Notes From The Underground

Phoebe could see that Kathryn was struggling to understand her surroundings. Sighing she said "Perhaps we should start with the equipment room. Things will make more sense once you have mastered the various implements used for play."

Walking towards the archway, Phoebe entered the chamber beyond and Kathryn followed her mentor inside, perplexed but determined to learn more. As Phoebe entered the darkened room, a light came on, flooding the chamber in a bright red glow. Kathryn blinked as her eyes adjusted to the increased lighting. As the room came into focus, her jaw dropped in surprise. Although the walls of the room were made of the same rustic black stone as the rest of the dungeon, its character was decidedly modern and sleek. Glass cases and new-looking metal cabinets and drawers filled the chamber. Communication access ports and other electronic equipment occupied the walls and ceiling. The room resembled a modern laboratory or computing facility, antiseptically clean, sterile, and technically sophisticated. Its contrast with the other rooms in the dungeon was so great that for a moment Kathryn thought that she had been magically teleported out of the dungeon and off the Island.

Phoebe looked at Kathryn's open mouth and noted her amazement at the equipment room. Frowning she thought, this is going to be difficult; for it was obvious that Kathryn had no idea what she was looking at, little lone its purpose. Sighing again, Phoebe said "this room contains all the equipment for the session chamber. Each session chamber has an adjoining equipment room and they are all more or less identical. I'll start by showing you how to access the equipment containers and the communication ports."

Kathryn looked at Phoebe and closed her mouth and swallowed. "Please", she said, "what…what is it all for?"

"You mean the equipment?"

"Yes" said Kathryn slowly nodding her head "and the other room."

Phoebe looked at Kathryn again trying to see if the young woman was acting. But Kathryn stood silently before her, her eyes naive and questioning. If she was acting thought Phoebe, she was incredibly gifted. However it was hard to believe she was so ignorant. Still…"OK", sighed Phoebe, yet again, let's start at the beginning.

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"Can we precede then?" asked the virtual Katrina looking directly at Echo.

Echo moved her hand slightly on the armrest of the chair she was sitting in and said, "I believe, psychologically she is ready Mistress. In my opinion the results should be quite satisfactory, if you handle her correctly."

Alex looked at Prudence and frowned slightly but said nothing. The four of them had been discussing K1's progress for the last 30 minutes. Alex had provided a brief summary of K1's training to date and her current status. Echo had followed with her assessment of psychological impact and mental state. Both women were in agreement that K1 was making satisfactory progress and neither anticipated any significant problems.

Katrina's persona had then said "It occurs to me that K1 is a true virgin in every sense. Not only is she physically a virgin, but psychologically as well. It seems that if her training continues in the normal manner then it is almost certain that she will lose her sexual naiveté. As such, I would like to discuss modifying her training."

Alex had frowned inwardly at Katrina's statement. She disliked any departure from Zax's standard protocols regarding the training and management of the slaves. K1 had proved a nuisance from almost day one and Alex had been hoping to complete her training and place her within the dungeon's slave population as quickly as possible. However it seemed that Katrina now had other plans. Alex kept quiet however, and did not express any hint of her disapproval for she knew her place well.

Echo on the other hand raised her eyebrows and said "Mistress, K1's indoctrination and training program have been carefully designed with the goal of making her a working member of the diapered slave population as quickly as possible. If we change the program this could significantly slow progress towards that goal or worse cause a serious and perhaps irrecoverable setback."

The virtual Katrina nodded and said, "That's why I wanted to elicit your opinions."

"Yes Mistress" said Echo "exactly what did you have in mind?"

"Nothing too drastic, I hope" said the persona. "It occurred to me that K1 is the embodiment of the Venkatesan Modification carried to its logical extreme. As such, I would like to use her, as is, without further training. More specifically, before experience mitigates the psychological effects that Echo has worked so long and hard to enhance and which will certainly be lost if her training continues."

This time it was Alex's turn to raise her eyebrows. However it was not so much in surprise at Katrina's statement but in confusion. "I don't understand, Mistress" said Alex.

Looking at Echo, the virtual Katrina said "Perhaps you can explain."

