Free Indentured Bride by Yamila Abraham Page A

fully visible.  This got her to try to walk, to obey her master’s order, but her foot wouldn’t lift all the way.  She stumbled and time felt as though it grew slow.  The rest of her vision filled with darkness.  The last thing she saw was the concrete floor lifting toward her face.
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    Tabitha woke on a mattress far too comfortable to be her bunk in the slave barracks.  She looked around enough to see that she was in a hospital bed and had an IV in her arm.  This wasn’t the medic station in the slave compound; there was only a steel table there, not a bed.  She was still on Earth, however.  The sheets, curtains, and neutral paint colors on the walls had a pre-invasion feel.  That was all she was able to surmise.  When she closed her eyes she drifted back into semi-unconsciousness. 
    The war with the Hax-Rah had been short, not even a year’s worth of fighting.  She was sixteen when it all started, and Troy Bennett, the love of her life, was seventeen.  Troy had protected her like an older brother at the foster home where they both lived.  When they grew older their feelings changed, evolved, and love came naturally.  The bond they’d formed was so strong they both knew they’d be spending their lives together.  They would become family, and in turn, replace the families that had discarded them.          
    “Are you awake, Ms. Riley?”  She registered the robot’s voice somewhere past her delirium.
    “Mm-hm.”  This time she couldn’t get her eyes to open.
    She and Troy never spoke about the future, but it was certain to them both.  They were able to heal from their rocky pasts together and then were able find joy through each other.  He was her first time and she was his.  The tenderness he showed her was something she’d remember when she felt at her lowest.
    “Your body rejected a toxin you were injected with one day ago.  It is being purged from you, and your fluids replenished.  You should recover speedily.”
    Troy volunteered to be part of the ground effort at their nearest military base.  He was underage, but in the Reserves.  He felt it his duty to help fight the invaders.  There was supposed to be very little risk to his life.  The base was only monitoring the situation in space.  They could launch bombs, but that was a last resort. 
    “I am Diplomo.  The Alliance sent robots like me to ensure that the Hax-Rah do not abuse their slaves.  This was included in the terms of a treaty we signed to end fighting between the Alliance worlds and the Hax-Rah Empire.  Mistreatment of slaves is no longer allowed.” 
    All the news agencies reported that help from Earth’s allies was almost there.  The Hax-Rah wouldn’t get past the atmosphere perimeter.
    “There will be no more torture.  We are monitoring them now.  Every slave compound and Hax-Rah outpost now has Diplomos to ensure there is no further mistreatment of slaves.”
    But no one came to Earth’s rescue.  The Hax-Rah descended into their cities and rounded up everyone with robot soldiers.  Months later, after she was already locked into the hopeless routine of an overworked slave, she learned that all Earth soldiers who dared to stand against them had been executed. 
     “You will be transferred to another slave compound or to a Hax-Rah outpost.”
    Troy had been killed by the invaders.  After learning this, her true despair began.  She’d clung to a thin shred of hope until then.  Even if their world was enslaved she could still find happiness if she was with him. 
    “Do you have any preference on where you wish to go, Ms. Riley?  I seek to grant you every consideration after what you’ve endured.”
    Troy was dead.  There was no hope left in the world.  No joy. 
    No love. 
    “Tell me what you wish, Ms. Riley.”
    “I want to be with my love.”  She heard herself say it, but then wondered if she just dreamed that she had spoken.
    “Love?”