You know, a reporter's life can either be an exciting one, or it can be dreadfully dreary. It can be a deadly game of clandestine meetings in dark alleyways, or an endless round of cocktail parties. It can be everything from a personal crusade against corruption and tyranny, to a 'Who's Who' of manufacturers of high quality leather goods and exotic toys for discerning girls. All are valid commentaries on life and all have their place on your breakfast table - or hidden under the mattress. *giggle*
Sekernefre is a world which could fall into either camp. On the surface, it is much like any other. It has wealth, poverty, corruption and tyranny. It is, in many ways, a puritanical and straight laced society, while at the same time boasting some of the strictest personal trainers in the entire quadrant.
This last phrase is, of course, a euphemism. What these people are about is not to help you lose a few pounds or improve the definition of your abdominal muscles. What they teach could bring them riches beyond imagination, but virtually all of them live simply, without ostentation. Who are they? They are MENTORS. I use capitals for them because they are revered and honored on a hundred worlds.
Whenever a Master, or Mistress for that matter, reaches a plateau in the training of their 'girl' or 'boy', or perhaps requires them to be taught some special technique, safely and correctly, they will, if they can afford it, arrange for them to be sent to a MENTOR. Such visits are not designed to be a pleasant experience for the ' initiate'. Failure to immediately comply with a MENTOR's instruction, or showing signs of a reluctance to have one's horizons seriously expanded are cause for strict, imaginative and sometimes very prolonged discipline. Deaths are rare among initiates, but not unheard of.
Every MENTOR contributes to a Protection Fund, which will make restitution to the owner of an initiate who dies under instruction or as the result of a disciplinary action, which the MENTOR has deemed necessary and appropriate. This will usually pay an amount sufficient to fund a full replacement. On some rare occasions, however, the Protection Fund has limited compensation to a ' Loss of Service' payment. This tends to happen when the owner has been told that a particular initiate may not be trained in a certain practice or technique because of some health problem, or is unsuitable on the grounds of a bodily limitation - like his or her legs can't bend forward - and the owner still insists that the MENTOR proceed. A Master or Mistresses' instruction, suitably notarized and accompanied by a letter of credit, drawn on a Sekernefre financial institution, will always be followed to the letter. No MENTOR may refuse an assignment, merely council against it, warning the owner that his personal liability in the event of the initiate's demise will be limited to the ' Loss of Service' payment, rather than a ' Replacement at Cost' settlement.
Some MENTORS specialize in a multitude of subjects, while others devote their efforts to just one or two. Some of the techniques MENTORS employ are illegal on most worlds; others are frowned upon or demonized; all, however, are enthusiastically practiced on these same worlds, often by the very people who make the rules their societies agree to be governed by. Intrigued? Of course you are, so let's begin?
Unlike most of the inmates, here, I arrived without a notarized letter of instruction, accompanied by a letter of credit, drawn on a Sekernefre financial institution, so I was 
going to be designated a ' volunteer' for the duration of my stay. Apart from being a less expensive undertaking - though it still costs a fortune - volunteer status empowers the participant - me - with the option to chicken out and cry ' uncle' when the training gets too tough. That's not a luxury the others have, of course. Anyway, having selected my MENTOR and passed the physical, I was fitted out with a plain chrome-steel collar and led off to the holding pens. These are galleries where newcomers are corralled for a period of acclimatization and quiet reflection - more like abject terror - on the lessons to come. MENTORS seem to have a real attachment to the concept of ' having one's mind right'. In other words, focusing, learning quickly and enthusiastically, passing the final battery of tests, receiving a certificate and returning home - all with the absolute minimum of delay and discomfort. It seldom happens of course, and many problems can be traced in part to this initial ' period of acclimatization and quiet reflection'.
