into abandoning her. In the end, while she’d lost her piddling job at Delia’s shop, she’d accomplished her primary goal of blocking Delia’s underhanded plot, and it had been the perfect motivation she had needed to finally give her the resolve to find a more long-term source of support. It hadn’t taken long after that for her to pin down her fiancé, Victor, a hedonistic and over-indulgent man in his late fifties who had already divorced three wives and who had given her a well-paying, but ultimately meaningless, position at the company he owned while he attempted to turn her into his housewife and breeding sow.

He had been trying to talk her into signing a prenup, but she had managed to hold off on actually signing anything. She had hoped that she could procrastinate long enough for him to forget the whole thing or, if he was particularly determined, seduce his lawyer enough to convince him to leave her some kind of loophole that she could use. Worst case, she just needed to make sure that the prenup went both ways and that Victor never learned the other way she was using him. There was always the chance that the hard-partying and unhealthy man could keel over after they were married but before he got wise to the fact that she had no plans of having his children, but that would have still left his daughter from his second marriage to split things with. If that had happened, she had planned to steamroll the meek little bitch. Or, at least that had been the plan. Now, with her altered body, she’d become everything Victor had ever wanted her to become, and that was only if she could find some way back to Earth.

But she refused to take it lying down. No one got to decide who she was but her, not Victor, not her traitorous parents, not her useless sister, not Aaron, not some perverted audience, and definitely not the damned robot. If none of the other women were going to grow a spine and help her, she might as well start looking for help elsewhere. She put on her meekest, most terrified expression and rushed into the station.

Daisy made her way into the Security office, a room that had the bare utility of any police station on Earth. The front desk was staffed by a woman taller and more muscular than any human she’d ever seen, with longer-than-average arms and a hunched, gorilla-like posture and lightly furred forearms. There was also a small waiting room, several doors leading back to the various offices, and a heavy metal door she guessed likely led back to whatever holding cells they had in the station. The room was covered with dozens of various public service announcement posters advertising everything from terrorism awareness campaigns to anti-littering programs. One item that stood out to her was a poster on preventing Male-napping, which was apparently when various criminal elements would kidnap the males from harems and then ransom or sell them. She glanced at the poster briefly as she entered, resolving to do the opposite of everything it suggested, though it seemed to focus mostly on common-sense practices that would have been familiar to anyone who had seen similar notices about preventing child kidnappings. Well, assuming the children were worth their weight in gold. There was also a large map that, from what she could tell, showed the local sector of the galaxy, with various areas shaded in different colors, apparently indicating how prevalent piracy was in those areas and noting the known territories of the groups responsible. She noticed a significant density following the marked routes, which, based on a quick read of the map, led into the center of the galaxy.

“Can I help you with something, ma’am?” The gorilla-like security officer asked.

“Please! You’ve got to help me! I’ve been kidnapped, and they're trying to turn me into some type of sex slave.” She said, trying to make it clear that she was scared, but not cause suspicion by making claims that didn’t fit her appearance.

“Alright. You’re safe here. Let me grab one of the other officers who can bring you back and take a statement.”

It took a while before they brought out another officer who escorted her back to an interview room, which was to say they brought her to an interrogation room with just enough soft surfaces and color on the walls to make the person being questioned believe that they weren’t suspects. The officer was a woman with opalescent skin, a stoic expression, and wide-set, wholly black eyes.

“Miss, I understand this is hard, but tell me what happened.”

“I was just minding my own business, and suddenly there was this flash of light, and I found myself strung up by this psycho who has a grudge against me and his pet robot.”

There was a ding from the bell around her neck. Just a single ringing tone, but it was loud enough that it couldn’t be ignored. Daisy was confused and furious. She hadn’t lied, not exactly. Alright, maybe she wasn’t sure that the robot worked for Aaron. But it must have been him, right? He must have had some way to contact the damned robot. Maybe he was really an alien himself. The whole spineless wimp thing must have been an act.

