Page 4 of Under His Heel

The elevator doors opened up into a narrow hall, and the door beyond that—also locked—led to a sizeable apartment. Captain’s quarters. Tracht gave Alex the short tour: private bathroom with a tub that could only be used while they were in port and had access to surplus water (“We use the pressure scrubber while out in space”), a small office, a little living room and dining area, and beyond that, the luxurious king-sized bed.

Alex gave an impressed whistle. “You must do well for yourself.”

“Well enough to be able to afford to take on your debt, yes.” There was an amused smile on Tracht’s face, making him look just the slightest bit more approachable. “You will be able to share in my luxury if you behave yourself.” He pointed towards the cot in the corner of the room. “Otherwise, you’ll be sleeping there.”

Finally they were getting to the meat of it. Alex stretched his arms to loosen some of the tension in his shoulders. “If I behave? What’s that mean?”

“It shouldn’t be too difficult. When you are in this room, I expect you to be naked at all times.” Tracht gave a pointed look at Alex.

Fine. Alex pulled off his clothes and dumped them on the floor.

“It will be your job to keep things tidy around here. Dirty clothes go in the hamper, which you will later take to be laundered.” Tracht paused, and Alex rolled his eyes before he bent down to pick up his clothes and place them in the hamper in the corner.

When he came back, Tracht was sitting on the edge of the bed. “Every morning, you will help me get dressed, and every evening, you will help me undress.”

“You can’t do that yourself?” Alex blurted out.

“Oh, I can. But I find it very... exciting... to have you do it instead. For example: remove my boots.”

Naturally, the kind of person who bought a bondservant’s debt would be a weirdo. Alex didn’t really get it, but removing Tracht’s boots was a harmless request. He got down on his knees in front of Tracht and began undoing the right boot’s buckles. When it was loosened, he reached to pull the boot off, but was stopped by Tracht’s hand.

“Before you do that, kiss it.”

Kiss the boot? Alex couldn’t help the disgusted sneer that crossed his face.

Tracht must have seen, because he chuckled. “I suggest you get used to the idea, because you’ll be doing this every morning and every evening.” He lifted his boot higher, bringing it closer to Alex’s mouth.

Alex swallowed and reminded himself that this wouldn’t be forever. He’d never enjoy doing this, but kissing a boot wasn’t half as bad as getting a finger removed. He smothered the humiliation and leaned forward to place a kiss on the toe of the boot.

“Good,” Tracht said, and he briefly petted Alex’s head. Alex pulled back quickly and removed the damn boot. He had to steel himself to repeat the entire process with the other leg, and when the entire ordeal was done, he felt kind of weird. But Tracht seemed pleased, and keeping him sweet was the important part. Tracht had Alex put his head against his thigh and just touched Alex’s hair and face like a pet dog or something.

“Tonight I’ll teach you how to service me sexually. But do you have any questions for now? Any requests?”

Alex wanted Tracht to not be touching him, but he knew that wasn’t ever going to happen. “Um, we’re on a ship? What do you do?”

“Ah. I am the captain of the merchant space vessel Sigrun, currently contracted to the Lysander Corporation. We also take sub-contracts to fill remaining cargo space.”

The Lysander Corporation was the large conglomerate that supplied half the goods Cadmus Station needed to thrive. Cadmus was a hub station orbiting a small mining planet, notable mostly for the fact that it was a good stopover for any ships needing to refuel on trips between larger, more important planets. Alex and his brother had moved to Cadmus about two years ago, and their first job had been as warehouse staff. Just until they’d found something better.

No wonder Tracht was making bank though. You couldn’t risk a ship’s crew deciding they were better off not making the return trip to Cadmus, so of course he got paid well.

Alex flinched away at the next touch on his scar and quickly asked, “Is there an emergency manual or something? In case shit goes wrong in space.”

“Of course.” Tracht’s fingers squeezed Alex’s scarred cheek briefly. “Refrain from using foul language, please.”

He got up, dislodging Alex, and walked over to his night table. He fiddled with something for a few minutes, then came back with a much nicer tablet than Stiegler had been using. “Here you are. I’ve set up a separate login keyed to your collar, which has access to select resources.” He handed it to Alex.

“You aren’t afraid that I’m some hot-shot hacker?” Alex started scrolling through the emergency manual. He stopped on the image outlining all the emergency exits, trying to memorize the different pathways. It would be easier once he’d walked around the ship a bit—provided Tracht let him leave the room.

“I am quite certain that if you possessed any form of training or skill, you would not have decided that entering into a bondservant contract was the best possible way of clearing your debt.” Tracht placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder and squeezed.

Ugh, fuck this guy. Alex gritted his teeth and kept his eyes on the tablet, certain that he’d insult the guy if he tried to look at him right now. What did he know about Alex? It’s not like there were a lot of options for him. The debt was too large to pay off with a low-wage job, and it wasn’t like Alex could have worked at the brothels or anything, not with this face.

“You’re right. I’m not a hacker,” Alex ground out. He wasn’t a hacker, but he wasn’t entirely useless either. Tracht would just have to see.

After a few more clarifications of what he wanted (“Address me as Captain or Sir,” stood out), Tracht made Alex put on a light tunic, some fairly tight leggings, and flimsy sandals, and then took him to the ship’s med bay. The doctor there x-rayed his teeth, as promised. The experience was only marginally less uncomfortable than having Tracht’s fingers in his mouth. After that was done, they took samples of his blood.

“Did you want a full-body check up?” the doctor asked Tracht.

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