A Slave to the Servants Ch. 35

Jonathan dove in the moment he was near the edge and Aiden followed. The other three Brothers had never learned to swim and yelled for their family to come back. They didn't like that they couldn't follow.

"Don't be upset," Bane soothed picking up Rees and Mycah. "We'll all bathe and then we'll teach you to swim."

Damien carried Niah in and we found a shallow area by the steps. Jonathan and Aiden showed up with shiny rocks they'd found on the bottom. They had gotten one for each of their Brothers. The gifts didn't totally soothe the hurt feelings of being left, but it helped.

We scrubbed ourselves and the boys in the warm, swirling water. Pretty soon we were all clean, our charges weren't worried about that, though. Mycah's family wanted to learn how to swim.

I figured we'd be late for the morning meal at this rate, but the boys loved the swimming lesson. Jonathan and Aiden had quickly disappeared to explore the pool as Evan taught their Brothers how to move in the water. The little boys were desperate to follow their Brothers.

My method of swimming was not the same as what the men did. There wasn't much I could teach them on this front. I pulled myself up the steps and dried my body by the fires. It seemed like a good idea to get dressed so I could help Mycah's family when they got out.

Several families had little boys and they were getting them re-clothed after their bath. It was funny to watch the other men battle with the little ones as they did up their outfits. Stubborn children were used to doing this themselves, even if they did it wrong. Male children in the Child Keepers rarely got the undivided attention they were all getting now.

The love and affection from their caregivers would allow them to form strong bonds. The Keepers were always kept too busy to really pay attention to one family. This type of attention was normal in the camp and created strong communal relationships. I was glad to see it happening so quickly.

Jonathan and Aiden were all over the water exploring. I'd see them pop up for air as they examined the contents of our bathing pool. The two boys had no fear as they explored the water. This was fun and liberating. They seemed to be having a grand time.

Evan felt Jonathan, he always had. My family was aware of their offspring, but except the one time he tried to bond with them, Jonathan had not seemed overly conscious of his male breeder. As I sat and watched my family, I realized that had changed. Suddenly I felt Jonathan projecting powerfully to Evan. It wasn't something I wanted to feel, though. It was a call to arms.

Before I could stand on my feet every man in the hall moved as one. Little boys were literally thrown from the pool and caught by men that were standing around me. Short knives were grabbed from the clothing laying around and tossed into the pool. Men's arms darted out of the water and grabbed the weapons in perfect synchrony.

I'd never been this close to the men when they were grabbed by The Great Harmonious Spirit before. The raw power of it silenced the scream that I wanted to let out. There was no fear in this room, only determination. Our quiet morning had become a battle and we would win.

It was like slow motion as the huge black shape rose out of the water near the edge of the light. I couldn't see into the darkness that well, but the men could. The snake like alien writhed and coiled. It's jaws were wrapped around something small and pale and I did scream.

Jonathan's body was caught in the creature's teeth. I saw Aiden biting frantically at the creature's neck trying to make it let go. That wasn't what forced the alien's actions, though.

Damien's family swarmed around the thing taking out chunks of its flesh. The razor sharp secondary teeth my men carried were not just for show. My family was joined by several other families of men and together they tore the creature to pieces.

More men rushed into the bathing room from outside. Mund's family led the charge with Basin's right behind. They roared a mighty war cry as one being and the walls resounded with it. They were being called and commanded by The Great Spirit. The men's power was in their numbers and their absolute cooperation, we certainly had that here.

The pool had to be searched and the danger neutralized. The new men stripped and plunged into the water intent on finding the invaders hiding in this space. Other men stood between the little boys and the water, weapons drawn and ready.

The men in the pool had torn the first creature to pieces in the water. There were other aliens hiding and they were treated the same way. The Paterian men attacked them the way a school of piranas would have. The aliens fought back viciously, intent of maintaining this entrance to our living space.

I didn't feel any panic from my family, despite the great risk. The Great Harmonious Spirit was in control and there was only order to their thoughts. Still, I couldn't quite tell what had happened to my baby boy.

