“You could be right about that, but she likes it here as much as I do.”
“Later, Bob.”
“Later, Will.”
When I got back to the ship, Dingus asked, “Learn much?”
“The locals are just discovering the benefits of a crossbar on a boar spear.”
“That what happened to the fellow they carried in?”
“Yep. I also found out that there are a couple of female Squirrels helping with the kitchen work, who might be willing to talk.”
“I heard about a runt, who’s been getting kicked around by the bigger fellows. They thought he might be willing to talk, if we were willing to find him a different place to work.”
“You want to interview them here, or take them back to the ship?”
“I’m thinking if we let Lakki or Tikki sit in on the interviews, we might make better progress.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s round them up, wash as necessary, and head back.”
“We’re going to wind up making another run to Squirrel space, just to haul all these idiots back, aren’t we?”
I replied, “You have the cheeriest thoughts in the morning. Yes, we probably are. I’m not any happier about giving them a second shot at us than you are.” We found our prospects, and Nikki took charge of the kitchen help. One of the Marines hooked up a hose to a pump on our freighter, and gave the other fellow a regular Rambo shower. That knocked down the worst of the smell, but he was still ripe. We got aboard, and headed back to the Gene. The little wet fellow spoke up at that point. “You’re taking us to that infamous monkey, aren’t you? What’s he going to do, serve us up for dinner?”
I replied, “As a matter of fact, I’m already here. We just need answers to some questions.”
“Why would we help you, monkey?”
“Oh, I don’t know, better work assignment, perhaps?”
“When are you going to return us to our people?”
“First, I haven’t yet decided that is the best course of action, from our point of view. We just returned several shiploads of your people, and you turkeys are still showing up. Why would sending back more people help?”
“What nonsense are you talking about now? You’re as bad as those ‘people’ down on the planet.”
“A bunch of your people came here to take out me and the Gene Cernan. They failed. We took them back to Oak, and dropped them off.”
“You expect me to believe you went to Oak, and got back alive?”
Dingus spoke up. “We did it, whether you choose to believe it, or not.”
The ramp came down, saving us from any more of his wonderful conversation. The Micks were waiting on us. I said, “We’ve got this fella, and two ladies over there. The gent needs to make the acquaintance of some soap and water before anyone civilized has to sit across from him. He’s annoying, but make sure he doesn’t fall too many times on the way there.”
Angus said, “Boss, you sure know how to ruin a bot’s day.”
I replied, “I’m trying to get him to cooperate, Angus. Not that I think he will, but I need to make the effort.”
“So, you’re saying he’s fair game on the way back, if he doesn’t talk?”
“I don’t see why not. He’s annoying. The ladies, on the other hand, have been well behaved. Please treat them with courtesy.”
“You’re the Boss.”
Jane came into the bay about then. She said, “You fellas decide to cut me out of the fun, did you?”
Dingus said, “No, I intended to page you, before I started questioning them.”
“So, it’s just fresh air and sunshine you’re cutting me out of?”
Dingus replied, “I suppose you’re right. Begging your pardon, Ma’am.”
The mouthy little fellow spoke up. “You idiots can’t even control your females! How do you expect to dominate one such as me!” I knew he had opened his mouth at the wrong time, and said the exact wrong thing. Since I was tired of his blustering, I decided to let it play out. Jane grabbed him by the front of his uniform, and stiff-armed him. “No man controls me, loser! I control my own destiny.” She proceeded to tune him up, like the Marine she was. When she finished, Andre said, “Ooh Rah, Ma’am”
Jane said, “Ooh Rah!”
I said, “I see you’ve been studying their anatomy. Do you have it down to a machine course yet, or will I have to learn it the old-fashioned way?”
“Still working on the course, Boss.”
“Let me know when it’s ready. That looked very effective.”
“More than it should have been. I expected him to have counters for some of those strikes. I’ve got some grappling, too, but once I got a whiff of him, I decided not to try that out.”
“Good choice. He’s fresh from shoveling outhouses. We hosed him down, but it didn’t help as much as we had hoped. He seems to have quite the opinion of himself. We’ve yet to see much to back it up.”
Jane said, “I’ve seen that before. They think by bluffing they can make themselves out to be more than they are. Usually, they fold like lawn chairs.”
Mouthy spoke up. “I wasn’t ready. She tricked me.” Dingus was holding it together, until I let him down and cracked up. When we got done laughing, Dingus said, “You couldn’t lay a finger on her on your best day. She was one of the best I’ve seen, even before she was enhanced. She could give Bob here a hard time, and he has most of fifty pounds of muscle on her. Not to mention, she’s been studying your anatomy, and knows how to make you hurt.” Mr. Mouthy got up, trying to look casual, like he wasn’t going to try again. None of us bought it, but he didn’t realize that. Jane met