But the more she examined the idea, the more she knew that she didn’t believe it. Aaron was a useless, sniveling doormat of a man, and he clearly hadn’t been happy to see her. If he had been responsible, she would have expected him to do something to rub it in by now or at least let his mask slip a little. Instead, he avoided her like the plague and acted like a kicked puppy any time she was nearby. Frankly, she probably would have respected him more if she actually believed he was responsible. At least that would have shown that he wasn’t a complete coward.

Apparently, she was certain enough in Aaron’s innocence that claiming that he was responsible registered as a lie. Still, he was the one benefiting from this whole situation, and he deserved to pay for her humiliation. Luckily, she told herself, the officer didn't know what the bell meant. She’d have to think of what to tell the officer it was for if she asked, but until then, she would just have to be more careful with her phrasing to keep it from ringing.

The officer clearly noticed the bell, but didn’t comment, her face still as a stone. Instead, she raised a hand.

“Can you tell me this person’s name?” She asked, her voice and face perfectly flat and without emotion.

“Aaron, Aaron Silver.”

“It’s a male?”

“Yeah, this freak I used to work with. He’s been obsessed with me ever since.” The bell rang again, and Daisy had to work to keep the wince off her face.

“Got it. Sorry. Please continue.”

“Since then, I’ve been transformed to have these disgusting cow parts; they put this humiliating collar on me, forced me to scrounge through a bunch of creepy hallways with a fucking vibrator wedged into my crotch, and threatened me with worse. I’ve been made his slave, and now I’m being threatened with being turned into something worse and sold off if I don’t become his little sex toy.”

As she spoke, she felt a little pride that she’d managed to phrase it all in a way that kept the bell from ringing.

“Please, I have a family at home who I love, and I just want to get back to them.” One more chime of the bell. Crap, she shouldn’t have tried for the emotional appeal. Luckily, the officer seemed to brush it off.

“I understand. You’ve obviously had a hard time. Can you tell me where home is for you?”

“It’s a planet called Earth. They said it’s very far away.”

“What system is it in?”

“Um, we just call it the solar system.”

“It doesn’t have an official designation? Do you know which arm it’s in?”

“It’s in another galaxy.”

“You were teleported to another galaxy against your will?”

“Yes!”

“The technology on your planet can do that?”

“No. It was this crazy robot.”

“The one that belongs to the man that kidnapped you. You said this man had a grudge against you. Is he from the same planet?”

“I think so. Hell, it’d explain a lot if the freak is an alien.”

“But it’s not common technology where you’re from?”

“We can barely make it to the moon with rockets. Until this, I didn’t think teleportation was even a real thing.”

“And since he’s kidnapped you. Has he struck you, injured you, or attempted to assault you in any other way?”

Daisy was tempted to say yes, but the damned bell kept ringing every time she tried to make the officer understand what she’d had to endure, and she had no idea if they had some way of telling if she’d really been injured.

“He’s turned me into this freak!” she yelled, and the bell toned again.

“Yes, you’ve mentioned that. But has he physically struck you or restrained you with his body or used any sort of weapon on you?”

“Not yet, but I bet it’s only a matter of time.”

“You say he threatened you. What exactly did he threaten to do?”

“I was told that if I didn’t play along with this whole sick game, I would be sold as a slave!” She yelled, becoming frustrated. She had barely managed to dodge the specificity of that question in a way that didn’t trigger the bell.

“Aside from the vibrator you mentioned. Has there been any undesired sexual contact between you and this man?”

Daisy was getting mad. Why wouldn’t this woman listen?

“He will! As soon as he gets a chance. I just know he will.” Another ding from the bell. She had to admit, she didn’t believe Aaron had the spine to do anything like that, especially with all the times she’d tried to come on to him and been shot down.

She was starting to get angry. How dare this woman interrogate her like she was some sort of criminal?

