The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

It was something like a week later that things happened again.

I’d kept as clear of Darnael as I could during that time, and despite his scowls and efforts to the contrary I had managed to never be alone with him. Part of me was terrified of him and how easily he had ordered me around; part of me was excited by it as well, though I noted that part of me was a bit subdued since he had confronted me before. Humiliation at the time had pushed me to go along with what he had told me to do, but... Basically it felt like it had ruined the exciting part of it and I got the feeling that he wouldn’t have such an easy time next time.

That being said, Else did comment on how little effort it took to convince me to have a more formal time in an encounter room with her; she had suggested it in an off-hand manner, pointing out that the first time around had been quite practical and there was some more work to be done. I hadn’t just jumped in, but... Even I had to admit that I hadn’t needed as much convincing as I would have expected.

The time had been productive, with some of the others discovering that I could mess with their attitudes a bit as I had done with Anlis and deciding that it would be useful to experiment with it. That had been useful, because it gave me a couple more out-of-room sessions under my belt with someone needing to be more confident with Lor’talp and someone else needing help with not staring at the scars from when a customer had been in an accident. I’d been paid for both as well, which was very handy.

I had also managed to snag two of Darnael’s Uurak customers who were a bit bemused by the alternative that I offered but agreed that it was well worth the effort in the end; one expressed interest in a return visit while the other was satisfied with one and enquired when Darnael would be available again. Given that this was the closest I had come to an outright failure so far, I felt it was going quite well.

I was having a late lunch with Else when things kicked off; she was still the main person I spent my time with, though I had spent time with other people for games and the like. The eatery was as bustling as usual, with everyone from this end of South Pier who couldn’t be bothered to eat elsewhere trying to get through; wherever you tried elsewhere was always more expensive than the eatery.

“I just wish they had a bit more variety,” I pointed out. “I mean, even some ketchup would be a change of pace...”

“It’s bulk produced,” Else replied. “Variety isn’t something that they are interested in.”

“I know... It’s just repetitive.” I poked at my food with my fork. “What are you up to this afternoon?”

“Nothing,” she replied with a shrug. “You have plans?”

“Not particularly,” I admitted. “I was thinking... I know that I’m not exactly in shape at the moment,” I pointed out, my memory flashing back to Darnael manhandling me. I just about kept that from my face as I pushed onwards. “So I was thinking of working out how to get some proper exercise...”

“I would advise not trying the Ebon Star Path,” Else said with a smile.

I smiled back. “Yeah, I’m not making enough to even think about affording their rates,” I acknowledged. “But there must be something around here...”

“There’s a very basic gym somewhere in Rimward two,” Else said thoughtfully. “Very basic though.” She considered me for a few seconds. “Does this mean that you’re looking at more physical work that you need to be in shape for?”

A grimace settled on my face. “It’s looking like all kinds of inevitable at the moment,” I replied. “I’m not comfortable with the idea of... Well, strangers,” I said bluntly. “But... I know that I don’t have the kind of endurance that anyone else at Orrin’s does.”

She nodded in acknowledgement and went back to eating. We all either ate slowly or quickly; slowly because it made a change of scenery for the day, or quickly because it was the same stuff every time with only the consistency changing.

“Else!” a voice called from the doorway. We both looked around to find Naythun hurrying over to us; he was another of Orrin’s employees, a very dark skinned Gythen with almost luminous patches of green in various places and some kind of erotic scene tattooed in brilliant white inside each ear. I hadn’t worked out where he came from, but he sounded like he spoke Afrikaans as his first language. He had a sharp sense of humour and a knack for poker that made people nervous whenever he had a deck of cards in his hand.

“James, you’re here as well, good” he said as he jogged to a stop next to our table. “Word just came through: the Glorious Endeavour came out of FTL about half a shan ago.”

That didn’t mean anything to me, but Else perked up immediately. “Gythen warship?”

“Full battlecruiser,” Naythun confirmed. “Orrin wants us all back right away.”

“So much for the quiet afternoon,” Else said sourly. “Come on, we’d better move,” she told me, scooping up her plate and heading for the door.

Startled by the sudden change of pace I grabbed the remains of my own meal and followed. The eatery was used to behaviour of this kind from people, be is workers being called to an emergency, urgent meetings, or whatever, and kept a stash of... Well, the closest I could come up with for a comparison was the kind of polystyrene trays used by chip shops, but apparently they used a lot more high tech materials in terms of keeping things hot or cold. They also sealed a lot better, so having upended our meals into a tray each, we were able to jog back to Orrin’s without a risk of spillage.

“What’s going on?” I tried to ask as we approached the whorehouse and I managed to catch up with Else and Naythun.

