CHAPTER 5
“Can we join you?” A man and a woman approached them as they ate their pre-shift meal on the hillock in the twilight. The moon was quickly fading. “I’m Joe and this is Hilda.”
Joe was taller than Monty and stocky. Yellowish thinning hair capped a round suntanned face, framed by a blonde beard which emphasized a large fleshy nose and red sensual lips. Hilda was of medium height, voluptuously sultry, luxurious brown hair cascading down around her shoulders, large brown eyes with long eyelashes stared boldly and longingly at Monty.
Monty motioned them to sit down. “I haven’t seen you in the men’s quarters, Joe. Are you and Hilda coupled?”
“Me and Hilda, we’ve been hitched for years. It’s the only way to live. You get treated better. Our bosses hope we’ll have kids. More slaves for them.”
Alicia did not like the couple. She resented the openly sexual way Hilda looked at Monty and the inspection Joe gave Thelma and her — not the subtle male sexual flicker, but a look more aptly described as the male sexual leer.
“How did you meet?” she asked them.
“We met the day we got captured. Hilda panned the station in front of my digging, so we saw each other quite a bit. Then one day there was a bird attack, and Hilda jumped into my digging for shelter. The rest is history as they say.”
“Yes,” said Hilda, “I had to choose between being carved up by the birds or Joe. We all make mistakes, I guess.”
There was the conventional ripple of laughter, but Alicia noted a bitter undercurrent. “How did you get captured?”
Joe downed a mouthful of food and a gulp of beer. “We were a group of five skiers, including Hilda — all complete strangers — on a ski adventure in the Rockies. We were waiting for the helicopter at an isolated clearing below the snow line. I got to admit I was eyeing Hilda pretty badly otherwise — who knows? — I might have spotted what was coming. There was this roar, but I thought it was the helicopter and didn’t even look up. The others were busy collecting their gear. The mushrooms were all over us before we knew what was happening. You know, you don’t expect a big black guy and a bunch of monsters. Anyway, I managed to get the point of one ski pole into one of them but it’s like trying to chop a tree. I tried to run but bumped into Joshua’s fist. When I came to, we were well on our way here.”
“Was this a long time ago?” Monty asked.
“It’s hard to keep track of time but I’d say about four years. Sylvie’s been here longer.”
“They were very hard on my Joe when we first arrived,” Hilda said. “Joshua said they were angry with Joe for sticking one of them, and Joe didn’t cooperate in the beginning.”
“Yeah,” Joe said. “I produced very little gold. Pissed Joshua off. Every time he beat me, I raised my production a bit. The level I reached when he stopped beating me is the level I’m at today. In fact, all the others are at roughly the same level. That’s what I came to talk to you about. For a long time we’ve had the same gold quotas but the other day, the quotas went up. The word was the last group of slaves captured are doing better.”
“Do you mean us?” Thelma asked. “Are we the last group of slaves?”
“You’re catching on. I told my friends that your production meant you were new and didn’t know the real rules here. Give ‘em the benefit of the doubt, I said, and I’ll go talk to them.”
“But what’s the point?” Monty said. “Whether we produce little or more, we’re still out there the whole shift, looking busy. It’s not as though we can produce for a couple of hours and then sleep the rest of the time. My thought is to perform better than they expect, to see whether it brings an advantage. If it’s upsetting your friends, perhaps we can discuss it.”
Joe emptied his beer and stood up. “You’ve discussed it with me, and it don’t wash. You get my meaning?” His tone had become harsh and threatening.
“What happens if we don’t get your meaning?”
“Don’t push me, smart ass.” He towered menacingly over Monty.
Monty didn’t move. “You’re a pretty tough guy,” Monty observed. “The mushrooms must be afraid of you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If you want to fight, take it out on the mushrooms. They’re the enemy, not us.”
“Let’s go, Hilda. Smart ass, you’ve been warned.” He pulled Hilda to her feet.
Monty stood up. “Before you go, because you’re so tough, you must have thought of getting back to Earth or somehow escaping. What happened?”
