Reeducation

"Indeed." A man said and there was a murmur of talking among the audience.

"So we are going to narrow the gene pool the best way we currently can; we will seek women with the correct body type and a low-average to below-average IQ for this program and eliminate undesirable breeding partners. Fewer women means fewer pregnancies." He explained and Kiara might have been impressed with the sheer ruthless logic of it had she not been the one strapped to the table.

"I see... that makes sense." someone said and the doctor turned back to her.

"This next injection is Choriotasol Adapavirine, a specialized drug that was originally developed for recreational use. Applied in small, topical doses this drug, commonly referred to as 'Daydream' on the streets, causes hours of arousal and allows the user to engage in sexual intercourse for an extended period of time... adding to our little overpopulation problem. In this purified and concentrated form it is injected directly into the corpus cavernosum, the erectile tissue, and it has a much longer lasting effect." As he spoke he spread Kiara's labia again and nodded then landmarked his syringe and slid it carefully into the place just under her clitoris. She squealed again, trying to draw away from the needle, but her restraints prevented her from moving. He slid the needle into her and she felt the pain being replaced by a growing warmth as he injected it.

"Administered this way the effect will last for months, possibly even years depending on the subject and will cause a state of constant arousal."

"So she'll always be ready for sex then?" A man asked.

"More than ready." The doctor said as he removed the now empty syringe. "She will not just 'Want' to have sex, she will need it. This will make her far more receptive to the other treatments and the conditioning that is ahead for her."

"Interesting." The man said and Kiara whimpered and sobbed as the feeling began to grow. She could feel herself becoming aroused, feel her vagina getting wet and aching for touch and release. She squirmed as much as her bonds would allow as the aides reappeared and adjusted her legs back together again. She tried to plead with her mouth unable to move and her body restrained, but only grunts and squeals came out of her increasingly dry throat.

"So aside from making her... horny for lack of a better term," one woman asked. "What purpose does this treatment serve?"

"It makes her more docile, for one thing." The doctor said as his aides worked to adjust Kiara. "And studies have proven repeated orgasms can soften the cervical walls and allow for easier insemination as well as stimulating the production of cervical lubricant and vaginal fluids, which can ease birthing. In addition, the release of endorphins and dopamine will make her more receptive to other treatments down the road."

"I see." the spectator replied and when there were no further questions, the doctor went on.

Kiara turned her eyes toward the doctor and tried to plead with him, tried to beg without the use of speech but she was ignored as the table was laid back once again and the doctor came to her side with another needle in one hand and he grasped her left breast with the other.

"This next treatment is Azelakine, which will induce the subject to begin lactation and isolate the process to produce colostrum." He explained and Kiara knew what was coming, she tried to move away from his hand but she couldn't do more than make herself wiggle a little as he lined up the needle. All she could do was stare in terror as the needle was slowly inserted deep into her left breast through the center of her nipple. It was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life and she was nearly insensate with fear and pain as he injected the drug into her. The reaction was immediate and she felt her breast start to tingle and then to burn. She sobbed as he repeated the process with her right breast and she screamed through her gag at the pain. She was so completely cowed and humiliated that she couldn't even think. He moved to stand over her head and she stared at him in fright as one of the aides handed him another tool. He leaned toward her and she just stared as he placed the tool through the gag that held her mouth open. She gagged as it slipped down her throat and she choked as he adjusted where it went. Her hands fisted and she struggled, all to no avail as he placed it and then pressed a button on the end. She felt a moment of pain in her throat and then another before he removed the tool and set it aside. Then he turned to address the invisible audience again.

"So the chemical bath she was given earlier contained a proprietary depilatory agent which has permanently removed all of her hair. She will also be given an injection of Lidozal, which will cause her finger and toenails to fall out and prevent regrowth, all of this is for hygienic reasons, of course; she will be easier to keep clean."

"And what was that probe you used on her just now?" A man asked and the doctor picked it up again.

"This is based on a device used to devocalize canines. It has been adapted for the purpose of devocalizing hominid animals." He explained as he showed it to the people she couldn't see.

"So she can't speak?"

"She cannot. Observe." He looked to his aides and one of them removed the medical gag and she immediately tried to beg and plead, but nothing came out of her throat but whispery sounds and an almost animal grunting as she tried to force words from her throat.

"Hmmm, I can see how all of this is useful, doctor." He said. "Though I also see the ethical problems in it as well. Some might consider it little better than slavery."

"There are indeed significant ethical considerations, but these are desperate times." The doctor said, turning to look at Kiara, his hands behind his back. "Today was not chosen randomly, ladies and gentlemen. Today is the exact day that the world's population has crossed the eleven billion mark and unless drastic measures are taken, this growth will become increasingly exponential in the years to come. By the time we reach the year 2100, our population will gain a billion every five years. The collapse of our entire economy and ecosystem has already begun and the burden of so many lives, of so many ethical considerations, will be the doom of our entire planet. And I assure you that I have made every possible sacrifice for this program." He sighed and turned to look at the hidden spectators. "I assume you all met subject A1-1 when you came in?" There was a chorus of assents from the room.

