The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“Does this look good on me?” asked Christie as she posed in front of the mirror. “I like the way it makes my boobs—”

The lights in the room switched off before she could finish. High pitched shrieks from the other girls drowned out the rumbling of distant explosions. The resulting creaking made them scream even louder.

Dim emergency lights took over and startled them into silence. With their sight restored, a few of the girls glanced at each other then hugged for comfort. Others curled up in the shadows or in the light, whichever felt safer to them.

Time passed until a giggle broke the silence and caught everyone’s attention. Two girls were playing with the shadows they casted. One was jiggling her breasts, in awe of how their shadows looked a lot bigger. The other girl made a shadow snake which slithered and bit the other girl’s nipple. When she yelped, the resulting giggle was infectious.

The next rumble was ignored now that the girls found other things to preoccupy themselves. Some played with the shadows on the wall. Those nearer to the lights held their jewelry close and marveled at how they sparkled. The more timid ones calmed one another with casual sex.

It was too dark for Christie to see her dress in the mirror, so she just let it drop to the floor in case it looked ugly on her. Then, she felt her way to the dresser and fumbled for a comb. With a cry of triumph, she leaned back and started brushing her hair. The tugging feeling on her scalp did the rest. She close her eyes, hummed a happy tune and swayed from side to side.

“Christie! Master wants to see you!” said one of the girls after an unknown amount of time had passed.

Christie jolted up from the chair and looked straight at the door. Master’s silhouette was coming closer. She let go of the comb, letting it fall into the darkness, and stood straight to present herself to master. Her hands clasped together behind her back so he could see everything. It was the best she could do and she wished she wore something sexy to excite him.

“Let’s go, Christie. I need you,” said master. “Don’t bother dressing. There’s no time.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her, leading the way out.

Christie could only giggle in anticipation. She was so lucky that master needed her!

The hallways of the base were just as dark as their room and the occasional man who passed by walked or ran as urgently as master did. At one point, a whole squad of armed soldiers passed them by. She giggled when she drew some of their gazes. It felt good to be sexy.

Their final destination of their uneventful journey was the server room. After dragging Christie inside, master locked the door and barricaded it while she watched. There was another rumble, louder than the rest, but master’s presence stopped her from worrying.

Master turned around and put his hands on her shoulders. She wished he would touch her in a more sensitive spot. “Christie,” he asked. “Can you get me a direct connection to the missile controls?”

She nodded. “Yes master!”

“Good,” he said. “Do it quickly.”

She obeyed. The room was dark but she was familiar with the place where she used to work and knew where everything was kept. She took the tool belt from the wall and wore it over her naked waist then grabbed a handful of the wiring needed from the drawers and slung them around her shoulder. The last thing she needed was the portable terminal, which nowhere to be found.

She panicked at the thought of displeasing master and spun around in circles with wide eyes, looking for the missing gadget.

“What are you looking for?” asked master.

She jumped at his attention. “Um,” she whispered in shame. “The terminal.”

“Of course,” he said. He went to a corner and returned with the terminal in hand. Curious, she peeked behind him and saw a body sprawled where master had retrieved the tool. “He tried to stop me,” master explained.

She remembered the corpse’s face. When she used to work here, Marko was obviously head over heels with her. They were about to start something, too, but master infected her before anything more could happen.

Master handed her the terminal and she banished the thoughts of old days. “Thanks, master,” she said before getting to work.

She glided through the server racks, seeing the meaning of the red and green status lights as clearly as if the machines spoke. “What’s wrong, Delphi?” she asked aloud to one machine. “Why are you hurting like that?”

She plugged her terminal into the machine and thought about how nice it would be to have something plugged into her. Yes, that would be very nice if she didn’t have a job to do.

The first diagnostic scan showed that everything was a mess. Network nodes pulsed irregular heartbeats and servers stuttered to one another. “It looks like someone’s scrambling us with ECM,” she said aloud.

“Of course,” said master. “We’re under attack.”

“Oh. Okay.” The details weren’t important. Just her task.

