Free Bill 7 - the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison Page B

one prayer — “Save me! I don't want to die” — and his repertoire of assorted screams for mercy and pleas for help was getting stale from overuse. All those responses to dire crisis that had proven so effective in the past were meaningless now.
    Even though the safety belts were holding him in his seat so tightly that he could move only his face and his toes and his fingers, he was still holding on to the straps as though his life depended on it.
    What his life really depended on, of course, was the skill of the pilot of the Heavenly Peace and a great deal of luck. The pilot was doing what he could, and so far the luck was holding. For one thing, none of the other Imperial ships were shooting at them, and Bill knew for certain that that had to be pure luck. For another thing, none of the Eyerackian gunners seemed to be aiming at them; this might have been luck, or maybe the ship was swerving around too much for them to hit. Or maybe the Eyerackians didn't think it was worth shooting down twice.
    That didn't mean that bombs and missiles and bullets weren't zooming all around them. They were, and some of them were exploding not terribly far away. On the video screen, over the pious lyrics and the bouncing ball, Bill was getting a close-up view of the death and destruction behind the scout ship. There was some consolation in the vision of the debris and completely exploded ships that were falling down even faster than the Heavenly Peace, with even less chance of survival. But not much.
    The Heavenly Peace was at least still moving forward some. Most of its motion was generally in the direction of the center of the planet, but not all. Bill hoped that they were going enough forward to make a trench in the ground, but he suspected more of a crater effect. Of course, he couldn't see anything then except the sky.
    Until just before the very end, when some trees and a couple of buildings swept up into view along the bottom of the screen, moving at the same speed and in the same direction as Bill's stomach. The ship pulled out of its steepest dive and flew almost level for a good two or three seconds.
    Then it hit the ground.
    Crunch!
    The Heavenly Peace bounced back into the air.
    Crunch!
    The Heavenly Peace slammed into the ground again.
    Then it bounced high into the air. The back of the gun turret split open, and the video screen and the change machine went flying out.
    Crunch!
    The next impact broke whatever mechanism was holding all the safety straps secure.
    Crunch!
    On the next bounce Bill went flying out the back of the ship, not quite leaving behind the part of him that was attached to the catheter. The pain from that was enough to distract him from his otherwise incredibly painful impact on the surface of a lake.
    Sploosh!
    The cold water numbed his nether parts enough for Bill to start swimming toward the nearest shore.
    It was a good job that he'd kept his arms in trim, working the controls of the Nintari TAIL GUNNER!, because in all that time he hadn't walked a step. His legs were utterly useless; even worse, the Swiss Army Foot weighed him down. Even with all the strength of his arms, by the time he got into the shallow water at the edge of the lake he could never have made it out without the help of two kind strangers.
    The strangers each grabbed one of Bill's right arms and lifted. They carried him over to the shore and dangled his legs over the grass. “Ready?” one of them said.
    “Ready,” said the other.
    They let go.
    Bill crunched instantly to the ground and looking up he could see his two new friends clearly. They were nice-looking fellows, big and trim (if not quite as big and trim as Bill), very polite (if not quite as polite as Bill), wearing neat, well-pressed uniforms (even neater and better pressed than Bill's).
    Bill backed up a bit. Uniforms? He took a second look.
    Definitely. Uniforms.
    Eyerackian uniforms.
    Bill was a prisoner of the ruthless, atheistic enemy.
    It was bad enough that he'd