say," Edipon pointed. "The mouths must always be filledand woebetide if they shall go empty for the powers will halt orworse. Fire goes in here as you guessed, and when the green fingercomes forward this lever may be turned for motion. The next is forgreat speed or going slow. The very last is under the sign of the redfinger, which when it points indicates need, and the handle must beturned and held until the finger retires. White breath comes from theopening in back. That is all there is."
"About what I expected," Jason muttered and examined the containerwall, rapping it with his knuckles until it boomed. "They give you theminimum of controls to run the thing, so you won't learn anythingabout the basic principles involved. Without the theory you wouldnever know what the handles control, or that the green indicator comesout when you have operating pressure or the red one when the waterlevel is low in the boiler. Very neat. And the whole thing sealed upin a can and booby-trapped in case you have any ideas of going intobusiness for yourself.
"The cover sounds like it is double walled, and from your descriptionI would say that it has one of the vesicant war gases, like mustardgas, sealed inside there in liquid form. Anyone who tries to cut theirway in will quickly forget their ambitions after a dose of that. Yetthere must be a way to get inside the case and service the engine,they aren't just going to throw them away after a few months' use. Andconsidering the level of technology displayed by this monstrosity Ishould be able to find the tricks and get around any other built-intraps. I think I'll take the job."
"Very well, begin."
"Wait a minute, boss, you still have a few things to learn about hiredlabor. There are always certain working conditions and agreementsinvolved, all of which I'll be happy to list for you."
VIII
"What I do not understand is why you must have the other slave?"Narsisi whined. "To have the woman of course is natural, as well as tohave quarters of your own, my father has given his permission. But healso said that I and my brothers are to help you, that the secrets ofthe engine are to be revealed to no one else."
"Then trot right over to him and get permission for the slave Mikah tojoin me in the work. You can explain that he comes from the same landthat I do, and that your secrets are mere children's toys to him. Andif dad wants any other reasons tell him that I need skilled aid,someone who knows how to handle tools and who can be trusted to followdirections exactly as given. You and your brothers have entirely toomany ideas of your own about how things should be done, and a tendencyto leave details up to the gods and have a good bash with the hammerif things don't work the way they should."
Narsisi retired, seething and mumbling to himself while Jason huddledover the oil stove planning the next step. It had taken most of theday to lay down logs for rollers and to push the sealed engine outinto the sandy valley, far from the well site; open space was neededfor any experiments where a mistake could release a cloud of war gas.Even Edipon had finally seen the sense of this, though all of histendencies were to conduct the experiments with great secretivenessbehind locked doors. He had granted permission only after skin wallshad been erected to form an enclosure that could be guarded; it wasonly incidental that they acted as a much-appreciated windbreak.
And after much argument the dangling chains and shackles had beenremoved from Jason's arms and light-weight leg-irons substituted. Hehad to shuffle when he walked but his arms were completely free, agreat improvement over the chains, even though one of the brotherskept watch with a cocked crossbow as long as Jason wasn't fasteneddown. Now he had to get some tools and some idea of the technicalknowledge of these people before he could proceed, which wouldnecessarily entail one more battle over their precious secrets.
"Come on," he called to his guard, "let's find Edipon and give hisulcers another twinge."
After his first enthusiasm the leader of the D'zertanoj was gettingvery little pleasure out of his new project.
"You have quarters of your own," he grumbled, "and the slave woman tocook for you, and I have just given permission for the other slave tohelp you. Now more requests--do you want to drain all the blood frommy body?"
"Let's not dramatize too much. I simply want some tools to get on withmy work, and a peek at your machine shop or wherever it is you do yourmechanical work. I have to have some idea of the way you people solvemechanical problems before I can go to work on that box of tricks outthere in the desert."
"Entrance is forbidden--"
"Regulations are snapping like straws today, so we might as well go onand finish off a few more. Will you lead the way?"
The guards were reluctant to open the refinery building gates toJason, and there was much rattling of keys and worried looks. A braceof elderly D'zertanoj, stinking of oil fumes, emerged from theinterior and joined in a shouted argument with Edipon whose willfinally prevailed. Chained again, and guarded like a murderer, Jasonwas begrudgingly led into the dark interior, the contents of which wasdepressingly anticlimactic.
"Really from rubeville," Jason sneered and kicked at the boxful ofhand-forged and clumsy tools. The work was of the crudest, the productof a sort of neolithic machine age. The distilling retort had beenlaboriously formed from sheet copper and clumsily riveted together. Itleaked mightily as did the soldered seams on the hand-formed pipe.Most of the tools were blacksmith's tongs and hammers for heating andbeating out shapes on the anvil. The only things that gladdenedJason's heart were the massive drill press and lathe that worked offthe slave-power drive belts. In the tool holder of the lathe wasclamped a chip of some hard mineral that did a good enough job ofcutting the forged iron and low-carbon steel. Even more cheering wasthe screw-thread advance on the cutting head that was used to producethe massive nuts and bolts that secured the _caroj_ wheels to theirshafts. It could have been worse. Jason sorted out the smallest andhandiest tools and put them aside for his own use in the morning. Thelight was almost gone and there would be no more work this day.
* * * * *
They left, in armed procession, as they came, and a brace of brothersshowed him to the kennellike room that was to be his private quarters.The heavy bolt thudded shut in the door behind him and he winced atthe thick fumes of half-burnt kerosene through which the light of thesingle-wick lamp barely penetrated. Ijale crouched over the small oilstove cooking something in a pottery bowl. She looked up and smiledhesitatingly at Jason, then turned back to the stove. Jason walkedover, sniffed and shuddered.
"What a feast! _Krenoj_ soup, and I suppose followed by fresh _krenoj_and _krenoj_ salad. Tomorrow I see about getting a little variety intothe diet."
"Ch'aka is great," she whispered without looking up. "Ch'aka ispowerful...."
"Jason is the name, I lost the Ch'aka job when they took the uniformaway."
"... Jason is powerful to work charms on the D'zertanoj and makes themdo what he will. His slave thanks you."
He lifted her chin and the dumb obedience in her eyes made him wince."Can't we forget about the slavery bit? We are in this thing togetherand we'll get out of it together."
"We will escape, I knew it. You will kill all the D'zertanoj andrelease your slaves and lead us home again where we can march and find_krenoj_ far from this terrible place."
"Some girls are sure easy to please. That is roughly what I had inmind, except when we get out of here we are going in the otherdirection, as far away from your _krenoj_ crowd as I can get."
Ijale listened attentively, stirring the soup with one hand andscratching inside her leather wrappings with the other. Jason foundhimself scratching as well, and realized from sore spots on his hidethat he had been doing an awful lot of this since he had been draggedout of the ocean of this inhospitable planet.
"Enough is enough!" he exploded and went over and hammered on thedoor. "This place is a far cry from civilization as I know it, butthat is no reason why we can't be as comfortable as possible." Chainsand bolts rattled outside the door and Narsisi pushed his gloom-riddenface in.
"Why do you cry out? What is wrong?"
"But you have water," Narsisi said, puzzled, and pointed to a stonecrock in the corner. "There is water there enough for days."
"By your standards, Nars old boy, not mine. I want at least ten timesas much as that and I want it now. And some soap, if there is suchstuff in this barbaric place."
There was a good deal of argument involved, but Jason finally got hisway with the water by explaining it was needed for religious rites tomake sure that he would not fail in the work tomorrow. It came in avaried collection of containers along with a shallow bowl full ofpowerful soft soap.
"We're in business," he chortled. "Take your
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