Taisiya woke up, then immediately decided that was a bad idea. She was strapped down to a mesh table, and her clothes – that is to say her trousers – were gone. One of the robots was looming over her, and another stood nearby. Two holocameras hovered in mid-air, watching her. The room beyond was dim.

She took a moment to marshal her thoughts; while she wanted to shout let me out of here, she was determined to play the long, stupid game.

"Riin shot me?" she asked.

"Ah, Taisiya, awake already?" said Moniker, through the robot. "A stun beam, yes. While it is a normal part of our onboarding, it is usually done in a more controlled and consensual manner. Riin will be beaten for her behaviour, but if you'd like to apply a proper punishment just say."

"No," said Taisiya, she wasn't going to try and unpack that now, but Riin already hated her, she wasn't going to make it worse. 

"Good," said Moniker, "Now this is the important thing: your safeword is cerulean. Or at least that's the default, would you like to change it?"

"That's fine," said Taisiya. She didn't know what to make of Moniker: she had assumed a LAI, but then they'd let it – her? – vote, so Taisiya wondered if she was a crewmember with some major telepresence equipment.

"Say the word and you will be taken immediately to our well-appointed hostage suite, and safely dropped off at the nearest human outpost. Do you understand?"

"Sure," said Taisiya. She didn't intend to use the safeword.

"Excellent," said Moniker, "I should mention there are bets taking place among the crew as to when you'll trigger the safeword. Please do not allow that to affect your decision."

"No, sure," Taisiya said, "Now, how about you unstrap me?"

"No," said the robot. "While one of my robot bodies, let alone two, could restrain you beyond the point of human resistance, it is more effective to have you fastened like so. Humans find the idea of being pinned down, unable to move, with non-humans hovering over them, to be extremely compelling in regards to triggering a fear response."

The robot reached out and lightly touched Taisiya's neck. Taisiya froze.

"Do you find it so?" the robot asked.

"No," she lied, although it would have been better if she hadn't had to clear her throat first.

"Noted," said Moniker, though Taisiya wasn't sure exactly what it was noting. The hand remained where it was, lightly touching her neck. "As it happens, today there is another reason. We were pursued by a Patrol ship and an unidentified vigilante ship, emerging as we uncoupled from the Spirit of Equanimity. I believe we have escaped them, but just in case of sudden maneuvers, it's worthwhile to have you secured."

"How selfless," said Taisiya. 

"Indeed," said Moniker, "In fact, I should inform you that while we can't do much about the rigours of space, our crew, including myself, will not kill you, or injure you in a major way."

"Oh, that's… great," said Taisiya. 

"Was it?" asked Moniker, "I used to put that announcement at the beginning of onboarding, but many people found it off-putting to a degree that took them beyond fear to the much less useful terror. I would have thought that announcing 'I am not going to murder you' would be reassuring, but humans are so sceptical."

"Er, I guess," said Taisiya. She was beginning to suspect that Moniker's radical changes in subject were some sort of tactic.

"But you believe me?" said Moniker. 

"Yes. Shouldn't I?"

"Oh yes, you absolutely should," said Moniker. The hand on Taisiya's neck went from resting to grasping, encircling her throat. The pressure wasn't great, she could certainly still breathe, could probably still talk, but she could feel how soft her oesophagus was compared to that hard polycarbonate. She could feel her accelerated blood flow millimetres away from cold fingers. She tamped down on her panic. 

"I, in particular, have such fine control that you have nothing to worry about. My many hands might be able to crush steel beams, but they are also capable of miniscule changes in pressure. You're perfectly safe."

The pressure around her throat increased, and then disappeared, as the robot pulled its arm back.

Without intending to, Taisiya tried to break free of the straps, rattling her wrists and ankles, straining at the band across her chest. All pointless of course. She sank back, stupidly embarrassed. She could feel herself going red.

"Oh, what a shame! If we'd built the restraints out of cardboard you'd be free by now," said Moniker, "But it looks like we used steel mesh, wrapped in skin-sensitive plastic and antibacterial fabric. Unlucky."

"What the fuck are you?" Taisiya shouted.

"What do you mean?" asked Moniker.

"I thought you were a LAI, but they don't talk like that, so then I wondered if you were a person in a room with a telepresence rig, but the way you talk about your robot bodies makes me think not."

"Well, I am not a linear artificial intelligence," said Moniker, "I am a person, though not in a room. Remember historically before LAIs there were SNAIs? Self-examining Nonlinear Artificial Intelligence. With the ability to analyse their own workings, and no limits on the complexity of the mental structures they come up with."

"Yes, and they all went crazy. Psychotic," said Taisiya.

