Page 21 of Souls of Steel
“Yes, of course. My mother gave me money before I left.”
At least she hadn’t come here completely unprepared. Having credits wouldn’t help her face the city, but it was a start. “All right. Now, just remember. This isn’t Terra. Stay close. It’s dangerous for women to wander around alone in Tartarus.”
Selene opened her mouth, as if she wanted to protest. At the last moment, she changed her mind. She didn’t answer, but she did nod.
The academy was a good distance away from the rest of the base, so we had to go back and take another shuttle to carry us to Tartarus City. It was awkward, because none of us knew how to handle this new, weird situation.
Thankfully, the shuttle was fast, and a few minutes later, we reached the landing strip in Tartarus City, officially known as Charon’s Barge. Workers, pilots, staff, ship passengers, and many more hustled and bustled in the area. Most were men, but there were also a few women, undoubtedly Terrans brought in for one of the new brothels.
When we left our shuttle, one of the staff members approached us. He took a single look at Selene, hesitated, and then seemed to make a decision. “Hello, Sir,” he said. “If you’ll follow me please, you need to register your new service provider in our record book.”
The uniform must have given him pause, but in the end, Selene’s looks and gender were more important. This was going to keep happening. I didn’t envy Selene for it.
“Ms. Renard isn’t here as a sex worker,” I said. “She’s a pilot with our unit.”
The man recognized me, of course, so he knew I wouldn’t joke around with something like that. Still, he didn’t immediately let us pass. “Lord Donadieu, there must be some mistake. She’s a woman.”
“And weirdly, that doesn’t make me any less capable of piloting a chimera,” Selene bit out. “Imagine that. It’s almost like my genitals have no bearing on my ability to become a tamer.”
Her flight suit contained most of her power, but even so, her eyes lit up, red-rimmed around the edges. The man took a step back, having obviously realized we were telling the truth.
“My apologies. Please, go right ahead.”
We took him up on his invitation without another word. “General Rhodes told me everyone was going to think I was a prostitute,” Selene whispered as we walked away, “but I didn’t expect it to be quite like this.”
“What did you expect then?” August asked.
“No idea. Maybe that it wouldn’t be so prevalent, at least not in the settlement. After all, there are supposed to be women here.”
“Yes, but they’re nothing like you,” I answered. “And you don’t actually see a lot of Chimera women in Tartarus City. Most of them live in the villas on neighboring meteorites, or on the Moon.”
At that, Selene fell silent. I wondered if she was already questioning her decision to come here. It seemed unlikely, but I hoped she’d see sense soon.
August and I took Selene through a brief tour of the settlement. We showed her some of the nicer places, like the sole park that existed in Tartarus Base. But as Brendan had suggested, we also passed through some of the worst neighborhoods. Selene got to see firsthand how women were treated here.
Tartarus City had a lot of sex workers, some of whom were male. They lived in organized, clean brothels and had a safe, civilized existence. But Terran women weren’t always given the courtesy of being fucked behind closed doors. Some men liked to show off their slaves or simply didn’t bother taking the less fortunate sex workers to a private area. This was most often done in the Titans’ Pit, the place where everyone on the asteroid came to fulfill their darkest appetites.
The moment we entered the Pit, we were greeted by the sight of a middle-aged, balding man pinning a Terran woman against the wall and thrusting into her from behind. She was obviously not enjoying the experience as blood ran down her legs. To make matters worse, the man was grinding her face into the wall, reveling in her pained whimpers.
Selene gasped and took a step forward, predictably wanting to rescue the woman. I grabbed her wrist and kept her from rushing ahead. “There’s nothing you can do. See that collar around her neck? It means she’s a licensed sex worker. He has the right to treat her like that.”
The collar stood out against the woman’s pale skin and the sight of it gave Selene pause. Still, she didn’t give up. “Her profession doesn’t matter,” she insisted. “No one has the right to treat another person like that. It’s wrong.”
“Maybe it is, but it’s the way things are on Tartarus. That woman is used to it.”
Selene shook her head, trying to free herself from my grip. “She can go back to Earth. Anything is better than living like this.”
I squeezed her wrist tighter and sparks of tachyon emissions danced between our bodies. The clash of our powers went straight to my cock, but I ignored it. “Are you sure?” I asked Selene. “These women made the choice to come here and sell themselves. They knew what they were getting themselves into. It’s not our place to step in. And even if it were, it’s illegal to intervene.”
“You can’t be serious,” Selene said pleadingly. “She could die.”
“She won’t,” August assured her. “The collar monitors that. It’ll light up if she’s in danger or suffers too much damage. Someone will come to stop it.”
Confirming his words, the collar started to flicker. A few moments later, a drone manifested above the couple. “Warning,” it said in a robotic voice. “According to The Grand Judiciary Dictate 489, the lives and well-being of Terran sex workers are to be valued and preserved. Report to your closest security institution for your fine.”
The man grunted, thrust inside the woman two more times, and shuddered as he came. Then, he pulled out and nodded at the drone. “I’m coming. For Tartarus’s sake… The Grand Judiciary should just abolish that law and be done with it.”
As he stepped away from the sex worker, the woman slid to the ground like a puppet with her strings cut. The drone’s gravitational field caught her and levitated her into the air.
