A/N Sorry if this chapter was invisible before. Maybe the cyborgs and A.I.s are on to us....

Photo - Open Bionics examples of the Hero Arm prostentic

20 seconds into the future /Slave Systems Inc/Factory 7:: Area formally known as Aspen Colorado

Cringingly embarrassed and unsteady in stiletto heels, I had walked straight into another girl, knocking her and her three-ring binder to the floor. There was me thinking this kind of klutzy girl runs into someone like a cruise missile on her first day was the kind of thing that only appeared in poorly scripted romantic comedies. Clearly, all I needed to be like Kristen Wiig is skyscraper shoes, and Jeff Koons set loose with a scalpel and silicon gun on my body. My collision target was a super model clone with a collar. The kind with BMI count of a dry twig but feels they should be trying harder. She had the sort of sickeningly cute face you both hated and envied.

"I'm sorry, I'm a bit of a rookie as far as all this slave to robots stuff goes. " I said floundering on the floor.

"Don't worry about it," said the other girl in a deep sexy voice.

"I'm Jenny, " I said smiling.

"I'm Joe, but you're supposed to call me 1327" said the other girl. I looked at Joe and realised that Joe's hips looked fake. Joe was tall somewhat slender and wore the same kind of shiny silicon outfit as I did but wore a tight pencil skirt over the silicon unitard. Joe's hair was like mine in the shape of a black bob with blunts. Despite all this, she was a he. I always thought I would be slightly cooler if I had met Jenna Talackova.

"It's my first day in high heels," I said.

"Mine too," said Joe. "They didn't feel as uncomfortable as I thought they would."

"Do you need any help?" asked Kayla. She held out a gloved hand and helped me up.

"I'm Jenny; This is Kayla, Kayla this is Joe," I said.

"You're supposed to use your slave ID" said the Kayla "I'm 1066 easy to remember" then she leaned over to Joe and whispered, "I used to be Kayla."

"I used to be Joe. I'm, I'm trying to find my way to dorm cage 56" said Joe.

"Her to. Come with us, I'm taking ..Jenny.. there already," said Kayla.

"So, Joe, you look even less comfortable in these clothes than I do," I said.

"Yes, I think I'm some kind of data error. I think they got my gender wrong on the database, I had a ponytail when I arrived but you think the beard would have given them a clue" explained Joe.

"So you're you know, eer straight? Not that I mind or anything I don't judge people, you know, your kind. I'm cool I mean I like the Black Veil Brides. I suppose you lot are used to this but I've never met one of your kind before. " I said digging a bigger hole for myself.

"You haven't met one now; I'm straight as an arrow. I've asked them to fix it, and they said they would look into it. They said I would have to go along with things for the moment. Most of the training is the same, they said. I'm like Mulan in reverse" said Joe a little shyly.

"Yes, you get overlord data screw-ups all over the place. I met someone that the dressing machine kept printing two left shoes. Boy, Girl screw ups happen all the time, both ways. One girl came out surgery with four breasts for some reason poor thing, took ages to sort that out. The collars sometimes have problems too. One man's collar electrocuted him for using personal pronouns like me or I. So he kept going around saying things like "This slave would like a drink". said, Kayla.

"Poor guy that's terrible," I said.

"That's right he should have said "May, this slave like a drink Mistress," said Kayla tongue-in-cheek.

We continue to walk slowly and gracelessly along with like a gaggle of girls on a Las Vegas bachelorette night; I looked at the three-ring binder.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"This is all the notes and slides for your courses" Kayla explained.

"We get courses in how to slave?" said Joe.

"Yeh, haven't you heard It's so difficult finding help these days they set up Slave U" I said.

We got in the lift, so I skimmed through the dividers. Basic Obedience. Advanced Obedience. Kissing for beginners. Drill, Reproductive Biology, Basic Thx. Basic 4. Cheerleading, Ordered positions 1.. and more, ending in BSM for beginners. Very little doubt what the machines were expecting personal e-slaves to do. I was a little nervous given my total beginner status in that area.

"So are we expected to practice, you know..." I said.

Kayla looked at me for a second "No, rule 17 no touching without a direct order and ever since they cut the course down from twelve to six weeks there is no practical element, except Kissing for beginners and pole dancing."

