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MOON MAID AT THE EARTH'S CORE by ANDY NUNEZ
CHAPTER ELEVEN - PRISONER OF THE RACE
Of course, I have no idea how long I was out.
I later learned that the Race has clocks, again on some decimal system of seconds and minutes, and hours, matching the rotation of the moon on its axis. However, I never learned to read them in my brief stay, so I can't give you a good idea of time. I only knew that above me was night and day, but in the depths of the anthill complexes of the Race, it was always light, no different than Pellucidar's surface. I was awakened by something rubbing the back of my head, causing a throbbing pain. My eyes opened, and I found a pale, emaciated man apparently working on my skull.
I jumped back, not trusting a stranger. As I did, I noted that he was not only in poor shape, but that he was as tall as I was. He did not have the luminous eyes of the Race, either. He was bearded, and his full head of brown hair ran down and merged with his beard, giving him a leonine aspect. While thin, his muscles looked taut. He wore a filthy loincloth and some fur boots of some sort.
I looked past him to see that we were in a dank cubicle no more than eight feet on either side. A door marred one wall with a slit in the top and bottom. By the bottom was an empty metal dish. Piles of old straw occupied the corners, and I saw the floor was slightly slanted to an open drain. Light came from a dim circle in the ceiling some twelve feet above me. The man held a battered metal pitcher and a bloody piece of cloth.
"Where am I?" I asked, though the question was foolish.
"In a cell near the base," said my companion in a hoarse voice. He coughed, and I saw that the hoarseness was probably from lack of use of his speech capabilities.
"Who are you?" I demanded. "I did not know there were any gilaks on the moon."
"I am Ko-lor of Thuria," he said. "I was hunting with a musket when this strange ship came from the sky. It did not look like one of the Emperor's ships that float on the water. Ten little men in black came out and surrounded me. I knew that I could not fight them or run from their ship, so I surrender. They took my musket and asked me about how it was made, but I did not know, which made them angry. I was taken up here and have been a slave ever since. For many sleeps I have dug in their mines for the metal to make more weapons."
"We must escape. I came here to get my mate and return before these midgets can invade Sari and then take over all of Pellucidar, including Thuria. I wish there were more of us."
"Who are you that can say so much about Sari and Thuria?" Ko-lor inquired. "Tell me while I wash the blood from your hair."
"I am Byron Jasper Wells. I came from the surface, like David Innes. Oww Ö that smarts! Take it easy. Look, I have an airship that can outfight any of theirs. There is a tarag in there. We can use it to escape."
"You have a tarag in your ship? Does he help you to fly or does he fend off thipdars? I think perhaps you were hit too hard."
"Look," I said, after he finished and wound another strip of cloth around my head, "what I have said is no more fantastic than where you are now. These fellows are so small that one hundred of us could probably take over the base if we had weapons."
"We are not so many," Ko-lor allowed. "However, there are ten more that they have captured to question and all work the mine. Since you are here, you will work the mine also."
"Well, we've got to get away, then. Have you ever seen the base? Are there any ships there like the one that captured you?"
"Yes, because I was taken away through the base after I was captured. I think I can find my way there again."
"Great," I said. "I guess we'll talk to the rest and see if they will go along with the idea."
"That must wait until the shift begins," Ko-lor revealed. "First, we must rest. Your wound needs to heal, and that will happen best with sleep."
"Some food would be nice. I am worried about my tarag. They will probably shoot him, or he will destroy my ship trying to get out if I am gone too long."
"Let's hope that he doesn't think it's been too long," Ko-lor said dubiously.
"Tell me what you know of this place," I urged. "It will probably help me relax."
"My captors have not given me the proper tour, seeing I am a person of great dignity," he said with a smile. "I will tell you what I can. Occasionally, we have Race workers as well. Usually, they are the kind who fails re-education. A few shifts with us and they are only too happy to go back and do their duty. Here is what I know. This moon is divided into sections, like some fruits I have eaten. Each section has a city that rules it. Their cities, though, are underground, and roads connect everything under the surface like a buried spider's web. I have been to Sari to see the wonders of the Emperor, but they are nothing compared to this world.
"They have machines that do so many things. I believe that because they are in the ground, they need these machines to live, since they cannot benefit from air and sunshine, as we do. I was told that there are vast pumping stations that clean the air we breathe, drawing in new air and expelling the old. They use water to make some sort of fire that they run through wires. I was told that once they burned wood and some black rock to do this, but it became to hard to clean the air, so they run all by water power."
"What about their armies, their weapons?" I asked, since that was the immediate concern. The throbbing in the back of my head was receding, and I was feeling tired. The long day and the recent trauma were taking their toll.
"That is the odd thing," Ko-lor admitted. "Apparently, they had no army until they decided to leave the moon. They first developed airships that had big bags of hot air, and there was a big scandal when the intended of one of their big chiefs escaped in one." — I smiled, because I assumed that he meant Ee-la-nah Ö "Then, they worked on other airships that looked like thipdars, with wings. I have been told that they have many of these ships of both types, and that they are working on machines that run along the ground like beetles. Everything is controlled from command centers and they are training thousands of their males to become warriors. Some do well, others, I am told, cannot hit a lidi at 100 paces. These were a people used to hardship, but their struggle was against nature, not other tribes, as has been our way on the surface. Still, they have many weapons."
"It does sound bad," I offered. "You have described things that are common where I come from, but will cause terrible harm here. I think I am going to try to get some sleep. We cannot wait for a good opportunity. With what you have told me, we must escape on the next shift, or it might be too late."
Ko-lor grunted his assent. With that, I fluffed up a pile of dusty straw, lay down, and fell asleep before my mind could consider all the implications of the coming invasion.
