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			DAMSELS UNDER GLASS: THE SERIES
			Anne's Story —  by Van Chapter 5

By the time the robot service cart arrived, Elke had finished dressing in her Health Club uniform.  Anne, of course, remained nude, not counting her bonds.  Elke pulled the gag from Anne's mouth and fed her by hand, alternating spoonfuls of mush for her prisoner with forkfuls of perfectly prepared cheese omelet for herself.  Anne found that "Damsel Mush" was a rather delicious whole grain oatmeal (especially good with a light sprinkling of brown sugar). 

Breakfast over, Elke restored Anne's gag and helped the very embarrassed lawyer answer the call of nature in another of the sleeping chamber's seemingly endless array of hidden alcoves.  She then brushed Anne's tangled hair 'til her short bob was straight and even and her dark locks shined.

"There," Elke said, as she quickly ran the brush through her own short, blond hair, "now you're presentable."  Wrists still cuffed behind her back, ankles cuffed together, ball gag firmly in her mouth, Anne lay on the padded floor and watched as Elke opened yet another hidden alcove and rummaged through a drawer, then walked back with several items in hand and sat down beside her.  Elke held a third set of cuffs (Larger and wider than the cuffs on my ankles, Anne noted.) and what appeared to be several lengths of... closely linked chain?  ...chrome rope?

"This is new," Elke explained with a grin.  "It's called 'smart rope'."  She dropped all the items but one length of the silvery "rope" in question.  On close inspection, Anne could see that it did appear to be made of chromed steel, but it was clearly some kind of braided wire rope, not chain.  "The R&D people came up with this stuff," Elke continued.  "Something to do with new construction on the International Space Stations.  Anyhow, it's made from micron-thin, myoplastic fibers braided with a special steel wire in... a unique, special, and very expensive manner... and if you want more of an explanation, you'll have to talk to the scientists."

Elke picked up a small "Personal Access Digital Device" (PADD), one of the palm-sized, ubiquitous, micro-computers that were rapidly becoming as cheap and common as pocket calculators.  She tapped her signet ring to the small touch-screen window.  "Smart rope's about as stiff as traditional quarter inch hemp," Elke lectured, "but it feels as smooth as silk."  Elke took a turn in the smart rope and pulled the loop around and through itself in a loose overhand knot, then tapped her ring on the knot again.  "One of its several interesting properties—"  Elke tugged and fumbled with the knot, apparently unable to untie her own handiwork.  She then tapped the window of the PADD, then the knot, and was able to untie the knot easily.  "—is its ability to 'remember' and hold any shape, either along short lengths, like where it touches itself in a knot, or along its entire length."  Elke dropped the rope to the floor, then tapped it again.  She picked it up, and now it was as rigid and inflexible as a steel rod, a rod bent into the exact shape the rope had happened to assume when it was dropped.  Elke tapped the PADD, then the rope, and the rope instantly relaxed to its former flexibility.  Elke then held the rope by one end, repeated the PADD tap and rope tap, and Anne watched as the rope slowly... shortened in length.  Elke tapped the rope again, and the shrinking stopped.  "It can contract about a third of its normal length," she explained.

Anne looked down at the cuffs and tangle of... smart rope, then looked up at Elke.

"Not to worry, Anne," Elke chuckled.  "All will become clear very soon."

Not at all reassured, Anne watched as Elke picked up the third set of cuffs, tapped then smartly with her ring and pulled them apart.  No resistance was offered as Elke clapped a cuff around each of Anne's upper arms.  They fit perfectly, like exquisite... slave bracelets.  Anne smiled behind her gag at the irony.  Elke was busy spinning Anne around and missed her prisoner's amused grimace.  Behind and leaning very close, Anne felt Elke doing something to the left slave bracelet cuff, then felt a length of smart rope tugging on the cuff and being passed under her right armpit, up and behind her neck, back under her left armpit, and down to the right cuff.  Anne felt a series of taps... and the smart rope began shortening, pulling her upper arms back and even closer together.  She squawked through her gag and fluttered her hands... and unintentionally jammed her fingers directly into Elke's crotch!  Elke yelped in surprise, then laughed when Anne blushed bright crimson.

Elke leaned even closer and whispered in Anne's right ear.  "What a brazen little thing, you are," Elke teased.  "Will you keep your hands to yourself, or do I have to get a roll of tape and wrap them up?"  Anne mewed in distress through her gag, still blushing.  Elke laughed and kissed Anne's warm, flushed right cheek.  "Sorry to tease you like that Annie," Elke whispered, "but I just love making you blush."

