A Slave to the Servants Ch. 32

Washing clothes was something Rose had to teach me to do. I'd never used a washboard on Earth. Once in an antique store I'd seen one, but that didn't mean I knew what to do with it.

Being the one to give directions seemed to solidify Rose's determination. She'd used washboards with her grandmother. She took the lead and we washed our underthings together.

The dryers seemed powerful, so we just waited for them to dry the thin fabric of our underwear. We'd both put our skirts and shirts back on as we sat talking.

Seeing men emerge from the water startled us both and we shrieked. It had seemed we were alone, but we had been watched this entire time.

"Relax, Sister," Kein said amicably, shaking off the water, "we only need to get our clothing."

"You've been in the water the whole time?" I asked as the rest of the family walked up the stone steps toward us, followed by Basin's and Stayne's families.

Rose ran to Basin and hugged him tight. I did the same thing and clung to my damp family one at a time as they dried themselves.

"Yes," Christof said pulling on his pants, "I have been attempting to tell Basin and his Brothers that humans can clean themselves."

I didn't have an answer to that and watched Basin check Rose over. Christof made him stop.

"She is free cousin," Christof said forcibly. "Free creatures bathe themselves and take care of their own bodies. We have to understand this."

Basin argued. Rose had cried the entire time. She didn't want to do it herself. My best friend needed her family. They should be caring for her physical self, she obviously couldn't do it.

"She needs you because you trained her that way," Christof said softly. "Humans take care of their own needs on Earth, my offspring, Kennedy, has talked to us about this. The human women did not like it when we took this chore away from them. It caused them distress."

Basin didn't like what Christof was saying. Rose was free, he argued, but she still needed them. I looked at Damien and knew instantly that he agreed with Basin. Christof obviously did not and I saw the pain it was causing my family. Rose and I being here was very upsetting.

"We have to go," I said abruptly, surprising everyone. "If Rose and I are caught with you, you all will be sent back. We need to leave now and you should wait a moment before you walk out."

Basin stared at me and I raised my chin to stare back at him. I felt like a quivering mass of jello on the inside, but I hoped it didn't show. This was not a time to show weakness.

Basin spoke in a low tone and I knew I should drop my eyes, but I did not. "You dare tell us where to go and what to do?" he asked.

"It's for your own good," I answered reaching out for Rose's hand. "If we stay with you here, we will be caught. Come on Rose, we absolutely must go."

The looks I was getting from the men were a mix of furious and amazed. Only in Christof's eyes did I see pride reflected. They had never seen me act this way.

"Go," Basin finally said pushing Rose away, "go with your friend."

Once I had Rose I grabbed our underthings off the line and headed quickly for the exit. We each bundled our underwear into a ball and shoved them in our pockets. Just before we exited the damp cave we slowed our gait and walked slowly back toward our rooms.

The hallways were getting busier with men now. Several stopped to greet us and introduce themselves. One family was piling the fire pits with fuel and lighting the torches. Those men even stopped what they were doing to be friendly.

I walked with Rose back to the second floor and our private lacquered pots.

"You have to wipe yourself when you are done using the lacquered pot," I whispered to her. "It's not clean what you've been doing."

Rose nodded to me, but didn't speak before she turned into her stall. She still looked shocked. In truth, I still felt shocked. I couldn't believe I had stood up to a man on this world. It seemed impossible.

After a quick stop in our room, we found the dining room again and walked in by ourselves. Arik and his Brothers were in front of us almost immediately.

"Good day, Ciara and Rose," Arik greeted us with a smile, "we have decided to not be offended by your assumptions last night," he announced proudly.

"Thank you?" Rose said looking at me with a definite question on the end.

"You know plants from Earth and we know plants from here," Arik said. "We would like to trade with you. You tell us about Earth plants and we will tell you about Paterian plants. Some things may still exist in both places, we wish to know what they are."

I had forgotten. Everything here was shared. I had thought Rose and I had little to offer. These men thought differently.

