Chapter 9
Chapter 9.
I woke to the sound of my leash jingling in front of me. That was my cue, I reached up and took the end, clipping it to the "D" ring on my collar, the same my tags hung from. I wondered where we were going?
"Keman, hup! Let's go..." Sin paused to let me stretch out, one hind paw, errrrff, the other. I shook my fur out, everything settled all smooth and proper. I licked my prick back into my sheath and then looked up into his eyes with a long yawn. "You are such a lazy dog... but not for long."
I wonder what he means. Thoughts come easily to my mind, this time. His scent was contagious, excitement and interest, so that became my own. My heart even picked up a notch.
The bottom of the leash stayed in my field of vision as we walked, I had learned quick what happened if I pulled it in any direction. Nothing fun, I was made to sit, lie down, and stay. I remembered it all clearly, and at the time, I had been completely at odds to that leash. Especially with all the exciting smells and sights we were often surrounded by.
We entered a bathroom and he walked me up to my urinal. "Potty." I mounted the collection pod, gave a good shove, and waited with gentle pressure against my bladder. What once used to hurt, didn't anymore, my bladder emptied with a nice feeling of relief, I pushed the flush button and felt warm water wash over my dick. I pulled out and licked myself dry, then looked up at Sin.
"Number two?" I shook my head. "All right, let's go."
We walked through some of the less familiar areas of his house. I sniffed the floor occasionally, drinking in all the scents. Sin seemed more than happy to let me pause to do so. Strangely, things I know I had smelled before seemed new to me. Recognition was delayed, but it came. Our claws clicked into an elevator with a white marble floor, veins of gold spread in all directions from the center. I sat on my haunches, next to him, while he selected a button near the bottom of the panel. My ears splayed with mild discomfort, I could remember a time when I was terrified of this elevator. We descended swiftly, and the doors opened with a chime.
We walked into an underground area full of heavy industrial equipment. Much of it was in use, running by itself. Sin unclipped my leash. "Go explore, touch nothing, Keman."
I smelled fresh polymers, cutting oil, welding gas, hot motor windings, ozone, metal alloys. My heart began to pound with excitement. I ran down the center of an aisle, pausing to take in each new scent. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands.
I saw baths of acid inside fume hoods, and I knew they were used for etching steel before electroplating and anodization. I didn't know how I knew that, but I didn't care. Words drifted inside my reach, but I was too busy exploring to need them. I watched a drop forge in action, loudly pounding on a billet to increase its density and hardness. A wheeled robot honked at me when I blocked its route, it was carrying two big rolls of purple and blue nylon webbing. I stepped out of the way and it mumbled at me as it passed. I panted in laughter as I poured on enough speed to jump over it, making it stop again to honk at me. But it was behind me, and I was gone.
There was no single direction I could look, without movement filling my vision. The area was vast, walls were only vague and distant. Occasionally, I spotted other Rhenthar working at some of the machines, but only rarely, almost all the equipment was automated. I watched waldo arms welding a long circular pipe as it was rotated expertly. I knew that was a form of tungsten inert gas welding, TIG. The trail of bright orange reminded me of heat patterns I had once seen up close, behind a shielding helmet I had worn, but it was flat, because I didn't have a muzzle...
What a crazy thought, it must have been in a dream. But I remembered a certain dream... and Zach was in it. Didn't I just see Zach, yesterday? Zeek. My pupils dilated, but a shower of sparks behind me got my attention. That's a plasma cutter, on an automated assembly, the only useful way to cut stainless titanium, and I knew that... because I saw it in a shipyard.
I stared at the sparks, showering down, spraying in all directions as the globules of white hot metal fell a dozen meters to spray into huge fireworks displays when they hit the floor. Totally different, when, in a zero-g environment, magnetic repulsion fields pushed the slag away before it damaged equipment as it floated in space.
Space. I could remember hoping one day my society would live in space. I looked at my hands. Those were some very sharp claws. Fear trickled into my mind, something was wrong.
A huge electric motor used multiple startup stages to grind into motion behind me, the hum of its superconducting cables made me spin around to stare, furthering my fright. A grinding wheel sent a shower of sparks six feet into the air to my left, yikes!
I sat on the cold floor and held my paws over my ears, keeping them flat, my eyes were shut tight. I wanted my Alpha.
The world slowly rotated around me, or maybe I was turning as I stared. All motion, sparks, hydraulic rams, cutting, drilling, welding, bending. My heart beat faster in my ears.
I turned and ran!
Wind in my ears. Faster.