Her attention back to her condition, Anne found the smart rope yoke pulled her elbows close, but not as close as had Jodi's flipper sleeve, but, like the sleeve, it caused her breasts to... point.  Anne looked down at her erect nipples... and glanced back to find Elke smiling at her.

"Oh, I quite agree, Annie," Elke chuckled, "you have very nice breasts."  Anne twisted in her bonds and blushed, again. 

Elke, still smiling, reached for another length of smart rope.  Anne felt Elke fumbling with the first length or rope at the nape of her neck, then felt the new rope being stretched down to her wrist cuffs.  Next, Anne felt one of Elke's hands at the nape of her neck and the other at her joined wrists.  Elke pulled and Anne's arms were stretched to their full, extended length.  Elke's hands went away, and Anne found the rope had stiffened to a rod, and she noticed that the yoke pulling back her shoulders had stiffened as well.  Anne flexed, or rather tried to flex in her now rigid bonds.  It was like nothing Anne had ever imagined.  It wasn't... uncomfortable... but Anne had never felt this helpless in her life, this controlled, this much someone's prisoner... Elke's prisoner.  Anne's feelings of arousal peaked.  She knew that if she could only touch herself, if she could somehow just touch herself... but she couldn't, and not just because of her bonds.  She couldn't do it in front of Elke.

The moment passed.  Anne was still aroused, embarrassingly wet, in fact... but no longer on the edge.  Anne flinched, as if waking from a dream.  Elke was smiling at her.  Anne shivered in her steel yoke and rigidly braced cuffs... and blushed... again.

Elke leaned over and tapped her ring to Anne's ankle cuffs, and they popped apart.  Anne regarded her ankles, now with their separate, wide, steel anklets, then watched as Elke reached under her chin and tapped her ring and the remaining short length of smart rope to Anne's choker.  Elke gave the rope a gentle tug and Anne found she was now wearing a collar and leash.

Elke helped Anne to her feet, then took a step back, the end of the leash in her right hand.  "Let's go see Margo," she suggested, "shall we?"

Anne stumbled down the mirrored passageway, straining to keep up with Elke and maintain the slight degree of slack in the steel rope lead attached to her choker.

Anne had absolutely no idea where they were in the seemingly infinite Biosphere complex.  Elke had said they were going to see Margo, and Anne assumed that was their ultimate destination, but the mirrored walls, the constant turns, the up-ramps, down-ramps, spiral-ramps, opening and closing panels, side chambers, windows into occupied hallways, machinery rooms, labs... lost could not begin to describe her feelings.  Anne felt like a mouse in an gigantic maze... They passed a window into a large chamber, and Anne caught a fleeting glimpse of a tall, very beautiful blond woman, standing up on her toes, arms raised, apparently chained by her wrists to the ceiling, silenced by a ball gag... a ball gag like Anne's... and then they were past, the blonde and her chamber left behind in Anne's stumbling wake.  Mouse in a maze? Anne thought, suddenly very much aware of her own helpless condition.  More like a piece of cheese in a maze.

Anne nearly bumped into Elke when her Amazonian captor abruptly stopped.  "Here's something you might find interesting, Anne," Elke said, pointing coyly to the left.  Anne followed her gesture and...

They were standing next to the arched doorway of a large rectangular chamber.  Along the far wall of the chamber, protruding from the far wall, were four pair of... feet ... human feet, and, Anne was sure, female feet.  She impulsively stepped into the chamber and looked closely at the typically mirrored wall.  Around each pair of feet were rectangular frames, set flush in the wall.  The frames themselves were each bisected my a horizontal, hairline seam, a seam interrupted only by the ankles and feet themselves.  Anne noticed each ankle was nestled and held in a narrow band of what appeared to be dense foam.

Anne turned and looked at Elke in confusion.  With a feral grin, Elke slowly wet her right index finger with her tongue, reached down, and slowly ran the damp finger lightly up the naked sole of the closest captive foot.  The response was immediate.  Both feet fluttered and all ten toes curled.  Elke smiled and stepped back.  "A very dirty trick," she chuckled.  Anne raised an eyebrow in question.  "It's supposed to be her rest period."

