A Very Shameful Punishment Ch. 48

[You can read this story without having read the previous chapters, although you might read Ch. 44, which contains a recap of earlier parts of this saga. After you've read it, you might wish to return to read earlier chapters as you will then have greater understanding of the characters. This story features severe disciplining and involves bodily functions. If you find this bothers you, please read no further. All characters are over 18. My thanks to Susan Greenway for her kind permission to use one of her characters.]

Hergolia camp had a reputation as the institution to which the worst offenders were sent for reeducation. Its staff members, all female, were used to dealing with recalcitrant and often violent men. The women who were cadre there were well-trained and well-equipped to deal with these kinds of inmates. Men were usually sent for a two-week stay, but an inmate's barracks sergeant could extend the stay of those who behaved badly, and this authority was much feared.

It was always up to the commandant, previously CPT Elaine and now newly-promoted CPT Helene, to sign off on "recycles" as those men whose stays were extended were labelled. When CPT Helene assumed her command, she spoke to the population of the camp and made it clear that things were going to be run on a much-improved basis.

"Any of you who have been ignoring orders from cadre will be disciplined severely," she told them all. "Every sergeant has a cane, and they will use them. They have all passed demanding physical conditioning courses and exams. I would advise you not to mess with them. Anyone who does can count on a recycle as I will not release anyone here who has not performed adequately in their retraining."

Not long after CPT Helene took command of Hergolia, located about two hundred miles from the Women's Republic capital, she encountered a problem that surprised her. Several barracks sergeants, who had either been recruited or trained by the field first sergeant who had just retired, were resisting the direction of the operation by the new field first, SFC Robin, whom CPT Helene had promoted and placed in the key post, having been advised by the previous commandant, CPT Elaine.

Three barracks sergeants engaged in this rebellion: SSG Penny, SSG Louise, and SGT Nicole. Penny and Louise had been in the Corrections Service since the founding of the Republic and were in the field before then. Nicole was relatively new but had quickly become a close colleague of the other two.

Work at the camp was impeded. The sergeants were skipping morning meetings and bed checks. COL Rachel had been dispatched by the Chief of Staff, GEN Annette, to investigate and report, and to implement any changes she felt were needed and impose discipline on the spot. Annette trusted Rachel to conduct a fair assessment of the situation; she also knew that Rachel would try to resolve the matter if that was possible.

COL Rachel called the three sergeants into the office she was using and then spoke separately with each of them. Then she called in SFC Robin to hear what her view of the situation might be. After that she brought SSG Louise, the oldest of the three, back.

"You felt that you knew how to run your operation and that SFC Robin was not as experienced, so you decided to do your own thing," COL Rachel suggested.

"She did not try to approach the situation in a collegial way," SSG Louise responded.

"I'm going to go out on a limb," Rachel answered. "I think from what I've heard that you three didn't like her, didn't like CPT Helene selecting her instead of one of you, especially her bypassing you and SSG Penny. In fact, you thought CPT Helene was not experienced enough to run this place as well."

Louise reflected, her steel-gray hair cut quite short, but her uniform perfectly starched and cleaned.

"Colonel, ma'am, I think you've picked up what's happened," she ventured. "Helene is a bright person, but she was here earlier, and as you know, she was sent to your unit as a malingerer. Somehow, she's ingratiated herself with the powers that be, so she got this posting."

Rachel knew that Elaine had recommended Helene, but she chose not to disclose that confidence.

"You have a point," Rachel replied. "You may even be right. But what you and the others are doing is wrong. You don't take that kind of resistance action. Not in this Service. I will communicate your views right to the top, and I mean the top of the Service. But I have to warn you and the others that you're in danger of being disciplined for flouting authority. That would be a hell of a way for three vets like you to go. As it is, you are already likely to be disciplined. I will make my report and then we will see what is decided.

"If I were you," she then added, "I'd cut out the resistance right now. It will mitigate what is already likely to be an unpleasant punishment. In fact, if you were sent to my old unit, you would be on the receiving end big-time. My successor is MAJ Kate. She is young, smart, and competent. She would be charged with showing the three of you what happens to noncoms, or commissioned officers, for that matter, who do what you have done."

