Battlefield Earth

He closed the box.

He rapidly co

Char turned back to him after chomping on Ker.

“It’s fixed,” said Jo

Ker yelled to the operator, “Try it now!”

The operator did and the ore duster purred.

“See?” said Ker. “I trained him myself.”

Jo

“It’s working now,” said the operator. Char looked venom at Jo

The conveyor belt and buckets and machines were roaring away again, making haste to clear the load before the new freighter came in. The old one took off.

Windsplitter wandered down toward the morgue. This building, remarkable for its refrigerator coils, stood well back. Jo

“And what,” said a voice, “are you doing down here with a picto-recorder?”

It was Terl. He had stepped out of the morgue and had a list in his hand. In the dark reaches of the building, coffins were stacked. Terl had been checking Psychlo corpses scheduled for return home at the semia

“Practicing,” answered Jo

“Sooner or later you'll want me to take pictures for you up in the-'

“Don't talk about that around here!”

Terl tossed his list back of him toward the morgue and stepped close to Jo

Turning the machine over, Terl snapped the disc out of it, threw it in the dust, and stamped on it with his boot heel.

He poked sharp talons into Jo

“They're just blanks,” said Jo

Terl threw those into the dust and ground them under a heavy toe.

He shoved the picto-recorder back at Jo

“When you want me to take pictures,” said Jo

“I better be able to,” snarled Terl illogically and stamped back into the morgue.

Later, when Jo

But they weren't the circuit diagrams that would detect uranium.

Out of plain revenge that night he showed his whole crew the earlier pictures he had taken. He showed them all the locations of the whole transshipment area. He would have to do it again later when proper plans were formed. But for now he wanted to show them pictures of Chrissie and Pattie.

The shots showed the girls, showed the collars, showed the switch box to the bars. But mainly it showed their faces, the faces of a little girl and a beautiful woman.

The Scots watched the pictures, attentive to the geography of the transshipment area, the battle planes, the breathe-gas dump, the fuel dump, the morgue, and the platform. But when they saw the pictures of Chrissie and Pattie they began with pity and ended with rage.

Robert the Fox had to speak again to prevent them from tearing over right then and ripping the place to pieces. The pipers played a mournful lament.

If the Scots had been enthusiastic before, they were deadly determined and angry now.

But Jo

There would come a day of reckoning with Terl. He vowed it bitterly.

Chapter 6

In the clear, cold noon they were on their way for a first look at the lode. Jo

Terl had come early that morning, threatening and secretive. His ground

car had been spotted some time since by a posted sentry and Jo

Wrapped in a puma skin against the dawn chill, Jo

He got out, tightening his breathe-mask, and stood there tossing the remote control box idly into the air and catching it in his paw.

“Why,” said Terl, “are you interested in a uranium detector?”

Jo

“I heard after you left the other day that you 'repaired' the ore duster. With a picto-recorder around your neck? Ha!”

Jo

“Wrecked?”

“Physically wrecked from uranium contamination-”

“See here, animal, you can't talk this way to me!”

“-when you know very well that I could be made sick if I didn't avoid uranium dust! You've told me there's uranium up there! And you expect me-!”

“Wait a minute,” said Terl. “What are you talking about?”

“Mining toxicology!” snapped Jo

The kilted sentry who had called him was standing by the mess hall door, looking daggers and dirks at Terl.

“Sentry!” shouted Jo

Jo

The sentry rushed out with an ancient volume labeled The Poems of Robert Burns. He had snatched it from the parson who was reading at breakfast. It would have to do.

Jo

“See there!” he demanded of Terl. "In the presence of uranium, a man's hair falls out, his teeth fall out, his skin develops red blotches, and his bones crumble! And it happens in just a few weeks of exposure.”

“You don't explode?” said Terl.

“It doesn't say anything here about explosion, but it says that continuous exposure to uranium dust can be fatal! Read it yourself!"

Terl looked at a line that said something about, "O, what a panic's in thy breastie!" and said, “So it does. I didn't know that.”

“You know it now,” said Jo

Terl looked thoughtful. “So your bones turn to dust, do they? And it takes a few months?”

“Weeks,” said Jo

Terl began to laugh. His paw dropped from his belt gun and he swatted himself in the chest, catching his breath. “Well,” he said at length, “I guess you'll just have to take your chances, won't you?”

It hadn't worked. But Terl was totally off the scent now. Actually feeling more secure.

“That wasn't what I came over here for, anyway,” said Terl. “Can we go some place less public?”

Jo

He beckoned Jo