 |
|||
|
|
An Alleyway in Moscow.
January 1st 1929 1:37AM
The snow was so cold that it seemed to burn her feet. Whimpering, Leona paused. The shoes were completely impractical for running in snow, she had already slipped twice and with her hands tied behind her it had been hard to regain her footing. Still, at least the shoes offered her feet some protection from the cold. She lent against a wall and panted, letting the cold air refresh her. So far there was no sign of pursuit and Leona was beginning to hope that the bum who had attacked them had managed to do some damage to Aleksei. Still, that didn’t solve her problem. Bound and gagged in a foreign city, pursued by a man who was....... _What_ was Aleksei? Leona could still remember the feeling as he controlled her mind. She had felt so small, so insignificant, like a rabbit in the jaws of a wolf. She shivered and started on her way. Her first priority had to be to find help, someone to untie her and find her somewhere warm to stay until she could send word to Alison.
Cold and dejected Leona trudged around the corner. At the end of the alleyway was another brazier and another ragged group of beggars. For a moment she lurked in the shadows wondering what to do. If she approached them in her current condition she was effectively delivering herself into their hands. Helpless, they could do whatever they liked to her. She shivered imagining what they might do. Unfortunately she had little alternative, the nearby houses seemed to have been shuttered for the night and her tight gag made calling for help impossible. If she stayed here she would freeze to death. Leona sighed, she had no choice, trembling she headed towards the fire.
It seemed that in some unspoken way she signaled her need. As she approached the ragged band parted allowing the girl to come closer to the fire. Leona grunted her thanks then sighed as the heat seeped into her bones. Someone said something and the girl looked up to find an almost toothless woman waving a bottle under her nose.
“Ummm,” Leona said shaking her head. The bums just looked at her confused. Leona closed her eyes. The scarf and her cape’s hood effectively hid her gag. As far as the others could tell she was just a lady wrapped up against the cold. She shook her head violently, trying to dislodge the scarf but it didn’t work. Defeated, she looked up at the ragged band.
“Ummmm heee?” she begged.
The woman said something else and took a drink from the bottle. For a moment Leona tried to beg with her eyes but none of the drunken bums seemed to understand. The girl sighed. Who was she kidding anyway? Even without the gag communication would be impossible, she spoke no Russian and she doubted they spoke anything else. Still she could at least show them that she needed help. She walked over to one of the corners of the alley and started to rub the scarf on the rough brickwork. If she could at least get them to remove the gag.....
“There you are!” Aleksei said.
Leona stiffened, looking down the alleyway where her captor stood smiling.
“Ummmm,” Leona begged, eyes wide as she backed down the alleyway.
“You would be better off coming home with me Leona,” Aleksei said, “I have a warm fire and food. I can really make you quite comfortable.”
“Ummmmm,” she screamed then she turned and took off down the alleyway.
The snow burned her feet. She ran in a panic, trying to get as far into the darkness as she could before she used up all her oxygen. The gag prevented her from breathing through her mouth, greatly reducing her endurance. At last she could run no further. She paused and leaned against another wall. Fearfully she looked over her shoulder and was relieved to see he wasn’t following.
“You know, you could make this easy on yourself.”
Leona stiffened, eyes wide, then turned. He was here, further up the alleyway _ahead_ of her! But that was impossible! He would have had to pass her! And yet up ahead stood Aleksei just as smug and as dark as he’d been before.
“I have chocolate,” he offered, “Swiss drinking chocolate very nice on a cold winter night.”
“Arrgfff,” Leona whined, turning and running down one of the other alleys. She hadn’t had much time to recover, it wasn’t long before she was forced to stop again. Fearfully she looked over her shoulder.
“This is very entertaining but we have so much to do tonight.”
She stiffened, then turned to find that once again he was ahead of her!
“This is futile,” he said with a sigh, “I’ve hunted polymorphic life forms. Creatures that can alter their appearance to exactly match their environment. Now if I successfully tracked them down what challenge is a half frozen bound and gagged human female? Hardly any I’m sure you’ll agree?” He took a step forward and held out his hand. “You’ve had your fun, Leona. Now it’s time to meet your destiny.”
Leona turned and fled through the alleyways, taking an eccentric course through courtyards and smaller alleys, sometimes heading forwards, sometimes doubling back. She ran until her lungs were close to bursting. Then, she ran around the corner and ran straight into someone coming the other way.
