Captured by Julia Rachel Barrett

Author:Julia Rachel Barrett [Barrett, Julia Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Adult, SciFi/Fantasy
ISBN: 9781606017227
Amazon: B00371V7WO
Goodreads: 7508167
Publisher: Siren-BookStrand
Published: 2010-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Ekkatt wrapped Mari in a blanket to keep her warm for the hike to the top of the ridge. She stood beside him, unflinching on the edge of a precipice, with her hair blowing in the strong wind. The human was small and slender, with pale skin and green eyes, high cheekbones and a determined little chin. She possessed perfect teeth and expressive lush lips that were capable of giving him much pleasure. And the long, shining red hair. Ekkatt decided that of the many things he had seen in his years of travel, this woman was the most beautiful of all

“I trained on the second moon,” Ekkatt began. He pointed toward the horizon where a pale crescent moon rose in an equally pale blue sky. “There is a facility on the moon, a school for pilots, navigators, engineers.”

“When were you there?”

“Twenty-five years ago.”

Mari looked at him and squinted. “How old are you, Ekkatt?”

“Forty-five of my years.”

“Damn. You don’t look a day over thirty.”

“We are a long-lived race. The life-span of my people is over one hundred years. How old are you, Mari?”

“Twenty-six.”

“Young. No wonder you are so enthusiastic when we…fuck.” Ekkatt snorted when Mari punched him in the arm.

“Training. Second moon. Get on with your story,” she said, irritation sharp in her voice.

Ekkatt sighed. “I was on the second moon when the first plague struck my planet.”

“Plague? Like the Black Death? The Bubonic Plague? What plague?”

“A plague from Earth, from the Earthers we harvested. From the…Mari…I am sorry to tell you…from the children.”

Mari’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh, my God, you took children? Oh, my God, Ekkatt…”

“I did not take children. Mari, I would not have harvested children. In any case, the importation of children was outlawed afterwards. The plague struck first here, and then spread to the few planets that had already made their purchases. But here it was the worst. My planet was quarantined for several years, until the disease had run its course, and a…what you call a vaccine was developed.” Ekkatt lifted his shirt and showed Mari a small round scar on his lower back.

“Small pox,” Mari said in a hushed voice. “The plague was small pox.” She pulled up the sleeve of Ekkatt’s oversized shirt and showed him her vaccination scar. Ekkatt studied it. The scars were exactly the same. “Small pox has been eradicated on my planet,” Mari explained. “We had a campaign to vaccinate every person in the entire world. On the entire planet.

“I didn’t really need to be immunized, but because my family traveled so much, to Africa and Asia, and because my father was in the military…was a warrior, we all received the vaccine, as a precaution.

“Ekkatt, small pox wiped out entire nations in its time on earth. In our history…I don’t know exactly how to explain this…We are many people sharing one planet. We are different tribes, in a sense. You know that we are not exactly alike. Hundreds of years ago, when colonists came from what we refer to as the Old World to the New World, they brought the small pox virus with them.

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