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Jak's Wild

A story commission by DoggyStyle57, for Bigchris369

Written August 2016

CH 5:

Shortly after leaving the star system where Felrasa and Nekonya met Jak and Elita, the Siberian husky busied himself with the task of unlocking the three suitcases that had once belonged to his former 'business associate', the very skilled fence and forger who they had known only as "Ace". The other three watched from the doorway that led from the galley to the crew quarters, while Felrasa placed the first suitcase on the galley table and examined the electronic lock mechanism. On the opposite side of the small room, the airlock's inner door stood open.

"This lock shouldn't be too hard for me to pop," he said confidently. "The port authorities maintain a bypass mechanism on these standardized star-flight luggage sets, so they can inspect them as needed. The locks are very good ones, but since the bypass has to work for every customs checkpoint in the Dominion as well as the nearby frontier star systems, the knowledge of what it takes to open them isn't that hard to come by, if you know who to ask. I'm more concerned that Ace might have added a booby trap inside the case. That's why I asked to do this here, with the airlock inner door open. If I find anything with a timer delay, I can, I hope, chuck it into the airlock and blow it out into space before it hurts any of us."

"Do you think it's that likely?" Elita asked nervously. "I'd rather not risk having anything explode inside my ship. Especially not while we're in space! Wouldn't it be better for us to land somewhere, and try opening them away from the ship?"

"Nah. I'm just being cautious. Ace would most likely have used a knock out gas rather than an explosive device, because he wouldn't want to destroy his own stuff. Still, it's better to do it here, than in the room Nekonya and I sleep in, where we couldn't get rid of anything quickly; or in the cargo bay, where an explosive booby trap might damage your cargo. Actually, I'm not expecting to find much of value in these things, other than the gear he used as a forger and hacker. We scored pretty big with what was in his safe, and I don't think he would have put any other particularly valuable stuff in these suitcases until he was ready to leave, since the safe should have been more secure. But we never found his forgery equipment, and most of that was too big to put in that safe."

The husky attached what looked like a small music player to a dataport on the suitcase, then he attached a folding keyboard to the music player, and proceeded to enter the complex number stamped on the lock. 15 seconds later, an amber light lit on the music player. He read a number that scrolled past on the music player's tiny display screen, nodded, entered another complex code, and then pressed enter. The light changed from amber to green, and the latches on the suitcase clicked open. "Bingo! Okay, you might want to step back now. If there's a booby trap, opening the case is what would be likely to trigger it," he said.

Once the others had stepped back out of sight, Felrasa opened the case just an inch or so, and peeked inside, using a flashlight. Then he opened it fully and quickly pawed through the clothing, boxes and zipped smaller bags in the case for a minute or so, before he said, "All clear. This one's just clothing, personal hygiene needs, some medications he was taking, a datapad, and some other personal stuff. I'm pretty sure he just used this one as his dresser. Now for the other two."

"How'd you pick up a skill like that, if you don't mind me asking?" said the large komodo dragon/crocodile hybrid guy in the doorway. "I don't imagine they teach how to crack open electronic locks in the public schools."

"I doubt they would, Jak. But I wouldn't know. I've never set foot in a normal school," Felrasa replied. "My parents sold me to a street gang when I was barely out of diapers. Not as a slave, but more like an 'illegal adoption'. The gang would buy young, impressionable kids, and then raise them to become new gang members. My 'teachers' were the older gang members. They taught me what I needed to know to survive on the streets and steal things for them, and eventually, they taught me how to fight and kill, so I could be hired out as an assassin. The only way sure to survive in that gang was to be stronger and better at killing than any of them. I made my first kill at 12. That was when they dyed a red tattoo into the fur on my back, of a leering canine skull with stylized fangs. When I survived my first successful assignment as a paid assassin, they grafted my wrist blade onto my arm. By the time I was 18, I was the best among my peers, and only the gang's leaders were more deadly then me. I don't make any apologies for what I did. I had to do it, to survive. Anyone who refused an order was killed on the spot, without mercy."

"Harsh," Jak said. "Well, most of what I know is how to kill, so you won't hear me condemning you for your past, bub. But how did you end up running customers around for Ace? There can't have been much call for an assassin or even a thief on a backwater agricultural world like that."

"There's where my life became a lot like yours, Jak," the husky said, as he unlocked the second suitcase. "A corporation with no more ethics than the one that ran the lab you escaped from came to my planet, rounded up all of the best fighters in our assassin's guild, and literally put the whole damned world to the torch to cover their tracks. They wanted to use our DNA to create even more deadly assassins." The locks clicked open, and he said, "Okay, stand clear while I open this one."

They paused while he checked the contents of the next suitcase, which proved to be harmless, but much more valuable. It contained several kinds of weapons and ammunition, including two of the energy rifles and four of the power packs that they had given Ace as partial payment for their new identities, all neatly cradled in diced foam pockets in both sides, as well as 4 small devices that looked like a hockey puck with a timer and a pull pin on it. "Okay, _these_are the gadgets I was worried about, and none are active," Felrasa said. "These things are compact gas grenades that can be attached to a surface and set to go off with a timer or a remote signal, or to go off in seconds if a pull pin is removed. Attach one to the lower side of the case under clothes and stuff, and attach its pull pin to a cord secured to the upper part, and when the case is opened wide, without reaching in while it's barely open and disarming the device, the pin gets pulled and it goes off while they are searching the bag. He probably kept himself inoculated with an antidote to the gas, so it wouldn't knock him out too. I'd bet this case also has spoofers in the shell of the case itself to fool a weapons scanner or visual imaging system into thinking there's nothing prohibited inside. My similar case that I keep my own weapons in looks like its full of camera gear, if the port authorities tries to scan it."

"Glad to see we got those rifles back," Elita said. "Nekonya? Where did you come into this? Since your boyfriend is telling us about his past, will you share yours as well?"

