his indiscretion was dispelled.
"The one on Pier 48B," Rafik answered, still
glaring at Gill.
"Can do." And they all felt the van make a left-
hand turn.
That was right, Rafik thought and sneezed.
Gill and Calum did, too. In fact they all were in
such a paroxysm of sneezing that they inhaled a
more than sufficient quantity of the sleep gas that
circulated through the rear of the van.
Some very astringent substance was being held
under his nose and Rafik roused to avoid it. To his
utter surprise, a slim hand was held out to him.
"I am Pal Kendoro and it is my sister Judit
who was working at Amalgamated who had paid
for an education that would lift me out of the bar-
rios of Kezdet. Are my bona fides sufficient to
restore me to your good graces?"
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
152
Rafik glanced over at the still unconscious
forms of his two friends.
"All of you -would overpower me. One I can
handle," Pal Kendoro said, tilting his head—evi-
dently a family trait; Rafik saw the resemblance to
his sister in that pose. "I apologize for ..." and he
waved his hand toward the front of the cab,
". . . the necessity, but I was seeking another
whom I thought might be you."
Rafik straightened up. He'd a crick in his neck
from lying in an uncomfortable position, but the
back door of the van was open and, while the air it
let in smelt of fish and oil and other unpleasant
odors, the last of the gas was dissipating.
"And -who might that be?" Rafik asked in a
droll tone. "There's a waiting list."
Pal grinned. "So I have discovered."
"How long were -we out?" and Rafik rubbed at
his neck. "Oh migod ..."
"She will not worry," Pal said, reaching out a
hand to steady Rafik when he tried to leap to his
feet. "I sent a message to your ship. . . . She
believes you have stopped to eat."
"How the devil did you access our security
codes . . . ? Oh." He groaned. "I think I know.
You're looking for the legal owners of the beacon
•we borrowed. Believe me, the ship was split like a
nut when we found it wedged in an asteroid.
Nothing could have lived."
"Would you at least remember where you found
the derelict?" Pal asked, his dark eyes intent.
"Sure can, but I don't know what good that'll do."
"We ... I ... would be obliged."
ftcorna. 153
"We ... I ... owe you one," and Rafik left off
rubbing his neck.
Pal Kendoro got off his haunches now and
went to wave his restorative under Calum's nose
before he handed the bottle to Rafik to tend to
Gill. Rafik chuckled at Kendoro's innate caution.
Gill did indeed come out of his inadvertent nap
ready to do mischief to whoever did that to him.
A few brief explanations and harmony was
restored, thanks for their escape offered and dis-
missed.
"Can we get back to — "
"Our ship," Rafik hurriedly interjected.
"Yes, and with one stop at the chandlers on
Pier •48 B," Pal said, exiting the van and adding as
he closed the sides, "this time I let you see where I
am driving you."
He was as good as his word, for the opaque
panel between the goods section and the driver's
turned transparent.
"I have had fresh words with Salitana," he told
them as he eased the van out of the side road and
into a busy traffic pattern, "and there was consid-
erable interest in you which she was unable, of
course, to answer, since you were strangers buying
clothing for female friends and she, naturally,
wanted no part of the offers you made her."
"She wouldn't have imparted to you a descrip-
tion of the interested parties, -would she?" Rafik
asked -with a -weary smile.
Pal Kendoro slid three quik-prints through a
small slot in the panel.
"She is efficient."
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
154
"Hey, that looks like ..." and Gill closed his
mouth on "the assassin."
"No, but there's a resemblance to the uncle,"
Calum said, "and if I'm not mistaken this shot
shows quite new ears on him."
Rafik had also noticed that.
"He is registered at the port as Farkas
Hamisen," Pal Kendoro said over his shoulder.
"She's not the only efficient one," Calum mur-
mured.
"Okay, why have you involved yourself with
the cause of utter strangers, and don't tell me
because we have succored a minor female?" Rafik
said. He was getting very tired of being chased
and helped and then chased again.
"I have also had a word with my sister, Judit,
who is currently assisting my employer during my
absence on the mission to discover who caused the
death of our friends who owned the ship whose
beacon you have appropriated for use in yours."
Rafik was not the only listener who blinked at
the long and involved and grammatically correct
sentence.
"And ..." Rafik prompted when Pal seemed to
take a long time to make up his next sentence.
"Would your niece be a young female of
unknown origin with a curious protuberance on
her forehead?"
Rafik exchanged glances with his mates. Gill
nodded solemn approval, but Calum looked wary.
"I think this lad is in an ... efficient . . . posi-
tion to help us on a number of vexing matters,"
Rafik murmured. "Yes, that is our niece, and Judit
155
has already helped us save her. She isn't still with
Amalgamated, is she?"
"No, and one of the reasons is your ward."
Rafik raised his eyebrow over that term, but it
was more accurate than "niece" had ever been,
technically speaking.
"Here's the EVA shop," Gill said, pointing to
the right.
"So it is," Rafik said and started to move.
"Oh, no you don't," Calum said, pushing him
back down. "I'll get it. No one's been killing me."
"You are both wrong," Pal said, twisting
around. "You will undoubtedly have a chit that
indicates the merchandise has been paid for." He
paused to don a cap that said clearly NERED MES-
SENGERS GMBH, INC & LTD on the peak. He held
his hand at the slot and Rafik slid the receipt
through.
Pal got out whistling and entered the shop
while the three miners watched . . . and watched
all corners for anyone watching Pal's activities.
But by then he was out of the shop, still whistling,
the EVA suit in its protective covering thrown
over his shoulder in a careless fashion. He threw it
through a barely adequate opening at the back of
the van, winking as he did so, and slammed the
door shut before resuming his position as driver.
His forward motion could scarcely be called either
furtive or fast. Clearly he was a messenger deter-
mined to increase the time of his errand for a
larger fee.
Clearly he -was also very adept at inconspicu-
ous trips because, although the three miners
156
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
observed the twists and turns he made, they
almost did not recognize the Uhuru -when the van
stopped at its closed hatch.
Then a lot of things happened all at once: Pal
Kendoro grabbed the EVA suit, jerked them out of
the van -when they didn't appear to move quickly
enough to suit him, and said that -whoever had the
command to open the Uhuru's, hatch had better
activate it right now because "they" -were here and
•waiting for them.
Rafik activated it and the hatch opened just
enough for them all to get inside, even Pal, though
he had to be pulled through with the suit encum-
bering him.
Acorna was at the pilot's controls. "We have
cleared for take-off, just as you asked. Uncle
Rafik," she said as he slid into the second seat.
"I did?"
"You did!" At the sound of his own voice so
cleverly imitated, Rafik turned around to see Pal
behind him. "And I advise the most speedy depar-
ture this ship can make and an even quicker )ump
to these coordinates." He laid a flimsy beside
Acorna.
"Well, go ahead, Acorna," Rafik said, waving
his hand in submission.
"Where?"
"To a place of absolute safety," Pal said, trying
very hard not to stare at the slender figure with
the mane of silver hair who was in control of the
ship.
"I trust him," Rafik said, uttering what would
soon be added to the list Calum kept of his
157
Famous Last Words. "He's Judit Kendoro's
brother."
Acorna had no more than finished keying in
the course than Rafik began to sneeze again. So
did Calum, Gill—who tried to reach out to Pal,
who held a mask over his face—and Acorna.
Seven
In the end, it was Judit who con-
veyed Delszaki Li's invitation to the
Uhuru -when the ship reached Kezdet
"Pal can negotiate with the miners," she'd pointed
out, "but if you want Acorna to come and stay with
you — "
r,
"She must," Li insisted. "I may not know? how
or why yet, but this I do believe: the ki-Un is vital
to our goals!"
"I have met these men," Judit said. "They have
been betrayed before; they will not entrust Acorna
to strangers again. To me, perhaps, but not—for-
give me—to an unknown businessman on a planet
that has not treated them well."
"Name of Li is scarcely unknown in "world of
business and finance," her employer remarked
dryly.
"They would probably trust your financial
expertise," Judit agreed, "but will they trust you
to care for ayoung girl?"
159
She was not entirely sure, herself, that she
trusted Delszaki Li to recognize that Acorna was a
little girl as well as a kl-lin. Pal had described her
as a young woman . . . but that was ridiculous;
after all, Judit had seen the child herself, only a
year ago.