“Oh, of course,” Else muttered, clearly realising that this was something she hadn’t explained yet. “Gythen warships keep their crew on dampers while they are on service; it stops them getting distracted by being aroused by each other and that kind of thing. Also cuts down on the chances of relationships that might cause trouble. But when they make port they let the crew off the dampers... Those don’t supress their lust, they just stop them feeling it, so once the dampers wear off they have an attack of raging hormones pent up from months of service with no release. They normally let them off in half-shifts, which, for a battlecruiser, could mean anything up to two hundred horny Gythen hitting port at once.”

“And...” I paused to draw breath, admitting that yes, I really did need to get back in shape. “They’re going to come to Orrin’s?”

“Most of the crew are going to have a fairly uncomplicated attitude for the first few hours,” Naythun told me. “Maxwell’s actually turns them away and the Ebon Star Path is aimed at slow build-ups. They come to us for release, nothing more. Most of them come back after,” he added, “but some of them move onto the other places instead.”

I was still processing this information when we arrived at Orrin’s and I realised that everyone had been either recalled or turfed out of bed to get together in the common area. Even Orrin was there, which was unusual; he normally kept out of there, possibly because he wanted us to have some time away from him, or possibly because he simply didn’t want to acknowledge what must have been quite an expense that he didn’t get money back from.

Everyone was talking when we showed up, jamming ourselves into the back of the common area by the door where we could just about see past people. I hadn’t actually properly realised how many people Orrin employed; given that we all slept at different times I hadn’t really processed the scale of it.

After a couple of wren Orrin called for silence.

“Okay, as some of you are aware,” he said, raising his voice to make himself heard, “we’ve got a Gythen battlecruiser inbound. They came out of FTL about a shan ago, and they’ll be docking in about a day. The station has already transmitted them a standard manifest, so they know what to expect.” He paused and checked a sheet in his hand. “Okay... Naythun?”

Beside me Naythun perked up. “Aye?”

Orrin looked over our way. “We’ve got a sept-ai coming in; you’ve got her.”

“My commiserations,” Else whispered to Naythun.

“I will do my best not to embarrass us too badly,” Naythun informed Orrin with a grimace.

“See that you do,” Orrin replied offhandedly. “Mart?”

Somewhere to my left a hand was waved up where I could just about see it over everyone’s heads. “Here!”

“I need you to get to the medicae and get checked out; this is going to be hard duty and I need to know if you’re up for it. If you’re not then you’re going to be on house duties or light regular work; regular comp pay for the house duties. Clear?”

The voice assented with slightly less enthusiasm than before.

Orrin considered his sheet again. “Darnael?”

“Here,” Darnael replied from the right where I realised that he was leaning on the handle of a mop.

“You’ve got five days left on house duties,” Orrin informed him. “You can go back on regular duties for two days and added those two days onto the end of the five if you want.”

“I’ll do it,” Darnael agreed quickly.

“Make sure you finish up today properly,” Orrin warned him. “Now... Else.”

Beside me Else looked up sharply, clearly not expecting to be called on. “Yes?”

Orrin treated her to a very serious look. “Is he up for regular duties yet?”

Else cast a quick look at me, and I realised what this must be about when she slowly shook her head. “He’s improving, but he needs someone to get him warmed up. That’s not going to work in this situation.”

“Fine. James, you’re on house duties full time, on comp pay, for the next two days, understood?”

“Uh... Yes,” I agreed, not entirely sure that I did understand.

“Good. Let me remind you all,” he continued, raising his voice to address everyone again, “that you have four priorities over the next few days: customers, house duties, eating, and sleeping, in that order. Anyone deciding to take a nap when one of the rooms needs tidying should start thinking about a new job fast. Anyone not understand that?”

No one responded, and Orrin gave a satisfied nod. “Ship docks in the middle of second shift tomorrow: be ready.” Without further explanation he turned and left, leaving us all milling around a bit and discussing things.

“Why commiserations?” I asked Naythun.

“Huh? Oh... Because I got the sept-ai,” he explained as if that meant anything to me.

“Sept-ai is the lowest rank of officer in the Gythen navy,” Else added, filling in the blanks. “They are generally trainees or candidates, and get given awkward jobs to do. In cases like this it includes scouting out the places for the other officers to relax when they come off duty a day after docking. They always send someone to us, and that’s the only interest that we ever get from officers on military ships at all. It’s not a reflection on the person they are with: officers just get a better class of damper and so recover better than the regular crew.”