We went through the line for the morning meal and having Arik and his family with us was surprisingly helpful. Rose and I barely remembered what Hannah had told us, so we thought we'd have trouble. We asked Arik and his Brothers and they were a wealth of information.

It wasn't that Arik's family knew anything about humans, but they knew everything about plant life. If something was edible for us, they were aware. When it came to the meats, Arik introduced us to the men cooking, Abram's family, and they knew more about that. For the second time in two days we had a thorough lecture on food while we picked out our food.

Hannah had talked to Abram's family before we arrived. She'd made sure his family would put out something we could eat at every meal. The entire family was proud to point out the things they'd made special for us. We made a point to take some of each of those things. The men made sure we understood exactly what we would be eating as we picked it out.

"Come to the kitchens with us one day and we will teach you to prepare these things," Abram offered. "We are used to teaching freed men how to cook and prepare a meal. It would be a pleasure to do the same for you both."

I did my best to make eye contact with Abram as I thanked him. From what Hannah had said I absolutely had to learn this type of thing. This particular family didn't seem dangerous, so I'd feel safe learning with them.

Rose and I sat with Arik's family for the meal. The food this morning tasted slightly different from the night before. The spices were not too strong, but the flavors were invigorating. There was nothing bland, as far as, I could tell.

I told Arik about cactus as payment for his help. He and his Brothers had never seen a plant with the spines I described. That surprised me. They had heard of plants that could store water, though.

Much like on Earth there was a plant in the desert the men broke open to drink from. It was how they got water in places with no fresh water above ground. Arik's Brothers described in detail what it looked like and how to open it to get the water out. Should I ever be in an arid area this information would be invaluable. It was how men in the compounds got water when they were on patrol.

Fuji arrived with her "Mistress" about halfway through our meal. Reed instructed Fuji to go select something she could eat from the trays.

"You may choose only from the brown bowls," Reed instructed.

"Yes, Mistress," Fuji said, happily walking off.

I looked at Reed and then back at the table laden with food. Of the bowls up there, ninety percent of them were brown. Her directions made no sense to me. It was essentially a command to pick out whatever Fuji wanted.

What was the point of giving Fuji such strange instructions?

Reed greeted us all as she pulled up a large stool to settle herself on.

"Eat," Reed said pleasantly, "I have had my meal and do not wish to interrupt yours."

Reed watched Fuji and grinned broadly as her charge struck up a conversation with the cooks. Abram's family interacted easily with everyone and Fuji was no exception. The men talked to her as she picked out a meal for herself.

Gunth and his Brothers appeared beside Reed and their faces were all held in a scowl. All the men eating seemed to be surreptitiously watching their Administrators. I took my lead from Arik and kept eating, but paid attention.

"She is choosing her own food," Reed said happily, "and she's talking to the cooks."

Gunth made an unhappy sound and crossed his arms. His Brothers all did the same thing with unnerving effect.

"You told her to do those things," he groused. "She is not behaving like a free creature-"

Hassar approached our table and interrupted Gunth mid-sentence.

"She will find she likes to make decisions eventually," she said pulling up a stool to sit beside her Sister. "Creatures like that have never been told they could do what she is doing. We will allow her more and more choices until she realizes she is taking care of herself."

Gunth and his Brothers weren't convinced. This decision had not been made through the Administrators. Reed and Hassar had done it themselves without anyone's input. Gunth and his family were offended.

"We sincerely apologize," Hassar said laying her left arm across her chest and bowing her head to Gunth and his family. Reed was doing the same thing. "We had only theorized between the two of us it would be an issue. Our thoughts and studies should have been shared with our friends and cousins. In no way do we intend to keep this creature a slave. She will learn freedom with us."

I was openly staring at the interaction between the groups. We'd been told they worked together and respected one another, but I knew the importance of that simple gesture. In my mind a Paterian woman would never apologize to a man like that.

The apology seemed to soften Gunth and his Brothers.

