Captured (20 page)

* * * *

The red-haired human took Baerkah’s hand and greeted him in the civilized manner of all Attun.
 
She said,
Betak kar sa benot, Baerkah Vom Pes Rena, sik Pes, sik Rena
, and he was charmed.
 
It had been eighteen years since he’d seen, smelled, or spoken with a human.
 
The scent of his son clung to this one.
 
Before Ekkatt uttered a single word, he understood why his son came home.
 
She introduced herself as Mari Damon, daughter of Ethan, daughter of Jennie.
 
Baerkah introduced her to Ekkatt’s younger brother, Tirrit.

“Father, have you saved any of the clothes Tirrit and I wore when we were young?
 
Mari needs warm clothing and boots,” Ekkatt asked.

“Son, I can do much better than that.
 
Come,” he said to Mari in his own language, and she rose from her seat.
 
“How much do you understand, little one?” he asked, his voice kind.

“I understand a few words,” she replied in Attun.
 
“If you speak slowly, it is easier for me.”

“Wonderful,” smiled Baerkah, “Wonderful.
 
How long, Ekkatt?
 
How long has it taken her to learn to speak our language?”

Ekkatt cleared his throat.
 
“She began to learn on the voyage, and we have spoken in both Attun and English since that time.
 
Mari is a linguist.
 
She speaks many earth languages.”

“She woke on the voyage?”
 
Baerkah asked, his voice sharp.

“Yes.”

“Then you will not return to this line of work?”

“No,” Ekkatt replied.

“Good.
 
Come and I will show you some items I kept from many years ago.”
 
He took Mari’s small hand in his and strolled with her to Ekkatt’s former bedroom.
 
Ekkatt and Tirrit followed.

“Ekkatt, do you remember your old hiding place?
 
Where you and Tirrit used to go to try to avoid your chores?”
 
Ekkatt and Tirrit both snorted. They sounded very much like young boys again.
 
“There is a large chest stored in there now.
 
Pull it out please.”

Ekkatt shoved several boxes of books and papers aside.
 
He felt for the tiny latch at the back of the closet and flipped it, revealing a small storage space, just big enough for two teenage Attun boys.
 
He found a large metal case and dragged it out into the center of the room.

“It’s vacuum sealed,” said Baerkah.
 
“You open it here.”
 
He pushed a button.
 
The lid of the case popped open with a hiss.
 
Mari gasped and dropped to her knees.

“These are human,” she looked up at him, her face pale. “These are dead human?”

“No,” replied Baerkah, “No, they are…” he searched for a simple word, “extra.
 
Do you understand
extra
?”
 
The human shook her head with what he assumed to be a negative.

“Father?”
 
Ekkatt sounded as confused as his little human companion.

“Tell her these clothes are extras.
 
They are items that remained behind after the government stopped the experiments eighteen years ago.
 
The clothes were not taken from dead women.
 
She may have whatever she needs.
 
Please explain this to her, Ekkatt.”
 
He watched Ekkatt kneel beside Mari and speak in her language, his voice animated.
 
 
Baerkah and Territ exchanged glances when she threw her arms around Ekkatt.
 
Ekkatt’s response confirmed his suspicions.
 
His son had given his heart to a human.

“Mari,” said Baerkah, “You will stay here and find your clothes.
 
Tirrit and I must speak with Ekkatt.
 
Do you understand?”
 

“Yes, I understand,” she replied.
 
It pleased him when she took his hand.
 
She stood up from the floor, balanced on the tips of her toes, and brushed her lips against his cheek.
 
“Thank you,” she said.
 
Baerkah had not experienced this human kiss for eighteen years.
 
Not since the day he’d flown his friend Kosti and Kosti’s human mate into the wilderness of Zotha.
 
Lara had kissed him like this and said the same words,
thank you
.

* * * *

“This human is your mate?” asked Tirrit.

“She is.
 
Mari is my mate.
 
We will leave as soon as she is properly clothed.
 
I would not put the two of you at risk.”

“No, Ekkatt, you misunderstand.
 
There is no need for you to leave.
 
You are my brother.
 
This is your home.
 
I am merely asking the obvious question.
 
I had thought there would never be a mate for either one of us.”

Ekkatt sat in a chair rubbing the side of his head.
 
This was not the reception Ekkatt expected.
 
His father and brother sat down and waited in silence.
 
The three men could hear Mari in the other room squealing with delight at her finds.
 
A corner of Ekkatt’s mouth turned up in a very human expression of amusement.
 

Ekkatt threw up his hands.
 
“I don’t understand.”
 
His father and brother exchanged a look.
 
“Why do you have these clothes?” he continued.
 
“Why have you not banished me from the compound?
 
How can you accept a human in you midst with such…such equanimity?
 
Your attitude makes no sense.”

Ekkatt’s father pulled his chair closer.
 