And, with the image of that drugged child in
her mind, she was taken aback at first by the tall,
slender young woman in a sophisticated deep pur-
ple body wrap and misty blue flowing skirt who
greeted her when at last she received permission
to board the Uhuru. For a moment she wondered
wildly if there could be two Acornas, if this could
be the mother or older sister of the child she
remembered.
On her part, Acorna stared at Judit as soon as
she spoke, and her silvery pupils narrowed to ver-
tical slits.
"I think ... I know you," she said in confusion.
"But how?"
"She saved you from surgery at Amalgamated's
space base," Gill said. His big hand briefly
enveloped Judit's; she felt a wave of warmth and
security emanating from his touch. "But you were
unconscious at the time, drugged for the opera-
tion. You can't remember."
"I remember the voice," Acorna said. She
looked thoughtfully at Judit. "You were very
much afraid . . . and very sad. You are not so sad
now, I think."
"Then it i) you!" Judit exclaimed. "But you
were so tiny..."
"It seems my people mature more rapidly than
160
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
do yours," Acorna said. "Not, of course, that we
know anything about my people. . . ." Her pupils
narrowed to slits again, then widened as she
turned her silvery gaze on Judit and dismissed
that subject. "So you are Judit. Gill and Rafik and
Calum have told me often of your heroism."
"Then they have exaggerated wildly," Judit
said. "I didn't do anything, really."
"You will allow us to differ about that," Gill put
in, still holding Judit's hand clasped inside his.
"And you were not harmed afterwards?"
Judit smiled. "Oh, no. They bought the
hostage story ... I think Dr. Forelle had some
doubts, but nobody else could quite believe that a
barrio girl, even one who'd made it through uni-
versity, would have the brains or independence to
go against so many rules. And to keep them from
thinking it, I made sure to act very stupid for some
time thereafter. I think they were glad to get rid of
me when Mr. Li offered me a position as his assis-
tant."
"Ah, yes," Rafik said. "Your famous Mr. Li. Pal
has been telling us all about him, and his fortune,
and his great plans — "
Judit felt the blood draining from her face.
"Pal, how could you?"
How could Pal have trusted these men with
such dangerous secrets! Oh, Gill, she would trust,
but these other two ... no doubt they were good
men, but Pal didn't have the right to risk the lives
of children on his intuitive judgment of them.
"—plans to establish lunar mining bases on
Kezdet's moons," Rafik went on, and Judit breathed
161
again. "He seems very eager to give us a contract to
oversee the establishment and development of the
work ... a remarkably lucrative contract to offer
three independent asteroid miners."
"As I've explained to you," Pal cut in, "Kezdet
is a technologically underdeveloped planet. We
have planetside mines, of course, but they are of
the crudest sort, dependent on manual labor for
nearly everything. And there is no local expertise
in low-g mining. Kezdet's moons are far richer in
valuable metals than the planet itself, but up to
now we have lacked the capital and the technology
to exploit the mines. Mr. Li proposes to provide
the capital, but he needs men like you to consult
on all the problems of mining in space—protection
from solar flares, high-friction coefficients, lack of
the usual reagents for extraction, and so forth."
"You seem tolerably well informed on the prob-
lems, anyway," Calum remarked.
Pal flushed. "I've studied a few vid-cubes. That
doesn't make me a space mining expert. That's
where you come in."
"I should perhaps point out," Rafik said softly,
"that hijacking our ship and taking us, uncon-
scious, to a planet we have every reason to avoid is
not the most persuasive of bargaining maneuvers."
"Pal," Judit said sorrowfully, "you coulf) have
tried explaining to them!"
Pals flush deepened and he rounded on his sis-
ter, palms out. "A minute ago you thought I ha<)
explained to them, and I was in deep kimchee for
that, too. Can't I do anything right? "
"Not with a big sister, kid." Gill chuckled.
162
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
"Rafik, Pal, both of you calm down. Whatever the
rights and wrongs of it, we're here now, and it
won't hurt us to listen to Mr. Li's offer . . . and
personally, I'm dying to hear the explanations."
"I think Mr. Li would prefer to present his case
to you personally," Pal said, "and he very seldom
leaves his mansion. Will you trust me so far as to
accompany me there, where we can discuss the
matter in greater comfort?"
Gill glanced at the others, smiled wryly and
shrugged. "What the heck . . . we're already on
Kezdet, how much worse can it get? Just lay off
the sleep gas this time."
"Kezdet," Pal said somberly, "can get much,
much worse than any of you can imagine."
Just before dawn there was a subtle change in
the quality of the darkness of the sleep shed.
Unrelieved blackness faded slightly, revealing the
slumped outlines of what looked like piles of rags
on the earthen floor. After three years •working
Below, Jana could sleep through the twenty-
four-hour rumble and thump of the slagger, but
the faint light in the shed woke her, most morn-
ings, before the call. That was the good thing
about being on day shift. Night shift, you didn't
have that bit of warning. It worked today; she
was on her feet, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes,
when Siri Teku came through the shed with his
bucket of icy water, splashing it on the heaps of
rags until the children underneath stirred. He
grinned at Jana and aimed the last of the bucketful
163
at her, but she dodged so that he only got her
bare feet.
"Thanks," she said, "I was meanin' to wash my
feet today anyway."
She dived into the corner and caught little
Chiura by the arm, hauling her upright and clap-
ping one hand across her mouth before the kid
could wail and earn a slash from the long, flexible
rod Siri Teku held in his other hand. The other
kids knew better than to cry about a little thing
like cold water, or to take too long scrambling to
their feet, but Chiura was new, the only new one
their gang had got from last week's intake. The
others had grumbled when Siri Teku shoved her
into their shed.
"How we gone keep up our allotment with
babies on the soojin' gang?" Khetala demanded.
Khetala, two years older than Jana, broad-
shouldered and black-browed, was the unofficial
leader of their gang. She kept the rest of the kids
in line with pinches, slaps, and threats to tell Siri
Teku on them. But she also kept their ore carts full
and the draggers moving so that they weighed in
with a full allotment most shifts. That meant sup-
per. Gangs that didn't earn supper didn't last long;
the kids got tired too easily, then they couldn't
keep up their allotment, they started getting sick,
pretty soon the sick ones disappeared and the ones
that were just puny got sold off to other gangs. Or
worse, Kheti said darkly, but Jana wasn't sure
what could be worse than being a dragger on a
gang.
"She's too little to go Below," Jana said.
16-4 -^ ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
Chiura's bare legs -were dimpled 'with baby fat; her
round, full face was tilted upward to Jana and
Khetala as if she expected them to pick her up or
something. She'd learn soon enough that there
wasn't any time at Anyag for playing with babies.
"No backtalk!" Siri Teku's rod whistled against
the backs of Jana's legs. She didn't jump, so he
lashed her a couple more times until tears stood in
her eyes. "She's not going Below. Not yet, anyway.
She can help Ganga and Laxmi sort."
Jana and Khetala looked at each other. They
needed another sorter. Siri Teku had taken
Najeem away right after wake-up a couple of days
ago, when he noticed Najeem's morning cough.
But how were they going to teach a baby who
couldn't be more than four, maybe only three, to
sort ore?
"She wants to eat, she'll learn," Siri Teku said.
"You'll teach her." He left the shed to fetch their
scanty morning meal.
Now Jana knelt beside Chiura, dipped a cor-
ner of her own kameez in the water bucket and
wiped the kid's face clean. She'd been crying again
in the night, there -were dried tears and snot caked
around her upper lip. A bruise was starting to
show on her cheek.
"Who hit you, Chiura? "
Chiura didn't answer, but she glanced toward
Laxmi and back, a quick, darting, furtive glance
that she'd learned in this first week at Anyag.
Jana glowered at Laxmi.
"The brat kept me awake with her snuffling,"
Laxmi said.
"We all cried at first," Jana said. "You hit her
again, Laxmi, and I'll break your arm. See how
long Siri Teku keeps you on the gang when you
can't work!" She wiped Chiura's face as gently as
she could and ran her fingers through the curly
dark hair, trying to work a few tangles out of the
matted ringlets.