"You are thinkers," Gunth's Brother said addressing the women and pulling a chair up so he sat next to me, his Brothers settled beside him. "We should have asked your opinion on these matters. My Brother had thought you had more information than we did."

The morning meal was pleasant. Evidently it wasn't unusual for the Administrators to come down and sit with a family. This is how it was always done. They liked to make themselves very accessible.

During the meal I watched Gunth move his leg several times. He would rub it every time he did that. I even noted his Brother rubbed his leg. If the pain bothered the family, it must be horrible. These men rarely noticed physical pain.

The talk at the table soon turned to Rose and me. Men retrained other men and taught them the world. Gunth and Hassar both trusted their camp to do the same for us. Men from the compounds were as uneducated as we were. Our lessons would be taught the same way.

Our other issue was that as former slaves we had to learn to be more independent. Hannah had told them that was really what we needed. My friends and I had had our autonomy totally stripped. We had to relearn to take care of ourselves and trust in our ability to do it.

"Perhaps," I said quietly, "we could start working as you discussed with us yesterday. We both enjoy being productive. We had small jobs at the compound and we enjoyed them..."

Gunth and his Brothers liked that solution. Hard work that produced something for the camp would make us feel part of it. We could stitch cloths then switch jobs in the afternoon, so we could learn different things. They were all for it.

"They could do that in the morning," Arik said hopefully, "and in the afternoon we take the women to the fields. They could help us tend the crops. It may help them understand the food better. We could teach them about the plants outside, as we do the men."

Reed and Hassar thought that was a brilliant plan. They had been offended that Rose and I weren't even taught what to eat by our past "Masters". One of the first steps to being more self sufficient would be to know about food. While we were out there the men could teach us other things as well.

Gunth and his Brothers delivered us to Armant and his family after the morning meal. The little clothing shop was already bustling as Rose and me were given a seat. Men were dropping off things for repair or picking up completed orders. Most were in a hurry, but they made a point to quickly introduce themselves before they left.

I noted several families toted infants and small children with them. The men carried the little, furred girls and tiny boys the way I had carried mine. The young were bundled and wrapped before being strapped to the chest of one of the men in the family. I mourned that my own children had never known their male breeders this way.

It was especially striking with the girls. I saw the adoration in their eyes as they watched their male breeders go about their day. Females raised this way, surrounded by loving caring family, would never put men into the compounds. No wonder the resistance was growing.

"How do they feed the children?" I asked out loud and unintentionally. I jumped when the men in the shop looked at me

A man with a tiny girl smiled at me as he answered.

"Her female breeder comes to us at regular intervals," he said, stroking his small daughter's head. "She knows when the young will need to feed. We take her with us outside and let her get stronger. This will be a powerful female one day soon."

The little girl on the man's chest just gazed around at him and his Brothers. I had no doubt he did not mind caring for her and she did not mind his attention. Her memories would be mainly those of her female breeder, but all her experience would be the love of her male breeder. I imagined it balanced the girls born here.

Men cared for the children almost exclusively, I was told. Women were not good with children. After the birth men were the predominate parent in their child's life. Paterian women were a good food source, but past that took a limited role. The men laughed saying it was hard enough to get them to feed the young, much less anything else.

I looked at Rose and she was as shocked as me. We would never have guessed that. Everything here was different from what we expected.

The men coming and going thinned out some and the shopkeepers settled down to work on the day's orders.

"Take a break when you need it," Armant's Brother, Reil, told us. "Drink from the jug there when you wish. Don't let the task overwhelm you, it will still be there when you return."

"It always is," another Brother laughed.

We sewed in silence at first, but the men were very friendly. Armant and his Brothers liked to talk to pass the time. They were pleasantly surprised when I spoke to them freely. They'd seen slaves in their old compound, but never spoken to a human.

"It is wrong what those men do," Reil said, as he sat making a new shirt for a man. "We were so uneducated then, but now we know. It offends us men like that are in our camp."

I stopped his rant before he really got started.

