Captured (5 page)
“We have much water vapor in our atmosphere.
In that, our planets are similar.
Also in topography.”
“But it looks cold out there.”
“Yes, my world is colder than yours.”
“They will die without warm clothes.”
Ekkatt looked at her.
“They will die anyway.”
“Why?”
“They will be sold for food.
I told you, your meat is considered a delicacy among certain species.”
“Do you…do your people eat humans?
Ekkatt let out a grunt of disgust.
“My people do not eat flesh of any kind.
A true man does not eat flesh.”
“But you sell it.”
“Yes.
I am not in the habit of passing judgment on the dietary practices of others.”
Mari snorted in reply.
“Bullshit,” she said.
“You may not pass judgment on the dietary habits of others, but you pass judgment on the value of a life every time you grab a helpless woman and lock her into a cage.”
Up went Ekkatt’s eyebrows.
“So, now that I have saved an animal from the slaughter house, the animal presumes to pass judgment on me?”
Mari knew she was treading on dangerous ground, but she answered him anyway.
“Yes,” she replied.
“You have courage, little one, I give you that.”
“Why do you do it?”
Ekkatt didn’t bother to reply.
Instead, he pointed to a large river valley below them.
It stretched to the horizon and was bordered on each side by enormous snow-covered mountains.
The valley shone a vibrant jade green. Lush plant life reached up to the lower slopes of the mountains.
Ekkatt dropped their craft into the valley and flew just above the rushing river.
Mari’s eyes opened wide, and she stared at the sight, entranced by the beauty of this new world.
“How did you fell Leader Tril?”
Ekkatt’s voice interrupted Mari’s thoughts.
“Hmm?”
“Tril.
You dropped him to the floor.
How did you do this?
He is a very powerful man.”
Mari leaned back in her seat and smiled at Ekkatt.
She knew her smile was a little smug, but she couldn’t resist.
“We have a saying among my people, the bigger they are…the harder they fall.
Have you heard it?”
“No.”
“You understand the meaning though?”
“Yes,” Ekkatt answered in his own tongue, followed by a grunt.
“He was leaning in close to me, standing off balance, and he didn’t expect it.
I reacted…I acted towards him the same way I would act towards a human man who threatened me.
I could only hope that…that Tril’s most vulnerable…um…body parts were in the same place as those of a human man.
Apparently, they were.”
Mari stole a cautious look at Ekkatt’s face.
She watched him sit deeper in his seat.
After a brief moment of silence, he let loose a spate of words in his own tongue. Tossing his head back he laughed long and hard.
The corners of Ekkatt’s yellow eyes crinkled with amusement.
He looked so human in that moment. Mari couldn’t help herself.
Laughter bubbled up inside her, and she joined him.
This was the first time since she’d awakened in the cage that she’d felt the stirrings of hope and the first time she’d allowed herself to wonder if there might be some slim chance of a future in her future.
When their laughter died down Mari asked, “What will you do with me?”
“I told you…I’m taking you to my home.”
“But Ekkatt…you’ll…you’ll be risking your family.
I can’t allow that.
You must drop me somewhere, somewhere off the grid.
I just need--”
“What is
off the grid
?” Ekkatt interrupted.
“It’s an expression we use to mean in the middle of nowhere, away from civilization. Um…a place people go where the authorities can’t find them.
No computers, no utilities, no record of their existence.
They survive by their own ingenuity, their wits.
Do you understand?”
Ekkatt made that noise Mari recognized as an amused snort.
“A place like mine.
I live, as you say,
off the grid
.”
“But your wife, your children…my presence will endanger them.”
“I have no family, and you would die quickly in my wilderness.”
Mari considered his statement.
She wondered why Ekkatt lived alone.
She had no idea what the lifespan of his species was, but he seemed the right age to have a family.
“Oh,” she said.
She glanced at the man.
She could tell he had wearied of conversation.
“Would you mind if I close my eyes?
I haven’t slept much.”
Ekkatt shrugged.
Mari interpreted the gesture to mean,
suit yourself
.
She released her safety harness and stretched.
“Ekkatt…”
The man turned in her direction.
She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
She hoped it was surprise she saw in his narrowed eyes and not revulsion.
“Thank you.”
