Free Rebellion by Bill McCay Page B

nobody here even understands what I'm joking about." Daniel glanced at Sha'uri. "So let's start working on some things we can understand." He started to work on the lesson. When the class ended, Skaara set off from Nagada's gates and across the dunes. He stopped briefly at his watch point, then went on to the UMC camp. He looked for a Marine uniform and put his fledgling English into use. "Koronel O'Near-O'Neil," he corrected himself. Surprised, the Marine pointed the way to the command tent. Jack O'Neil was surprised to see Skaara. But he was even more surprised when the young man spoke to him. "Hello, Colonel." "Hello, Skaara." "My sister teaches me. Daniel, too." O'Neil smiled. "They're doing a very good job." "They teach here, too." Skaara frowned, trying to get his point across with a limited vocabulary. "People Daniel teaches. They come here . . ." "You want to know why?" O'Neil had to smile at Skaara's eager nod. "Good idea, General." The young man looked confused.
    "General," O'Neil repeated, snapping a salute. "You General, I salute."
    Skaara touched his chest. "General." "You're scouting." O'Neil shaded his eyes with his hand, miming the action of scoping things out. "We call that intelligence." Poor Skaara looked totally lost. O'Neil toned down his conversation. "I'll show you the classes. You look around."
    UMC's English classes were being conducted in a large, airy tent.
    Skaara's eyes were big as he took in the banks of computer and video monitors. Some showed incredible machines, like the earthmovers he'd seen at the pyramid. There were other pictures of great, boxy wagons that moved on many wheels, but had no mastadges to pull them. There were also brightly animated figures on other screens moving to cheerful music. The young man had wondered how people who didn't speak his language could teach theirs. The flashing figures explained how. The UMC teachers were using hieroglyphics-and besides deserters from his English class, Skaara also saw faces he recognized from Daniel's literacy courses. The strangers were using Daniel's own work to lure away his students! It certainly wasn't perfect. Skaara saw several signs he didn't understand, and some that were just plain wrong. One of the teaching staff approached him. "You want to learn my tongue?" he asked in a broken, fumbling sort of dialect. "You must help teach me yours." "The teacher in the city speaks my tongue better," Skaara replied. "Why shouldn't I learn from him?" "That one is not . . ." The teacher tapped the side of his head. "In my place, he is a failure."
    Skaara kept his face noncommittal. But when he returned home, he'd have much to discuss with Daniel and Sha'uri.

CHAPTEr 8
HArSH EDUCATION
    Daniel couldn't believe what Skaara had to tell him. "Televisions.
    Computers. All the bells and whistles." He saw the incomprehension on Skaara's and Sha'uri's faces and apologized. "Sorry. An expression from back home." Listening to the content of what Skaara had seen, he scowled. "So. Part of this show is to impress people with the wonderful machines Lockwood intends to bring here. He may even be looking for people with an aptitude to run them. They'd be a lot cheaper to pay than bringing people from Earth. Most of that can be done with pictures. But how can they talk to people? I can't believe the Marines picked up enough words When Skaara explained about the dancing hieroglyphics, Daniel's eyes went big behind his glasses. "They're trying to learn ancient Egyptian from the people I taught how to write? Using hieroglyphics?" "Some didn't make any sense," Skaara said. Using chalk on a piece of slate, he drew one of the odd figures he'd seen on the glowing screens. "I can't get the colors, of course," Skaara apologized.
    Daniel, however, was staring at the glyph
    Skaara had drawn. He began to laugh. "No wonder you couldn't understand what this means. Those idiots are using Budge's work-and it's full of mistakes." His good humor restored, he turned to Sha'uri.