I turned a corner and poured on more speed, the main central isle had a special high friction surface. I used it to run as fast as I could, holding my ears flat from the deafening wind as it rushed by. A steel "I" beam lowering a chain whipped past me on my right.
I put my nose in the air as I ran, left, no, right. I shot in that direction between machines as big as my old house, full of thousands of pipes, distilling who knew what. Sinclair!
I saw his black form hunched over a huge electronic sewing machine. I lunged at him and stopped with my head up against his leg, terrified, shaking. I ground my eyes into his warm fur and kept my ears flat. He smelled patient. Words withdrew from my mind.
"Interesting place?" He ignored my fear, and that made me want to ignore it, too. What was I afraid of? I looked up at him and shook my fur out, panting. I looked around. On my left, on a work surface, I spotted stacks of collars, just like the one I wore. Forty-Six centies.
An automated carrier chimed twice as it wheeled up to Sin. On its surface was a block of gleaming purple alloy. The second time I had seen that shade today. It was shaped like a "Y" with thick shiny black gel along the underside. It was curved and smooth, with angular windows on each side of the "V." It had a distinctly canine shape... like a head.
Sin picked it up and I saw that it had two flexible rubber tubes hanging out of the front, they wobbled around as he inspected all the edges. At the top, I could see the gel twisted into two convoluted hooks. He touched an activation stud and I heard the sharp whine of a fuel cell as it purged into life. He gestured for me to sit, I sat.
Sin set the heavy object on top of my head, every curve fit my muzzle perfectly. He put fingers behind my ears to point them straight, and wiggled the protrusions down into my ear canals. I heard a ratcheting click, the squeak of air pushed out, a little pain in my ears and then silence, which was a sharp contrast to all the machines filling the air around us. Sound returned, a moment later, though altered as if from a microphone. The windows over my eyes were tinted, and at first I thought they were completely opaque, but as my night vision dialed in, my sight came back slowly. Sin chuckled at me as I looked around, the rubber protrusions in front of my nose flopping this way and that. Metal covered my nose completely, it ran up the center of my muzzle and spread out on my forehead, ending in my ears.
"Keman, wanna be a good boy for me?" Sin chided, curiously.
I wagged my tail, all my fear from earlier was gone.
"Ok. I want you to be brave, because this is going to hurt. You can be brave, right?" Of course I could be brave. I panted and sat there.
Sin reached up to the floppy tubes hanging in front of my nose, and slid them forward, into my nostrils. They were barbed, and increased in diameter steadily. The crackling sound in my head sent flashbacks spinning through my mind, sharp pain followed with a click. I yelped and whined!
"Who's a big baby? Yes you are..." He ruffled my ears and looked at everything closely, inspecting the fit. He tried to peel it off my head, but it wouldn't budge, and it hurt my ears when he pulled. He touched another stud on my forehead, and the whole thing started to warm up. It almost became hot enough to burn, but then it leveled off. In just moments, I felt too hot, and I panted with my tongue far out. My paw pads all started getting slippery with sweat.
Sin touched the stud again, the warmth faded away. He walked over to a tripod and snapped his fingers a couple of times, pointing to a spot on the floor in front of it. I walked over to it and sat. "Stand up," he commanded.
I looked at him curiously, then eased my weight onto my hind paws, spreading out my stance, I lifted my body up into the air and stood up tall. I leaned forward only a little, my tail wasn't heavy enough to be a real counterweight, but this new vantage was amazing as I looked around. How long had it been since I last stood like this? The room stretched on forever in three directions, I spotted the elevator behind us. It chimed and the doors opened.
A green laser shot out of the tripod, it painted lines on my body. Sin walked up to me and moved my arms around, positioning them at my sides, just so. His ears went sideways when Zach walked by us, the little husky was half a meter shorter than me, now. I looked down at him through tinted glass and sniffed at him. He stared at me with wide eyes, then jumped when Sin moved, staring up at him. Zach showed him his throat, Sin returned the gesture, much less throat. It looked familiar to me, that exchange.
"Is he...?" Zach looked at me, then glanced at the machines in motion around us.
"Three. Four, earlier, on his own. Wigged out completely, you're going to need to keep a close eye on him." Three... four. Hm. That's my collar they're talking about. It is controlling me.
"Ok, I will. Is that the new cranial heater?" Zach peered up at my head, twitching his black nose. I reached out and tickled his stomach.
Zach snerked, like he enjoyed it, then shot a look at Sin. "Hey, no! Bad!" He bared his teeth at me.
I looked at the floor, surprised by his reaction. My knees felt weak, I wanted to be on all fours. Zach stared at them, saw they were shaking. He looked up at me and patted my side.
