Slaves of Mars Station Seven (Collector of Rarities x Rania Lark)

[Collector of Rarities]

It had been centuries since Earth became uninhabitable: her resources had long since been tapped out and wars had ravaged her surface, making it impossible for life to thrive. Humanity had long since fled their homeworld in favor of Stations, each the size of moons, in orbit around the other planets in the solar system, doing what they could to survive while scientists worked frantically to perfect faster-than-light travel, hoping to reach another habitable planet in another solar system. Unfortunately, that was years off.

Our story starts on Mars Station Seven, the seventh and largest space station in orbit around Mars. Though the planet below was barren and devoid of life, save for the miners who were sent to its surface each work cycle, the station itself was lush with life. As with every other space station, trees could be found on every level in perpetual bloom, providing the inhabitants with oxygen. The upper levels of the station were opulent as well, containing residential districts for the wealthy, as well as several thriving commercial districts and the largest farms on the station. The most impressive feature of the upper levels was the fact that most of the floors, as well as most of the outer hull of the station itself, were made from carbonglass, glass laced with diamond-hard carbon to prevent it from shattering. This allowed natural light into the station, as well as granting its denizens a spectacular view of space and the planet below. Of course, the glass was slightly tinted and acted as an artificial ozone to keep out harmful ultra violet rays as well.

There were more farms on lower levels, but none of them ever got natural sunlight. In fact, many of the lower levels never saw sun at all, having to rely on the programmed day/night cycles in the lighting and their clocks to tell time. The only of the poorer, working castes that ever saw sunlight were the mining caste and the retail caste. The mining caste got an hour of sunlight, if they were lucky, through the windows of their shuttle as they were transported to and from the planet below, while the lucky members of the retail caste who got to work in the higher levels were blessed with sunlight if they were assigned to a day shift. That said, things weren't terrible on the lower levels. Though the upper levels were reserved for the wealthy, a denizen of the lower levels who worked diligently could afford to keep themselves and their family fed, clothed and warm, but there was little room for luxury.

The only caste that really had things bad was the slave caste. A couple hundred years after humanity fled to the Stations, overpopulation became an issue. While large, the Stations couldn't support the population Earth did, so the population needed to be kept under control somehow. After much deliberation, the leaders of the Stations decided that the best solution was to limit the underclass to having one child per family. Every child after the first would be entered into an annual lottery: if their number was drawn, they would be sold into slavery.

 

[Rania Lark]

Caroline and Rebekah had been born second children to two different families in the mining caste. Both their fathers worked long hours in the mine on Mars so they were more absent than present for their families. Their mothers both worked up in the higher levels of Station Seven in food retail stores, regaling their families with tales of the opulence and luxury from up above, a place which they would never be a part of.

Their families lived next door to each other in small apartments, barely big enough for two people let alone three or four. Since the girls were small children, they had been the best of friends; sharing their secrets, sleepovers, playdates, birthday parties no matter how meagre. The two were inseparable as they grew up into lovely young women. Though the threat of slavery always loomed heavy over them and their families. Each year, the annual lottery would be held and both Caroline and Rebekah’s names would be entered due to the order of their births. And every year after the tense hour, they would breathe a sigh of relief as others were chosen and dragged screaming from the housing units, their parents sobbing in despair as they children were brutally ripped from their arms. There were some as small as toddlers and others who were in their mid twenties. It didn’t matter who you were or what age, every child past the first one was always put into the lottery.

This year, the lottery came the day after Caroline’s twenty first birthday. The day had a distinct sombre air to it as both girls and their families knew they would be lined up with all the other children who were unfortunate enough to be born second or later and they would hold their breath with their families as the holographic names were projected above their heads in bold, red lettering. But the girls tried to be light hearted, for their families’ sake and the birthday party went off without a hitch.

Then the fateful day came. Caroline and Rebekah were lined up along with about one hundred other children and adults of all shapes, sizes and ages. It seemed like forever as the best friends clutched each other’s hand tightly, terrified of the next hour as the warden prepared to display the unlucky names. Then they began….

