finished except for the engines, they have to be reset, and Petro says she can use some extra hands. Which means you, Skeen, or Tibo. Timka wonât do. Nor my remotes. Takes a feel we just havenât got.â
âCan we get started while weâre working on the engines? Itâs seventeen days to Pillory. Makes me nervous hanging around like this, Djaboâs twitches, I hate, I loathe, I abominate deadlines.â
âIâm fueled and reamed out, thatâs all right, but I made a package deal with Patipsa for supplies and half of itâs still to come. Tipsy promised on his fatherâs nose Iâd have the rest by tomorrow.â Picarefyâs lights danced and there was laughter in her voice. âI said Iâd turn Ti-cat loose on him if he let us down.â
âTomorrow,â Skeen said. She ran her hands through her hair, fluffing it out from her head in spikes. âTomorrow.â She looked at her hands. âI think Iâll take a bath.â
PART II: THE RESCUE
PILLORY
The Pillory System controlled by the Kliu Berej, Pillory operated as a prison planet, the asteroid belt worked by Miners under contract to the Kliu.
gravity: 2.75 g standard
diameter: 17,384 km
three moons: (unnamed) 1,200 km, 1578 km, 939 km.
hollowed out and converted into guardian fortresses, part of a net of spyeyes woven about the world.
Sun: a red giant alone in the Sword Rift two other planets (unnamed) one inside, one outside the orbit of Pillory.
Asteroid Belt between Pillory and the outer planet, a heavily populated Belt, rich with heavy metals. Because the Kliu are uncomfortable in freefall or minimal gravity, they have contracted out the mining rights to the Belt and thereâs a lot of coming and going.
Kliu Berej:
Lacertine centauroids; six short stubby legs supporting a broad, heavily muscled body; squat torso; short arms; wide eight-fingered hands, three of the fingers capable of opposing the others; boxy head, small eating mouth, much larger, breathing and speaking mouth; huge ears, mostly rolled into minimal size, leaving only the ear hole open, when unfurled, they are mobile scanners each larger than the head and capable of hearing into the electronic spectrum; eye, round and tender as with most nocturnals and those who live with dim suns.
Prison planet:
A large diamond-shaped island in the center of Pilloryâs major ocean with a wall across the waist. To the north is the recreation area where the Kliu on duty in the fortress moons go to recover from the stretches of low gravity. To the south of the wall is the administrative center.
Many small island chains as if some catastrophe had drowned whole continents leaving only the tips of the highest mountains above water. One major land mass like a misshapen dumbbell straddling the equator. Most mines and farms in the Northern section. Most of the prisoners are kept here, though a very special few are squirreled away on one of the islands.
The prisoners capable of working in the mines are sent there without regard to training or skills. Those of lesser strength work on the farms or in the smelters. The weakest work as clerks and cleaners and in other service jobs.
Bribery and other corruptions are close to nonexistent; There is nothing a prisoner can offer any Kliu that would make it worth the danger of dismissal and being sent back to the overcrowded homeworld with its miserable underclasses or to the few colonies the Kliu Berej have managed to acquire where life tends to be short and harsh. In addition to the dangers in dealing with the prisoners, the Kliu regarded what they were doing as herding animals; one did not enter into negotiations with beasts unless one was a pervert of some kind.
Life for the prisoners was dull slogging work that wore the body out; even the strongest seldom lasted more than a dozen years in the mines; those who did lighter work had to cope with the gravity and lasted little longer.
While no prisoner had
âCan we get started while weâre working on the engines? Itâs seventeen days to Pillory. Makes me nervous hanging around like this, Djaboâs twitches, I hate, I loathe, I abominate deadlines.â
âIâm fueled and reamed out, thatâs all right, but I made a package deal with Patipsa for supplies and half of itâs still to come. Tipsy promised on his fatherâs nose Iâd have the rest by tomorrow.â Picarefyâs lights danced and there was laughter in her voice. âI said Iâd turn Ti-cat loose on him if he let us down.â
âTomorrow,â Skeen said. She ran her hands through her hair, fluffing it out from her head in spikes. âTomorrow.â She looked at her hands. âI think Iâll take a bath.â
PART II: THE RESCUE
PILLORY
The Pillory System controlled by the Kliu Berej, Pillory operated as a prison planet, the asteroid belt worked by Miners under contract to the Kliu.
gravity: 2.75 g standard
diameter: 17,384 km
three moons: (unnamed) 1,200 km, 1578 km, 939 km.
hollowed out and converted into guardian fortresses, part of a net of spyeyes woven about the world.
Sun: a red giant alone in the Sword Rift two other planets (unnamed) one inside, one outside the orbit of Pillory.
Asteroid Belt between Pillory and the outer planet, a heavily populated Belt, rich with heavy metals. Because the Kliu are uncomfortable in freefall or minimal gravity, they have contracted out the mining rights to the Belt and thereâs a lot of coming and going.
Kliu Berej:
Lacertine centauroids; six short stubby legs supporting a broad, heavily muscled body; squat torso; short arms; wide eight-fingered hands, three of the fingers capable of opposing the others; boxy head, small eating mouth, much larger, breathing and speaking mouth; huge ears, mostly rolled into minimal size, leaving only the ear hole open, when unfurled, they are mobile scanners each larger than the head and capable of hearing into the electronic spectrum; eye, round and tender as with most nocturnals and those who live with dim suns.
Prison planet:
A large diamond-shaped island in the center of Pilloryâs major ocean with a wall across the waist. To the north is the recreation area where the Kliu on duty in the fortress moons go to recover from the stretches of low gravity. To the south of the wall is the administrative center.
Many small island chains as if some catastrophe had drowned whole continents leaving only the tips of the highest mountains above water. One major land mass like a misshapen dumbbell straddling the equator. Most mines and farms in the Northern section. Most of the prisoners are kept here, though a very special few are squirreled away on one of the islands.
The prisoners capable of working in the mines are sent there without regard to training or skills. Those of lesser strength work on the farms or in the smelters. The weakest work as clerks and cleaners and in other service jobs.
Bribery and other corruptions are close to nonexistent; There is nothing a prisoner can offer any Kliu that would make it worth the danger of dismissal and being sent back to the overcrowded homeworld with its miserable underclasses or to the few colonies the Kliu Berej have managed to acquire where life tends to be short and harsh. In addition to the dangers in dealing with the prisoners, the Kliu regarded what they were doing as herding animals; one did not enter into negotiations with beasts unless one was a pervert of some kind.
Life for the prisoners was dull slogging work that wore the body out; even the strongest seldom lasted more than a dozen years in the mines; those who did lighter work had to cope with the gravity and lasted little longer.
While no prisoner had
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