"No one understands us," I said quickly. "Rose and I do not hate the men who used to own us. We fell in love with them and they freed us. The way they are being treated isn't right!"

No one stopped working, because there just wasn't time to, but the men were fascinated by the conversation. They believed we had been tricked and told us as much. The evil hold that the slavers had over us must be broken.

The rest of the morning was the same conversation. Armant and his Brothers hated slavery and could not understand our fascination with our families. Armant's family talked about the "training" our families had given us. It was designed to make us entirely dependent on our owners.

"Do you feel safe here?" Armant asked, gesturing to the small, but well lit, cave we were in. "Do you think we may harm you?"

I looked at Rose and she looked at me. We were both trying very hard to do what we had been told to do, but it was difficult. Rose was staring at the cloth in her hands and silent as a stone. I was literally forcing myself to interact.

Armant was right. In the back of my mind I feared these men. I only felt safe with Damien and his Brothers.

I tried to impart to Armant's family that our families had changed. Neither Basin nor Damien wanted to own a slave anymore. They wanted a Sister that loved them.

Armant's family listened to my argument and seemed to relent slightly. It was good that Damien and Basin were acting better, but it didn't excuse past crimes. Armant and his Brothers certainly believed Rose and I needed to be away from the men who trained us.

Hannah and Ra arrived at the midday meal to say they and Kennedy had to go. Females were needed in a camp northwest of here that was suffering from racks. They wanted to be around for me, but this was just turning out to be a bad time. They were needed elsewhere and I would be quite safe here now.

I worried about Nu-reeh catching my daughters. She had to know they were involved. It was clear to me she would not let them survive if she thought they were tied to the disappearing men.

"Since freeing you, Mama," Hannah told me, "Kennedy and I are on the Most Wanted posters all over the planet. We're tied to the resistance now for good. Planning the escape of three families earned me my first beads. You don't have to worry when we go places, we only travel to other rebel camps."

I saw several bright beads sparkle in her fur and smiled wanly. It didn't really make me feel better, but neither girl noticed as they kissed me goodbye before taking off.

After lunch Rose and I went to the main transport storage area. Arik and his Brothers were waiting for us there. They took us outside in the daylight and it was as beautiful as it had been the day before.

Sun shone down on the forest and small animals skittered in the branches of the tall trees. Again that smell of jasmine was wafted on the breeze. I imagined that Damien and his Brothers had enjoyed coming out here and hunting. It was probably really fun and I wished I could have joined them.

Not that they would have taken me, even if we were together, a tiny voice whispered in the back of my mind.

Damien and his Brothers would never let me hunt with them here. There were too many unknowns and they thought I was too weak. I would be sequestered in their quarters, hidden away from danger.

Arik and his Brothers blithely pointed out trees and plants to us. Many things out here had a use: food, clothing, healing. If it could be harvested for something, the men did it.

The boundary of the defense system was pointed out by Arik's Brother Calen. He mentioned it right as we sailed past it.

"Racks are the biggest danger here," Calen said arming one of the transport's cannons and swinging it back and forth. "They don't usually attack this close to the camp, because the women are always around."

I didn't feel all that comforted surrounded by these five lanky guys. With Damien and his Brothers I would feel absolutely at ease. I felt like Damien and his Brothers could protect me from anything.

I shook my head at my own logic. My men could easily protect me against threats they engineered themselves. When it came to real threats, they were no better than these guys, for all I knew.

It felt as though I suddenly had two warring parties in my head. For the first time ever, I doubted Damien and his Brothers. They were stronger than me, but they were as naive as I was in this new place. They wouldn't know the dangers or the defenses any better than me. Arik and his Brothers, for their seeming physical weakness, knew exactly how to protect themselves. Odds are, left out here alone, Arik's family would probably fare much better, as opposed to the men I trusted so wholeheartedly. It made me feel unnerved and insecure.

There was a huge pile of vines ahead of us and I yelped when the transport lowered through them. It was another illusion. Beneath the false visual floor was a massive field with many men already working. They talked to one another as they worked.