Echo looked nonplused for a moment and then said "Yes Mistress. If I understand correctly, you are concerned that if K1's training continues she will acquire sufficient experience to loose a significant portion of her sexual naiveté, or more colloquially, her innocence. As things stand now, she is almost completely ignorant of sexual matters and she is entirely lacking in experience. More importantly, her extreme sense of embarrassment concerning sexual matters and the resulting sexual stimulation it provides due to the enhanced reinforcement of the Venkatesan Modification from her upbringing will be diminished or lost all together."

The virtual Katrina nodded her head and said "Yes, exactly".

"If her training continues, she will inevitably loose her some of her naiveté as she necessarily gains practical experience diminishing the feedback to her libido" continued Echo "although, in the technical physically sense she will still remain a virgin."

"Precisely" said Katrina.

"OK" said Alex still confused. Echo had merely stated the obvious. "I still don't understand" said Alex.

"Well" said Echo, "in a very real sense, further training will destroy the very thing we have worked so long and hard to cultivate. When K1's training is complete, she will have lost some or maybe most of her innocence and the resulting sexual arousal it induces, rendering her in some sense less valuable. We will have, in essence, destroyed much of the work of the last 18 years."

"Correct" said the virtual Katrina.

Alex was still lost. "Isn't this inevitable anyways?" she asked.

Echo looked at the virtual Katrina, but the persona merely stared back at her, its eyes dead and almost lifeless. She could not expect any assistance from the persona in answering Alex's question since the information pertaining to the answer was outside its current task and therefore exceed its capabilities. Echo decided to be cautious. She had discussed this exact this topic with Katrina earlier along with new and experimental methods for permanently maintaining K1's enhanced Venkatesan Modified conditioning. Katrina had been intrigued but had requested that she not discuss the matter with anyone else until more could be learned about these new methods. "Perhaps" Echo said, "however at the very least we can postpone the inevitable a while longer."

"OK" said Alex still unsatisfied. However she knew better than to continue pursuing the matter. Katrina was clearly in favor of not proceeding with K1's training for whatever reason and no matter how irritating this might prove, it was not Alex's place to dispute her Mistress. Besides, she also understood how much such slaves were prized. From examining Laura's reports and her own personal experience, it was clear that K1 was the most ignorant and naïve slave she had ever encountered. In fact, Alex personally felt that more training would be a good thing, least K1 not be able to perform at all. However Katrina and Echo seemed to feel differently and it was not Alex's place to say otherwise.

As if reading her mind, Prudence said "Maintaining K1's enhanced Venkatesan Modified conditioning, although highly desirable, could prove problematical. I am concerned that without some further training, she may be completely incapable of performing her duties."

A flicker of hope went though Alex's eyes. These were exactly her concerns also. However she remained silent.

Echo considered this for a moment and said "No Mistress, I think that would be extremely unlikely. The 5K's all have above average sex drives and active and on going sexual fantasies. Moreover they masturbate regularly and often in response to their personal fantasies. Their enhanced Venkatesan Modified conditioning should ameliorate any performance problems."

Prudence looked at Alex and nodded. "Very well then" she said.

"Can we precede then?" asked the virtual Katrina looking directly at Echo.

Echo moved her hand slightly on the armrest of the chair she was sitting in and said, "I believe, \she is ready Mistress. In my opinion the results should be quite satisfactory, if you handle her correctly."

"Good" said Katrina. "I take it you have some suggestions on this should be approached?"

"Yes Mistress. I will send you a brief report. In addition, I would recommend providing her with some background knowledge" said Echo.

"Such as?" asked Prudence.

"General information, Mistress: slave-Mistress protocol, equipment-toy identification, that sort of thing. Although K1 should perform well, play is likely to be more satisfactory if she is educated in these matters" said Echo.

"Noted" said Prudence. Looking at Alex she said "How long will it take to bring her up to speed in these areas?"

Alex was irritated by the implied change that would be required to the standard training protocol, but again outwardly refrained from showing her dissatisfaction. "Two or three weeks, tops Mistress" she said.

Prudence looked at the virtual Katrina and said, "Will that prove satisfactory Mistress?"

