“How long have I been here?” The voice was thin and sounded far away. Jason had trouble recognizing it for his own.
“Eight days. And why didn’t you listen when I talked to you?” Plies said.
“You should have stayed near the ship when you crashed. Didn’t you remember what I said about coming down anywhere on this continent? No matter, too late to worry about that. Next time listen to what I say. Our people moved fast and reached the site of the wreck before dark. They found the broken trees and the spot where the ship had sunk, and at first thought whoever had been in it had drowned. Then one of the dogs found your trail, but lost it again in the swamps during the night. They had a fine time with the mud and the snow and didn’t have any luck at all in finding the spoor again. By the next afternoon they were ready to send for more help when they heard your firing. Just made it, from what I hear. Lucky one of them was a talker and could tell the wild dogs to clear out. Would have had to kill them all otherwise, and that’s not healthy.”
“Thanks for saving my neck,” Jason said. “That was closer than I
like to come. What happened after? I was sure I was done for, I remember that much. Diagnosed all the symptoms of pneumonia. Guaranteed fatal in my condition without treatment. Locks like you were wrong when you said most of your remedies were useless-they seemed to work well on me.”
His voice died off as Plies shook his head in a slow no, lines of worry sharp-cut into his face. Jason looked around and saw Naxa and another man. They had the same deeply unhappy expressions as Plies.
“What is it?” Jason asked, feeling the trouble. “If your remedies didn’t work-what did? Not my medikit. That was empty. I remember losing it or throwing it away.”
“You were dying,” Plies said slowly. “We couldn’t cure you. Only a junkman medicine machine could do that. We got one from the driver of the food truck.”
“But how?” Jason asked, dazed. “You told me the city forbids you medicine. He wouldn’t give you his own medikit. Not unless he
Rhes nodded and finished the sentence. ‘Dead. Of course he was dead. I killed him myself, with a great deal of pleasure.”
This hit Jason hard. He sagged against the pillows and thought of all those who had died since he had come to Pyrrus. The men who had died to save him, died so he could live, died because of his ideas. It was a burden of guilt that he couldn’t bear to think about. Would it stop with Krannon-.or would the city people try to avenge his death?
“Don’t you realize what that means!” he gasped out the words. “Krannon’s death will turn the city against you. There’ll be no more supplies. They’ll attack you when they can, kill your people…”
“Of course we know that!” Rhes leaned forward, his voice hoarse and intense. “It wasn’t an easy decision to come to. We have always had a trading agreement with the junkmen. The trading trucks were inviolate. This was our last and only link to the galaxy outside the eventual hope of contacting them.”
“Yet you broke that link to save me-why?”
“Only you can answer that question completely. There was a great attack on the city and we saw their walls broken, they had to be moved back at one place. At the same time the spaceship was over the ocean, dropping bombs of some kind-the flash was reported. Then the ship returned and you left it in a smaller ship. They fired at you but didn’t kill you. The little ship wasn’t destroyed either; we are starting to raise it now. What does it all mean? We had no way of telling. We only knew it was something vitally important. You were alive, but would obviously
die before you could talk. The small ship might be repaired to fly; perhaps that was your plan and that is why you stole it for us. We couldn’t let you die, not even if it meant all-out war with the city. The situation was explained to all of our people who could be reached by screen and they voted to save you. I killed the junkman for his medicine, then rode two doryms to death to get here in time.