"We will eat and we will drink when the buzzer tells us," Wilm replied
confidently.
"It won't any more," Rikud said.
"What won't?"
"The buzzer will never sound again. I broke it."
Crifer growled. "I know. You shouldn't have done it. That was a bad
thing you did, Rikud."
"It was not bad. The world has moved through the blackness and the
stars and now we should go outside to live in the big garden there
beyond the viewport."
"That's ridiculous," Chuls said.
Even Crifer now was angry at Rikud. "He broke the buzzer and no one can
eat. I hate Rikud, I think."
There was a lot of noise in the darkness, and someone else said, "I
hate Rikud." Then everyone was saying it.
Rikud was sad. Soon he would die, because no one would go outside with
him and he could not go outside alone. In five more years he would have
had a woman, too. He wondered if it was dark and hungry in the women's
quarters. Did women eat?
Perhaps they ate plants. Once, in the garden, Rikud had broken off a
frond and tasted it. It had been bitter, but not unpleasant. Maybe the
plants in the viewport would even be better.
"We will not be hungry if we go outside," he said. "We can eat there."
"We can eat if the buzzer sounds, but it is broken," Chuls said dully.