Sold To The Beastmen Princes

The five men turned and walked out, their heavy boots echoing like a death knell. Kelsey remained crumpled on the floor, her chest heaving as she struggled to pull oxygen into her panic-constricted lungs.

Eleanor Price stepped over to her, the datapad tucked under one arm. Her eyes were as cold as the metal collar around Kelsey's neck.

Kelsey forced her head up, her voice a raw, broken rasp. "Who are you people? Where am I?"

Eleanor crouched down. Her fingers, clad in sterile white gloves, clamped around Kelsey's jaw, forcing her face upward. "You don't need to know who we are. You only need to know what you are."

Eleanor's grip was like a vice. "This is the Veyron Empire. And you, from this second forward, are the private property of the Beaumont family."

The words slammed into Kelsey's chest. "Empire... property... No. I want to go home. Send me back to Terra-3."

Eleanor let out a sharp, dismissive laugh. "Home? Stop dreaming, primitive. Terra-3 is a slaver backwater—one of the source worlds the trade strips and forgets. The ships that carry cargo out of it don't chart a way back, and no beacon in the Empire points to your little mud ball. You are never going back."

The last ember of hope in Kelsey's chest was snuffed out. Her eyes dulled, the fight draining from her muscles.

Eleanor stood up, clearly satisfied with the broken look in Kelsey's eyes. She walked to a cabinet and retrieved a heavy, metallic helmet lined with pulsating neural nodes.

"The temporary linguistic comprehension agent we administered earlier is nearly depleted. To ensure you are useful to your masters, you need to understand their commands properly."

Kelsey saw the helmet and her survival instinct flared. She remembered the device that knocked her out. "No! Don't touch me!" She scrambled backward, her bare skin squeaking against the floor.

Eleanor clicked her tongue. She snapped her fingers.

Two sleek, silver security droids slid out from concealed panels in the wall. They moved with terrifying speed, grabbing Kelsey by the arms. Their metal grips were unyielding. They forced her to her knees, pinning her in place.

Eleanor approached, lowering the helmet onto Kelsey's head. The cold metal locked into place around her skull.

Eleanor tapped her wrist controller. "Language system implant. Deep integration mode. Purge unnecessary cultural and emotional links."

A high-pitched whine filled Kelsey's ears. Then, a torrential flood of data smashed into her brain.

It felt like thousands of burning needles driving into her cortex. She screamed, her back arching in agony. Alien words, complex grammar structures, and guttural pronunciations violently overwrote her neural pathways.

Along with the language came the rules of the Empire. She saw the galactic maps. She understood the hierarchy of the Beastmen. She learned what an "evolutionary catalyst" was—a biological battery meant to be drained so her masters could break their power limits.

And as the Empire's knowledge burned in, Terra-3 began to fade. The memory of Uncle Eddy's face blurred. The smell of the motel room vanished. Her past was being systematically buried under the weight of her new reality.

Ten minutes later, the machine powered down. The droids released her, and Kelsey collapsed, gasping, her head throbbing with a sickening pulse.

Eleanor removed the helmet. She looked down at the trembling woman and spoke in flawless Imperial standard. "Now, what is your name?"

Before Kelsey could speak her full name, the newly implanted neural pathways forced out only the designation from the acquisition manifest. "Kelsey."

She clamped her hands over her mouth, horrified by how hollow her own name sounded.

"Good." Eleanor nodded. "Remember, Kelsey. Your only value is to provide 'symbiotic catalysis' for your 'masters' and help them become stronger. Resistance is futile."

"Symbiotic... catalysis?" A cold dread began to pool in Kelsey's stomach.

"Simply put," Eleanor said, her smile thin and cruel, "your body is their tool. Your worth lies entirely in pleasing your masters and satisfying their physiological needs during their energy surges."

Eleanor gestured to the droids. They hauled Kelsey up and dragged her toward a sleek, hovering transport pod waiting in the docking bay.

They threw her inside. The heavy doors hissed shut, sealing her in a small, dimly lit cabin.

Kelsey pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her bare legs. The new knowledge in her head warred with the fading echoes of her past. She understood now. Her life as a human being was over. She was an asset. A tool with a lifespan.

As the pod accelerated, carrying her toward the Beaumont estate, a single tear slipped down her cheek. It was the last tear she would shed for the girl from Terra-3.