“There’s no escape. The tunnel to Earth is guarded and you’d need a Guardian to run the machine. Some slaves did run away but they didn’t get far. There’s nowhere to hide. A bunch of slaves rebelled a couple of years ago, but Joshua stopped that one before the mushrooms even knew about it. Put the whole idea of escape out of your head. What you see is what we got. Just remember what I said.” Joe walked away. With a lingering look at Monty, Hilda followed him.
“That Joe is trouble,” Jeff said as he stood up and walked over to Monty. “He used to lean on us guys when he lived in the men’s quarters. As soon as he moved to the couples’ quarters, life for us got easier. He’s got a couple of cronies in the men’s quarters that follow his orders but none of the other slaves support him. Joe likes to think he’s in charge. He’s just a big bully.”
“What can he do if we don’t play ball?” Monty asked.
“His cronies might get aggressive, but there’s enough of us to fend them off. I don’t think Joe will do anything. He’s in Joshua’s bad books for beating up slaves, and Joshua has already warned him.”
“Joe also thinks he’s god’s gift to women,” Sylvie added, a contemptuous sneer puckering her upper lip. “During another bird attack, I followed Hilda into his digging. Despite the fact his woman was there, I had to fend him off. It got so bad, I crawled away to the next digging. My back was sore from bird bites for days afterwards, but it was worth it.”
Syd lying on the grass, now sat up, frowning. “Ok, so Joe’s a bad actor, but maybe he’s right. If there’s no escape, why bother? So we produce more gold than anyone else, so what? What will it get us?” Some of the others nodded agreement.
“It might get you your girl,” Thelma snapped. “Joshua may look favourably on a good worker.”
“What has Joe’s approach got him?” Ernie asked. “All Monty is suggesting we try our own way for a time until we see what it does.”
Monty could see the group wavering and coming apart. “Look, I haven’t changed my mind about finding a way out, in spite of what Joe said. Whether Joe’s right or wrong is now beside the point. For whatever reason, the gold quotas have gone up. No matter what we do, they’re unlikely to go down. I can’t imagine our masters agreeing that they made a mistake in raising them. So these are the gold quotas we have to achieve. Personally, I can’t see working any harder so whatever my production rate is, that’s what it’s going to be. Whatever pace you’ve reached, just maintain it. You don’t have to do more. I believe doing less will bring on more repression.”
The next day, as Monty and his group sat on the hillock for the pre-shift meal in the semi-darkness, they noticed, high in the sky, a point of light appear which quickly became a ball of fire. It descended rapidly and then swirled alarmingly in a grotesque dance across the sky. Finally, it straightened out, and as it passed overhead, they could see it was a large spaceship. They watched it fly towards the mountains and disappear over the horizon.
“That,” explained Jeff Leibovitz, “is the monthly spaceship from the Planet of the Mushrooms. We’re a couple of days ahead of the moon’s complete rotation, and that’s when the spaceship comes. It goes to a city just the other side of the mountains. Its incoming cargo is unloaded, and all the gold we’ve produced is loaded on for transport back to their planet.”
Monty had jumped up and was still staring in the direction the ship had taken. “Why did it bounce all over the sky?”
“There’s a solid layer of fast moving air — like a jet stream — that covers the whole planet and only heavy ships can pass through safely. If you look towards the mountains, you’ll see them clear up to the tops, but the tops are always covered in mist. That’s the snow blowing off the peaks. The Doctor says the mushrooms call it the Winds of Dawn.”
“Why Dawn?” Monty asked.
“That’s the name of this planet. Planet Dawn. I guess because there are two dawns each day.”
“How do you know there’s a city beyond the mountains?” Ernie asked.
“Because I’ve been on the loading detail. Everybody gets a turn. I think they don’t want anyone to become too familiar with the routine, the spaceship, or the city. A smaller ship will arrive here operated by Warriors. Some of us will load the smaller ship and then travel to the city to load the spaceship. It’s a nice break from the daily grind. And, of course, Joshua, ever our protector, comes along to watch over us.”
“What’s the city like?” Thelma asked.
“More importantly,” Alicia added, “what’s the shopping like? I need a new outfit.”
“You can forget shopping,” Jeff continued, laughing. “You’re not even allowed into the city. All the work is done outside. The city is quite large and is covered by a huge transparent dome. You can see buildings through the dome and through one large semi-circular door. There seem to be streets. There are lots of the Guardians milling about. You see some Warriors at the city, but the Doctor says they have their own city.”
