The Yielding of Rose (Terran Captives Book 2)

by Trent Evans

  There were far worse things than being used by the doctor.

  “We’re going back to Terra,” Kosha said.

  Her gaze snapped up to his, her jaw falling open.

  “W-what?”

  “And you’re going with us.”

  She shook her head, unsure she’d actually heard the words. “I–I’m coming with you?”

  That’s when she saw the open door to her crate as Kosha set it down on the floor before her.

  “Since we can’t exactly walk down the street with you, you’re going to have to go in again.” He stood aside, expecting her to obey.

  “Master, I–I don’t understand. Why? What’s happening?”

  He crouched down before her, a finger gently caressing the line of her jaw. A softness crept into his gaze as he peered at her.

  “We’re going because my slave has some unfinished business.”

  “I… you’re serious?”

  “Yes, Rose.”

  Kosha looked down then and her heart froze. Something was wrong. When he locked gazes with her again, her stomach dropped.

  Oh no.

  “There’s something you need to know, Rose, before we go. I found Howard.”

  She couldn’t help but smile, elation coursing through her veins at the news. Part of her wondered if she’d ever be able to find one man on a planet of billions of people, but it shouldn’t have surprised her that her resourceful Master would have located him.

  Kosha lips tightened into something resembling a frown. “He’s in... poor health. Very poor health.”

  “Oh no,” she whispered. “It… this… Jesus, this isn’t happening. No… I—”

  “Listen to me, girl. There’s time, but we don’t have much. We must go now.”

  Her mind raced as she thought of it, as she realized the cold irony, the cruelty of having a chance to see him again... and knowing it might be the last time she’d ever see. Her eyes burned, tears threatening already, but it wasn’t time for that. She needed to think.

  And then she remembered.

  “Master, you wouldn’t happen to have my… my clothes from when you... you know. When we first met?”

  “I do.”

  Thank God.

  “Do you still have my…. my identification?”

  For a moment, her heart flip-flopped at the image of him flushing it out the airlock. But if he still had her possessions, he might still have that too.

  “Of course. It’s been cataloged and stowed away safely.”

  She could have kissed him at the news.

  “Can you, um, unstow it for me?”

  “Yes, but why? You hardly need identification on Yaanfahr. You’re contraband here, human.”

  She swallowed hard, the lump in her throat painful, but a resolve stealing through her body. She could do this. She would do this.

  “Before we go see Howard, I need you to take me back to London.”

  * * *

  The cold wind galloped along the ground as he waited outside the house. He’d found the hospice home where Howard was staying, and he’d carried Rose there undercover of his spoofing unit from his landing zone in the hills outside of a city called East Wenatchee in Washington state.

  “Such an odd name,” he’d thought to himself. “These fascinating humans.”

  But every step he took her, every step he drew closer to that house, was that much nearer the moment he would potentially have to let her go.

  He and Torval had talked it over during the trip. As it exited the Sol gate, the Vidu Rei coasting toward Terra, they’d discussed the implications of taking her back to Terra. Torval had asked him once more, “If she wanted to go home... would you let her?”

  And once again, Kosha had said yes.

  Even though both now knew that there was a significant chance that taking her back to Terra now would mean she would decide she didn’t want to leave again.

  Granting his slave this one last wish might mean Kosha would lose his sweet Rose forever.

  But she needed this. She needed this closure. She needed to know.

  She needed to say goodbye.

  And whether or not she came back with her Master, or made a new life on her former home of Terra, that was now in the hands of fate, and chance, and random luck. Or the lack thereof.

  It was no longer up to him.

  He cared for her enough to give her this, even if the prospect filled him with a sort of dread he’d never experienced before in his life. For she’d become… everything to him.

  Somehow his world was now smaller, more intimate — and yes, more meaningful — because Rose was in it. Because she was at the center of it.

  As he stood there looking down upon her, the wind cold about their legs, Rose’s fetching auburn locks waving in the chill breeze, her eyes squinting against the coolness, he knew it. If she said she couldn’t come back with him, he would leave her here.

  He’d be leaving his slave.

  And he’d be leaving his heart too.

  The gray knit dress he’d picked for her was one the replicator had created based upon the extensive database of clothing the main computer of the Vidu Rei had compiled on humans. It fit her buxom body in a way that made his mouth water, though it was still tasteful. He hoped she was comfortable in it.

  She met his gaze then, her arms clasped over her breasts, pressing the manila envelope to her chest.

  “You’re not going to tell me what’s in that envelope, are you?”

  He’d taken her to a peculiar human financial institution called a “bank” located in the south side of London. It had been rather difficult to take her there under cover of spoofing during daylight hours, the city streets teeming with traffic and people, but he’d managed it.

  She shook her head at him, giving him a wan smile. “I can’t tell you. Please, Master, I hope you understand. I need to do this alone. All of this, alone.”

  He nodded to her, scanning the area around them to make sure they weren’t observed before stepping away and removing the spoofing field from her form. It was early evening, the lights just beginning to flicker on in the streets, and no one was about.