SSG Louise was surprised. She knew Rachel had a solid reputation.

"So even if you write that we had some legitimate issues," Louise said, "we'll still get whacked?"

"You will," Rachel told her. "If you agree and in effect, plead, I'll speak with the commandant and you will be disciplined here and not in front of anyone other than the commandant, myself, and anyone chosen to discipline you. It happens that I'm the senior officer here by rank. I am reasonably certain that I can make that happen."

Rachel knew that if she resolved this situation, she would be well-regarded by Annette as well as others at headquarters who had heard about what was going on here.

"I'm in," Louise said slowly. "I'll also talk to the others. I think they will be, too."

Rachel allowed her to go into the room outside where Penny and Nicole were. She didn't try to listen and wouldn't have heard if she did. Penny wasn't pleased, but she respected Louise's judgment. Louise had told them that Rachel probably agreed with them but that they couldn't win. If they went along, they'd be punished, embarrassingly, but then it would be over. She also suspected that Rachel would try to get Helene straightened out.

"She's a clever woman," Louise said admiringly. "We've been dealing with all these nasty pricks here too long."

The others reluctantly agreed to Louise's course. She went in and informed Rachel. Rachel said they should wait, and she would see the commandant.

When Rachel walked into Helene's spacious office, Helene tried to act calm and collected.

Rachel asked her just to listen. "These women are vets here, and they resent Robin and they resent you. This is all natural. Their grievances may even be justified. I know, I know, there's two sides as there are for everything," she anticipated Helene's mounting annoyance. "Hear me out."

Rachel went on to explain how this could be resolved with the least problem for anyone. "You don't want this to go to headquarters," she warned Helene, "even though if they were sent to my old unit, Kate would have the crap beaten out of them. As satisfying as that would be, it wouldn't leave a good attitude toward you among the people at headquarters. I'm going to bring them in and let them speak with you and then see if you can say that you feel you and Robin have created problems that weren't necessary ones. You can say you will take action to rectify what has happened. But you then will say that you appreciate their coming forward to you and pleading, but that they are going to be disciplined. You can note that it will be with you and me present, as well as Robin and anyone who's needed to do the punishing."

Helene was nonplussed. She realized though that the Service was a bureaucracy like any other similar organization. Thus, this was the way things worked. She realized too that she had to involve people like the barracks sergeants in what was to be done.

She gave Rachel her approval.

Rachel went back to the three and told them that Helene would meet with them and listen seriously to their concerns. She even had conceded that they had some merit to their points, which wasn't that usual, Rachel observed, in the Service.

"I think she will work with you," she concluded, "and that you will find that both the commandant and the field first will try to build a team like they should have done. But you're going to get whacked, as SSG Louise said to me, and after you have your first meeting with the commandant and field first, you are going to be disciplined right then in front of her, the field first, and me. Also, whoever does the disciplining will be sworn to secrecy. I hope you find this the best way out of this. There will be minimal mention of this officially. Notes will be entered in this unit's records, but nothing goes to headquarters."

SSG Louise knew that she needed to thank COL Rachel on behalf of the three of them. The others were impressed with her doing that, especially since it meant they didn't have to say anything except yes.

Rachel brought them into Helene's office. Helene had her working uniform on but still looked impressive with her captain's bars. Rachel saw Robin sitting off to her side and immediately figured that Helene had briefed her. Rachel even suspected Robin would do the disciplining, which would be fine. Keep it in house.

Helene opened the discussion and said she appreciated COL Rachel's efforts to resolve this problem. She admitted that some of the steps she had taken were possibly too precipitous. She asked each of them to list the issues that concerned them. Rachel liked the way she answered each of them not by fully conceding nor holding fast to what had been done by Robin and her.

By the end, Helene and the three had gained respect for straight talking with each other.

Then Helene said, "Under the circumstances, you will, as you were informed, be disciplined now. As noted, this will be kept within this unit. The Colonel's report goes only to the Chief of Staff.

"Isn't that a contradiction then?" SGT Nicole, hitherto silent, said.

