Emily 2.0 Ch. 01

"You do not know what 'Present' means? Officers, please educate her. My goodness, even a deb should know what 'Present' means."

The two cops at her sides grabbed an arm each and pulled her up to her full height. Then they kicked her feet apart until she was standing with them slightly wider than shoulder-width. So much for modesty now.

"There we go, see. When a man tells you 'Present', this is the position you must assume. Feet apart at least that width, and hands behind your back. Luckily the cuffs mean they are already in the correct place, so you got that much right. Once you are in the position, you wait. Then if he wants to take you somewhere, he will tell you to 'Come'. Then you will follow him. I cannot believe you do not already know this. Girls learn this in school in their deb training. Tell me you are not a complete moron?"

Emily started to cry. This was too much. The humiliation was unbearable. She wanted to run. She wanted to fight. She wanted to scream at someone, but all she could do was stand there naked in front of this man and take it. Six years of Uni with a masters in aeronautical engineering, plus two more years of jet and space flight training and this stupid cop was calling her a moron, especially while she was in a completely vulnerable, confused, and frightened state. It felt like an extra kick to the stomach. Surely, he must have some sense of what she was feeling and take some pity on her?

"Wait a moment, officers," an obviously more senior officer interjected as he approached. "Missy? 'Sit'."

Emily looked around for a chair but could see none nearby. Did he mean sit on the floor? She looked back at him questioningly.

"You do not know what 'Sit' means either?" the senior officer gently asked. "Constables, I have seen this once before. Before your time we had a woman in here who had been raised off-grid by people who had crazy ideas, but it worked out fine in the end. All we had to do was put her through deb training and give her a belated Debutante. After that she became a valuable member of society. I think that might be all this one needs too."

A debutante? Did he mean a debutante ball?

Debutante balls were kind of an out-of-date practice on Emily's Earth, but some people still did them as part of an old custom. The idea was to introduce young women to society as a coming-of-age ceremony. These days it was more an excuse to wear elaborate gowns and practise old dances. Just a bit of fun, nothing more. Here, though, she suspected it meant something else.

"You would like to be a valuable member of society would you not, missy?" the senior officer asked, turning to Emily.

Emily could only nod in agreement. This was all beyond her understanding and she just wanted the ordeal to end.

"Ok then," he responded as he turned back to the other cops. "Constables, give her twenty with the rattan for wearing clothes and being uncollared. The penalty would usually be much more, but I think this one is ignorant of the laws due to no fault of her own. Yet there must still be some punishment for such a serious offence. Afterwards, assign her to a cell until we can find a social worker who can give her the basics to get her into this week's Debutante, which is... tomorrow night. My goodness, is it Thursday today already? What a week it has been! She can do the full deb training afterwards. The important thing for now is to get her collared and contributing to society. We cannot have untagged women getting about. They are far too important to let that happen."

"As you wish, sir," the cop behind the counter responded. Then he went to a cupboard at the back of the office and returned holding a long cane. Emily's eyes got big. They weren't seriously going to cane her? Wasn't being nude in front of everyone enough already?

He came around from behind the counter and stood in front of her.

"Missy, if I uncuff you, can I trust you to bend over and keep your hands on the counter until the punishment is completed?"

"Are you kidding me? You're not seriously going to hit me, are you?" Emily asked in horror.

"I guess that would be a no then," the cop replied. "I had hoped you could at least take it like a woman, but I guess it has to be the hard way. Officers, if you will?"

The two original cops grabbed hold of Emily and forced her to an apparatus in the centre of the station foyer. It looked like a piece of gym equipment. Emily had noticed it and wondered briefly why it was in the middle of the floor and what its purpose was while she was being marched in. She was about to find out.

She was uncuffed and then pushed into the apparatus before being bent over a waist-high platform at the front. Then her hands were forced out in front of her and re-cuffed around a post. She was stuck in a bent over position and could barely move. The humiliation of having her naked bottom out in this position was almost beyond her, but the terror of what was about to come was even more overwhelming. She wanted to scream. Then to add further insult, she felt her legs being forced apart and leather cuffs fastened around her ankles. Were they really going to hit her? Out here with nothing on in front of everyone as well? Adding even greater insult to her predicament, she looked around and noticed most of the occupants of the station had formed a circle around her.

