Slaves of The Klau

"My left hand hurts-in the palm-and I don't have a left hand. It's mixed up in the mud with Kerbol… Oh, what a sight…"

Komeitk Lelianr tried to remember Lekthwan medicine, but the oddments and theories had no immediate bearing on a stump of an arm.

Pfluga, Flatface's second woman, too fat for work, came wheezing in to build up the fire. She peered at the arm. "And what will you do?" she asked Komeitk Lelianr.

"I don't know."

Pfluga snorted. "There's only the one way." She thrust a heavy poker into the coals.

Barch fainted, and when the smell of burning flesh reached her nostrils, Komeitk Lelianr likewise fainted.

Pfluga snorted, sniffed, stirred the fire up under a pot of hot water. There would be calls for food and hot tea before the night was over.

Barch opened his eyes, reached out to pull himself to a sitting position, fumbled ineffectually with the air. He realized that he no longer had a left arm, propped himself awkwardly with his right. He looked at his bandage. Clean gray cloth. The stump ached, not unbearably.

Komeitk Lelianr knelt beside him with a bowl of gruel. "How do you feel?"

"As well as could be expected. What's been happening?"

"You've been sleeping for two days."

"And what's been happening?"

"Three sustenators are welded in place. Today the decking is being put down. Tomorrow-well-"

"Two days." Barch rubbed his chin. "Two days… Help me up."

"You'd better sit still."

"I've got to think."

"Can't you think where you are?"

"The Bornghalese saw us up along the dam. They know a barge is stolen, they know what's aboard. When the Brain finds out…"

A sensation like a cold draught played along Komeitk Lelianr's skin. She glanced uneasily toward the crevice.

Barch asked feverishly, "Have you checked the locator index for the Brain?"

"It's not listed as the Brain," said Komeitk Lelianr uncertainly.

"I can't understand why they wait so long," fretted Barch. "It's u

Komeitk Lelianr said soothingly, "Another few days and we should be ready to leave."

"We need fuel-accr. Tick calls it."

"But you can't go out stealing again."

"I'll have to. Who else will go?"

Komeitk Lelianr had no answer. After a while Barch struggled to his feet. "I don't know why I should be so weak."

Komeitk Lelianr took his elbow, steadied him. "You've lost a lot of blood."

Barch winced, closed his eyes as if to shut out a terrible vision. He muttered, "That rascal Tick, hiding, dodging, slinking. If he had stayed where I put him-" He wiped at his forehead. "Well it's in the past; Kerbol's gone. But he was loyal. Kerbol stood by his guns, even when he died for it."

CHAPTER X

Barch made his way slowly up to Big Hole, where he leaned back against the wall, legs like wet rags. With gloomy satisfaction he listened to the sounds of activity. Barges One and Two sat side by side on the flat, with the four floodlights that had cost so much blood hanging overhead. Barge Three rested askew down at the far end, with the boxes and crates of three cargoes in between.

Barch calculated up into the regions above. Stalactites glittered and twinkled; the ceiling was gloomy, complex, Gothic -but there seemed to be enough room, when the time came, to invert Barge two over Barge One. A delicate maneuver, but Tick had a completely sure touch… As if Tick were telepathic, he looked up from where he squatted beside Pedratz, the welder, who was cutting pipe into stanchion lengths. He came bounding over the rocks like a cat. "Well?" asked Barch.

"When will you give me my charm?"

"You'll get it as soon as we're out in space."

Tick tugged desperately at his braided sideburn. "Too late, too late." His voice rose to a neighing. "I feel the bulk of terror-my brain aches, my knees are weak at wading through imagined blood."

Barch said in a cracked voice, "You'll ache all over if you don't stop that croaking. I've got your charm in my pocket; as long as I'm safe, it's safe. Think that over. Now go tell Porridge I want to talk to him."

Tick went crouch-backed across the stone floor; a moment later Porridge's round head pushed cautiously over the edge of Barge One. The opal eyes fixed on Barch a ruminative ten seconds, then he climbed up to the catwalk, backed down the ladder, trotted across the cave. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk with you about defending ourselves."

"I know nothing about fighting. The Podruods are the great fighters." He started to turn away.

"Just a moment," said Barch, gri

"True."

"From what you know of the Klau mind, how do you suppose they'll attack us?"

"I would assume that armored Podruod troops would be sent to kill us."

"And suppose that failed?"

Porridge's eyes bulged thoughtfully. "They might send a monitor with torpedoes to break open the mountain. Or they might establish a cone of lethal radiation against the cave opening and then we would be trapped like mice in a shoe."

"Come inside a minute," said Barch. "To send in troops, they have these alternatives. They can land a barge-load outside the valley, march them in, the same way the Klau come hunting. They can land a barge-load on this flat, in front of the cave. Or they can land them somewhere else in the valley, which is unlikely, because there are no other flat landing places within convenient distance."

Porridge looked uninterestedly along the damp black mountainside, then pointed across the valley. "A barge might land on the knoll of that bluff."

"Then the Podruods would have to climb down the steep slope and across those sharp rocks. However," said Barch, "that bluff would make a fine place to command the mouth of the cave. So that makes three areas we want to guard: the valley mouth, that bluff, and the flat here in front of the cave."

Porridge fidgeted. "Yes, yes. On Lenau we would convert the ground to a gel with vibrators."

"This happens to be the Palkwarkz Ztvo," said Barch. "I'm going to fly a load of explosive over to that bluff and bury a few mines. Can you build me a long-range detonator?"

"First, I must see the explosive."

"Let's go back to Big Hole," said Barch. He gave a last look up and down the valley. "A gray day; notice how high and thin the clouds are? Klau come hunting on such days."

They returned to Big Hole, went to the crates taken from Barge One. "Kerbol knew these explosives," said Barch, "I don't."

He pried open a crate, looked down at shiny gray bars lodged on a rack of rust-colored plastic. "This is super. Very powerful. We've got about sixty crates. Enough to blow up half Magarak."

He found a second box. "This is the stuff Kerbol used- abiloid. And this string is the fuse, or detonator."

"Yes, yes," said Porridge. "Quite common."

"Can you work out a remote control?"

Porridge glanced down to the dome of Barge two. "There are instruments which could easily be adapted."

"Good," said Barch. "Suppose you get at it right now."

"Very well."

Barch watched Porridge march briskly off. He felt eyes upon him-Tick's. When Barch turned his head, Tick looked away. Barch Watched Pedratz the welder a moment.

Each length of pipe made one stanchion, with about five feet of waste. The sight of the pile of five-foot lengths gave Barch an idea. He crossed the cave, tapped Pedratz's taffy-yellow shoulder. "Pedratz, seal off one end of about four of these." Barch pointed to the pipes.

Pedratz nodded, turned, prodded Tick with his toe. "Hoist four of those lengths into the dolly."

Barch's stump began to ache. He turned, left the Big Hole, started down the passage toward the hall. In the dark something sprang ferociously at him, threw him to the ground. Barch fell on his stump, felt the flesh squash, the blood squirt, lay in a daze. He felt nimble hands at his pouch, a hiss. Then there was a kick at the nape of his neck, a scuffle of footsteps.