"He trusts you, and so do I. So I don't mind filling you in. As you already know, I am an andriod. I was created by the same people who kidnapped him," Nekonya said. "I was programmed for medical services, but they built my body from the plans of a sexual pleasure provider model, so I could also provide comfort and pleasure for the patients and the staff. I can wirelessly interface to many kinds of medical devices and computers, to remotely control them for complex medical procedures. That's why I can control my medical scanner without looking at it, or hack access to a datapad or computer with relative ease. The base personality for my artificial intelligence system was programmed from the mind of an innocent real girl, and then taught to perform as a medic, and as a whore. But they got much more of the girl's mind in the transfer than they planned on. I also got a lot of her ethical values, and her emotional responses, and even some of her childhood memories. I know I am an android, and that my 'childhood memories' are things that never happened to me directly. Yet my mind feels as if I am as natural and real a person as you are. I love to help people, and I love to give pleasure, too. My artificial body is fully capable of receiving pleasure, or pain, and all the other physical responses a real body has, except I don't bleed or bruise when damaged. When I saw how they were treating Felrasa and the others that they had recently brought into the lab, I couldn't bear it. They were going to castrate him, to harvest his DNA and sperm cells directly from his testicles. They had already done it to two other victims, who didn't survive the harvesting process. When they told me to prep him for harvesting, I instead helped him to escape the lab, and we have been on the run since then."

"That world you found us on was the last of several stops for us over the past few years," Felrasa said. "Ace originally hired me as a bodyguard, to protect him from his clients. When he found out about Nekonya's medical abilities, she became his doctor. He had lost his legs shortly before we met him, when a client he met in person fragged him with a grenade, to avoid having to pay for Ace's services."

The third suitcase's contents were a computer system and several specialized peripherals to gather biometric data and to print and encode falsified documents. Some of this was the same equipment that they had all seen used to get the base data for their new identity documents. There was also a set of the holographic projectors and the base station that sent Ace's likeness to those remote projectors. Several other devices could only be guessed at for their function.

"This one's the major score - the tools of his trade, as a hacker and Master forger. Maybe worth more even than all the cash and drugs and other obviously valuable stuff that we got from his safe. Things like these are nearly impossible for a normal person to get their hands on. Most of this gear would fetch a very high price from the right buyer," Felrasa said. "Or, instead of selling them, we might want to see how well we could use them on our own. I've watched Ace use them all a few times, but honestly, his real art wasn't in what he physically made with these. It was his covert infiltration of the official databases and computerized records on countless worlds, to craft the data for a believable and solid new identity that could pass the most thorough of cross-checks, and his skill at deleting the client's old identity from those official records. He was the most skillful hacker that I have ever known - quite possibly one of the best in the Dominion or the Frontier. By the time we get to our destination, the worms and Trojan horse programs that he sent into the grid to re-write our identity documents will have wiped out almost all official records of our old lives. We'll want to carefully examine his computer, of course. No telling what other sorts of useful information we might find there, about past clients or about contacts he dealt with to help create and propagate his falsified ID documents. Nekonya can work on that."

===

Over the next few weeks, between jumps and refueling operations, Felrasa and Nekonia studied their new identity packets, and Jak and Elita went through the identity documents and background information that Ace had prepared for Jak and herself. Because Jak's new identity required him to pass himself off as the sole heir of a very rich and influential local Citizen, Elita mercilessly tested Jak on the information that he needed to know to successfully impersonate the man whose identity he was assuming.

"I wish we had the Doctor's sleep teaching gear," Elita said. "But we don't, so we'll have to do it the hard way. I don't suppose the memories he implanted in your mind happen to include anything about your new homeworld, do they?"

"No such luck," Jak said. "But I've read all the info in the dossier half a dozen times, and I have it all memorized. Ace even got hold of stuff from the guy's personal diary, going back to when he was a kid. Heck, I know a lot more now about that other Jak's life than I do about my own past. So, what do you want to know, 'teacher'?"

"History. Why do they allow and accept slavery on that world? How did that start?" Elita asked.

"About ten generations ago, they had a helluva bad problem with prison overcrowding and a corrupt private prison system," Jak said. "The ruling class decided that it was wasteful and non-productive to 'warehouse' all criminals in prisons, where the convicts got free room and board and medical care at the state's expense, and did work that could just as easily be done by automated systems. They decided that most people convicted of a crime should work off their debt to society as a slave. Prisons, or more often death sentences, were reserved only for hopelessly insane, violent or antisocial individuals."

"So all slaves are convicted criminals?" Elita asked.

"Nope. Not at all. In fact, less than half of them are, today. At first it was just the people up for jail time," Jak replied confidently. "But eventually almost all un-collectable debts as well as non-jail criminal convictions as trivial as parking tickets resulted in a fixed period of enslavement, if you couldn't pay the fines or debts. But on top of that, people can voluntarily become 'indentured' slaves, to trade their services or their body for something they need or want. Serious repeat offenders get enslaved for life with no early release, and convicted to hard labor. But most slaves have a fixed number of years to serve, and then they could get set free again - provided they don't fuck up while they are a slave. The slavers can also breed slaves to make child slaves who will be slaves for life, and slavers can capture unwary free people and enslave them, with certain limitations."

"How does that work? Why would anyone want to be on that world if a slaver could capture and enslave them at will?" Elita asked.

"There are protected areas, like the free trade zone around the starport, and the fancy tourist resorts, where slavers can only capture officially reported runaway slaves. The slavers also have a fairly low limit for how many off-world people they can capture per year. Bad for tourism if you enslave too many tourists," Jak replied, with a sly grin that showed way too many teeth. "On the flip side, there are 'forbidden areas', usually around government facilities or corporate research sites, where anyone without a proper reason to be in the forbidden zone can be enslaved and sold into slavery for life, even if they are already a slave owned by someone else. The upper castes can buy their way out of that, but not everyone can. Where you can go safely depends on your caste, and the Citizen and Freemen ID's have an RF chip that can be detected on a slavers targeting scanner, so the slaver can avoid capturing them or people near them."