"For the crime of being clothed and uncollared in public, this woman has been sentenced to 20 strokes of the rattan."

Emily felt the first stroke across her bare buttocks and wanted to scream. The pain was excruciating. So excruciating that she forgot her nudity for a moment. Two more strokes and she did scream. Tears were flowing down her face which soon turned to rage.

"I'm going to kill you bastards for this! Oh Jesus Christ. Ow! What the actual fuck? Oh, you're all going to pay for this. Ow! Jesus!" she cried.

Still the strokes continued. Emily had lost count while still in the single digits. Then finally it stopped.

"The punishment has been served," the cop announced at last. "And now for the crime of threatening officers of the law in the act of performing their duties, 10 more strokes will be administered. You would do well to keep your mouth shut this time, missy."

"No. please! I'm sorry!" Emily begged, but it was no use. The cane again came down on her buttocks ten more times. This time she managed to bite her lip and just let the tears flow freely instead, all the while burying her face into her outstretched arms.

She continued sobbing as she felt the cuffs being loosened from her ankles and then her hands were free again at last, only to have them cuffed behind her back again moments later. Then she was marched past all of the onlookers, many of whom were clapping! If the indignity of being totally naked and having her bare bum caned in front of them all wasn't enough already, now she was sure there were a series of angry red welts across it as well, which all of these people were now looking at and applauding as she was being led away! She could feel her naked breasts jiggling and a breeze between her legs. This was beyond mortifying, and her butt now felt like it was on fire!

She was led to a backroom where a camera was set up, which she was made to stand in front of. Behind her she could see a height chart.

Mugshots? Even worse, nude mugshots?

She did her best to wipe the tears from her face using her shoulders, before realising how ridiculous that was at this point. This wasn't a picture for her driver's license or a passport, and it wasn't her choice for any of this to be happening.

She was asked to stand facing the camera. Then turn to both sides. Then to her horror the cop came in for close-ups. He took close-ups of her breasts, her stomach and of course her pubic area. He seemed to be interested in photographing every little mole and blemish. This was unbelievable!

"Ok, now if you could 'Display' please, missy?" he asked. Emily looked confused. "Oh, you have not done your deb training yet. It is so weird for a woman of your age not to know the very basics. Ok, I am going to need you to turn around and face the wall. That is it. Now bend over. Legs further apart than that. A bit further."

Emily couldn't contain her blushes having to pose in this way for this man. As if he hadn't seen enough already.

"Now use your hands to spread your cheeks apart."

WTF!

"You're not serious!" Emily asked in shock. "You can't ask me to do that! No, I can't do it. I won't!"

"It seems you liked the rattan I assume then?" the officer threatened.

Oh God no! Anything but that!

The pain was more than anything she had ever experienced. There was no way out of this then. She would have to go through with it. This place was so fucked up!

"Fine, no I'm sorry," Emily pleaded, knowing there was no way she could bear any more caning on her poor rear end. "Just give me a moment. I'll do it, ok."

She reached around and pulled herself open as best she could with her hands still cuffed. She winced at the pain of touching her poor bottom, not to mention how degrading it was to have to do this. And in front of a man! No one had seen her butthole before, and she certainly hadn't opened herself like this for anyone ever. Not even her doctor back home!

This is unbelievable!

"A little wider please, missy. And place your hands a little lower and closer in so you also pull the lips of your sex open as well. Much wider than that please. That is it. Ok, hold it there. My goodness, those hairs are disgusting!"

Emily felt like she was using all of her strength and hoped she didn't injure herself, especially her skin which felt red raw from the whipping. The comment about her pubic hair added to her humiliation and she felt sure her face was as red as her butt. She heard the camera's shutter clicking as the officer came in close. He must've been inches from her! At last, he stood back again.

