Indentured Bride (3 page)

Tabitha looked around her with new eyes.  She’d felt perfectly safe. 

“What now?”

“I am unsure.  It’s possible you’ll be removed.”

“Removed?”

“If he does not wish to claim you then he could request a shuttle to take you out of here.  You’d be returned to the slave compound.”

“What?”  Her eyes became wide with dread.  “I don’t want to go back there.  Why can’t I stay?  How am I not safe here?  We’re in a giant force-field or something—aren’t we?”

“As I said, I am unsure.”

Tears began well up in her chest.  “But he seemed to like me.”  Her hands were clutched to her breast and she began to tremble. 

Here there was hope.  There was none where she’d come from.  Maybe he’d prove to be a beast who she’d want to escape from.  For now all she knew was that she wanted to stay.  For God’s sake, how dangerous could it be inside the dome? 

She’d make him want to keep her.

She gathered the dirty cup from the smaller table, then went to the desk and took a dirty plate from beneath some of the papers.

“Ms. Riley?”

“They said I was his maid and his cook too,” she said, thinking back to her hasty briefing before she departed Earth.  “I’m getting to work.”

“Very good,” Diplomo said.  He followed her.

There were more dirty dishes piled in the belly of the deep sink.  She hunted for soap.  A capped jug on the floor had some goo in it that sudded up with water.  She set to work, scrubbing each hard crusted dish and utensil until it shined.  She was getting to the bottom of the pile when she heard the bedroom door open.  Tabitha forced her hands to keep scrubbing.

Her master entered the kitchen.  His cap was off and she realized he had long tendrils of black hair.  She had to admit—he was an attractive man.  He stood staring at her several moments.  She peeked at him. 

He said something in the alien tongue.

“He asked what you are doing.”

Tabitha hazarded a long glance at him.  “My job.”

Diplomo translated.  The alien said something else.

“He says you don’t have to.”

She kept scrubbing.  “I’m going to do whatever it takes for him to let me stay.”

“Even if your limbs are torn from their sockets?”  Diplomo translated after a moment of hesitation.

Tabitha gaped at him. 

The alien continued and Diplomo translated.  “There should be ten hex-lord’s here killing the
jii’tox
.  There were only two.  As of last month that became only one—me.  Instead of sending help they send me you, a pretty girl.  If one of those things gets full grown they’ll claw through the shield like paper.  The fail-safes will seal it inside with us.  It will hunt the weakest target.”

Tabitha’s mouth went dry.  She forced up enough spittle to talk.  “Couldn’t I hide…or…?”  Fear had manifested the words.  She wasn’t even sure what she was saying.

He reached out and caressed her shoulder.  Once again, his touch was pleasant and gentler than she would have anticipated.  She had an urge to bridge the space between them.  A hug would have been sublime.

“He says the safest thing is for you to leave,” Diplomo said.

He looked as though he regretted the words, but still turned from her and stepped away.  Tabitha felt their thread of chemistry snap as he retreated to the living room.  She turned back toward the sink and let herself cry—softly, so he wouldn’t hear from the other room.

“Jii’tox are transient monsters who lay their eggs on lifeless worlds or moons.  When they mature they are able to breach space and travel to inhabited worlds to feed.  Hex-lord Jaxil must be here to kill them before they mature enough to attack the nearby Hax-Rah home world.”

“Oh,” Tabitha said while snuffling.  “I see.”

“My database says they are incredibly difficult to dispatch, with only one vulnerable area.  Most hunters are killed or maimed.  It’s understandable why no other Hax-Rah would want to do the work.”

“I used to be able to shoot a can off a fence from three hundred yards.”  Her mind drifted back to those carefree days a moment, when her mother was still alive. 

“Perhaps you should tell him that.”

She shook her head and continued with the dishes.  When they were all drying on the absorbent cloth she laid out on the only area of clear counter space she stood in the middle of the kitchen, not knowing what to do with herself.

“I surmise he would appreciate it if you cleaned his bathroom.  It seems especially filthy.”

She managed a weak nod.  As she stepped past Diplomo her stomach growled.

“Let’s arrange for you to eat first.”

“I’m fine.”