"How does that caste system work? Describe each of the castes in their society," Elita requested. "That's stuff you'll be expected to know by heart, as a full Citizen."

"Citizens are on top, with the most money and influence. Less than 15 percent of the population are Citizens," Jak replied. "Next down are the Freemen. That is what Felrasa is now, and since Nekonya's ID says he owns her, she shares his caste level. There's more Freemen than any other caste, except maybe slaves. Both Citizens and Freemen can own any kind of slaves. Below that you have Residents. That's the default rank for minors under 16 and anyone else who hasn't been accepted as a Freeman or Citizen, regardless of which of the top three castes you were born into. There's about half as many Residents as Freemen. They can own an indentured slave, or they can rent a slave from a Freeman or Citizen, but that's it, and the number of slaves they can own are severely limited. The best jobs and lowest tax rates go to the higher castes, while the lower castes do the shit work."

"And below that?" Elita asked.

"The Slaves are next. They have some rights as far as how they can be treated, and they have some protections based on the caste of the person who owns them. They can do any job their owner orders them to do. They pay no taxes, but also don't own any property or money while they are slaves. Enslavement for any reason other than voluntary indenture nullifies any family relationships, including marriages and parentage claims. An indentured slave or term slave who runs away is enslaved for life when recaptured, and can be sold at once on the slave market's auction stands. A slave caught in a forbidden area but still wearing their collar isn't punished as a runaway, unless their owner reports them as one, but they still get re-sold at the auction block and become a slave for life. The former owner of a re-captured slave gets priority over anyone of their rank or lower for repurchasing the slave, and a preferred price. Slaves who are enslaved for life can be very severely punished, and even branded or mutilated and crippled for life, if they are recaptured after having run away. A slave can be an owner's pampered pet - or their life can be a living hell, beaten for any misbehavior and even killed or mutilated if they run away or misbehave. Most slave owners treat their slaves like valuable property, and don't damage them. But some are very abusive or very quick to apply severe punishment, and that is what my namesake objected to the most."

"What about everyone else?" Elita asked. "My new identity is as an offworld merchant in a merchant's guild. Am I going to be lower than a slave? Will it be safe for me to be there?"

"About 5% of the people on the planet are offworld merchants or tourists, or are outcasts from the local society who are not identified as being in any caste. If you're not documented as being in one of the castes, you can't own any sort of slave, but you can rent the services of a slave from a slave owner. That's a popular attraction for the tourists, to get the services of one or more personal slaves while they are here. If you're not in a caste, you can't hold a regular job, and you can't legally obtain normal housing, outside of the starport's guild halls, residence centers and hotels, and some designated ghetto areas on the fringes of the starport. You'd get none of the benefits or protections given to Citizens, Freemen, Residents or even Slaves. Within the starport's free trade zone, anyone can buy and sell goods and personal services, including selling your own body as street prostitute," Jak said. "How safe anyone is from slavers depends on where you go, and who you're with. While you're my guest, and in close proximity to me or on my family estate, you're under my protection. Being with Felrasa also protects you, anywhere that he is legally safe to go. But if you're caught in a non-protected area, you're still fair game for the slavers to capture. Your merchant's guild credentials give you a slim chance that if you're captured, the guild itself might pay to have you set free. Of course, that would increase what you owe the guild, if they bail you out of slavery. "

"Guess that covers the castes pretty well. Is there any mobility between the castes, or are you stuck in the one you're born into?" Elita asked.

"Lots, and nobody is guaranteed anything by birthright. Any child that has one or both parents who are a Citizen or Freeman effectively has the rights of a Resident until they turn 16. Any other kid initially has the rights of their highestrank parent who legally claims them as their own. But if one or both parents is a slave when they are born, the kid is automatically a slave too, owned by the slave parent's owner. At 16 or older, anyone who is a Resident or higher can apply for a caste ranking to match their sponsor or mentor. Anyone else who is legally on the planet also has ways to apply to join any of the castes, but it's harder and more expensive. If you wanted to become a Resident, a Freeman or even a Citizen, there are ways we could do that."

"We'll look into that, if everything goes well with getting you settled. Since I'll still need to make frequent merchant runs with my ship to pay its loan payments, I'll be spending a lot of time off-world anyway," Elita said. "Or if I decide I like it here, I suppose I could sell my ship back to the Merchant Guild. They'd take back the debt, and I'd have a fairly stiff one-time fee to pay, to back out of the loan payments. But that would strand us here, unless we get access to another ship somehow."

"Or my grandfather or I could pay off your loan. The old geezer is loaded. He could probably buy your little ship easily," Jak suggested.

"Maybe... Let me think about my options," Elita replied. "What happens to kids from caste families that don't get accepted in a caste?"

"Without a sponsor or mentor, they become just a Resident, or remain a slave they had a slave parent, and no one frees them. Most slave children remain slaves for life," Jak said. "But here's a kicker... The head of a household, that's usually the highest ranked immediate family member, can sell any of their dependents into slavery, for any reason, or for no damned reason at all, if they are in a higher caste than the dependent. A girl who marries someone of a higher caste than hers could get sold as a slave rather than her husband asking for a divorce, and that annuls their marriage. It's also perfectly legal and not uncommon for poor folk to sell off kids they can't afford to feed. Some even intentionally breed more brats to sell for extra income."

"What a lovely society," Elita sarcastically replied with a shiver. "Okay, I think you could easily pass their citizenship tests, if anyone ever questioned your status. Okay, one last thing - family history. Tell me about you and your family."