"Yes" said the persona. "I will be out there in three weeks. Have her ready for me when I get there."

"Yes Mistress" said Prudence.

The virtual Katrina looked at them, nodded and then vanished. Prudence looked at Echo and Alex and said, "You have your instructions. You may go."

"Yes Mistress" said Alex and Echo in unison, both women rising and walking towards the door of Prudence's office.

When they were outside, Alex turned to Echo and said, "You had better be right about this."

"I am" said Echo. "You should have no problems."

"I won't" said Alex coldly. "It's you that will have a problem, if things don't work out."

Echo looked at Alex but said nothing. She knew that Alex regarded her neutrally as she did most women, and that she disliked other's (even Katrina and Prudence) meddling in her training and management of the slaves and the dungeon. Echo was yet another woman disrupting her work and making her life more difficult. Strangely, Echo sympathized with Alex; she carried a heavy burden and a lot of responsibility. Dealing with the idiosyncrasies of K1 just added to her otherwise overloaded work routine. Echo sighed and said, "I hope not, Alex, I really hope not."

Alex looked at her for a moment and turned and walked away without saying another word.

I am really going to be happy when this is over thought Echo watching Alex's back as she moved away. Working for Zax could be trying. But then again, everyone in the Castle knew that all too well.

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"Let's go over it one more time then we'll take a break" said Phoebe.

She had been drilling Kathryn for several weeks now, and the young woman had proved a quick learner. In that time Kathryn had mastered Zax's slave protocol and learned the names of almost all the important equipment. This is not to say that Kathryn understood what everything was used for, or even that she understood the finer points of dungeon procedure. Laura's instructions had been clear: teach her the 'what's' but not the 'why's'. Phoebe found this perplexing but knew better than to ask questions. Ironically in Kathryn's case, not having to explain the purpose, use, and function of each piece of equipment or the subtitles of dungeon protocol made the job easier. Kathryn was so naïve that having to expand on these details would have been extremely time consuming, not to mention excruciatingly tedious.

"OK" said Phoebe, "Bring me the L5 strap-on".

Kathryn stood at attention looking at the floor. "Yes Mistress" she said, turning to her left and moving towards the equipment room, her enormous breasts swaying with each step.

They had been role playing for the last several days. Kathryn had learned that it was not enough to merely learn the names of each piece of equipment or 'toy' but she also needed to know the proper protocol for retrieving and presenting it when requested. Kathryn had a fine mind, and had quickly absorbed the basics of identifying, locating, and presenting each piece of equipment. She was now working on mastering the finer points of protocol with Phoebe.

When Kathryn entered the equipment room, the light came on as usual, bathing the room in a bright red glow. Although the contrast between the two rooms affected her less, Kathryn was still struck by the profound differences in appearance and atmosphere between the two chambers. Walking to the center of the room and standing in front of the system console she said "Diapered slave Kathryn Weiss requesting system access."

"Confirmed" said a disembodied female voice.

Kathryn had learned from Phoebe that in order to access the contents of the equipment room, she must first give her name to the security and control system. If she was authorized for access the system respond with (a now familiar) 'confirmed' and allow her to retrieve whatever items she had been commanded to fetch. "L5 Strap-on, please" said Kathryn. The 'please' was not necessary, since she was talking to a machine (as Phoebe had reminded her on more than one occasion), but Headmistress Echo had taught her to always be polite regardless of the situation and Kathryn found it difficult to break (what was for her) an ingrained habit of politeness.

"L5 strap-on" said the disembodied female voice. "Retrieval request granted."

A second later a slot in the console opened and Kathryn removed the strap-on. Holding the strange device in her right hand she paused for a moment, pondering its purpose and function. A five inch tapered and oddly shaped 'cylinder' was fastened to a molded and roughly triangularly shaped piece of red-leather. She had asked Phoebe about the strange 'toy' (a funny name for equipment, she had thought) but her mentor had brushed her off saying, "you will find that out later. We don't have time to go into that much detail now." Kathryn had found her response rather brusque, but she did have to admit there was a lot to learn.