“But it does get viewed as a bit of a bad luck job because you’re advertising yourself to the officers and you know in advance that nothing will come from it,” Naythun added, a bit dejected sounding. “Even if they do tip better than regular crew.”

“Ouch,” I said, trying to sound apologetic. “And what was that about me?”

“Orrin wanted to know when you were going to be ready for regular work,” Else informed me. “I told him that I was working on it; I think he understands your situation, but... You’re probably lucky that you got comp pay for doing house duties, because that’s normally reserved for medical reasons rather than unwillingness.”

“It’s not just unwillingness,” I objected, not entirely believing it myself.

“There’s also the fact that you’re freeing up other people to work,” Darnael pointed out as he managed to slide himself through the crowd to where we were. Bits of me tensed up at his sudden appearance, and I backed up half a pace without realising it.

“Meaning that you are working again,” Naythun said. “For a couple of days anyway.”

“Whatever else he is,” Else pointed out, “he is good with rough customers... And he’s right,” she added, throwing me a look. “You being full time on house duties means other people not having to do them, which frees people up for dealing with customers.”

“And customers are what pay our debts off,” Darnael added. “Which is important for all of us. For different reasons,” he added with a scowl.

“You’re still on house duties until tomorrow,” Else reminded him. “Don’t you have something to clean up?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” he agreed. “But since James hasn’t done them full time before, I thought it best to ensure that he knew where everything was and how to do the job properly. Unless you were going to do that as well as taking charge of his sexual training?” he asked with an air of mock politeness.

Else scowled at him now, and Naythun didn’t look happy either; clearly Darnael hadn’t made friends with having raped me, even if there hadn’t been a formal charge before the arbitrator.

“I’m sure that we could show him around,” Else replied sharply. “Given what happened the last time you were alone with him, I don’t think that we should be taking chances.”

For a second my heart nearly stopped at the thought that she had found out about Darnael managing to grab me in the corridor... But no, she didn’t mean that; she meant the occasion when he had raped me.

“As you wish,” he said with a nod. “I’ll be around if you need me.” He treated me to a roughly professional nod and then headed out of the common area towards the encounter rooms, taking the mop with him.

“He’s right though,” Naythun pointed out. “However much you might not like it. I mean, when did either of us do full time house duties?”

“I’ve done them once,” Else informed him, still scowling. “And this is the only time he’s done them,” she added. “The only extra bit that isn’t on the normal rota is that you need to double-check stock as you’re going through rather than at the end of your duty.”

“So why was he making a fuss about it?” Naythun wondered.

“He’s got some kind of interest in Sin,” Else replied with a shrug. “Horned Mother knows what it is...”

Naythun seemed to consider this, then shrugged. “Oh well... Let’s have a go at getting ready.”

I had done house duties before, and yes, everything was basically the same as when you were doing it on the rota. The major difference as far as I was going to be concerned was the fact that I was going to be doing it for a full shift at least this time rather than the two shan usual rota.

When the ship finally docked various people were sitting around expectantly and seemed to think that we would have customers coming in instantly when it did. No chance of that: even without any real idea of what was involved, I knew that there would be some time for actual docking procedures and tying things down before anyone would be allowed off the ship, and then potentially a shan at least before they managed to make their way out to Rimward Three.

As such it was more like two shan, over three hours easily, before anyone turned up. Kayt had been sent off to the transit station in Rimward One to keep watch and reported back that they were coming in time for everyone to panic and get ready.

“So what? They’re just going to come in and grab someone?” I asked Else a few wren before they were due at the transit station in Rimward Three.

“Any time now we should be getting some kind of room assignments,” Else explained with a casual air. “Once that happens it will be basically non-stop for the next two or three days while the crew come off the dampers.”

“Wow,” I managed. “So... At that point I’m just busy tidying up and stuff.”

“Stuff including restocking things,” Else reminded me. “Just make sure that you keep busy; anything you can do in advance is going to save you time later.”

“Well, all of the equipment for cleaning the rooms is ready,” I pointed out. “And we’re stocked up on the refill packs for lube... Oh... That was one thing I was meaning to do,” I said suddenly, remembering one of the things that I had added to my mental list. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I added, starting for the door.

My pager went when I was most of the way back to Orrin’s. In fairness the journey had taken longer than it was meant to; in my defence that was because it was an unusual request that I was making rather than because I had underestimated the journey time.

I couldn’t check my pager with my hands full though, so it was only when I got back to Orrin’s two wren later and found Orrin glowering at me from the main door that I became aware of who had paged me.

“Where have you been?” he asked sharply, eying up the large box that I was carrying.