"You're wasting your time," Laxmi said. "She'll
hafta get clipped like the rest of us, or she'll get
lice. I donno why Siri Teku hasn't done it yet."
"You mean there's something you don't know?"
Jana jeered. "An' here I thought you -was the
Divine Fountain of Wisdom come down to Anyag
to instruct and save us all."
Sin Teku kicked the door open and set down a
round platter of bean paste )ust inside the shed.
Beside it he dropped a stack of patts, letting them
fall on the dirt so the bottom ones would be all
gritty. He said it trained the kids to grab their food
fast and not waste time, but Jana figured it was
just meanness. She'd never seen anybody who
wasn't hungry enough to bolt their patts and bean
paste so fast they hardly chewed.
The first day, Chiura had wrinkled up her face
and spat out the gritty patt and bean paste Jana
rolled for her. She was hungrier now; she
would've dived right under the trampling feet of
the older kids if Jana hadn't held her back.
"It's okay," she told Chiura. "Kheti sees to it,
there's fair shares for everyone."
"More," Chiura wailed when the rush had
slowed and they got their patts and beans, one
apiece.
166
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
167
"Fair shares," Jana said firmly, but she tore her
rolled patt in half and slipped it to Chiura when
nobody -was looking. And while the rest of the
gang shuffled off to the shaft, she lingered to ask
Laxmi how the baby was doing.
"Plays too much, less'n I clout her," Laxmi
said. "Doesn't know good rock from bad. She's
bringin* down our count."
"Don't hit her," Jana said. "She won't learn if
she's scared. Let her watch what you're doing.
She'll learn." She knelt by Chiura and hugged
her. "You'll watch Laxmi, won't you, sweetcake?
Watch and learn how to tell good ore from rocks.
Watch for Mama Jana."
"Sweetcake?" Chiura repeated. "Mama?"
"Aah, she's too dumb to know what you're say-
ing," Laxmi whined. "Only way to teach her . . ."
She doubled over in a silent cough. Her thin face
turned dark with the effort to hush the convul-
sions that shook her body.
"You don't hit her," Jana said, "and I don't tell
Siri Teku you got Najeem's cough. Deal?"
Laxmi nodded in between convulsions, and
Siri Teku's rod came down across the backs of
Jana's legs. This time Jana yelled good and loud,
to give Laxmi a chance to let some of the coughing
out. And Siri Teku was so busy telling her off for
lingering behind the rest of the gang, he didn't
even notice the way Laxmi wheezed for breath.
She hoped.
Going Below was the part Jana hated worst, the
sickening drop in the cage full of scared kids. It was
usually all right, if the minder was awake and pay-
ing attention to his engine. If he let it run a few sec-
onds too long, the cage would slam into the pit floor
like a dropped basket of eggs. Coming back up was
just as dangerous; an inattentive minder could drag
the cage and all into the engine to be chewed up
like a lump of ore in the slagger, but you didn't
think about that so much—by the end of shift, all
you could think of was getting Above again. Above
belonged to light and flowers and Sita Ram, whom
Jana imagined like a mother who smiled and
hugged you close and wanted to keep you forever.
Below belonged to Old Black and the Piper, and if
you prayed to Sita Ram or even thought about Her,
they'd maybe get angry and send one of Their mes-
sengers for you: a rock falling from the tunnel roof,
a flood of water when the hewers broke through
into old workings, or the stinking air that made
your chest forget how to breathe.
The cage rattled to a stop, thudding on the pit
floor but not falling, and the gang moved off to
their places under Siri Teku's direction.
"Buddhe, Faiz, you boys are dragging for Face
Three today. Watch how Gulab Rao handles the
compressor, Buddhe. You're getting too big for a
dragger and I just might put you to work on the
face pretty soon if you show me you can get a load
of ore without spraying the gallery with rock
splinters. Israr, you trap for Face Three. You girls
go to Five. Khetala and Jana drag, Lata trap."
Buddhe and Faiz set off at a run down the
opening that slanted down to the tunnel to Three,
but Kheti called them back and made them strap
on their knee and arm pads.
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
"Girl stuff," Buddhe said scornfully, flexing his
skinny ten-year-old arm •while Kheti tried to tie on
the pads she'd made out of old rags. "When I'm a
hewer, I -won't fool with stupid girl stuff like
padding myself."
"Wear the pads, maybe you don't get so many
cuts, maybe you live long enough to make hewer,"
Khetala snapped.
Jana didn't argue about putting her own pads
on. They were another of Kheti's good ideas.
Other gangs, when they got new kameezes, sold
the ragged bits of their old ones to a picker for a
cornet of curried peas or some other luxury. Kheti
made them save the old cloths to make these pads
that protected their knees and elbows from the
sharp rock floors of the tunnels. While the pads
lasted, their gang didn't come down with half as
many scrapes and cuts and infections as the other
gangs. The only trouble was, they never could get
enough cloth. Kheti said she was going to talk to
Siri Teku some day when he wasn't drunk or
angry and point out how much the pads saved
them, try and talk him into giving them some extra
cloth. But it could be a long time waiting until Siri
Teku was in a mood to be approached.
The hewers had been working at Five since
well before first light; they went on shift and off
shift earlier than the draggers, so that the kids
could find full corves of ore -waiting -when they
started work and could finish off the hewers' last
production of the day before they went off shift.
This morning there were three full corves -waiting
for them. You couldn't hear anything over the
•whine of the compressors, but one of the hewers —
Ram Dal, it was—-wasn't -wearing his face mask,
and Jana could guess from his scowl what he -was
saying to them. If the draggers got behind, then he
wouldn't have an empty corf to pile his ore into,
his production -would go down and the gang
wouldn't meet their allotment. It -wasn't her and
Khetala's fault that Face Five had turned into an
easy vein that the hewers could strip faster than
Siri Teku had expected, but they'd be the ones to
get the stick if Ram Dal told Siri Teku that they
were holding up the line. Jana buckled the belt
about her -waist, straddled the chain attached to
the first corf, and set off back up the long slope of
the tunnel without a -word or a nod to Khetala.
Halfway up the tunnel, Lata pulled the ventilation
fan back so that they could drag the corves
through.
"Come back soon," she begged. "It's dark here.
I'm scared the Piper -will get me."
"Don't worry about the Piper," Jana said as
she passed. "I left an offering for Him at the face.
And -we'll be back in a minute."
It -was always dark in the tunnel, and they
always came back as fast as they could. Lata really
•was simple; you could see it in her face, the funny
tilted eyes and the moon-round cheeks. She could
never remember anything from one trip to the
next. But being so simple, she didn't get bored and
fall asleep, either. Jana liked having Lata as trap-
per and didn't mind saying, every trip, that she
•would come back in a minute.
"Liar," Kheti -whispered -when they were past
170
ANNE MCCAfFREY AND MARGARET BALL
Lata and the hum of the fan blocked out their
•words. "You never. Piper's gonna get you."
"Huh. Piper won't -want me, I'm too skinny.
Piper's gonna take you, Kheti—your chest getting
big now."
The first trip wasn't so bad, except for being in
a hurry because the hewers were getting ahead
this morning. Jana figured about the third trip
was the -worst; by that time everything was bug-
ging you. Your thighs ached from the pull of the
loaded corf, you had scrapes on the places your
pads didn't protect, the chain between your legs
chafed and sweat dropped down into the chafed
places and made them sting worse than ever. In
some ways Jana reckoned it was better later on in
the shift, when you were too tared to care, almost
too tired to remember that there'd ever been
anything but pulling loaded corves, tipping them
into the cage basket, and drawing the empty boxes
back. Finally the hewers quit for the day, and then
they knew end of shift was almost there and all
they had to do was clear the last loaded corves.
Then there was the creaking cage again, this
time taking up draggers and trappers instead of
baskets of ore, and cool clean air and the first stars
of evening, and shivering because your kameez
was soaked with sweat and you weren't used to
the coolness. Jana helped Khetala to herd the
other kids of their gang over to the pump that
spewed out water from the lowest mine workings,
nagged them all to pull off their kameezes and
wash. The littlest ones, Lata and Israr, were so
tired they were about to fall asleep, even though
171
they had been sitting still all day instead of hauling
corves. They gasped and crowed indignantly at
the shock of the tepid water. That helped; Buddhe
and Faiz wanted to show? they "were tougher than
the little kids, so they splashed rowdily under the
pipe. Jana and Khetala took the last wash. Faiz
tried to pinch Khetala's chest and she splashed
water into his eyes and everybody had a good
laugh.
