Eric Flint - Slow Train to Arcturus

Lani turned to Kretz. "Get your buddy to sling the language for us, Kretz. We've got something to tranquilize the kid. We can't have her screaming while we're getting away. Although her screams probably convinced the guards."

Kretz routed the message through Abret, and to the black-clad local.

Abret couldn't blame the little alien for her attack. If he had grasped it right she was an adolescent human female. Whatever else was different between the two species, the concept of adolescence was similar. He would cheerfully have killed Derfel for that alone. Ji still apologized to him. "She is distraught, foreign devil."

Abret pointed to Kretz. "My friend say they have something to help. Like the thing they give to wounded man. Can they give?"

Ji nodded. "I would be glad. So would she, if she was herself. She does not seem too rational, telling the guards that the ancestor would come and save her." He pointed at the head. "It is an object of great reverence here."

"Good. I will tell them to give it to her. Then we can see about escaping."

Ji sighed. "I do not think that is possible. There is nowhere in the Workers Paradise to hide. But I have done what I needed to do. Thank you. You are a creature of honor, even if you are a foreign devil."

As the young human was injected, Abret conveyed the gist of this to Kretz. "He got me out of jail. And… I feel a debt, Kretz. A debt of honor. One of us did this to his daughter. He says nowhere here is safe for them. Is there anywhere else we can take them?"

Kretz nodded. "I'll ask Howard. He is a good human. The people of his habitat are odd, but they were very kind to a stranger in their midst."

Kretz turned to the huge human and spoke.

Howard nodded, and replied.

Kretz turned to Abret. "He says yes. He has quoted his holy book at me. They take the belief in a noncorporeal being quite seriously."

Abret nodded thankfully. "I gather around here they would become noncorporeal beings quite quickly, if they stayed. The only problem is that we have still have is just how to get out of there."

"Leave it to them. Especially the big human and the one with the reddish head filaments… oh, they're black right now. That one." He pointed. "They are even more ingenious than Miran, Abret. And I know you were badly frightened and treated by these aliens, but some of them have been very good to me. They have kept me alive and helped me to reach you, at great risk and hardship to themselves."

Abret nodded. "I'm beginning to accept that it depends on which one you meet, Kretz."

Kretz looked thoughtful. "In these microcosms things are more concentrated, but maybe that applies to Miran too," he said. "I mean, look at Derfel. Anyway, I'd better do a Transcomp transfer of their language to your unit. I warn you, the language is quite bizarre."

"This one is too. I suppose," Abret said, his face working with distaste, "we should see if Derfel's unit is intact. He did one thing right. He started to learn the language and immerse himself in their culture right away."

"And we'd better look for your suit," said Kretz. "Or you'll stay immersed in it forever. And you need some Miran food, soon, by the looks of you."

"And hormone supplements. But there are some packs on the lifecraft."

"The best I think we can do, is to leave quietly and neatly and take the body with us," said Lani.

Amber shuddered. "Why, Lani?"

"Remember what happened when Howard disappeared?" said Lani.

Amber nodded.

"If I read this lot right, they're going to get very upset when they find a dead 'Great Leader.' One of these brown uniforms will call himself boss and kill a fair number of people. But if the Great Leader just disappears… Well, he might come back. I think that will slow them down in their response, if nothing else."

"There is quite a bit of blood and damage, Lani," said Zoe.

Lani smiled. This was her element. "For a forensic team, yes. For this lot-nothing we can't deal with. Turn that mattress over. We'll wrap the body in the sheet."

"It seems a crazy lot of hard work to me," said Amber. "And you'll have to deal with the other bodies too."

"I think we should do it. It won't be our problem, but why should we leave a purge behind us?"

"You're getting a bit more sensitive about this sort of thing than you used to be," said Amber with a smile.

Lani shrugged. "A side effect of living with Howard."

Amber grimaced. "I can believe that. He was on at me about the morality of vat-protein which we vivisect and never allow the joy of a full life and the respect of a quick merciful death. Look, why don't we ask the local boy?" She jerked a thumb at Ji, who was sitting with arm around his child. "We can get Kretz and his friend to translate."

As it turned out Kretz was by now capable of doing the translation alone. And the austere-faced Ji smiled. Pointed at the head.

"He says it is very good idea. And if you do it right, with that thing, then everyone will be too frightened to do anything. His daughter was screaming to the ancestor to save her from the foreign devil-and people here believe in the ancestors. He says that the people believe the foreign devils will come to free them. Yet they also believe that the ancestor will protect them from foreign devils. On their holiday-the Great Leader's birthday-the Ancestor would speak, and urge them to greater endeavor to build the workers' paradise."

Amber looked at the head. There were a couple of severed wires hanging out of the neck. She pulled on them and produced a speaker.

Zoe plainly recognized the device too. "I'll be damned…"

"No. They have been," said Amber grimly.

Kretz continued. "He also wants to know: How can we get out of the palace of the Great Leader? He says Abret must give orders."

"I think we can just leave by hitching a ride on the pipe-checkers on the main arterial. Hell. Tell him there is a secret passage." She pointed at the screen. "Here."

Ji listened-and replied.

"He says we must go quickly before the changing of the guard at midnight. And he says can we let him out of the passage to collect his family, once he is beyond the walls?"

"His family?" asked Lani, puzzled.

"Howard has promised them sanctuary," explained Kretz. "They'd want to ask him and his daughter questions, if they just suddenly reappeared."

Amber nodded. "Besides, I think that she needs counseling. I think I probably do too! But isn't it going to be a bit obvious if they just disappear? Isn't someone going to give the alarm if they hear anything? This lot must live in crowded quarters."

Kretz translated. Ji shook his head and replied. "People disappear. At night always. No one will say anything or look in case they are taken too."

Amber pulled a face. "I thought Diana was in trouble, politically."

Zoe said quietly. "Yes. We're going to have to intervene, somehow. Or do we just leave them to starve and kill each other? It goes against Icaran philosophy to have anyone 'nanny' anyone else, but without some help these guys are…" She shook her head. "We need to point them in the right direction at least, not rule their lives."

"I would say that it was their accepting that someone could rule their lives that got them into this trouble in the first place," said Lani grimly. "Come on. Let's do a quick and dirty clean up and move out. We can leave them that piece of brass as a souvenir." She pointed at the head.

"How about putting it on that throne that we saw on the vid? It's on our way."

"Sure. And I've a pretty evil idea. We'll put a radio unit in it. They're used to listening to the talking head…"

The head and its radio unit were left on the golden throne.

Howard had enough to carry, what with Nama-ti on his back, and one end of the bed-clothes shroud that had three bodies in it.