At that moment, Joshua appeared. He pointed to Monty, Ernie, Syd and several other men in the group. “When the shift begins, you stay here and follow me.”
They hastily finished their meal, and as the others left, the six designated men remained behind. Jeff told them they were probably part of the loading detail and might see the city.
An anxious Alicia admonished Monty, “Just do what they say and stay out of trouble.”
“Ditto to you,” Thelma said to Ernie.
“Is no one worried about me?” Syd asked, mockingly.
“There is nothing to worry about,” a calm, female voice with a southern lilt spoke reassuringly. “My father will see to it that no harm comes to any of you.”
Rebecca smiled at Syd as she passed them and joined the Warrior waiting for her.
“Well, Syd,” Monty noted, “someone is worried about you.”
But Syd was speechless, basking in the warmth of Rebecca’s smile.
“Why did you warn him to stay out of trouble?” Sylvie asked as she and Alicia walked to the beach. “They’re only going to load the small ship and some of them will go to the city. I’ve never heard of anyone getting into trouble on this work detail. And Monty seems very prudent.”
“He is prudent — most of the time,” Alicia replied. “But he can get very angry, and then do something that’s not prudent. That’s why I worry about him when I’m not around.”
“You sound like a wife,” Sylvie observed. “Are you two an item?”
“Not yet or not quite,” Alicia responded. Then, regretting the truthfulness of her remark, added, “We like each other, but we need more time.”
“I can see why you like him. He’s a very attractive man, and he has a take charge personality. In all the time I’ve been here, yours is the first group that talks and jokes and seems interested in living. I think Monty can take a lot of the credit — the way he insists we all eat together, and sees to it that everyone talks. He certainly saved me, and not just from drowning.”
Alicia put an arm around her waist. “We all need each other, Sylvie. We’ve got to keep our spirits up. When I’m down, you’ve got to cheer me up. And I will do the same for you. That’s why Monty brings us all together. One of us is always up, and that helps get the others up.
“Well, it has certainly benefited me,” Sylvie agreed. “I was very much down before the accident in the river. Now I feel a lot better.”
“Sylvie,” asked Alicia, looking directly at her, “was it an accident?”
Sylvie began to sob, thick tears coursing over her high cheekbones. “He told you?”
“No, of course not. Monty would never divulge a confidence. I guessed. Woman’s intuition. We can’t let you do that again. That’s why we have to help each other. If we can’t find a way out, then we have to find ways to make life bearable here.”
They reached the beach and separated to go to their stations.
Joshua led the six men past the Warrior barracks and the kitchen building to the building with the constant plume of smoke emanating from its tall chimney. An aircraft with short stubby wings and a cylindrical body was parked alongside the building, cargo doors on its side wide open.
The building comprised a smelter at one end and a warehouse at the other. In the warehouse, they found scores of pallets, stacked with gold ingots. They were each assigned a pallet truck, and after a short lesson in its operation, they set to work. The job was to guide the tines of the pallet truck under the pallet, lift the load and then walk it out of the building, up the ramp onto the aircraft, and drop the load where Joshua pointed. Two Warriors stood guard, truncheons at the ready.
Compared to digging for gold, it was easy work. The pallet trucks did the heavy lifting. Syd was adept at the work. The others developed enough skill after awhile that they could manipulate the pallet trucks efficiently.
Despite Syd’s obvious expertise, Joshua supervised him closely, and kept giving him advice. Syd accepted the advice eagerly — he so much wanted to establish a positive relationship with Rebecca’s father. The red sun was overhead and most of the gold loaded when they were allowed a water break. While Monty and Ernie and three of the crew rested, Joshua insisted that Syd continue to load. Syd did not object, but Monty intervened.
“Mr. Joshua, Syd needs a break too,” he suggested quietly.
“He’s young and strong,” Joshua shot back. “I’ll decide when he can rest.”
“Of course, Mr. Joshua,” Monty replied, keeping his tone deferential. “You’re the only one who can decide. I was merely noting that we work harder and better when we’ve had a break.”
Joshua turned to Syd. “Do you need a break, boy?”
Syd’s reply was entirely predictable: “No, sir, just a sip of water will do.”
