Emily 2.0 Ch. 01

After an experimental mission goes wrong, a starship captain finds herself stranded in a world where female nudity and submission is not just expected but legally enforced.

This story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex. Themes include ENF, CMNF, humiliation, non-consent, reluctance, public nudity, public sex, a touch of BDSM here and there, and occasional violence if it's relevant to the story or character development.

*****

Captain Emily Birmingham surveyed the bridge as the ship shuddered and tilted slightly, but she had expected something like this so was not particularly alarmed by it.

"Anterior stabilisers?" she asked anyway.

"Holding within parameters as expected, Captain," Chief Engineer Rod Collingwood responded without looking up from his screen.

Collingwood was ruggedly handsome and brilliant, but his intelligence also made him arrogant, and he could be such an insufferable jerk when he wanted to be. Not to mention borderline sexist at times. It was hard to get too annoyed with him though. He probably thought his wisecracks and patronising tone were funny or endearing, and any opinion to the contrary would have been beyond his comprehension anyway.

Whatever. It was a male-dominated industry and Emily was used to dealing with comments about her sex and its apparent bearing on her intellect, so she usually just played along, ignored him, or laughed him off. She liked him just the same though. His slurs, intentional or otherwise, and her reactions to them had become a game they played. It got much worse than Collingwood ever dished out anyway, particularly when it came to decisions about her career made by fat men sitting behind large desks. Plus, they were forced to live in close quarters often for weeks on end, so it was important to keep the peace.

"Ok, continue to full power," Emily instructed.

"Engaging full power in 5, 4, 3, 2… and hyperdrive is fully engaged," Engineer Tim Norris responded.

The rattling increased and then suddenly everything went silent. Outside there was only black. There was no sensation of speed or movement. It was eerie, like they were suddenly suspended motionless in space.

"Chief Engineer?"

"Well, I don't know where the fuck we are or how fast we're going but it appears to be working," Collingwood replied.

"Woohoo! Well done, everyone!" Emily replied. "But I'll remind you, Chief Engineer, that everything we say is being recorded."

Collingwood ignored the caution without as much as a raised eyebrow.

Emily felt like she had been training her whole life for this. At 26 she was the youngest person to have ever been chosen to captain a starship, and while she had excelled in her studies and training, she suspected there were other factors at play. One of those factors was that she was a woman, a rarity in the space engineering field, and a very attractive one at that. With piercing green eyes, flowing brown hair surrounding a gorgeous face, and an athletic figure with smallish breasts and wide feminine hips, she was well used to dealing with unwanted attention from men. Her sex and stunning looks were an easy sell to garner government and public support, and as much as she loathed it, she felt like those probably played no small part in the decision to fast-track her into the position.

Another more sinister factor she suspected was that she was more expendable. There were other, far more experienced personnel to choose from, but this mission had a rather high probability of failure, and at her level she was a smaller loss to the program should it fail. Plus, there were thousands of other candidates ready to take her place at a moment's notice.

"Ok, let's pull her out and start to slow down," Emily ordered.

"Aye aye, Captain," Engineer Norris replied.

"We are not a pirate ship, Engineer," Emily sighed.

"As you wish, Captain," Norris smiled. "Ok, disengaging in 5, 4, 3, 2 … and disengaging hyperdrive system."

The shuddering returned and then at last they were back under the power of the ship's main thrusters. Their familiar hum was comforting to hear after the eerie silence of the hyperdrive.

"Chief Engineer?"

"I'll need a minute, Captain," Collingwood replied. "The instruments need time to recalibrate. Ok, here we go. No, that can't be…"

"What is it?"

"According to this we've travelled over 4000 light years! That can't be right. We were only under power for a few seconds. That's far beyond any known system."

"What are you saying? We can't find our way home?" Emily asked with some dread.

"Oh, no I didn't say that. Um... let me dumb it down for you, Captain, in a way you can understand," Collingwood replied condescendingly. "I know where we are, relatively speaking, and which direction home is, but we're deeply into unchartered territory here."