“Sorry, it took longer than I expected,” I explained, managing to get the box past him and heading for the common area. “Naythun, give me a hand will you?” I asked seeing the Gythen hanging around; he seemed to be talking to someone in some kind of uniform, but my arms were aching by this time.

“What’s this?” he asked, a bit bemused, hurrying over to give me a hand. It wasn’t heavy as such, just incredibly awkward to handle.

“Dinner,” I explained. “The eatery let me have everyone’s meals for the next day in advance. Whew,” I added with relief as we put the box down on the table. “I figured that since customers are going to be our big priority we might as well eat here rather than out.”

“Next time tell me before you leave,” Orrin complained from the doorway to the common area. “Now leave that and get into my office.” He turned without explanation and stalked off.

“Not sure what’s going on,” Naythun admitted, “but you might want to hurry.”

Rolling my eyes I jogged to Orrin’s office, only to find someone else in there with him.

“This is him,” he said by way of introduction. “James, this is administrator Kym As Quill.” He indicated the other person in his office, who I looked over quickly.

She was a Gythen, like the majority of the population of Caltas Vearok, but quite pale where most were tanned or dark skinned. Interestingly her ears were devoid of any kind of decorations, something that I had taken to be the norm for Gythen. She wasn’t quite as lithe as most of the Gythen that I had run into, but her clothing, which was the purple of station administration, was cut in some kind of suit style; maybe that had something to do with it.

“Well, I didn’t entirely believe that he was Human from his reviews, but it certainly looks true,” she said, eying me up. “Unless he is some kind of mongrel...”

“His genescan checked out clean,” Orrin told her firmly. “I run a licensed establishment here.”

“I don’t doubt that,” she replied, throwing a knowing smile at him, which caused his scowl to deepen a bit. She clearly had a lot of clout in some form or another, because she was giving Orrin a pretty hard time compared to most people that came in. “He’s as good as his reviews say?”

“He’s got a couple of verified ones,” Orrin reminded her. “Got one of those off his co-workers.”

“And he won’t have any issue with what I have planned?” she asked.

“Try asking him,” Orrin told her, his scowl not going away.

Her smile grew a bit wider at his attempt at a bite, but she actually turned to me rather than just looking me over. “So James, I understand that you can do interesting things with people. Change their perceptions of things and so forth.”

“Uh, yes I can,” I admitted, not at all sure that I liked her or where she might take this. “What’s this about?”

“It is a tradition,” Kym As Quill explained, her tone light and cheerful, showing not the least hint of embarrassment or concern, “that the station provides an entertainment of some kind to the command crew of visiting ships like the Glorious Endeavour. Normally we would go to Maxwell’s House of Leisure for this; they provide a higher quality of sex workers than this... Establishment,” she concluded, gesturing out of Orrin’s office and into the rest of his part of the station. “However, your particular talents have come to light. I believe that someone actually made the mistake of wondering aloud what it would be like if I was made to act like a darag while I was within hearing range, and so naturally they are down on the list of volunteers.”

“Naturally,” I agreed quickly, but cautiously.

“So, you will present yourself at the reception of Maxwell’s at the start of the third shift. You will have roughly a shan to prepare yourself before the entertainment will begin. You will be part of the main presentation, before events break up; this normally happens after two or three shan. During the entertainment we will be running an auction for who gets which member of the entertainment after the show, and so you may be occupied for the whole of the third shift and potentially the first shift as well.”

I threw a look at Orrin, who nodded fractionally. “Okay... How many people would this be in front of?”

“Including station staff? Maybe twenty or thirty, depending on how much of a skeleton crew they leave behind,” she said with satisfaction.

I tried not to immediately object. I’d done stuff with groups of friends before, but this was a few steps up from that. It was also, I realised, probably not even slightly optional; something about this suggested that I wasn’t being offered this, I was being instructed that it was going to happen.

“And the subjects? The people I would be... Well, using for the performance.”

“As I said, some members of my staff will be taking part. Some of Maxwell’s employees are interested in the idea. Some of the command staff may be interested, though I suspect they will want to make use of your subjects instead of being one themselves.”

“Okay... And is there any plan for this aside from me turning up and doing this?”

“I leave that to you of course,” she allowed with a kind of mocking graciousness. “We will await your performance with eager anticipation.”

“Okay... Can I have some time to prepare things in advance?” I asked. “What I do works quite well, it can take a few minutes to set up sometimes...”

“Of course,” she agreed. “That will be part of the time you will have to prepare.” She turned to Orrin and smiled. “I look forward to seeing him in action personally,” she said with a somewhat mocking tone before turning and leaving with a kind of unhurried determination that somehow left you no time to think of telling her to stop.

“Uh... Wha?” I looked slightly aghast at Orrin. “Where did this come from?”

