Lot's Children

For me and my sister, all of this began as a trip home to settle our grandfather's estate. It was the first time Lynn and I had spent much time together since well before she had gone off to college. We both looked at the trip as a bit of a lark. Having to return to earth to settle Gramp's estate was just the kind of codicil he would place in his will. He could easily have liquidated his estate and sent the resulting funds to us at any galactic bank branch, it's not like death crept upon him, but there is only so much medical science, even in the twenty-third century, can do against the very rare and aggressive form of cancer that claimed his life. We realized that he wanted Lynn and me together to share our memories of him as a family one last time. Both of us would probably have given it a pass, but as I said, his estate was considerable. If we did not claim it in person, we would get nothing.

Lynn and I adored our grandfather, he practically raised us. Vacations were spent with him seeing all of the wonders of the universe, from Yosemite to the Swiss Alps to Epcot Antarctica, Dry Wells, Mars, and Crystal Cities on Rigel, Proxima Centauri, Job's World, and the wind caves of Orion Five. It was a wonderful childhood. My career took me to the Barnard's Star colony and Lynn followed me to a nearby planet a few years later for college. Despite our proximity, we did not get together often. Lynn was enjoying college and her new life as an independent woman and I had such a busy professional and social life, that we really didn't get together much outside an occasional holiday. We had been moving in different circles for quite a while. That was fine by us, but both of us could use the money Gramps intended to leave us so we booked passage on the same liner and settled into the boring routine of trans-light flight.

Some folks really take to being locked in a tin can for a couple of weeks, I'm not one of those. There are only so many holographic dramas you can watch and no matter how carefully I fill my E-reader, I somehow never manage to choose the right novels and books for my voyage. I was sitting in the pathetically tiny lounge trying to get into a novel whose promotional material promised was "spicy" and "gripping." If that is spicy, chili peppers are latex. The only gripping I was doing was at the arms of the chair in frustration.

While I tried to settle in and make the most of things, I heard an announcement from the pilot come over the intercom, "Attention passengers, because of a distress call, we are rerouting our course. This should add no more than a day to our scheduled destination. I groaned with the rest of the passengers. Fortunately, Lynn and I had a wide window to reach earth, still, I resented spending more time in hyperspace than I absolutely had to.

A few hours later, alerting chimes rang and our ship dropped out of translight speed. For the first time, I had a view of stars out the viewports. I think the utter blackness of hyperspace is the most disarming and distressing things about space travel, it's like voyaging through endless nothingness until you reach your destination. We were in orbit around some nondescript hothouse jungle world. An Oxygen-rich atmosphere, but probably full of all kinds of dangerous beasties. Near a small inland sea, a medium-sized passenger yacht sat on the shore with a gigantic hole in its side and a small campsite of survivors. I brightened. It should not take long to finish this rescue mission. I doubted that the extra passengers would even cause much disruption in the normal routine of shipboard living. The captain set us down.

After a test of the atmosphere, the hatches were opened, filling all our lungs with fragrant floral air. Then, a whole bunch of people armed with blasters tumbled out of the wreckage and made a beeline for our spaceship. There was no way the captain could get the hatches closed or the ship in the air before the crowd of very large and powerful people entered it. Suckered by the oldest trick in the book! With no alternative, I rose to my feet and placed my hands above my head. It was all over very quickly. Their leader resembled a shaved gorilla. All the passengers who could fit were in the lounge as he addressed the rest over the intercom.

"Have no fear, folks, we will have you back into space in about an hour or so. Of course, the destination of this craft has been altered, but you will find out for yourselves what awaits you when we reach our ultimate destination."

"And WHERE would that be?" ventured a passenger far braver than me.

The ugly pink gorilla simply laughed uproariously, gestured with his weapon and stated, "As that question again, and it will be the last query you ever make! That goes for all of you!"

A huge ship dropped out of orbit and landed next to us. All of the pirates they didn't need to secure our ship, climbed aboard that one. Our pilot and co-pilot were transferred to that vehicle as well. A set of pirate pilots replaced ours. The damaged space yacht broke down into small pieces and disappeared into the hold of the larger vehicle and then we were off. Before we jumped into hyperspace, I could tell that our liner was following the much larger ship. Other than bitch or moan, what could we do?

