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Chapter 3
by Abdulalahazred
“Hey. Wake up. We're here."
Kerr responds.
"Already up," lied Einvo Kerr. He slipped out of his hammock, already fully dressed. One last job, one last bounty, and he'd be free to retire to his moisture farm back on Tarquin-six. He nearly couldn't get to sleep last night.
Nearly. Eventually he did, long after Klim had turned in, after he'd checked and rechecked his gear. Underneath the native garb and travelling cloak he'd strapped two pieces under his forearms. A Utilitool, should the unexpected happen, and a short-range firearm, should the expected. Infiltrate the dealers, find the supplier, kidnap the prisoner and get out.
"You're sure your tracker will find out this nefarious scientist, this Wotterburth guy? We don't even have a visual of what the **** looks like. Why his enemies want him dead, I'll never figure out. Being a **** on Acteon is practically a life sentence..."
The pneumatic doors pssshed and hssshed as the docking doors opened. Kerr took a deep breath. One last job. One last bounty. Moisture farm. Nothing could go wrong, right?
Maybe.
Kerr took his first step onto Acteon.
Acteon
Master and .
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
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