  It was just the two of them.

  He, fearing he was about to lose the most wonderful thing he’d ever encountered.

  She, fearing she was about to lose the only wonderful thing she’d ever had as a child.

  It was cruel. Just as the Universe was cruel. But he accepted it, just as he would accept her decision that part of him already knew she was certainly going to make. No matter how much it hurt.

  “I’ll wait for you here,” he said. “Take as long as you need.”

  She nodded, looking down at the ground, her beautiful eyes already beginning to well.

  “Be strong, my Rose. Whatever happens, be strong.”

  He watched her walk, slowly, reluctantly toward the house, up onto the porch, the faint yellow light of the porch light casting her into shadow.

  The door opened and he could just make out a tall woman with dark, graying hair. The woman smiled, then stepped back inside, beckoning with a hand. Rose followed her, and then the door closed behind them.

  And his Rose was gone.

  * * *

  She had no real idea what she would say as she waited there on the porch. She could hear footsteps behind the door and her heart was already beginning to race. She still couldn’t believe what had happened. She was back on Earth. She was back with Howard. It was all too unreal. Her head spun with it.

  And then she thought of why she was here, and the dread sank its claws into her heart once again.

  He’s dying. Howard’s dying.

  Then the door opened, and a tall, striking woman with dark hair, streaks of gray at the temples, wearing a polka-dotted medical smock filled the doorway. She was actually rather pretty, her figure statuesque, and her eyes were kind as she smiled.

  “Hi. Can I help you?”

  “My — my name is Rose. I—”

  The woman’s
eyes blinked several times and she took a step back. Then she grinned. “Please, come in. I–I thought maybe he was just… confused.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Howard has been adamant for days that you would visit. I, well, I’m a little ashamed to admit I thought you were a figment of his imagination...”

  “You... you know who I am?”

  “He’s told us all about you. Rose, with the long, beautiful red hair? That’s you, isn’t it?”

  Her eyes welled as she nodded, giving the woman a goofy grin. “Yes, it is.”

  “My name is Carla,” the woman said, as she stood aside, waving her into the house. “Let’s go see Howard.”

  Each step inside the warm, well-lit house was like an eternity for Rose as she walked down the hallway, turned to the left, following Carla. She pushed the white paneling bedroom door open, and let Rose inside.

  And then she saw him on a great bed in the corner of the room, a machine on a medical tripod next to him, beeping. He was under the covers, on his back, the white tubing of his oxygen feed running just under his nose. His lips were thin and pale, and he looked so gaunt.

  But in his eyes, when he looked upon her, she saw that same keen intellect, that same never-ending, fathomless kindness. And the one thing she’d never felt from any parent — foster or otherwise — in her life

  Love.

  It was as if she’d only left yesterday.

  “Rose!” he said, his frail voice, breaking. “Oh, my Rose, come here.” He reached for her.

  And she ran to him, and hugged him.

  “I was waiting for you,” he said, whispering it over and over in her ear as she hugged him. “I knew you’d come.”

  She could feel his bones. He was so very thin. Carla had told her what to expect with late stage cancer. It was already in his lungs. They’d been giving him breathing treatments all day long, trying to buy him more time before they’d have to sedate him. For good.

  But he’d finally told them he’d had enough. As if, somehow, he knew she really was coming today.

  “But… why? Why are you here, Rose?” He clasped her hand in his fiercely. “I knew you’d come, but I… I don’t know why.” Incredibly, he gave her a wry smile, the same one he’d always had for her as a child. “Surely, it’s not just to say goodbye to an old man.”

  The tears were already coming as he said it. She wiped them away as best she could. Before she fell completely to pieces, Rose opened up the manila envelope and pulled the papers from inside.

  “Here, read these,” she said, pressing them into Howard’s hands.

  “My eyes aren’t so good anymore,” he murmured. “But I’ll try.”

  She watched him as he read, confusion in his eyes, at first.

  Then the meaning of what was written on those papers dawned on him.

  She’d had them drawn up not long after she’d first arrived in England. She’d paid extra for the barrister to work remotely with an American attorney to make sure all the terms were correct, that all it would need to be legal would be Howard’s signature, and a witness. Then, she’d decided to leave those same papers in a safety deposit box at that bank in south London, embarrassed with herself for being so impulsive, sure she was insane to have ever even entertained the idea in the first place...

  “I… I don’t understand, Rose. What is this?”

  “Keep reading, Howard,” she said, sniffling.

  He did and then he set the papers down, tears streaming down his face. “Oh Rose! Rose… is this what I think it is?”

  She nodded fiercely, and in her mind’s eye, she was that little girl again, remembering how she’d always hugged herself to that gentle giant of a man. Remembering how he’d always made her feel so safe.

  “Just let me get this out,” she said. “I needed you to know, Howard. You didn’t just save a foster kid. You saved your daughter.”

  She burst into tears.

  “Oh, I don’t know what to do,” he said, swiping at his eyes.