“Kym As Quill has a history here,” Orrin informed me. “She arrived on the station with no resources and got charitied to me, same as you did. She was good here; got very good reviews very quickly and got transferred to Maxwell’s. Made enough there to transfer out into station admin and is now in charge of entertainment of guests and VIPs. Spends time with the high families occasionally. Sometimes mixes her colours so she’s wearing purple for admin and her old maroon as well.” His scowl deepened. “She’s good at her admin job. Took it personally that I never gave her the chance to do anything like that here. She’ll be very happy if you fail here.”

“I did get that impression,” I admitted. “So do I stand any chance here?”

Orrin grunted. “She won’t stab you in the back James,” he informed me. “She’s just going to throw you as deep as she legitimately can and then apologise politely for the inadequacies of my employees if you fail.” He grunted in annoyance. “Think on it. You need anything, anyone, let me know... Horned mother knows who will be there, but I can’t afford a bad reputation from this.”

“That’s what she’s after?” I asked.

“She’ll be happy to see me suffer, but probably wouldn’t be interested in risking her own job to get it. If you don’t have a reasonable chance based on your reviews then she might get trouble for hiring someone incompetent.”

“Okay... So I’ve got... About eight shan before I need to be there... Only I need to be there early. Uh... Last time I did a session with any significant number of people... It worked, but it was a group of my friends at my house. This is going to be different.”

“You’re not going to bail on me are you?” Orrin said, giving me a hard look.

“No, no,” I assured him. “Just... It’s bigger than I was expecting. I’ll have a plan in time for it.”

I’d hoped to run into Else when I came out of Orrin’s office. She was busy though; pretty much everyone was at this point. The only ones who weren’t were a couple of Gythen I hadn’t really spoken to before, and they seemed to be in the middle of just relaxing and trying to recover from a hard session.

My preparations for something like this in the past had been to read up on some ideas and then sketch out a basic plan. Reading up wasn’t an option here, but... I could at least get a plan together.

While, it turned out, carrying on with my existing duties...

Two rooms needed cleaning, and another one needed restocking, and by the time I had caught up with that there was another one waiting for me. I was in enough of a hurry that I was inside the door before I even realised that the previous occupant of the room was still in it.

Darnael looked up at me as I tried to enter and stopped abruptly.

“Don’t worry,” he told me. “I’ve got another customer in about three wren; I couldn’t do anything at this point even if I wanted to. Help me get this sorted out,” he added gesturing to the bed while he grabbed a towel from under it and wiped himself down hastily.

“Don’t you get a break between customers?” I asked, heading for the bed and starting working.

“Not if we volunteer not to,” he told me as he ran a flannel around inside his ears. “I can manage without easily enough; it’s just a matter of holding off your own orgasm until they’ve had theirs so that you can satisfy them that they got you excited and they can feel validated for their minimal efforts. Basically, it’s a case of pacing yourself.”

“Even so,” I managed before he cut me off.

“I have stamina for it; it’s one of the reasons that I chose this job.”

“You chose it?” I asked, stopping where I was, slightly incredulous.

“Yes. I knew that I would be good at it, which gets me a good price,” he explained. “A good price means more money available to pay off my family’s debt.” He glowered at me. “That’s what you’re doing by taking business off me,” he explained. “I have a younger brother and sister; he’s applying for college and she’s just entering basic education. The only reason that they can afford that is because I get a good price for my services here. And the only reason that they aren’t in a foster home is that I’m paying for the medical treatments for our father because he’s out of work on minimal comp because of an accident.” He threw one last glower and then turned away, opening his locker and applying what I guessed was some kind of deodorant or something. “I want to get you out of my niche as fast as possible so that I can keep them fed and educated.”

I frowned. It had honestly never occurred to me that someone might choose to live this life if they had an alternative. Then again it probably did pay well compared to something like cleaning floors...

“So those customers I’ve taken off you...”

“That’s money that isn’t going to my family,” he replied bitterly. “Keep moving,” he added, “we don’t have long before they show up.”

I started working again, tidying up as quickly as I could. “You do know that I didn’t want this job?” I asked him as I worked. “All I’ve been trying to do is earn my own living in the best way I can.”

He paused as he combed his hair back, considering me. “I suppose I do,” he admitted. “Although I can’t understand your reluctance to have sex... It makes no sense.”

“Where I come from it was... Well, I was taught to regard it as something special. You saved yourself for the right person and made a commitment to them,” I tried to explain.

“Strange, but not unheard of,” he allowed. “You missed a bit,” he added, gesturing down by the side of the bed. “So what about you and the kitten?”