"Ok, that is it for now but I will need you to come back to the station after Debutante so we can register your ID. For now, we will keep you in a cell until we can organise a social worker for you. Then you will be free to go."

Free to go? That couldn't come soon enough. Then with complete horror she realised that being free now would almost certainly mean walking about naked everywhere, like all of the other women she had seen. Could she actually do that? But then maybe anything was better than this police station? Maybe it wouldn't be for long, and she and her crew could escape again back to their own Earth? Maybe she could deal with it if it was just for a few days? Hey, maybe it was kind of a weird adventure she could look back on and smile about years from now? Right now, though, with the humiliation of being naked and caned in public, not to mention the pain of the experience, it was difficult to feel anything positive about any of it. It was degrading and painful. Nothing more.

The officer led her to a cell and finally her hands were uncuffed. She looked around for a blanket or something that she could use to cover herself but there was nothing. The only items in the room were a toilet and a bunk bed which was only a bare mattress. She sat on it and cried. Then lay face-down because sitting was too uncomfortable.

It felt like she lay in the cell like that for hours and not a soul had checked in on her, so it was with some shock when a male voice spoke to her outside of her cell.

"Well, it looks like someone's been a very naughty girl..."

Collingwood!

Emily quickly rolled over and sat on the bunk, covering her breasts with her arms, and hunching over so he saw as little of her body as possible, then she looked up at him. He was smiling! The arsehole!

"What the fuck, Collingwood? What is going on with this place? Do you have any news? Can we get out of here anytime soon?" Emily asked in desperation.

"Well, I hope you haven't been hurt too badly, for what it's worth, Captain, but I must say your lack of clothing is quite becoming. I think I'm seeing you in a whole new light."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hope you're enjoying yourself because I sure as hell aren't. So, what's going on? When can we get out of here?"

"Really? Are you sure you'd want to leave so soon? The boys and I are fitting right in. The girls here are awesome. Just one word and you can have them anytime and anyway you like. They never say no. I think Norris has dehydrated himself already, and I must admit I haven't exactly denied myself the pleasures of this paradise either."

"Collingwood! Fuck!"

Emily stared at him aghast, scarcely able to believe he could be so matter of fact about all this and had even teased her about her situation. Did he not have any empathy for her at all, let alone any sense of outrage that women could be treated this way? However, with Collingwood it was best to just ignore his bullshit and continue on. He had a twisted sense of humour at times and often overstepped the line between funny and offensive. Whether he did it deliberately or not remained a mystery.

"Yes, well, as you might have ascertained already," he continued, "it seems we have proven parallel universe theory correct, and what we have here is just like our own Earth but with a few changes. Aside from the obvious, with the state of undress amongst the female population, I have found doppelgangers for some people we know from our Earth, like the General, and they seem to be familiar with some of us. Yet for some reason I have been unable to find any family. Some of the guys don't seem to exist here at all. You too appear to be an anomaly. No one has ever heard of you here and there doesn't seem to be any record of you even existing."

"Really? How can that be?" Emily asked. "Surely, if parallel worlds exist, then we must exist in all of them in some way?"

"Not necessarily. I expect there are worlds where humans don't even exist at all. In this particular world, we are also hampered somewhat by another factor. If you take a close look at the collars women wear here, you'll see an engraved tag with a number. The girls seem to be only known by those numbers. They don't have names of their own. Beggared if I know why, but they seem happy with the situation too. That lack of personalisation may be why I can't find you or many other people in any records that I currently have access to. However, the General did mention that a lass joined us on our mission, apparently as our on-board entertainment, would you believe, but their records here don't include photo IDs so I'm not sure if she was your double. The others, though, I have no idea. They may have doubles here and I just can't locate them, or perhaps a distant ancestor died accidentally prior to procreating, so their whole bloodline disappeared. It's hard to say."

"Fuck.... Ok, so we're in a parallel world. Can you get us out of here or what?"