Mycah and his two Brothers had been tossed out of the pool before Damien and his Brothers went after Jonathan. The little boys were standing and staring at the water. Their teeth were down, but they weren't frantic. The Great Spirit had them and they were doing what it commanded.

The men found many snake creatures hiding. I watched in horror as they tore them apart in the water. We had literally been on top of them, but they had been waiting for something. Realizing I stood defenseless, I pulled my gun out and trained it on the water.

Evan appeared suddenly at the steps, he leapt out of the water with our two boys. He placed them on their feet behind his armed campmates and disappeared back into the pool. I wasn't spared a glance as he returned to the hunt.

I turned and looked down to see Jonathan and Aiden panting. They were bloodied and had jagged bite marks on their upper bodies. What really got my attention was what was hanging out of their mouths. Both the children had taken a chunk out of the alien. Their mouths were full of bloody, dripping alien flesh.

"Spit that out!" I ordered, unsure if the nasty alien fluids were harmful to us.

Both boys complied and grinned up at me with their teeth down. They were Paterian children alright. Wicked, fierce boys whose instinct to fight could not be denied.

I was grateful neither child appeared too badly hurt. They were standing and breathing, for which I was thankful, but I didn't have time to fully examine them. We were currently at ground zero for the alien invasion and we all needed to be alert. I turned my attention back to the bath just as a long black shape shot out of the water toward us.

It wasn't a Paterian male and I didn't hesitate. I knew how these things moved. I shot my gun and tore the thing in half, right where the arms met the body. The alien dropped down into two parts and made a sickening splat as it hit the floor in pieces. The men didn't spare it a second glance as they stayed vigilant for more invaders.

The water in the normally calm pool roiled as the men fought beneath the surface. In my mind's eye I saw the plan the men were following. Once the pool was cleared we needed to find what access point the aliens were using. They must be swimming in where the water entered and we needed to defend that entrance. Right now, it was imperative that the children be moved to a safer place, as soon as possible.

Damien was out of the water suddenly, followed by the rest of my family. I saw the vicious predators they could be as they moved. Dark stripes covered trained and toned muscle, the men looked as dangerous as I'd ever seen them.

Other men, powerful like Damien and his Brothers, leapt from the water. None of the men bothered to dress, but they picked up their swords and guns. The Paterians made a wall around the children, reinforcing the guard we had been left with. It was time to get the small and weak away from the fighting.

The guard moved as a single unit and the children were herded along. Mycah's family needed no prodding to move with the group, but most of the other children were confused. The men moved without speaking. If you weren't part of The Great Harmonious Spirit, there was no direction.

"Ciara," Bane growled, as we moved down the hall away from the bathing pool, "if it isn't Paterian, kill it."

"Follow the men down the hall away from here," I called to the confused children.

The several families of children surrounded by men made their way quickly down the hall. We walked toward the large room used for healing, which was also near where the children were usually Kept. We were met by a group of guards that took the uninjured young toward the children's area. Mycah's family was herded inside the infirmary and my men left us with the large contingent of well armed guards at the door.

Jonathan and his family headed for an empty warm stone and scrambled up on it. They sat quiet and attentive, just like most of the other men in the hall. It was easy to see who The Great Harmonious Spirit commanded and who it didn't. I wondered why some and not others as I made my way over to my boys. There was no time to worry about the other men, though.

Mycah's family surrounded Jonathan and Aiden. I grabbed a pail of water and fresh cloth. Rose met me at the slab with her own pail and cloth.

"Oh, Ciara..." she said softly looking down at the boys' bleeding bodies.

Mycah's family looked up at her and then at me, before their attention was back on the doorway. What was happening outside had most of their focus.

"We just need to clean them up so the Healers can help them," I said trying to sound calm.

Rose and I cleaned the wounds on both boys. The teeth marks were deep in some places and Jonathan had some uneven tears that were bleeding profusely. Our charges didn't flinch or whine as we worked. Mycah's family watched us and didn't interfere. When the Healers approached I wasn't surprised when the boys accepted the poking and prodding without any complaint.

