AUCTION TO THE LOVE SLAVES OF THE ALPHA

Earth, 2255 CE Ryan Henderson looked up at the camera and shivered as a cold breeze blew right across his naked balls. Christ, why couldn’t they put some heat in here?

This had to be the coldest planet he’d ever visited. He shivered and tried to stand up straight under the spotlight shining down on him and not bow his head.

He was used to being on camera with no clothes on, but not in a situation like this, where he was literally putting himself up for sale.

Because of the lights shining in his eyes, he couldn’t see anything further than the cameraman, so he couldn't see anybody in the audience.

The number of people actually seated in the audience had thinned, but as for potential buyers online, there were probably hundreds, if not thousands across the universe.

They weren’t actually in the big hall with him, though, like these others,so he could pretend they didn’t exist for a few moments while he put himself on display.

He’d drawn an unlucky high number tonight, so he was one of the last to be shown in the long line of love slaves. Many would-be buyers had already left or logged off.

The loud voice of the auctioneer called out to him to hold up his number, and he reached for the card hung around his neck to stick his price up in the air above his head.

Two hundred thousand diamond standard, too high to attract a lot of bidders, but still he was hopeful. Viewers bid on the slaves by sending in blind bids either electronically or by way of runners standing by in the audience.

If no one was willing to meet his price, Ryan would be advised of the highest bids he’d received that night and it would be up to him to decide whether or not he wished to take them.

Ryan had put himself up for purchase for one galactic cycle, or a period of a little more than a year in Earth terminology.

Once the auctioneers received the bids,the bidder’s name went up on the board, but he wouldn't know the amount bid until the end of his time slot.

Ryan could see a few names had already appeared up on his board. Thank the gods there were a few bidders, at least. He prayed that someone would bid high enough tonight.

This was his second attempt in as many days,and though he’d received a number of good bids, so far none had matched the amount he was asking.

Time was running out, and whatever the highest bid was tonight, he had to take it. He couldn’t afford not to.

He had barely managed to escape from Earth to this small moon, called Lunar 53, in the southeastern part of the galaxy, because he knew the pilot personally, a friend of a friend from his college days.

He hadn’t been able to bring much with him, lucky to escape at all, so when he got to Lunar 53, he was dead broke.

After trying unsuccessfully to get a job for the last three weeks, he’d spent all the money he'd had in his wallet that last night and had become desperate enough to sell himself, the only commodity he had left.

Still, despite his desperation, Ryan had a few stipulations on his ownership.

First of all, his buyer needed to be male, since that was where his sexual interests lay. Considering love slaves were on duty virtually twenty-four hours a day and were at theirmaster’s beck and call, he wanted to be sure he could get it up every time.

He liked girls just fine, and thought they were cute, even adorable. But if a female purchased him, there wouldn’t be much he could do for her except give her suggestions on her hair and makeup.

The second thing he needed was to stay off-world, and whoever became his master would have to agree to keep him away from Earth for the entire cycle’s term, with an option for longer.

Most of the buyers were off-world anyway, in faraway mining settlements, or about to embark on a long, boring space journey where they would have little to do to occupy their time. Often these men, called Voyagers, were shuttle pilots, ferrying supplies back and forth from Earth to planets and lunar stations all over the galaxy.

A very lucrative job, but one which could get pretty lonely. These were the men who were most interested in love slaves, so this requirement shouldn’t be a problem.

Thirdly, Ryan wanted to remain anonymous, and he stipulated that no one, not even the auctioneers, know his true identity. Of course, he was doing something now that was pretty damned public, standing here naked in front of the gods and everybody, but he’d taken some precautions against being recognized.

He was known now simply as John Smith, and he wanted to leave his former identity far behind him. His normally long blond hair had been shaved down to the length of a marine’s in the Allied Forces.

He was wearing dark brown eye daubers to cover his normally very green eyes, and though he’d never had much of a beard, he’d managed to grow a lip shadow, as they were called, just a little postage stamp of hair beneath his lower lip. It wasn’t much but anything to disguise his looks was a bonus, he thought.

Another stipulation was that payment had to be in cash only. He would sign a video contract, complete with a DNA sample to ensure legalities, but his anonymity must be respected. Because of these somewhat unusual requirements, along with his non-negotiable hard limits, bidding on him had not reached the levels he needed so far.

Please dear gods, let tonight be different. I need to get the hell off this moon.

Ryan glanced up at the screen and saw the auctioneer was closing off his bids to get ready for the next slave.

Each slave only had five minutes to sell himself to the audience and Ryan had been so lost in his thoughts he’d done little else besides stand there. He hoped it would be enough. He knew he looked good.