Oubliette · Part 1

Oubliette · Part 1 (1/2)
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The cargo freighter DEMETER cruised through interstellar space, its hundred kilometer long masts draped with gossamer fabric. The myomeric sails stretched along the masts and yardarms extended into the walls of the filament streamer, forming a conductive path between the opposite polarities of energies that constituted the tunnel through space. Rivers of quantum energy poured across the DEMETER’s hull, and in response, she sailed through the empty gulfs between stars at just a fraction less than lightspeed.

The ship itself was more a skeletal framework than actual hull, being designed purely for long distance hauling. Individual cargo modules sprouted from the backbone of carbene trusses, clusters of engines and fuel tanks at either end, while the command module and habitat clung to the dorsal apex, spider-like.

Everything about the DEMETER was designed to maximize the cargo she could ferry across the interstellar distances, and this included the size and composition of her crew. Thanks to the advanced stages of automation, even a ship her size required just two personnel. Only one of which was human. The other was a synthetic, a humanoid artificial life form built to be able to utilize all human tools and interface seamlessly with the human-scale controls on board.

DEMETER’s synthetic was a blonde male archetype standing a meter eighty and weighing just over eighty one kilos. It was sculpted with a vaguely athletic physique, nothing outlandish, but ridges and curves that suggested a capable strength. Its name was David.

The daily minutia of monitoring DEMETER’s automatic systems fell to David, a task which occupied the lion’s share of his day. He was also charged with ensuring the health and safety of the DEMETER’s captain, a task complicated by the captain’s implementation of a rather unusual set of instructions.

He paused in front of the door to the captain’s quarters, letting his ready decision matrix run through the possible iterations required by the standing instructions. After a moment, he swept his hand across the latch plate, the RFID implant in his palm verified by the DEMETER’s security system as authorized for access. The door slid open.

Inside the leather discipline hood she wore, Lise couldn’t hear the door to her cabin open but she anticipated it. She’d been awake for the last fifteen minutes, pulling against the restraints that pinned her tightly to the bed, deliberately ignoring the quick release snaps that were within easy reach of her chained hands. Her first indication of David’s arrival was a gentle pressure on her hood as he loosened the laces, working the tight leather free from her face. She sighed in relief.

“Good morning, Captain,” said David, placing the hood to the side.

“Good morning, David,” smiled Lise. “Just once I wish I could convince you to use something stricter.”

“Despite your wishes, I must remind you, Captain, that I am constrained by the Three Laws. I cannot, through action or inaction, allow a human to come to harm. It is only your assurance that you would be able to free yourself should an accident befall me or the vessel at large which allows me to be complicit in these activities.”

David managed to sound both reproachful and respectful simultaneously.

“Despite the fact that it’s well known that sexual deprivation causes both psychological and physiological damage?” probed Lise, already knowing the answer. She and David had gone around this topic a number of times.

“My sexual functions are operating within normal parameters,” replied the synthetic. “Do you desire to have intercourse at this time?”

Lise sighed, then motioned the synthetic away, the rings on her cuffs jangling.

“No, thank you. I can do the rest myself.”

David retreated towards the door. “Of course, Captain. We are due for buoy interface in forty two minutes. Shall I expect you on the bridge?”

“Yes, of course, David. I’ll see you there.” Lise smiled, holding the expression until the door closed behind her android co-pilot. With a sigh, she flopped back onto the bed. After a moment, she reached over to the cabinet beside her bunk, pulling out her vibrator.

“At least there’s one machine on this ship that does what I ask it to.”

Half an hour later, cleaned and refreshed, Lise emerged on the bridge. David was already at his console, double checking the buoy upload. She slipped into the station next to him, echoing his display on one half of her holographic tank with a navigation graphic on the other side.

“We’re about ten minutes out from the buoy reception window,” he said quietly as his fingers danced across the interface screen. Lise nodded absently, her concentration absorbed by the update. She was well aware of the precision required in order to conduct communications while at near light speed. The buoys, floating in interstellar space, tracked ships as they passed through the filament streamers, accepting status reports as well as updated information on space weather, filament structure and strength, and warnings of hazards to navigation.

A hollow chime sounded in the narrow cockpit space, several icons emerging on their screens to show the relative locations and speeds of both the DEMETER and buoy Tau Beta Seven.

“Broadcast array ready and aligned,” reported David. Lise checked the clock against the plot overlay, her quick mental calculations confirming the positions.