Later, Lynn and I talked in her cabin.

"What do these pirates want, Joe?" she asked as she nervously stroked her luxurious black hair with her left hand.

"It's not simple robbery, they could have done that easily. They also do not seem interested in killing us. I don't know, maybe they want hostages. They could be one of those terrorist groups from one of the outer rim planets that want independence, perhaps they think a few hostages will cause Earth to bargain with them."

"Earth has never negotiated with rebels before, why should that work now?" asked Lynn sincerely.

"It's the only thing that makes sense, sis."

"I wished I shared your confidence," replied Lynn as she bent to embrace me.

In my sister's arms, I realized that she had done quite a lot of growing up in the last few years. She looked like old pictures of our mother only prettier and with darker hair. Her eyes were always the bluest I have ever encountered, and she was sleek and trim in a way that a good brother should not notice. Her enticing perfume would be deadly to most mortal men. She briefly bused my lips and then kissed my cheek.

"Promise me, Joe, that whatever happens, you will protect me. Just like you did when we were kids."

I promised her that I would and, as quickly as possible, my head spinning both from our captivity and the close embrace of my sister, I made my way back to my own cabin. The armed thug in the hall outside Lynn's cabin winked at me as I exited. It was all I could do to keep myself from telling the guy to go fuck himself. I spent a mostly sleepless night tossing and turning in my cabin. Two long boring days passed.

When I arose the third morning, I became aware of the ship dropping out of translight speed and, shortly thereafter, the onset of natural gravity which could only mean we had made planetfall. The pirates or terrorists, or whatever they were, herded us out of our cabins, regardless of our state of dress. The hatches were opened, and I discovered that were in a large building or hanger. I found Lynn, grasped her hand and, at the tip of a blaster, we made our way out of the safety of our space liner.

I noted that my sister wore little more than a nightshirt. I admired her fine long legs and tried to avoid looking at her ample bust with her perky little nipples clearly outlined by the fabric. I realized that I did not look much better in sweatpants and a tee shirt and chastised myself for looking at my own flesh and blood that way. I tried to place my mind elsewhere.

That was not hard to do. I and my fellow passengers were formed into ranks and assembled before an oily guy on a raised chair. It was not hard to tell that he was in charge of the men ordering us around. Whatever our fate was to be, it was clearly going to be decided by this joker. He was tall and dark. His face was handsome and sported a neatly trimmed goatee. Beneath his slicked-back widow's peak, on either side of his forehead, he had had two obviously live and sharp looking horns implanted in his skull! His resemblance to the ancient bogeyman known as Satan could not have been a coincidence. Now, I am not a religious man in any sense, yet I knew that no man would go to the trouble of looking like the devil himself unless he was a very evil character. I swallowed hard and held my sister's hand more tightly. He began to speak; his already deep voice was amplified with an intimidating electronic echo effect. I imagine a god, or a demon would sound just like this.

"Welcome, folks, who I am is unimportant, you can call me Hobbs, or Old Jack if you like, or nothing at all if you prefer. As you have by now, no doubt realized, the space wreck that lured you into my hands was a clever ruse. Now you are, well it doesn't matter where you are, now does it? My men are quite clever, not only could we lure your ship to its doom, but we were also able to capture your last few day's communications with flight control. Your pilots may have thought that they were talking with old friends, but they were not. The point is, that no one knows where you are or what happened to you. It will be several days at the earliest until flight control realizes that you are missing when they DO search, they will find NOTHING. What this means for all of you is that you are already dead, meaning that I can do ANYTHING at all to anyone of you!"

Gasps went up from the crowd, mine among them. People asked about ransom, others offered bribes or rained down threats. Hobbs waved his hand and some of his men warmed up their blasters and leveled them at us until we were all silent. The man began speaking again.