"I wish we had spare kameezes, and spare
pads, too," Kheti said as they trudged back to the
shed. "Then we could wash our clothes and pads
and leave them to dry next day."
"Yeah? Long as you're wishing, why don't you
wish for the moon to hang in our shed and a cloud
to fly through the tunnels on?"
"The better we keep clean," Kheti said firmly,
"the less we fall sick."
Jana didn't see the connection herself.
Everybody knew that sickness was caused by
annoying Old Black and the Piper so that they
laid a cough in your chest. She'd been at the mines
five years now, since she was only a little bigger
than Chiura. Kheti was all the time setting herself
up as some kind of know-it-all because she'd only
come to the mines two years ago, when she was
eleven already, and she claimed to know all sorts
of things about the -world away from the mines.
But she did know a lot of good stories to tell at
night, and it was true that since she'd joined them
they had only lost two kids from the gang to ill-
ness. Besides, if you argued, she hit and slapped,
and Jana had taken enough blows that day from
1 72 "--"'' ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
Siri Teku and Ram Dal—she didn't need a fight
•with Kheti to finish the day off.
The sorters had come in when it got dark.
They -were supposed to light a fire and heat
-water to cook the evening beans and meal por-
ridge, but half the time the sleep shed was dark
and cold when the rest of the gang got there.
This evening -was one of those times. Laxmi and
Ganga were bickering about -whose turn it was
to fetch sticks for kindling. Khetala waded in
and sorted the argument with a couple of brisk
slaps, sending Laxmi for kindling and Ganga to
fill the bucket.
"What about her7" Laxmi jerked her head at
the pallet where Chiura lay, chubby arms and legs
flung out in exhausted sleep. "She don't sort her
share, she don't help fix the fire ..."
"She's little," Jana said. "She'll learn. Give her
a chance."
"I say, if she doesn't work, she doesn't eat!"
"That's dumb," Jana said. "If she doesn't eat,
she'll just get sick. I'll help you get the dinner
ready if you'll give her a share."
Her legs ached all over from hauling corves of
ore all day, but walking and carrying kindling was
a different kind of work anyway. It probably did
her some good to stand upright for a while. Some
of the older hewers hobbled around half bent,
unable to straighten up after years of lying on
their sides in wet tunnels to hack out the last ore
in a narrow vein.
When they got the fire going and the water
began to bubble, Khetala made Laxmi stir, even
though Buddhe and Faiz complained that she
would cough all over their food.
"Never mind them," Kheti told Laxmi.
"Steam's good for the breath-sickness. You stir
every night for a while, and lean over the bucket
while you stir, hear? Breathe in that steam."
"Why? " Laxmi whined.
"Easy," Jana said before Khetala could lose her
temper and slap Laxmi, which was how she usu-
ally settled disagreements. "Steam goes up, right?
Sita Ram is Above, Old Black and the Piper are
Below. Chest cough comes from Old Black and
the Piper. Steam carries it up to Sita Ram."
Khetala rolled her eyes but didn't argue. "Just
do it, Laxmi. Breathe the steam, and hope Siri
Teku keeps you on sorting for a while and doesn't
make you drag a corf."
"Right," Jana agreed. "She goes Below, it'll
just give Old Black and the Piper another chance
to lay a curse on her."
Jana took Chiura to sleep beside her that night.
She wouldn't mind if Chiura cried, and she
wouldn't hit the kid the way Laxmi did. Anyway
Chiura didn't cry much; she snuggled in between
Jana's arm and body and burrowed her head into
Jana's armpit like a kitten butting its mother for
milk. There'd been a litter of kittens once, all soft
and fuzzy . . . but that was before the mines. . . .
Jana blinked away tears. It didn't do no good to
think about before. That was the first lesson any-
body learned. You were bonded to your gang-
master, Siri Teku or whoever, and he took the cost
of food and clothes out of your wages and kept the
174
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
rest to pay off the advance your family had gotten
for bonding you, and "when you were paid off, you
could go home or you could stay at "work and send
the money back to your family. It took a long time
to get paid off, though. But it must happen for some
kids. Sometimes kids just disappeared, and they
weren't sickly or anything, and you never saw them
around the mine again, not working the other shift
or working in another gang or whatever. Like
Surya. She'd been a year older than Khetala, but
she wasn't on the gang anymore. So she must have
earned out her bond and been sent home. Jana
wasn't sure what she would do when she earned
out. She didn't know how to find her family. She'd
been too little when they bonded her—she only
knew it was a long way off. They maybe wouldn't
want her back anyway; there were too many kids
and not enough to eat. Maybe she'd go to the city
and find some easier work. Anything had to be eas-
ier than dragging corves. . . . She fell into an uneasy
dream of dragging bigger and bigger corves up a
worse slope than any in the mine, with the Piper
behind her dark and faceless and threatening, and
her legs jerked and twitched all night as the over-
strained muscles tried to remember how to rest. But
whenever she woke up there was Chiura's little
body warm against her, and that was some comfort;
almost as good as having a kitten of her very own.
The miners were tense as they followed Pal into
the Li mansion, unsure what to expect. The house
was darkened against the heat of the Kezdet sun,
175
•with cool, scented currents of air fanning though
high-ceilinged rooms. They were still blinking
with the sudden change from brilliance to shad-
ows when the soft whir of a hover-chair heralded
Delszaki Li's arrival.
While Pal and Judit made introductions,
Calum hung back, studying the man whose power
and influence had brought them here. A wasted
body was largely concealed under stiff, brocaded
robes; all that he could see was the man's wrin-
kled face, with sharp, intelligent eyes. Those eyes
lit up when Acorna was introduced, and Calum
tensed.
She u what he want^, he thought. The r&ft itjiut an
excuse.
But his suspicions were lulled by the long,
intense discussion that followed the introduc-
tions and ritual offering of food and drink. Li
had evidently studied and anticipated all their
tastes; there was Kilumbemba beer for Gill,
chilled fruit juice for Acorna, and a variety of
cold and refreshing drinks for Calum and Rafik.
But the man was obviously eager to be done
with social niceties and get on with his business;
the clawlike fingers of one hand trembled over
the hover-chair buttons while they made polite
conversation. He seemed relieved when Gill
downed his beer and said bluntly, "Now, Mr. Li,
we have been promised some explanations.
Exactly what made you so eager to bring us
here, and -why are you so sure we will accept
your offer?"
"Require your assistance," Li said, "to destroy
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
176
illegal but well defended system of child slavery on
this planet."
"There are unpleasant rumors about the fate of
unprotected children on Kezdet," Rafik agreed.
"The reality," Judit said, "is •worse than the
rumors."
Gill put one arm around her shoulders.
"And exactly how will the establishment of
lunar mining bases help to eradicate the current
system?" Calum demanded. "And why UJ?"
"Second question is more easily answered than
first," Li replied. "I have chosen you because of
personal reports from Judit Kendoro, also sub-
stantiated by reading of classified files of
Amalgamated. Men who will break contract and
incur wrath of intergalactic company to defend
one child might be willing to take some further
risks to save many children."
Calum had the feeling that Li was not revealing
all his thoughts, but then, the head of a multi-
billion-credit financial and industrial empire sel-
dom did reveal everything he was thinking.
"For answer to first question," Li went on,
"small introduction to current system is neces-
sary." He paused for a moment, his bright black
eyes darting around the table until he was sure
that he had everyone's attention. "Kezdet, like
Saturn, eats its children. Small population of
highly paid technical workers, bureaucrats, and
merchants rests at top of a pyramid of underpaid
and exploited human labor. And at bottom of
pyramid are children—those of Kezdet, and the
unwanted children of many other planets. Kezdet
177
labor contractors visit an overpopulated, impover-
ished world where planetary government is
already struggling to provide basic social services.
They make promises of employment and educa-
tion for homeless children, training in basic job
skills, and the chance for a better life. Reality is
sadly different. Training? Yes—employers claim
child is 'in training' for long years during which no
wages at all are paid. Employment? Yes—as much
as twenty hours a day in some cases. And educa-
tion?" Li smiled sadly. "All most of these children
learn is that if they do not work, they will not eat.