First, a boy named Tristan, who was a teenager, about sixteen years old but strong as an ox and it showed. He steeled his face as a woman in the crowd screamed in despair as her son was taken from her.

A few more names were read and the tension rose in the room as more and more people were named. Some cried, others screamed. Most all of the parents collapsed in their spots as their children were not even permitted a goodbye before they were swept away through the sliding steel doors, separating them from the rest of the station. More names were called, more people taken away.

Then Caroline’s name was displayed across the screen. Immediately, Rebekah grabbed hold of her best friend as Caroline burst into tears. Rebekah pressed her head against her friend’s forehead, whispering words of encouragement as the other girl cried in both fear and sadness.

“I’m not going to let them take you,” Rebekah whispered as the guards made their way down the line towards the two girls, “They won’t take either of us.”

Right after she said that, Rebekah, immediately took Caroline’s hand and began to run into the crowd pushing her way through the people, in a desperate attempt at escape. Caroline, regaining her composure and a small measure of strength out of desperation followed her friend.

But it was no use. The guards caught up to them quickly and, tossing the struggling and screaming girls up over their shoulders, they left their parents on their knees in the crowd as they were ripped away from their lives, only a life of slavery awaiting them beyond the cold, steel doors.

 

[Collector of Rarities]

The next few days would have been surprisingly tedious if it were not for how dehumanizing they were. The first thing that happened to Caroline and Rebekah was that they were stripped of their clothing, along with all of the other slaves, and brought to a processing facility. The rest of the day was spent there, running various tests to evaluate their physical and mental health. The emotional trauma of being ripped from their families was accounted for and appeared to be expected, but the doctors only ever talked directly to the girls if they had a question that needed answering and seemed to have little interest in their distress. The girls were then lead to a shower, where their wrists were shackled above their heads and their ankles were shackled to the floor, after which a pair of attendants washed each of them. One attendant was male and the other was female; the male seemed to enjoy his job a bit more than the female did and he chattered away about how it was nice to wash a pair of attractive girls for once. Once the washing was done, they were roughly toweled off, with the man getting a little handsy with the both of them, and then lead, still naked, to cells for the night.

They spent most of the next few days in their cells, being let out only twice a day to be exercised and occasionally to be brought before men and women who seemed to represent various slave dealers. Meals were taken in their cells and people rarely spoke to the girls directly, often openly ignoring them if they tried to say anything. If either of the girls got too loud, they were shocked with a cattle prod until they stopped talking. The food was only the barest standard of nourishment; they were given exactly what they needed to keep them healthy without any consideration being given to taste. Meals tended to be a bowl full of nutrient mush, similar in texture to oatmeal, but without any flavor whatsoever. Fortunately, they were given plenty of water to wash it down and the food sat rather well once swallowed, but it was the single hardest dish to eat that either of them had been served. What was worse was that the guards who served them their meals were also instructed to make sure that they finished their food, so it wasn't like they could simply send back the bowl half-empty either.

Finally, on the evening of the fifth day, the girls were brought before a man in a dark green suit. He was old, in his late fifties, with graying hair and brown eyes. He seized each girl up, cupping their breasts and sliding a hand between their legs as he did, then finally nodded to the warden and swiped a black plastic credit card on the dataslate that he was offered before turning to Caroline and Rebekah. "Well, girls," he said with a smile, "it looks like I'm going to be the one selling you."

A few short hours later, the girls found themselves side-by-side in cages on one of the upper levels. Though the cages were cramped, leaving them only room to lie curled on their cold metal floor, they finally had a view of space. They could see the Red Planet above them, where their fathers were no doubt working right now, and the holographic clock in the middle of the commercial district where they were being sold told them that they had eight hours until the sun rose. Of course, they would have to be awake well before that, so it was wise for them to get whatever sleep they could.

 

[Rania Lark]

The next few days, months, hours, however long it was that Rebekah and Caroline were held captive beyond the steel doors were the most terrifying yet boring days of their lives. First all their clothes were taken from them, leaving each and every one of the new slaves with nothing to cover themselves, exposing them for whoever wanted to look at them. It was their first step down into their new lives as the lowest of the low in society. Then, everyone was separated to different areas of the steel processing warehouse with no windows and only fluorescent lights glaring down onto the unlucky individuals who had been selected. They were forced to sit in cold, metal chairs as people in lab coats came and went, asking the same questions over and over again.