  Carla stepped forward, pressing a pen into his hand. “I think this should do,” she said, her eyes misty as well.

  And then he signed it, with his wan, pale hand. Rose hugged him again.

  “Oh, Rose, this is — I don’t know what to say.” He coughed violently for a few seconds, his face red. Then he smiled, his voice little more than a croak. “You’ve made me so happy. So happy. I love you, little Rose. Thank you.”

  Then she nuzzled her head against his temple and whispered the words, “Thank you. Thank you for all the love you gave me, for all the h-hope you gave me.” She planted a soft, wet kiss on his cheek. “Now, go to sleep, Daddy. I love you s-so much. When you wake up, you’ll see me again.”

  Chapter 34

  What followed took several days, the process of looking after his affairs far more involved than she’d anticipated. But she was glad she could do it for him.

  He hadn’t lasted longer than an hour after they’d sedated him. And she’d cried, and Carla had cried. Then the mortuary techs had come, and after Rose gave her father one last kiss on his cool forehead, they’d taken his body away — and she and Carla had cried some more.

  The following week, she’d spent making seemingly endless phone calls. Fortunately, Howard had had an ironclad living will constructed, and it hadn’t taken longer than a two-hour meeting at his attorney’s office in Wenatchee to go over the changes to it since she was now his sole living heir.

  She didn’t realize he’d never had any children of his own.

  He’d been a pastor for more than forty years. She found out while sitting in that office, watching the lawyer with the pomaded cobalt-black hair reviewing the documents, that this was another way of saying goodbye to a human being, this process of tidying up their life, washing their existence on this Earth.

  It made her sad that it felt like she was... erasing him.

  But Howard would never really be erased.

  He would always be in her mind and her heart… and she knew deep down that she would see him again someday.

  There were a few surprises, the biggest one being that despite him being a pastor, he’d apparently invested well. His house was long paid off, and he had considerable retirement funds left, even after outstanding medical bills, legal fees, and taxes. He had a significant amount of net assets.

  Even more surprising was the text of the will itself that the lawyer took great pains to read to her in his office. She hadn’t understood most of it, but then it came to the part about distribution of assets of the estate — and that definitely got her attention.

  Half of his estate was going to his church.

  The other half... was going to her.

  She wasn’t sure she’d heard it right, and she’d actually asked the lawyer to repeat what he’d said. He’d given her an indulgent smile, and did just that.

  “Now, after executor fees, taxes, legal fees and remaining debts of his estate — and sale of his home in Wenatchee — you stand to inherit… well north of one hundred thousand dollars, possibly quite a bit more than that.”

  She’d said the four words slowly and quietly. “I don’t want it.”

  His eyes had narrowed and he’d asked her to repeat herself this time, and she told him, “I don’t want any of this. I don’t deserve any of this. Give it to his church for me. But... I do have one request.”

  His eyebrow raised, “Oh?”

  “I want to write a check for somebody.” She’d signed all the requisite paperwork naming his lawyer a direct beneficiary of her inheritance to be disbursed as she requested, along with a check for twenty-five thousand dollars to Carla.

  By the end of it, she’d been wrung out both emotionally and physically.

  Now, as she drove the rental car back to the motel room Howard’s lawyer had rented for her in East Wenatchee, she thought again of her Master, and what was to become of her. Of both of them.

  Amazingly, neither Kosha nor Torval had interfered with her in the least in
concluding her precious Howard’s affairs. It was a truly alien experience for her, being able to do… anything at all. Incredibly, that freedom… unsettled her.

  She had no idea where the two aliens had gone off to; she supposed they must have been watching her somehow, her Master explaining that Torval would be surveilling them from orbit to ensure nothing untoward happened. He was the insurance that would get Rose safely back to Yaanfahr in case something should happen to Kosha. Perhaps even at that moment, Kosha under the cover of his spoofing unit watched her even now.

  And it was a comfort in a way. She’d become so used to not having to worry about anything. She remembered one instance, the day after Howard’s death, how she’d been on the phone in her hotel room, speaking with yet another attorney — a probate lawyer this time who had been assigned by Howard to liquidate his hard assets — and her fingers almost of their own accord had traced her neck, the wrongness of feeling a collar that wasn’t there.

  It should have been there — and she missed it.

  Her wrists and ankles felt unnaturally light, the absent weight of the cuffs disconcerting in its own right. How could one become so used to bonds, to symbols of subjugation? But she had.

  And she didn’t feel right anymore without them. As she’d walked out of that lawyer’s office, she’d realized something else too.

  She missed Kosha. She missed her Master.

  She pulled into the parking lot of her hotel, the waning sun setting in the west behind her, casting a brilliant orange-yellow glow over the gentle hillside that led up from the river into East Wenatchee.

  Killing the ignition, sitting there in the silent car, she realized something else.

  There was nothing left for her here.

  What was left for her was out there, back on a planet as strange as it was fascinating — and one she didn’t even know how to get back to.