And they learn that lesson very well. Illiterate,
half-starved, separated from their families if they
ever had any, they are utterly dependent on their
employer's good will. Enslaved children are back-
bone of Kezdet economy."
"Child labor and slavery are both violations of
Federation law," Rafik said. "Surely the law
applies on Kezdet as elsewhere?"
Li's smile was infinitely sad. "Inspections are
always announced in advance, to give factory
owners time to hide children or pretend they are
only working in allowed roles such as carrying
water and snacks to adult workers. Kezdet
Guardians of the Peace are paid, what you say,
under the console?"
"Under the table," Rafik supplied.
"Sometimes Child Labor League makes public
some company's violation of law. But judges are
also paid off. Small fine, company continues busi-
ness as usual."
"It doesn't make sense," Calum protested.
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
178
"Adult workers are stronger and do more. I'm sure
conditions are terrible for the few children who
have to work, but you make it sound as though
they are the entire workforce."
"Kezdet has specialized in industries where
children are especially useful," said Li. "In primi-
tive mines, their small size is convenient. In glass
factories, they can run faster than adults and cal-
culate a path more intelligently than 'bots, bring-
ing molten glass to blowers. Small nimble fingers
are useful in match factories, where sulfur poisons
them, and in carpet factories where children are
crippled from hours of sitting in a cramped posi-
tion and half-blinded from working in the dark.
Adults," Li said dryly, "might protest such condi-
tions. Children provide cheap, uncomplaining
labor. And Kezdet industrialists too tight-fisted
and short-sighted for kind of capital investment it
would take to modernize industries and improve
appalling conditions. Children do here what
machines do in more civilized places—and is
always cheaper to buy another batch of children
from a labor contractor than would be to automate
a factory. System perpetuates itself. And children
themselves are kept in perpetual slavery by system
of financial juggling. Most bonded child laborers
incapable of calculating 'debt' they owe for trans-
portation to Kezdet and fee of contractor who
brought them here. As legal fiction," he explained,
"debt is owed by adult head of child's family, if
such exists. Everyone knows debt is to be paid
only by child—but cannot prosecute on basis of
what 'everyone knows,' especially on Kezdet,
179
where entire legal and peace-keeping system is
corruptly in pay of factory owners. Meanwhile,
employers cheat children in every possible way,
charging food and clothing at ridiculous sums
against their wages, docking for breakages, keep-
ing high rate of interest on original debt. All bond
laborers hope someday will work off bond. Very
few ever achieve that."
"I was lucky," said Pal. "I had a sister who won
her freedom with a scholarship, then spent years
working hardship posts on space stations and
sending back every penny of her salary until
Mercy and I were bought free as well."
"Success of Judit required brilliance, tenacity,
and luck," Delszaki Li said. "First element of luck
was that she was not sent to Kezdet until she was
fourteen, when she and Pal and Mercy were
orphaned by a war that left their home planet bur-
dened with thousands of displaced children. She
fell into barrios of Kezdet later than most, with
good health, a basic scientific education, and—-
most important of all—knowledge that a better
way of life was possible. But none of that would
have saved her if she had not been an exception-
ally brave and intelligent young woman."
"You don't need to tell me that," Gill rumbled.
"Remind me to tell you sometime about the first
time I met this girl."
"But for every Judit who escapes the Kezdet
system are hundreds of children who do not escape.
Too poor, too weak, too ignorant to fight..."
"But what happens when they grow up?" Rafik
demanded.
ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
180
"Mostly," Pal said, "we don't. Grow up. What
do you expect, with poor food, hellish conditions,
no medical care? The healthiest and best-looking
children are regularly bought from the labor con-
tractors for city brothels, and even they don't last
long there. The rest work until they get sick, and
then they die. And the few who survive to adult-
hood are too weak to do much besides breed more
children whom they can sell to the labor contrac-
tors for a pittance."
Calum looked about him at the luxurious fur-
nishings of the room where they sat: windows of
high-tech Kyllian solar glass, walls draped in
sound-absorbing Theloi silk, an entire -wall covered
with shelves of expensive antique flatbooks.
Delszaki Li intercepted and interpreted his glance.
"No, this is not paid for by labor of children,"
he said, "although you would be hard put to find
another such house in all of Kezdet." He sighed.
"This humble person was young and idealistic
when inherited family holdings on Kezdet. Swore
never to employ child labor or any bonded labor-
ers. Have devoted a lifetime to demonstrating that
is possible for businesses to flourish—even on
Kezdet-—without exploiting children. Experiment
has gained me many enemies, but has had no other
effect. In recent years have turned to more direct
action. Child Labor League achieved some suc-
cesses at first, but now has been made illegal by
order of Kezdet government, which has accused
members of terrorist action." Li smiled. "This
means, among other things, that contributions to
the league not tax deductible."
181
"It also means that his house is watched, his
assistants questioned, and his projects ruined
wherever the corrupt Guardians of the Peace can
find out what he is doing," Pal put in.
"If this room is bugged," Rafik pointed out,
"this entire conversation is extremely indiscreet."
"Is indiscreet anyway," Li said calmly, "but I
have made decision to trust you. As for other lis-
teners, I believe my off-planet technology is still
better than their off-planet technology. Guardians
of the Peace are just as cheap as any other group
on Kezdet; they buy second-rate espionage equip-
ment and have it copied in barrio factories where
workers do not know what they are supposed to
be doing and hence make many mistakes. . . .
Actually, it is remarkable how many mistakes they
make on contracts for Guardians of the Peace;
suspicious man might think someone were alerting
them and suggesting subtle ways to sabotage
equipment."
"I like the way this man thinks," Rafik
announced.
"You would," Calum said, "he's almost as
twisty as your Uncle Hafiz." He glanced at Li.
"No offense intended, sir."
"If you are referring to Hafiz Harakamian," Li
said, "no offense taken. He is brilliant man with
admirably subtle mind. Your people sometimes
find subtlety morally suspicious; mine do not."
"About the mines?" Gill prompted.
"Peaceful demonstration has failed," Li said.
"Education efforts on Kezdet have been ham-
pered by Guardians of the Peace, who destroy
182
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
Acorna
183
corn systems belonging to Child Labor League
and break up schools established to teach bonded
children how to read and calculate, so that they
may know how much their employers are cheat-
ing them. Now I try third approach: direct
action. Remove children from Kezdet. Only two
problems: how to find children who have been
well trained to hide from strangers, and what to
do with them when found."
"Just two little problems, huh?" Rafik drawled.
"You will solve second problem. Li consortium
owns mineral rights to all three of Kezdet's moons,
sold to me personally by stupid government offi-
cials who thought moons too expensive to mine.
Not willing to make capital investment, train mod-
ern workers. Li consortium has plenty of capital.
You three men have expertise. You will establish
first lunar base city on primary satellite, Maganos.
You three will train freed children to operate
equipment. Judit will be head of school system
and medical services. Children will work, but will
also learn."
Gill blinked at the scale of the project pre-
sented in these few clipped words. "Mr. Li, I think
you don't realize how many trained personnel it
takes to run an efficient lunar mining base. We're
contract miners, independents. We know how to
strip an asteroid and ship the separated metals
where we'll get the most money for them. What
you're proposing is a much bigger operation."
"I know that," Li replied. "You do not realize
how many children are enslaved on Kezdet. I will
supply personnel. You will train them."
"It's going to be extremely expensive," Calum
warned. "Setting up shielded living quarters,
importing equipment from other systems ... it
could be years before you see any return on your
investment."
Li waved his one working hand disdainfully.
"Li consortium has capital. Initial return on invest-
ment will be lives saved. In fifty, maybe hundred
years, will be fully working concern. Li descen-
dants will be rich and happy. I will be dead, but
will be one happy ancestor."
Rafik asked Li for the chance to sleep on the
proposition and Li smiled, murmuring something
erudite about prudent men. Pal was designated as
guide for the men while Judit took charge of
Acorna.
As the three miners watched their ward make
her graceful way up the anachronistic flight of
stairs to the second level of this amazing house,
they each experienced a sense of moment.
"She's grown up ... all of a sudden," Calum
said plaintively.