Rebekah, the more fiery redhead, both literally as her hair was more of a reddish, orange, cut into a blunt style that fell past her shoulders with a blunt bang that fell to her eyebrows. She also had a defiant, fiery personality. All through the tests, she refused to speak to any of the scientists, any of the testers. She merely sat there, unmoving, refusing to give them any indication of what she was thinking. At least for the mental evaluation.

Caroline was a more subdued strong woman. Her hair was the colour of stained mahogany and fell in large waves down her back. She had a middle part and her eyes were a light green and her skin was freckled across her nose and over her shoulders. She tried to be strong at first, feeding off her best friend’s energy trying to help her escape her fate. At the beginning of the mental evaluation, she remained strong, though she still trembled in fear and was red with embarrassment at having so many people see her naked all at once. However, eventually, Caroline’s tough facade crumbled with the monotony and she began to sob at the questions being asked, still maintaining enough strength to refuse to answer any of the questions but her body language indicated her emotional distress.

The physical test was the real breaker. Each slave had their wrists strapped to the bars of a moving walkway and they were forced to run until they were all near collapse. Some of the others broke during this exercise, crying and pleading for it to stop and that they would do whatever the slavers wanted. However there were a few that survived the ordeal, most of them collapsing onto the floor when the moving conveyor stopped, their arms still suspended in the air. It was Rebekah’s words of encouragement that placed Caroline in the survivor’s circle.

Once the exercise was finished, all of the naked slaves were led into a large room with faucets lining the walls and shower heads positioned above them. There were also shackles on the floor and hanging from the ceiling, lined up with each faucet and shower head. Rebekah struggled ferociously encouraging Caroline to do the same as they were dragged to their respective showers. Each girl was then shackles in a spread eagled position, exposing her even more as two people; a man and a woman, began rubbing rough sponges filled with a soapy substance over their bodies. The man took his time as he ran his hands over their breasts and between their legs.

Once their showers were finished, both girls were forced to steel cells with only a toilet in the corner and a metal bench attached to one wall. The front of the cell was bars with a small opening for their meals to be delivered to them. Again there were no windows and the lights were always on, taking away any sense of time from the girls as they remained in the cells for an unknown amount of time.

The whole time they were in the cells, eating the disgusting food, with no one talking to them, stark naked, Caroline had never been so happy to have Rebekah in the next cell. Even at the risk of the cattle prod, Rebekah made sure that Caroline retained her spirit, her resistance against all this. However, most of her encouragement earned Rebekah a sharp electrical shock to her side causing a scream of pain as Rebekah collapsed onto her side on the floor of her cell.

After what felt like an eternity, an older man entered wearing the ugliest green suit the girls had ever seen. He went to Caroline first, grabbing her arms and forcing her to stand up against his inspection. Caroline’s eyes teared up as he moved over her breasts and then between her legs, brushing his wrinkly fingers over her slit before he turned to leave. Caroline immediately crouched down in her cell, curling her hands over her knees as she felt deeply violated by the stranger. Rebekah had a much more spirited reaction. So much so, that she had to be held by two of the guards as the man completed his inspection. Then, after a quick transaction, the girls were dragged from their cells, destined for the markets.

And they found themselves in tiny cages lining the sides of the concourse where they were to be sold in mere hours. It was the first time the girls had been able to see the planet where their fathers spent eighteen hours a day. From this far up, it looked beautiful. Both girls were forced to lie down, their knees tucked up to their chests as they gazed up through the glass ceiling wishing they could escape the horrible fate that awaited them.

“Remember, Caroline,” Rebekah consoled her friend who was shaking with fear, “Never let them see you cry. Once you cry, it’s over. Be strong and we’ll get out, I promise.”

Caroline felt a strange calmness wash over her at her best friend’s words. She settled down into the cage, though she was still very uncomfortable and wrapped her arms around her knees as she tried to get at least some sleep before the unthinkable.