"Not when we can see 'em, no. Of course not. But how do we know they
haven't got ways of getting into the Ship that don't show from the
plain? Jakk says a lot goes on that we don't know about."
He got up, forcing his belief at them with his big square hands.
"There must be something in the Ship that they don't want us to have.
Something valuable, something they want to keep for themselves. What
else could it be but heat-stones and maybe dried meat?"
"We don't know, Wes! The Ship is--well, we shouldn't talk about it.
And the Officers wouldn't do that. If they wanted us killed off they'd
let the Piruts in on us, or the shags, and let 'em finish us quick.
Freezing and starving would take too long. There'd be too many of us if
we found out, or got mad."
Kirk snorted. "You women know so much. If they let the shags or the
Piruts in on us, how could they stop 'em before they killed everybody,
including the Officers? As for slow death--well, they think we're dumb.
They've kept us away from the Ship ever since the _Crash_, and nobody
knows how long ago that was. They think they can go on doing it. They
think we'd never suspect."
"Yah!" said Lil sharply. "You just like to talk. Why should the
Officers want us killed off anyhow?"
Kirk looked at the thin fuzzy baby curled tight in the skins.
"There aren't enough heat-stones to go around any more. Why should they
let their young ones cry with the cold?"
* * * * *
There was silence in the room again. Kirk felt it, thick and choky.
His heart kicked against his ribs. He was scared, suddenly. He'd never
talked that much before. It was the baby, crying in the cold, that set
him off. Suppose someone had heard him. Suppose he was reported for a
mutineer. That meant the sucking-plant....
"Listen!" said Ma Kirk.
Nerves crackled icily all over Kirk's skin. But there wasn't any need
to listen. The noise rolled in over them. It hit rock faces polished by
the wind, and the drifts of crystalline pebbles, and it splintered into
a tangle of echoes that came from everywhere at once, but there was
no mistaking it. No need even to use sensitive earcups to locate its
source.
The great alarm gong by the Captain's hut.
Kirk began to move, very swiftly and quietly. Before the third gong
stroke hit them he had his spear and his sling and was already lifting
aside the door curtain.