"Hurry, Poley," RJ ordered.
"I always hurry, RJ," Poley said. "I do things without delay; you know this."
"You know what that generator was, don't you, RJ?" Topaz asked excitedly.
"It looked like one of the thermo generating plants they used to send out with early colony ships," RJ said without enthusiasm.
"It was one of the old thermo generating stations they used to send out with early colony ships. They had all the equipment for drilling and setting up a power station. All of the equipment to civilize a planet. The only problem is that by the time they started working on earnestly colonizing the planets there were very few pure black people left," Topaz said thoughtfully.
"Uh huh," RJ said watching only the completion of the operation at hand.
"RJ, are you listening to me?" Topaz asked excitedly.
"As well as you are listening to me," she said with a smile.
"There it's done," Poley said closing the panel up and moving away from it while giving his sister what could have easily been interpreted as a pouting look.
The last priest set down his load and stepped out of the transport station.
"Tell them to stand clear," RJ said.
Janad did, and the people moved way back.
RJ took a timed charge from her pocket. She set it then threw it in. She punched a button, and the whole lot disappeared.
RJ grinned impishly as she turned to face her friends. "That ought to slow down their operations for awhile. Poley, dismantle the unit and bring the transmat components with us."
Poley nodded and started the task of disassembling that which he had just assembled.
Topaz started to administer treatments for radiation sickness to the priests with the pocket medic, telling each one to "Go now and sin no more." He obviously thought this got funnier the more often he did it.
However for RJ it had ceased to be funny at least twenty minutes ago.
"Topaz, find out which one of them is now in charge," RJ said.
Topaz nodded and asked the question of the next man in line. He made wide hand gestures as he spoke, then pointed to a big man towards the back of the line. RJ nodded grabbed Janad by the arm and headed for the man. He glared at RJ with cold eyes that let her know instantly that he considered her neither god nor friend.
"Tell him that the gold with which the Reliance has been trading is poisoned
. . .
"
"I understand that," the priest said in the Reliance tongue.
"Well, this certainly makes things easier. Listen to me. The Reliance is taking your people to the Earth to be killed
. . .
"
"It is the gods' will," he said.
"That," she said pointing towards the
Temple
,
"is a
machine
in there. It takes super heated steam from your planet's core and makes electricity. If you didn't repair the equipment your god would die," RJ said.
The priest held his hands over his ears, and RJ sighed thinking about putting a plasma bolt in his head, too. She grabbed his hands and pulled them off his ears. He frowned when his struggling got him nothing but sore wrists.
"OK, here's the scoop, Shit-for-brains. You either listen to me or I pull your arms out of your body and beat you to death with the bloody stumps. I don't have time to tear through your stupid-assed religious dogma. I realize that you don't care about your people, but I
do
care about
mine
, and right now the Reliance is taking your people from your planet and sending them to mine to kill my people. I'm not going to let that happen. The Reliance will come back here. They will try to take your people away. You will not tell the people to go. You will tell them to fight the Reliance and drive them away. You will accept no gold from your gods or anyone else, because if you do a great plague will fall upon you, and you will all die even as you were dying when we arrived. If you help the Reliance I shall personally come back here, lay your temple to ruins, and crush your skull with your god." That said she picked him up and threw him several feet through the air so that he landed on his back in a pile of some sort of animal waste.
"Let it never be said that you can't be diplomatic when the need arises," Topaz said sarcastically.
"A kind word turneth away wrath," RJ said with a smile. Then she turned and headed back towards the ship. She emerged a few moments later with a stack of pans that she handed out – not to the priests, but to the people. The people took the pots and pans holding them reverently. "Janad, tell them that they are to use these gifts in good health."
Janad told them, and they looked pleased.
"Tell them that they must always fight the Reliance. Tell them that the Reliance tried to poison their god."
Janad told them, and they looked upset and started chanting angrily.
"They must pick a reliable person to go to the next village and tell them what they saw here today and all that they heard. They must tell them that the priests must take the gold off their bodies and away from their god. They must take it far away and bury it in a hole marking it with a sign that warns others of the danger," RJ said. "It must be taboo forever."
Janad nodded and translated RJ's instructions. The people as a whole nodded their heads in agreement that became more enthusiastic as understanding dawned.
"That village must in return send a runner to the next village, and so on and so forth," RJ said, waving a hand dismissively. She hated to be bothered with trivial details. Life would be so much easier if people could learn to just follow a plan out to its logical conclusion on their own.
Janad relayed the message.
"OK, then. Let's get the hell out of here," RJ ordered.
Janad started to tell the people.
RJ grabbed Janad, putting a hand over her mouth and dragging her against her. "Don't tell them
that
, Dummy." RJ laughed. Janad nodded and RJ released her.
Topaz was finishing the last of the injections, so RJ moved towards the ship and Janad was following.
"Maybe Janad would rather stay here, RJ," Topaz said.
"I wouldn't," Janad said.
"What we are doing is going to be dangerous," Topaz said.
"Yes, much more dangerous than staying here to fight the Reliance when they rush in here any minute now all pissed off," RJ said sarcastically. "Now get your shit together and let's go."
We were saved by the new gods
, Haldeed signed.