Leona stiffened, almost too terrified to look up. When at last she did, she saw she had collided with a middle aged man. The man seemed to be a sailor of some kind as he wore a cap and a blue serge uniform. He stood at least six feet tall and seemed almost as broad. He had a heavily lined, almost leathery face, a thick mustache peppered with gray and thick graying hair. She sighed with relief, it wasn’t Aleksei.
“Ummmppphhh?” she begged, eyes wide.
The man said something in Russian. Leona shook her head wildly. He stood back, looked her over and then said in English, “You understand English?”
“Ummmpphhh!!!” Leona said nodding gratefully. The man gave her a puzzled look, trying to work out why she would nod and then still not speak to him.
Leona came forward, rubbing the scarf on his arm and looking up expectantly.
Frowning and a little hesitantly the man reached up to Leona’s mouth and lowered the scarf revealing the tight gag underneath. He swore in Russian and then turned the girl around. His hand searched inside her cape quickly finding her bound wrists.
“What is happening,” he asked the shivering girl, “who did this to you?”
“Ummm,” Leona moaned, until the man removed the gag she had no way to answer.
“I did,” Aleksei said stepping from the shadows.
“Urrrggghh,” Leona squealed giving the sailor a panicked look.
The sailor frowned, looked down at the wide eyed girl and then back up at Aleksei. Then he moved between Leona and Aleksei, gently pushing the girl behind his back and striking a fighting stance. Her rescuer seemed much larger and stronger than Aleksei, Leona thought, perhaps he would scare her captor off?
“Who are you?” the sailor asked.
Aleksei smiled and took a card from his pocket. “Internal security comrade. This woman is a foreign spy, a counter revolutionary, she escaped my custody earlier tonight.”
The man frowned and looked at the card in the weak light. He blinked, checked the card again and trembled.
“M...my apologies comrade commissar, I did not realize that the woman was an escaped prisoner. I just saw... “ he pointed at Leona’s gag.
“Of course,” Aleksei said generously, “and you assumed she was the victim of some crime. I assure you that is not the case. It was necessary that we took the woman into custody without the risk of alerting her coconspirators. Of course it was necessary to stopper her mouth at that time.” Aleksei held out his hand and the man took it nervously. “I thank you for your diligence comrade,” Aleksei said seriously, shaking the sailor’s hand, “You have captured a dangerous fugitive and served the Motherland well tonight.”
“T..thank you Commissar,” the man stuttered nervously, “M...may I go now?”
Aleksei smiled, “Of course, be about your business and don’t concern yourself with this affair any longer.” There was something in his tone, almost a threat, the sailor shivered and gave Leona an apologetic look.
Aleksei took hold of Leona’s arm and smiled as the man turned to leave. Leona gave her would be rescuer a last desperate look before he turned up his collar and trudged into the night.
“Arrrrrffff,” Leona screamed. The man paused for a second as if reconsidering and then continued down the alleyway.
Aleksei turned the sobbing girl around and adjusted the scarf until it concealed her gag again.
“Now it’s time to go home,” he said sternly.
Dejected and defeated Leona let him lead her down the alleyway.
=================================================================
Aleksei’s Apartment, Moscow
January 1st 1929 2:20AM
Alex seemed to like candles. The room was lit by literally hundreds of them covering almost every surface. As she lay naked and bound spread eagle to Aleksei’s huge four poster bed, Leona shuddered to think of the potential fire risk. She was almost terrified to struggle in case she upset one and caused a fire.
He’d ungagged her long enough to pour some hot chocolate into her then he’d gagged her again. This time using four scarves and some adhesive tape to ensure that she could hardly make a sound. Then he’d left the room to get something. In his absence the girl tested her new bonds and found them secure. It seemed the commissar held all the cards. The only question was what he planned now? Given her position and nakedness rape seemed obvious and yet if that was all he wanted why go to so much trouble to get her?
Her thoughts were interrupted by his return.
“I sense your confusion slave,” he said, “I suppose you are wondering why you are here?”
If her mouth had been free she would have told him that she wasn’t a slave, she was a German citizen, that her father had powerful friends in the government, that her disappearance would be brought to the attention of the highest levels of the Soviet state. However the tight gag made that impossible.
“Ummmmppphhhh,” was all she finally said.