I threw him a dark look. “I do need some practise,” I admitted. “If only because I need to know what other people are getting up to. You know, ways of doing things, that kind of stuff.”

He shook his head. “The kitten can’t teach you that,” he said, not disparagingly as such, just stating a fact. “She’s solid and capable, but that’s about it. She doesn’t know tricks to teach you because she doesn’t bother with them.”

“And I suppose you do know them,” I said sarcastically.

“I have to in my position,” he replied with a shrug. “It keeps my price up. The kitten isn’t as worried by that because she only has herself to worry about.”

I swept up the last of the mess and started heading for the door. As I got to it he called to me. “Just think about it; you know why I need the work, and... I’m happy to teach you.”

That didn’t even get the dignity of a dirty look; I just kept going. I might have a better idea of why he was doing this, but... No, there was nothing that he could teach me that would make up for what he had done to me.

I eventually settled on a plan, of sorts. It wasn’t much of one, but it did mean that I managed to convince Orrin to get me some better looking clothing than just a jumpsuit; I wasn’t sure what they wore at Maxwell’s but anyone living in the core tended to be better dressed than that.

I also snagged enough money for some props: I wanted the crystal that I already had to be kept safe, so I went and found a couple more like it, plus some suitable toys for things like playing with pets. I hoped that they would work...

Amongst it all I managed to snag Else for long enough to let her know where I was going, before having to head out.

You know that embarrassing feeling when you are on a train or a bus and something is drawing attention to you when you don’t want it? Maybe something you have with you that gets odd looks, or you just stand out by your looks.

Or maybe you are wearing something that gets people’s attention...

I stuck myself in a corner of the tram and tried to concentrate on what little view there was out of the window; mostly it was the sight of the tram tunnel, which was effectively an unadorned corridor running through the station. We stopped several times along the way, and I got various people looking at me as they got on or off the tram.

One, a somewhat rotund olive-skinned Gythen with paper fan extensions on his ears and fancy looking clothes (that’s a relative term since 90% of the population wore some variant on the style of jumpsuit that I was wearing, but in different colours) in the blue of the merchant guilds who looked more than a bit drunk, took a particular interest in me. He eyed me up very blatantly from where he was lounging across two seats, at one point going as far as fondling himself in what was probably meant to be an inviting manner when I looked in his direction for a few seconds too long.

When it became clear that I wasn’t getting off any time soon, and was doing my best to ignore him, he hauled himself to his feet and shoved a couple of people out of the way as he made a beeline for me. I tried to shrink back from him, but was already firmly wedged in the corner.

It was my sleeve he was after in the end; that would tell him everything that he needed to know in order to book time with me at Orrin’s, which effectively negated any option of avoiding him that I might have. Apparently though what was on there bemused him somewhat, and he treated me to a few odd looks between rereading my sleeve before taking an unsteady step back and treating me to a somewhat hurt look, as if I had betrayed him by not being a regular slut-for-hire.

I rode the tram as far as I could into the core, then got off, leaving my erstwhile companion behind a quickly as I could, looking around for where to go next.

This part of the core, even just the transit station that I was in, was a lot nicer than Rimward Three, and I took a couple of wren to admire the architecture before heading off to find the way upstairs.

I hadn’t entirely thought it possible, but the upper tiers of the core were even better looking than the mid tiers. It was small details that you wouldn’t notice if you lived there but... Having lived out in Rimward Three for several weeks, the sight of public decoration of the walls, of screens a lot nicer than anything Orrin had available simply placed out in public showing the news feed... There were plenty of details that just spoke of this being a higher class of neighbourhood without actually standing out on their own.

Maxwell’s House of Leisure was situated on Upper Tier Four, Rotunda Three, which was... I realised that I was alarmingly close to the High Family residences here, which is like heading down a street and suddenly finding yourself at the back door of Buckingham Palace or the White House. Including the presence of guards who give you suspicious looks.

I got to the House of Leisure without being stopped, but I’m fairly sure that it was a near thing when I got lost at one point. The guards following me weren’t actually hostile as such... But I was glad when they stopped.

The reception area at Orrin’s is Spartan; two offices to one side where he manages things with some kind of assistance I’ve never come across, and a couple of doors leading to the encounter rooms, common area, and bedrooms. The only decoration is a screen showing a reduced version of the rota so that customers know who is available for them.