She didn’t speak once it got technical. Remembered expertise from a lifetime ago guided her mind and body. She zoned out as she did when she brushed her hair, not fully aware of her movement along the server racks and the data scrolling down her screen.

When her awareness returned, she was sitting on the floor with her legs spread and the terminal between them. “Done!” she announced. Sweat from the exertion of thinking shone on her forehead. She bit her lip at the anticipation of her reward for such hard work and thought about all the sockets she had plugged.

“Load all the missiles with the payload from the bio labs. They’re stored in bay two,” he said.

She pouted but obeyed. After typing in the appropriate commands, she idly stroked her slit with one hand while the other scrolled through the confirmation logs.

“Program in these launch targets,” he said and handed her a portable drive.

She took it with her wet hand then plugged it between her legs. When nothing happened on screen, she pulled the drive out, spun it upside down and plugged it between her legs again. Nothing still. Maybe it would work if she jiggled it a bit.

“Stay with me, Christie,” said master. “Plug it in the computer port.”

She blinked and giggled at her silly mistake. “Sorry master. It’s getting hard to think.” She pulled the drive out of her body then sucked on it before plugging it into the computer. While the gadget loaded the data, she giggled and played with herself again.

“Don’t worry,” said master. “You’ll get one last fucking once this is done. Just load the data and fire.”

“Fucking!” she said with a giggle while she typed in the final commands. Her wet fingers slipped over the keys and she had to redo a lot of typing. It didn’t help that she stopped frequently to give herself a few comfort rubs.

“Keep at it.” said master. He knelt down and placed his fingers in her pussy. “I’ll take care of you down there. Just get those missiles in the air.”

She just nodded, giggled and typed with a happy smile on her face. This continued for awhile until master looked at the screen. She was entering gibberish punctuated with the occasional “fuCK” and “PU55Y” .

He took his fingers out of her and slapped her on the cheek. “You bitch! I told you to fire the missiles!”

She giggled at the kinky sting the slap left on her face. “Already fired,” she said and pressed the button to display the missile tracker. She had only continued typing so he could play with her more. It was such a clever plan.

He shoved her aside and grabbed the terminal. Desperate eyes scanned to see if the deed was done. “When did you fire?” he asked. The first strikes should be hitting by now.

She answered with a grunt. She was too busy pumping the handle of some diagnostic tool into her pussy. Her eyes gazed at the erratic readouts of the tool, seeing only a kaleidoscopic visualization of her lust. One of her hands fumbled around the tool belt still around her waist, looking for something else she could play with.

He was too afraid to touch any key. It could abort the sequence. All he could do was watch and wait in those tense moments, hoping that her rational mind hadn’t burned out too late.

The cursor blinked and spat out text.

BLACKWATER CITY: HIT

He sighed in relief.

RITTER: HIT

SOLUS: HIT

RARIER: MISS

MAESTRA: HIT

He laughed out loud and put a hand on Christie’s leg. “Good girl,” he said. “Good girl. Do you know what you’ve just done?”

She spread her legs for him. “Christie want fuck,” she said.

“Every woman on the planet will be just like you. But this time, they can share their gift. Their daughters will follow in their footsteps and the gift will survive through time. One day, someone who shares my dream will seize my legacy and do what I could not.”

She just giggled and pulled him down on the floor. “Christie make daughters,” she said. “Make children with fucking! Master promised!”

Her master placed the terminal where he could watch and made good on his promise. He pinned down the now mindless girl and impaled her, unconsciously thrusting in time with every confirmed hit on the screen. The missiles were his seed. The planet, the last egg of the empire he loved. It didn’t matter that the next explosion was much closer and was followed by the sound of collapsing rock. He knew he had succeeded.

With one last kiss, the two of them faded away in bliss.

Centuries later.

After a lot of insistent shaking, Darrin finally woke. He opened his eyes to see his wife kneeling over him with a breast sticking out of her nightgown. The sight pulled him out of the dream he was having and he flexed his dick which was still hard from sleep.