Then, I focused on my men and felt the order to their thoughts. The Great Harmonious Spirit that gripped them had them exploring the underground tunnels the water took. Rue's family had developed a way to breathe air under the water and my men were using them. They swam deep into the underground streams looking for the aliens. The organized search was very effective.

My family was close now and although I was not invited to participate in The Great Harmonious Spirit, I could witness it. My men were intimately connected to other men they knew well and trusted. For instance, I could sense Mund's and Basin's families deeply. Tyle's family was tightly bound into that original coil and so was Mycah's family. I felt Stayne and his Brothers fighting alongside Arnold's family. Those connections branched out and I felt other men, which led to bonds with still more men. It was like an enormous spiderweb of relationships.

This was what Thom had been talking about when he'd originally talked to us about The Great Harmonious Spirit. The men connected to other men they trusted. That's why little Jonathan had been able to call for help underwater. He'd used his love for his father and had initiated The Great Harmonious Spirit.

I felt a personal sense of relief it was Rhane and his Brothers helping my boy. These Healers were old and well respected. I knew they would not miss anything.

The Healer's worked quickly and efficiently cauterizing bleeding and examining the wounds. Every little cut was checked very thoroughly. Several of the more jagged bite marks received a stitch or two. My little ones did not fight the Healers.

Jonathan looked up at them and suddenly grew his secondary teeth, which surprised me. I looked at his wicked smile and gasped. He'd broken a tooth.

The Healers just used a device to grab the damaged tooth and pull it out quickly. That must have hurt because all the little Brothers touched Jonathan for a moment. The Healers used another device to stop the bleeding. I just hoped that tooth would grow back.

Rhane and his Brother applied healing salve and wrapped both Aiden's and Jonathan's wounds in clean cloths. The boys accepted the wraps and then lay back on the slab. The rest of Mycah's family lay down so they were all touching. Their eyes drifted shut and they stayed like that, seemingly asleep. Think about this, is it clothes or cloths?

"What is going on?" I asked quietly, looking up at Rhane as he packed up his tools.

The Healers were part of The Great Harmonious Spirit and they found my confusion unfathomable. It took them a moment to answer.

"Injured males must rest so they can heal. These boys will rest until the next meal and then we will check them. You stay here and watch them, Ciara," Rhane told me before he moved away with his family.

I looked at Rose and she smiled wanly back.

"That sounded reassuring," she said taking my pail and cleaning towel. "I know you must be worried, but they seem fine."

"FINE?!" a woman roared behind us.

The men in the hall that were being commanded by The Great Harmonious Spirit barely spared her a glance. Rose and I both jumped nearly a foot in the air hearing her outburst.

"They are not fine!" the woman raved. "They are children that were attacked by an ALIEN! This is not a safe place for the men! They will be killed here!"

I couldn't help but let out a sharp, coarse laugh at her outrage.

"The MOMENT my boy saw the danger he reached out for his male breeder for help," I responded angrily. "My family reached out to the camp. These boys were never safer. There is always danger, but you took away the men's ability to defend themselves on those compounds. They can't connect to The Great Harmonious Spirit when you keep them divided and isolated. The men have to have love and trust to survive."

The woman on the slab had a vicious wound across her neck. She still looked at me angrily and growled.

"We put them there for their safety! They are not safe here! You are nothing more than a slave and will never understand!" she spat out.

"What doesn't she understand?" Kana asked walking up from behind us.

She gently shooed Rose and told her to go help the Healers. I spared my friend a confused look as Kana settled on the edge of my son's warm stone. She pushed me around the rock so I rested behind her. I didn't really feel we needed protection, but my family and I were going to get it.

Rose moved away, but continued to watch as Kana spoke.