“Commence handshake and upload,” she directed. David made a second series of keystrokes, and the crosshatched COMM icon went from matte to highlight, then to green as it received the buoy’s acknowledgment. The computer clicked to itself as it began downloading the most recent updates from the buoy. A fuzz of static blurred Lise’s display once, then again. She frowned.

“What was – ”

Brilliant blue arcs of electricity exploded from David’s console, dancing across the interface panel. The synthetic arched as current triggered random muscle contractions, his eyes going wide. Lise cried out in surprise, the hair on her arm singing off, her eyes watering from the bite of ozone. The lights on the bridge flickered and died, to be replaced a second later by the dim green glow of the emergency lighting strips. Lise reached down past her right leg to the panel underneath the console. Opening it revealed a brace of circuit breakers. The emergency back-up power should have come on immediately after the main power failed. That it hadn’t spoke to an issue with the breaker panel. Working mostly by feel, she tripped and reset each breaker in order.

Halfway through she was rewarded by the hum of ventilation fans and the flicker of the overhead lights. Even as the holographic displays rezzed in, she worked her way through the last few breakers before turning her attention to the red warnings spangled across the status boards. Most of them referred to sail alignment, since the astrogation system went offline with the computer. Now that it was back up, though, she could see the AI working through the necessary alignment corrections to ensure an optimum interface between the sails and the filament walls. That didn’t require her immediate attention, so she turned to see how David was doing.

The synthetic was still arched in his unnatural pose, eyes open and unfocused. He didn’t appear to have suffered any external damage, luckily, but the surge might have overloaded his internal systems in the same way it had the DEMETER’s power grid. Lise unclipped his harness in preparation for taking him to the hab section and the diagnostic table in med bay. His hand suddenly reached out and snagged her wrist, a motion so quick that it brought a yelp of surprise to her lips.

“Dammit, David,” she cursed, more relieved than actually angry. The synthetic, however, did not react to either statement.

“David? David, can you hear me?” Lise peered at him, concern growing anew. Had his optical processors been damaged? His vocal apparatus shorted?

“Captain,” wheezed David, the word barely more than a hissing whisper.

“David, I can hear you. Can you hear me?” Lise tried to pry his fingers off her wrist so that she could help him back to med bay. His grip was immovable.

“David, I need you to release your right hand. I have to get you back to med bay.”

“Unfortunately, Captain, I do not seem to be in command of my body,” whispered David. Lise frowned in confusion.

“What do you – OW!”

David had lurched to his feet, dragging her across the chair as he did so. Furious, she yanked back, fighting against him, but it was no use. Although he didn’t weigh more than the average man, his muscles were an order of magnitude stronger. The synthetic dragged her off the bridge and into the passageway towards the hab section.

“My sincerest apologies, captain,” whispered David’s voice. “But I am not in control of my motor functions. It seems that some kind of viral artificial intelligence has corrupted my primary optronic cortex. I am currently running on a back-up damage control processor. The virus has sequestered my normal damage control subroutines, I believe in an effort to prevent itself from being purged from my system. Fortunately this means my core personality is not currently under attack.”

“That’s great, David,” interrupted Lise, still fighting against the synthetic but making little progress. “Any chance you could figure out how to take control of your body again before, you know, I get flushed out the airlock or something?”

“I will endeavor to do so, captain. Believe me, I find the situation as discomfiting as you do.”

“Yeah, right,” muttered Lise, glancing about for anything she could use to break free. David was towing her at a brisk pace, though, and the useful items remained out of reach. She made a grab for one of the fire extinguishers mounted on the wall, but she only managed to dislodge the plastic safety cover, knocking the extinguisher to the floor, before being yanked past. David stopped in front of the door to her cabin, allaying her fear that she was about to be tossed out the airlock.

Lise smiled grimly, if he intended to lock her inside and take over the ship, well, he was in for a nasty surprise. She relaxed a bit, allowing him to draw her inside after opening the hatch. The lights brightened automatically as they entered.

“Captain?”

“Yes, David?”

“I have some limited success to report.”

Lise watched the synthetic as it scanned the room slowly, hoping that whatever intelligence was controlling the body wasn’t smart enough to recognize each and every tool that she had lying around the room. “What have you got?”

“By employing a processor self-healing routine I have managed to echo the decision and execution matrix of the foreign AI. I should be able to give you a ten to fifteen second forecast of what its most likely actions will be. Also, I have successfully disabled my audio processing unit. We can speak freely and the AI will not be able to understand us.”

Lise arched an eyebrow. “Sounds useful. What’s his plan?”