“Are you feeling a midnight craving, dear?” he asked as he put a hand on his wife’s hips.

Vicky’s answer was a disappointing surprise. “You have a call from Mister Suffridge. He says its urgent.”

He glanced out the window into the dark blue of the early morning and wondered why a historian would be needed at this hour. After a resigned sigh, he leaned up to kiss his wife and fix her nightgown. “Thanks. You can go get some sleep now if you want.”

She giggled and got off him. “I’d rather come with you.”

They went downstairs together, holding hands. When he sat down to answer the phone, she sat on his lap and leaned back on him. Thankful for her warmth, he put one arm around her before answering the phone.

“Hello? Darrin?” said the familiar voice. “A car’s coming to pick you up in a few minutes.”

“What for?!”

“I can’t say over a wire. Classified. All I can tell you is that it’s important stuff and you were the first pick on a short list. You’ll get the rest of the details once you’ve been picked up.”

Darrin laughed. “You didn’t even ask if I wanted to leave at this hour! Sophie’s tits, Morgan, what have you gotten me into this time?”

The voice at the other end returned the laugh. “I know you’ll agree to do this, Darrin, because you can’t resist a mystery like this. But watch that mouth of yours, this assignment requires a bit of political correctness.”

Darrin fell silent, wondering how the tamest of swearing could be considered offensive.

“Start packing and making arrangements for your wife’s care,” continued Morgan. “You could be gone for a few days.”

“Alright,” said Darrin. “Anything else?”

“That should be all. You should have about half an hour to prepare. Thanks, Darrin. Thanks.”

When he hung up, he caught his wife staring into space with her finger twirling her hair automatically.

He hugged her tight and spoke into her ear. “I’ll be gone for a few days. Morgan says the car’s on its way and we’ve got to start packing.”

She snapped out of the trance and got off him. “Okay,” she said. “You get the suitcase out and I’ll start folding your things.”

They returned upstairs and packed together with the wordless efficiency that years of companionship had brought. Once his things were ready, he left a note to Nick and Alice, the partner couple who lived when them. The note explained his abrupt trip and instructed Nick to take care of Vicky’s needs while he was gone.

“Nick will take care of you if you need a fuck, okay?” he told his wife. “Just pass this note to him first and don’t just pounce on him like the last time I went to a conference.” After she nodded, he tied a string around her finger so she wouldn’t forget.

There was still a lot of time to spare so he asked her, “How about some goodbye sex before I get dressed?”

“Of course!’ She giggled and slid out of her nightie in one smooth motion. Then, before he could move to take her, she hopped on top of the packed suitcase on their bed. She lay on it, stomach down, with her lower half propped up on the luggage. Her pussy left a smear of wetness where she slid on the leather.

Darrin smiled at his wife’s creativity. She was one of the smarter girls.

She began grunting as soon as he entered her from behind and got into a rhythm. But the suitcase made his position tiring. He had to stop and rebalance himself. When he withdrew, she panted loud enough for him to hear.

After making a slight adjustment to his stance, he paused and kept her in anticipation. Then, right before her panting could slow, he thrust. She have a high pitched squeal and vocalized louder than before.

It didn’t take long for him to feel the strain again. In another time, he would have stopped to reposition again but he had a schedule to keep. He let himself go, triggering their orgasms. For a split second, they were frozen and tireless. Then, he relaxed and lay down on her. They breathed in time for awhile before he slid out of her, leaving a stain of his own on the suitcase.

“Sorry I couldn’t make you come more,” he said. “But I don’t want to keep Morgan waiting.” He wiped himself on the bed sheet and got dressed while his wife licked off the mess they made on the suitcase. She wore the nightie she had discarded and the fabric clung to wet pussy.

Together, they went outside and waited. It was cold and she wore next to nothing, but Vicky weathered it so she could stay with her husband longer. To keep warm, all she had to do was rub on him a bit.

