Enslaved Book III: The Gladiators

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  She’d cautioned herself not to expect too much. The world was a primitive one and, from what she’d learned, the Hirachi had been enslaved here and left pretty much to their own devices after the slave masters had been defeated. They were smart and they were strong, but there was only so much one could do without tools.

  She was still eager to see what they’d accomplished. They all looked well and well fed, and that said a lot for their resourcefulness.

  The fields stunned her. She hadn’t even realized they’d left the jungle behind at first. It wasn’t until she saw the even rows that told her the plants were cultivated that she realized the abundant growth was due entirely to Khan’s clan. The men of her own group were clearly as impressed as she was. They immediately began discussing the crops, she supposed.

  They were all speaking Hirachi—even the Deisen.

  She sighed. It was her own fault. It should have occurred to her long since that she needed to learn their language. They’d spent weeks in space with very little to do beyond think about the one meal they could expect.

  Of course, she’d spent most of that time puking her guts out because of the hideous food! She should still have made the attempt to learn at least a little, though, she thought irritably.

  She was drawn from her thoughts by a sound she hadn’t heard in what seemed like forever—the giggling laughter and shrieks of excitement of children. Her heart leapt at the sound and she lifted her head to search for a sign of them.

  She finally spied the children—playing in a vast open field before an edifice that looked like something some early civilization on Earth might have built—except it didn’t look like anything she’d ever seen in her life, in pictures or otherwise. It explained the strange looking spire she’d glimpsed as they left the jungle, though. She saw several more from the front that she hadn’t noticed when she’d glimpsed it through the trees.

  Several women were seated in the shade of the trees, watching the children play while they worked at something in the baskets on their laps. They looked up when they saw the group approaching and scattered their baskets in every direction as they leapt to their feet and raced toward them in greeting. The woman in the lead flung herself into Khan’s waiting arms, laughing and babbling questions—in English!

  Loren didn’t think she’d ever heard a sweeter sound. It brought an unexpected knot of emotion to her throat. She looked up at Kael and smiled when he settled an arm across her shoulders and then Balen when he moved closer and caught her hand in his.

  Khan disentangled himself after a moment and turned to them. “We’re brought new friends back,” he murmured to his woman.

  Her eyes widened as they settled on Loren. “Oh my god! You’re from Earth?”

  Loren nodded. “My name’s Loren. Loren Hess … and these are my men, Kael, Balen and Dakaar.”

  The other women who’d rushed to greet their returning warriors surged around her excitedly, pelting her with questions about ‘back home’.

  Loren was stunned. Khan had told her that his woman was from Earth. She hadn’t expected to see so many!

  They spent three days with Khan’s clan. As impressed as Loren was with the ‘pod’ they were given to stay in as guests in paled in comparison when she got the full tour of the ‘village’ the following day. She was far more inclined to think of the place as ‘rustic’ than primitive after that. There were none of the electronic gadgets that she was accustomed to seeing, but it didn’t lack comfort.

  One of Miranda’s men, Teron, was a physician. He examined her and the baby and told her that he would be there to assist if she felt the need when her time came. It relieved a little knot of fear she hadn’t wanted to think about let alone acknowledge, and then she was shown the ‘birthing pool’ where all the children she’d seen scampering around the village had been born.

  She was somewhat dubious about that, but Miranda informed her that it was the best way to birth a child.

  Karen and Shara were mightily put out when they returned to the ship with all the news about everything they’d seen and immediately wanted to make the trip themselves. Kael wasn’t inclined to approve but finally relented—with the provision that they make it a trip to trade for things they needed.

  The day before they were to leave, a large group of men arrived from the village with the offer to help them build their own pods if they had decided to stay. An offer was also extended to the women to live in their village until they gave birth.

  Loren was eager to go until she realized that the men would be staying to work. She decided to stay until she was closer to her time. Neither Karen nor Shara seemed particularly happy with her decision since they felt like they should stay if Loren did and Karen tried her best to talk Loren into going.