"Whew!" Emily replied, completely ignoring the condescension, which she knew very well was intended to get a rise out of her. "Ok, so let's about-face and head for home boys!"

"Yes, let's just hope the hyperdrive works again and doesn't blast us 4000 light years past our point of origin," Collingwood muttered, mostly to himself.

"Is that possible?" Emily asked.

"Anything's possible," he replied somewhat gravely. "We weren't even sure the thing would work at all, and we certainly had no idea it would work as well as it did. What just happened wasn't even supposed to happen. We figured at best we might go one or two light years. It's all new science so we've got no way of measuring our speed and distance with any accuracy while we're moving yet. To get home again, all we can do is measure the time we were under hyperdrive and apply the same again, keeping our fingers crossed we've got her pointed in precisely the right direction. Thankfully I have the time recorded down to the millisecond, but one bee's dick of a degree out with our direction and we could end up billions of kilometres off course."

"Oh my God. I thought we had a bit more control over it than that," Emily responded with some concern.

"Well, we do, and we don't. But trust me anyway," Collingwood replied smugly. "As long as it fires up again, we should be pretty close. Well, within a few weeks of thruster distance anyway, maybe a couple of months at the worst."

"Well, it's a long walk home if it doesn't fire up again."

"Indeed. Over 400 lifetimes in the cold of space in fact. I couldn't imagine spending it in better company though," Collingwood added with a wink.

"You wish!" Emily replied, smirking at his brazen attempt to flirt.

Collingwood smiled and then turned to focus on his screen.

"Ok, Norris, you have the coordinates on screen now," he announced.

"Got it," Norris responded. "Ok, just another blip of the starboard retro and we should be in position… and contact! And hitting thrusters again in 5, 4, 3, 2 and engaging. Thrusters are go. Ready when you are, Collingwood."

"Captain?" Collingwood asked as he looked towards Emily for confirmation.

"Yes, hit it, Collingwood for fuck's sake! Let's get this bucket home again," Emily replied with noticeable annoyance. Timing was crucial here and a move like that needn't have required her command. Collingwood was just being a smart-arse.

"I am sure the captain is aware we are being recorded," Collingwood added with more than a little sarcasm.

"You can be such a prick at times, Chief Engineer," Emily replied, smiling while rolling her eyes and shaking her head slowly.

"Ok hit it, Norris," Collingwood instructed while smiling to himself again. "The captain has cleared the command."

"Engaging hyperdrive in 5, 4, 3, 2 and engaged," Norris responded.

The ship trembled and shuddered, and then went silent as before.

"Ok, it should be coming up in about 15 seconds on your screen," Collingwood relayed to Norris.

"Aye aye, sir. Err… sorry, Captain. Aye, sir! Disengaging in 5, 4, 3, 2… and disengaged."

The welcome hum of the thrusters returned, and Emily turned to Collingwood with raised eyebrows.

"Just a moment, Captain. Instruments are recalibrating once again," he replied as he peered at his screen. "And here we are. Wow! Almost a direct hit! Planet Earth is about 3 days away. Lady and gentlemen, we're going home."

A cheer went up from the crew and everyone unbuckled to give each other high fives. Mission accomplished.

The usual boredom of space flight returned for the next two days. Emily spent the time mostly in her cabin with occasional patrols around the ship, checking in on each of the six crew members. Collingwood seemed to go out of his way during these patrols to "accidentally" bump into her in the tight passageways, so that they would be forced to pass chest to chest. After about the fifth time, Emily had to admit these incidents were actually funny, but perhaps the humour was more in embarrassment for him at his childish attempts to charm her. Other than that, no one ever had anything interesting to report until at last Norris announced that he had made contact with Cape Willis. The ground crew were very excited to hear from them. The hyperdrive system had exceeded everyone's expectations there too and they were looking forward to examining the data over the following weeks and months. A welcome party was being set up at the landing field. It sounded like it was going to be quite the party. Emily had nothing interesting to add so she let Norris deal with the particulars.

A day later they were at last once again in the Earth's atmosphere and preparing to hover down to the landing pad. Retro rockets hissed outside and then everyone felt the bump as they touched down. Home at last.