The car arrived and, to Darrin’s surprise, a female chauffeur stepped out of the driver’s seat. It made him wonder what Vicky could have become if she was born in a different generation, one with the training techniques that could teach women to be more than housewives.

The chauffeur looked proud in her uniform. The peaked cap on her head was the only piece of clothing identical to that of male chauffeurs. The many-buttoned coat and leather gloves were cut to fit her bust and dainty fingers. Below the waist, she wore a skirt that ended above the knee and stockings covered the region of her legs left exposed between her boots. When she walked toward him, he could see that the slits on the side of her skirt ran deep for easy access in case she needed a fuck when her higher functions shut down.

A man in a trenchcoat came out from passenger seat in the back and offered his hand. “Mister Wesley?” said the man after introducing himself as an intelligence agent. “Get in and let Dana take care of your luggage. We’ve got a schedule to keep.”

Darrin shook the agent’s hand then gave his wife one last kiss. She reluctantly let go of him and waved as he followed the agent into the car. Once the doors were shut and the car was on the way, it was all business.

“I’ll give it to you straight,” said the agent. “We’ve made contact. The empire has returned.”

Darrin collapsed backward in his seat. Everyone knew the moment would come someday but no one really expected it to happen during his lifetime. Their rebellious ancestors destroyed the stargates, forcing the empire to travel the slow way. Given interstellar distances, the luckier rebel colonies would be safe for millennia. It would be more than enough time to develop a tech base to match anything the imperialists would have.

The agent continued. “Now, the good news. You see, we only managed to detect the spacecraft because, as of a few hours ago, our ancient defenses on the moon opened fire on the imperial craft and caught it by surprise. After the lightshow, only bits of debris remained.”

“But didn’t you say we made contact?”

The agent nodded. “I was getting to that. Naturally, we raced to salvage as much as we could. Even a defective fragment of space tech could jump us few decades forward. But one of the bits of debris was actually a lifeboat. A lifeboat with a survivor. This is why we need you, Mister Wesley. We can’t fight a war with the empire. Not when half of us are no better than pets. We need peace and, given your field of expertise, you’re the most qualified man to talk to her.”

“The survivor’s a ‘her’?!” said Darrin. “Sophie’s tits, we’ve only got a few days before the virus gets to her!”

“We’re luckier that that. When she met our guys, she had a mask on and explained that quarantine was standard contact procedure to prevent the spread of off-planet disease. We then made it clear to her that she had to keep it on or risk infection from us.”

“It means she’ll stay intelligent! It means she—”

“It means,” interrupted the agent, “that this is a delicate situation. As the only known survivor, she’s now the acting ambassador of the empire. Her opinion of us will matter greatly when the other ships arrive.”

Darrin exhaled, nervous at the responsibility given to him. “What does she know?” he asked.

The agent chuckled and shrugged. “I don’t know myself. I’m just the messenger, really.”

“Alright then, how much time do I have to prepare for the most important lecture of my life?”

The agent leaned forward toward the driver. “Dana? How long until we get there?”

“Around three hours and twenty two minutes before we arrive at the crash site, sir.”

“Good,” said the agent and patted her on the shoulder. She giggled in response but kept the car on its steady course.

Darrin stared out the window, deep in thought and muttering the beginnings of the speech to himself.

He didn’t notice time pass until they went off road and shock of hitting uneven ground jarred him out of his thoughts. Outside, he could see the sky brighten even if the sun hadn’t poked out of the horizon yet. He marshaled his thoughts to ignore the bumps and rehearsed his opening. “On the eve of the dark age, our ancestors join the great rebellion...”

Hours later, Darrin found himself trudging up a hill, fighting muscles still complaining from the long ride. The sun was just rising, but the weak heat it gave was effectively trapped inside the improvised quarantine suit he wore. In truth, the outfit was nothing more than a soldier’s hooded winter greatcoat and gas mask all dunked in disinfectant. In theory, the insulation from cold and damp would also protect the survivor from the disease he spread with every breath and drop from his body.