"She belongs in a place like this," Rafik
remarked, beaming with pride at the look of her,
courteously inclining her body to the shorter Judit
and smiling at something said.
"She's grown out of us, that's for sure," Gill
said with a sad sigh, and then focused his attention
on Judit.
She ^o criei) when dhe thought we were ail oeao ana
gone. WhoVve thought it? They'd met so very briefly.
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BAIL
184 —
'A.corn.a.
185
He hoped Rafik and Calum would be willing to go
along with Li's scheme. He'd have a lot more
chance to be with Judit and he found he wanted
that, suddenly, at his time of life. Well, he wasn't
that old, after all was said and done. Time he gave
a thought to settling down. Mining was a grand
life when you were young, but it was isolating and
he'd had enough of the females available for short-
term liaisons. Would Judit mind that he'd played
around a lot? He'd been careful: always insisted
on seeing an up-to-date cert before he did anything.
"You're right on that count," Rafik said with a
wistful expression on his face. Ah, well, they were
due for a change.
Calum had entirely different thoughts, though
they were centered on Acorna. They had man-
aged to bring her to her species' maturity, or close
to it. But they hadn't done -what they ought to
have done a long time ago: found out who and
•where her people were. Caring for her was one
thing. He couldn't fault any of them on that, but
they really should now, especially with the
resources available to them if they picked up on
what Li was suggesting, be able to employ the
experts they needed—discreetly, of course—to
find her home system. They owed her family that.
They owed her that. She was female and shouldn't
be deprived of a mate because a proper member
of her own species wasn't immediately available.
Pal showed them into a suite of rooms, three
bedchambers off a spacious, beautifully furnished
lounge, and each bedroom had its own bath facil-
ity.
"Boy! Have we come up in the world!" Calum
said, pivoting on one heel with his arms wide
open, taking in the luxurious appointments.
Pal smiled at such an ingenuous remark. "You
are very welcome guests. I do hope that you can
find it in your hearts and minds to forgive my
actions, but perhaps you see why such cautions
had to be taken."
"If Li's up against an entire planet, I suppose
he's got to be doubly, triply careful," Rafik said as
he settled himself into a wide chair that immedi-
ately conformed itself to him. "Hey, I can get to
like this!"
Pal stepped to the nearest wall, pressed an
ornate button, and a panel slid back to reveal not
only a well-stocked bar but other supplies.
"In case you require sustenance or refreshment
before the morning. In the meantime, I will wish
you a comfortable night's rest. And if you have
any requirements, speak into this grill and the
house of Li will supply whatever you lack."
"I believe it could," Rafik said with a grin.
Pal left and closed the door quietly behind him.
"I think -we ought to ..."
"This is the chance of a lifetime ..."
"Be our own bosses ..."
They had spoken all at once and broke off,
laughing. Gill and Calum found chairs, which they
pulled closer to Rafik's semithrone so they could
have a good natter about their amazing new-
prospects.
"First," Rafik said, taking charge and ticking
off the points he wanted to make, "I think we'd be
186 -—-' ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
stupid not to take Li up on the offer because we're
not getting any younger and mining asteroids for
huge corporations like Amalgamated is no longer
the -wide-open, friendly game it used to be." The
others nodded. "Exploiting the riches of a moon . . .
and nonexploiting our employees at the same
time . . . much less not having to -worry about
what'11 happen at our next port of call ... I won-
der ..." Rafik paused, "... if Li can find out who
else is after us and why."
"Whaddaya wanna bet that's already being
handled?" Calum said. "But, look, fellas—"
"Look, there must be hundreds of techies and
experienced men who're as cheesed off with
Amalgamated as we are. We take our pick of gooS
men to start this project up: builders, engineers,
environmentalists, medics ..." Gill's eyes gleamed
with such rosy prospects. "We could hold out for
the best there is."
"Not to mention the fair Judit." Rafik shot a
sideways look at Gill, -who blushed to the beard
and beneath.
"Now..."
"Ease off. Gill," Calum said, holding up his
hands between them. "Before we get our heads all
warped with plans, there's one other thing we have
to do."
"What?" They both turned on him in surprise.
"Find out where Acorna comes from. We ought
to have done something about that a long time ago."
"Yeah, when we've had so much free time,"
Rafik began, and then stopped. "That kind of
search could take a lifetime."
"Not if Li will let us hire a metallurgic special-
ist and get us the spectroanalyses of primaries."
"All of them?" Even Rafik goggled at that.
"Naw, we can narrow it down," Calum said.
"She hadn't been in that pod very long—the oxy-
gen supply wasn't down by as much as half— "
"But she could have kept it clean," Gill put in.
"It took a few weeks to do ours, remember,"
Calum said. "Any way, we go back to the old
'Azelnut group and use the evaluation of primaries
in that area, -widening the search. She can't have
been from that far away. Besides -which, I'll bet
anything that some of her people visited Earth, or
that sort of a legend wouldn't have grown."
Gill frowned at him and -waved his hand in dis-
missal of the idea.
"Now, -wait a minute, Gill," Rafik said, holding
up one finger. "A lot of those old legends did have
bases in fact -when modern science took a look at
them. There's no reason Acorna's people didn't
start that one. Just remember how beautifully that
escape pod ... a mere escape pod . . . was
designed. They've been in space a lot longer than
we have."
Gill stroked his beard. "Yeah, I guess it's possi-
ble."
"That would be a real coup," Rafik said.
"Furthermore," and he settled back into his chair,
locking his hands behind his head as he stretched
out, "I think Li -would really go for the research."
"At least he's respectful of Acorna," Gill said.
"Not like others I could name," and he shot a
glance at Rafik.
188
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
"Or that awful surgeon -who was going to
remove the 'disfigurement,'" said Calum, who had
never forgotten his outrage over that and by what
a slim margin they had saved her. If they'd been
just a fraction of a moment later ... he shook him-
self.
"So we broach that tomorrow, too?" Rafik
asked.
"Look, let's get an idea of what we're going to
neec)," Gill said, "draw up a plan of attack—"
"A visit to the moon?" Rafik put in, grinning.
"Among other things." Gill was opening cup-
boards to find out where the computer terminal
was hidden.
Rafik removed one hand from behind his head
and laid it on the edge of the table beside him. It
lifted and exposed a state-of-the-art system that
made him sit up and whistle. He rolled the chair
around the corner of the table, toggled it on, and
raised his hands over the keypads.
"Okay, what's first?"
When they had revised their order of the prior-
ities half a dozen times and finally reached one
they could all agree (mostly) on, which did include
a visit to the moons, which headhunter to contact
for the most essential personnel, and what Calum
would require for his search, they did "sleep" on it.
ake up, Jana!" Somebody
was shaking her, dragging
Jana out of the lovely second
sleep she'd fallen into after she woke at dawn and
Siri Teku didn't come. The sleep shed door was
locked and nobody brought them food, so Jana
went back to sleep so she wouldn't think about
how hungry she •was.
Kheti's face was gray with fear. Jana'd never
seen her like that, not even that real bad time
when Siri Teku got so drunk he was seeing
demons here Above and started whipping all the
kids, screaming that he would drive Old Black and
the Piper out of them. Kheti'd kept her head then,
helping the little kids to scramble into hiding
places, making Buddhe and Faiz throw rocks to
distract Siri Teku until they all got out of reach,
keeping them safe until the gangmaster threw up
and fell down on the ground to sleep it off. She'd
taken a lash across the face that would mark her
190
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
for life, but she hadn't been frozen by fear the -way
she was now.
"I got to get out of sight," she whispered. "I'm
too big now, she'll take me for sure." She tugged
her ragged kameez up, trying to bunch it up over
her chest where she was bumpy now, but there
wasn't enough fabric to cover her top and bottom,
too. Buddhe snickered and pinched her on the
butt, and Faiz yelled that he could see some hair
that wasn't on her head.
"Who'll take you?" Jana demanded.
"Didn't you hear the whispers? Didi Badini's
coming."
DQi meant big sister. "Your family?" But why
wouldn't Khetala want to go with her sister?
Nobody's family ever came for a kid. Only the real
little ones, like Chiura, even thought it would hap-
pen.
Khetala tried to laugh. It came out like a grind-
ing fall of rocks.
