Freedom's Landing Part 30

"Soon. I have not all I want."

"You'll stay with us?" It was extremely important to Kris that he did. She was in a panic that somehow she'd lose him now when she had suddenly realized how much he meant to her.

"I stay."

On the way back to the sidelines, she held herself to slow, even steps, determined that she would not give the Catteni any chance to laugh at her.

"Janie mac, what did they put in this?" Lenny Doyle exclaimed as he helped ease the crate to the ground.

"Careful now, it might be breakable.

"Naw, Lenny, but we sure are," Ninety said, groaning, and he made a big display of rubbing the small of his back.

"Is he coming?" Lenny asked Kris, gesturing to Zainal.

"Says he is. They haven't given him all he asked for."

"Let's hope they give him more than he should get," and, with a sudden spurt of fury, Kris recognized d.i.c.k Aarens' nasty voice.

"Why'n'h.e.l.l bring him along?" Kris demanded of the Doyles.

"Only way to be sure he does his share," Lenny said.

Then he added, "He's getting far too c.o.c.ky, showing off to everyone that he was the only one who could figure out how the mechos work and what parts'd be any good for us.

You don't suppose the Catteni would take him back?"

"Fat chance of that - - My G.o.d, look at the piles of folks," Kris said, for the original, fairly neat order of the rows had altered and bodies were being crammed close together.

"That's more than were in our drop," Mitford said, obviously doing a body count. "Many more. Maybe they're doing us a favour after all, putting the whole nine yards down in the one spot."

"Yeah, but Sarge, where'll we put "em when they're awake?"

"We'll make room. A lot of "em are ours!" the sergeant said in a determined growl.

"Yeah, but enough's enough. We've just got comfortable and now - -"

"So we share. We remember, don't we, what it was like.

So we d.a.m.nitall share!" There was no further argument as the unloading continued. "I'd rather have them with us, where we can see "em, than turning wild and causing our camps no end of trouble." Fatigue from the tearing run to get here, as well as hefting that heavy carton, began to take its toll of Kris's energy. Wearily, she sat herself down on the carton.

"I've a loaf of bread to share," she announced, suddenly remembering that she had and reached into the map case.

She broke off a piece and pa.s.sed the loaf to Mitford.

"Good idea," Mitford said. "At ease, men and women. Let's watch the big fat smelly Cats at work." So everyone a.s.sumed lounging positions, on the gra.s.s, seated on the line of supply cartons or just hunkered down. Joe and Sarah shared their loaves and many in Mitford's group had thought to bring food which they distributed.

""Lift that bale, tote that barge"," sang Lenny's tenor voice softly.

"I could sure stand getting a little drunk and landing in jail," another male voice said and sang the final word down to the bottom of his voice range.

Everyone laughed and the Cattenis heard.

"They're twitching."

"Let's not lay it on too thick."

"Ah, Sarge!' "Easy does it. You do remember force-whips, don't you?"

"They're not carrying any."

"Only because everyone's unconscious."

"Are you counting, Tesco?" Mitford added.

"I would if you - . . eight hundred twenty, one, two and three .

. . don't interrupt me allatime."

"Let's not make them too mad, blokes," Joe Marley said. "They're taking it out on "em." Everyone shut up, now that Joe had pointed out the rough - rougher - way the Catteni were depositing the unconscious bodies. Almost slamming them into the ground.

"Zainal, can you tell them not to mash the cargo?" Mitford said, raising his voice to parade ground level.

Zainal swivelled at the hips and, seeing one Catteni doing exactly what Mitford protested, snapped a savage bark. The erring Catteni made a big show of placing his burden down more carefully. The others, under Zainal's watchful gaze, behaved more circ.u.mspectly "Is Zainal going to stay there until they finish?" Lenny asked, leaning down to Kris, his expression anxious.

"I think so. At least he can curb their boyish bad habits."

"How does he get away with it?" Lenny asked.

"Because he knows how to give orders," Mitford said, almost admiringly.

Idle conversation continued among the watching gang, but no more bursts of laughter to annoy the Catteni.

Tesco had got up to a thousand when Mitford gestured for Dowdall to take over. Then more cartons were brought out which the Catteni stacked on the other side of the field, in a sort of farewell gesture of bad feelings. Still Zainal waited.

All the soldiers had disappeared within the ship and the silence was broken only by noises from the vessel itself, metallic complaints and emissions of liquid and steam.

Suddenly the watchers could all hear the sound of boots on metal and a second delegation, five Catteni this time, appeared in the opening. Two stayed inside, three came down, and two stopped partway.

The remaining Catteni, dressed in a more elaborate uniform and shorter by a full head than Zainal, came right up to him and presented first a sheaf of what Kris thought had to be print-out and then another folder.

These were presented most punctiliously.

Kris thought for a moment that the officer was going to click his heels together and bestow a Teutonic military bow on Zainal.

Zainal accepted the offerings, almost diffidently, said a few words in a low voice and casually sauntered away from the ship. The blinding blue-white lights went out, the ramp was retracted and they could hear warm-up engine sounds from the ship.

For a moment Kris feared that the exhaust from its engines would fry the nearest bodies. But, whining at a pitch that made everyone cover their ears defensively, the big transport lifted vertically in a slow ascent, then edged forward. When it was several fields beyond its landing site, the rear engines glowed from yellow to white to a blue actinic light that made Kris and the others avert their eyes.

The wind of its pa.s.sage was enough to knock several watchers off their feet: the bodies of the latest victims fortunately were low enough to be below the blast path.

Kris could no longer contain herself but rushed out to Zainal, who had begun to walk more briskly, undisturbed by the take-off wind.

"Did you get what you wanted? What did you want that took so long?" she cried as she neared him.