  “It’s three days walk to the village!” Loren finally snapped. “The men will be here working. If I went there’s no telling how often I’d see them! I’m not going so you can stop pestering me!”

  “That’s going to be a long damned walk to get to the doctor if you go into labor here!” Karen said tightly.

  Fear immediately assailed Loren since Karen had pinpointed the one thing she was most frightened about. “I’ll go when I’m closer,” she said stubbornly. “I won’t need a doctor until then. I’m nearly a third of the way through now and I haven’t seen a doctor before. I think I’ll be fine.”

  “You’re closer to half,” Karen pointed out. “You told me you’d felt the baby move.”

  “So half! I’ve still got months to go and I’m not going to be sitting over there with my men here, damn it!”

  Karen decided to go anyway, explaining that she was concerned about the baby. Her men, naturally enough, were so unsettled by that that they were all too willing to cart her to the village.

  They left her there and returned to work on the foundations in progress. Two weeks later, Karen returned, escorted by Teron and three other Hirachi men. Karen didn’t look particularly happy. The men who’d escorted her looked far more happy once they’d handed her over to her men.

  She was exhausted from the trek. Loren shook her head at her. “I could’ve told you you weren’t going to be happy in the village with your men here.”

  Karen pouted. “I thought I could convince them to stay with me, but they have a fire up their asses to build us a village!”

  Loren struggled to suppress the urge to smile. “Of course they do! You’re having their baby. They want to have a place for their family!”

  That seemed to appease her somewhat. “Really, it isn’t any more comfortable than the ship.”

  “It is nice, though. I’ll be so excited when they get the foundation done and start on the walls! They are the most amazing engineers! I never dreamed they were so talented! Of course, I already thought they were amazing anyway.”

  Karen studied her assessingly. “You said you were an engineer.”

  “I am—mechanical and aeronautical. I got the mechanical degree first and then decided I wanted to get into aeronautics. This isn’t my area.”

  “Yes … but … mechanical means you design machines, right?”

  “Yes,” Loren said cautiously.

  “So maybe you can take some of those mechanical monsters apart and make us … like a go cart or something?”

  Loren frowned, turning the suggestion over in her mind.

  “It’s really not that far to the village,” Karen said coaxingly. “It just takes a long time to walk that far and we’re pregnant. It’s going to be a lot harder if we say here till our last month before we make that trip.”

  Loren considered that a little doubtfully. “So you’re actually talking about something that could transport a lot of people.”

  “Or stuff. We’ll be trading with the other village.”

  “I guess that would be pretty useful. I’ll give it some thought.” She grimaced. “I’d have to figure out the electronics.”

  * * * *

  “What do?”

  Loren dragged her
attention from her project plans and glanced at the owner of the voice and then did a double take when she discovered it was Daeman. She stared at him for a long moment and then smiled abruptly. “That was English!”

  He smiled back a little sheepishly and crouched down next to her. “Try learn. Know Hirachi.”

  Loren grimaced. “Well! You’re doing better than I am. I didn’t even learn Unduleze. The lizard-man put it in my head.” She studied his face. “You have your eye on one of the pod ladies from Earth?” she asked teasingly.

  He hesitated. “Yes. Give heart to one.”

  Loren felt her chest tighten uncomfortably, but she ignored it. “You don’t even know her yet! She must be beautiful.”

  “Is. Most beautiful ting I ever see.”

  Loren dragged in a difficult breath and forced a smile. “I’m happy for you, Daeman. I know you’ve been unhappy.”

  His face darkened. “Understand now. Always will be unhappy widout her.” He frowned. “Hard, but I learn de Hirachi way.”

  Loren frowned at him in confusion. “I’m sorry. I didn’t understand that. Why would you want to learn the Hirachi way? You’re … a wonderful man, Daeman, just the way you are. If you think she won’t accept that, then she just doesn’t deserve you.” She hesitated. “Kael said there were Deisen women among the pod people. Don’t you think you’d be happier with a woman who understands your ways?”