A bead of perspiration rolled down his face and he tried to wipe it off. Gloved hands slid on the gas mask’s goggles and Darrin sighed. “How far is she?” he asked.

“Just over the hill,” answered the lieutenant who escorted him.

It was just the two of them. Darrin thought that higher ranked officers should have come. Instead, they claimed they were too busy organizing the border defense. According to them, there was no telling what the Marlowists across the border would do if they discovered that there was a female survivor. Darrin suspected that the officers where just afraid to confront a woman. He himself wasn’t sure he had the nerves.

They crested the hill and saw the crash site. The lifeboat was a perfect sphere half embedded in the earth and around it were boxes of supplies that the survivor must have unloaded. The survivor herself sat on the ground, tinkering with a device stacked on a crate.

When she saw them approach, she stood to meet them with fists on her hips. The gray jumpsuit she wore covered everything, but its slight bulkiness couldn’t hide her feminine form. Her face was visible through the transparent mask that fully protected it. The rest of her head was fully exposed to the air, letting her short hair flutter in the breeze.

“Any word yet on other survivors?” she asked.

“None,” said the lieutenant. “But in the meantime, we’ve brought someone over to.explain the, uh, situation on our planet. Communications Officer Annita Moore, please meet Professor Darrin Wesley.”

She looked at Darrin with a piercing gaze that disarmed him completely. She actually rolled her eyes! “Alright,” she said to him. “Get on with it. I’m tired of you beating around the bush about these hazards. I can’t wear this mask forever, you know.”

Her dismissal made Darrin trip all over his thoughts. “Um, the empire first fell on this planet and started the war.” He paused. “No, wait, it wasn’t like that.”

She erupted in laughter.

He could see in her expression that she was trying to stop, but couldn’t control herself. For awhile, she managed to regain her composure. She looked at them in the eye for a few moments. But when Darrin and the lieutenant simultaneously looked at each other with worry, she started laughing again.

Darrin was in awe at the beauty in the sound of her laughter. But the sound was close enough to the shallow giggling that he had heard all his life. It reminded him of what this woman could end up becoming.

“Sophie’s tits, girl!” His voice boomed through his mask. “This planet can make you suffer a fate worse than death! You had better get yourself together and listen!”

Her laughter died down and settled to a smile. “Finally,” she said. “It looks like someone here can speak without stuttering after all. I was beginning to think you’re all as skittish as mice.”

“We can’t help it,” said Darrin. “You’re a mythical creature, the first woman on this planet in generations.”

“The first woman? Then how do you...” Her voice trailed off and she chuckled. “It’s a long story, isn’t it? Come on. Let’s get a seat.”

A few days later, across the border.

The scenes switched from one to another with the jarring transitions that belonged to dreams. The violent force of the escape pod launch pressed her deeper into the impact gel. The heat of re-entry engulfed her body. She rolled down a hill helplessly after leaving the pod. A flash of light blinded her eyes when she was found in a thorny bush. The primitive vehicle shook as she was transported like cargo.

Then, Terisa woke from the nightmare and found herself in a soft silken bed. After a few breaths of disbelief, she slowly became aware of the aches scattered around her body. She leaned up to inspect herself and found that, other than bandages, she was completely naked. A groan escaped her lips when she discovered that moving was painful yet tolerable.

“Oh, you’re awake,” said a high pitched voice to her side. Teresa turned to see its source. She blinked and took a second look in case she was still dreaming. But the image of the girl who had spoken remained the same.

The girl wore nothing but gold jewelry around her wrists, upper arms and neck. Sheer pink cloth connected bracelet to arm band and arm band to collar. The filmy material didn’t cover her arms like sleeves. It just hung limp from the jewelry, mocking the very concept of clothing.

The girl stood and revealed that she was naked down below. “You stay right here while I call master,” she said before walking out the room with a sway in her step.

Terisa groaned again in pain. Of all the planets to crash on, it had to be the planet of the sexists. She scanned the room for something to cover herself with or a weapon to fight with. But when she didn’t see anything, she wondered whether that was even the correct approach. Perhaps it would be better to go with the flow. This place might not be so bad. Maybe the male servants dressed similarly, with pretty bows of cloth tied on their dicks.

