It was quiet inside the human compound. Most of the buildings were dark, although lights showed through the windows of one long, low-roofed structure.
“The humans eat their meals together,” the officer muttered, from somewhere in the darkness over my head. “They eat plants and pastes made by machines.” Her voice reeked with distaste.
I was tempted to tell her that some humans hunt for their meals. But I refrained.
Without knocking she opened the door to the mess hall—for that is what it was—and stepped inside. Floorboards creaked under her mass. I came in behind her.
Twenty-two men and women, each of them in drab coveralls, stopped eating and turned to stare at us, spoons and forks in midair, mouths open and eyes wide with surprise.
The officer grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and nearly hauled me off my feet.
“This one says he belongs with you,” she said, loud enough to rattle the windows. “Does he speak truth?”
A bearded man at the head of the table swallowed hard enough for me to see his Adam’s apple work up and down.
“He belongs with us, yes,” he said in a high, surprised voice.
The officer let go of me.
“When did he arrive? How?”
Before they could give a story that contradicted mine, I rattled, “On the special flight several days ago, just as I told you.” Desperately I hoped that none of the other humans would give me away.
“I know of no special flight.”
“It was only here very briefly,” said the man at the head of the table.
“You might have been out at the perimeter,” one of the women added, in a voice that trembled slightly.
“I can check all incoming flights in our computer records,” said the officer. “If he is lying, he will die. If you help him lie, you will die with him.”
The bearded man at the head of the table got to his feet. “You can’t threaten us so easily. We were sent here by the Hegemony high command. The work we have to do here is too important to the progress of the war for us to be bullied by Skorpis warriors.”
The officer hissed at him, just like a spitting cat. Then she said, with murderous calm, “The Hegemony orders us to protect you. If this human is a spy or a saboteur, he must be dealt with. If you help him, you are working against the Hegemony and you will be dealt with also.”
“Let us take care of him,” the bearded man said. “He’s no threat to you or anyone else.”
“You vouch for him? He is a scientist, as you are?”
The man started to nod, but one of the women down the table burst but, “We never saw him before! We don’t know who he is!”
“Randa!”
“It’s no good, Delos,” she said to the bearded one. “What we’re trying to accomplish here is too important to allow some spy to wreck everything!”
“You say he is a spy?” the officer thundered.
“None of us ever saw him before!” Randa fairly screamed. “Take him away. Open up his brain and find out who he is and why he’s here!”
CHAPTER 10
Everyone in the mess hall froze, frightened, faces contorted with shock and uncertainty. Even the huge Skorpis security officer stood stock-still for a moment, just as stunned by Randa’s revelation as the other humans.
In that flash of a moment I acted. It was either move or die, and I had no intention of dying.
I spun on the ball of my foot and punched the security officer as hard as I could on her chin. She staggered backward, knees buckling. Before she could recover I bolted across the mess hall, vaulting clean over the table while several of the humans shrieked and hurling myself through one of the windows. I crashed through and landed head-first on the hard-baked ground outside. I could hear the security officer bellowing like a lioness in heat as I rolled to my feet and ran for the energy fence that enclosed the human compound.
It was more than two meters high, but I cleared it with room to spare. Fear augments athletic skills. Now I could hear shouting behind me as I raced through the square tents and more permanent structures of the Skorpis camp. There were plenty of the huge warriors in sight, working, digging, marching in the darkness of the night. They seemed more surprised than alarmed as I sprinted past them, heading for the beach and the sea.