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dressed me. I made no protests while this was happening because one of them
held a fully charged pistol, the muzzle of which he put directly into my
mouth. His finger was bent, the trigger half pulled. I knew he meant it. I did
not move or twitch while I was being dressed and the heavy boots slipped over
my feet. The gun stayed there until the locks on the cuffs clicked shut once
more.
It took days to reach our destination. My captors were the worst
conversationalists in the galaxy and refused to respond to even my wittiest
and most insulting sallies. The food was completely unpalatable but, I am
sure, nourishing. The only drink was water. A portapotty took
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s%20Steel%20Rat%20wants%20you.txt care of my sanitary needs and I was getting
bored out of my skull. My thoughts were constantly on escape and many and
fearful were the plans I devised. All of them useless, of course.
Singlehanded, without a weapon, I would never be able to take control of the
ship even if I could break out of this room. Which I could not. I was sinking
into a coma of boredom by the time we finally landed.
"Where are we?" I asked the guards who came to get me. "Come on you
chatterboxes, speak up.
Would you be shot if you at least told me the name of the planet? Do you think
I will tell anyone else?"
They thought about this for quite a while until one of them finally made up
his mind.
"Kekkonshiki," he said.
"You're excused--but don't wipe your nose with the back of your hand. Ha-ha."
I had to laugh at my own sallies. No one else would.
But it was ironic. Here I was, bearer of the information that would put an end
to the gray men menace forever. The name of their world--and its location. And
I couldn't pass it on. If I had any trace of psi ability I could have the
troops rushing there in a minute. I did not. I had tried and been psitested
often enough in the past. There was absolutely nothing that I could do.
At least the unaccustomed action gave me something new to think about, to take
my mind off of the depression that had depressed me for days. At last it was
time to think about escape again.
Nor was I mad to consider it at this time. We had landed and would be leaving
the ship soon.
They were taking me some place where it was guaranteed notvery-good things
would happen to me. I
did not yet know what they were and, as far as I was concerned, life would be
far more peaceful if
I never found out. We would leave this ship, and even for a very brief spell,
we would be in transit. That would be the time to act. The mere fact that I
did not have the slightest idea of what would be waiting outside was
completely and totally beside the point. I had to do something.
Not that they made it very easy for me. I tried to act indifferent when they
stripped off my chains and produced a metal collar and snapped it around my
neck. Although my blood ran chill on the instant. I had worn that collar
before. A thin cable ran from the collar to a small box that one of them held
in his hand.
"No need to demonstrate," I said in what was meant to be a light and bantering
tone and certainly was not. "I've worn one of these before and your friend
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Kraj--you must remember Kraj?--
demonstrated its working to me over quite a period of time."
"I can do this," my captor said, poising a finger over one of the many buttons
on the box.
"It's been done," I shouted, pulling back. "Those very same words, I know, you
never change your routines. You press the button and . . ."
Fire washed over me. I was blind, burning to death, my skin aflame, my eyes
seared out. Every one of my pain nerves switched on to full by the neural
currents generated by the box. I knew this but it did not help. The pain was
real and it went on and on and on.
When it ended I found myself lying on the floor, curled up, drained of energy
and almost helpless. Two of them lifted me to my feet and dragged me, legs
flopping, down the corridor. My master with the box walked behind, giving me a
little tug on the neck from time to time to remind me who was in charge. I did
not argue with him. I could stumble along by myself after a bit, but they
still kept their hands locked tight on my arms.
I liked that. I fought hard not to smile. They were so sure I could not
escape.
"Getting cold out?" I asked when we reached the airlock. No one bothered to
answer me. But they were pulling on gloves and fur hats which certainly meant
something. "How about some gloves for me?" I was still ignored.
When the lock door swung open I knew why the preparations. A swirl of snow was
blown in on a
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s%20Steel%20Rat%20wants%20you.txt wave of arctic air that chilled, then
numbed. It certainly wasn't summer outside. I was dragged forth into the
blizzard.
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