The humor from the mental image gave little respite and she cursed silently at the crewmen who saved her. Both of them probably received more diplomatic training than her and would know how to deal with this situation. Damn them both. She was a marine, it was her job to die for them. Instead, all they saw was a damsel in distress. And now, they even succeeded in turning her into one!

The door to the room opened and her hands moved to cover herself. Then, she put then aside in a snap decision. Nudity might not be a big deal to them. And even if it was, it was better not to show a hint of vulnerability.

To her disappointment, the man who walked in was overdressed even by imperial standards. His coat was covered in badges of rank, even up to the cuffs and the high collar around his neck. The metal of his medals and the leather of his boots shone with a flawless polish. His confident gait made it even plainer that he was in charge.

He was flanked by two more girls who were dressed similarly to the first one. One of the girls broke formation and went to Terisa’s bedside, holding a tray with a pitcher and glass.

“Please,” said the man. “Have a drink.”

“Thank you,” said Terisa. The serving girl bent down so Terisa could reach the glass.

The man spoke as she gulped down the water. “I am Kaiser Alderson, leader of the Marlowist Federation.”

She held her cup out, to signal the serving girl to refill it. Hopefully, that would give her some semblance of command. She hid her sigh of relief when the serving girl started pouring and made her own introduction. “Captain Roza, acting commander of the Starship Mercury’s marines in service of the Solar Empire.” She didn’t mention that her rapid promotion was only because she suspected everyone else was dead.

The kaiser simply nodded. If he was shaken by her rank, he didn’t show it.

“Have you recovered any other survivors?” she asked before taking another sip, trying not to gulp it down desperately like the first one.

“I’m afraid not. We’ve only recovered wreckage.”

She couldn’t tell if he was lying or not.

He seized the opening as she drank. “Tell me, Terisa, is the empire returning with more ships?”

So this federation of his wasn’t loyal to the empire. “I am not at liberty to discuss the plans of my government,” she answered.

“I see.” His predatory smile told her that forcing the truth out of her was only a matter of time. “You must be hungry as well,” he continued without giving her time to reply. “I’m sure you would appreciate a hot meal and some rest before we continue our discussion.”

On cue, a serving girl entered the room with a bed tray in hand. The moment Terisa caught the scent, she knew she couldn’t turn it away. “Yes, please,” she said. It was a minor consolation that the tray would cover her privates in its shadow.

“After you’ve eaten and rested, would you like to go on a tour of the palace?” he asked. “I’m sure it would help us come to an understanding when we negotiate. Our situation isn’t like anything you’ve seen before.”

“Yes, I would like that very much,” she replied. “But before I leave this room, please provide me with an officer’s uniform. It’s only proper, given my active rank.”

“Of course. I’ll oversee the arrangements myself while you eat and recover. If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask any of my girls.” He left the room, leaving the serving girls behind.

His claimed ownership over the girls was worrying but the warmth of the food in her stomach relaxed her. It was so comforting that she found it easy to sleep and not care about anything. She pushed the tray away and closed her eyes. Peace almost came to her until the nightmares arrived.

The two crewmen left the lifepod and floated towards her in the zero gravity. She shouted, ordering them to leave her behind. Instead, they helped free her from the web of wiring and pushed her towards the pod. There was a flash of light and one of her white knights was gone. The pod door closed automatically before she could see what happened to the other one. The next thing she knew, she was accelerating and the impact gel was deploying and she sat up, awake on the silky bed.

Three serving girls by the foot of her bed sat on chairs facing her, waiting. Two carried a fresh set of food and drink on their trays. The other had the officer’s uniform on her lap.

They all stared into space and didn’t notice her stir. It was only after Terisa stretched her arms when the more observant one noticed she was awake. She whispered to the ones who were zoned out then they all giggled simultaneously. Only then did the two girls with the food and drink stand up to serve Terisa.

