The Cowboy Who Strolled Into Town (38 page)

"Here you are my dear. You will find Jarab on the third floor" He hesitated and then added "He has had a very difficult time you know. I am old and do not have the same burdens as Jarab so it is easier for me to remember happier times. I desperately hoped over the many years that we were awaiting your arrival that you would be able to help Jarab remember what it is like to be happy. How it feels to smile..." He trailed off.

"If only I could." thought Vanna. She had so much love to give. She would devote herself to anybody who would show her love in return but when she thought of Jarab 's stand-offish manner and matter-of-fact pronunciations last night, she did not feel as if he deserved her adoration. Her love was bound to be wasted, like her father's love for her mother. It had been buried along with her mother's body. But at least it had been allowed to grow.

              Vanna went through the laboratory doors and got into the elevator. As the elevator ascended to the third floor Vanna found herself wishing that it was the 30th floor, or the 300th. She needed a few moments to calm her rapidly beating heart. Why was she so nervous to see Jarab again? Vanna expected to have to search the glacial laboratory for Jarab, she thought that she would find him lost in his work. She imagined herself standing at his side, patiently waiting for him to turn around and notice her. She was afraid that she might have to wait indefinitely, she did not think that Jarab would find her worthy enough to take his eyes off of his experiments.

              She was wrong. The doors of the elevator opened and Jarab was standing there looking just as nervous as she felt. Amidst his vulnerability, Vanna thought that perhaps she had judged him too harshly. He was breathtakingly handsome. Those eyes. If she hadn't thought that they were always regarding her as somehow inadequate, she could get lost in those eyes.

"Greetings Vanna". Jarab said in a clipped manner. What little tenderness Vanna had felt toward him began to diminish.

              Again he turned, expecting her to follow and because she had no other choice, no other way of moving on with the purpose she had come here to fulfill, she followed. As they went through the maze of the laboratory, Jarab explained experiment after experiment, technology after technology. All developed by him, all developed to benefit Alpha Aquila. If Jarab was to be a distant lover, at least Vanna could have the hope that he would dispense some of the love that he held for his planet onto their offspring. They were to be his heirs after all, not to mention the salvation of his planet.

              Vanna was lost in thought and did not hear the last few things that Jarab had said to her. She almost missed his question.

"I know that it is not how they do things on earth. but it is a much more efficient process."

"I'm sorry, what?"

Jarab sighed. "I was explaining to you the process by which we are to procreate."

"I think that I have an idea, no experience of course," She blushed, "but an idea"

              If she didn't know any better, she thought she might have seen Jarab stifle a fleeting grin.

"No Vanna, that will not be necessary. It's all very Scientific. We are not to reproduce in the traditional way. We do not have to become lovers. All I need from you is to harvest your eggs. All the rest will be done right here in the lab. You will of course need to carry and nourish the children once they are born. You will be allowed a brief recovery period and then we will do it again." Jarab sounded to Vanna as if he was reciting the speech from a script. Vanna had had enough. She came here to save her sisters from the terrible fate that was a result of the careless bargain that her grandfather had made. She traveled in space for 25 years all the way to Alpha Aquila. She had come to be the mother to a new race. Not to serve as a lab rat in some deranged lifelong experiment.

"It would kill me" she whispered.

"It would not. I assure you that every precaution will be taken to ensure your safety"

"You don't understand," she was weeping now, unable to hold back the tears. Jarab looked stricken and for the first time, concerned. "It would kill me. If I have to go through the rest of my life without the warm and caring touch of another, I will die. I know I will, I'm sorry Jarab but it would kill me"

              Jarab was rigid and shocked. Vanna guessed that
no
was something that he had perhaps never heard before.

"It is part of the bargain that was struck by our ancestors" was his reply.

"I don't care" she was furious now. She was shocked that she could be so angry and still so very cold.

"This is how it has to be"

              They stared at each other, neither willing to budge. Vanna was so frightened. She expected Jarab to take her by force, to drug her into oblivion and harvest her body without her consent. She closed her eyes and covered them with her hands. She sunk to the floor. All of the sudden she felt a searing painful blaze on her arm and her eyes shot open. Jarab was touching her over her sleeve, and his touch burnt her.

"This is why it has to be this way," He said gently, "A side-effect of the antidote that your grandfather exchanged for his fortune. I am afraid that if my bare skin was to touch yours, the pain would be unbearable. 

              Vanna looked into his eyes and noticed a kindness that had replaced what she had thought was indifference. Now she could see that it was not indifference that Jarab had felt, but worry. She was silent for a few minutes. Her mind churned as she processed this new turn of events. She finally spoke.

"If I am not to have your physical affection, can I at least have your friendship?"

"What are your terms for this friendship?"

"Conversation. I want to know about you. I want to learn about Alpha Aquila if it is to be my new home, and I want to be a more than a vessel and provider of nourishment to my children. I want to be their mother, and I want you to be their father." Now it was Jarab 's turn to be silent. She knew that she had no right to ask these things of him, but she could not help doing so. In the back of her mind, something told her that Jarab would agree to her conditions. He must be lonely as well. Of course, he had Lucien and she did as well she supposed, but still she desperately hoped that he would give in.

"You have my word" He agreed. "I can allow you an hour of conversation each day. You must understand that I have so much work to accomplish. I have done much in the years that we were awaiting your arrival but there is still much more to do."

"One hour" Vanna agreed. She stood up and submitted herself to Jarab 's procedure.

