frame.
Nead scratched his head. 'I know this guy… I think.'
Pallis laughed, rubbing his bruised chest. 'Rees. I should have bloody known it would be you.'
Rees half-opened his eyes; when he spoke his voice was dry as dust. 'Hello, tree-pilot. I've had a hell of a trip.'
Pallis was embarrassed to find his eyes misting up. 'I bet you did. You nearly missed, you damn idiot. It would have been easy if you hadn't decided to turn somersaults on the way.'
'I had every… confidence in you, my friend.' Rees struggled to sit up. 'Pallis, listen,' he said.
Pallis frowned. 'What?'
A smile twisted Rees's broken lips. 'It's kind of difficult to explain. You have to take me to Hollerbach. I think I know how to save the world…'
'You know what?'
Rees looked troubled. 'He's still alive, isn't he?'
Pallis laughed. 'Who, Hollerbach? They could no more get rid of that old bugger than they can get rid of you, it seems. Now lie back and I'll take you home.'
With a sigh, Rees settled among the leaves.
By the time the tree had docked Rees seemed stronger. He emptied one of Pallis's flasks of water and made inroads into a slab of meat-sim. 'The whale flesh kept me alive in the short term, but who knows what vitamin and protein deficiencies I suffered…'
Pallis eyed his remaining food warily. 'Just make sure you relieve your protein deficiencies before you start on my foliage.'
With Pallis's support Rees slid down the tree's tether cable to the deck. At the base Pallis said, 'Now, come back to my cabin and rest before—'
'There's no time,' Rees said. 'I have to get to Hollerbach. There's so much to do… we have to get started before we become too weak to act …' His eyes flickered anxiously around the cable thicket. '…It's dark,' he said slowly.
'That's a good word for it,' Pallis said grimly. 'Look, Rees, things haven't got any better here, Decker's in charge, and he's neither a fool nor a monster; but the fact is that things are steadily falling apart. Maybe it's already too late—'
Rees met his eyes with a look of clear determination. 'Pilot, take me to Hollerbach,' he said gently.
Pallis, surprised, felt invigorated by Rees's answer. Under his physical weakness Rees had changed, become confident — almost inspiring. But then, given all his fantastic experiences, perhaps it would have been stranger if he hadn't changed—
'We don't want any trouble, pilot.'
The voice came from the gloom of the cable thicket. Pallis stepped forward, hands on hips. 'Who's that?'
Two men stepped forward, one tall, both looming as wide as supply machines. They wore the ostentatiously ripped tunics that were the uniform of Committee functionaries.
'Seel and Plath,' Pallis groaned. 'Remember these two clowns, Rees? Decker's tame muscles… What do you boneheads want?'
Seel, short, square and bald, stepped forward, finger stabbing at Pallis's chest. 'Now, look, Pallis, we've come for the miner, not you. I know we've locked fists before…'
Pallis lifted his arms, letting the muscles bunch under his shirt. 'We have, haven't we?' he said easily. 'I'll tell you what. Why don't we finish it off? Eh?'
Seel took a pace forward.
Rees stepped between them. 'Forget it, tree-pilot,' he said sadly. 'I'd have to face this crap sometime; let's get it over…'
Plath took Rees's arm, none too gently, and they began to make their way through the cable thicket. Rees's footsteps were airy and unsteady.
Pallis shook his head angrily. 'The poor bastard's just hitched a ride on a whale, for God's sake; can't you let him be? Eh? Hasn't he suffered enough?'
But — with only a last, longing stare from Seel — the little party walked away.
Pallis growled with frustration. 'Finish up the work here,' he spat at Nead.
Nead straightened from his work at the cable anchor. 'Where are you going?'
'After them, of course. Where else?' And the tree-pilot stalked away through the cables.
By the time they'd reached the Platform Rees felt his gait become watery, wavering; his two captors weren't so much restraining him, he thought wryly, as holding him up. After they climbed the shallow staircase to the deck of the Platform he murmured, 'Thanks…'
Then he raised a heavy head and found himself staring at a battlefield. 'By the Bones.'
'Welcome to the Raft's seat of government, Rees,' Pallis said grimly.
Something crackled under Rees's tread; he bent and picked up a smashed bottle, its glass scorched and half-melted. 'More fire bombs? What's happened here, pilot? Another revolt?'
Pallis shook his head. 'Miners, Rees. We've been at this futile war since we lost the supply machine we sent to the Belt. It's a stupid, bloody affair… I'm sorry you have to see this, lad.'
'Well. What have we here?' A vast belly quivered, close enough for Rees to feel its gross gravity field; it made him feel weak, insubstantial. He looked up into a broad, scarred face.
'Decker…'
'But you walked the beam. Didn't you?' Decker sounded vaguely puzzled, as if pondering a child's riddle. 'Or are you one of those I sent to the mine?'
Rees didn't answer. He studied the Raft's leader; Decker's face was marked by deep creases and his eyes were hollow and restless. 'You've changed,' Rees said.
Decker's eyes narrowed. 'We've all bloody changed, lad.'
'Mine rat. I thought I recognized you, clinging to that whale.' The words were almost a hiss. Gover's thin face was a mask of pure hatred, focused on Rees.
Rees suddenly felt enormously tired. 'Gover. I never imagined I'd see you again.' He looked into Gover's eyes, recalling the last time he had seen the apprentice. It had been at the time of the revolt, he supposed, when Rees had silently joined the group of Scientists outside the Bridge. Rees remembered his contempt for the other man — and recalled how Gover had recognized that contempt, and how his thin cheeks had burned in response —
'He's an exile.' Gover sidled up to Decker, his small fists clenching and unclenching. 'I saw him approaching on the whale and had him brought to you. You threw him off the Raft. Now he's back. And he's a miner…'
'So?' Decker demanded.
'Make the bastard walk the beam.'
Stray emotions chased like shadows across Decker's complex, worn face. The man was tired, Rees realized suddenly; tired of the unexpected complexity of his role, tired of the blood, the endless privations, the suffering…
Tired, And looking for a few minutes' diversion.
'So you'd have him over the side, eh?'
Gover nodded, eyes still fixed on Rees.
Decker murmured, 'Shame you weren't so brave while the miners were in the sky.' Gover flinched. A cruel smile surfaced through Decker's tiredness. 'AH right, Gover. I agree with your judgment. But with one proviso.'
'What?'
'No beam. There's been enough cowardly killing this shift. No. Let him die the way a man is meant to. Hand to hand.' Gover's eyes widened, shocked. Decker stepped back, leaving Rees and Gover facing each other. A small crowd gathered around them, a ring of bloodstained faces eager for diversion.
'More bloody games, Decker?'
'Shut up, Pallis.'
From the corner of his eye Rees saw the two heavies — Plath and Seel — clamp the tree-pilot's arms
