Alekan stood in the muddy street wondering if he could have done more to save Madam Caitlin. It had been his hope that she would arrive to New Canterbury ahead of the children and offer them a familiar face in a foreign land. Yet she had been resolute, eager, no less, to find salvation and reunite with her husband in heaven. If ever there was a woman worthy of eternal life, it was she. Alekan only wished he could have convinced her to spend a few more years in this meager existence, at least until everyone had settled into their new home. She had been a prime candidate for Retrieval. Irerath would have done well to have her as a citizen. Yet she would have nothing of it. Her plans were her own, and plague gave her the chance to leave this place with God’s blessing.

Saving the children wasn’t working out as Alekan planned, either. He managed to deliver a couple of them into cryostasis when he learned about eight-year-old Robin. Through careful observation or dumb luck, his parents had recognized the symptoms of plague early on and declared quarantine on their home with Robin alone inside.

I understand MB's preference for knowing more about where we are reading about earlier on, but I'm one of those readers who can wait a few paragraphs further along - maybe even a page - so long as the character and the situation are good enough to keep me interested. Yeah, I know, you wish ALL readers could be so patient, huh?

By the way, glad to see a fellow Georgian pop up in here.

Alekan doesn't seem...his perspective on Madam Caitlin, her motives, and beliefs, isn't distinct enough. Also, your last sentance doesn't parse correctly. It should probably be "had recognized" rather than "recognizing".

I like the concept. Is the future more Golden Halls of Hell or Millenium? Hmmm, stories about this kind of thing don't tend to be so easily referenced, you know? Still, I think that means that it is comparatively "fresh", or something.

Very insightful of you to pick up on Millennium since my concept once contained elements of time travel, but I gave that up shortly after I saw the movie years ago. Time travel is greatly overused. My story occurs between the years of 1349 and 1351, with a concerned outlook on their future. I use political intrigue as the main source of character motivation.

Just a little background: the reason for retrieving plague-infected people from Earth is to save lives, but also to increase the population of planet Irerath to the minimum number required to achieve interstellar political representation. The balance of power will shift when this happens, so either political party is trying to thwart the other’s plan to gain governorship over the humans.

Also, you may want to take a look at this:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/clues.html

PBS's Secrets of The Death did a show on this. It is research on folks who were immune to the plague and who's decendents are immune to HIV\AIDS.

Also, this was interesting:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s714968.htm

But there are also conflicting studies that suggest that Smallpox, not the plague gave people HIV\AIDS immunity.

http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.asp?docID=517399