Joshua looked triumphantly at Monty as he handed Syd the carafe of water. Syd finished loading the remaining gold. Joshua ordered all six to board the aircraft with their pallet trucks. They found seats along one side of the aircraft.
The cargo doors shut, the aircraft lifted smoothly up and then shot forward. Monty looked out the porthole beside his seat. They were moving rapidly, and soon the mountains came into sight. He could see that the tops were indeed shrouded in a perpetual fog of wind blown snow. The aircraft stayed well below the peaks, and flew along a valley floor over thick forests of fir fringing a meandering river. The valley was narrow and the mountains rose steeply, so that he had to hunch down and strain to see the misted peaks through the porthole. Here and there, a giant crag stuck out, spouting a long cascade of water down to a stream foaming its way to the river. There was no sign of habitation, no roads or clearings, just the endless march of fir trees, covering the valley and sweeping up the mountainsides.
“Here, take a look,” Monty said to Ernie, whose seat had no porthole.
“Quite impressive,” Ernie said as he gazed out at the landscape. “An untouched wilderness. Forestry is not one of their industries.” He continued to look out the porthole. “The mountains are gone,” he announced. “There are low foothills now, and we are coming to a large, flat plain covered in tall grasses.” The aircraft banked, changing course. “Wow!” said Ernie. “This you got to see for yourself.”
Monty stared out the porthole at the city Jeff had described. The huge glistening dome reflected back the afternoon rays of the red sun. Next to the dome, he could make out a much smaller structure also encased in its own transparent dome, now blood-red like its larger neighbour. A good mile from the city was the space ship they were to load. The area around the space ship and the roadways leading from the city teemed with traffic. The aircraft banked again, cutting off the view. It stopped abruptly and lowered slowly to the ground.
Joshua shouted, although there was dead silence in the aircraft, “Fetch your pallet trucks, fit up a pallet of gold, and follow me. Just do what I say and be quick about it. These boys are in a hurry.”
The cargo doors opened. Their pallet trucks filled, the six marched down the ramp into what seemed like chaotic bedlam. Convoys of large open trucks whizzed past towards the space ship and disappeared into its huge belly. Empty ones came out and sped off towards the city. Powerful tractors manned by Warriors — their dark stalk-bodies and umbrella heads dwarfing the vehicle — pulled huge crates on flat bed freight trucks into the space ship. Yellow-coloured Guardians stood at the top of the ramps and appeared to be directing traffic into the interior. Small aircraft flitted back and forth between the city and the ship. Some hovered inches above the ground, disgorging Warriors and Guardians, each clutching packages, which they carried into the ship. Despite the volume and rapidity of the traffic, there were no collisions.
“That space ship makes a 747 look like a piper cub,” Syd commented in wonder.
They did not have far to trundle their loads. An open truck with an enormous crate stood close by. They unloaded their pallets onto the crate. When the crate was full, the truck drove into the space ship, and shortly after returned with an empty crate. The red sun soon set and twilight descended. Lights in the space ship allowed them to see well enough. The yellow sun dawned and rose completely by the time they finished.
Monty felt light-headed, as he deployed his pallet truck one last time onto their aircraft and secured it. He was famished and thirsty; they had not eaten since the pre-shift meal and had had nothing to drink since the water break at the warehouse. The others looked similarly peaked. As Monty was about to complain to Joshua, a Warrior appeared pulling a wagon with beer and food.
They all bowed to the Warrior and quickly filled their bowls and mugs. Joshua joined them — he, too, had had nothing to eat or drink.
“You did well today,” he offered in his gruff, grudging voice. “You cause trouble, but you work well.” As he voiced the word “trouble,” he looked directly at Monty and Ernie.
Monty took it as a compliment. “Have you ever been inside the city, Mr. Joshua?” he asked. They were sitting on the ground leaning against the silvery wall of their aircraft. Monty could just see the dome of the city, shining in the light of the yellow sun, like the gold they had just loaded.
“No, I ain’t never been, but the Doctor has. The head boss man here likes the Doctor. They talk a lot.”
“What do they talk about?” Ernie asked.
“I do not know. But the Doctor says the boss man here is very smart. The two of them are like this.” He entwined two fingers together. “In a little while,” Joshua continued, “we can see the big ship leave. The Warriors we came with won’t go till it does.”
