Captured (21 page)

His father’s words rocked him.
 
Over five hundred mated couples and several hundred infants and young children.
 
“What happened?
 
What happened to them all?”

“In the beginning, I did not know.
 
I wondered if they had been put to death.
 
But then my friend brought his mate and his daughter here.
 
Lara gave birth to her second child, a son, in your bedroom.
 
Tirrit and I hid them for two years.
 
Kosti visited when he could.
 
One day, Kosti arrived and begged me to help him vanish with his mate and his children.
 
He feared the religious authorities.
 
They were sniffing out any remaining hint of bestiality, sexual relations with humans, and he asked that I fly them to the
colony
.
 
That was the first I’d heard of it.”

“What is it?”

“It is where the authorities took the women and children and the Attun males who refused to leave their mates.”

“Where is this place?”

“In the Wilderness of Zotha.”

Ekkatt met his father’s eyes.
 
“The government claimed they had razed the entire area after the plague.
 
It is off limits.
 
Pilots are not even allowed to fly over the region.”
 

His father nodded.

“Father, do you believe they are still alive?
 
Do you think the government has left them alone?”

“I do.”

“Why?
 
Tell me why.”

“Because the children of these human women and our Attun men hold the key to our very survival as a race.
 
We are dying,
 
Ekkatt.
 
There are not enough fertile women to sustain our population.
 
The government knows this.
 
Kosti told me.
 
Our leaders merely wait for the right time, for the religious authorities to see the truth of the matter and sanction these relationships, to instruct the people that humans are not beasts. That they are indeed sentient beings, and then the government will integrate these children into our society.”

“Does the government still buy women?
 
Tell me, father…do you know if the government buys these women secretly?”

“I suspect the answer is yes, but I don’t know for certain.”

“Father, my chief, Chief Thame, admitted to me that he…
eats
the merchandise.”
 
Ekkatt saw his father blanch.
 
His own stomach felt queasy at hearing the words come out of his mouth.
 
“I have to believe he is not the only one of our people to commit this heinous act.
 
I cannot stop him.
 
But perhaps you can, after Mari and I have gone.”
 

“Once I know you and Mari are out of harm’s way, I will see that the proper person is notified.
 
I still have friends at the academy.”

“Then you’ll take us where you took Kosti?
 
Father, Mari carries my child.
 
It is imperative that we leave while it is still early. She must give birth to our child in safety.”

“You can stay here through the winter.
 
Tirrit and I will hide you.”

“No.
 
That is only a short-term solution.
 
We may stay a few days, no more.”

“I’ll take you, son.
 
But you must be prepared.
 
No one can enter the air space.
 
I’m not certain how far the colony is from the perimeter, and I must take care to drop you where there are no patrols.
 
It is wilderness, Ekkatt, dangerous.
 
There are no patrols because of the giant durra.
 
You and she will have to climb over a steep mountain pass.
 
The human body is much more fragile than ours.
 
Can your woman do this?”

“Mari’s body may appear fragile, but her will is strong.
 
Yes, she can do this.”

“Um…” Mari interrupted, “Territ and I have prepared food.”
 
Ekkatt was proud to hear her say the words in Attun.

“Then let us eat, Mari,” his father replied, “Thank you.”

* * * *

Late that night, wrapped in each other’s arms, Mari listened while Ekkatt filled her in.
 
“Are you willing?” he asked. “We must go soon, before the child is too big.”

“Let me repeat what you’ve said, so we both know that I understand you clearly.
 
Attun men, like you, and human women, like me, are living with their children in a settlement in a restricted area, a place called the Wilderness of Zotha, which sounds unnecessarily scary and overly dramatic.”
 
Ekkatt snorted. “Your father will fly us in your craft to a drop on an area of the perimeter that is unguarded because of the number of giant durra in the general vicinity, where we will proceed to climb over a mountain pass. If we make it over the pass and a giant durra doesn’t eat us, we search for this settlement.
 
That about it in a nutshell?”

“It will not fit in a nutshell, Mari.”

“Oh Ekkatt,” Mari stuck her tongue out at him. “You take me too literally.
 
It’s a human saying. It means something is way too big to fit into a nutshell.
 
It’s satire.”

“You do not wish to attempt this?”

“Oh, no, my love.
 
On the contrary, hooking up with this colony is our only hope.
 
No way in hell am I willing to put your father and brother in danger.
 
What is the punishment for harboring a human?”

“Death.”

“See?
 
It’s always death.
 
Don’t you have the option of paying fines or incarceration or fifty lashes or some punishment other than death?”