“There is a new man in charge of the state,” Aleksei said wearily, “his name is Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili but he has taken the name of Joseph Stalin. In the past few months he has started a systematic purge of those associated with the original revolution. So far his power is far from absolute, it will be many years before I am at risk from him but a man must look ahead. Stalin will lead Russia into a new dark age, one from which it may not emerge. Even if by some miracle that is avoided it will be many years before industrial development reaches the level I need. I find myself needing to relocate to some place where I can influence events. Germany seems like a good option.”
Leona looked up confused.
He smiled. “As you have seen I have some power here. If I were to move to Germany I would need a method of building a power base, financial and technical resources and that my dear is where you come in. I have decided that you will become my slave, my lover, my accomplice.”
“Ummmppphhh,” Leona snorted shaking her head.
He laughed. “That is the way I expected you to react,” he said, “however your choice doesn’t enter into this.”
He walked over and held a flat metal box in front of the girl’s wide eyes. Inside a number of silver metal ovals rested. Leona could see that the box had originally held five of the little metal beads but two were missing.
Smiling he gently stroked the back of one of the little metal forms and the object started to unfurl. The oval shape stretched and became 3 distinct parts, a tiny metallic head, thorax and an abdomen. As Leona watched in horror a number of tiny metal legs sprang from the thorax and the head raised itself and looked around with tiny red glowing eyes.
“My species hunts,” Aleksei explained, “it’s in our nature just as it is in yours. Like you we occasionally have the need to domesticate local pack animals to aid us in hunting. Unlike your domestication of the dog we don’t have thousands of years to waste on selective breeding. Our scientists came up with this. The device enters the animal’s brain and makes a number of adjustments necessary to ensure its obedience and loyalty. Of course these were never intended to be used on sentient life forms, my first attempts to use these with your people were not completely successful. Still, I believe I have made the right modifications this time.”
Aleksei held the wiggling metal insect in front of Leona’s eyes.
“Ummmphhhhh. Heeeesss owww, heesss hesss!” she begged, sobbing.
“Well, I’ll leave you two to get better acquainted.” he said dropping the little bug on her naked chest.
The insect wiggled to its feet and started to climb up Leona’s naked breast. The girl gave a muffled scream and started to thrash around on the bed in an attempt to dislodge the device. The bug kept it’s footing, marching methodically up the helpless girl’s body towards her head. Leona wept, looking at Aleksei with wide begging eyes.
Aleksei stroked her hair. “Right now you would do whatever I wanted rather than have that thing take one step closer?” he asked.
“Ummm,” she nodded, eyes wild. The device was marching up her chest. At that moment she would have done anything, let him fuck her, whip her, anything he could imagine if he would just make it stop.
“Soon you will understand,” Aleksei said, slapping her naked breast.
Aleksei stood and went to the window leaving the helpless girl to thrash and groan on the bed. He looked out into the cold, clear night sky. It wasn’t hard to pick out the star systems of his enemies, four unspectacular stars in three insignificant constellations. He blinked out at the night sky trying to remember his galactic history lessons. At this moment there were three hundred and seventeen intelligent species in the galaxy, the most there was ever going to be.
Soon the wave of mysterious extinction's would begin and then the blatant acts of genocide. In two thousand years time there would be only thirty two sentient species left, four master races and twenty eight slave races. History said that the rest would be gone, some species like the Drill and the Humans would fall victim to unexpected natural disasters. Others, like the Sekrit and the Kilkazi would be hunted to extinction in hideous wars of genocide.
Aleksei smiled. Those twinkling little stars didn’t realize it yet but history was about to change. *He* willed it! The humans would be saved from extinction and instead would strangle the infant galactic empires in their cradles! Of the other races he had little interest. Those that would not serve his new master race would be destroyed.
A muffled scream emerged from the bed. Aleksei turned and headed back, arriving just in time to see the little metal body slip into Leona’s left ear. The girl was hysterical, her struggles shook the wooden bed frame and Aleksei was pleased that he’d strengthened her gag. Leona wept and howled in a futile attempt to dislodge the metal intruder. As he watched the first trickle of blood emerged from the girl’s ear. The device would have to work slowly from now on repairing the neurological damage it made as it tunneled it’s way into her brain. Once it was in position the nanobots would be released to do their work.
Aleksei bent down to tell the girl that the worse was over but by then she was already unconscious.
|
|
|