Jaxil was sitting at his terminal.  His body was so large it completely blocked the monitor.  She went into the bathroom, unsure if he even noticed.

She found stuff that had to be cleaning supplies under the sink and set to work scraping the scum from the bathtub.  It had a putrid smell which she ignored.  There were fouler things in the latrine of the slave compound that she had long since grown immune to.  It took an hour and three cleaning rags to get the bathroom sparkling.  She leaned on the sink to admire her handiwork.  She was thirsty, weary, and emotionally drained.  But she still brimmed with pride. 

Jaxil blocked the doorway with his large frame.  “
Deearka
.”

She blinked at him.

“Deearka means beautiful,” Diplomo said.

The alien said something more.  Diplomo translated from behind him.

“He wants you to come to the kitchen and take food.”

“Oh.” 

Jaxil moved aside for her.

“Thank you.”

She sat at the kitchen table where he gestured.  His project had been pushed aside, granting her a clear spot.  A plate was set before her (one of the ones she’d just cleaned).  He opened a chest cooler and pulled out something wrapped in wax paper while saying something.

“You don’t have to be his slave.  You’ll be leaving tomorrow.”

Tabitha felt as though her insides crumbled.

A loaf of green bread was placed in front of her.  Jaxil went back into the chest for something else.

“He says he won’t bond physically with you so you won’t have trouble growing accustomed to a new master.”

Tabitha’s lips parted.  She presumed that meant he wasn’t going to have sex with her. 
He’s honorable.

Jaxil presented her with what looked like a hunk of cooked meat and then poured her a glass of sour tea from a pitcher. 

“He said you don’t have to be scared,” Diplomo translated.

“I’m not scared anymore.”

She heard him grunt in approval after Diplomo relayed this.  This made her turn back to look at him.  She saw his thick shoulders rise and drop with a sigh.  He headed back to the living room, but glided his hand over her shoulder as he passed.  The touch, thought fleeting and light, caused tingles in her flesh.

“Deka,” he said, and then exited.

“He says to eat.”

Tabitha drew a deep breath and obeyed.

She cried on his couch that night.  It was dark outside the windows and Jaxil had closed the door of his bedroom to sleep.  She didn’t know why sleeping alone on his ample couch made her cry.  Would she be happier if he dragged her into bed with him?

Yes.  If it meant he would keep her.

Damn.
  What a pathetic thing ten years at the horrible slave compound had turned her into.  She was so desperate not to go back she was willing to do almost anything.  It helped, of course, that he seemed kind.  When was the last time someone had shown her kindness?

She felt knotted with conflicting emotion.  None of it she could trust.  It had been a long day, a long space flight, and a confusing arrival. 

He’ll change his mind in the morning.

*

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And yet, when she woke in the early dawn, it was because he was stomping through the living room with his chest armor and cap.  The slam of the front door followed moments after.  Tabitha sat up, listening to the silence. 

Her master had left her.

Of course he left you.  He has monsters to kill.

She tried to reason herself out of a new bout of sadness.

Rather than sulking she got up and looked for some work.  If this master was going to dump her then he should at least give her a good reference to get another master. 
Yeah, right.
  Well…she’d make him miss her at least.

She started in the far corner of the kitchen and cleaned her way from one side of the house to the other.  Diplomo insisted she stop for breakfast.  The meat from the chest gave her indigestion so she ventured out for some berries.  A lick from one didn’t kill her, and they were sweet.  She ate a small bush’s worth then filled a large bowl and set the in the middle of the table. 

It was like a fancy decoration now. 
Nice.

Next she put away the dishes in the only empty cupboard.  Then she found floor cleanser and a broom/mop thing clogged with cobwebs.  She cleaned it first, then the floor. 

As she continued along, cleaning and organizing, she found hidden treasures in storage chests and cubbies.  She wasn’t in his bedroom (where she was too timid to intrude) so she explored as she wished.  There was a large container of seeds, sorted and labeled in the alien script.  A big metal box housed an elaborate first aid kit.  There were syringes pre-loaded with amber or clear fluids, labeled in the alien language.  A forbidding staple gun, sealed in a sterile casing, was in a molded section of the box.  Then she found white balls made of pressed wax with a few handfuls of wax missing.  There was a kit in a shiny box that had to be for trimming hair and nails.  Another kit held tools to mend fabric. 