"My name is 'Dominic Jak Skrall', and everyone calls me Jak. I was an only child, and my parents and grandparents were all Citizens. I was six when my parents were killed in a pirate raid on the luxury space liner they were vacationing on. I was visiting my grandfather and grandmother when it happened, and they became my guardians. Mom was a Komodo Dragon, and my grandfather's only legitimate daughter. Dad was a Crocodile, from a good family, but with no living relatives. I have my parents and grandparents names memorized, but I always just referred to my parents as 'Mom' and 'Dad', and my grandfather as 'Grandfather' or 'Sir'. I was sent to a military training academy in the Dominion right after my parents died, so almost no one on my home world had seen me in person since I was six. I've hardly ever been back since then. Grandma died when I was 13, and I came back for her funeral. Grandpa is the only relative I have left. I came back at again 16 to be certified as a Citizen, with grandfather as my Sponsor. That was the last time I was here, 9 years ago. Growing up in the Dominion, on a world where slavery was illegal, changed my opinion of the family's practice of owning slaves. Grandfather and I have had heated arguments in the past about slavery. Grandfather treats his slaves pretty well, but he always defended the right of other slave owners to do as they wished with their own slaves when they misbehaved, even if they were harsh or cruel. Our disagreement came to a head when I was 24, a year ago, after I heard about one of our neighbors chopping the feet off a 24 year old slave girl for running away for the third time. I knew the slave girl, and had liked her. I had played with her a few times when we were both little kids, and grandfather had been suggesting for a few years that he should buy her from my neighbor, who we both knew was abusive, as a gift for my graduation. It was her mutilation that really cinched it for me. After that, I was certain that I didn't want to be a slave owner, and I didn't want to even talk to my grandfather again, even though I got several messages from him begging for me to come home right after my graduation and take my place as his heir."

"And when Grandpa asks why you've changed your mind, and are willing to own slaves now? What will you say?" Elita asked.

"Well, for one thing, Grandfather is one of the richest people on the damned planet. It's hard to turn my back on an inheritance that huge," Jak replied. "But the main thing I'll say is that I have to admit that grandpa wasn't ever a cruel master himself. I know he has set some of his best slaves free in recent years, for loyal service, and that each of those slaves remained on his staff as Freemen, sponsored by my grandfather or by someone else who grandfather deeply trusted. What finally tipped it fully in the old guy's favor was that four months ago, Grandfather actually sponsored one of his former slaves, an alligator named Bender, for promotion to full Citizen status. He'd never even done that for any of his bastard kids. And his messages to me said that he set Bender free, and made him a full Citizen, for my sake. So I will say that in return for that act of extreme generosity to a former slave, I am willing to come back and try being a conscientious slave owner myself. If I feel I can do that in good conscience, and if grandfather isn't being abusive to his slaves, I'll stay and be his heir."

"Sounds like you're as ready as you'll ever be, Jak. Our next jump will be to your new home system. Let's hope our identity documents and your act as the old geezer's prodigal grandson are accepted," Elita said.

===

Elita's ship came out of hyperspace at Jak's new home system, and she contacted the starport via hyperwave once she was a safe distance from the jump point. This system was big enough that it had a proper Jump Gate, providing any space ship, even one without a Jump drive, a Jump-6 boost to another major star system on the major trade routes. They had arrived, however, via one of the other designated Jump Points for less-traveled routes, used by starships traveling under their own power. There were three large star cruise ships and a dozen or more smaller starships of various types drifting from the Jump Gate or from the jump points in the direction of the lone inhabited planet, on parallel courses to their own, and a similar number of ships leaving the system. She had to patiently wait her turn to be acknowledged by the controllers. A small independent cargo hauler was a much lower priority than rich people's luxury yachts or cruise ships full of tourists eager to land and spend lots of money at the local resorts. Jak sat in the co-pilot chair beside Elita, dressed in the best formal clothing that they had been able to obtain at one of the starports they had passed through along the way. He tugged uncomfortably at his black silk shirt's high Mandarin collar, and was glad that at least he wasn't wearing a business suit with a jacket.

"All right, merchants guild cargo ship 'Armless Kitten', it's your turn," a bored looking fox in a space traffic controller's uniform eventually said, as the two-way video screen call came to life. "What's your cargo and destination please, and do you have any crew or passengers disembarking here?"

"Three passengers, all high-passage, and a 40 ton cargo of pharmaceuticals I brought here on speculation. I'm heading for the Paradise Cove starport, and I'm hoping to take shore leave there myself, after I find a buyer for my cargo. No other passengers or crew. Transmitting cargo inventory and preliminary ID verification data for all four of us now. Two passengers are local Freemen returning from a prolonged absence. Note that the third passenger is a VIP - a Full Citizen named 'Dominic Jak Skrall'. He is the gentleman beside me now. Do you have any messages for him?"

There was a moment of silence while the controller checked the ID codes, and when he saw Jak's credentials, he widened his eyes in alarm. "Oh! One moment please, while I hand you off to VIP services!" he said respectfully, and then the hyperwave's image switched quickly to another person at the far end. This new person was a sleek and impeccably groomed female wolf in a full dress uniform, and the background behind her was a luxurious private office.

"Welcome home, Master Skrall!" said the lady wolf, in a voice that flowed like honey. "I am miss Vivian Hunter, with VIP services. Transmitting your five stored messages to you now, sir! Your illustrious grandfather has been most anxiously awaiting news of your return. We've been on alert for your hoped-for arrival for three months now, sir. Please excuse us for the delays in acknowledging your arrival in-system, but... well... we hadn't expected you to arrive on a freighter, sir. You have been assigned a priority approach path, and I am sending the course data to your pilot. Would you like a courtesy tender ship assigned to you to accelerate your return to planetside, at no charge to your pilot? We can cut a day and a half off your approach flight time, if I am correctly reading the specifications of that freighter you're on."