“How long was I out?” asked Terisa as they placed the bed tray in front of her.

“I don’t know,” answered the one with the food. “I was just ordered to wait.”

“Fuck,” whispered Terisa. What had she gotten herself into?

“Okay,” said the one of the serving girls.

The girl walked to the foot of the bed and started to spread Terisa’s legs apart before she realized what was about to happen. “Stop that!” said Terisa. “Just, just let me eat me out. I mean, get out from there let me eat in peace.”

“Okay.” The girl looked disappointed and returned to the side of the bed.

As Terisa ate, she composed her thoughts and made plans to deal with the situation. These people needed to know as soon as possible that she should be treated with dignity, even if she had to bare threats.

When she finished her meal, she sat at the foot of the bed and had the uniform held up for inspection. To her relief, it was a decent set of pants and coat that covered everything. It even had too much buttons in weird places just like the dress uniforms back home. The set didn’t come with any underwear, but she was glad anyway that she had something to shield her nudity.

With the uniform on, she paced around the room and stretched cautiously to feel the limits of her injuries. Other than a few aches, she was fit and ready for anything. Bless that marine training.

“Summon the kaiser,” she ordered. Upon hearing this, the serving girls all bowed and left her alone.

Terisa stood at attention, facing the door and mentally prepared herself for the confrontation. The kaiser made her wait, but she stood there, coiled and ready.

When he entered, she didn’t give him time to speak. “Give me the truth, kaiser,” she said with cold menace. “Are women in your federation treated like slaves?”

He turned to look at his servants. “These girls aren’t women.”

“Spare me your technicalities. You know very well what I’m asking for.”

The kaiser answered in a lecturing tone. “Just like when a boy becomes a man, a girl is supposed a woman when she comes of age. This is the point when we can assume that she has matured physically, emotionally and intellectually. But on this planet, something else happens in the middle of puberty. While girls still develop physically,their emotions and intelligence degrade instead.”

It wad worse than she thought. These people have culturally regressed a great deal. “Impossible,” said Terisa. “Nothing but primitive superstitions. A mutation like that can’t possibly spread in just a few centuries.”

“It’s a virus,” said the kaiser calmly. “An engineered plague released by your empire. The virus remains dormant throughout childhood until triggered by the hormones of puberty. It then alters the girl’s mental pathways, turning her into the simple creatures you see before you. They’re all docile, eager to please and find happiness in the basest pleasures. Their intelligence is limited and they’re incapable of deeper thought. I’m sure you’ve gotten to know them by now.”

“Is it contagious?” asked Terisa, matching his calm even if she felt a momentary panic.

“It only spreads from mother to child. You should be safe.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“There are other effects, but there’s one which is especially interesting,” continued the kaiser. “While it’s slow for girls to learn new skills or memorize new facts, they don’t lose anything they already have. Instead, existing expertise is set in stone and a girl becomes very efficient in doing what she knows. This makes for some very creative applications.” He opened the door and beckoned her to follow. “Come. Let me show you.”

They walked down the corridor and were soon flanked by servants and soldiers. He wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that she was a prisoner.

“Our great breakthrough wasn’t technological,” explained the kaiser when they reached a set of double doors. “It was sociological.” At his signal, the serving girls opened the doors and everyone headed inside.

Terisa gasped.

Rows and rows of girls sat at desks and straight ahead onto a blackboard with complicated looking equations on it. Most of them were motionless with hands clasped on their desk. Others made small cyclic motions like twirling a pencil or spinning a finger on the table.

They all wore elements of what had been part of a school outfit but their choices in clothing were hardly uniform. Knee high socks, pleated skirts, blouses and ties were all common themes but most only wore one or two articles.

“Go on, you can touch one if you like,” said the kaiser.

Terisa approached the girl nearest to her and brushed her on the shoulder as if the girl were asleep. She wore a long skirt and an unbuttoned blouse. Her hairclip had a butterfly on it.