              The egg harvest had left Vanna sore and exhausted. Her home provided her with the nourishment and rest that her body required in order to recover. Lucien had provided the promised extra blanket and had visited her in her bedroom for countless hours on end. He entertained her with many stories. Her favorites were tales of Jarab when he was a young boy. Through Lucien's eyes she began to get to know Jarab in a different way, a prankster who loved to get the better of others, but then always made up for his follies through kindness.

              Jarab came every day for the allotted hour and although he was tense and distracted at the beginning, and always left when exactly 60 minutes had passed, it was the highlight of Vanna's day. She told him tales of her family back on earth. She recounted childhood tales of Clarissa and Isobel and confided that she had loved her sisters fiercely, but that she had always felt like an outsider. Vanna told Jarab about her parents, how close and in love, they had been when she was young. They had showered their affections on Vanna in her youth but she could not help but feel like an outsider to their bond as well. She cried as she told Jarab how devastated she had been when her mother had died, and how her devastation could not even compare to the amount of grief that had then, and still did, surround her father like a storm cloud.

              Jarab in turn told Vanna about his youth on Alpha Aquila. He spun tales about his happy childhood. He had been the oldest child in the Royal Family; his parents had 8 children all together. 4 male and 4 female. Lucien had served as his protector and was often kept busy smoothing over his blunders when Jarab had played one too many jokes. Jarab did not talk about the war that had killed so many of his people, nor the plague that wiped out the rest, including his family. She once asked him how he had felt to receive the antidote provided by her grandfather. His face had clouded over and he mumbled out a one word reply. "Unworthy"

              Jarab told Vanna that he purposely left the interior of her palace as a blank canvas and that she was free to do whatever she wanted with it.

"Can I plant a garden in my courtyard" she asked.

"Of course, I will provide you with the necessary seeds.

              He did and Vanna planted grass that was softer and greener than any she had lain on back on Earth. It was a special variety of Jarab 's creation that once grew to the desired length, never required mowing or weeding. She cultivated flowers more vibrant and beautiful than those in her garden at home. Her favorite was a glittering pink blossom with an amethyst center that bloomed every morning to the size of a dinner plate. She told Jarab which flower she preferred and asked what it was called. He smiled in delight.

"It is my own creation," he admitted, "The first night that we met I went directly back to my laboratory and developed it." Vanna was shocked that he had even remembered that night. He had seemed so stiff and indifferent.

"What did you name it?" she asked.

"Vanna" he blushed not meeting her gaze.

After a few weeks, Vanna's body had recovered enough to attempt the first implantation of her and Jarab 's offspring. Lucien met her at her palace and accompanied her to the laboratory. He smiled when he saw her. Vanna was taken aback by his appearance. Although Lucien's smile was as bright as ever, his face looked ashen and gray and his eyes had lacked the luminescent glitter that Vanna noticed upon their first meeting.

"Are you feeling alright Lucien?" she asked.

"Of course my dear" he answered. "Do not worry about me. I am not the one who will be going through a medical procedure today."

"Are you certain?"

"So certain that I have saved a special treat in order to entertain you with on our way to the laboratory."

              Vanna was excited. She wondered what the special treat could be. Lucien and Rigi had provided her with every comfort that she could have imagined and more. She looked at him with greedy anticipation.

"The treat is a tale," He began, "a tale that I wish you to hold dear to your heart and always remember."

"Of course"

"I accompanied Jarab while he was fighting in the Great War with Rathbus. His father did not wish for him to fight, but when he saw how determined Jarab was to fight he agreed upon one condition. I was to accompany him with the understanding that I would sacrifice my own life if it meant that I could save Jarab 's. I would have without even being asked. That is how much I care for Jarab. Fortunately, it never came to that. Jarab was proved to be such a fierce and calculated warrior that he came out of every battle without so much as a scratch. I believe that it was because of the many years he had spent scheming to play jokes on others that he was able to be so successful. Jarab had studied the behaviors of others so well that he would anticipate their every move."

              Vanna was so engrossed in Lucien's tale that she had nearly forgotten to be nervous about the procedure.

"That is perhaps why it was such a shock when his father summoned for his swift return back to Alpha Aquila. Jarab did not know why he had been taken from battle. The war was about to be won and Jarab wanted to be there to witness the victory. His father called him to his private chamber and I accompanied him. What his father told Jarab is the other side of the tale that your father told you. Jarab had been away from home for so long that he was unaware of the plague that was devastating his beloved people. He was shocked when his father reported that over 75% of the Aquiline had passed away. He told him that he himself had been exposed and that he would be dead by the end of the week. Then the final blow came. His father held out a vial filled with a clear liquid and commanded Jarab to drink it. Jarab guessed what the vial contained and so he refused. He told his father that he would not drink the antidote and begged him to give it to one of his brothers instead. His father was enraged. He told Jarab that as the first-born, it was his duty to partake of the antidote and repopulate Alpha Aquila along with the female mother that was to arrive from Earth. Then his father became weak and exhausted. He made me vow that I would make sure that  Jarab carried out the task and left the room.

              Jarab refused. I begged him, I threatened him. I did everything that I could. Finally I asked him if there was anything that I could do to make him change his mind. Jarab held the vial out to me and asked me to drink it in his place. He said that Alpha Aquila would be a better planet if I was to father the next generation instead of him. Of course, I could not. It was below my station. I had vowed to sacrifice myself in order to save Jarab and I would not go back on my word. We were at a standstill. If neither of us drank the potion, then Alpha Aquila would be left empty and become vulnerable to any race that were to conquer it first. Perhaps even the Rathbus that we had fought to valiantly keep at bay.