Equipment or toys were classified into various categories and sub-categories and within each sub-category there was further sub-classification. In total there were literally thousands of toys, and Kathryn and memorized the names of perhaps a tenth of them. These were the primary or principal toys, as Phoebe termed them. In practice, if Kathryn needed to search for a particular piece of equipment, she could query the system, which would provide images and other details. However knowing the name of each toy was not enough since it was insufficient to just retrieve the toy and bring it to Phoebe. Rather, there was a protocol that went with each toy that also needed to be committed to memory. In the case of the strap-on, Kathryn was not supposed to touch the cylinder. Instead, she was required to grasp the red-leather at the corners and hold the device with the cylinder pointing towards her. Holding the toy in any other manner was considered a serious infraction, especially if the cylinder pointed away from her. Kathryn was not sure why this was so, and again Phoebe had demurred in telling her.

In addition to all this, time was of the essence. If it took too long for Kathryn to retrieve the requested toy, she could and would be punished. This was why knowing how to use the retrieval system and the proper protocol was so important. In practice, Phoebe did not punish Kathryn if she erred or was too slow, but her mentor was quick to remind her when she failed to do things satisfactorily.

After making sure she was holding the strap-on correctly, Kathryn returned to the session chamber and knelt down in the exact place where she had stood a few moments before. Bowing her head, she extended her arms slightly in front of her, and waited. After a few moments, Phoebe's feet came into view, and Kathryn raised her arms, holding out the strange toy. Phoebe took the strap-on and Kathryn dropped her arms to her side, but remained kneeling with her head bowed.

"Good" said Phoebe, "that was almost perfect. Remember however when you raise your arms to make sure the toy is waist-high. A Mistress should never have to stoop to grab the toy."

Kathryn bit her lower lip and said, "Yes Mistress, sorry Mistress."

"OK" said Phoebe, "that's good enough for now. Let's take a break and get some lunch."

Kathryn stood up and breathed a long sigh of relief. She and been bending, kneeling, and running back and forth between the session chamber and equipment room all morning and she was tired and her nipples ached from the chain and attached weights. In addition, she always found her lessons stressful since there was a lot of pressure to perform everything exactly correct. In addition, she always felt tense, uncomfortable and ill at ease in the session chamber; it was if she could almost hear faint moans, panting, and hushed pleading echoing in her ears. She wondered if it would be like this when she was there alone with a Mistress.

"Phoebe is it always like this?" asked Kathryn as they walked towards the recreation room.

"Like what?" said Phoebe

"You know…tense, I guess" said Kathryn.

"Oh" said Phoebe. "Yes, I suppose. But then again, when you are in the session chamber, you are essentially working, and that is always stressful."

'Yes, I guess so" said Kathryn sensing that Phoebe's response, although truthful, was also less than complete.

After reaching the recreation room and getting their food, the two women sat down to eat, chatting about the finer point of protocol. Ironically, Kathryn had found herself completely absorbed with her lessons, to the point where she practiced them in her head before going to sleep each night in her cell. Although the training was demanding, it was also challenging and interesting on a technical level, with all the different pieces of equipment to memorize along with the protocols for retrieving and presenting them. In truth, Kathryn had almost forgotten her predicament and troubles. If it had not been for the physical discomfort and shame of wearing and using the diapers, her life, she had to admit would not be all that bad. If fact, with the company of Phoebe and the task of mastering her lessons, Kathryn had to admit, she was not all that unhappy. Laura pretty much left them alone, and now that she had healed, even the memory of her punishment had receded from her mind. All in all, things were not too bad and Kathryn began to believe that perhaps Phoebe had exaggerated about harshness of their lives as slaves.

Kathryn's sanguine attitude however changed abruptly as Laura appeared just as they finished their lunch. Both women scrambled to their feet as she walked into the recreation room, their eyes downcast, studying the floor at the tips of their toes. Looking at Kathryn, Laura said, "Your first service is tonight. You will report here, ready to serve at midnight." Turning to Phoebe, she said "prepare her in the standard manner." With that, Laura turned and departed as quickly as she had appeared, barely giving the slaves time to respond with the mandatory 'Yes Mistress'.