Part 2 (1/2)
He walked to her, while she watched him with catlike wariness.
”Hand me that pistol,” he ordered.
”Try to take it, you Vogarian ape!”
He moved, and a moment later she was sitting on the ground, her eyes wide with dismayed surprise as he shoved the pistol in his own belt.
”Resisting a Vogarian with a deadly weapon calls for the death penalty,” he said. ”I suppose you know what I can do?”
She got up, defiance like a blaze about her.
”I'll tell you what you can do--you can go to h.e.l.l!”
The thought came to him that there might be considerable pleasure in laying her over his knee and raising some blisters where they would do her the most good. He regretfully dismissed the idea as too undignified for even a sub-ensign and asked:
”Who are you, and what are you doing here with that pistol?”
She hesitated, then answered with insolent coolness:
”My name is Barbara Loring. I heard that you Vogarians had demanded that we agree to surrender. I came down from the hills to disagree.”
”Is a resistance force meeting here?”
”Do you think you could make me tell you?”
”There are ways--but I'm not here to use them. I am not your enemy.”
A little of the hostility faded from her face and she asked, ”But how could a Vogarian ever not be our enemy?”
He could find no satisfactory answer to the question.
”I can tell you this,” she said. ”I know of no resistance organization. I can also tell you that we're not the race of cowards you think and we'll fight the instant Father Brenn gives the word.”
”For one who speaks respectfully of Brenn,” he said, ”your recent words and actions weren't very religious and refined.”
Fire flashed in the green eyes again. ”Up in the Azure Mountains, where I come from, we're not very refined and we like being that way!”
”And why do you carry guns?” he asked.
”Because all along our frontier lines are rhino-stags, cliff bears, thunder hawks, and a lot of other overgrown carnivora that don't like us--that's why.”
”I see.” He took the pistol from his belt and held it out to her. ”Go back to your mountains, where you belong, before you do something to get yourself executed.”
Y'Nor, waiting impatiently in the s.h.i.+p, was grimly pleased by the news of Brenn's change of att.i.tude.
”Exactly as I predicted, as you no doubt recall. How long until they can have a thousand units of fuel produced?”