"oh" both Joe and I said. Except I was a thank goodness 'oh' and Joe was a disappointed 'oh'. ,

"Except the pole dancing instructor did her back in so it's basic tap dancing, " said Kayla. At least that would be easy I had done Tap and Ballet when I was young.

"Right. So what's life like as an e-slave anyway?" I asked.

"It's a bit like being a burger flipper at McDonalds an order comes in on your collar, you do it when you're done another order comes in. The system organises it so you only have one job at a time. You don't have to think. Provided you do what you're told, you don't get a visit from Mr Zappy. Here you can just get on with getting good marks in your course and getting a good price. I'll explain why later" Kayla said.

We reached the woman's slave cages block 53. Joe followed Kayla and I. I wasn't sure he should be allowed in but he had a similar print out to mine saying his bunk was in slave cage 53.

"So the cages are mixed?" I asked as we went in. I looked around there were bunk-beds stacked four deep. At every three groups of bunk-beds in an alcove was one of those dressing machine cabinets and makeup printers. There were toilets at intervals but little privacy.

"They are supposed to be single sex. Rule 17 again " said Kayla hunting for my bunk number, "the collars can sense touching, don't ask me how it doesn't get turned on until tonight."

Clarity reached; Kayla pointed to one bunk.

"OK, 804B this is your bunk. Your bunk changes every night they don't want you feeling like you 'own' anything like 'my bed'. It's just a mind game they do remind you your the thing being owned now. Don't let them get to you. That's Joe's above and I'm on the opposite side of the alcove here. " Kayla said slapping the beds.

"It's kind of the ultimate couch-surfing experience," said Joe.

"The only important thing to know is that you must plug your collar in at night," Kayla added waving a cable near the top of the bed.

"So you have to re-charge it every night?" asked Joe looking at the thick power cable/chain.

"Yes, and it keeps you locked to the bed overnight too. They have zero escapes record to maintain. Once in bed, the lock doesn't release until morning, so my advice is to make sure you go before you go to bed because you can't get up in the night. Lights out at 10:00 you'll be up at 6:00. The robots don't like us calling it sleeping; it's overnight recharging " Kayla continued.

"Bed by 10:00 every night? This really is a nightmare world. I've been enslaved by the Amish." I said. Kayla and Joe laughed.

"When do the collars come off?"I said this one was bugging me already.

"Never. Once on they don't come off ever. You belong to them. You're a slave until you die now" said Kayla. "Sorry, that came out bleaker than it was in my head. It was pretty bleak to begin with. If you can think of a way of sugar coating subjection, be sure to let me know."

"So I'm a toaster's gofer girl forever. That's like the suckiest news I've heard since Emily West came second on season 9 of America's Got Talent", I said.

There was a loud beep in my ears. I think it came from my collar.

"What's that?" I said.

"That's the bell for the next lesson. We've all got 'introduction to being a slave' in Hall 30A. Bring your binders you'll need them" Kayla said.

"How am I supposed to know where to go?" I asked.

"That's easy, ask your collar," said Kayla, she put her finger to a button on my collar. "Cortona where do I go for my next class, please?"

"Your next class is in room 30A you have 6 minutes to get there the journey will take 5 minutes" said my collar. Joe was impressed.

"Brillant Sat Nav for slaves - Slave Nav? Just what I need" I said. Experimentally I tried it. I found that at every corner a voice in my head would pop up and tell me which way to go. It was very cool you could even ask it to avoid downward stairs which I was good, given problems in my new mandatory high heels.

As we walked to the class Joe said: "Explain to me again why are we all dressed like the backing group on Rober Palmer's Addicted to Love video?"

"I'm not even pretending I got that reference," I said.

As we got closer to room 30A I heard a voice shouting. " If you're not sitting down in 30 seconds you will be horribly disfigured!"

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Author(s) note:

Please forgive the spelling/grammar - we are following the #JustWriteIt method. It will be fixed soon.

Do you think having a token character on the edges of LGBT community is legitimate in SciFi? - Should our heroine have a GBF? We quite like the way the English have a history of the Pantomime dame https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime_dame. And English Pantomimes are seen as suitable for children of all ages (we feel this novel is very in the Pantomime tradition). We are genuinely interested to see if this causes a drop in readership at this point.

The current answer is we get a 11% drop in readership on this page chapter to 2% for the next and 0% for chapter 6. Not bad.