By comparison the House of Leisure’s reception area was bigger, grander. It featured an actual receptionist, real (probably anyway) plants, some nubile young Gythen lounging on a divan who I guessed were intended to welcome customers, even some artwork on the walls; I was still getting my head around economics on a space station, but I knew for sure that anything you had to pay for which didn’t get you something tangible back was a big status symbol, and the paintings were definitely of that realm. The walls were done in some kind of marble (probably fake or millimetres thick at most, but still...) with drapes in various strategic places to create alcoves or cubbyholes or, I realised, create an illusion of greater space by appearing to conceal it. Faint music, something exotic sounding, was playing in the background.

I must have looked like a right rube when I stopped just inside the door, looking around at what, even in my previous life, counted as a fairly ostentatious display of wealth and power.

The welcoming committee were eying me up, giggling behind their hands; I could tell from the colour of their clothing that they were basically sex-workers like me, but the style of theirs was a much more revealing cut, and some part of me was glad that Orrin had chosen unisex jumpsuits for us to wear rather than attempting a different brand of advertising by getting us into something more revealing instead.

Somewhat put off by their attention, I reminded myself of why I was here and headed for the reception desk.

The receptionist was... I don’t think I’d met anyone before who could be classed as a fop... This guy managed: Gythen, with multiple lines of gold threat stitched into both ears and his hair dyed an interesting shade of maroon to match the suit-like affair that he wore. Everything about it was exaggerated though; the collar, the cuffs... He treated me to a sweet, patronising smile as I approached, clearly taking in my own clothing and drawing some conclusions from it.

“I’m sorry sir,” he said, his tone sickly-sweet and superior. “I’m afraid that we don’t have any places available for new employees at the moment. If you would like—“

“I’m not here for a job,” I told him, eying him a bit warily. “Not exactly anyway... Kym As Quill told me to be here in plenty of time for the third shift.”

His expression turned to one of exaggerated mock surprise. “Well, that’s quite different of course,” he informed me. “Let me just check darling.” He turned to the screen on his desk and began typing.

I tried not to glare at him for the choice of name and managed quite well; experience of visiting fry-ups where you could get called four or five variants of “luv” or “dearie” in the time it took them to get you your order made sure that it was just his tone of voice that got to me.

“Oh,” he said after a moment’s reading, his tone a bit more subdued suddenly. “That is interesting. If you would like to take a seat,” he said, his cheerfully foppish and camp tone and attitude returning easily, “you’ll be seen to in a wren.”

I looked at the divan that he indicated a bit nervously. Partly because it was occupied by two (male) Gythen who were eying me up with hungry smiles. In fairness to them, they probably get paid to look at anyone that comes in that way, but it was still unnerving.

I sat down as far from them as I could without being on a different piece of furniture, and tried to ignore their whispered conversation. Eventually the whispers appeared to reach a conclusion and the closest of them slid over to sit next to me with a luxurious motion that was probably calculated to be a vital step short of being sexual harassment.

“Sooo,” he cooed coyly. “What brings you here? I’m sure that we could show you a good time if you wanted.”

I eyed his minimal covering, finding the area that held his reviews and price down around his navel. It was a bit depressing when I ran the numbers in my head, but apparently two sessions with him would be enough to set me back to where my debt had been when I first arrived.

Trying to keep from being actually offensive about it, I shook my head. “I got hired to help at some kind of party that they’re throwing for the officers of the ship that arrived earlier,” I explained.

“Oh?” He leaned a bit closer, twisting in a way that showed off his various muscles and well defined shoulders without seeming to make it a contrived gesture. Part of me though back to what Darnael had said about tricks that he used, and I wondered vaguely who trained this guy to move like that. “And what do you do that would get you invited to the party?” he enquired, his voice dropping almost to a secretive whisper.

“Some tricks that they thought would be fun to see,” I said, a nervous edge getting into my voice. “Stuff like...” I hesitated for a fraction of a second, realising that I didn’t have much to lose by this, especially since it would probably be best to check in advance how well this worked with people on this section of the station. “Take a look at this,” I said, pulling out one of the new crystals that I had managed to get hold of. It actually looked a bit prettier than the one that I had used with Darnael, though I didn’t intend to let that stop me using it with him; I just needed to go a bit more up-market on this occasion.

“Very pretty,” he admitted as I dangled it in front of his eyes.

“It is, isn’t it? And I can do things that make it even prettier,” I told him, my voice dropping a bit and slowing down. “Just take a moment to look at it carefully... It can help if you relax as you focus on it... Some people find that just letting the tension out of their bodies and relaxing after a long, hard, day working... Makes everything so much better...

“In fact some people find that relaxing as you focus on the pretty crystal is so easy,” I told him, “that you don’t even realise how relaxed you are becoming, how much you are focusing... Until you begin to find yourself... Just drifting down... Even more relaxed... Finding that the pretty crystal holds your attention... And the more you focus on it... The more you relax... The prettier it is... The easier it is to follow my words... The easier it is to simply obey...”

