“I have orders from Captain Leeds about the boy.”
Fabic shrugged. “All right then, stall – and you’d better be smart about it, too. Let Orkhad get another pipe into him, and he’s liable to try his luck at taking over. Then it wouldn’t matter much what orders you had from the captain.”
“You’re a Leeds man?” Nik couldn’t help that one question that might mean so much.
Fabic still grinned. “Me, I’m playing it safe – all the way safe! This is no planet to go exploring on. And I don’t aim to be set outside without cin-goggles and a blaster and told to start walking! That has happened before. Sure, I’ll back the captain – if he’s here and ready to speak up. But I’m not stripping myself bare for him regardless. If you want to spit in Orkhad’s eye, you’ll do it on your own and take what he’ll give you then all by yourself. Walk slow and soft and forget you know how to speak until the captain does show.”
“Which will be when?”
“When it suits him. Here’s your hole. Crawl right in and remember to be invisible when trouble comes.”
Still trying to make something coherent out of those hints, Nik re-entered the cell-like chamber and heard Fabic click the door behind him. Vandy still sat on his stool, staring at an unopened tin of emergency space rations.
That gave Nik an idea for putting off explanations for a while.
“Let’s eat!” He set the button for heating and, opening the nearest container, handed it to the boy.
When it popped open and the steam arose from its interior, Nik realized that he too was hungry. Vandy looked mulishly stubborn for a second or two, but it seemed that he could not resist that aroma either. They ate in silence, savoring the food. Nik counted the pile of containers Fabic had brought – enough for three days, maybe more. Did that mean they would be imprisoned here for that length of time or merely that Fabic did not want to make too many trips to supply them?
Leeds was corning, but, meanwhile, with Orkhad in command and hostile – what if the alien Veep moved against Vandy and incidentally gainst Nik?
How big were these underground diggings? That terminal with its radiating star of tunnels suggested size. Was Orkhad right? Were all these corridors, rooms, tunnels, part of a refuge system developed by a native race in a despairing attempt to survive the flare from their sun, an attempt that had failed? Did Orkhad have any large force here, enough to occupy an extensive section? If Nik only knew more!
Supplies for three days – and those tunnels. Nik’s thoughts kept juggling those two facts, trying to add them as if he could make a satisfactory sum. As long as Leeds was not here, Orkhad was in control. Their safety rested on the very shaky foundation of the whims of a suequ smoker.
“I want to go home.” Vandy put down the empty ration tin. There was no panic now as he had shown earlier. But Nik, occupied though he was with his thoughts, read the determination in the boy’s tone.
“We can’t go.” He was startled into a bald statement of truth.
“I will go!” Vandy sped across the room before Nik could move. He fitted his small fingers into the door slit, and the panel gave!
Nik launched himself at the boy to drag him back, while Vandy fought like a cornered dra-cat. Holding him on the bunk by the sheer weight of his own body, Nik strove to reason with his captive.
“All right, all right,” he repeated. “Only we can’t just walk out of here.”
Why was the door left unfastened? Had Fabic overlooked that precaution on purpose or in carelessness? Did the crewman’s weak allegiance to Leeds take that way out, giving Nik and Vandy an offer of escape? Or was it intended to be a method of getting rid of them both, organized by Orkhad?
Vandy lay quiet now, the red sparks blazing in his eyes.
Supplies, arms, cin-goggles – the tunnels – a chance to hide out until Leeds did arrive? It was wild, so wild that Nik could only consider such a plan because the fear that had been rising in him since their landing on Dis was now an icy and constant companion. He was sure that whatever plan Leeds had made had gone wholly awry, and the next move might be his alone.
“Listen!” Still keeping the tight grip pinning Vandy to the bunk, Nik spoke hurriedly. “We can’t use the LB, but they must have other ships or a ship here. And Captain Leeds is coming. If we can hide out until he arrives, then everything will be all right. There are some tunnels.” Quickly, he outlined what he had seen during the trip to Orkhad’s quarters.
“We need cin-goggles.” Vandy’s face was no longer closed and hard.
“We won’t go outside!” Nik was determined on that.
“The goggles will be better to use than a torch in the dark,” Vandy returned. “And if there is a ship, then well have to go out to reach it.”
Back in the Dipple, Nik had spun his own adventures, neat pieces of dreamed action wherein all the major advantages had been his. But to start out blindly in the real thing was very different. He wondered fleetingly if Vandy found this true also. Superficially, this was not so different from the fantasies the boy had woven about Hacon and himself in that Korwarian garden, but Nik was not Hacon and this was no dream adventure.
“Blankets.” He might as well start off practically. Nik swept the supply tins from the table, bundled the coverings on the bunk around them, and secured everything into an awkward package with his belt. He was tempted to discard that fringe of mock weapons and tools but finally decided against that with the faint hope that some one of those might prove valuable after all.
Just how they were to obtain cin-goggles he had no idea, but blasters were racked in that room down the corridor. And with a blaster, he would feel less like a naked cor worm exposed to the day when the cover rock of its sleep chamber was torn away.
Inch by inch, Nik worked open the door. There was no change in the light of the walls. As far as Nik could see, the doors of the other chambers ahead were just as he had viewed them last, one or two half open, the rest closed. He signalled Vandy to silence and tried to hear any small noise that might herald waiting trouble. There was no sound, and he motioned Vandy out into the corridor and silently eased the door shut.
The bundle he carried by the belt fastening provided a weapon of sorts, always supposing he was the one to surprise a newcomer. At least, it was the only protection they had. With his fingers locked in that strap hold, Nik edged out into the corridor, Vandy between him and the wall.
They reached the first of those half-open doors. Vandy jerked at the edge of Nik’s tunic and pointed. They could both see the strap, the round lenses. A set of goggles lay en the tip table in there. But most of the room, the bunk itself, was hidden. Suppose it was occupied? To get those goggles meant taking three, four steps in –
Before Nik could stop him, Vandy was on his way. Just inside, he stiffened, and Nik raised the bundle. The room was occupied! He dared not move to pull the boy back for fear of alerting the occupant. But Vandy – surely Vandy had sense enough to withdraw.
Nik bit his lips. Vandy was not retreating as his companion so fiercely willed him to. Instead, he squatted close to floor level, his attention all for something well to Nik’s left and completely out of his range of vision. Then Vandy began to crawl on hands and knees, his body as close to the floor as he could manage. Helpless, Nik was forced to watch.
Now Vandy was directly below the table, his hand rising to the strap. Nik’s heart pounded, so that the blood in his ears was a heavy beat. He had, heard that snuffling, the rustle of bunk coverings as if the occupant stirred. Vandy’s hand was motionless, his head turned. Nik could see one eye, very watchful. Then his hand moved down, and his fingers closed in triumph on the strap.
Chapter VI
SECONDS STRETCHED into nerve-racking minutes. Vandy hitched his way out of the room, the goggles clasped tight to his chest. He was at the door, getting to his feet again. Nik set aside the bundle, and his hands closed on the boy, jerking him back and out of what could have been a trap.