"Well, the good news is I have data, so I have something to work with. The bad news is that it may take years for me to put something together to try to get home again. I did request to have you join me in the research team, but the General won't hear of it. Apparently, they have other plans for you here, at least for the time being, and blowed if I can convince him otherwise. I can't even get you out of this cell. I had enough trouble gaining permission to come and see you in here. I must say I'm glad I did. Who knew you had such a lovely figure hiding under those daggy starship overalls."

"You can be such a pig sometimes, Collingwood. This is not a joke to me. How would you like to be in my shoes right now?" Emily chastised.

"What? I was just giving you a compliment" Collingwood replied in feigned surprise, before smiling to indicate that the comment was intended as a playful mocking of her situation exactly as Emily had taken it to be. "Unfortunately, Captain, there is nought for it but to try to make the most of things for the moment, as should I. It seems we're going to be here for quite a while."

The thought made Emily's heart sink. The events of the day had been hard enough. She couldn't imagine it going on for years.

"Please do what you can, Collingwood, and come find me anytime you have any news."

"That I will, Captain," Collingwood assured her. "And what have you learned of this world thus far? It seems you have been mistreated somewhat?"

"That's an understatement. They literally cut my clothes to pieces in the main entry and then chained me bent over and caned my arse in front of everyone, apparently for the 'crime' of wearing clothes! I've never been so humiliated in my life! Then they photographed me, even taking close-ups of my lady parts before depositing me here. And now they refuse to give me a thing to wear!"

"Yes, well, you may need to get used to that for a while. Being nude, I mean, not the corporal punishment I expect, assuming you are able to play along. I haven't seen a woman wearing any clothing here yet. As you pointed out, it appears to be against the law here. Not that any woman would be inclined to dress from what I've witnessed here so far anyway. They actually seem happy with the situation."

"Sexist pigs! What woman would willingly walk about naked in public?" Emily spat.

"Well, I guess you can get used to anything if it's been done for long enough, and this particular custom goes back so far that no one can remember it ever being different," Collingwood replied. "I know for a fact that both the men and women here are disgusted by the very idea of women wearing clothing. It seems akin eating a pork sandwich in a synagogue, only worse. So, from that I imagine that they would feel equally uncomfortable on our Earth."

"Jeez Louise..." Emily responded. "Just how did things get so screwed up here? Don't the women have spines? What about feminism? What about the suffragette movement of the 20th century? Did that even happen here?"

"It would appear not," Collingwood replied. "Nevertheless, women do command a certain level of respect here, even if they do tag them like cattle and don't allow them clothing. I've not once seen a man treat a woman with any disrespect, well aside from the enforced nudity and such. In fact, the level of crime and violence in this place appears to be minimal in comparison to our Earth."

"Yeah, tell that to my poor butt right now. If that's not violent or disrespecting a woman, I don't know what is. What they force women to do here under threat of that is beyond deplorable."

"Perhaps, but then who are we to judge? Everyone certainly seems happy with the arrangement, even the women."

"If they're all so happy, why would they cane me for such a small issue?" Emily asked, adjusting her position slightly to take some pressure off her aching bottom.

"Well, for them it's not a small issue, I suppose," Collingwood mused. "On that basis I would caution you to be on your toes. My lack of familiarity with the customs of this place has landed me in hot water once or twice already, which required some fast talking to get myself out of it. And I am a man too, which seems to make quite a difference in social standing here. I would imagine a woman could not escape a social faux pas so easily, as I'm sure your backside can attest to already."

"You're not telling me anything I don't know," Emily replied, her butt starting to sting badly from having to sit on it. "So, what do we do?"

"Well, if you want my advice, I recommend revealing as little as possible about ourselves or our Earth to anyone for the time being," Collingwood suggested. "Avoid talk of your education or work, or any mention of feminist concepts. They're kind of weird about family too, so don't bring that topic up. Just go along with whatever you're directed to do and keep your eyes open to what is happening around you so you can learn from it. As much as it looks like it, this place isn't our home, and we must adapt."