Page 3 of Rule
“Seriously?” Candy’s eyes widened.“That’s awesome. Congratulations, Evie.”
“Thank you.”
Candy studied her small and shabbyapartment. “Just think, with a government job, you’ll soon be making enoughmoney to move out of this piece-of-shit building. Hell, you’ll get anapartment in the city and you’ll never have to see your asshole of a stepbrotheragain. He won’t be able to make you quit this job like he did the last one.”
She reached out and squeezed my hand. “I’mgoing to miss you. You need to promise me that we’ll still see each other. Ican scrape up enough cash for Roden and I to take the airtrain into the city onceor twice a year and we can meet in the park. What do you say?”
Before I could reply, there was a low moanand coughing from the tiny bedroom just off the kitchen. Candy jumped up andhurried into the room. I could hear her soothing Roden and a few minuteslater, she returned to the kitchen with him.
Candy was a small woman and Roden was eightyears old, but the cystic fibrosis had ravaged his body to the point where shecould still carry him easily. She sat him gently in the chair and wet a clothbefore wiping his face and mouth. The young boy was sweaty and pale, but hegave Candy a small smile.
“Thank you, Mama.”
“You’re welcome, baby. Is your chest stillhurting?”
He nodded and a pinched look of worry cameover Candy’s face. She grabbed an amber coloured bottle from the cupboard andpoured a spoonful of liquid. “Take this, baby. It’ll help.”
Roden swallowed it obediently before smilingat me. “Hi, Evie.”
“Hi, honey. How are you feeling?”
“Okay. Mama says I have anotherinfection.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay. I don’t feel too bad.”
I reached out and ruffled his dark hair.Candy had been our neighbour for only three years, but I loved her and Rodenlike they were family. The cure for cystic fibrosis had been discovered overfifty years ago. Unfortunately, the cure was expensive and only the upperscould afford it. The only other option was the gallberry juice from the planetof Draax.
A shiver went down my back. In two daystime I’d be on Draax. Being bred by a big green alien in exchange for a gallonof gallberry juice and, more importantly, a place to live free of being beatenevery time I opened my mouth or gave the wrong look.
You hope. What if this Draax king is asbad as your stepbrother? As bad as Troy? You’ll be going from the frying paninto the fire.
I shook off my trepidation. The Draax kingwouldn’t beat me. I was too valuable to him. If I was really lucky, he wouldleave me alone except for when he wanted to breed. Hopefully, as long as Ispread my legs, let him have sex with me, and gave him an heir to the throne, Icould live my life peacefully without worrying about being hurt. I’d even havea child or two to love. Being a mother was something I’d always wanted. Didit matter if the baby was alien instead of human, or that I wouldn’t love itsfather?
No, it didn’t.
You’re still going to spend the rest ofyour life on an alien planet with a savage warrior race.
My stomach was churning, and I could feelthat familiar fear and panic enveloping me. I hated that I was so timid, soafraid of everything, but after years of living with my stepbrother, I couldn’tcontrol it. It didn’t help that the race I would soon be living permanentlywith, came across as merciless killing machines. Of course, if it hadn’t beenfor them, Earth as we knew it would no longer exist.
The Draax race had saved Earth’s bacon overforty years ago from an alien race called the Gokmards. The Gokmards were veryclose to taking over our planet when the Draax had swept in with their swordsflashing and destroyed over half the Gokmard army. The Draax’s muscular greenbodies and their brutal fighting skills made them true warriors. Despite theGokmards advanced technology, they were no match for the Draax’s viciousnessand healing abilities. After watching most of their kind be cut to pieces, therest of the Gokmards had fled in defeat to their own world.
The Draax saved us for a reason, of course.Females were rarely born on their planet and now females of breeding age were almostnon-existent. Thanks to similar anatomies and our need to be rescued from theGokmards, the Draax had chosen us to help repopulate their planet.
The gallberry plant they grew and harvestedinto juice only sweetened the pot, as the old ones used to say. After the war,the Draax revealed that their healing abilities were actually thanks to thepink juice extracted from the gallberry plant that grew on their planet. Thejuice healed every known illness and injury to man, from the common cold, to cancer,to genetic diseases like cystic fibrosis.
The Draax joined the United Space Coalitionand quickly struck up an agreement with Earth’s highest authorities. In exchangefor saving us from the Gokmards and supplying us with limited quantities of thegallberry juice, the Draax wanted to start a breeding program with us. It wascompletely voluntary, but after a lack of female volunteers to the program, theDraax had withheld the supply of gallberry juice that humans were already beginningto rely on.
I studied Roden’s pale face as his motherset a glass of water in front of him. Desperate to save themselves or theirloved ones from disease, the women had signed up for the breeding program indroves – mostly lowers and middles, of course. Once they provided a Draax malewith a child, they were free to return to Earth. Not many did. Very few womenwanted to leave their child. Thanks to humans, in the last forty years the Draaxrace’s fear of extinction had disappeared.
I watched Candy lovingly stroke Roden’sface before studying the backpack at my feet. What I was about to give themwould change both their lives.
“Mama, can I watch the hologram screen?” Rodenasked.
Candy nodded. “Yes, but we only have threechits left. Are you sure you want to use up one today? Mama doesn’t get paidagain for another week.”
“I’m sure. I wanna watchDiscoveryWorld. They have a special on the Draax, and how they grow the gallberry plant.”The young boy twisted in his seat to stare at the sad and drooping pink plantsitting in the windowsill. “I’m gonna figure out how to save my plant.”