The girl stirred and turned at Terisa. “Hello!” said the girl with a child’s enthusiasm. “My name’s Gina. What’s yours?”

“Terisa,” she answered. “What are you doing?”

“I’m practicing my mental math while I wait for work.”

“And what kind of work do you do?”

“I’m register eight two two two five two.”

Terisa noticed that the number repeated itself on the girl’s armband. It still made no sense to Terisa until the kaiser stepped in to explain. “All these girls were identified to have an aptitude for numbers at a very young age. Before they hit puberty, we gave them the rigorous training required for them to compute accurately and efficiently. When brought together, they grew up to become living circuits in a computing machine. The end result is computation power more advanced than what our industrial base would suggest.”

Terisa was speechless.

“Observe,” he continued. “Kernel?” he said loudly.

A girl in the center of the room stood up. Her armband was colored differently. “Yes master!” she said with a salute. The other women stirred from their trance and looked at the kernel.

“Compute pi to the five-thousandth digit,” ordered the kaiser.

There was a bustle of activity as the kernel assigned tasks to the girls around her. A few started working equations on paper then passed them around. It was a simple task, so not all of them were part of the workflow. After awhile, one of the girls approached the kaiser and handed him a piece of paper with the solution. When he showed it to Terisa, she saw that even the handwriting was mechanical in its perfection.

He tore up the paper. The girls didn’t break their smiles.

“Our ancestors were afraid to tap the female potential like this,” said the kaiser as he crumpled the sheet in his fist. “They saw it as dehumanizing without realizing that their sisters, wives and daughters were no longer human. The modern federation is more enlightened. With girls specializing in menial tasks, us men are free to pursue the progression of civilization.”

“What about their rights and welfare?” asked Terisa.

The kaiser put his hand on Gina’s shoulder, causing the girl to shiver and smile. “What makes you happy, Gina?” he asked.

“Oh, I like math and obeying and fucking,” she answered.

“And do we give you all of that?”

“Uh huh,” she said with a few vigorous nods.

“This was Marlow’s vision,” said the kaiser to Terisa. “He wanted a world where people could be happy by living simple, productive lives instead of wanting more and doing less. He looked at Terisa in silence then sighed. “You don’t approve. I see the empire hasn’t changed. You would still reject the solution that your most brilliant scientist had invented.”

With her thoughts betrayed, Terisa decided it was best to say them out loud. “When the rest of the empire gets here, we’ll find a cure for this disease and put stop to the atrocities you commit in whoever’s name. Your early industrial tech has no hope of matching our starships. You don’t even have nukes!”

The kaiser made a gesture and two soldiers grabbed Terisa before she could react. “This is an act of aggression!” she said, knowing it was useless to fight her way out in her weakened state.

“Kernel!” shouted the kaiser. “Give me a copy of the starmap from last night’s computations.”

There were no calculations. A few girls simply transcribed it from memory then handed it to the kaiser.

The kaiser held the map where Terisa could see and pointed at a dot. “This is our star.” He tranced to another dot. “And based on your vector, you left from here. That gives us at least decades or so before your empire realizes your disappearance. We might even have a century or two, depending on how tied up your forces are.”

Terisa remained expressionless as not to betray that he was dead on. It would be another century or so before the second set of scouts arrived to investigate her starship’s disappearance. Then, it would take even longer for a true task force to arrive.

“With your help,” continued the kaiser. “We’ll have the jumpstart we need to get the weapons to challenge your empire. If we could salvage the base on the moon, it would even be better.”

“What makes you think I’ll cooperate?”

The kaiser came closer to Terisa until they were face to face and she could feel his breath on her. “The virus,” he said, “is airborne.”

Terisa panicked at the touch of his breath. She tried to headbutt the kaiser but he leaned backwards before she could hit him. The soldiers holding her tightened their grips and she could feel steel cuffs being wrapped around her wrists and ankles. She pushed at the soldiers anyway and stumbled to the floor. When she looked up, she saw the kaiser smiling down at her. A collar snapped shut around her neck.