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Rose hesitated a second before she spoke. “I was held beneath the surface of the water several times when I was younger. With Basin and his Brothers, I feel no fear of that happening… without them, I am not sure.”
I felt like ajerkfor asking. It was obviously something she didn’t want to discuss. In the back of my mind I realized there was a great deal I didn’t know about Rose.
We sat and talked about things for a while. I told the girls we could speak, so long as Damien and his Brothers knew what I was saying. Rose was as impressed as I had been at the fairness of that.
As we sat and talked a Keeper approached us with a strange contraption. It looked like a large mobile shade device. He set it up so Fuji was sitting out of the sun. That seemed to make her happy. These Keepers seemed even more interested in us than our old ones had.
“Do you burn, Fuji?” I asked as she stretched out in the new shade.
“This place is too hot for me,” she said. “It will be better for me when I go with you to the mountains. The temperature is more like my home planet.”
Rose and I both looked surprised. We had no idea Fuji would go to the mountains. Fuji acted like she hadn’t said anything out of the ordinary.
“Slaves need companionship,” Fuji continued as though stating fact. “You will go the mountains many times. There is concern you will be without companions for long periods of time. You may fall ill and become sad. Humans sometimes suffer physically when they suffer mentally. Your enjoyment of our friendship has not been ignored. Our owners will go with yours each time you are taken. They will work for their owners and we will stay with you.”
I was motionless in the water and Rose sat staring at Fuji.
“We both go?” she squeaked.
“Yes, we both go to assist in Ciara’s care. They will not breed us, though. You are not able and they cannot breed with me,” Fuji said.This text is © NôvelDrama/.Org.
The question came out of my mouth without any thought behind it. I asked Rose why she couldn’t have children. Her eyes flashed in anger and I saw her look down quickly. Feeling like I’d put my foot in my mouth again, I apologized profusely to her.
Rose seemed to regain her composure and looked calmly at me. For a moment nothing was said and the sea sounds predominated.
“I am not to talk of my home planet,” Rose finally said and then took a deep breath, “but I will accept punishment if it comes.”
Rose continued and the story she told was awful. She had been married to a man on Earth when she was only eighteen. He had been the son of a well respected preacher. The man beat her mercilessly and raped her frequently. No one believed he would hurt her, so no one would help her. Rose finally got the courage to run from him.
He found her in a field and beat her. Using a sharp knife he drove it into her abdomen several times. Right about then was when the slavers appeared. Rose lost consciousness as the aliens bound her husband and inspected her.
The slavers repaired most of the damage and salvaged Rose. Even injured and beaten as she was, they thought she would sell well. They had been right.
Basin and his Brothers had to bid high for her, she remembered the auction. Her men had been fascinated with her tiny fingers and delicate build. She had known they would buy her the moment her tray stopped in front of them.
The slavers prevented the Paterians from getting too close to Rose before they left. They had believed Rose may not survive, even with the fixes they had done. Basin and his Brothers were kept arm’s length from her until the moment they brought her here.
“They tried,” Rose whispered, “to use me when we got to their rooms here on Pateria. I panicked and my mind faded to the quiet place I went to when my husband raped me. When I woke up they were all staring at me with the strangest looks. They had never seen an earth creature respond to stimulation like that. They had stopped trying to arouse me and called the Healers.”
I was standing in the water and staring at Rose. She reminded me to kick my feet so the Keepers would be happy. Dutifully, I kicked the water as she continued.
“The Healers found the minute scars the slavers had tried to hide. They had a device that saw the damage done to me inside. I was repaired, but use of me now would reopen the wounds. The Healers felt the slavers had tricked Basin and his Brothers. They were angry. The strange device the Healers used told them organs had been removed. The slavers had taken parts from me here,” she gestured to her lower abdomen, “I assumed they meant myuterus. It must have been damaged.”
“The Healers congratulated Basin on his attention. The Healers also studied… the rest of me. They found the old scars from prior… rapes. Basin thanked them. Once they left he made me tell him and his Brothers what had happened.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, unsure of what to say.
“No need for that,” Rose smiled, “Basin was confused why a man would have hurt me to have sex with me. I am so small, only a brash and untrained man would do such a thing. He and his Brothers were neither. He saw fear in my eyes and understood it now.”
“How did you ever get over that fear?” I asked stupidly.