Freedom's Landing Read Online Free PDF Page B

to move quickly forward. She found enough space in this dressing room and clambered into the coverall. How her size had been estimated, she didn’t know, but the garment fit. The lumps that constituted Catteni-style footwear folded around her feet and took the shape of them in the first few moments. Handy enough if masses of different size and shape feet had to be covered. There was one of the thin thermal blankets which she rolled up and tied over her left shoulder with the strings attached to the ends.
    When she was clad, she joined the line going through the next entrance where she was given a cup and a package about a handspan square and about eight centimeters thick. As others did, she tucked the package behind the blanket. She was pushed along to where hairy brindle Rugarians were ladling a steaming liquid into cups and then she was allowed out, thank God, into fresher air and a huge force-field netted assembly area. Catteni marched along a catwalk above it, sending their whips in random directions to remind the prisoners that they were there and
watched.
Having noticed that the perimeter walls were occupied by the early comers, she worked her way deeper in the center: the other area generally safe from forcewhip lengths. And started to sip the soup. It was hot and it was liquid, both of which her belly appreciated, but it was the tasteless sort of filling food that was definitely mass-produced prisoner issue. She noticed that some people had opened their packages which contained the sort of ration bars that had been handed out in the slave quarters. The way the rations were being wolfed down, itwas fairly obvious some folks hadn’t eaten regularly. And if the Catteni gave them rations in advance, she rather suspected she’d better hang on to hers. They did nothing out of charity: always expediency.
    Metallic clangings echoed over the silent throng as the doors through which people had filed were shut. She wondered what was going to happen next but getting clean and being fed was somehow encouraging. Talking was never encouraged in such gatherings and, while Kris had noted that there were representatives of all the common species she’d seen in Barevi City, and she was currently in a group of Terrans, no one had spoken to her. And everyone was avoiding eye contact.
    A second series of metal clangings and once again the forcewhips slashed out over the assembled. This time they were driven toward eight apertures which, when she reached the one nearest her, gave access to a ramp. She’d seen such a ramp once before and she started to tremble with apprehension. Where were they being driven this time?
    A low terrified murmur arose from those already going up the ramp, and occasional cries of distress, but no one could have backed out: the rampway was narrow and barred. Catteni appeared with the short force sticks that ensured the prisoners would keep moving. The sticks hurt more than the forcewhips and both could be lethal.
    As she was pushed toward the ramp by the press of bodies behind her, her height gave her the clearance to see over heads and into a dark place. Closer, she could also smell the combined acrid odors of metal and fuel and realized they were being packed into a transport of some kind that was adjacent to the processing area. She had to give the credit to the Catteni mind-set that they sure knew how to get the unwilling to do what they wanted them to do and go where they wanted them to go. No Disney World this!
    She was halted by a Catteni force stick barring her way. She sucked in her guts so it wouldn’t touch her. A hatch slid shut in front of her. The ramp which had been aimed at a lower level now purred softly and moved level with thewalkway she stood on. A second hatch slid open, the force stick was lifted, and she ducked into the ship. She, and those emerging from the seven other entrances, moved quickly across the low-ceilinged compartment to the far wall. As she sat down to