"I got the explore report "and he held up the folder, "and medicals on Deskis." He held up the sheaf. "Treatment for Deskis . .

." and he pointed to the carton Kris had lugged over. "Medicals for humans and Rugarians," and he indicated the others. "And testers."

"How come they snapped to for you, Zainal?" Joe asked.

Zainal grinned. "I may be down but not out.

Kris giggled nervously at his casual use of slang. Go to the head of the cla.s.s, she thought.

"I am still Ema.s.si and they know it," he added, snapping out the "know "So what's "ema.s.si" when you're at home?" Joe demanded, c.o.c.king his head to one side.

"A born rank." Zainal shrugged it off.

"Birth rank," Kris corrected automatically. She wanted Zainal to speak English properly.

"I understood him," Joe said in tacit reprimand.

Kris firmly closed her lips to a smart retort. Now was not the time to bicker.

"Look at it this way, folks, we've almost doubled our population the easy way," Mitford announced when he jumped to the top of the crate.

"Back at the old stand, huh, Sarge?" someone shouted.

"Yeah, and we'll follow the same routine. Only this time, we're ahead of the game. We know the drill.

Dowdall, get back to Camp Narrow and organize beds and food. Send me at least twenty more people. Bring some buckets and pitchers so we can water "em. We'll start sending folks back as soon as they're able to walk.

It's not that far and that's a blessing. You, you, you and you, start moving among "em and pick out the injured those Cats really banged some of "em down hard - and any DOAs. Lenny, Ninety, break open these cartons.

Su, Jay, start distribution. Then, Jay, you lead the first group of fifty back to Camp Narrow." Mitford jumped down again and stood by Zainal. "It looks to me like they emptied their entire load on this one field. That right, Zainal?" Zainal nodded.

"Is that report readable?" Mitford peered at the glyphs which resembled those that Kris had helped carve in the hillside.

"Yes. I also told them that this planet is occupied by others of high-tech skill."

"Did they believe you?"

"No." Zainal's grin was bleakly amused. "But they will tell to those who need to know-' Mitford gave him a sharp stare. "Why didn't they believe you? Did they think you were lying or something, to get off-planet?" Zainal shook his head. "I told them, first, that I am dropped and I stay." He did not look in Kris's direction but she knew, definitely, that he was saying that for her benefit and her heart did a little painful jump.

Stupid!

But she was so glad that he hadn't gone. "They believe report says this planet . . . empty."

"Lord," Joe Marley said in a groan, "how'd they miss the garages.

"Garages do not show warm-blood life forms," Zainal said and grinned.

A nearby groan from one of the bodies interrupted the conversation and they sprang into action. Actually, Kris thought as she took Mitford's own canteen to the nearby stream to fill it, Zainal, she and the others needn't have run so fast or risked broken bones to get here.

It had taken the Catteni several hours, at least, to unload. They could've walked, or waited for breakfast, but she was d.a.m.ned glad they hadn't. She'd have missed Zainal standing there like a Gibraltar Rock.

Would he have continued to stand there all day if they hadn't been willing to accede to his requests? Or demands? Being an ema.s.si certainly granted him privileges, even if he had been dropped.

Chapter Twelve.

They were so well organized, and Mitford harangued so effectively, that the "indigenous personnel', as he referred to them, were served hot, revitalizing drinks from a hastily erected camp kitchen before the sun was halfway up the sky and, later, sandwiches for lunch. The newly awakened were kindly advised to stick to water at first and then slowly chew down a third of a ration bar: gorging on empty stomachs led to unpleasant reactions.

Mitford had immediately sent the medical crates - all but one tester kit - on to Camp Rock with news of this new drop and a request to Worry to send Leon and other medical a.s.sistance. The Catteni had broken a few bones of those they had slammed down so hard. Some of the new lot would have to be accommodated at the Rock, as people were beginning to call the cavern camp, almost affectionately. Kris felt considerable gratification at the thought that Leon would now be able to treat Coo, Pess and the pregnant female and to keep the newly arrived Deskis healthy.

By the time the first batch of flfty moved slowly out on their way to Camp Narrow, Mitford had taken Kris off wake-up duty and put her onto debriefing: getting names, occupations, origins, and lastly but just as importantly, what they might know of recent events - recent to them - on Earth. The mere fact that people were resisting the Catteni continued to boost morale. Today's encounter on the field also ranked as a major plus.

"Getting something out of the Cats without having to pay for it," was the happy summation.

When she took a few moments to eat her lunch, Mitford approached her for a synopsis of her findings.

"So far the humans I've got originated from North America, Canadians as well. Then there seems to be a whole raft of English, French and German. Resistance', and she grinned, "is increasing and the Catteni have had to call in reinforcements to deal with stoppages and sit-downs and all kinds of pa.s.sive movements. There's also active sabotage, too - blowing up Catteni supplies or shipments destined for Catten or Barevi." "Shipments? Arty things?"

"Not that I heard.

Somehow, Sarge, I don't think our artistic tastes would parallel Catteni.

"Hmmm. Possibly. Any useful professionals?"

"Two Canadian dentists, nineteen teachers - it seems the Catteni emptied a private school for one reprisal.

They took . . . all the girls away," and the words came reluctantly out of her. "Some of the teachers are nuns.

They resisted the kidnapping. One said she had had her arm broken. It looks a bit crooked, and I can feel the excess calcium where the break was but basically it's completely knitted."

"A long time coming here, then. What do they use for this stasis junk?" Kris shrugged as she flipped over her sheets to pick out the more interesting occupations. "Five hairdressers, two ma.s.seurs, a reflexologist "A what?"

"Makes your feet happy.

"Argh."

"You should try it, Sarge, it can really relax you!"