Captured (8 page)

Chapter 6

He hated to leave her on her own.
 
The isolation worried him.
 
Anyone could come by, find her, and take her away.
 
As thin as she was she wouldn’t bring many cills, but someone could drag her away and sell her on the black market.
 
Or, she could be raped by a marauder, law or no law, and left to bleed out from a torn throat, or a giant durra could catch her and rip her to shreds.
 
Ekkatt tried to calm himself. This trip was necessary. If Mari was to survive he needed to find garments for her.

Winter would arrive in another few months.
 
The mornings were already brisk.
 
Mari hadn’t uttered a single word of complaint about walking on the cold ground in bare feet nor had she said anything about how exposed her bare legs felt beneath his shirts.
 
Perhaps if he kept her wrapped in blankets she would do all right, but that was only a temporary solution.
 
She needed warm, well-fitting garments and boots so they could move quickly over rough terrain if they had to.
 
Besides, it was cruel to expose her small body to the elements, and the cold would make her vulnerable to illness.
 

Ekkatt did not like to think of himself as a cruel man, yet that’s exactly how he saw himself now.
 
He’d callously been harvesting her species and sending them off to slaughter for years.
 
If he’d ever harbored any doubts about what he was doing, he’d buried them quickly because he needed the money.
 
How else could he help his father pay for the care his brother required?
 

Space travel was inherently dangerous, there were risks involved with harvesting, always the possibility of a mechanical failure, a crash landing, capture, few of his people were willing to take such risks, thus the share of the profits Ekkatt received was generous.
 

Only his own race, the Attun-Ra, had adapted to the biomechanical implants which downloaded the many languages needed for his line of work.
 
He took pride in speaking multiple languages while space travel thrilled him.
 
The work allowed him to satisfy his curiosity about other worlds, even if those worlds
 
couldn’t compare to his own.

He knew damn well any species which employed a complex language to communicate was civilized.
 
Ekkatt had grown somewhat familiar with the regional dialects of Earth.
 
He understood clearly how rife with symbolism human languages were.
 
Creatures possessed of self awareness, who understood symbolic thought, were not beasts to be sold for table.
 
  
Humans were a smaller, weaker, less technologically sophisticated species, yes, but a sentient species nonetheless.

He’d come to realize that the direction of Mari’s thoughts was little different from his own.
 
If her reasoning process was this evolved, he had to ask himself how many other evolved females had he carelessly sent to their deaths.
 
Ekkatt didn’t like the answer.
 
Mari might not loathe him, but he felt enough self-loathing to more than make up for that fact.

When he’d shown her how to fire his uustal, it had been obvious she was familiar with such a weapon.
 
She could have turned it on him and shot him dead for his sins.
 
Somehow he knew the thought never occurred to her.
 
She depended upon him for her survival, but that’s not what he’d seen in her eyes when he taught her to shoot.
 
Mari’s eyes were guileless.
 
She made no attempt to hide her feelings.

* * * *

 
He’d seen fear in her eyes. He had seen curiosity, gratitude, delight, sadness, and anger, but he had never once seen murder or hatred.
 
Had her species been guilty of doing to him what he’d done to her, he would have murdered her in a heartbeat.
 
And if he had the time, he’d make sure she suffered before he killed her.
 

Ekkatt harbored no illusions about his situation.
 
He did not possess the power to change anything.
 
Regardless of his new perspective on the matter, harvesting would continue and human female flesh would be served in the expensive eateries on Masetta and Banotke.
 

Trade with the Banot was particularly lucrative.
 
He had decided, however, that the trade would have to go on without him.
 
He would collect his share and be done.
 
He hoped he wouldn’t be blamed for the disappearance of the female, but even if someone suspected him there was no proof.
 
After he collected his share, he’d go to his family home and speak with his father.
 
His father was a reasonable man, an educated man, and he would help him find a solution.
 
Besides, there would be clothes stored in the family compound, clothes Ekkatt and his brother had worn when they were young. They were items their mother had preserved, hoping that they would one day have families of their own.
 

That was before she’d succumbed to the plague.
 
His brother was crippled the following spring. It was a time that came to be called the
Wind of Death,
for with the thaw had come the paralytic illness that felled thousands.
 
Those who survived the initial illness were left weakened, and their recovery took years.
 
Some, like his brother, lost the use of their legs.
 
Luckier than most, Ekkatt’s brother could walk with two walking sticks.
 
His father had retired early from his job as a government pilot to care for his stricken son.

Ekkatt had been off world, at the training facility on the second moon, when the illness struck.
 
Attun-Ra was quarantined.
 
He’d had to stay away for two years, helplessly waiting until the disease had run its course, while his family and friends sickened and died.
 
It took the scientists several more years to develop a vaccine and Ekkatt received a series of injections before he made his first trip to Earth.
 
The scientists had determined that just like the plague, the paralytic illness had originated on the small blue planet.
 