"Now I am someone who works outside the system and I live quite well. There is always a market for used spaceliners for smuggling contraband or people. Each of you has jewels and wallets and bank accounts we can loot. What sets me apart however it that I use ALL the raw material that comes my way. In certain parts of the galaxy, the ultra-wealthy have both the freedom and the means to indulge in vices, vices which planets like earth believe they terminated generations and generations ago. For those of wealth and inclination, the idea of slave ownership has quite an appeal. I find it quite lucrative to supply that desire!"

He laughed uproariously while all of us passengers screamed in horror. The devil's pirates used clubs and the blunt end of their weapons to silence us That task completed, our captor's eyes fairly flashed with merriment. "STRIP!" he barked.

The armed thugs began circling through us a group of passengers, threaten each of us in turn with violence if we did not immediately disrobe. I went soft inside. My glance met Lynn's she read my thoughts and nodded lightly. I had not seen my little sister naked since she had been a very young child. She had never seen me naked. I saw my sister's hands tug upon the hem of her nightdress as I pulled my own Tee shirt off my frame. The first thing I saw after discarding my shirt was my beautiful sister's naked body! She was clad only in translucent panties which she was even now preparing to remove. Lynn was perfection, large symmetrical breasts topped with brown areolas and sharp pink nipples above a flared rib cage, flat tummy adorned with an adorable navel, sensual hips, and fantastic thighs and calves. Those all paled however in comparison to her beautiful countenance, which even tear-streaked and haggard, was a thing of radiant loveliness.

Through the thin panties, I could spy Lynn's neatly trimmed ebony box. I felt myself stiffen, both from embarrassment and from the presence of my naked sister and other attractive female passengers I had admired before our journey had been interrupted. I lowered my sweatpants and felt the cooler air of the hanger on my engorged flesh. I'm positive I was as red as my sister as I stood there naked, unsure what to do with my hands. Covering myself seemed futile and juvenile, so I stood with my hands at my sides and tried to stare defiantly at the imitation demon on his throne. He seemed not to notice or care, he continued to wear his bemused expression as he subtly appraised all of the naked people assembled before him.

My sister and I tried very hard not to look at each other. For me, it was quite difficult. To have seen so little of my sibling over the years and then to see so much of her at once was overwhelming. It didn't help at all that Lynn was the exact type I preferred. Maybe men really do seek out versions of their mothers to marry and Lynn looked so much like mom's wedding portrait. I wondered if she saw me as a dead ringer for dad. Was she as flustered by my presence as I was by hers?

The demon-aping guy emitted a throaty chuckle and stated,

"Some of you will bring very high prices indeed! You can look forward to being luxury playthings. On the other hand, some of you will find yourselves toiling away in uranium mines or other such workplaces where automation has not quite replaced the human element. That sucks for you, but at least, I'll make some money on the deal."

He then addressed his guards,

"Process them. I want them all on the market as soon as possible."

I felt a phase weapon in the small of my back. Protest was suicide. I allowed the towering guard to shepherd me into a side room. In short order, I was showered, inspected head to, toe, photographed from all angles, including the soles of my feet and the top of my head, forced to give a urine sample and submit to needles for DNA extraction. After a long, exhausting, and humiliating ordeal I was led to a small circular cell occupied only by a combination sink and commode and a cot bolted to the wall. No one had thought to give me any semblance of clothing at any point. I had no idea what my future held in store for me, but I doubted it was good. I thought a lot about Lynn as well. As bad as this outcome was for me it was far worse for my sister. I knew what would happen to her of course, but there was also the fact that the poor kid had not even gotten to finish college and her life as a free woman was over. I at least had had a career and an independent life as an adult. I pictured her naked in a cell identical to mine and thoughts of her feminine perfection assailed my consciousness and I was rock hard and hating myself. With great difficulty, I forced my mind to drain off all distractions and, at last, tumbled off to sleep.