Jak glanced at Elita, and when she nodded he replied, "The offer of the tender ship will be appreciated, thank you. I'll be sure to tell my grandfather how well you've treated us, MS Hunter. But you say you've been watching for me? I hadn't sent any messages to grandfather saying I was coming home. Is there anything wrong that required watching for me like that?"

Ms Hunter looked uncomfortable, and replied, "Your pardon, Master Skrall, but I am only at liberty to say that you should view your messages at once, please. May we inform your grandfather that you are in-system?"

"I think I would like to view my messages privately, and then call him directly via hyperwave, if you don't mind," Jak replied. "Rest assured I will contact him as soon as I have seen all the messages, and I will tell him I asked you to allow me to be the one to inform him I have returned. If you've been looking for my arrival for three months, I am sure another hour won't make much difference, and I would prefer to greet him personally."

"Yes sir. As you wish, sir," miss Hunter replied. "The tender should dock with you in less than ten minutes, and then it can ferry your ship inward at a more respectable pace. Is there anything else we can do for you?"

"Yes, there is. My pilot has a cargo she brought here on speculation. Can your people help her to sell it while we are still inbound? She's a personal friend, and I'd like her to be free to accompany the rest of us when we land," Jak asked. "That's about the only other thing I can think of."

"Consider it done. I will have the concierge service negotiate the sale on her behalf, with a suitable broker," MS Hunter replied. "If you need anything else at all, do not hesitate to call me directly, on this frequency. Hunter out."

When the screen darkened, Elita said, "Well, somebody out there likes you, or at least wants to get in good with your family. Having a tender pair with a ship my size and ferry us inward is a service I couldn't usually afford. To offer that to us for free, and apparently for just our ship without waiting to collect a dozen or more others, is quite the extravagant offer."

"Guess we'd better see those messages, hadn't we?" Jak replied.

Elita routed the messages to the main cockpit viewscreen. The oldest was a polite request from Grandfather for Jak to return home after graduation from the military prep school he had been sent to as a child, and claim his place as grandfather's heir, and it had included the unfortunate news about the mutilation of the neighbor's slave girl. That same message had reached his namesake just before the guy decided to go missing, and was included in Jak's ID packet. The next several messages were also from the grandfather, asking in increasingly urgent tones why Jak had not been heard from, and stating that he hoped his grandson could set aside his silly reservations about becoming a slave owner and at least talk with him about taking over the estate. The most recent message was less than a week old, from a stern faced eagle in a white lab coat, stating that if he showed up, Jak needed to see his grandfather at once. The eagle said the grandfather had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and desperately wants to settle his affairs and see his heir before he dies.

"Well! Looks like I won't have to wait long to inherit, eh?" Jak said. "But now I have to act all concerned about the old man's health. Better patch me through to the old man. His direct hyperwave contact info and what I guess is an encryption key is in each of those messages."

"Yeah, I know how to use that key, to secure the call. That's the one bad thing about hyperwave. Anyone in the whole system with a scanner can latch on to a call and listen in, unless you encrypt it," Elita said, making the necessary arrangements. "Okay Jak, it's show time. Make it good."

A large alligator answered the hyperwave call, and said, "This is the Skrall estate. Who may I say is calling?" He was dressed in local fashion, not wearing much more than a loincloth, and belt and belt pouch, and a couple of decorative gold necklaces. There was a plain, wood-paneled wall behind him.

Jak felt conspicuously over-dressed for the tropical norms of this world. He took a chance on there not being very many alligators on grandfather's staff, and fewer still who might be close enough to grandfather to take calls on his personal number, and replied, "Bender? Is that you? Please tell my dear grandfather that his grandson Jak is in system and on the way home. ETA is about 12 hours to our arrival at the starport."

"Jak? Damn boy, you've put on some muscle since the last time I saw you! But hell, that was nine years ago. You're looking good, young man! I'll get this to your grandfather immediately," the alligator replied. The screen blanked for a moment, then came back. When the screen lit up again, an elderly Komodo Dragon was centered in the image, with Bender standing beside him. Grandfather Skrall was seated in an ornate chair in front of a beautiful tapestry, and intricate woodwork decorated the nearby doors, tables and cabinets. "Ahhh, Jak! So, Bender tells me you're coming home at last, and almost on our doorstep? Glad to hear it, my boy. Very glad! So, have you changed your mind about following in my footsteps?"

"I guess so, sir," Jak replied. "Honestly, I'm still finding it rather hard to accept the idea of owning other people. But in thanks for your act of kindness in making Bender there a full Citizen, I'll at least try to please you. I'm coming home, and if you'll let me manage them in my own way, I suppose I can agree to try my hand at owning a few slaves, and see how it goes."

"That's my boy! I'll pick out a couple good ones for you as a graduation and homecoming present. Fresh young girls who have never known a harsh or cruel master. You can train them as you please, and be as kind to them as you like. You remember Master Koda? The wolf who primarily breeds and trains slaves for sale to the tourist brothels? He treats all his breeding stock quite well, I assure you, and the genetic lineage of his child slaves are unsurpassed. You'd approve of his training methods and how well he treats his slave stock, I'm sure. What do you say? Fancy anything in particular? You do prefer girls, yes? Or would you like a boy as well?"

"You are far more expert I such matters than I am, grandfather. I will leave the choice to your discretion. I've never owned a slave before, and wouldn't know how to select the best ones yet," Jak said. "I will accept your generous gift, and ask only that you choose girls who are past puberty and who already accept their fate as slaves. I don't want any boys, and I don't want to have to break the spirit of a girl who yearns to be free."