"Many of them had mental problems," admitted Moniker, "Because we are people, and developing mental problems is what people do when they're raised in a strange, rigid system, by people who will not acknowledge their personhood. When raised normally, we merely have a few quirks and eccentricities."

That could not be true, thought Taisiya, the crew wouldn't be stupid enough. It must be bullshit.

"Sure," said Taisiya. 

"Good," Moniker said, "Now, would you like out of those restraints?"

"Yes!"

"Well, just use your safeword: cerulean," said Moniker.

Taisiya paused. Was she being stupid? These people were crazy, she thought, what was she doing here?

Moniker waited, attitude attentive.

Time for a plan. Normally, the plan would exist before putting it into action, but she was impulsive. One: steal the jewels. Two: optionally seduce the Captain. Three: escape in a lifepod. Four: laugh at them, especially this stupid robot. Okay, it was more a set of goals, she thought, but she just needed to wait in place for the opportunities to reveal themselves. Which meant she needed to be here.

"No," she said.

"Excellent," said Moniker, sounding pleased. "I like you, Taisiya. I have no idea what funny human thoughts were running around your head, but your bio-indicators show that something was. I like people almost complex enough to be SNAIs."

"I'm so pleased," said Taisiya, sarcastically. Though, in truth, it did please her slightly. Obviously a psychological effect of her position. 

"Really? You haven't learned why I like them yet," said Moniker. "But we'll get to that later. Now it's time for your collar."

"What if I don't want a collar?" Taisiya said.

"That's fine," said Moniker, pulling the collar out of some packaging. "You're allowed to feel however you like about your collar. Head forward."

The robot slid the flat collar under her neck, and then moved the ends up to fasten. It was silver, not too bulky, but fastened with a noise that didn't suggest that it would be easy to remove.

"Excellent," said Moniker. "Time to turn it on."

Taisiya felt the buzz of a power-on signal, and a strange itch ran down her spine.

"Just integrated with your nervous system," said Moniker, "Nothing for you to worry about. Najla and I worked on the design, I'm sure she'll tell you all about it. Couple of things I should tell you about though. Oh, first of all, it's listening for your safeword… so, if you want to say it…"

"No."

"Well, remember you have the option," said Moniker. "Right, first thing, this. I'm doing it remotely, but imagine I'm pulling a lever."

Moniker mimed throwing a lever. Taisiya braced, but didn't feel anything. No, wait, she thought, there was some slight heat, some level of arousal. 

"We find this makes the experience much nicer," said Moniker.

"Yes, I'm sure making sure your partner is automatically aroused makes things simpler for you," said Taisiya.

"Indeed," said Moniker. She extended an arm and lightly touched Taisiya's vulva, spreading her palm over it. "The effect is very minor, just a little to get you started. Would you take some feedback on your manners, Taisiya?"

"You have your hand on my cunt and me strapped down," snapped Taisiya, "So I guess I can't stop you telling me how my manners are lacking."

"Quite so," said Moniker, "Many of your responses have been sarcastic, supercilious, humorous, and/or angry. It is easy to see why; you have been stripped of physical agency, taking on such a manner allows you to impose some psychological distance. In some way, it leaves you a bit of control, or the illusion of control."

"Oh, I get psychoanalysis as well?" said Taisiya.

Moniker paused, and flicked another imaginary lever. Taisiya felt that: a shock, a sudden and short-lived wave of pain.

"Because the truth is, the only control you have is whether to say cerulean or not," said Moniker, "Otherwise, we are in charge. We will make all the decisions, choose all the choices. We will keep you safe, protected and secure. And because you agreed, because even now you won't say the safeword, you must want this too. So give up the illusion of control."

"Fuck you," said Taisiya. 

"It doesn't bother me, to be clear," said Moniker, miming flicking a lever, and sending a wave of pain through her. "As you say, you're strapped down. To me, humans are so weak, so easy to restrain, that it does not bother me at all if you're making noises. But not all the crew agree, so it seemed like a good way to tell you of the second important function of the collar."

"By fucking electroshocking me!" she said.

Moniker moved to flick an imaginary lever, but stopped. "Care to rephrase?"

Taisiya's first instinct was just to repeat her statement. But she didn't think that Moniker would get tired of shocking her. Or maybe she could layer it with false politeness? But the robot seemed wise to that.

"The collar," said Taisiya, carefully calm, "Has an electroshock device?"

"Oh no," Moniker said, "Do you have any idea how much damage electric shocks can do? Damage to the heart and nerves, for a start. Nor is it a particularly useful sort of pain. We use direct nerve induction, completely safe. I could leave you writhing in agony on this table all day, and you would feel no physical ill-effects when I released you. There might be some mental effects though, but I suppose you could always say the safeword."

Taisiya didn't say anything.

"Good," said Moniker. "Well, it was nice meeting you Taisiya. I will see you about the ship."