"No," COL Rachel responded. "The Chief of Staff has access to anything she wants to know about in this Service. It has always been so."

No one picked up on Nicole's charge. She wisely nodded her agreement.

Helene then said that Rachel would supervise the disciplining directly.

Rachel stood and the three stood, as did Helene and Robin, since Rachel was the highest-ranking officer present. Then Rachel directed the three sergeants to bend over the credenza on the side of Helene's spacious office. She then instructed them to unbuckle their belts and lift their uniform skirts above their waists and keep them there. Louise figured in her mind that they were going to be caned and that Robin would be doing it. She didn't like it but that was the way this was going to play out.

Rachel then ordered the three to pull their panties down below their bottoms. Each of them complied and Rachel, Helene, and Robin were staring as three pairs of white cotton uniform panties were tugged down, but just below the buttocks. Louise had the large, mottled bottom of a middle-aged woman. Penny's was firmer but also broad. The younger noncom, Nicole, was close to petite with a delicious little bottom and charming legs. She kept her legs tightly together while the older women's pudenda were visible through their legs.

Now, Rachel said, "SFC Robin, you may carry out the punishment."

Robin was also in working noncom uniform and had a thin duty cane in her hand. She first stood behind Nicole, lay the cane on her small bottom, drew it back, and fired a strong stroke across the middle of her cheeks. Nicole somehow suppressed a scream. Rachel and Helene watched as the red lines appeared. Then Robyn struck again, this time twice quickly, above and below the first stroke. Finally, Robin, after waiting for these strokes to sink in, applied two crisscross strokes that Nicole did scream after, and delivered a rousing smashing stroke right down the middle of Nicole's bottom. Another scream followed.

Robin moved on and applied the same punishment to Penny and then to Louise. Penny shouted out at the crisscross strokes and the mighty last one. Louise groaned and let out sounds but mostly was controlled.

The women were then permitted to pull up their panties, let their skirts down, and buckle their belts. Louise turned, saluted Rachel and Helene, and formally thanked them for disciplining the three sergeants.

Helene responded that she was now certain that they all would work together from here on. Rachel then thanked them for their cooperation and said she really felt that now, this unit could carry out its highly challenging function and mission.

Louise walked stiffly to Robin and asked to shake her hand. Robin smiled and nodded affirmatively. So, Louise then clasped her hand. She motioned to the other two to follow her and they each did.

Helene then said that Robin and the three sergeants should meet now in the next room to discuss progress in conducting operations. Helene added that Robin would be meeting regularly with them and the other barracks sergeants.

After they left, Helene turned and hugged COL Rachel. Rachel smiled and said she was pleased she had been able to help facilitate an agreement.

"You were lucky," she told Helene. "Louise knew the system and knew that they would have to get whacked, as she put it. She knew this should be resolved here."

"I personally would like you to be my guest at dinner tonight and then stay over in my quarters," Helene now offered.

"I'm pleased to accept," Rachel responded. "I think you've learned something, sweetie. You know now that you must involve your vets. They will sometimes give you grief, but you see what happens when you bypass them. Robin and you both were put through my old unit, so you know about what you have to do." Rachel then excused herself and went out to speak with Robin briefly and asked the three sergeants to wait.

Robin met with her in the field first's nice but spartan office. She smiled as she said she was pleased Rachel did not offer details about Robin's time in the Disciplinary & Retraining Unit.

"I'm very proud of you as a graduate of our unit," Rachel rejoined. "CPT Elaine knew you had it in you."

"I guess I didn't feel that way then, but now it's starting to register with me," SFC Robin mused.

"Just use what you learned," Rachel reminded her. "You learned that if you act up, you'll be punished. Did being put in the box affect you?"

"Wow," Robin exclaimed, "you have to ask? I suppose I seemed like a hard-edged broad then. But when the shit started flying, literally, yes, I took notice!"

"You have the most contact with the inmates, don't you?" Rachel continued. "Does that become troublesome given what happened when you were too close with some?"

"Nah," Robin snorted. "They seem to like me because I kid them about their wanting to have it off with me. I tell them that I'm too good for them, and not to look me up when they get out. This gets them laughing and I get better responses to training. This may be subversive, but the old Republic could use a little more humor at times."

