shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
But in addition to not being warm enough, the skirt no longer seemed to be fitting her correctly. The slight roundness in her belly, which she’d noticed briefly back at the hotel room, seemed more pronounced now. It made the skirt feel tight and uncomfortable and this was already an uncomfortable situation.
Lilli thought of how the other girls had described the insemination process—how the metal probe that went into you felt like an icicle—and shivered. She was really glad she wasn’t going to actually have to go through with this!
The room they had walked into was rather small—sort of a lobby, Lilli thought. The walls were a stark white—blank and forbidding with no decorations except for a single viewscreen mounted on one of them.
“This must be where we sign in,” Lilli whispered to Karn. She didn’t like the way her voice echoed and wished she hadn’t said anything at all.
“Well sign in and let’s get the Seven Hells out of here,” he growled. “This place gives me the fucking creeps.”
Lilli couldn’t have agreed more. She went up to the viewscreen and reached out to touch it, tentatively, with one finger. The screen came to life at once, turning from blank black to stark white, like the walls. In the middle of it hovered a single name in bold black print—Lilliana Mirabella
Lilli touched her name and watched as the black letters turned suddenly blood red. She wondered if that was all she had to do. Now that the system had acknowledged her, could she just go?
“Is that it?” she asked out loud and Karn shrugged.
“Must be.”
But he was wrong.
Suddenly, a door at the far side of the room opened and a woman with dark purple hair done up into an elaborate series of curlicues came out. She was wearing a businesslike dress which barely showed her breasts and panties at all. She must be one of the lesser Mistresses, Lilli thought. The ones who didn’t have enough money to own their own buildings in downtown Opulex and so made their livings by serving others, higher in the social order, as doctors and legal Councilors and things of that nature.
Of course, any Mistress was free to use the conception center so maybe it was this woman’s turn and Lilli was intruding.
“Excuse me,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your appointment. I’ll just be going now.”
“Oh, no, my dear Ms. Lilliana.” The woman shook her head. “I’m not here for me—I’m here for you.”
“You…you are?” Lilli looked at her uncertainly. Beside her, she could feel Karn bristling protectively. “But…who are you?” she asked. “I’m afraid I can’t remember your name or where we met.”
The woman laughed briskly.
“Well of course not because we’ve never met. My name is Mistress Martinet—I’m the personal sperm consultant your mother hired to meet you here and help you through the insemination procedure.”
“You…you are? You mean you report directly to my mother?” Lilli’s heart sank down to her shoes. She’d been planning to get in and out of the conception center without anyone seeing her—let alone someone who could tell her mother if she actually had the procedure done or not. What was she going to do now?
“Of course! I’ve been waiting for you but I’m afraid…” Mistress Martinet looked at the plain black chronometer strapped to her wrist. “You’re about three and a half minutes late. Which means we have to be moving along since another Mistress has an appointment scheduled here in a little less than an hour.”
“Oh, well maybe I’d better go then—since I’m late,” Lilli said quickly. “I wouldn’t want to interfere with another Mistress’s appointment and we can always reschedule for another day.”
“Nonsense,” Mistress Martinet said sharply. “Your mother tells me that you’ve only just had your second quick-grow shot yesterday which means you should be at peak fertility now.” She tapped her chronometer again, as though for emphasis. “So we need to get your impregnated today.”
“But—” Lilli tried to protest.
“Never fear.” Mistress Martinet was already taking her by the arm. “What usually takes the longest is choosing which sperm you want to be impregnated with. But that’s where I come in—I’ve already narrowed down your choices to several candidates your mother deems appropriate. So you’ve only got to choose one and we’ll get you pregnant like that!” She snapped her fingers and smiled brightly at Lilli.
“I…I don’t even get to choose my own sperm?” Lilli asked as the other woman dragged her through the door