| STORY DESCRIPTION Alien abductions are real, but the stories about them are false. That is because the victims never come back to tell their tales, although their descendants sometimes come back to take more slaves for their masters. They are a species called the S'sith, who are generally larger than human beings, with suede-like skin, featureless faces and lipless mouths. Since the early 1600s they have been quietly and discreetly harvesting slaves on Earth, and by the twenty-first century their planets have human populations that are as large as their own. Women are used primarily as sex-slaves, and men are needed for breeding. However, over centuries their roles proliferate, and S'sith society is dependent on human slave labour at almost every level, including professional and administrative functions.
Born into slavery, Clive rises quickly to become a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Human Resources. He is also a capable and enthusiastic slave hunter for his masters, and the story begins with him and his colleagues carrying out a risky but highly successful mission, returning home with his three ships overcrowded with fresh, valuable cargo. Sent first to slave-training schools, some are sold by private treaty, some on the auction block, and a few become servants of the Ministry, including one who is adopted by Clive as his personal assistant and pleasure slave.
As he goes about his business, Clive is temporarily kidnapped by the sadistic Lucretia from the Ministry of Justice, and during a night of pain and pleasure he realizes that she and her Minister are conspiring against the government, of which his own boss is a leading member. The plot will be hatched at the opening of a vast new sports and leisure facility, but the loyal allies of the Prime Minister never know enough of the details to prepare properly. They find themselves, outnumbered and outgunned, fighting for their lives amid the vast crowds that have come to witness a new sport, in which winged human slaves battle against one another in a zero-gravity arena.
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