"They are no more gods than I am, Haldeed. There ship was no different than that of the Reliance. As for their appearance, you forget that my father has such a suit. They are just clothes – nothing more, nothing less. Something worn I suppose in space travel. There is no magic in them," Taleed whispered. "We must go with them when they leave."
What
! Haldeed exclaimed with flamboyant hand gestures.
"You do not know the Reliance tongue as well as I do. I heard her say that the Reliance is coming back here, and we must not be here when they arrive. I do not believe they are gods, however I believe from their actions that they know what is truly going on," Taleed said.
If we approach them they will kill us
, Haldeed said excitedly.
"If we stay here, the Reliance may kill us or worse. What's the worst that could happen? If it looks like they mean to do us ill, I will tell them who I am, and then they dare not harm us," Taleed said. "Come, Haldeed. Quickly! They are getting ready to go."
Taleed started moving through the crowd, and Haldeed followed reluctantly.
The white headed woman went into the ship, and came back out shortly and whispered something angrily to the tall, thin dark-haired man. He just shrugged and looked like he was just as angry with her. Then she stripped her suit off. The stiff-moving man took his suit off, and so did the girl who was the right color. These three walked away fast as the others climbed into the ship. In seconds the ship had lifted up and was gone.
Taleed switched directions and started after the white headed woman and the two that had gone with her. They were walking so fast that the young prince and his companion had to practically run to keep from losing them. The strangers seemed to plow a trail through the tall brush as if it were nothing.
Sergeant Bradley and his crew of three men were in a level-three maintenance tube repairing a broken conductor cable. It was hot and the air damn near non-existent.
"Well, gee! Couldn't you just do this forever?" Harker said, stopping his torch just long enough to raise his visor and wipe the sweat from his face.
Sergeant Bradley smiled. "Yeah, they say the place to be in the military is in the combat forces, but they don't know what they're missing out on. We in maintenance know what real joy is."
"This guy Briggs
. . .
We've worked on some shit details before, but this guy has no respect for maintenance at all," Harker said.
"Let the station start falling apart, and he'd grow some in a hurry," Sergeant Bradley said as he moved to hold the cable steady. Hotter than hell, and he was forced to wear three thicknesses leather gloves.
"Why the hell can't we use laser tools?" Harker asked.
"Has something to do with some idiot not using the right kind of reflecting shield and cutting a hole right through the hull of a battle cruiser causing an instant depressurization which caused the death of twenty people," Sergeant Bradley explained. "Of course 5 or 600 maintenance personnel have died of heat exposure in these freaking maintenance tubes since, but, hey! we're expendable."
Bradley and the other two men hefted the cable into place as Harker continued his weld.
"You know what's wrong with the Reliance don't ya?" Harker started screaming over the spitting of the torch. "They let little jerk-offs like Briggs be in control."
"Between you and me, there are too many people who have never gotten their hands dirty making the decisions that make the rest of us work harder," Bradley agreed.
"Guys!" one of the other men interrupted, then added in a whisper, "The walls have eyes and ears, you know."
"Not down in the service tubes," Harker said. "The idiots up topside don't consider us bright enough to be a threat. When we were given our tests at nine they concluded that we weren't bright or ambitious enough for combat or officer ranks, so they condemned us to spend our lives fixing the shit that they break. They aren't afraid of any rebellion coming from us; they aren't afraid of us at all"
"He's right, though, Harker, better watch what you say. With someone like Briggs at the helm damn near anything can be seen as treasonous. He just looks for reasons to execute people. Given free rein I really think he'd take out everyone just to make a point," Bradley warned.
"Don't you ever get tired of it?" Harker said. "Tired of all the shit
. . .
"
"Better stop right there, Harker," Bradley said. He looked at Harker, then cut his eyes towards the other two men. Harker nodded his understanding and fell silent.
Just then the whole station lurched. Since three of them had hold of the cable at the time, it ripped out all the work they had just done. The ship rocked for several seconds, warning lights started flashing, and sirens started wailing.
"What the hell!" Harker screamed. "Are we under attack?"
"Here?" one of the other men screamed. "Why would anyone fire on us here?"
"Maybe the New Alliance found out what we're doing," Sergeant Bradley said.
"What the hell do we do now?" Harker yelled.
It was a good question. If they were under attack, their adversary was bound to start firing at the belly of the station knowing that was where the main drives were. On the other hand from their position there was no way of knowing which direction might lead them to safety and which might lead them into tunnels full of fire or deadly gas.
The station seemed to stabilize.
"Whatever it is seems to have stopped," Harker said.
Bradley pulled his computer from his pocket and powered it up. "The damage appears to be localized in the transport area. A huge explosion and a hull breach right after a materialization. The emergency hull repair activated and seems to be holding, but the damage looks extensive."
"Could it have been caused by that damned magnetic pulse?" Harker asked.
One of their early transportations from the planet had gone very badly when a magnetic pulse from the surface had happened in the middle of transporting humanoids from the surface. Instead of viable humanoids they had ended up with a sort of humanoid mush that had taken them the better part of a day to clean up.
"No, we have learned that the pulses are never closer than fifteen minutes. Since then we only send or receive right after a pulse. Besides you saw what happens when a pulse interrupts the signal, and it doesn't cause any kind of explosion. I'd say someone sent a bomb on the transporter. You guys finish this job. I'd better get topside."