The Spa
Chapter 7
Thirty minutes later...
DING!
“She’s done,” Raven stated as she confirmed Denise’s status from the readout: ‘programming 100%’.
Cherry stepped around and removed the headphones from Denise’s ears, asking, “No glitches with this one, I hope?” as she glanced over the motionless drone.
“Doesn’t appear so—brain activity is negligible.” Raven whispered into Denise’s ear, “D36, stand and move to display mode.”
Without delay, the masked drone swung her legs off the table, her limbs moving without her normal grace, before placing her feet firmly on the floor and then rising to a standing position, facing straight ahead, arms at her sides, shoulders back, chest out; each moment discrete, as if nothing more than a sequence of independent commands, lacking any fluidity.
“Perfect,” Raven affirmed, her full lips twisting into a smirk as she walked around Denise, examining her as if she was show judging a cow at the county fair. She noted Denise’s beautiful blonde hair, perfectly manicured nails, and glistening tan skin. “D36, if you can hear me, nod yes.”
Denise nodded her head slowly up and down; the rest of her body remained perfectly still.
“Denise, take one step forward.” There was no response whatsoever. Raven smiled and then commanded, “D36, take one step forward.” Without hesitation, Denise took a step forward and resumed her previous pose. “Perfect. Subject D36 responds to commands, but only as D36.”
“There was barely an uptick in brainwaves,” Cherry noted. “No resistance at all to the commands.” She flicked one of the tags pierced through Denise’s nipples and smiled as she watched the nipple stiffen further in response. “Subject is responding to sexual stimuli.” She flicked the other tag, watching the identical outcome.
“No discernible change in breathing, even though D36 is clearly showing signs of arousal.” Raven knelt in front of Denise to inspect further. “Strong signs of arousal, indeed. This one will make a fine Pleasure Unit.”
Cherry walked across the room where a small hand truck was propped against the wall. “A dolly for Dolly. Let’s get it over to storage with the others, unless there’s any more tests you think we need to perform.”
“Nope, I think it’s good to go,” Raven declared. “D36, on your toes.” Denise’s heels left the floor, enabling Cherry to slide the dolly easily under her feet. “D36, display mode.” Denise’s heels met the cold metal of the hand truck’s base. As Cherry held the dolly in place, Raven secured Denise to it with a series of leather straps. “Alright, it’s good and secure.” She held Denise steady as Raven leaned the hand truck back so it could be rolled easily.
Cherry rolled Denise out the door and down the eerily quiet hall. With Raven walking at the drone’s side, they reached the end of the hall, and Raven opened a set of double doors to allow Cherry to wheel Denise inside. The room they entered was large and had twenty platforms, each illuminated from above by a single light—producing isolated luminescent pools in the otherwise dark room, arranged five to a row. All but one of them were occupied by a drone; each drone’s head was bowed and its arms were at its sides.
Cherry rolled the hand truck next to the lone unoccupied platform and set it flat as Raven undid the straps, before moving the empty hand truck against the wall, next to several others.
“D36, step onto the platform,” Raven commanded.
Denise, or rather D36, did as instructed.
“D36, storage mode.”
Denise’s head dropped to match the others—at that moment she resembled a windup doll that had lost all its charge. Inside her head, everything went dark—where before there was perception, now there was just emptiness. She was unaware of anything around her—particularly the fact that the drone next to her, ‘L34’, was the former Lucille Devereaux, the wealthy socialite who had spoken such derogatory words earlier to and about Denise. Apart from their differences in body type, they looked quite similar, masked and ‘turned off’ on their respective platforms.
“That was the last one for this lot,” Raven confirmed. She reached into her smock pocket for the small device hidden there, pressing its single button. “All drones are programmed and placed in storage for tonight’s auction.”
“Well done,” the voice on the other end replied. “Raven, Cherry, report to staff room one.”
Raven and Cherry snapped to attention and marched out of the storage room, down the hall, and into a well-lit room where Sandy, Auburn, and others were lined up and waiting. They took their places at the end of the line.
The voice from the device was now a well-dressed woman standing before them. “All staff, enter display mode and wait for instructions.”
The staff simultaneously assumed the same ‘display’ pose as the drones had done when similarly commanded, looking straight ahead, arms at their sides and vacant expressions on their faces...