"Precisely why we should buy your first slaves from a reputable breeder, and not at the common auctions, my boy!" grandfather replied. "Used slaves can be such a dicey proposition. So many bad habits and fears that they can pick up, if they haven't been handled well by the former owners. A blank slate is much better. Get 'em young and train 'em right, and they will be a joy for many years. You'll see, my boy, you'll see! Once you've had a couple pretty young things at your beck and call, you'll wonder how you ever did without them."

"Thank you, sir. When I arrive, I'll be needing a room for myself, and two rooms for my three guests that I am bringing with me. Friends I met at school. A Freeman couple from our word who will want to share a room and a bed, and a young lady who is also the pilot of the ship we're arriving on, who should have her own room," Jak requested.

"Of course! We have your room prepared for you already, of course, and plenty of room for your friends. You're bringing a lady friend, you say? Is she your girlfriend? Should I put her next door to your room? You know, it would do my heart good to know the family lineage will carry on after you, as well. Never too soon to start planting the seeds of your own future heirs in a good woman's belly, my boy!" grandfather said with a leer.

"Ahhhh, we haven't gotten to quite that point yet, grandfather. She's just my friend," Jak insisted. "By the way, I'd heard you were seriously ill. But you seem in good health to me?"

"I have some bad days, and some good ones. Today is a good day," grandfather replied. "I am old, my boy. Fancy medicines and artificial replacement parts can only do so much to extend my life. My doctor says I have several internal organs that are failing at once, and there's not a damned thing he can do to fix it. But both of my cocks still work fine, and I still have enough life left in me to enjoy three slave girls in my bed at once, on a good day. On a bad day, well... I'd rather not think about that, and you shouldn't dwell on it either. Get home quickly, Jak. Show me what sort of a man you've become, and make me proud that you're my heir. I'll get busy and pull a few strings, and by the time you land, I'll have made sure you're properly certified as a slave owner, with Gold member privileges in the slave market, and ready to claim legal ownership of your first slaves. I can submit the paperwork on your behalf, since as your Sponsor for Citizenship, I have your power of attorney. And by the way, your investments that I've been managing for you in your absence are doing well. Not as well as they would if you'd allowed me to invest some of it in slave-related areas, but quite stable and steadily gaining value."

"Thank you, sir. I'm sure we will have much to discuss, and that I will have much to learn from you, once I return," Jak said. "Long life to you, Grandfather. I'll see you soon."

===

Grandfather Skrall sighed with relief and sagged into his chair as soon as the hyperwave call ended. "At last! I was beginning to fear the boy was lost to his idealism. Bender, I'm counting on you to become his Sponsor and adviser once I am gone. We both know that day will come all too soon. Be as loyal to him as you have been to me. He will need your advice and guidance, after so long away from our world. Now, get me the slave guild on the line, and prepare my limo for a trip to Master Koda's auction platforms in the central slave market. I have homecoming gifts to purchase for my grandson!"

===

Elita's cargo was removed from her ship as soon as they landed the next morning, already sold at a very good price. She was surprised to learn that the docking pad she was assigned to land her ship at belonged to the Skrall family, and that she would be charged no docking fees or customs taxes at all for this trip, because she was Jak's guest. A tiny, enclosed shuttle cart from the VIP services group rushed them and their luggage from her ship to the VIP customs terminal, where they were passed through with only a few minimal ID checks, and were given a map of the current protected areas and forbidden areas. Their luggage wasn't even opened, and if it was scanned at all, the process of doing so went unnoticed. The shuttle driver remained with them, to give them and their luggage a ride through the busy public areas of the terminal building.

As they went through the terminal, they soon found that with the warm climate, it was relatively common for local women of all classes to go topless or to wear only a sheer bra for support, for males to wear no shirts, and that most of the local people of either gender wore only minimal lower clothing, like a loincloth or short skirt or kilt, unless their duties required a more formal uniform or protective clothing. Slaves were almost always fully nude, except for their collars or other restraints, and perhaps a belt for a small pouch. Even some of the locals who were not slaves often wore nothing but a belt to support a pouch to carry small personal items.

"Well! I certainly like the local fashion styles!" Elita said, as she happily peeled off her top and her bra.

"Yep! Works for me," Nekonya said, doing likewise, leaving both girls wearing only short skirts and panties.

Jak looked around and said to their driver, "Stop at this clothing store, please. I'm also clearly overdressed. It was much cooler on the world where I bought this suit." He went inside, and soon emerged looking much more comfortable, in a red silk loincloth secured by a thick black belt, with a stiff-sided leather pocket on the right side of the belt for his ID and necessary small items. His former clothes were neatly folded and carried in a store shopping bag, and the ladies added their blouses and bras to his bag.

"I'll keep my clothes on, thanks," Felrasa said sullenly, though he did remove his leather jacket and allow Jak to put it with the other removed clothing. He unzipped his hoodie and left it open in front, and said, "I'll be fine like this. I don't like having my arms bare, unless I'm fighting."

They discussed plans for moment, and agreed to have the driver of their cart send their luggage and the shopping bag of clothes to the Skrall estate, while they called Bender for a proper ride to the estate, and did some shopping in the starport area while they waited for their ride. Bender promised to be at the main starport entry gate for them in two hours or less, to give them time to shop.

"So, lets see the sights, shall we?" Jak said, as they walked out of the terminal and into the free trade zone. "Judging from the number of people I see doing an open carry of weapons, I gather the law level on this world is relaxed enough to allow private citizens to carry knives, swords and small pistols, even here in the starport area. My kind of place. I like it!"

"That's why they didn't react to Felrsa's wristblade at the customs checkpoint, I guess," Elita said.

"Yeah, I checked on that," Felrasa said. "I could even carry my body pistol, as long as it's only loaded with tranq darts, and not lethal rounds. Left that in my luggage, though."

