Kirk tried to turn. The six men swung with him. Kirk said, "You better
discipline me. You better kill me, because, if you don't, I'll kill
you."
"I don't blame you, boy. Go and rest. You'll understand."
"I'll understand, all right." Kirk's voice was a hoarse, harsh whisper
that came out by itself and wouldn't be stopped. "I'll understand about
Pa, and the Ship with the heat-stones in it, and the Captain's yellow
daughter getting fat and warm while my sisters freeze and go hungry.
I'll understand, and I'll make everybody else understand, too!"
The Officer's eyes held a quick fire. "Boy! Do you know what you're
saying?"
"You bet I know!"
"That's mutiny. For God's sake, don't make things worse!"
"Worse for us, or for you?" Kirk was shouting, holding his head up in
the wind. "Listen, you men! Do you know what the Officers are doing up
there in the Ship they won't let us touch?"
There was an uneasy stirring among the Hans, a slipping aside of
luminous black eyes. The Officer shut his jaw tight. He stepped in
close to Kirk.
"Shut up," he said urgently. "Don't make me punish you, not now. You're
talking rot, but it's dangerous."
Kirk's eyes were hot and not quite sane. He couldn't have stopped if
he'd wanted to.
"Rot, is it? Jakk Randl knew. He saw with his own eyes and he told me
while he was dying. The Captain's yellow daughter, sneaking heat-stones
into...."
The Officer hit him on the jaw, carefully and without heat. Kirk sagged
down. The Officer stepped back, looking as though he had a pain in him
that he didn't want to show.
He said quietly, but so that everyone could hear him, "Discipline, for
not longer than it takes to clear the rock below."
Two of the men nodded and took Kirk away down a flight of stone steps.
One of the four who were left looked over the wall and spat.
"Rock's pretty near clean," he said, "but even so...." He shook himself
like a dog. "That Jakk Randl, he was always talking."
One of the others flicked a quick look around and whispered, "Yeah. And
maybe he knew what he was talking about!"
* * * * *
The little stone room was cold and quiet. It was dark, too, but the
sucking-plant carried its own light. Kirk lay on his back watching
the cool green fire pulse on his chest and belly. It looked cool, but
underneath the sprawling tentacles of it he was burning with the pain
of little needles that bit and sucked.
He was spreadeagled with leather thongs. He made no sound. The sweat
ran into his eyes and the blood went out of his body into the hungry
plant, drop by drop.
Somebody came in, somebody too quick and light to be a fighting man.
Kirk let his pupils spread. First a slim tall shape moving, a kilt of
little skins swirling beneath the shimmering sinthi-mesh overall suit.
Small sharp breasts and a heavy mane of hair caught back.
Then color. Yellow. Yellow like the Sunstar, from head to foot. Kirk's
jaw shut and knotted.
The sucking-plant was ripped away very deftly by its upper fronds and
thrown into a corner. Kirk went rigid, but he didn't make a sound. The
yellow girl took a knife from her belt sheath and slashed him free with
four quick strokes.
Kirk didn't move.
"Well," she said. "Aren't you going to get up?"
He could see her eyes, great black shining things. "What did you come
here for?"
"They told me about you. I said I thought it was criminal to discipline
you when you didn't know what you were doing. So I came down to see
what I could do about it."
She always came with the other women after a raid, to help the wounded.
Kirk looked at her stonily.
"You must have just missed my speech."
"They told me about it. Whatever made you say things like that?"
"Aren't they true?"
"No!"
Kirk laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh. "You could have saved
yourself the trouble. This isn't going to make me believe you."
The girl tossed her thick hair back impatiently. "You're acting like
a child." She was no older than Kirk. "We're all terribly sorry about
your father," she went on gravely, "but that doesn't give you the
right...."
"I have the right to tell the truth."
"But you're not telling the truth!" She was down on her knees now,
beside him. "I don't know what this Jakk Randl saw, or whether he saw
anything, but...."