I lost track of time in my tiny cell. Meals were provided at regular intervals. Everything was pressed paper, the plates, the utensils, the condiment wrappers. I ate every morsel at gunpoint while the silent guard loomed over me and smirked. Abstractly, I hoped that Lynn was provided the nicety of a female guard, but I thought that unlikely. If her guards were female, they were no doubt lesbian Amazons that that might have actually been worse. Of all my regrets in the cell besides my shame at being aroused by my own flesh and blood, was not getting a chance to properly say goodbye to her. Fighting boredom, I soldiered on.

After however long, a guard showed up with a simple white Tee Shirt cut very long and instructed me to put it on. It fell to my mid-thigh, obviously, nothing was provided to wear under it.

"What is this all about?" I asked hesitatingly.

"You've been sold, meat. The shirt is just a convenience until you are in your shipping container. Too much nudity on the transmission floor sometimes results in accidents from distracted staff. Have no fear, however, meat bag. You'll enter your owner's service buck naked."

He re-positioned his weapon and stated,

"That's as much as I am permitted to tell you. Now start walking, follow the blue line on the floor, keep your eyes forward and your hands at your sides at all times. You DON'T have to be conscious for this bit, it's just easier if you are. Catch my meaning, meat?"

The blue line led to a cryogenics room. A row of empty chambers stood single file. I was marched to the closest one where a crew was feeding liquid hydrogen into a tank attached to the chamber. One of them had a clipboard he other wore technician's overalls. The guy with the clipboard passed an instrument over my face and a light lit upon it. "OK, he checks out," he stated to my guard before turning and addressing me as though I was not really there.

"Slave, you may never have traveled in a cryogenic freeze before, so I'll explain a bit of what to expect. In a few moments, you are going to enter this pod. A needle goes in your arm and you fall asleep almost instantly. The pod will then shut down your life functions to the bare minimum. It's a cheap but somewhat dangerous way to ship human beings but the boss has already insured your miserable life so that if you reach your destination as a corpse, we'll still recover the cost of transporting you. Obviously, however, we want you to reach your destination alive, but once you are out of my hands..."

With the hulking guard there with his nasty phase weapon, what real choice did I have? Though inside, I was screaming rebellion, I was silent as my bare feet nonetheless crossed the short gap to the cryogenic pod. "Better to die peacefully in my sleep," I thought rather than suffer the pain of weapon fire this close. I settled myself upon the upholstered couch in the pod and gave the guy with the clipboard the death stare as he reached for my right forearm. He just smiled calmly and levelly back at me, continuing to treat me as though I were an invisible man. I felt the tiniest sting of the needle then oblivion descended.

I came to in stages. It was like my body was an icicle, melting by degrees in the sunlight. I felt a warmth begin in my chest and work its way through my body. First, my shoulders and neck revived, then my torso and privates and then my arms and legs, lastly my face. I realized that I could now open my eyes, but I was leery of doing so. After a moment to prepare my mind for whatever I might find, I opened my eyes. I regretted it instantly.

A giant lizard was staring down at me! I recognized the species, Dino Sapiens, at least that what WE called them anyway, no human could mimic their vocal growls and roars accurately to not offend them while pronouncing the odd sound they called themselves. Offending a Dino Sapiens is not advised under any circumstances. To my considerable relief, he had a Bablebox translator strapped to his throat, so I understood him completely.

"Ah, you are awake! So nice to see that you were shipped so carefully. Now I have a matched set."

Even though his speech was completely intelligible, I had no idea what he was talking about. I remained silent as I gingerly raised myself to a sitting position.

"Human, please do not move too quickly. I understand that some mammals require more time to recover from the cryogenic coma. While you gather your strength, a word of explanation. Your species fascinates me, so many parallels yet so many vast differences. I vowed that once I had sufficient wealth, I would fulfill a childhood ambition of mine and own some human pets. I have studied up on your culture, diet and," he paused a moment while a gleam came into his surprisingly human eyes, "especially your mating habits. Well, one can only read so many books and view so many documentaries. After a while, one MUST have the first-hand experience."

He paused for a moment and I took the time to consider the full implications of his words. I did not want to believe what I had just heard but I could not deny that I did.

"I hope that you like the female that I have selected for you. While I, of course, cannot judge such things I am told by those in the know that she is quite comely."