Uniforms were straightened and caps put on to prepare to meet the dignitaries and the inevitable crowd of cheering well-wishers who would be present. Emily had a quick glance in the tiny mirror in her cabin and slumped at her appearance. Two weeks without a decent shower had taken its toll. She tied her hair into a ponytail and donned her cap. It would have to do.

The airlock depressurised, causing everyone's ears to pop, then Norris opened the hatch. They stepped out into the blinding sunlight and to the sound of the crowd clapping and cheering. Emily blinked in the glare for a moment and tried to gather her senses.

Was that General McAlister approaching? Yes, it was. He appeared to have lost weight. Good for him! Oddly he walked straight up to Collingwood without even glancing at her.

"Captain Collingwood, it is so good to have you back in one piece," the General began. "We thought we lost you there for a while."

"Err… I'm not the captain, sir," Collingwood responded in confusion.

"Well, you were when you left," the General replied, and then caught on that Collingwood must be playing some kind of joke. Smiling he asked, "So who is the captain then?"

"Well, Captain Birmingham of course, sir," he replied while gesturing to Emily at his side, more than a little confused at whatever game the General was playing. Had he been promoted, and this was the General's way of announcing it?

"Is this a joke? Ha-ha very funny," the General responded. "Wait, is that actually a woman? What is she doing covered?"

The crowd suddenly went completely silent, and all eyes were on Emily. She looked at the General's face. He appeared to be completely aghast. Had something been lost in translation? How did he not know she was the captain? What did he mean by "what is she doing covered"? She looked out at the silent crowd of onlookers.

Wait, are those women over there topless? And there's a couple of others over there. Wait, they're not topless at all. They're completely nude! Are they wearing collars as well? What the fuck?? Oh, it must be some kind of elaborate sexist prank. Yes boys, very funny.

She wondered how they managed to get so many strippers together in one place and who paid for them, and how they got all of these people to participate in the joke.

"Officers, arrest this woman at once and get this abomination out of my sight," the General demanded.

Two cops approached Emily and produced handcuffs.

"If you could turn around, missy? What is your ID for our records?" one of them asked Emily.

"ID? You mean my driver's license?" Emily replied. "Ha-ha. Ok, the joke's over. Let's just… ow!"

Emily winced as her arms were pulled sharply behind her back and cuffs were placed on her wrists.

"Ow! Seriously, do they have to be so tight? This isn't funny anymore, gentlemen."

She glanced back at her crew. Collingwood's face was complete confusion. He was either a better actor than Emily gave him credit for, or he wasn't in on the joke either. He looked at Emily and just shrugged with a bewildered expression on his face.

They then basically frog-marched her into the back of a nearby van. Surely the joke had to end soon? Why were they being so rough? That was taking things a bit far! The cuffs were already hurting her wrists.

Emily found it difficult to keep her balance in the back of the van with her hands cuffed as they sped away from the landing pad and into the city. She had a small window across from her seat and caught flashes of scenery outside in between the bouncing and lurching. To her complete shock she noticed that everywhere she looked there were women going about their businesses, laughing, talking, pushing prams, and carrying shopping bags and so on. The usual city sights. The only problem was every single one of them was naked and wearing a black collar! She quickly realised this was way too elaborate for a prank. Something really weird was going on…

What is this? The fucking Twilight Zone?

Oh God!

The penny suddenly dropped. Could this be parallel universe theory? They'd just used an experimental hyperdrive system which took them thousands of light years out into space and back again in a few seconds. Was this a different Earth? Everything seemed so similar apart from all the female nudity everywhere. What was with that anyway? Everyone seemed so offended to see her wearing clothes. How did something like that happen, and why only women? Why not the men as well? And what's with the collars? Were women kept as pets here? The General didn't recognise her at all and seemed to think Collingwood was the captain. Yet he knew all about the mission, so the same events must have happened in both universes, just with different people in different roles. Perhaps the Emily from here was just another nude woman wandering around, and somewhere out in space there was another ship with another Collingwood and crew maybe landing back on her Earth?