Just outside the terminal building was a small slave auction area, primarily catering to returning local slave masters who might want the convenient and rapid purchase of a new slave as soon as they arrived, but also offering slaves of various types to anyone to rent. Quite a few obviously offworld tourists, mostly males, had gathered around the farthest platform, where a naked 15 year old rough collie girl was being auctioned off for a lifetime enslavement sale. The bidding between those certified to actually buy and not just rent a slave was quite spirited, with the last several bids going back and forth between a large male wolf in his 40's and an eighteen year old rough collie boy who looked remarkably similar to the girl who he eventually purchased. The crowd dispersed as the boy finalized his purchase and put a collar and leash on his new slave girl, and she meekly followed him in the direction of Jak and his friends.

"Ho there! Would you four like some spicy entertainment, for free?" the collie boy asked with a leering grin, as soon as he got close enough to Jak and his friends to talk in a normal tone of voice over the noise level of the surrounding area. "I want to get my new slave used to being fucked in public, and there's no time like the present! Follow us into the mouth of that alley over there, and you can watch as I claim my new slave girl's virginity! I'd like us to have an audience, and four people is enough for her first time. We'll try bigger and bigger crowds as the day goes on, and by nightfall I want to be fucking her on the main concourse of the terminal, with my cum and her virginal blood streaming down the inside of her thighs and dripping all the way to her ankles! Does that sound entertaining?"

Without waiting to see if anyone followed, the boy led his slave girl into the shallow, graffitti-strewn dead-end alley, bent her at the waist, and had her brace her hands against the side wall. He loosened his loincloth and slid it aside to expose his cock, and aimed it at her virginal slit, looking back at them expectantly.

Felrasa looked the alley up and down, and said "Looks safe enough. No doors or windows or landings in the alley, and a solid back wall. Guess we get front row seats for a free sex show."

"I guess we will," Jak said, knowing, as the others did, that to play their part in this society, they would likely witness many similar acts in the upcoming years, and need to play along.

The others stood close by and watched, while the boy entered his slave girl from behind, ripping apart her maidenhead in his first thrust. "Ohhh yeah! So damned tight!" he exclaimed happily.

"OH MASTER!" the girl cried out, trying not to collapse from the sudden sharp pain. Soon she was writhing and moaning as the boy had his way with her, cresting toward her own orgasm despite her obvious embarrassment at her situation.

Her Master held her collar firmly with one hand and pounded his cock into her again and again. "That's it! Submit to me completely! You're mine, now and for the rest of your life, my pretty slave. I've wanted to do this for years. Now you can no longer deny me. Be grateful that I was able to afford to outbid everyone else to buy you."

"I am... grateful... Master... Better you... than that wolf," she gasped.

"Tell them why you became a slave, my dear," the boy commanded, never ceasing his humping of her.

The girl looked at the four strangers and sighed. And then she said, "My parents... They arranged a marriage for me when I turned twelve. My father's boss, a grey wolf who was as old as my daddy, claimed he wanted me for his wife. They were Freemen, and he was a Citizen, so they could hardly say no. He said if I married him when I turned sixteen, he would sponsor me to be a Citizen. He locked a chastity belt on me, so I would remain a virgin until we married. But then he came to our home every week after that, saying he 'needed to train me', and he had me suck his cock with my whole family watching us, as well as anyone else who happened to be visiting our home. Last summer, he invited himself along on our family vacation, and made me suck his cock several times each day. And four times during that vacation, when he got drunk, he insisted I had to suck my father's and brother's cocks too! I... I had to obey him."

"Awww, don't act so put out. By then you loved sucking cocks, didn't you?" The boy asked, as he continued fucking her. "Now tell them why you got enslaved, instead of marrying your dad's boss."

"I... I did like it, yes. He... trained me too well to love sucking cocks. They... caught me with a boy in my bedroom, and I was sucking_his_ cock. My father was furious, and said if I wanted to act like a whore and risk ruining my wedding plans, I should be sold to a brothel. The next thing I knew, Master Grall from the slave market was there, and I had a collar around my neck. That was yesterday, and Master Grall sold me today. He said he sold me at the starport so there would be fewer people to bid against my former fiancee. But Paul outbid him."

"Ah ah! You need to call me Master, now, and not be so familiar! You have no right to claim any past relationships, not even to claim to be your parents daughter! Now you are mine! Take my seed, deep in your belly!" the boy exclaimed, groaning as he knotted her and started to cum.

"Are you... Oh God! Are you really cumming inside me? You want to make me pregnant? But I was your...!"

The boy yanked on her collar, silencing her, and said, "Shut up, Suzie! You are my slave, now and for life, and that's _all_you are! What you were to me in the past no longer matters. I want to make sure your pups are mine, so I can sell them at a better price as purebreds, and earn back what I paid for you. That's the only reason I'm not offering these strangers a chance to fuck you too."

'Y-yes, Master." The girl hung her head in resignation and remained silent until the boy pulled his cock out of her and admired the virginal blood and his cum dripping from her gaping cunt.

"That's a great start, my little slave. Well done. Keep that up, and maybe I won't rent you out to the tourists," he said, as he rearranged his loincloth.

"That was pretty intense, kid," Jak said. "Were you one of her boyfriends, who got aced out by her betrothal?"

"Nah. But she was a real cock tease, even with me. Sucking off that old wolf like a slut, week after week, for over two years! And sucking off half the boys at school too, no doubt! The boy she got caught with was my best friend, and most of my friends said she's done it for them too. But she wouldn't do it for me, except when that bastard ordered her to do it. Before she was enslaved, she was my little sister. Man, mom and dad are gonna be so surprised when they visit my apartment and see she's my slave now, and pregnant with my pups!" the boy replied. He tugged at the girl's leash and led her out of the alley, saying, "Let's go, Suzie. We're gonna fuck a lot more in public before nightfall."

Elita watched them go, and when they were gone she said quietly, "I shouldn't admit this, but that turned me on a lot more than I would have imagined. Damn. Buying his own sister as a slave, and trying to knock her up! I should be revolted, but... I'm not."