By evening she was starving and wanted to try to cook.  The oven was easy to figure out, but then, she had no idea what to make.  Diplomo suggested a soup and helped her select ingredients from the nearest garden.  The crops surrounding them seemed to be fields of staples, with gardens of more unique vegetables closer to the house.  She’d found spices during her cleaning spree, but only recognized salt.  Diplomo had her put some of a red spice in the soup also.  This caused a delicious aroma to cascade from the brew. 

Tabitha’s mouth watered as she stirred.  She hoped Jaxil would arrive in time to be welcomed by the scent.  She was feeling like a happy little bride.

Well, it was a nice daydream, anyway.

The ground shook and she heard a distant engine kick off.  She brimmed with a fragile joy.  It could have been her master or a shuttle to take her away.  She presumed the former and served a bowl of the soup with a loaf of green bread.

Jaxil entered, walking hunched over and grunting.  He braced himself on the table as he passed, not even looking at her delectable soup.  Tabitha’s heart sank—then she realized the trail of blood coating the floor. 

Her master lumbered into the central room and dropped onto the couch.

Tabitha grabbed the medical kit she found.  Jaxil was panting while holding his cracked chest plate against his right side.  She perched on the couch next to him.  Jaxil glowered toward her with his white teeth flared.  Normally she would have fled from such a threat, but she knew it was only a grimace of pain.  She forced her trembling hands reach for his chest plate.

Jaxil helped her remove the armor.

The gore on his right pectoral made her head go light.  Something had rend him—showing tissue layers inside that she should have never been able to see.  She wanted to cringe from it, but the blood was pouring.  She forced her trembling hands to open the kit.

Jaxil came alive and snatched the amber syringe.  He stabbed it just above the wound.  His fast breathing settled at once and a look of calm came over his face.  He then took the clear syringe and injected that.  Next he reached for the staple gun.  Tabitha opened its wrapping for him.  She watched him try to press together the edges of his wound while simultaneously stapling.  A crooked staple went in wrong.  He gave an ear-stabbing howl.

Tabitha grew even more panicked from his shriek.  She took the staple gun from him.  He looked at her, still recovering from his agony, then held together the edges of the wound for her.

Oh God.

She had to hold the gun with both hands since she was shaking.  The first staple went in as it should.  He flinched, but didn’t scream.  She continued down the line, wincing as he did with every click of the tool. 

When she was done he looked like he was put back together.  His pectoral resembled a pectoral again, beneath a grotesque mending. 

He pointed to a bottle of liquid and sheathes of cloth.  Now he spoke.

“He wishes for you to cleanse wound.  Soak the pads in that liquid,” Diplomo said.

Tabitha wiped the blood clean, but more was still dripping from the seal she’d made.  He had her use another fluid to staunch the blood.  Then she taped bandages in place.

Jaxil sank back with his eyes closed.  “Deent, deearka.”

“He thanks you.”

Tabitha looked at the blood soaked cloth.  “Is that enough?  I mean…will he recover.”

“It should be sufficient.  The Hax-Rah are fast healers and immune to most types of infections.”

Tabitha pursed her lips.  She remained in place on the couch.  She didn’t feel capable of leaving his side.

Jaxil looked at her.  His yellow eyes traced her face and then lowered to the hint of cleavage her shirt revealed.  He said something in a quiet tone.

“Do you still wish to stay in such a dangerous place?” Diplomo translated.

Dangerous for you.
  And that meant she should stay.  Who knew when he’d need her again?

“Yes,” she said.

He turned away.  “The jii’tox was almost off its egg sack.  It could have broken in here.  I had to keep after it—even after I lost the side cannon.  I put myself at greater risk because I knew you were here.”  Diplomo’s translation was seamless now.  It felt like the robot was no longer there.

Tabitha lowered her head.  “It’s my fault then.  I’m sorry.”

He placed his hand on hers.  “Wrong, deearka.  It’s the fault of my commanders.  They put you here thinking you could anchor me to this hopeless mission.  It’s too much for any single hex-lord.”