I was pushing it quite fast, but... Damn, he was fixating on the crystal really quickly, and his body was rapidly losing its sensual pose and drifting down into... Well, it was a pretty sensual slouch to be honest... This guy could sprawl languidly with his eyes fixed firmly on the crystal.

“So pretty... So relaxed... So attractive... So obedient... The more you relax the easier it is to simply obey, isn’t it? Because it’s so easy just to stop thinking about everything except the pretty crystal... Nothing else matters except the crystal and the words I say as you look at it now... How good does it feel to be able to just watch the crystal and not worry about anything else?”

His lips had been slowly creasing up in a happy smile, but now it grew even bigger. “Feels gooood,” he slurred.

“Yeah, it feels really good to be able to just relax and focus on the crystal,” I confirmed. “It’s so good that you can just accept anything that I say while you’re looking at it, can’t you?”

He nodded, a bit slower to agree than to the previous question, though that was understandable I supposed; it was a bit of a leap of logic in some regards, and however relaxed he might be he wasn’t entirely obedient yet.

“So when I tell you to wake up, in a moment,” I told him, inventing madly, “you’re going to realise that I am the one who holds the crystal, and because of that, because the crystal is so pretty, because it is so good to look at the crystal, you really want to please me. That’s really important to you, because I’m the one who holds the crystal, aren’t I?”

“Yoouu arre,” he said slowly, nodding more definitely this time.

“That’s right,” I told him. “So now it’s time to wake up,” I told him as I jerked the crystal up and caught it in the hand that it had been hanging from on its wire.

His eyes tried to follow the crystal, but too sluggishly to actually manage to see it. He blinked a couple of times as he tried to wake up fully, and then looked at me. For about half a second there was confusion, and then recognition, followed by a really impressive smile as he suddenly turned on the charm at full strength.

“Sir...” He did that twisting thing again as he said it; I swear that if he’d done that in public back home he’d have been arrested for sexual assault. “That’s a very... Pretty thing that you have there,” he told me, his tone alone suggesting all sorts of stuff that he could be talking about. Moving like that and with that tone he could have got someone aroused just reading the telephone directory, and part of me that wasn’t panicking about what I had started this time noted that it might be useful to actually learn some of this stuff that Darnael had been talking about.

“Yeah... I’m glad you liked it,” I said carefully, shuffling a bit away from him and realising that I was already at the end of the divan. Without meaning to I turned a bit so that my legs were on the divan more, giving me slightly more to balance with. Unfortunately, he seemed to take turning towards him like that as an invitation; his hand strayed as far as the middle of my thigh before I managed to stop him.

“How can I please you?” he asked, not quite sounding disappointed at being cut off, but definitely not sounding like he was going to slow down. Trust my luck: as usual I’d not thought more than a couple of steps ahead with this and he was taking his job as the best way to please me...

“How would you like to help me during the party?” I asked quickly. “Having someone I know that I can work with would be handy.”

“Of course,” he said, excitement touching his voice at the thought of what that might involve. “And in the meantime?”

“In the meantime... You remember the crystal?” I prodded carefully.

“Of course,” he told me, his eyes half closing as he did.

“And you remember what I told you while you were looking at it?”

“You told me to please you,” he informed me.

“And you are okay with that?”

His smile grew a bit. “I live to please,” he assured me, sliding nearly onto my lap and managing to drape an arm around my shoulders before I could dodge. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Not quite like this,” I replied quickly. “Back up a bit...” Once he had moved back I pulled out the crystal and held it in front of him again. Immediately his eyes found it; not full blown instant fixation, but more a kind of innocent fixation, deciding that this was totally safe. “Just relax as you look at the crystal... Focusing on it... Following it... And this time when I tell you to wake up you’re going to be back to normal; remembering feeling good watching the crystal, remembering how it felt to need to please me, but everything back to normal otherwise. Back to your normal self when you wake up... Now.”

This time he didn’t seem to come back quite as quickly, seeming to think about things a bit more instead. Then he looked at me with a kind of admiration rather than lust, and smiled again. “Well... I can see that you’re going to be a hit at the party,” he admitted. “Were you serious about needing someone to work with?”

“If you’re willing,” I told him. “Actually willing this time,” I added. “Everyone back at Orrin’s is busy. And I can’t afford your rates,” I added quickly.

“Oh, I’m sure that Maxwell will let you work something out,” he assured me.

“Great,” I said, trying to feel like I actually meant it. This might have been the start of something good... Or not. I wasn’t entirely sure.