  His face tightened. She saw frustration flicker in his eyes. “Already gave heart, Lau-ren. Gave to you. Asking you take me as lover.”

  Loren was too stunned to think of a reply.

  He lifted a hand and touched her face. “See love in your eyes for udders. Know already give heart.” He paused and she heard him swallow. “Love you, Lau-ren. I make dis enough. No fight wid Kael and Dakaar and Balen. Swear on honor. Dey first in heart, I know.”

  Loren felt her eyes fill with tears. “That doesn’t mean I can’t love you, too.” Shifting up onto her knees, she slipped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her face against his. “There’s a very special place in my heart that I saved just for you.”

  * * * *

  Loren had special incentive to complete her cart project. As soon she realized that the men were working frantically to complete the central part of the structure before the babies were born, she began working more feverishly on completing the transport. She wanted to have her baby in their own village if it was at all possible. Shara, she finally discovered, was a mid-wife and herbalist—experienced. She thought as long as Teron had confidence that Shara could help her with the birth there was no reason to dash over to the other village.

  Especially if she got the transport working. If worse came to worse and any sort of problems arose, they could send for Teron.

  She wasn’t nearly as confident when she actually went into labor. Apparently her men weren’t either. They’d hated her transport on sight and none of them had wanted to try it. The moment she had her first contraction, however, Kael, Dakaar, and Balen ran a foot race to reach it first. Kael won, hopping into the front to start it, and Dakaar and Balen piled in the back.

  Loren gaped at the three of them as they disappeared over the first hill.

  “I wonder how long it’s going to take them to figure out they left you here,” Karen said dryly.

  “Stop it!” Loren said irritably. “They went to get Teron ….” She frowned. “At least, I hope so.”

  “Take long time first,” Shara said calmly. “Dey figure it out. We go inside now, ok?”

  Daeman dragged his attention from the rapidly diminishing cart and turned to look at Loren uneasily. Tossing down the tool he’d been using to work the cement-like material they were using to build the pods, he strode quickly across the clearing and scooped Lau-ren up into his arms. “Dumbasses,” he muttered.

  Loren sent him a reproachful look. “They’re just excited.”

  Daeman decided not to comment on that. He was glad he had not. By the time he had carried Lau-ren inside and settled her beside the birthing pool, his heart was beating unpleasantly fast and he had begun to feel lightheaded. Both sensations increased when he discovered that Lau-ren had no intention of allowing him to escape. She caught his hand when he would have straightened and fled. “Stay with me?”

  He swallowed convulsively several times and looked at the other women hopefully. In his village the women would never have allowed a man to be present at a birthing.

  Instead of coming to his rescue, however, they told him to wait so that he could get into the pool to support her once she was ready. He ground his teeth, promising himself that he would choke the life out of the Hirachi when they returned, regardless of his vow to Lau-ren. He settled behind her to support her in a reclining position once they’d undressed her, however, lightly massaging her mounded belly for her.

  Shara instructed her to draw her knees up and then knelt between her feet, examining her. Brushing Daeman’s hands from her belly next, she settled her own hands on either side of Lau-ren’s belly for what seemed a very long time to Daeman and began to make him uneasy.

  More uneasy than he had been.

  She frowned.

  Daeman tensed.

  “Tink maybe baby in hurry.”

  “What mean?” Daeman demanded hoarsely, fearing he knew the answer.

  “What do you mean?”

  “We see,” Shara said, getting to her feet. “I go make tea.”

  Loren studied her uneasily when she left. Shara had told her that the tea would help to soothe the pain that she would have as her labor progressed. She’d analyzed it with the scanner, however, and she couldn’t see that the herb Shara had picked had any properties that would act as a pain reliever. It made her more uneasy, however, because Shara had told her she could only give it to her when she had made enough progress to warrant it.

  She hadn’t really felt any kind of pain when she’d felt her first few contractions—nothing that she’d associated with labor, at any rate. She’d thought it was the baby moving and then she’d thought it was a muscle cramp. Almost from the moment it had finally sank in that it was labor contractions, however, she’d had an ache that had been steadily growing worse.

