Handle With Care
(Or Don’t; I Have Shipping Insurance)

For Vikki, the rubber vixen

She swallowed at the hose. It was uncomfortable, but she'd been getting used to it over the previous few hours, waiting in line, stepping forward at an agonizingly slow pace while gazing at the bioreactor sitting in her lap. The machine that would be keeping her alive for the next however-much time she spent in confinement. She knew they were safe, but she couldn't help but be nervous, as she'd never had the opportunity to test one out for herself until now. Ah, well, no time like today, right?

Rough hands lift the reactor from her grasp and carefully suspend it, the catheter and plug tugging gently at her urethra and anus as they hold it aloft, and they begin the packaging process. The sound of the tape ripping from the roll, the careful tucking into every crevice, the occasional peel-and-do-over, starting from the neck, and slowly working downwards. The 3/4 inch roll coming out to cover those sensitive fingers, dulling them before the 2.5 inch roll comes back out again to get the rest of the hands, and then to tape the fingers together loosely... Then, the same, of course, with her toes, and her feet. After finishing with her body, they started on her face, tearing off strips of tape and curling it around the crevices of her smooth skin, wrapping over her clear, hard eyes, her smooth circular mouth. Small noise-cancelling earphones were connected to the bioreactor and then tucked into her ear, deadening the sound of the tape almost completely, making it sound like it was coming from the next room over. The lines from the earbuds were taped down against her skin, down her neck, over her breasts, and then the bioreactor was secured just beneath them, nestling right in as if it were made to fit. Which, perhaps, it had been.

Next, with her entire body wrapped up nicely, her latex protected for the long, long trip overseas, she's immobilized, her legs being re-wrapped with a second layer of duct tape, this one binding them together everywhere except her knees, as those will still need to be bent. Her arms are crossed comfortably over her belly and under her breasts, the reactor is set above her forearms and below her soft, protected hills, and duct tape is wound around her forearms to keep them folded.

Afterwards, gentle paws curl her into a fetal position, tape wrapping under her thighs and around her back, keeping her legs pulled high up against her arms, and then more tape wraps around her shins and her back, keeping her legs curled tightly in. Finally, additional tape curls down from the back of her head to her shins, four nice, strong rolls keeping her head tucked down between her knees, protected from unpleasant bumps in transit.

The initial packaging finally done, she's sat upon a dolly and twisted while cling wrap winds around her body five, ten, fifteen times, before it's cut and taped shut with plain scotch tape. She's twisted 90 degrees onto her side and goes through the same treatment, another fifteen turns, and the cling wrap roll is done. She's turned again, onto her back, and fifteen wraps from a new roll wind around her body, and that, like the other two, is taped down.

Properly sealed up, now, she's gently lowered into a cardboard box, on her side, onto a full twelve inches of tightly packed styrofoam peanuts, with more fluttering down beside her.. They're packed and packed, with the bulging cardboard lid flaps barely closing over the mass of padding. Close, however, they do, and clear packing tape is ripped from its roll and used to seal the lid shut before the container goes through its standard waterproofing.

Yellow packing tape is attached to the top corner of the box and it's spun on the same pallet she was on previously, screeching as it unrolls, spiraling down the side. This tape roll is designed for this exact purpose, and it runs out exactly as it reaches the bottom, coating the box in thick, hard-to-remove cellophane. Practiced hands smooth it down, sealing any stray edges that could tear in transit. Afterwards, the box is turned onto its side. The process is repeated. Then, once, more around the final axis, a third roll of yellow tape is applied.

A packing slip is affixed to the outside of the tape-covered box, indicating overseas delivery by ship, a journey which will take six to eight weeks from shipping date. The box is gently loaded onto a dolly and wheeled to a massive shipping crate, which is then raised up onto the middle level of the middle row in the middle column, dead center in the middle of the shipping container, stacked atop two other identical yellow, person-sized boxes, all facing the same way. More boxes slide in above her, and then to her sides and front, the crate quickly filling up from the dozen of lines in the shipping facility nearby, each with dozens of toys in line, ready to be shipped.

The crate leaves for the harbor in 45 days.