Ekkatt leaned up on an elbow and touched her face.
 
“We are a people of law,” he said.
 
“Very few of us break the law.
 
It is rare that the death penalty is invoked.”

“I heard your father tell your brother something about eating flesh, your people eating the flesh of my people. Will whoever did that be put to death?”
 
She watched Ekkatt’s adams apple move up and down as he swallowed hard.
 
For a moment, he looked as if he would throw up.

“No.
 
They will be disciplined, perhaps made to take a cut in pay.”

Mari’s stomach lurched. She shoved Ekkatt away and ran for the bathroom.
 
Ekkatt held her while she vomited.
 
Mari heard him mumbling in his own tongue.
 
Finally she sat back, drenched with sweat, and with the taste of bile in her mouth.
 
“Sorry, Ekkatt,” she said, a bit out of breath.
 
“That’s not exactly something you want to hear when you’re pregnant.
 
What were you just saying?”

“I said, forgive me.”

Mari rolled her eyes.
 
“Enough with the guilt already.
 
It’s not your fault.
 
I’d like to invoke the death penalty for whoever is eating human flesh, but it’s not your fault.
 
How soon do we leave?”

“A day or two.
 
I must pull together some supplies.”

“Do you have packs?
 
Backpacks?
 
Sleeping bags?” she asked.

“These things are?”

“Packs with straps that you sling over your back when you hike, to carry supplies.
 
Sleeping bags are insulated bags to sleep in.
 
They keep out the cold.”
 
Mari thought for a moment.
 
“Tents?
 
Do you have a tent?”

“What is a tent?”

“It’s a lightweight, portable house that you set up at night to sleep in and take down in the morning.
 
It protects you from inclement weather.”

“Yes, the military uses such things so my father will have them.
 
I will carry the gear.

Mari let Ekkatt help her up.
 
She brushed her teeth again with the tooth powder.
 
“I can carry forty pounds,” she said.

Ekkatt snorted.
 
“That is more than a third of your weight.
 
I will not allow you to carry so much.”

“I’ve been on a number of what we call backpacking trips.
 
I can carry forty pounds,” she repeated, feeling stubborn.

“But you were not carrying my child on those
backpacking trips
of yours.
 
You will carry what you can, I will take the rest.
 
Do not fight me on this, little human.
 
You will lose.”

Mari pulled Ekkatt’s shirt off over her head and tossed it onto the floor.
 
She climbed back into bed.
 
“I’m hot,” she said.
 
Quit whining, Mari.
 
You sound like a big baby.
 
What is your problem?
 
Oh…I don’t know…maybe the hope that there’s a colony of humans and Attun out there, and the fear that there isn’t.
 

“What are you afraid of, Mari?
 
You have faced a giant durra.
 
You faced me and stood your ground.
 
What is there to fear now?”

“I’m afraid to answer you.”

“Why?”
 
Ekkatt laughed.

“Because I’ll cry and I don’t want to cry.
 
It’s a human weakness.
 
It’s a human frailty.”

“No, on the contrary.
 
I believe it is a human strength, this ability to feel so hard that it leaks out of your eyes.
 
I have discovered that your race possesses great passion.
 
Your strength and perseverance may be contained in a small package, but those qualities are very large in you.
 
What are you afraid you will cry about?”

“Oh, Ekkatt,” Mari sighed, “I’m afraid they won’t be there, the colony won’t be there.”

“Ah, is that all?”

“Is that all?
 
What do you mean, is that all?
 
That’s the biggest
all
of all.”

“Little human, they will be there.
 
I know this.
 
I feel it, how do you say, in my bones.
 
The colony is there.
 
What can I do to reassure you of this?”

“Go out and get me a hot fudge sundae and French fries with a lot of ketchup.”

Ekkatt looked at her like she was speaking Mongolian.
 
She grinned at him.
 
For all intents and purposes, she was.
 
“Oh, you Attun, what will I do with you?”

Ekkatt took the hint.
 
“This,” he said, and he flipped her beneath him.
 
“Those fitted garments you wore today are most becoming on you.”
 
He nuzzled her neck.
 
“They make your breasts and your bottom more apparent to the eye.
 
Your breasts are small, but very high.
 
They are in perfect proportion with the rest of you.
 
I like your human clothes.”
 
Ekkatt lowered his mouth to her already erect nipple.

“Oh, do you, now?” Mari gasped as his teeth grazed her.
 
“Perhaps I should have worn the bikini I found in the trunk.
 
You might appreciate that.”