My cellmate was a pretty little Yusnik girl called, Aleesha, who had been in the galleries for almost a week. She was disheveled, dirty, hungry and very scared. Her large blue/gray eyes shone brightly in a darkly tanned face, and they were constantly on the move, looking this way and that at the slightest sound. Her Master had sent her to learn a particularly exacting technique called, 'hunu-na-takai' - or 'breathe-not-until' - which involves the girl (or boy, of course) holding their breath, as a form of punishment, until told to take another one, or to resume breathing normally. ' Oh, come now,' I can hear you saying, 'send someone half way across the galaxy to learn how to hold their breath?' Well, not quite. There's a little more to hunu-na-takai than that. A lot more! Imagine, a girl kneels before her Master, her fearful, wide open eyes silently pleading that the command to breathe will come soon - before she suffocates. How can that be? There's nothing to stop her taking another breath when she needs too, only her own will, and if she manages to hold out long enough to faint, then her body's autonomic functions will be able to take control and make her breathe normally until she regains consciousness and holds her breath again. But that's the whole point of the training. She will learn, over time, to ' will' herself not to take another breath until her Master speaks the one, unique, word that releases her from her self-imposed suffocation, even if she is unconscious. And if he doesn't? Well, she'll die. This is why MENTORS get paid the big bucks! What they typically do is nothing short of ' re-programming' an individual for the amusement and pleasure of their owner. Of course, Aleesha knew exactly why she was sent to Sekernefre. Her MENTOR, Letandar Valuar, had told her - as instructed by his employer (her Master) - in minute detail and at great length, as 
he chained her to a ring set in the wall. She knew before she even started her arduous training that she would spend the rest of her servitude back home under an ever-present threat of a self-inflicted death. And yet, knowing this, if she showed even the slightest reluctance to enthusiastically embrace her MENTOR's teachings, she would be severely punished. Her position redefined the phrase, 'a no win situation'. As for me? Well, I wasn't going to learn anything as deadly as hunu-na-takai. I was going to learn a new massage technique. A technique much enjoyed by the denizens of Okina-Chinato.
During the night, two burly handlers came for Aleesha. She was terrified and screamed and tried to escape the moment they unchained her. They chased her round and round the cell, like in a crazy, comic movie. Finally, she ran to me and wrapped her thin arms tightly around me. I clung on to her, just as tightly, trying to comfort her, but knowing it was pointless - that I couldn't stop what was happening, only share her terror, all too briefly. She was torn from my grasp and dragged screaming out the door. I never saw her again, and despite my efforts, I never found out what happened to her. Most likely, the Protection Fund wound up making full restitution to her owner. No big deal for them, I guess.
I confess my encounter with Aleesha had knocked the shine off of my visit. I've joked and messed around with talk of ' Masters and Slaves' and stuff, but never once have I imagined what it must be like to be a complete ' nothing' - a ' cipher' - like Aleesha. Her Master thought no more of her than we think of a bug. And he would extinguish her life as quickly as we might squish a bug. But would we deliberately trick a bug into giving us an excuse to squish it? Of course not. But her Master could, and probably would. Remember, she was learning a punishment technique. If she messed up, she would be punished - ordered to hold her breath, possibly until she died. Any Master or Mistress who wanted someone taught to do that, and to hell with the expense, would be bound to want to try it out, just once, wouldn't they?
I've met people, in my travels, who are inclined to dominate others, for fun, or for real. I've met people who want nothing more than to be dominated, for fun, or for real. Sometimes they have a choice whether they submit to another's will. Sometimes, they do not. It depends on the culture, legal framework and traditions under which they exist. It's not everyone's idea of heaven, but it's happening out there - in many more places than we might think. Aleesha's tragic story is an extreme one. A girl I know, Meris, is 'owned'. She has a certificate of ownership, a brand, usually sleeps at the foot of her Master's bed, and has no control over her life whatsoever. When she messes up, she's punished. When she does well, she's rewarded. Her Master has invested a great deal of time and effort in training her to satisfy his every whim, while at the same time educating her in a wide range of subjects: like politics, religion, languages, cooking, and so on. She is presently learning to write poetry. He has promised to have them published. He is very proud of her achievements, and frequently tells her, and other Masters, that she's his most prized possession. Maybe it's not your cup of tea, but she's happy, and he's happy. I don't advocate that everyone lives this lifestyle. I'm simply telling you her story to give balance to this article. Not everyone is a psychopath.
As for the massage technique? Well, I'm learning a different one - from a very nice man who has a couch, a chair, and a large sunshade on the boardwalk at Venice Beach. Much safer!
