Free Dreams among Stars by Pirx Danford Page A

the walls, only to halt on the way, start laughing and then speaking up “Thing, activate the lights” to which the cave softly shone up.
    I really liked the earthy smell and felt as protected below the thick layer of earth as I hadn’t felt for a long time now.
    We had been outside a good six hours and the dangerous work now took its toll on us.
    Tiredly we had a small meal from my provisions, sadly the Dargye did not store food supplies with the hills, which Rolf regretted even more after he finally brought himself to take a bite from the stripe of synthetic fare.
    Suddenly his face lightened up and he examined the wall around the entrance tunnel, with a triumphing yell he removed a stone from an opening and retrieved a clay bottle.
    With the elated swagger of a successful hunter he returned to me, took a gulp from the bottle and then offered it to me.
    I carefully smelled it and a fruity scent filled my nostrils.
    After a careful sip I drank greedily.
    “ Steady! This is pretty strong stuff.” Rolf pulled the bottle away from me and I suddenly had the urge to throw my arms around him. I saw his face floating hugely before my eyes, then everything around me faded away in a blur.  
     
    I came my senses with a hefty hangover sending resounding noises through my head, the try to clear my head by shaking it was punished with a stinging pain. My moaning brought Rolf into the scene, whose voice had my ears ringing. “I am truly sorry our fruit liquor is… a bit on the heavy side.” This was a massive understatement, but I also attributed the strong impact to the fact that I had to live as a teetotaler the 2 years before my cryogenic sleep.
    Throatily I replied “Forget about it, but speak low please yes? Oh man, how long was I gone for?” “Only the night, its early morning, a time as good as any other to be on our way.”
    I silently kept swearing to myself “Our glasses would have given us and advantage in the dark.” He smiled calmingly “Well if it is not safe outside, we just stay here until evening. We can both learn more than enough from each other.” Did he mean that suggestively? My head pounded and I was cranky. “No time for jokes, this isn’t a game, lets check if we can go outside.”
    I rummaged through my backpack and found a painkiller which I swallowed.
    After a short time it had worked its miracle.
    “ Much better!” I sighed with relief and then asked Rolf “You know what a gun is?” With a factitious look he replied “What? Do you think we are living in the Stone Age? Hey don’t look so dourly, just making fun. Well very rarely we are able to activate one of the entertainment devices and are able to watch some of the old movies from earth and there are even some taped on the ship.” With a sincere look he unexpectedly asks me “The earth… the Benefactor is spreading that it is just a fabrication.”  
    His questioning look tells me what it is he wants to hear from me and I bent to him and touched his upper arm, while telling him “As truly as I am here with you right now earth exists. Even as it is several light-years behind now, I have been born and grown up there.”
    My words obviously fill him with confidence, with verve he gets to his feet and reaches down to help me up. “So why did you want to know if I knew what a gun is?” he asks and I hesitate for a moment before taking one of my pistols from its holster.
    After setting it on stun I hand it over to him. “Be careful with it. Look here is the trigger, its basically as in the movies, you hold it this way, locate the target here with the notch and then fire. Try it out”
    On top of the small table we were sitting at last night I put 2 compact lumps of earth lacking any better targets and demonstrate the weapons use.
    As he hits with his second shot already Marple whispers “I bet he is cheating.” And I look at him eyebrows raised to which he apologetically smiles. “Yes the glasses, I dubbed them Rogspa now by the