“How many years were you on the second moon?”

“Five.”

“A great many things happened during your time there.”

“Yes, I know, the plague, the Wind of Death, yes, much sadness, mother, Tirrit, Aspa.
 
I know, father.”

“You were chosen for your aptitude.
 
You made a good pilot. Your abilities as a tracker and a trapper were uncanny.
 
I remember you scored the highest in your class.
 
But you were not here when so many died.
 
You did not witness it, thank the fates.”
 

“I’m sorry, father.
 
I should have been here.”

“And that would have changed things?
 
Do you think your presence would have made things better?
 
I was grateful you were on the moon, safe, out of harm’s way.
 
But, I have a question for you.
 
What were you taught about the human race?”

“I was taught their habits, their anatomy, and physiology. I was taught how to transport them safely.
 
I learned of the diseases they carry,”

“No,” his father interrupted, “What were you taught about their social structure, their intelligence, their cognitive functioning?”

“That they are an insentient species.
 
They do not feel pain or loss in the way we do.
 
That they are a subspecies of humanoid which has not evolved beyond the animal stage, they have no souls.”

“And what do you believe now, my son?”

“I believe, as Mari would say, that everything I was taught about humans is a
crock of shit
.”
 

His father lifted an eyebrow at the sound of English words.

“I believe it is a lie,” Ekkatt explained.
 
“Their culture may not be as technologically sophisticated as ours, but cognitively they are every bit our equal.
 
Perhaps the humans are better in some ways.”
 

As Ekkatt spoke those words, Mari appeared in the doorway.
 
She wore a pair of trousers with many pockets.
 
They hung low on her hips, and she’d cinched them with a leather belt.
 
She’d pulled on a tight shirt and a fitted sweater over that.
 
Ekkatt noticed the way the clothes outlined the contours of her body in a way that was somehow more arousing than seeing her naked.
 
Mari pointed at her feet and he looked down.
 
“Boots,” she said in his language, a big grin on her face.
 
“Boots.”
 
She twirled around and pulled up one leg of the trousers.
 
“Socks.
 
See, Ekkatt?
 
Socks.
 
For the first time in weeks, I feel like a human being,” she said in English.
 
“Thank you, Baerkah.
 
No words enough to thank you.”

“You are welcome, Mari.”
 
Ekkatt’s father turned to Tirrit.
 
“Would you take Mari to the kitchen?
 
Ekkatt and I must finish our conversation.”
 

Ekkatt noticed the look that once again passed between his father and his brother.
 
“Mari,” he said in his own tongue.
 
“Go with Tirrit.
 
He will make us food.
 
I must speak with my father.”
 
He knew that Mari caught the tone in his voice and though he suspected she wanted to ask what they were talking about she nodded and accompanied Tirrit from the room.

“Mari would ask you,
what’s up
?
 
It means, what secret have you been keeping from me, father?”
 

“Do you recall my friend, Kosti? He became a general.”

“Yes, I remember him.
 
He trained with you.
 
He visited here many times when I was young.”

“He lost his mate and his two daughters to the
astaei patah.”

I’m sorry for him,” said Ekkatt.

“That is not my point.
 
My point is this, the women you retrieved, the first two hundred, were brought her as part of the government run experiments to be mated with Attun men. My friend Kosti felt he could not ask the men under his command to do anything he would not do.
 
He wanted to set an example.
 
Of the women you brought, one hundred and forty-seven survived an outbreak of Tist Fever.
 
Of those one hundred and forty-seven, eighty-eight adjusted to the move to our world and accepted mates.
 
Their mates were chosen from the ranks of our military, Kosti’s men.
 
Kosti himself accepted a female, Lara.”

“So it’s true?
 
The experiment was a success?”

“Not only was it a success, it was a miracle, Ekkatt.
 
Human females are more fertile than our females.
 
They have more frequent cycles.
 
From what Kosti told me, on Earth they are fertile every twenty-eight to thirty Earth days.
 
Here, that changed slightly and their cycles lengthened to…oh…every forty-eight days or so, yet in comparison, they are six times more fertile than our own females.
 
I suppose when a species is shorter-lived, they must reproduce more often,” his father mused.

“Then they had children?
 
Were they healthy?
 
Did they live?”
 
Ekkatt needed to know.

“Yes, viable offspring.
 
Male and female children.
 
Further research showed that these hybrid offspring were also capable of reproducing, of mating with our people.
 
More women were brought and more men volunteered.
 
You assumed all the women you harvested were sold at market.
 
If it makes you feel any better, not all were sold as meat, Ekkatt.
 
Kosti sent buyers from the lab, they posed as meat brokers.
 
They selected the healthiest women and paid a premium price to keep them from auction.
 
When the government officially ended the experiment, there were over five hundred mated couples with young children. Several hundred infants had been born.”