* * * *
Ekkatt set his craft down in the clearing behind his cabin.
He came in low, hovering just above the trees, before landing, soft as a cloud.
The female lay curled on her side using his gear bag as a bed, and he was reluctant to disturb her sleep.
He knew how little sleep she’d had in an earth week.
You seem to feel some affection for it.
Like one would a pet?
The chief’s words bothered him, but he didn’t know exactly why.
Ekkatt stared at the human.
He’s seen thousands of them in the twenty years he’d worked as a trapper.
He’d seen all shapes, sizes, and colors, and not a single one had ever really registered with him until now.
Why should they register?
Once he took them the females remained in stasis for the journey, and they were handed over to the market attendants immediately upon waking.
His interaction with them consisted of turning them and monitoring their life signs.
Oh, he could tell them apart.
He’d lied to Pana.
He could definitely tell one from the other.
Some were fat, some thin.
Skin color varied.
Some had dark hair, some light, a few had red hair, like flame, like this one.
It’s why he’d chosen her.
The sunlight shining on her hair had attracted his attention.
If he hadn’t seen the red, he would have passed her by.
Female Earthers with red hair had always attracted his attention.
They seemed to be somewhat rare. They were a curiosity that brought a higher price at market.
Now that he thought about it this female was too slender. She did not have enough soft flesh.
The chief probably would have had to give her away as part of a batch.
He should have left her to her eggs.
But, he didn’t. She’d awakened, tried to hide her fear, spoken like a civilized person, and called his entire world into question.
What had the female said to Pana?
Until you stand in my place, you have no right to call me a coward
.
* * * *
Mari woke in a bed, a real bed, with blankets and everything.
She kept her eyes closed, imagining for just a moment that she was in her own bed back home.
I’m lying on my own super expensive super brand new pillow top mattress, covered with my super soft down comforter.
It feels like heaven.
She didn’t remember climbing into a bed.
The last thing she remembered was falling asleep on the floor of Ekkatt’s flying craft.
Mari sighed and turned onto her side.
She opened her eyes and they fell on Ekkatt.
He appeared to be puttering about what would pass for a decent kitchen in any hunting cabin on earth.
He no longer wore the dark jumpsuit she’d grown accustomed to seeing him in, and he looked smaller.
Not that Ekkatt could look small, but he was thinner, and his build was leaner than she’d thought.
She wondered if he’d worn some sort of body armor beneath the uniform.
He also seemed shorter, maybe five or six inches shorter.
Mari blinked a few times to clear her vision.
Ekkatt might be leaner without his suit, but it hardly seemed possible that he’d be shorter.
Boots.
He was barefoot now.
He’d worn thick soled boots on the transport ship.
She bet it was so he could easily reach the second level of cages to turn the occupants.
It’d be easier than carrying a step stool.
She wondered why they hadn’t built a ledge to reach the second level of cages.
Then she realized that would block access to the first level. Mari wondered what the hell was wrong with her that she was even wondering about this at all.
The women she’d arrived with might already be dead.
Ekkatt had been doing this work for twenty years.
How many women had he taken?
How often did his ship swing by Earth?
How long had his people been abducting humans?
What made her think she could trust him to keep her from hanging in a butcher shop window?
Would returning her mean his own death?
Yeah, maybe, but what was to stop him from killing her and burying her body out here in the wilderness?
What?
Jesus Christ…was he making pancakes?
“What is that?
What are you making?
It smells heavenly, just heavenly.”
Mari threw the cover aside and jumped out of bed, her stomach growling.
She padded into the kitchen with Ekkatt’s old shirt flapping around her knees.
She walked up behind him and inhaled.
“What is that?”
“It is a, I do not know what you would call it in your language.
It is a type of bread,” he replied in his deep voice.
“It smells amazing,” said Mari, “I am so hungry I could eat a bear.”
“You eat bears?”
“It’s just an expression,” Mari laughed, “It means I’m starving.
What do you call it in your language?”
“Lehem.”
“Huh?”
“Lehem.
It is a sweet bread for morning.”
“It sounds like lechem, you know, lechem…
bread
in Hebrew.
You speak Hebrew.”
Ekkatt gave one of his amused snorts.
“You question everything, human,” he replied in English.
“Be quiet and eat,” he added in his own tongue.