Battlefield Earth

Ker guffawed!

“Is it that plain?” said Jo

“Not to an unobservant idiot,” said Ker. “But to one who had sweated on as many driver's seats and in as many shafts with you as me, I know you, Jo

He swatted his paw into Jo

Jo

“Angus MacTavish," said Jo

“Oho! That's the best news of the day next to your being here. Angus has a way with the nuts and bolts. I keep track of things. What's first?”

“First,” said Jo

“That he did, while I trained the machine operators. You know I’ve been doing a great job on that, Jo

“This Academy is the most fun I ever had, Jo

I tell them my mother was a female Psychlo that raped a Swede!”

Jo

Ker had stopped laughing now. He was just sitting there, looking pensive. “You know, Jo

Eating a few bites of breakfast and chasing it down with some water, Jo

“Oh, I got authority,” said Ker. “I got authority ru

I told them I needed help and parts from the Cornwall minesite."

“Good,” said Jo

“Got it, got it, got it,” said Ker as he went rumbling off.

Jo

Chapter 7

They got to the car without incident beyond a couple of sly cracks from passing cadets such as, “Had a crash, Stormy?” in reference to the bandage, and “Wipe one out, Stormalong? Or was it that lass in Inverness? Or her daddy?”

There was a big package in the car, making seating tight even in Psychlo seats. Ker swept the car out across the rolling plain with the effortless skill of one with years and tens of thousands of hours on a console behind him. Jo

Nothing like having an experienced criminal along, Jo

“And there's two air masks and bottles I brought,” said Ker. “We'll claim breathe-gas is leaking in the pipes, not enough for me, too much for you. Put them on.”

They deferred it, however, until they were near the compound. Chinko air masks, cut down to fit a human, were a mite uncomfortable at any time.

Jo

He snapped out of it suddenly as they screeched to a slow in billowing dust on the plateau near the cage. Ker didn't care where he went in a vehicle. Ker leaned out the window and yelled at the cage, “It came. I don't think it's the right housing but we'll see!”

Terl! There he was, paws on the bars. They had the electricity off.

“Well, speed it up!” roared Terl. "I’m tired of being roasted in this sun. How many days yet, you crap brain?”

“Two, three, no more,” yelled Ker. He shot the vehicle into a perilous reverse and it spun up in the air about seven feet and came down diving toward the other side of the compound to enter the garage doors.

Ker shot in and spun the car down a ramp into a deserted sector and stopped.

“Now we go to his office,” he said.

“Not yet,” said Jo

“Yes,” said Ker, doubtfully. “Is it still rigged with breathe-gas?" said Jo

“I guess so,” said Ker.

“First drive by the electronics storeroom and pick up a mineral analysis machine and then drive to that closet.”

Ker was a bit uneasy. “I thought we wanted into his office.”

“We do,” said Jo

Ker revved up and shot the car through the mazes of ramps on its way to do as Jo

The place had not been much cleaned up since the battle, but hundreds of planes were still there, the thousands of vehicles and mining machines, the dozens of shops for various types of work and hundreds of storerooms-the bric-a-brac as well as the valuables of a thousand years of operation. Jo

Psychlos were exploiters of alien races and terrain; hadn't they even borrowed their language and technology? Teleportation seemed to be the key to their power. Well, he was working on that.

They drew up before the old closet and Angus struggled in with the mineral analysis machine. Jo