"She is the first subject to be placed in these expanded trials and she will be the face of this experiment in the days and months and years ahead. Her birth name was Berritt Granholm..." There were some gasps from the audience and he nodded. "Yes, Subject A1-1 is my own daughter and only child and she has been given over as proof of concept for this program. As I said, I will make every possible sacrifice for this program. And as for slavery..." He shook his head. "Slavery is something that happens to human beings. We are making these subjects animals, and animals are not subject to human rights because they are not human. I know that this appears to mirror harsh thinking of the past, from times of slavery prior to the American civil war or during the regrettable holocaust, but these determinations are made on a single criteria. I am not seeking to eliminate a race or cull a religious group, I am not seeking to silence dissidents or force others into labour. This is done on the purest of principles; those who have the best genes, those who will advance our race and allow us to survive will continue forward while those who do not will die out. Genetics alone will determine the outcome of this project, not money or race or religion or sexuality; genetics."

There were murmurs and talking from the hidden audience but Kiara couldn't hear them, she was hyperventilating as she tried to speak but could not. She was trying to take it all in, trying to process everything that had happened to her and soon the combination of pain and humiliation and fear in her made the room narrow and she fell limp in her restraints as she passed out.

«3»

Kiara woke up in cool darkness. She turned languidly and swam up toward consciousness again. As he woke, everything came back to her and she started violently. She turned and tried to crawl toward a wall, but she felt something around her throat that brought her up short. She cried out, or tried to, and nothing came aside from an ache in her throat as she grasped at the chain that was attached to the collar and holding her in place. Grunting in fear and pain, she tugged at the chain and felt around the collar, trying to get one or the other off of her. Neither of them were metal, they felt like they were made of some kind of plastic and they did not break or bend. She sobbed, tears streaming down her face as all of the aches and pains came back to her. She could feel the sensitive, burning pain in her chest and the sharper soreness where the needles had gone into her. She was nauseous and dizzy and all of her joints ached. She was cold and she was thirsty and she could feel the tension of her full bladder as well as the persistent, throbbing need between her thighs. But most of all she felt fear. It wasn't the normal sort she felt from a scary movie or the sudden slip of car tires over ice. This wasn't even the fear she had felt at the prospect of being raped. No, this was a powerful, primeval, animal fear as instinctual as breathing and as ingrained into her psyche as the need to eat or sleep.

It wasn't the pain or the knowledge of her situation, not the cold or the chain, not her nudity or helplessness... None of that was a part of it. It was the darkness and the unknown that drove that fear, that terror, like it was being chased by hounds, like it was being chased by fire. She squatted there in the dark for along time, shivering and alone and hurting. The terror overrode everything else, cancelling out pain and hunger and cold until she lost all sense of time, all sense of direction and she didn't even realize that she had drifted off until the loud buzzer woke her and she started, falling over to the side onto the cold concrete floor as dim lights flickered on overhead. She looked around the small space in confusion. There were three stainless steel walls, a concrete floor and ceiling, and a single wall of bars across the entrance of the room. Standing at the bars were two men dressed in dark blue fatigues and they had strange devices strapped to their faces. She dimly remembered the sight of the people who had grabbed her from her apartment. The devices they were wearing were night vision goggles. They had been watching her in the dark, silently standing at the bars as she slept and then squatted in fear and then slept again.

She stared at them and they looked back impassively, removing the goggles as the light in the room got brighter and she could see their two stern, impassive faces. They said nothing, just stared in at her until the lights were at the brightest and she was in the merciless glare of them. They were huge lights mounted in the vaulted ceiling and their actinic yellow-blue glare left no shadows anywhere in the room. She could feel the heat radiating off of them and she welcomed that small comfort as she looked around, trying to see what was expected of her. The chain that was locked to the heavy collar around her throat vanished through a hole in the floor and she could see a metal grate in one corner of the room. The chain would just allow her to reach it and she could see that it was a drain. Embarrassed but unable to hold out any longer she squatted over the grate and let her bladder empty itself. There was another sound, a musical chime that changed the glare of the lights from the bright merciless shade to a softer, more muted colour. She sobbed in fear at the sound and huddled against the floor, trying desperately to hide her nudity with her arms and legs as the two men stood silently and watched her.