Elke took a pace closer to Anne, and gently traced the prisoner's chin with the same, still slightly damp finger.  "Imagine being helplessly, inescapably bound, Anne," Elke said quietly.  "Surely not much a stretch of the imagination for you at the moment."  Anne twisted her wrists in their steel cuffs, and swallowed behind the ball wedged in her mouth.  "Imagine lying on your back on a thick pad, locked in a soundproof sarcophagus of thick glass," Elke continued.  Anne's eyes widened.  "Imagine... the sarcophagus contains machinery , clamped to your breasts..."  Elke idly stroked one of Anne's nipples.  "...nestled between your legs."  Elke gently clutched Anne's groin.  The captive lawyer yelped through her gag and tried to step back, and was immediately brought up short by Elke's other hand on her hitherto forgotten leash.  Elke smiled and released her prisoner.  Anne retreated to the nearest side wall.  "Imagine that the machinery is mediated by a cunning artificial intelligence equipped with every biosensor known to science, able to read your reaction to every possible stimulus, able to use that machinery to give you... exquisite pleasure ... and other sensations as well."

Anne watched as a panel opened in the base of the chamber's opposite wall.  A robot, a rather unusual robot, glided into the chamber on rubber treads.  Roughly the size and shape of a foot locker, it was molded of polished metal, or possibly hard plastic, and was streamlined, with numerous blister-like side panels.  Anne though it had a vaguely insectoid appearance, and was somehow... sinister.  The robot stopped before the third pair of feet (immediately to the right of the foot that Elke had touched.)

"Great timing, Eve," Elke said.

"Not entirely coincidental," the AI responded.  "Your impromptu demonstration is within the constraints of the current program schedule."

The robot popped open like a splitting seed pod.  Two distinctly insectoid arms emerged.  The ends of each arm terminated in a collection of tendrils, claw-like probes, and... things, which flexed and wriggled and... buzzed.  Anne flinched in sympathy then the arms extended and the tendrils and probes began dancing across the soles, toes, heels, and sides of the two helpless feet before them.  The feet in question writhed in their foam lined stocks, pointing and twisting, the toes curling and flexing.  The robot extremities moved almost too fast to follow, easily defeating the attempts of the disembodied feet to evade their delicate touch.

"The, uh, subjects aren't gagged," Elke explained, "so no doubt at the moment Number Three is screaming, giggling, pleading for the tickling to stop... the usual.  An arrangement of mirrors allows each of the subjects to see what's happening to the others."  Anne watched the tickle torture (it could be called nothing else) continue.  "In addition," Elke continued, "while Number Three is being tickled, Numbers One, Two, and Four are receiving that exquisite pleasure I was speaking of earlier.  All four are well aware of the rules of the game: one of them is tickled, the others receive other stimuli, and the tickling continues until all of the others have themselves a nice orgasm.

Anne took a step to the side, towards the door and away from the spectacle before her, her joined arms sliding on the mirrored wall.  Elke stepped between Anne and the door, put one hand in the wide-eyed captive's hair, and pulled her close.  Anne gazed up into her captor's eyes, then back at the dancing feet.  She noticed that the other feet were now moving as well, but without the enthusiasm of Number Three.  Anne's eyes locked with Elke's again.

"After the others have cum, all four will be allowed to rest for a while.  Then Eve will choose another victim, and the drama will repeat, and they have no idea how long they will be allowed to rest, or who will be next."  Anne twisted in her cuffs.  Elke kissed Anne's forehead.  "Your heart is tripping like a hammer, Anne," she whispered.  Anne blinked and mewed through her gag.  It was true.  Elke smiled and gazed at the line of feet.  "After several hours, after a few turns as victim and... interested spectator," Elke mused, "you have no idea how close you begin to feel to your sisters in the neighboring sarcophagi, how eager you are to cum when it's your turn for pleasure, to rescue the current victim, you see; how brave you feel when it's your turn to suffer, knowing your torment is the others' pleasure."

Anne blinked again, in surprise.  Elke was talking like she knew, from experience .

"I'd have Eve display our friend's faces for you," Elke said, "but at least two pair of those feet belong to very famous, uh, shall we say, celebrities, and you don't have Margo's permission to meet them... in their current circumstances.

Anne gazed at the feet.  Who? she wondered.

Elke suddenly turned her head towards the passageway.  Anne turned her head as well.  She could hear something, a voice echoing in the distance, growing stronger.

"Eve," Elke said quietly, "lights please."  Anne looked up as the chamber faded into darkness around her, then yelped through her gag when Elke grabbed her and held her close beside the door.  Elke's right hand pressed tightly over Anne's gagged lips, pushing the ball between her teeth even deeper into her mouth.  "Shh," Elke whispered in Anne's ear, "someone's coming."

Anne twisted in Elke's grasp, not really to escape, more to reassure herself that she couldn't escape.  The voice was getting louder, closer.

"...and then it occurred to me that there was no reason the control channel headers couldn't be treated sort of like threaded session headers, even if they are in different layers..."

