Zelda caressed her hair.“I think we will be fine, but I want you to think of what you want to learn and how you want to learn it.This place is rife with STEM education.You could get back into robotics and create that emergency suit you had planned.”
“Mom, that was expensive.”
“Yes, but it is in the contract.The system we are heading for is his.We are his.You are the overseer’s stepdaughter.You can learn what you like, what you choose to focus on.No human hangups.You have the right to be as smart as you can be.”
Zelda showed her how to use the solar shower and got her a blank tunic to sleep in.Aretta grinned and got ready for bed.
When she was in bed, Zelda put in a hot link com to Orex’s room for outgoing audio only.
“How did you learn all that stuff, Mom?”
“I didn’t sleep.I waited for you.Now you are here, and I can relax and smile again.”
She kissed Aretta on the forehead and said, “Go to sleep, I will never be so far from you that I can’t come to you when you need me.”
Aretta smiled and snuggled into her bed.“You know what would make this perfect?”
“What?”
“A giant cat.”
Zelda laughed and left the room.“Night, baby.”
She closed the door, and Orex was waiting for her.He asked, “She is settling?”
“She falls asleep easy.If she wakes, it will be in two hours.Where are the twins?”
“Still trying to figure out if they can find sexual references for the males I showed them.”
Zelda snickered.“A reference doesn’t mean much.Wait, they do know that the guys are going to consume their energy.”
“I reiterated that when you took Aretta to tuck her in.”
Zelda saw the door to the dining room and called out, “Sort them by colour or size.You choose.”
Orex snorted and pulled her along to their stateroom.
She was still grinning when he undressed her, and she began returning the favour.
Five minutes later, they were moving together, and Zelda dug her nails into his back as the first orgasm of many rippled through her.Orex chuckled and continued to have a feast.
Hours into the sleep cycle, she heard the cry through the com system and saw a blur.She could hear Orex’s voice soothing Aretta, and Aretta talked about what had woken her.
“I was alone, and I couldn’t find Mom, and strangers were coming closer to me, and I couldn’t hide.”
Zelda felt a chill at what could have happened, and she was hoping that it didn’t.
“I screamed and fought and screamed again, then someone said that they couldn’t hurt me, or Mom wouldn’t help anymore.”
She exhaled slowly.Demanding to see and talk with Aretta had been a smart thing.The code words in their conversations had assured her that her daughter was safe and fed.
Zelda was sitting up when Orex came in, wearing a hip wrap.“She’s fine.There are therapists available, and she will begin treatment when we settle in.”
When he settled next to her, she moved into his embrace and said, “I should never have gone through that gate with her.”
He kissed her.“That is how things had to be.All you can do is try to shape your future.You have opened her future from a tunnel into wide-open possibilities.Respect yourself for that.She will grow.She will process the last months on your world.You should engage in some therapy yourself.You were mad enough to feed yourself to raiders to get back to her side.That much desperation speaks to a lot of pain.”
She sighed and stroked the marks on his chest.