“Are you listening to me? I have been kidnapped, transformed against my will, enslaved to a man I hate, and forced to play in a perverted game for his amusement. And now you’re treating me like a criminal?”

“Well, false accusations are a crime. Especially when made by a slave against their Master.”

“What?” The bottom dropped out of Daisy’s stomach.

“I’ll admit, some strange and unpleasant things have been done to you. But unfortunately for you, none of them are illegal in this sector. Specifically, you claim you were teleported from your home world against your will. Normally, that would be a crime, but since you’re from an extra-galactic civilization that does not yet have access to interstellar spaceflight and one that, according to the acquisition application that the robot in question submitted, is likely on the verge of environmental collapse in the next century, it is technically considered an involuntary preservation action. As for your enslavement, that is not only allowed, but is standard for those collected from undeveloped and endangered worlds. Honestly, the fact that you’re walking around makes you luckier than most sentient creatures who get snatched this way. They usually end up in a zoo or some freak’s menagerie. The transformations you mention technically fall within the range of acceptable slave-modification procedures. Nothing you’ve specifically mentioned that your Master has done technically falls within slave abuse laws. Even the insertion of this vibrating device, which is the only thing you could really get him on, would only be valid if you could prove that he inserted it himself. But, according to the report I have here, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Plus, you’d be hard-pressed to find a prosecutor that would go after a Septimal for something like that, especially with that bell telling me exactly how much of this story you're lying about.”

“You- you know about the bell?”

“We knew everything about you from the moment you teleported onto this station. That robot of yours is a psycho, but he's organized. He made a huge announcement to the whole galaxy about you all, telling everyone to stay out of his way. Included in that was all the paperwork he needed to keep everything he’s doing above board, legally speaking at least. Not that a thing like him really needs to, with how much power he has. And the moment you, in particular, arrived on the station, he sent station security a whole dossier on you, including footage confirming that your Master has not only not laid a hand on you; it appears he hasn’t even spoken to you. It also highlights your history of making false claims to officers on your home planet and tells us all about that bell around your neck. He specifically gave us the heads-up that, if you came in here telling us a story, the bell would tell us if you were being straight with us.”

The officer’s stony face had turned into a pitying glare at this point.

“Look, I wish I could help you. Obviously, I don’t personally think it’s right what they’re doing to you, especially since there are literally trillions of women in this galaxy who would be perfectly willing to take your place, which makes it really weird that they always pick women from places that aren’t interested in the harem gig. But you coming in here and trying to lay the blame on someone that, as far as I can tell, hasn’t done anything to you is pretty gross. Reporting the robot would have been one thing. After all, we all know he and his kind are sadists and psychopaths, but trying to lay the responsibility at the feet of someone who got kidnapped the same way you did is just shitty. Now, I’m not going to hold or charge you this time, but I'll give you one piece of advice before I let you go. That thing you keep calling a robot is the sort of extra-dimensional being that has even the Octals, with their giant fucking armies and fleets of battleships, quaking in their boots, and has whole empires falling over themselves to give him whatever he wants and play by his rules. If he’s the one you’re trying to beat, then I wish you good fucking luck. I’ve seen the show. It’s messed up at times, like, a lot of the time. But, as far as I can tell, the best strategy seems to be to play along. Hopefully, your coming here doesn’t screw you over too badly. Now, get out.” The officer said, waving towards the door.

Daisy stood up, enraged. She had to stifle her urge to start making a mess of the interview room on her way out. The officer called after her as she left.

“Oh, and one other thing. I wouldn’t suggest trying to make a run for it. You've all been marked as station-locked by the robot’s order. The only captains who would take you off station are either incredibly stupid, dangerous, or both.”

Daisy stomped out of the security office, cursing the officer, the robot, Aaron, Delia, and everyone else she could name. Just as she was about to leave, she spotted the map of pirate activity. She opened her terminal and, with a smirk, found the control that let her download the map and all its information about the different pirate groups. It couldn't hurt to do a little studying after all.