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“All present, all ill. Send a working party for our gear.”
He muttered into his lapel microphone, reached to the hack of his belt to unclip a pair of handcuffs. Which he promptly snapped onto my wrists.
“Whasha?” I blurted incoherently. Blinking down at the cuffs.
“Don’t give me a hard time, you drug-pushing addict, and I won’t give you one. You may be a big man out there in the galaxy, but here you are just one more sentenced crook. Who is going to carry his own pack-no working party for the likes of you.”
I opened my mouth to verbally assassinate him. Then closed it. It had been my idea that our mission be known to the minimum few. He obviously wasn’t one of them. I groaned to my feet and stumbled into the airlock dragging my gear after me; the others following in like condition. The orbital shuttle ship was grim and cheerless. The hard metal seats snapped clamps on our ankles when we sat down; no dancing in the aisles this trip. We watched in silence as our backpacks were thrown into a storage bin, then looked up at the big screen on the front bulkhead. Lots of stars. They rotated and the bulk of Remorseless swam into sight, grew smaller and dropped behind as the engines fired. Then the pickup turned so that the growing bulk of the planet could be seen and we were treated to a scratchy and static-filled ancient recording of martial music. This died away and was replaced by a male speaker with a repulsive nasal whine.
“Now hear this, prisoners. This is a one-way trip. You will have resisted all efforts at adjustment that would have fitted you to live peacefully in our humane and civilized society… ”
“Blow it out your rocket tubes’.” Steengo snarled, ru
“…brought upon yourselves by your own efforts. Upon landing you will be escorted by armed guards to the gates of the landing station. Your restraints will be removed and you will be given an orientation booklet, a canteen of distilled water, as well as a week’s supply of concentrated survival rations. During that week you will look for small trees bearing hard fruit. These are the polpettone trees and a source of nourishment for all. Their fruit is the result of careful gene mutation and transplant, rich in animal protein. They should not be eaten raw because of the chance of trichinosis, but should be baked or boiled. You must remember…”
I wanted to remember nothing he said so I tuned him out. I tried to reassure myself that the normal condemned passenger on, this flight must have done something pretty gruesome to deserve this fate. I wasn’t convinced. Despite mille
The imaged clouds blew by and a massive five-sided building appeared on the screen. I supposed they called it the Pentagon.
“In a few moments we will be landed inside the walls of the Pentagon debarkation station. Remain seated until you are ordered to rise. Follow instructions and your passage will be made that much easier… ”
I would like to make his passage easier! Then I relaxed and opened my fists. Very soon we would be away from weary wardens and on our own. That was the moment to be prepared for.
We shuffled out in silence, down the gangway-which surely should have been a gangplank-and into the thick-walled Pentagon. To be greeted by yet another naval officer, grim-faced and gray-haired, wearing dark glasses.
“Take the prisoners to Interview nine at once.”
The petty officer of our guard protested. “Not regulation, sir. They have to – ”
“You have to close your gob. Look at these orders. Do as instructed. You do enjoy being a petty officer?”
“Yes, sir! Prisoners this way!”
The officer came in after us, closed and locked the door, smiled at us warmly and said “Shut up” companionably. He then walked around the room with what I recognized as being a state of the art communication detector. I couldn’t imagine who would want to bug the room here at the end of the universe – but he was in charge. Satisfied he put the detector away and turned to face us and handed me a key.
“You can take the cuffs off while we are in this room. I am Captain Tremearne and I am your contact here. Welcome to Liokukae.” He took off the dark glasses and smiled at us and waved us to the chairs. I could see now that a wicked scar slashed across his face and the bridge of his nose. He was blind. But could undoubtedly see fine with the electronic replacement eyes that had been fitted. They were gold-plated and gave him a highly interesting appearance.
“I am the only one here in the Pentagon who knows the real nature of your assignment here. You are all volunteers and I would like to thank you. Help yourself to refreshments because that is the last kind word you are going to hear for quite a while.”
“What is it like out there?” I asked, touching the seal on a chilled container of beer and taking a life-reviving swig. There were fresh sandwiches and hot swinedogs there as well and my companions all dived in. I joined them, but not before I had opened a concealed drawer in my synthezier and taken out some necessary items.
“What’s life like on this planet? Grim-and worse than grim, Jim. In the centuries that Liokukae has been used as a societal galactic wastebin there has been a rather deadly shaking down. Different cultures have been formed here as like found like. Or violent men forced violent solutions upon weaker men. One of the most stable of these has been developed right outside the Pentagon. They call themselves the Machmen. Man is strong, woman weak, virility rules, strength through strength, I’m sure that you know the kind of thing. The top dog in this ke
“Are these weirdos what the psych books call male chauvinist pigs?” I asked. He nodded.
“Absolutely correct. So do your best to keep Madonette out of sight. And practice walking on your toes and flaring your nostrils at the same time. If you can’t think of anything else to do crook your arm and admire your biceps.”
“Sounds a paradise,” she frowned.
“Won’t be too bad if you watch your step. They like to be entertained-since they haven’t enough brains to entertain themselves. Very big on jugglers, duels, arm wrestling.”
“What about music?” Steengo asked.
“Fine – as long as it is loud, martial and not sentimental.”
“We’ll do our best,” I said. “But it is a group called the Fundamentaloids that I want to look for.”
“Of course. As you have been told the spacer with the archeological expedition landed in their area of operation. I led the rescue party that took the expedition members out of here-which is why I am your contact now. The Fundamentaloids are nomads, as well as being pretty narrow-minded and obnoxious. I tried to keep things calm with them. Didn’t work. In the end I narcgassed the lot and went in and pulled the scientists out. I didn’t find out about the missing artifact until much later when we were off planet and they were conscious again and the excitement had cooled down. By this time the group that had grabbed them had moved on and the trail got cold. Nothing more I could do at the time but report it. It’s all in your hands now.”
“Thanks much. Can’t you at least point out to me on the map where they are?”
“Wish I could-but they’re nomads.”
“Wonderful.” I smiled insincerely. Twenty days to deadline. Deadline! it would be. I shook off the dark feelings just one more time, looked around at my band.
“Ask questions if you have any because this is your last chance,” Tremearne said.
“Do you have a map?” I asked. “I would like to know just what we have to face when we go out there.”
Tremearne reached to the holo projector and switched it on. A three-dimensional contour map appeared in midair over the table. “This is a fair-sized continent as you can see. There are other continents on this planet, some inhabited, but they have no contact with this one. The artifact has to be somewhere here.”