"Perhaps you should explain the whole story to her," Kana continued. "Tell the human how we tricked the men onto the compounds. Explain to her how we made sure the different ages never bonded. Tell her why we did all that. It was never for their safety and you know that. It was so we could sell the ore off the planet! The men are powerful when The Great Harmonious Spirit has them. They can even defy us. These aliens will never survive here."

The room was silent after Kana spoke and I saw the rage in the eyes of the woman she had been speaking with.

"How DARE YOU..." the woman started to say and Kana laughed.

"They know," Kana said blithely, "the men here know because their women are honest with them. You should be honest with yourself about our motivations and reasons. Arguing that these injured males are reason to undo the salvation of this world is foolish indeed."

A young family that had been standing along a near wall approached us slowly. Just looking at them I knew they were young Warriors rescued from a compound. They were not bonded to the camp and they were not grabbed by The Great Harmonious Spirit. They looked very suspicious of all of this.

"Why would we be put on the compound instead of living here?" the lead Brother asked Kana with a slightly defensive posture. "We have never heard this."

The boys looked nervous talking to females and I could tell they were ready to bolt away if Kana attacked. They must be brave men to do what they were doing now. Kana just settled herself more firmly on Jonathan's stone and started to speak with them.

The woman with the neck wound attempted to get up, most likely to fight, but she couldn't. Her wound was too bad and prevented too much movement. Tyle and his family further limited her by pushing her back down.

"Movement will injure you, cousin," Tyle said in a commanding tone. "We will not lose good women to this battle when we can help it. Stay still until you heal."

The woman wanted to fight Kana, but she was no match for men under The Great Harmonious Spirit's control. Several families approached quickly and literally bound her body to the table with stike rope. She would be calm and rest, whether she wanted to or not.

Kana watched the men bind the other woman impassively before continuing her conversation.

"Many generations ago we realized the ore on this planet was valuable to other races. It fuels the portals that allow them to cross between worlds," she explained.

Many older boys and men from the compound, left here for their safety, slowly surrounded her to listen.

"Men of this world did not like the idea of letting the ore leave our world. They fought the idea fiercely and called it wrong," she announced to the assembly.

"Why?" one of the young men asked, inching closer with his family.

I crawled on the slab beside Kana and looked to her to continue. I didn't know either.

"The ore is us," she said and her audience gasped in confusion. "The ore is in our very make up. When we are delivered back to the Paterian fire the ore accumulates. As our physical form sinks deep into the fire we become our integral parts and the planet has us back. The ore the women mine from the mountains is our physical presence on this planet. Without us, there is no ore."

The men and boys were still not understanding, but I did and found the revelation shocking.

"The ore is part of the matrix in our bones and muscles," Kana's Sister with one wing said. "Each of us has a little ore stored within us. The ore is the power that shapes us and connects us to each other and our world."

Both women took very non threatening postures and it seemed to encourage the men to ask questions. It took time but I watched the men from the compound and mountains slowly start to comprehend. They'd never thought about what literally composed their physical selves.

As I sat and considered it seemed the ore was comparable to Earth's coal and oil. It wasn't the same, not by a long shot, but it was similar.

Women all around us were paying attention to the conversation. I heard the shift of a large body behind me and looked back to see Asper watching the interaction intently. She did not speak or interrupt the proceeding, but I noted how pensive she appeared. I wondered what was going through her mind and whose side she would take in this argument. For now, she seemed to be holding her counsel.

Jonathan and his Brothers slept, as they had been commanded to do. I stroked their foreheads and watched them breathe. They seemed well and unperturbed, so my attention shifted back to the conversation.

Kana was talking about how the men were kept divided because, while one family was no match for the women, many men under The Great Harmonious Spirit could challenge any number of women. In fact, even the power of the women's venom could be overcome by the sheer force of numbers. When the men joined they became strong in many, many ways. In order to sell the ore, the women tricked the men onto the compounds and then slowly eroded their communal bond.

"We had thought once we were a rich planet we would free the men, but it never happened," Kana said sadly. "I don't even know why we continue this way. It was soon evident there is nothing we needed from other planets. We hoard the riches, but they have no value to us...."