"Is ok... your mind has lost a lot, Keman. We'll keep putting it back in, and this time, it'll stay, for good. Show me your throat, remember?" I... did remember, now. I copied what I saw him and Sin do earlier, and lifted my muzzle to the side. I felt vulnerable doing that.
Zach sniffed me and wagged his tail, lifting his muzzle in a similar manner. His scent... changed. I caught the trace of fear, and somehow that made my comfort return.
"Now we are equal. If I showed you less, I would apply my dominance over you, or vice versa. Always do this before touching someone, Keman. Their response can tell you if you'll lose some fingers." It all seemed familiar, and I got it, wagging my tail.
Sin had watched the whole exchange in silence, he finally spoke up.
"Not where you're headed. Up north, customs are different. Very doglike, the two of you should fit right in. They're very... eccentric."
Zach let out a whine. "I hope it doesn't get that cold up there."
"It doesn't, usually. Minus thirty, tops. These heaters are safe to minus sixty. You'll head to the outpost near the pole, Aalba. They're performing core sample research, the ones we've been discussing. It's time to find out if what's up there is real."
The machine Sin had been working on earlier began moving it's needles in a blur, spitting out a tangled pile of purple webbing. Sin took it and began attaching metal pieces to certain areas. Click, snap.
"Sit over there, Keman." Sin gestured at a spot on the floor. I dropped to all fours and padded up to it, sitting. "Zach, your turn."
"Hurf, me? Oh." Zach stood up as tall as he could in front of the tripod. The machine next to it spat out a pile of blue webbing, just like the first. Zach eyed it warily.
"C'mere, Keman." Sin held up the purple bundle, I trotted up to him and sniffed at it, curiously. "Let's put this on you... hold still." I froze, he pulled the straps over my head, down my body. It felt tight at first, but as he tugged it lower, it loosened up over my stomach. It was shaped like an "X" in the front, two X's down the back, a metal coupler terminated just above the base of my tail. Sin tugged at it in a few areas, he smelled satisfied.
The machine finished with the pile of blue, Sin took it and crooked a finger at Zach. "C'mere, harness boy..." Zach mumbled and whimpered, he sounded embarrassed. "Turn around..." Zach bared his teeth. Sinclair leaned forward and whispered something into his ear. Zach yelped and turned to face me. Sin tugged the harness down, around his chest, and finished sliding it into place.
He checked the tightness of various straps crisscrossing Zach's body.
"Carbon nanotube webbing. I bet someone likes this, a lot." Zach whimpered, Sin reached down and gripped his sheath, giving him a couple of squeezes. "Oh my, maybe I should 'site you, too. It's the only way you'll leave yourself alone..."
Zach whimpered and howled, shaking his muzzle. I watched, fascinated. Of all the memories I had of Zach... Zeek, none were like this, it was a side I had simply never witnessed in him.
"Hm, yeah, I think you need one. You've got the rest of the night to prove your self control. And I know all the ways to test it..." Zach shook his head and gibbered. For all his noise, I scented nothing but pleasure from him.
"Maybe this harness needs a lock. You see, Keman's harness doesn't lock, how would that make you feel?" Zach kept howling and whimpering. I was learning, all right. I reached down and shifted my sheath around, something about all this was turning me on.
An automated carrier chimed, interrupting the apparent torture. Sin turned to look at it and pointed. "Go make sure that fits." On it was another cranial heater, just like what I wore, but in a shade of blue that matched his harness.
Zach padded over and picked it up, inspecting it before pushing it down on top of his head. He caught the prongs inside his ears and hooked them in place with a grunt. He looked around for a moment, like he was blind, then peered at Sin.
Sin gestured at the floppy tubes hanging out the front. "All the way."
Zach pushed them in, until they clicked in place. He sneezed a couple of times, gobbling to himself.
Sin walked up to him. "Does it fit evenly?" He squinted at it, then touched a stud in the back, he gave me a knowing wink. I wondered what was going on.
"Fit's fine." He reached up and touched the prongs lodged in his ears, pulling at them. He whined and pulled harder, but they wouldn't come out. Sin laughed, a deep rumble. Zach froze and stared up at him.
"Oops. I guess I gave you the one that locks. My bad."
Zach redoubled his efforts trying to pull the metal device off his head. Sin reached down between Zach's legs and tweaked his sheath a couple more times.
"Yep, you love it. Don't even bother trying to tell me otherwise. Let's head upstairs, Keman. I'll show you a few tricks with Zach you should know about."