  She nuzzled her face against Daeman’s arm. “Thank you for staying with me.”

  Daeman felt his throat tighten. He had not wanted to. He did not want to now. He wanted to be far away so that he could not hear her cries of pain. He did not tell her that, though. He lifted one of the hands he had been stroking her belly with and stroked her cheek, bending his head to kiss the top of her head. “I here for you … always.”

  “You are,” Loren said, smiling. “Your English is getting really good.”

  “I work bery hard. Soon no sound like dumbass.”

  Loren chuckled. “I knew I shouldn’t have taught you all the ‘bad’ words first! You don’t sound like a dumbass now. I think it’s cute.”

  “Deisen warrior … no cute,” he muttered. “Handsome.”

  Loren turned her head to look up at him, grinning. She lifted a hand to his cheek. “Yes, you are. Very handsome … but that has nothing to do with ‘cute’ … at least not the way I used it.” She thought it over. “Charming.”

  His eyes gleamed. Bending closer, he kissed her. He was just warming to his theme when Loren felt a particularly hard contraction. She broke away, sucking in a gasp. Daeman was staring at her in consternation when she opened her eyes again. He flicked an anxious look toward the door Shara had gone out. “Where dat bitch?”

  “Daeman!”

  His lips tightened. “Gone long enough hunt herbs den brew tea!”

  “She hasn’t been gone that long,” Loren disputed, glancing around for Karen to confirm it. She discovered that Karen had a strange look on her face. She’d curled her arms around her own belly. “Karen?”

  Karen’s head popped up and she looked at Loren wide eyed. “I think mine’s coming, too.” She paused as a puddle began to form between her legs. “Uh oh.”

/>   “Piss self?” Daeman asked, clearly disapproving.

  Karen glared at him. “My water broke, stupid!” she snarled at him.

  Daeman glared back at her until that finally registered. It wiped the expression off his face as it sank in that he was trapped in the room with two women in labor. He whipped his head toward the door. “Shara! Get ass here, bitch!” he bellowed.

  “She’s going to slip poison in your drink if you don’t stop calling her a bitch.”

  “She no know what bitch is.”

  “Yes, she does,” Karen corrected him. “I told her.”

  Daeman glared at her, discovered she was in the process of removing her clothes and decided to look for reinforcements. “I go find Ka-ren’s mans!”

  Loren caught herself on her elbows when he leapt up abruptly and strode toward the door with the air of someone in full flight.

  “He won’t be back,” Karen said.

  Daeman jolted to a halt at the door and flicked a resentful look at her. “I come back den, Lau-ren,” he said tightly.

  Loren sent Karen a reproachful look. “Mean. You know he wanted to escape.”

  “I know … but the other three dumbasses are about half way to the village by now.”

  Loren wanted to argue with Karen’s assessment of her men, but she discarded it. They weren’t dumbasses and Karen knew it. She thought it was cute that they’d panicked. They were always so cool headed!

  It occurred to her after a moment to wonder what Karen was thinking now that she was about to have her baby. Karen had told her that she had children. She’d never asked her about them, knowing it would be painful for Karen to talk about. “You ok?”

  Karen nodded. “It isn’t my first time.”

  Loren’s chest tightened with sympathy. “I know. You told me.”

  Karen looked at her oddly. “I thought you’d forgotten.”

  “I figured you would talk about it if you wanted to.”

  Karen thought that over. “I do tend to speak my mind,” she said wryly. She frowned at her belly thoughtfully, rubbing it. “I was really young when I had the girls. I guess I wasn’t a very good mother.” She shrugged. “I left them with my mother a lot when they were really little, just so I could go out and have fun. I guess it was sort of pay back that they got so wild when they hit their teens. They did the same thing I did—got pregnant too young. I miss them something awful, but the truth is they didn’t seem to really want me butting in to their lives. And I know they have mom. And I can’t do anything to change that. I’m going to try really hard not to make the same mistakes with this one … this family.”