"I like that," Rachel said. "What happened with you and the three sergeants?"

"I should have collaborated much more closely with them," Robin said coolly. "They were insulted, and they reacted out of pique with me. I learned a lot from that, Colonel."

Rachel then met with the three disciplined sergeants who had been told to wait for her. She asked SSGs Penny and Louise how they felt now that they had been corrected by SFC Robin.

"It wasn't pretty, but it was going to happen," Louise said crisply. "I certainly am not happy, but I do thank you, Colonel, for your role in making this go away but also in getting our new bosses straightened out--albeit without using your cane," she grinned.

"I do hope that word of what happened to us doesn't get out among the inmate population," SGT Nicole expressed her feelings to COL Rachel. "It will not help me maintain discipline if these inmates know that my panties were taken down and my bare bottom caned. We spend a lot of effort maintaining an atmosphere of control here. I use my cane when any inmate is so brazen as to try to stare up my skirt."

"I think you can rely on those present at the imposition to maintain confidence in this regard," COL Rachel responded. "But," she smiled, "I will personally remind them and as I am superior to them in rank, they will comply even if they don't want to do so, just as you three did."

"By the way," she turned back to speak to SGT Nicole, "about how often do you catch inmates trying to look up your skirt? I suppose there are always some who refuse to heed your warnings."

Nicole grinned as she answered, "Not all the barracks sergeants are as firm on enforcing that rule, but to me, any loss of respect would be fatal to our mission. And you saw today that I wear the same plain white cottons that my fellow barracks sergeants here do. I'm not some prissy silk-undies lady."

"I admire your sense of your position here," Rachel replied calmly. "You've clearly given your role and how you play it a good deal of thought. I hope you are encouraging others to do the same." She smiled at Nicole, who beamed back at her.

At dinner that night Rachel met the other commissioned officers at the camp. These included CPT Helene's adjutant, 1LT Deirdre, as well as the medical officer, MAJ Grace, and the chaplain, CPT Christine. Even though the camp was remote and often regarded in the Service as an undesirable posting, they were positive about their experience there.

"This place gives you some cred," Deirdre remarked. "I've seen officers move through here and they get respect in the Service for having proved their mettle here, with the worst of the worst sent here as inmates. We get more bad actors and end up having to keep them longer--they almost scream out to be recycled."

COL Rachel also spent time with the other noncoms, the ones who hadn't joined the three-sergeant cabal. SSG Francine frowned when Rachel asked her why she had joined them.

"I'm here to learn, Colonel," she said warmly. "They've been here a long time--oh, two of them have, Nicole hasn't--and they get pissed if they don't get listened to. I like it that CPT Helene brings current ideas back and SFC Robin will be open to change stuff when we see what works better."

Rachel spoke with a few more and similar responses emerged. When she dined at the officers' table, CPT Helene stood at the head and expressed her thanks for the help she had provided during her review.

"We appreciate what you've done for us," she told Rachel. The group gave COL Rachel a hearty round of applause. Helene stayed longer than usual and chatted not only with Rachel, but with Deirdre and Christine. The chaplain, who was quite attractive, in a subdued brown-haired style, was able, Rachel saw, to get the male inmates to open up to her. It helped that she was a looker. CPT Christine was of the view that many of the men sent here were insecure.

"They act out their fantasies of being the big men on the block or the campus or the sporting field," Christine observed. "I try to re-channel their ambition or push them to show some."

Rachel was happy. She liked her new assignment. Her years at headquarters had made her appreciate being the highest-ranking officer here. And although she was older than CPT Helene or SFC Robin, she wasn't yet at the age of SSGs Penny and Louise. She was doubly pleased when everyone started heading out, many to their rooms in the officers' quarters.

After the rest had departed, Helene suggested that Rachel join her in her quarters for a postprandial. When they arrived, Helene had clearly sent word to her staff to prepare. There was a full ice bucket, glasses, and various bottles. Helene offered her a snifter of Courvoisier, which Rachel accepted with pleasure. They toasted the success of their work that day and Helene gently asked Rachel if she'd like to stay over with her.