Mari’s planet.
 
Perhaps Mari’s people had a measure of revenge after all, Ekkatt thought.
 
The Harvesters passed by earth once every two years and took five hundred.
 
The diseases from earth had killed hundreds of thousands on Attun-Ra and caused a financial crisis.
 
The entire planet had been blockaded for the duration of the outbreak.
 

He neared the warehouse complex and slowed his craft.

“Ekkatt Vom Baerkah Elae, son of Baerkah, son of Elae, requests permission to land.”

Ekkatt heard static for a moment and then, “Ekkatt Vom Baerkah Elae, son of Baerkah, son of Elae, permission granted.
 
Please land on the secondary landing site, Area Two.”

“Understood.
 
Why the secondary site?”

“Outbreak of Tist Fever this morning.
 
The guards will meet you at the gate and provide you with protective gear.”

Ekkatt felt his guts twist.
 
Tist Fever was nothing to him.
 
All the children of Attun-Ra had been exposed at one time or another.
 
They coughed for a few days, nothing more.
 
Tist Fever was deadly to humans.
 
They’d lost their entire stock four years before simply because one human had been inadvertently exposed.
 
The brokers entering the compound were supposed to be screened.
 
Someone had been sleeping on the job.
 
He and Mari had left just three days ago.
 
It took forty-eight to seventy-two hours for the first symptoms to appear.
 
That meant Mari had probably been exposed.
 
Fuck.
 
A good English curse word.
 
If so, she might already be sick.
 

Chapter 7

“How many have we lost, Chief Thame?”

“Forty-seven dead as of sunrise, seventy requiring medical care, the rest are in isolation.
 
I can’t market them until they’ve been certified disease-free, and that doesn’t count the one who disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“Yes, the marked one.
 
I’ve lost track of her.”

“Perhaps she died and someone tossed her into the incinerator.”

The chief looked distressed.
 
“Perhaps.
 
No one is certain, and I can’t worry about that now.
 
I’m watching the best batch in years go up in smoke.
 
All our hard work turned to ashes. What a waste.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Ekkatt pretended sympathy.
 
“I went to a great deal of trouble to bring the finest.
 
I had hoped for an advance against the auction sales.”

“We’ll have to make another run.
 
I’ll have to round up a crew.”
 
The chief wasn’t listening to him.
 
“I don’t suppose you’re up for another venture?”

“Too soon,” replied Ekkatt.
 
“I need at least a month on the ground.
 
I’m sure Pana will be interested, possibly some of the others.
 
About the advance…”

“Yes, your brother…yes, I understand that you must pay for his care, but I can only reimburse you for the collection of the stock.
 
I can’t give you a cut of auction monies we may never see.”

Ekkatt feigned irritation he didn’t feel.
 
“Earthers,” he said, filling his voice with disdain, “They are a weak subspecies.”

“But very delicious,” replied the chief.
 
“If any survive, the price will shoot up.”
 
The man rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
 
“Could be a boon if we can manage to keep the rest from falling ill.”

Ekkatt was rocked by the chief’s words.
 
“You’ve sampled the merchandise?”

The chief seemed a bit embarrassed.
 
“Well, it’s not that I make a habit of it, but you see, one should never sell anything if one is not certain of the quality.
 
Some of our customers are…well…quite particular.
 
As you know, the fatter females bring a higher price.
 
The meat is more tender, sweeter.
 
It tends to melt on the tongue.
 
Of course the different muscle groups each taste a bit…”

“Chief…” a handler interrupted, “We’ve found another section with the fever.”

“How many cases?” the chief asked.

“Three, so far.”

“Then separate out the rest, and get them into quarantine immediately.
 
I’ll be there in a moment.”
 

Willing his face into an impassive mask Ekkatt watched the chief unlock his safe and pull out a roll of currency.
 
He counted out twenty large bills and handed them to Ekkatt.
 
“This will have to do.
 
We should know how many we have left for auction in a week or so.”
 
The chief strode to the door.
 
He turned.
 
“If you think you can manage another trip, I’ll make it worth your while.
 
You’re one of my best trappers.”

“I’ll consider it,” answered Ekkatt.
 
His smile was grim.
 
“I’ll definitely consider it.”

Ekkatt strode past the male receptionist with a nod.
 
He walked stiffly though the holding facility forcing himself to greet those handlers he knew.
 
Fortunately, everyone was distracted and had no time for small talk.
 
At the gate he removed his protective gear and dropped it into the bag provided.
 
He scrubbed his hands at the faucet.
 
He headed towards his ship, and once he was out of sight of the men he doubled over and began to vomit.
 
The retching was so violent he thought he would bring up blood.
 
Finally, the nausea subsided, and he sat back on his heels wondering where he would find the strength to face Mari. Yet he felt desperate to put as much distance as he could between himself and his chief, and what he had come to see as a house of horrors.
 
He hurried to his craft.