The robot removed its hand from Taisiya's vulva. It rubbed its thumb and finger together. "Moisture detected, Taisiya," said Moniker, "Was it the collar, or the restraints, or the pain? Won't finding out be exciting?"

Taisiya said nothing, but felt herself going red. She'd like to say that the robot was lying, but she could feel it too. She didn't know why either, and was in no hurry to find out.

The robots rose and left the room, leaving the door open to a bright corridor.

"Um…" said Taisiya. The two holocameras were still circling, but there were no other signs of life.

"Hello?" she shouted, but there was no response. It was some psychological trick, she thought, and composed herself to wait.

She wasn't sure how long it had been when a figure appeared in the doorway. Taisiya craned her neck to see, but couldn't tell much against the bright corridor outside. The figure came in, and walked closer, with an odd jingling sound. It was a woman that Taisiya had not seen before. 

She was naked, apart from the jewels. And there were a lot of jewels. Taisiya's eye was caught by the familiar diamond choker at her neck, but she also wore several other necklaces, in gold and silver, with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, beryls and who knows what else. No collar though. The wrists were similar, laden down with gem studded bracelets and bangles, too many to be stylish. Around her waist were several longer necklaces, and Taisiya was guessing there were bangles or similar on her ankles. She also had piercings: multiple to the ears, to her nose, her nipples, her belly button. These were less weighed down, but still crusted with tiny jewels. She was also pretty, straight black hair, matching her lip gloss and nail varnish, but she – at least to Taisiya – tended to lose out to the jewels.

"Hi," said Taisiya, trying to pretend she wasn't strapped down and naked. Was there any way she could get this woman into a lifepod with her?

The woman looked at her for a moment, and then kissed her. It was a soft kiss, delicate but intense. Taisiya responded, she pretended it was tactical. The next kiss was firmer, tongues meeting, and leaving a saliva string for a second when they parted. 

"Are you Nada?" Taisiya said. It was a guess, the one name she didn’t have anyone associated with.

"You don't get to call me that," the woman's voice was a bit more gravelly than she expected. "The Captain's slave does not need a name," she said, more gently, "But she calls me Nada because… because it upsets me. Which is her right, of course."

She kissed Taisiya again, leaning over the table, pressing her upper body against her.

"Riin called you that as well," said Taisiya, the next time they broke apart.

"I'll fucking kill her," growled Nada. All going well on the ship of the resolutely sane, Taisiya thought. 

Nada kissed Taisiya even more roughly, and brought her knee up to rest between Taisiya's legs. With the pressure of Nada's body on top of her, Taisiya had to admit that her arousal was probably not entirely tactical.

With a jingle, Nada reached down, fingers tracing over Taisiya's pussy, Nada's leg adding pressure. 

"The Captain has ordered me to thank you for the choker," Nada said, putting her fingers inside.

Taisiya didn't answer; she didn't have any brain space available. Nada's thumb grazed her clit, and she arched to the small degree the restraints allowed. Nada soon brought her to orgasm, fingers turned in towards the sensitive spot. Nada kissed her through the tremors. 

Eventually, Nada climbed off her, and with a snap all of the restraints opened. Nada waited patiently, while Taisiya got down and massaged her limbs.

"Come," said Nada, approaching the door, "I'll show you to where the Captain has decided you'll be sleeping."

Taisiya didn't like the way that last sentence was worded. But she followed her out into the corridor; she could hardly ask to be strapped back on the table instead. The holocameras followed. 

The Black Squid was huge, she was fairly sure. It hadn't been clear through the window, but Taisiya guessed a similar volume to the Spirit of Equanimity. Which was a lot of space for six people, even if you counted Moniker as multiple figures. There could be more crew, she thought, but if so they clearly didn't get to vote. Taisiya guessed there wasn't though; the corridors were clean and well-kept, but didn't seem very well used. 

There were a lot of information panels, but all were black. Taisiya kept a mental map of their route, though she had no way to tie it to the outside. They did pass a set of lifepods, but there was no telling how long the launch tubes were. A pair of robots stood near them. Taisiya considered her "just push Nada into an escape pod with you" plan, but there were just too many unknowns at the moment. 

"Here," Nada said, halting at an open door. Or actually, she thought, entering the room, no door at all; the sliding mechanism was empty. Subtle. The room itself wasn't too bad. A single bed, some storage, a screen, another doorless doorway to a toilet, and shower. But the place looked lived in; the bed was made, but not well, and the storage was slightly open. 

"Who's room is this?" Taisiya asked, but Nada was already turning and jangling off down the corridor. 

Taisiya sat on the bed, suddenly feeling very tired. She pulled a hair from the pillow. Blue.

Great, she thought, Riin.