The voice was getting close indeed, then two figures came into view in the mirrored passageway. 

Anne's eyes widened.  The lead figure was a high school girl—no, it was a woman.  Early twenties; short (five feet tall, if that); almost painfully cute, with a mop of short brown hair.  (Much like mine, Anne mused.)  Black turtleneck; pleated, charcoal, wool skirt; black tights; stylishly clunky shoes—Anne could see why she had first thought the woman a teenager.  Dimples, sparkling blue eyes, lips turned in an impudent smile, the lead figure was a pixie personified.  She was also the source of the voice they had been hearing.

"So I told them they should redistribute the bandwidth accordingly, but did they listen...?"

The pixie glanced back at the figure behind her, the bound and gagged figure she was leading on a leash. A lot of that going around, Anne mused.

"No, of course they didn't listen," the pixie continued, "So, I set the local nexus to run a simulation comparing the two allocation strategies and let it run overnight.  Well, how was I to know that..."

The second figure, a strikingly attractive Latina, rolled her eyes in frustration.  Anne smiled behind her gag (and Elke's hand gag.)  Torture by technical anecdote, she thought.

"Pobre chica!" Elke whispered, her thoughts apparently the same as Anne's.  The chica in question was nude but for a tight corset, strap-on heels (of ridiculous height), a thick, bulging cloth gag, and several yards of white rope.

Anne couldn't make out any more details before the pair was past the doorway and out of sight.  Elke released her hand gag, grabbed Anne's leash, and led her out into the passageway.  The pixie was continuing to lecture her captive audience.

"...the idiots had stacked the modular task cycle without synching priorities with the local node?  Well, needless to say..."

"Charlie?" Elke called.

The pixie froze in place.  The Latina looked back over her shoulder and smiled around her gag.  As her petite captor turned and stepped back to face Elke, Anne had a chance to study the tight, intricate rope bands pinning the Latina's arms and crossed wrists to her body, as well as the tight rope tied through the prisoner's crotch.  Anne saw that the Latina had noticed her interest.  Anne blushed... and the Latina's eyes sparkled in amusement.

"Oh, hiya Elke," the pixie answered.  "What's up?  Brie and I were just going down to the..."

"Charlie," Elke asked quietly, "do you have permission to interrupt Ms. Sanchez' busy schedule?" 

(Anne surmised the pixie's name was... Charlie?  Cute, Anne thought.  It fits .)

"Permission?" the diminutive brunette stammered.  "Not really, but I found her like this and..."

"She followed you home?" Elke suggested.

"Uh, no," Charlie continued.  "Naomi tied her up and gagged her and left her just lying there.  Well, semi-suspended actually.  So that makes her abandoned property, right?  And..."

Elke turned to Anne.  "I'll ask for a legal opinion later, after you've had a chance to read the 'Inner Circle Bylaws.'  Anne's a lawyer, Charlie."

Charlie gave Anne a little wave with her free hand.  "Hi," she said with a dimpled smile.  Anne smiled around her gag and gave an answering nod.  Charlie cleared her throat and turned back towards Elke.  "So, Anne's the new Member I heard about, eh?"  Elke returned Charlie's gaze without answering.  "You say she's a lawyer?  I had a roommate once who was pre-Law, and, uh..."  Elke continued to stare.  "Okay, okay, I won't change the subject," Charlie said, trying very hard to hide her increasing nervousness.  "I think it's well within the bylaws for me to—"

"Eve," Elke interrupted, "what's the penalty for expropriation of another Member's Damsel in the Biosphere without first clearing said expropriation with either myself or Margo?"

"The standard penalty is immediate role reversal," the AI answered.

Charlie swallowed nervously.  "Well, I guess there's nothing for me to do but... run away!"  Charlie dropped Brie's leash and sprinted away down the mirrored passageway.

"Eve," Elke said with a smile, "disable all of Charlie's Biosphere access, please, including anything she may have hacked on her own."

"Yes, Elke," Eve answered.

"And open Anne's wrist cuffs," Elke continued.

Anne heard a quiet click, and the cuffs around her wrists popped open.  Elke reached over and pulled the ball gag from Anne's mouth.  "Anne, untie Ms. Sanchez, would you please?"

Anne swallowed.  "Uh... sure," she stammered.

Elke smiled and gave Anne a quick kiss, then reached under the front seam of her sports bra and produced two short, black, plastic cable-ties.  "This won't take long," she said, and sprinted after the escaping Charlie.

Anne gazed after Elke, then turned to the bound and gagged "Ms. Sanchez."  Brie, Anne remembered.  "Uh... hi," Anne whispered.