Chapter 3
The Velcats hustled Mervyn and Loren into a smaller compound, the home of trustee slaves, the collaborators . Here the yard boasted grass, the bunks were clothed with mattresses, and each bunkhouse possessed a tap with ice cold running water: luxury compared to their previous quarters. As team leaders they had a hut to themselves.
‘What was that about?’ Loren hissed. Mervyn pressed his hand surreptitiously against Loren’s. Her eyes widened as the key card cut into her skin. She turned away from the Velcats so they would not see the surprise in her chima.
Outside their bunkhouse stood a motley collection of beings.
‘This is your work team,’ instructed one of the Velcats. ‘You start at dawn tomorrow.’ Mervyn studied the work detail, all Ethrigians except for two humans. He thought of Rauvic and his determination to escape. How far could he push the deal with Guthrik?
‘ I cannot work with this team,’ Mervyn said bluntly. Velcats have a low thinking threshold so extended thoughts are best avoided. ‘There are no Zetoigs in this work party.’
‘The commandant say this your team, so you work with them,’ the Velcat growled.
Loren jabbed him in the side, ‘Mervyn, what are you playing at?’
He ignored her and addressed the other Velcat, ‘It cannot be done. I need tall beings. What is your name?’
‘My name? Why?’
‘Because when the commandant asks why productivity has not risen, I shall tell him you would not allow me to choose Zetoigs for the team, nor children.’
The Velcat took a while to digest such a long thought, then pointed to its colleague, ‘She decided.’
‘Not I, he took the order,’ the other Velcat snarled and her ears lay flat along her head, they looked as if they might fight.
Drawing attention to himself was not part of Mervyn’s plan so chancing his life he stepped between the disgruntled guards, ‘Then you will allow me to choose Zetoigs and children?’
The Velcats continued to glare at each other, but their ears relaxed. Eventually the female, and then the male, nodded in acceptance. Loren raised a hand to hide a smile. Some of the work party were less circumspect, at least one laughed out loud, which made both Velcats suspicious.
Quickly, Mervyn pressed home his advantage and strode towards the gate, ‘Come on then.’ The Velcats looked confused and raised their blast riffles; first at each other then at Mervyn. ‘We go to choose the Zetoigs and children you have just agreed I can have,’ he explained patiently as though to a child. In fact, they were very much like children, children with guns: erratic, unpredictable, dangerous. ‘Or would you prefer we go to the commandant?’
The Velcats grumbled, but led Mervyn and Loren back to the main compound. Mervyn decided he had probably pushed his luck about as far as it would go tonight.
‘That one will do,’ Mervyn said, pointing towards the table at which Rauvic sat staring at the stars. Thinking of his home world perhaps?. The other slaves milled around busy with their night-time routines.
‘That one is old,’ protested one of the Velcats.
‘I want height, not youth. Beside, his loss will not damage mining production,’ Mervyn tried to use the same language as the commandant. Then he saw the red coat draped over the young girl and boy sleeping exhaustedly in their mother’s lap so he sent Loren off with one of the Velcats to retrieve them.
‘You,’ Mervyn said to Rauvic. ‘Stand up.’ The Zetoig stood until he towered over Mervyn. ‘Open your mouth,’ Mervyn stood on the tale to inspect Rauvic’s mouth. He had no idea what he was looking for, but hoped it would impress the Velcat. That close to Rauvic he could whisper without being overheard, ‘Which other Zetoig can I trust?’
‘Zakric,’ Rauvic coughed into his fist and nodded his head towards a fellow member of this giant race. Mervyn assumed that was Zakric.
‘You’ll do. Go get your stuff,’ he declared in a loud voice then pointed to Zakric. ‘And I’ll take that one over there as well.’
Back in the trustees compound they faced the problem of where to lodge the new recruits. There were plenty of beds, but the children were part of the deal with Guthrik and Mervyn wanted to keep them close. Besides, he did not trust the work party, especially the humans. ‘They are either spies or bad eggs,’ Loren pointed out. In the end they moved extra bunks into the team leader’s hut and divided the single room with a sheet suspended from the ceiling. Mervyn and Loren would share the hut with the mother and her children: a boy aged five and a girl aged seven. The children were soon fast asleep, end to end in the same bunk.
‘Why us?’ The mother asked as Mervyn made his bed. In many ways she looked uncannily like a human version of Aurora.
He decided not to mention the deal with Guthrik -- not until he knew their value to the human leader anyway, ‘I didn’t think the children would last long, they can have an easier life here.
‘And how do you propose to do that?’
Mervyn shrugged, ‘We’ll have to think of something.’
‘Wooden pegs,’ Loren said from the top bunk. ‘I’m sure we can persuade the guards we need loads of pegs to hold the props together. They can spend all day whittling them, then we can burn them in the stove at night,’ she gave a short laugh at her own ingenuity. The mother grunted and pulled the curtain across. She could at least be grateful, Mervyn thought, he’d just saved her family from certain death.
As he dozed off he saw a face peaking round the sheet, the dark-haired girl was watching him, ‘Thank you,’ she said shyly. ‘Mummy’s not crying tonight.’
Mervyn felt a lump in his throat. Now he had responsibility for these children’s lives too. He smiled, ‘What’s your name?’
‘What’s yours?’
‘Mervyn, and my friend is Loren.’
‘My name is Rose,’ a smile broke her grubby face. Then she looked serious, ‘Grandpa Guthrik will come and get us soon. He is very important.’
Mervyn fingered the key-card hidden in the waistband of his trousers. So that was the nature of the deal. Icicles shivered down his spine at the thought. If Guthrik lacked the power to protect his own family how could he possibly get them all off Pershwin?