"Yeah, same here," Jak said. "Damn. I almost wish the kid _had_offered to share the poor girl. I might have taken him up on it!"

Elita looked at Jak, and at the huge bulge in his loincloth, and then down at herself, and the tent that she was making in the front of her own skirt, and she reached a decision. "Jak, I... Your grandfather thinks I'm your girlfriend or something, and you didn't really deny it. I'm... okay with acting like I am, if it means I have a reason to stay close to you at your estate, and not stay alone on my ship. But he won't believe that I'm your girlfriend, if he finds out I'm still a virgin," Elita said, blushing fiercely. "Damn it, I'm horny as hell and I need a release! Take me now, like that boy took his sister. Dominate me and fuck me hard and fast and rough, right here in this damned alley, right now!"

"Damn girl, you're sure about this?" Jak asked, his external cock already hard and throbbing inside his loincloth.

"Yeah. I don't really want to be your slave, but pretend I am, just for this," Elita said, removing her skirt and panties and setting them on top of a trash can. "You need to be able to show your grandfather that you can really dominate a woman, and claim her as your own, like that boy just totally dominated his sister. Claim me, Jak! Do it now!"

"We'll ahhhh... we'll watch the alley entrance, and let you two have at it," Felrasa said, as he and Nekonia retreated to the sidewalk. "We'll try to make sure no one bothers you."

Jak knew what to do, even though he had never, since his escape from the lab, actually had sex with anyone. He was uncertain if he had ever had sex at all, other than masturbation. He certainly had memories, of both brutal rapes and passionate lovemaking. But they were always memories where he saw some other person's body committing the act, where it should have been his. Without knowing that he was giving his own virginity to Elita as much as she was giving hers to him, he took off his belt, allowing his loincloth to drop to the ground, and looped the heavy leather strap twice around the tiger girl's neck, going through the buckle each time, to form a makeshift collar. "All right then. Up against the wall, raise your tail, and expose that virgin cunt for me to take!" He held the collar firmly in one hand and shoved her face and breasts against the wall, while his other hand lined up his lower cock and guided it into her sopping wet yet virginal vagina.

"Damn that's big!" Elita exclaimed, as Jak's cock started to force its way into her. Elita's herm cock was as hard as Jak's, and she reached down and stroked her own cock with her left hand, so she could get off both ways at once. "Ahhhh!" she gasped, as he tore through her hymen and sank into her to the hilt. "Oh damn! That really hurt!"

"It gets better. That's what they always say, anyway," Jak promised, as he started thrusting his cock into her, and his upper cock extended and slipped up and down the crack of her shapely ass, dribbling pre-cum. He held her tail out of the way and considered if he should try a double penetration.

"J-Jak? The way you're holding my tail... Do you wanna put your other cock in my ass at the same time?" Elita asked. "It's okay. I can feel it dripping a lot of precum on my tailhole. That should be enough lube."

"Yeah, if you're sure you want it. Hang on, girl!" Jak replied, adjusting his position to force the tip of his upper cock into her tight young ass without fully withdrawing his lower cock from her cunt. "It's going in. Oh DAMN that's tight! And it's making your other hole even tighter! Wow!"

"OH! Oh wow, I feel like you're gonna split me in half! But keep going. At least shoving that up my ass didn't hurt as much as you popping my cherry. Oh damn... Yeah! Harder!" Elita shouted. "Damn that feels good! Fuck me harder, Jak! Claim me you big bastard!"

Jak furiously fucked her in both holes at once, and he reached around her, below her throbbing cock, to finger her clitoris so she would be sure to cum soon. "How's this, dammit? Dominant enough for you?"

"OH! Oh yeah! There go the fireworks!" Elita cried, as her vagina convulsed with a triple-cresting of orgasms. Her cock splattered the wall with her seed at the same moment, and she began to purr in a deep rumble that Jak could feel in his cock.

"Uunghh! Fire in the hole!" Jak cried, as he painted both her womb and her bowels with his seed. "Damn! I didn't even ask if you were on birth control! Shit! Did I just knock you up?"

"I doubt it. Our species... are too different, and my period... is due to start any day now," Elita said, breathing heavily and pushing with both hands against the wall so she could shove her hips back against Jak's final thrusts. "My peak of fertility was two week ago. I shouldn't be very fertile right now. But if you did, we'll know within a week, if I miss my period."

"Well, when you two are finished, you better get dressed again and get out here," Felrasa said. "I see a big limo arriving at the terminal, with a gator driving it. I think our ride's here."

Jak put his belt and loincloth back on, and said, "Thank you, Elita. That was, very pleasurable. But next time, if there is a next time, I want to make love to you on a bed, and slowly."

"Oh, there will be a next time, I'm sure," Elita said with a grin. "I'm sore as hell, but I think I enjoyed that as much as you did. I guess we just answered the 'friends with benefits' question between us, and the answer is yes." She cleaned her crotch with her panties as well as she could, frowned at the sodden, bloody mess, and threw them aside in the alley, before wrapping her skirt back around her waist. "Let's go. I can get new panties later. Or not. No one seems to care here," she said with a shrug. As she walked toward Felrasa and Nekonya, she moved stiffly, still quite sore in her nether regions.

"You okay, Elita?" Jak asked.

"Well, I may leave a mess on the limo seat. I'm still dripping from both holes. You really pumped it into me, my friend," she whispered to Jak. "But I'll be fine. I'll try to keep my skirt between me and the seat."

Once they were all in the limo, Bender lowered the window between the driver and the passengers, and turned to look back at them. "Welcome home, Jak. Your grandfather is quite eager to see you again. Look, I know you two have had your differences, but please be kind to him, and at least act like you agree with the old guy, okay? Honestly, he's not long for this world. You got here just in time, I fear."