"Oh, Didi Badini's everybody's big sister,
didn't you know? Piper sends her at night to take
the pretty little kids, boys and girls both, and the
girls that're getting too big to be draggers, like
Surya . . . didn't you ever wonder what happened
to Surya?"
"She worked out her bond," Jana said slowly.
"She went home. Didn't she?"
Khetala laughed again. "Don't you know any-
thing? Nobody ever works out their bond. Does
Siri Teku ever show you how much you owe, how
much you're earning, how much he takes out for
your keep?"
191
Jana hung her head. "I don't know my num-
bers so good."
"Well, I do," Khetala said, "and the first time I
asked to see my records, he knocked me across the
shed." The color was coming back to her face now,
her eyes were sparkling; she loved to instruct peo-
ple. "The second time, he said I'd have to come to
his room, he kept the datacubes there. Huh! He
didn't even have a reader. Had somethm' else he
wanted to show me, though. So I know all about
what Didi Badini's coming for."
"You said she comes at night. It's not night."
"I can't help that. Dunno why she's coming in
the daytime this time, but I heard the whispers.
Besides, why else would Siri Teku keep us locked
in here? Missing a half day's shift "work, we are."
Khetala's fear was infecting Jana, but she
didn't want to show it. She yawned and turned
over on her side.
"So what? Me, I get a chance to sleep, I'll take
it. ... Besides, whatever Didi Badini wants kids
for, can't be worse than this place."
"Can't it? She works for the Piper, dummy."
"Piper's a story to scare kids down Below." Or
maybe not. But they were Above now, even if they
had been locked in the sleep shed since before
dawn. They were in Sita Ram's realm of sky and
sun. Piper couldn't have power here.
"Piper's real, and he takes kids to the bonk-
shops in the city. You catch worse things than
chest-cough that way, too. You get the burnies,
and the scale, and if they don't kill you by doing it
to you too much, then your nose falls off and your
192
193
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
crotch rots and they throw you out on the street to
beg."
"How do you know all that? "
"I know what Siri Teku did to me in his room,"
Khetala said, "and I got away from Ram Dal a
couple of times when he wanted to do the same.
And I been in the city, too, before my mum died
and her boyfriend sold me here. You can see the
beggars all over the place . . . and pictures of kids
outside the bonk-shops. Why do you think she
takes the prettiest kids? And Siri Teku and the
other gangmasters, when a girl gets too tall to
drag, they practic'ly give her to Didi Badini . . .
and I'm going to be tall. You'll be okay for a while,
Jana, you've been living on parts and bean paste
since you were a baby, you'll always be a little
shrimp. Me, I had eleven years of good food and
standing up straight before I came here. I've got
big bones. I won't be able to drag much longer.
You know that."
Jana nodded slowly. Sometimes Kheti got
stuck in the narrowest tunnels, the ones leading to
Face Three. That was one reason she usually
worked Five now. And if she grew much more,
she -wouldn't be able to get through the low pitch
on the tunnel from Five.
"You're not pretty, though," she said slowly.
"Not since ..."
Kheti rubbed the pink weal that crossed her
right cheek.
"I know. But I'm big. That's bad enough. If I
thought gettin' my face messed up would keep Didi
Badini from takin' me, I'd go stand by the compres-
sor and let the flying chips cut me to pieces. But that
won't make me small again."
A new fear struck Jana. "Chiura!" Her face
was burning up, but her hands felt icy cold. "She
wouldn't take ..."
"I reckon that's why Siri Teku didn't clip her
curls," Khetala said. "He never figured to train her
for a sorter. She's a little sweetcake of a kid, spe-
cially the way you been keeping her washed and
her hair combed so good. He figured it was worth
feeding her for a few weeks, then sell her to Didi
Badini. He'll make lots of creds off that one. He
won't get much for me though. Maybe if I can keep
out of sight..."
Jana didn't hear the rest. She darted to where
Chiura was playing with a pile of cast-off rocks
and snatched her up, ignoring the baby's wails of
protest.
"Come on, sweetcake. We got to get you fixed
up good for the visitors. Faiz, give me your knife."
Faiz rolled his eyes. "Who me? Got no knife,
got nothing."
"I seen you stroppin' that bit of steel," Jana
said. "Give it here. You can have it back when I'm
through."
"You going crazy," Faiz said. "Old Black eating
your brain."
But he fumbled in his pallet and came up with
a thin band of metal, gleaming sharp along one
edge and rusty dull on the other.
Chiura cried when Jana pulled her hair to
hack off the curls, and she'd only got one side of
the kid's head when they heard steps outside.
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ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALI
"Sita Ram, help me!"
Jana rubbed her hands in the dirt and smeared
it over Chiura's face. The tears and snot mixed with
the dirt until Chiura's round little face looked truly
revolting. Jana rubbed some more dirt into the
long ringlets she hadn't had time to cut, spat on
the dusty hair and patted it into muddy strings
that hung down over the side of Chiura's face.
That was good—she looked almost ugly now,
probably worse than if Jana'd had time to finish
cutting her hair. She tossed the knife back toward
Faiz and pushed Chiura into a corner.
"You sit there and don 't make a. noiiel" she hissed
at Chiura.
The little girl pulled her knees up and sat rocking
back and forth, eyes wide- She was probably scared
to death that "Mama Jana" had been so rough with
her. All the better, if it would keep her quiet.
"I'll give you a honey sweet when they're
gone," Jana whispered, though she had no idea
where she'd get one. "Just keep quiet now,
Chiura, sweetcake, you don't want them to notice
you." She squatted in front of Chiura, shielding
her with her body.
There was a clanking noise —that would be Siri
Teku unlocking the door. Then light flooded in. It
was full day. Jana felt a cold sweat of fear over
her body. She didn't want to believe in Kheti's
panic, but Siri Teku had to have some good reason
for wasting all this work time. Time was credits,
he always said, and here he'd lost a lot of time
keeping them in the shed—how much she hadn't
realized until the door opened and she saw all that
195
light. The golden rectangle of the open doorway
hurt her eyes; she had been working day shift so
long she couldn't remember when she'd last seen
so much sunlight. It had to be something big to
make it worth his losing all those hours at work.
Just for a moment she believed all Kheti's horror
tales about Didi Badini, and more, too.
The man and woman who followed Siri Teku
into the shed didn't look evil, though. The man
was a pinch-faced little gray fellow, no fangs or
nothing, so Jana reckoned he couldn't be the
Piper. And she didn't have much attention to spare
for him after she caught sight of the woman.
She was the most beautiful thing Jana had seen
since she'd been brought to Anyag as a bondchild.
To begin with she was clean, with no dust dulling
the sheen of her smooth brown skin. And instead
of being skinny and bony, she was plump and
solid. And her clothes! The kameez was all pink
and gold, and it was made of something so light and
gauzy that it seemed to float over her body and
caress her full curves like a cloud of butterflies;
below the gold-embroidered hem of the kameez
Jana could see the cuffs of deep pink shalwar, half
hidden under gold anklets. Without meaning to,
Jana made a small sound of longing and reached
out, then snatched her hand back. She wanted to
feel the fine stuff of the kameez, but she'd get it
dirty. She was just a dirty little girl of the mines
and Siri Teku would beat her if she messed up this
fine lady. Maybe d he'll take me, Jana thought, anS I'll
wear ^ilk. shalwar unSer my kameez an.3 eat every i)ay
am)...
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ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
Didi Badinl's eyes met Jana's for a moment.
The eyes were not beautiful like the rest of her;
they -were cold and dark and hard, as if Old Black
had sneaked up Above to look through the beauti-
ful lady's face. And when she saw the eyes, Jana
remembered seeing Didi Badini before. Only
she'd thought it -was a dream. She'd come at night
last time, inspecting the children by lamplight.
Jana had rolled over and buried her head in her
pallet, too tired to care about the dream-people
talking and moving the lamp; in the morning
Surya had been gone.
"Too skinny, too plain," Didi Badini said now
to Siri Teku. "If that's your best, you're wasting
my time."
"I've a big girl here, getting too big to drag the
tunnels. Where's Khetala?" Siri Teku demanded of
the children.
Jana hadn't noticed where Khetala had gone,
she'd been too busy with Chiura. But Israr's eyes
flicked toward the corner farthest from the door,
where several pallets of rags seemed to have been
heaped up together, and simple Lata said, "She's
playing hidey, but I saw her."
