“Hey,” murmured a voice from behind him, informing him that Lance was awake. “I guess we fell asleep last night.”
Let me go,” whispered JC fighting back his tears and Lance knew that he didn’t mean to let him out of the embrace.
“I can’t,” Lance replied gently hugging JC tighter. “They’ll catch and kill you for being an escapee. There’s no place for Lambs to hide and the only shuttle to Terra are the slave shuttles.”
“So I’m stuck here?” whimpered JC and he could feel the gentle movement of Lance nodding his head behind him.
“It doesn’t have to be bad though,” answered Lance softly removing one arm so that he could reach up and undo the collar around JC’s neck. Once he had removed the collar he sat it on the bedside table before returning his arm around JC. “As long as you are in this home, you are not a servant, a slave or a Lamb. Likewise, I am not a Shepherd or your master here. We are equals. The titles of Shepherd and Lamb will only apply to outsiders.”
“Why are you doing this?” asked JC shifting so that he could turn slightly and look at Lance.
“Because I want to,” replied Lance honestly. “And because you didn’t deserve what happened to you.”
“Thank you,” whispered JC before snuggling back down in Lance’s arms. There they stayed like that quietly for a few minutes until the door to the room slid opened.
“Master!” cried a half human, half alien, half electronic voice. Startled, JC looked towards the source of the voice but all he saw was a pile of clothes rolling towards the bed. “Here are the clothes you requested for the Lamb!”
“Thank you, Geek,” replied Lance with a smile on his face as the pile of clothes rolled to a stop. “Geek, this is JC, he’s going to be staying with us. JC, meet Geek, Geek is a robot, I bet you’ve never seen one before.”
“What’s a robot?” asked JC as the pile of clothes dropped to the floor to reveal Geek. He was small, around 2 feet tall; he rolled on two tire treads on each side of his body; his head was attached to a short neck with two red, glowing eyes; And two arms stretched out from his body which was how he had been carrying the clothes.
“Don’t worry,” laughed Lance. “I’m sure you’ll pick up on everything quickly. Besides you have Geek and myself teaching you.”
“Learning is fun!” added Geek.
“Yes it is Geek,” chuckled Lance crawling out of the bed. “Let’s leave JC allow right now though so he can try on the clothes.”
Shooing Geek out of the door, Lance turned back to JC. “Try the stuff on while I get dressed. Let me know what you like and don’t like so I can send back the stuff you don’t like. Through the other door is a bathroom, if you want to freshen up.”
“All right,” replied JC softly before Lance exited the room and the door slid shut behind him.
*~*~*
“You look nice,” commented Lance twenty minutes later when JC finally appeared from his room wearing soft, loose, blue shirt and tight black pants and boots.
“Thanks,” whispered JC sitting down across from Lance at breakfast bar in the kitchen. “Clothes are different here, so is the way you wash up. Everything’s nicer, here.”
“It was designed that way,” replied Lance sadly. “Even back long ago when Shepherd’s lived on Terra, we always had the nicer things. I never understood why. The only thing different between you and me is my ancestors were once the leaders over you ancestors. They had the money and the power so they were Shepherds, yours didn’t and they ended up the Lambs.”
“If power and money are the only difference, why are we treated so badly then? Surely they know we’re all humans?”
“That’s the problem,” sighed Lance. “The don’t. You’ve met Joey and Chris. They both see Lambs as property. They don’t care at all if something happens to one of their Lambs because they’ll just buy another one.”
“Why don’t they just get robots like Geek?” asked JC still confused. “He does the work of the slaves and he won’t die.”
“I don’t know,” sighed Lance. “I guess they like having power over another human being. They have no power over the robots, since they’re programmed to do what we say. With the Lambs, they have to be broken over time.”
“At the housing unit, the first night, they showed us what happened to disobedient Lambs,” whispered JC, shuddering at the memory.
“That will never happen to you,” reassured Lance and JC wanted to believe him however he couldn’t trust the Shepherd just yet.
“I have to go to work soon,” continued Lance changing the subject. “It’s not safe for you to leave the house, but you’re free to do anything in here. Geek will also be giving you lessons today. Just let him know when you want to start. If you’re still confused on something when I get back, let me know and I’ll re-explain it to you. All right?”
“Okay,” replied JC softly.
“I’ll see you in a few hours then,” smiled Lance, standing up. “If there’s anything you want let me know and it’s yours.”
“Okay,” replied JC softly as he watched Lance exit the kitchen.
“When do you want to start your lessons Master JC?” asked Geek as soon as soon as the front door slammed shut and they both knew that Lance was gone.
“Is now alright?” asked JC, a little nervously. Geek seemed harmless but he was still so odd to the Lamb.
“My duty is to serve you, Master JC!” replied Geek, which surprised JC. He had expected the little robot would have been above him in the ranting order as well.
“Now is fine then to start the lessons,” replied JC still unsure. “Unless you have other work that your Master told you to do today.”
“My orders today are to serve you!”
“Then we’ll start with the lessons,” nodded JC as he started to wonder that maybe living there wasn’t going to be so bad.
The next three hours were spent with Geek going through the house, room by room explaining to JC what each little gadget did. For the most part, JC didn’t have a clue about what have the stuff Geek was talking about but he didn’t want to inform the little robot about that fact.
Some stuff though, JC easily picked up, like television. Which was where he spent the next three hours, flipping through the 800 channels finding various things to watch. And surprising he was learning more from the television than Geek’s lessons but again he wasn’t about to inform Geek or Lance about that fact.
“JC? Geek?” called a voice out of nowhere; shocking JC out of show he had been watching. It had been a music show and he found it very entertaining to learn what types of music was enjoyed on Cielville.
“Master!” cried Geek rolling towards the sound of the voice and JC was surprise to learn that he and Geek had spent the entire afternoon watching TV and now Lance had returned home. Feeling safe, all afternoon, JC was suddenly feeling very scared again at the thought of being under a watchful eye of a Shepherd despite Lance’s protests that they were equals in the house.
“Hey Geek,” replied Lance walking into the room, petting Geek on the head. “How was your day JC? I see you’ve discovered the TV.”
“It’s interesting,” mumbled JC, figuring he had done something wrong.
“More like addicting,” chuckled Lance as Geek rolled out of the room and into the kitchen to start dinner for Lance and JC, which was what he did everyday when Lance arrived back home. “Just how many hours have you been watching it?”
“Geek showed it to me sometime after lunch,” admitted JC.
“I bet it was more entertaining and in informative then Geek’s lessons,” chuckled Lance as JC stared at him in shock.
“How did you know?”
“Geek can be boring at times,” laughed Lance. “But I figured that it might not be too bad for you! Why don’t I pick up where he left off while he’s getting dinner ready?”
“Okay,” replied JC, forcing a smile. The more time he spent around the Shepherd, JC was finding it easier and easier to believe that he met him no harm, however he wasn’t quite at that point yet.
*~*~*
“Are you okay?” asked Lance hours later when it was time for bed and he found JC standing in the hall outside his room with the door open just staring into it.
“Yeah,” lied JC. The truth, however, was that he was scared. He was scared of spending the night in such a large room by himself. The night before he hadn’t thought of it since he had been too scared, however after spending the evening with Lance, JC had grown more comfortable with his surroundings and with the Shepherd.
“Come here,” Lance gently ordered taking JC’s hand and leading him down to his own room, which if possible was larger and more impressive than JC’s room. “It’s a big bed JC,” he gently whispered. “More than enough room for the both of us and I figure that since this is your first real night you might not want to spend it alone in your room.”
“Thank you,” whispered JC and the pair laid down next to each other on the soft bed. Soon they were both fast asleep.