Jack Vance: Slaves of The Klau

Barch said speculatively, "I wonder what would happen…" He looked thoughtfully at Komeitk Lelianr. "Off hand, would you say that these creatures will be well-treated on Magarak?"

She examined him curiously. "I have no idea. We know very little of Magarak. I assume that they are not as strictly supervised as the technical workers."

"Suppose the Klau found a body in your clothes and a body in mine…"

Komeitk Lelianr shuddered. "You want me to wear those clothes?"

"We have nothing to lose, perhaps something to gain."

She shook her head. "But I see no reason-"

"If we get sent out to those mud-flats, we go out together!"

"Oh," said Komeitk Lelianr in sudden enlightenment. "The dynamic attitude, this tinkering with destiny…"

"Yes," said Barch grimly. "If I couldn't be doing something, I might as well throw in the sponge. Are you game?"

She shrugged. "It makes no difference."

Barch flushed. "If you'd rather go it alone, say so."

"No, Roy. I don't object to you personally."

"Thanks," growled Barch.

She smiled. "Maybe our friends won't like us undressing their dead."

"We'll soon see…"

He pushed himself over to the nearest body, and with a challenging survey of the six white faces, began to jerk the gray garment loose.

There was an undertone of muttering. Black eyes became beady and thoughtful. No one stirred. Underneath the jacket was a skin-tight coverall of matted fiber. "This is the smallest," said Barch. "Let's have your clothes."

Komeitk Lelianr slipped out of the white and black harlequin costume, climbed gingerly into the black smock.

Barch stripped the second corpse down to the gray matted undersuit, pulled off his coat and trousers. Closing his nostrils to the sour odor of the garment, he pulled it over his head.

There was motion along the wall. Barch looked up sharply. One of the men was feeling the material of his coat. My good gray flannel, thought Barch. He jerked it away, started to pull it on the corpse.

Now there were mutters. The older of the women made a furious babbling sound; the other made a gesture with stiff fingers against her lips. Barch ignored the noise, buttoned the coat, began to pull the legs into the trousers. The legs were too short; the cuffs dragged ridiculously over the yellow blobs of wax or resin that covered the dead man's feet.

From the corner of his eye Barch saw Komeitk Lelianr deftly thrusting the second body into her black and white costume. He turned, critically inspected her gleaming silver hair. "You don't make a very good peasant."

He looked around the cell. One of the Modoks wore a loose conical cap. Barch pushed himself forward, reached out, took the cap. The man half-heartedly clutched for the cap, then backed away, eyes staring with frantic alarm.

The women babbled in approval.

Barch yanked the cap down on Komeitk Lelianr's hair. "There," he said, inspecting her, "that's a little better." He turned to look at their cellmates. "They're certainly an odd-acting bunch."

"It's all relative," said Komeitk Lelianr. "They undoubtedly think the same of us."

Barch looked down at his shoes, at Komeitk Lelianr's sandals. "Do you think we'll pass?"

"I couldn't say."

The ship shivered; they heard deep clanking sounds, like an anchor-chain running down a hawse-pipe. "What's that?"

"I don't know. Perhaps we have arrived."

"If so, we didn't get changed any too soon."

The ship jarred; the red glow in the wall pulsed bright and dim. A moment later the cell burst open. Gravity seized at the ten bodies-eight living, two dead. They slid down the cell wall, together with all the accumulated litter, trash and refuse, down to a smooth chute. Fresh air was cold on their faces; sound roared at their ears.

Barch's eyes smarted under the sudden light, his legs felt limp at the knees. "Ellen!" he cried. "Ellen, where are you?"

Blinking, he looked around him. They stood in a fenced enclosure, like a cattle pen. Komeitk Lelianr was a few feet distant, holding to her cap, which the original owner was attempting to reclaim. Barch staggered over, struck the man with his fist.

Something stung at his back, burning like fire; he turned, snarling. Above him, on a ramp, stood a tremendous man with blood-red skin. Black spikes of hair extended like quills on all sides of his head. He had eyes with red four-starred centers, like the Klau, and he carried a tube with a flickering serpent of light darting up, down, in, out.

He roared at Barch in a voice like a brass horn, flourished the flail. A disturbance in the adjoining pen attracted his attention. He pounded down the ramp. The flickering light-snake curled out. Barch heard a sharp cry.

He gained Komeitk Lelianr's side, dazed and angry, shook his head as if to clear it of confusion, glowered up at the trumpeting red whip-wielders.

Directly overhead a hatch opened; a stream of bodies plummeted at him. He jumped aside, pushed Komeitk Lelianr against the fence, away from the milling center of the pen, and here he caught his breath.

The ship continued to discharge. Men and women tumbled, slid, spewed from orifices under the ship, their fall broken by the bawling bodies below.

Past the great hulk, Barch glimpsed the shapes of the two other ships. Beyond rose the facade of a building a mile high, the roof-line blurred in fog. There was a steady roar in the air, like the sound of surf; a smell of mud, rust and ammonia hung across the pens.

Komeitk Lelianr said coolly in his ear, "We're part of a not-too-valuable cargo. We'll be worked very hard; we'll die very quickly."

He looked at her truculently. "You sound as if you don't care."

"I know what to expect. This is Magarak."

Barch said, "Personally, I'm scared stiff."

She shrugged. "Adjust yourself; your fear will pass."

Barch glared. "Adjust myself be damned! I'm almost afraid that I won't be able to make these devils regret the day they saw me!"

She glanced up to the top of the ramp. "The Podruods will soon curse you of that."

"They have eyes like the Klau."

"They're a sub-species of Klau. There are Big Klau, Little Klau, Bornghaleze, Podruods-all Klau stock. The Podruods are the troops, the guards, the fighters."

A metallic clatter rang out, accompanied by distant shouts. Barch, turning his head, saw a long feather-shaped boom vibrating back and forth across the sky. Overhead six white balls snapped past-one after the other, like rockets.

He said in Komeitk Lelianr's ears, "This is bedlam."

She nodded briefly. "Compared to other parts of Magarak it's quiet."

The Podruod voice rang out above like a clarion. "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Directly behind them the fence opened. "I guess we move," muttered Barch.

A sudden rush of gray bodies with frightened white faces surged past. Knobby shoulders pummeled Barch. "Ellen!" he cried. He looked all around desperately. "Ellen! Where are you? Ellen!"

Arms thrust angrily at him, he was carried along the tide. "Ellen!" He thought he heard his name; he stopped to listen. Nothing but the shuffle and thud of feet, ringing shouts of the great red Podruods.

A chute loomed ahead. Four abreast the Modoks scuttled up, jumped down into what appeared to be a long black barge. A Podruod with legs painted blue stood in the stern, his face working like rubber, yelling, crying.

Barch craned his neck, searching the sea of alien faces. Fifty feet ahead he saw Komeitk Lelianr. "Ellen!" She turned her head. A great red hand obscured her face; she stumbled up the chute.

A second chute opened at Barch's right; the Podruods roared new directions.

Barch pushed forward, now shoving against the tide. He saw Komeitk Lelianr half-way up the chute. The Podruod roared, struck at him; the light-serpent snapped out.