She heard a soft whirring noise and turned her head to see a small television screen descend from a slot in the ceiling. It flickered to life and there was a pleasant woman's face on it. She was as bald as Kiara was and yet she was smiling. There was a leather collar around her throat and three black bars tattooed on her left cheek just under her eye. Her head turned slightly and she seemed to focus on Kiara.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

Very good, C1-27! You are learning.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

Learn and obey and you will be rewarded.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

Resist and disobey and you will be punished.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

It was confusing to Kiara, because the woman seemed to be saying two different things at the same time. Her instructions were clear, but then there were the odd words mixed in, words telling her she wasn't a person, that she wasn't a woman. The two different sets of words were in the same voice and the instructions from the woman on the screen, the ones that matched the movements of her mouth, were louder so Kiara tried to focus on them but somehow that made the other words seem to seep into her head, telling her that she was an animal, that she was a cow. She shook her head, her brows furrowed as she tried to work it all out, tried to sort it out in her head as the two overlapping voices fell silent and directly below the screen a part of the stainless steel wall slid aside and there was a small basin there filled with a sort of whitish paste.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

Your breakfast meal has been provided.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

Five minutes have been alloted for you to eat.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

As she spoke in the two overlapping voices, a timer appeared at the bottom of the screen and started to count down from five minutes.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

You may now eat.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

The woman said and Kiara looked from the screen to the basin in shock. She was still for most of two minutes before her hunger overcame her reluctance and she scrabbled forward in a crouch and looked for utensils. When there were none, she started to reach her hands into the basin. The action triggered another harsh buzzer and the lights shifted back to the harsh actinic glare.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

Animals do not eat with their hands.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

One minute has been removed from your allotted feeding time.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

The woman informed her in a strict voice. There was a click and Kiara saw that she now had less than two minutes to eat, and she was starving. She dipped her head forward and licked at the stuff. It was sweet and warm and she tried to suck and lick it up as quickly as she could. As it slid down her throat it warmed her and she relaxed a little. When the musical tone came and the lights shifted again, she glanced around and the panel slid back into place, hiding what she now knew was a feeding trough. Tears were still leaking down her cheeks when the woman spoke again, and Kiara lifted her head to watch the screen.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

It is now time for your daily cleaning and exercise regimen.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

You will sit on the floor with your hands behind your head.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

You will allow the handlers to do their job.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

She said in that pleasing tone and Kiara just shook her head and remained where she was, squatting on the floor near where the food trough had been, her arms wrapped around her legs and her body quaking with fear.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

Cow C1-27 has been issued her first warning.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

The woman said, her voice stern again. The buzzer sounded and the light became harsh again, and a red X appeared at the bottom corner of the screen.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

Cow C1-27, you will seat yourself on the floor.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

You will place your hands behind your head.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

You will comply, or a punishment will be issued.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

Good cows are rewarded, bad cows are punished.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

She heard movement from the gate and she glanced over at the two men. They had pulled on black gloves and one of them had taken something off of his belt. It looked almost like a police baton with an insectile bulge at the end of it. As she watched he pressed a button and electricity crackled across the metal probes at the end of it. It was a cattle prod, and the threat in it was clear. Kiara was so terrified however that she just moved as far as her chain would go and huddled against the wall, trying to look as small as possible. The buzzer sounded again and the light got somehow harsher, and heat beat against her skin from above.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

Cow C1-27 has been issued a second and final warning.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

A punishment has been issued to cow C1-27.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

Cow C1-27 has been moved up from fourth to first in the breeding cycle.

You are not a woman, you are a cow.

Handlers may now proceed with apprehension of cow C1-27.

You are not a person, you are an animal.

The woman said, her voice cold and clinical as the gate rattled open and the two men stepped toward Kiara. She fell silent and the screen retracted into the ceiling. She stared in fear at the two men as they stepped into the room, the one with the cattle prod going to one direction and the other man going to the far side of the room. She shook her head and tried to shrink into the corner. The man without a prod pressed a button on a small box on his belt and there was a metallic 'click'. A moment later Kiara felt a jerk as the chain that was bound to her neck suddenly started retracting through the hole in the center of the floor. She tried to scream without success. She grasped the chain with both hands and scrabbled with her feet to try and stop her progress, but it was useless and she was drawn inexorably to the center of the room. She had no choice but to lay on her stomach as the chain was drawn away and soon she was sobbing as she lay on her stomach, her breasts pressed hard to the concrete and her body shaking with fear as the two men stepped forward. She couldn't fight back as they grasped her wrists and forced her arms up behind her back. She felt something cold slip around her wrists and then she heard a ratcheting sound and her stacked arms were bound by a broad strap that held them in place. Her legs were bent at the knee and her ankles were strapped together and then bound again to her arms until she was helpless. The chain grew slack and the man unhooked it from her collar with a special key and she was bodily lifted by the two strong men easily and carried from her cell and out into the cold, bare corridor.

Tears flowed freely as she was carried and she tried to look around, to see anything at all about her surroundings. They passed by other cells, and she turned her head to see other women in them. There were only four in all, and they all stared out at her with wide, frightened eyes. They were all the same, bald and nude, collared and chained and silent as only the voiceless can be. But all of them were grateful that they weren't her. At each of the four cells two more of the darkly fatigued men stood, watching as she was carried past and then turning back to the cell they were posted at. Kiara was carried down the hall past many more of the cells, all identical and all empty. There had to be dozens of them... hundreds.