Siri Teku kicked the pallets with all his force.
Something gasped. He reached into the heap of
rags, fumbled for a moment, and pulled out
Khetala by one arm.
"She won't want me," Khetala sobbed. "I'm too
ugly. Look!" She stood in the sun and turned her
face up so that the pink weal crossing one cheek
showed.
"Mmm," said Didi Badini. "Stand still, girl."
197
She ran one hand over Khetala's chest, felt her
buttocks, and reached in between her legs.
"Marked and used," she said "And no more use
here, as you said yourself. I'll take her as a favor."
"She still owes on her bond," Siri Teku said.
Didi Badini looked amused. "Don't they all?"
She and Siri Teku haggled for a moment and
agreed on a sum in credits that left Jana gasping.
"No! I won't go!"
Siri Teku had let go of Khetala to wave both
his hands during the bargaining; now she ducked
between the adults and made for the door. Didi
Badini's fat brown arm flashed out, quick as a
snake, and caught the fat braid of dark hair that
hung down Kheti's back. Kheti hit the floor on her
knees, only the hand on her braid holding her
upright.
"Please," she sobbed. "I'm ugly, see, you don't
want me."
Didi Badini's smile was full of Old Black.
"Some of my clients like them that way," she told
Kheti. "You'll have more marks soon enough." She
nodded at Siri Teku. "Put the fight out of her. I'm
not wrestling a screaming cat all the way back to
Celtalan."
Siri Teku casually punched Kheti on the side of
the head. Her head bobbed limply from the braid
that Didi Badini still held. He hit her again and
her whole body hung limp. Didi Badini let go the
braid and Kheti fell onto the mud floor. Siri Teku
slung her over his shoulder and carried her out the
door.
"That is not what I came here to see," the gray
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ANNE McCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
199
man said in a voice like dry leaves blowing in the
•winter -wind.
"Your mister told me there was something
worth coming here for," Oidi Badini said to the
rest of the children. "Where is it? A pretty child,
he said, something really special, and too young to
be worth training for -work."
Jana looked at the floor. Maybe if she didn't
look up, if she didn't see Old Black peeping out of
Didi Badini's eyes, maybe the woman wouldn't see
her and -wouldn't question the way she was
crouched awkwardly in front of the corner where
Chiura sat.
"Was it you he meant?" Didi Badini tipped up
Faiz's head with one finger under his chin. "Sweet
brown eyes, but the teeth are hopeless and you
look old enough to be a good worker. Not you."
She moved on to Lata, who looked up with a
vacant smile and tried to focus her one good eye
on Didi Badini. "If he meant this one, he's wasting
my time." Her chubby brown feet moved on with
a tinkling of the little gold bells that were attached
to her golden sandal straps, until she stood in front
of Jana. "Look at me, child 1"
The sweet cloud of perfume that wafted from
the folds of Didi Badini's kameez almost choked
Jana, it was too much, too sweet.
"Nice," said a little voice behind her. "Pretty."
"Ahhh," Didi Badini breathed on a long satis-
fied sigh. She bent and took Jana by the nape of
the neck. Her fingers were surprisingly hard and
strong; she threw Jana onto her side without even
breathing hard. "So this is the prize."
"Pretty lady," Chiura said, looking up. She
grasped Didi Badini's kameez with muddy fingers.
"A lovely child, indeed, if she were clean."
"No," Jana gasped, coming up to her knees
and pushing Chiura back. "No, lady, you don't
want her, she's simple, and sick already, she's got a
bad sickness, she'll make you sick, too." If only
Kheti were there, Kheti who knew so many words
and knew all about the city! She'd be able to think
of a good story. But Kheti was gone, head lolling
against Siri Teku's back, sold to the pretty lady
with Old Black in her eyes and her smile.
"Don't talk nonsense, girl." Didi Badini
slapped Jana aside with a backhanded blow. Her
hands were covered with rings; the ornate settings
cut Jana's cheek. "I suppose you're the one who
tried to make her ugly? A right mess you've made
of her, too, half cutting her hair and all that mud.
But I can still tell she'll clean up fine. You come
with Didi Badini, little one," she crooned to
Chiura. "Come and live in the city, sleep on silk
and have sorbet to drink every day."
Chiura lifted her muddy arms to Didi Badini,
then looked over her shoulder. "Mama Jana? "
"Your mister will take care of Mama Jana,"
Didi Badini said. "She's not coming with us. Not
this time." The cold black eyes flicked a scornful
glance over Jana, sitting on the mud with blood
running down her grimy face. "Maybe the mister
will give her away when she gets too big for a
dragger."
"No. Don't take her. Ple<ue," Jana begged. Siri
Teku had come back in; she clasped his knees.
201
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
200
"I'm teaching her to sort, she'll be a good worker,
I'll take care of her, she won't be any trouble."
Siri Teku kicked Jana away. His boot landed
in her stomach and knocked the air out of her. She
lay on the floor and listened to her own breath
whistling like something far away and unimpor-
tant, while Chiura babbled in Didi Badinis arms
and somebody counted out credits. Then Didi
Badini and the silent gray man were gone with
Chiura. And Siri Teku had raised his cane.
"I'll teach you to try and hide my stock," he
said before the first blow landed, burning across
Jana's chest.
There was something about waking up on a planet
that always excited Acorna. Maybe it was the fla-
vor of the air: not dead-pure as on the ship, but
mixed with an infinite variety of scents and the
tantalizing hint of exotic goodies to eat—tender
new leaves, sweet crunchy roots, hectares of grass
blowing in the wind instead of the carefully tended
blades grown for her in the ship's 'ponies system.
This morning she woke with her head filled with
vague dream-images of a sunny garden full of
flowering shrubs and the music of trickling
streams . . . and another music, too, from little ani-
mals that danced in the treetops and sang in sweet
harmony. Was that a real place, or something she
had concocted in her dream? The images were so
strong, she could almost imagine they were a true
memory of something she had seen when she -was
a child. A long, long time ago, because she'd been
quite small in the dream/memory . . . before
Nered, before Greifen, before Theloi, even before
Laboue . . . hadn't there been a garden where the
grass was soft and blue-green, and a pair of arms
that held her up to see the singing-fuzzies? But
when she tried to chase down the elusive memory,
it vanished like a bubble on the water, leaving her
with only the feeling that nice things happened on
planets if you went for a walk in the early morn-
ing.
There was some vague discomfort and guilt
associated with the clearer memory of the gardens
on Laboue with their singing stones, though.
Hadn't Rafik and Calum and Gill been angry with
her for going out? Oh, yes—she had forgotten to
wear those robes that were supposed to cover up
her horn. Well, she'd been a silly baby then. She
was grown up now. They'd said so last night. And
she certainly knew better than to make that mis-
take again!
Feeling quite proud of her forethought, Acorna
donned not only the clinging body wrap and long
skirt Gill now insisted she wear, but also a scarf of
filmy green to match the skirt which could be
draped casually across her head so that instead of
a horn, she seemed only to have a bouffant hair
style from which a few silver curls escaped. Thus
fully prepared, she slipped out of the mansion
where they'd been brought by skimmer and pre-
pared to explore Kezdet's capital city of Celtalan
in her own way, by walking.
The restricted life of a mining ship left Acorna
with few chances to stretch her long legs. She
202
ANNE MCCAFFREY AND MARGARET BALL
203
•worked out daily in the ship's exercise room—
exercise closet was more like it, she thought, admir-
ing the broad open spaces before her—but it
wasn't the same as having a good run on nice
hard-packed dirt.
Not that the immediate prospect from Delszaki
Li's house offered any good opportunities for a
run. Already, early though it -was, the open space
between rows of town houses was filled with peo-
ple in skimmers darting back and forth on urgent
errands. They flew low, obviously not expecting to
have to dodge pedestrians, and Acorna prudently
kept to the narrow stone-covered strip just along-
side the houses. She congratulated herself on her
intelligence and forethought in keeping away from
the skimmers. Gill and the others were all wrong
when they said she didn't know how to take care
of herself dirtside. True, she'd never been alone on
a planet before. She'd gone out only on those care-
fully chaperoned shopping trips where they
stopped to sell their payloads. But how dangerous