Two Collingwoods… Oh God…

The thought made her shudder, yet he was the one most likely to figure out what had happened and how to reverse it.

"Time to hop out, missy," one of the cops instructed as he opened the rear door to the van, snapping her out of her thoughts. There would be time to try to figure all of this out later. Now she had to deal with whatever was happening in the here and now.

The van had stopped outside a busy police station and the cop took her arm and helped her down. She was then led up a wide flight of steps and through automatic doors into a large foyer which looked just like the kind of police station you'd see in the movies.

"ID please?" asked another cop at a counter.

"Umm… I've just been in space on a mission. I don't have anything on me," Emily replied nervously.

"Your collar, woman. What does it say on your collar?"

"Um… I don't have a collar," Emily responded.

"What? You took it off outside of your premises? You know that is an offence. Why would you go anywhere without your collar?"

"I-I'm sorry. I've never had one."

Emily wasn't sure how to handle the situation. Her instinct was to protest this horrible place. Maybe kick someone in the balls or report them all for violating her rights, but she knew enough already to know that wouldn't wash here. All she could do was play it by ear until she could get back to her crew and try to get the fuck out of here.

Oh God! We were flying instrument-free. Is going home again even an option? We hadn't even thought of parallel universes occurring. I'd never seriously considered that they actually existed outside of science fiction. If there was some way to measure and map what happened to us in space, we don't have it. At this point, though, that wouldn't really matter. Any other Earth would have to be better than this one.

"Never had one? That is not possible."

Emily noticed a naked woman nearby turn around, bend over, and spread her cheeks in front of a man. Then to her further surprise, the man unzipped his fly and started fucking her! Right there in the police station.

What the fuck? Isn't anyone going to do anything about that?

She looked back at the cops dealing with her. They weren't in the least bit surprised or even concerned. Instead, their attention seemed to be solely on her.

"Well, let us get you respectable then at least. Officers, if you could help the woman out of that clothing?"

Oh God no! They're not going to strip me, surely? Not here in front of everyone? Really?

She noticed two of the cops produced scissors from under the counter.

They're going to cut me out of my clothes?

"C'mon, this isn't necessary," Emily protested. "This is all I have to wear. If you destroy it, I won't have anything to put back on again afterwards. Please, at least uncuff me so I can take it off without ruining it."

Everyone within earshot laughed at that.

"Who ever heard of a grown woman wearing clothes? Have you not caused enough offence already? Have you no self-respect at all?"

This was getting out of hand too fast for her brain to keep up. Emily had no response and could only resign herself to the fact that they were going to strip her, right here right now, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Outmuscled with her hands cuffed, she was totally helpless. Every woman she had seen so far had been naked, and it looked like that was about to become her fate as well, whether she liked it or not. This was happening. She could only hope the ordeal would be short-lived and they could get back to the ship and out of there as soon as possible.

The scissors began to do their work, and within minutes she stood in only her government-issue shorts and T-Shirt. Moments later they cut up the sides and sleeves of the shirt before pulling its shredded remains unceremoniously from her body. Her upper body was left completely exposed, and with her hands still cuffed behind her back she could do nothing to hide her breasts or even put up a fight. She could only surrender and allow it as bit by bit she lost more and more of her clothing. The officers paused momentarily, as if deciding how to deal with her shorts, and then proceeded by stretching them roughly out from her body and cutting down at the hips. The ruined item was then pulled from between her legs, leaving her completely naked. Crimson faced, she could only hunch over to at least try to block the view of her genitals and pubic hair.

"What is going on here?" the first officer asked with some confusion. "No collar and you have hairs around your coupling area. Are you not a little old to be a deb?"

A deb? What the fuck is a deb?

It felt so wrong being naked out in the open, surrounded by fully clothed men. She could feel the air on her bare breasts, which just didn't feel right here in the middle of a public place. Her only real experience with being nude was between the shower and her bedroom in her home. Certainly not in front of people. Certainly not in public.

"Ok, 'Present'!" the officer demanded.

Emily stared at him blankly, not having a clue what he was asking. He looked at her with obvious surprise.