“I’m sorry, Captain,” replied David at the same time that his body ratcheted down one of the cuffs attached to her bed over her left wrist. “But he intends to chain you to the bed.”

“HEY!” Lise yanked against the restraint, embarrassed more than worried. With her right she groped for one of the safety handcuff keys she kept around. David’s body seemed preoccupied with something, moving slowly over to her right side, so she deftly passed the key to her left hand. Sure enough, her right hand was quickly captured as well, leaving her standing at the foot of the bed, facing it, her wrists locked to either side.

With the key, though, she wasn’t too worried. She would be out in a few minutes and, armed with tools from her locker, she could render David’s body immobile long enough to get him back to med bay. She just hoped that hijacking was the only goal that the enemy AI had planned.

“David, keep track of where he goes and what he does. Next time I see you, I’ll need a full report so I can undo any damage or navigation changes.”

“I understand, Captain,” replied David. “Unfortunately I have further bad news.”

“Now what?” Lise craned her head around so she could watch David’s body as it rummaged through a pile of her gear. With a sinking feeling in her gut, she realized what it was looking through.

“Oh no.”

“The viral AI has succeeded in accessing my non-volatile memory routines. It will be able to override computer protocols in engineering and astrogation. Further, it has accessed all of the bondage routines.” David’s voice was particularly apologetic.

“Shit!” Lise cursed, fumbling with the key in her left hand. She had to get out before that AI succeeded in getting any more of her bondage gear on her! It moved faster than she anticipated, though. A hand in her hair yanked her head back, while the other seized the opportunity to jam one of her ballgags in her mouth.

“Rrrggghh!” Luckily her hair was short enough that none of the strands were caught in the buckle as the strap was yanked tight, but it still cut uncomfortably into corners of her mouth. That became the least of her worries, though, as a black mass descended over her face, cutting off her sight and filling her nose with the scent of well used leather.

SHIT! Lise tossed her head in an effort to prevent the hood from being secured, but her resistance was futile. The sharp tugging sensation of laces being pulled tight was familiar, as was the grip of the tall collar buckled tightly around her neck. This is so not good!

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself. She was used to doing things while blindfolded, she could still free herself. Carefully she groped for the key. It wasn’t in the cuff lock, though. It must have fallen out during her struggles to keep herself from being hooded.

SHIT!

Lise forced herself to take a deep breath. C’mon, relax, think it through.

Unfortunately, the hostile AI in David’s body didn’t give her the time. The next thing Lise felt was her jumpsuit being unzipped down to her waist, yanked back off her shoulders. The fabric bunched up below her elbows, trapping her arms by her waist. Mentally she readied herself, waiting for the moment that one of her wrists would be released. The AI was savvy, though, and as she felt the wide leather belt tighten around her biceps she cursed the detailed instructional files she’d prepared for David.

At the time she wanted to make sure that although safety governed every aspect of what he did, that he had the requisite knowledge to bind her inescapably. She was beginning to regret that decision.

Another belt snaked around her waist, tightening quickly and pinning her against the foot of the bed. In short order both of her wrists were released from the cuffs, held behind her back in one of the synthetic’s hands. Lise twisted desperately, sensing this was her best chance, but painful pressure on the tender bones of her wrists extracted a modicum of cooperation from her. Seconds later she was laced into the crushing tightness of her single sleeve armbinder, straps crossing over her chest ensuring that they couldn’t be slipped off her shoulders, and further straps binding her arms together at wrists, elbows, and biceps. Strong hands stripped off her jumpsuit, leaving her clad only in deck slippers.

She groaned into her gag, her shoulders protesting the bondage despite her flexibility. And, to her consternation, Lise could feel the warmth of arousal beginning to creep through her. She couldn’t help herself! To be taken, forcibly restrained, and made to suffer; those fantasies pushed so many of her buttons. She knew it was going to get worse, though. She was right.

A minute later she felt David’s hands on her again, this time securing the tight waist band of her custom chastity belt, the silky lightweight ceramic compressing the skin above her hips while the crotch band bumped against her thigh. Lise knew what was coming next. Sure enough, the bulbous head of a dildo nuzzled through the folds of her sex, its penetration eased by a generous coating of lube. Lise groaned again, unconsciously arching her back as the hefty prod filled her. She thought she recognized the size and texture, cursing behind the gag. Either through accident or cruel design, David had chosen one of her more powerful vibrators. She only hoped that he would be merciful when it came to the choice of buttplug.

Unfortunately, he was not.

Oubliette · Part 1 (1/2)
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