There was a noticeable downturn in the traffic. Fewer vehicles were speeding to the ship. The empty ones returning to the city did not come back. On the spaceship, one enormous cargo door, still open, slowly lowered into place.
From the city, a lone vehicle approached. Four Guardians rode in the open passenger cabin. The vehicle stopped a short distance from the spaceship, and the four passengers stepped out. Two walked to a gangway leading part way up the ship to an open hatch. At the bottom of the gangway, they turned and tilted their heads to the two that had remained beside the vehicle. These two bowed in return, and one of them removed the bronze crown from its head and dropped it on the ground.
“That’s the big boss man,” commented Joshua. “He shows respect and friendship by dropping his weapon.”
The two at the gangway walked quickly up, stepped into the hatch, turned and bowed once more. The two on the ground returned the obeisance. The hatch closed, and the gangway was driven away to the city.
“I wonder how it takes off,” said Ernie. “It’s lying on the ground horizontally, not like at NASA, where the spaceships are always on end for launch. Besides, aren’t we awful close?”
“Well,” Monty offered, “the Boss man isn’t moving and he’s even closer.”
The ship lifted upwards slowly and softly. The struts it had been resting on receded into the body of the craft. It rose steadily like a huge balloon into the yellow-sun sky. There was a sudden red flash and roar as the rockets at the stern fired up. The space ship shot away and turned straight up. Its hyperbolic ascent was interrupted as it veered crazily through the jet stream winds. Still gaining altitude, it soon resumed its course, became a tiny dot dragging a fiery tail, and then disappeared altogether.
“Now that’s a class act!” Syd exclaimed, in admiration. The others nodded, too awestruck to even comment.
The head Guardian picked up his crown, and the two creatures returned to the city. There was now dead silence after the chaotic turbulence of loading the space ship.
A horn sounded from inside their aircraft. They quickly took their seats for the return journey. Monty was exhausted and dozed off before their craft started. He felt something touch his shoulder. Startled, he saw a Warrior standing before him. He jumped up and bowed. The Warrior inclined its head, took him by the hand and gently tried to lead him away.
“What have you done now?” Joshua querulously and nervously called out. He left his seat and approached Monty and the Warrior, bowing as he came.
Monty shrugged, “I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem angry.”
The Warrior also took Joshua by the hand and led them both through a hatch in the bulkhead wall to the forward part of the aircraft. They entered the control cabin where two Warriors, their umbrella heads nearly touching the ceiling of the cockpit, were standing at a console of levers and buttons and dials.
A transparent covering enclosed the walls and ceiling of the cabin. The domed city sat in a flat plain of tall grass-like vegetation which swept away in all directions. A labyrinth of roadways and staging areas had been cut through the grass and led to the huge open area where the space ship had landed. Other aircraft that had come to service the spaceship were now lifting off and speeding away.
At the forward end of the cabin and on either side, Monty recognized the breech ends of cannon with shells stacked alongside. This craft was not just a freighter.
The Warrior motioned them to stand at the rear of the cabin, while it took its place at another console, splaying wide the tendrils of its arms to manage the controls. Monty heard the cargo door close, and felt an almost imperceptible vibration. The Warriors began manipulating the controls on their consoles. The aircraft slowly lifted, ascending softly until it was a good height above the ground, and then a roar of rocket engine propelled it rapidly away.
Joshua was worried. In all his years since his capture by these creatures, this had never happened. He always sat in the rear of the aircraft. He remembered, once on Earth, his father and the family had been brought into the mansion of the boss man. His father had refused a foreman’s order to open a small sack which he carried strapped around his waist. Inside was a special talisman from his Ashanti tribe that would lose its power to protect if revealed. There, in front of the household servants, his father was soundly rebuked for this act of defiance and threatened with separation from his family if it happened again. Surely, something similar was going to happen. Obviously, the slave beside him had done something wrong and Joshua, as the supervisor, would be punished as well.
At first, Monty had also wondered, but then it occurred to him that this was some kind of favour. Years ago, travelling on a 747, Monty was invited by the captain to join him in the cockpit, where he spent a couple of interesting and enjoyable hours watching the crew fly the huge airplane. Perhaps this was similar. If they were going to be punished for something, surely they would have been left in the rear of the aircraft and arrested as they landed. He put aside his weariness and enjoyed the ride.
The view from the cabin was spectacular. As they flew along the valley, he had a cinemascopic view of the forested floor, flowing up on both sides into the grandeur of the mountains, crowned with the frosted mist that blew off their peaks. Enthusiastically, he pointed out particularly beautiful sights to Joshua. Joshua could not understand Monty’s exuberance. Here they were on their way to some punishment, and this man beside him was excited about the scenery. However, the scenery was indeed majestic, and the superb natural splendour began to soften his fears and gave him a sense of exaltation.
Joshua remembered a journey on Earth from one plantation to another a good distance away. The slaves were loaded onto wagons and chained. Despite his fears about what would be in store for him, even as a little boy, he had admired the country they had travelled through, particularly the mountain range they crossed. Then, too, he had felt this sense of exaltation. Captivity had eroded his aesthetic sense, made him practical and ruthless, as he focussed all his faculties on keeping bosses happy and on gaining and maintaining his status as Overseer. But now and then, beauty could get through to the rolled up, gnarled nut that his soul had become.
The rocket engine cut off, and the aircraft slowly settled to the ground in front of the warehouse building. A Warrior escorted them back to the cargo bay where they joined the others in removing the pallet trucks. They followed Joshua to the cave area.
Thelma and Alicia had stayed awake when the six had not returned at the end of the red sun shift. Their anxiety was relieved when they saw the aircraft land, and the men filed into the camp.
Thelma hugged and kissed Ernie. Joshua had taken Monty aside. Alicia flung herself into Monty’s arms, nearly knocking him over. He laughed, “You waited up?” Joshua asked Monty: “What was that all about?”
“I don’t really know. I believe we were shown a favour. In my day, on Earth, it was an honour to be invited into the cockpit.”
Joshua was still suspicious. “Why did they honour us? You’re sure you did nothing wrong?”
“Well, Mr. Joshua, you were with me the whole time. You said yourself we did a good job. Maybe, we were getting a reward for doing a good job.”
Shaking his head, Joshua strode off towards his house.
“What happened?” Alicia asked.
“The Warriors and I have a wonderful relationship. They invited us to help them run the ship,” he answered with a grin. “They asked us to join them in the control cabin. I think Joshua thought we were going to be punished for something. But I believe we were being favoured. Now, let’s get whatever rest is left to us before the shift begins. I’ll tell you later all about our experience.”
Sylvie watched them from within the shadow of the cave. She, too, had worried when Monty and the others had not returned by the end of the shift. The group, headed by Monty, reminded her of St-Isidore, the small Quebec village she had grown up in where everyone knew and helped each other over rough times. Before, the end of shift meant a quick feed and endless wallowing in dream-like fantasies of life on Earth. Now, she looked forward to the chance to engage in the chatter and banter that characterized their get-together.
She felt a strong sense of gratitude to Monty. And why shouldn’t her feelings for him become sexual? Why shouldn’t a woman feel attracted to a man who possessed all the stereotypical attributes? He was ‘tall, dark and handsome,’ and radiated a sense of calm and confidence. The constant physical work had made him quite muscular. His beard had grown but it wasn’t bushy. Rather, it clothed his face and increased his authoritative stature. She envied Alicia’s accessibility to him, the ability to throw herself into his arms, and to be hugged in return. They clearly loved each other. She could not see herself doing anything that would disrupt that love. Yet something was holding them back from coupling. And with that last thought in mind, she fell asleep.
At breakfast on the hillock, each of the six who had worked the spaceship recounted their adventures. Monty talked about the return trip and the favour shown him and Joshua. “If it was for good work, then it should have been Syd who got favoured, since he was the most efficient of all of us.”
“Well,” said Thelma, “the main thing is you all returned safely. And” — turning to Syd — “Rebecca asked about you. She seemed surprised that you were still away.”
“It’s not unusual to be late from these loading details,” Jeff commented. “They sometimes take longer because there’s more gold to load and to transfer to the spaceship. It often happened when I was selected to load.”
Sylvie regarded him in amusement: “That’s because you were too slow.”
“You’re probably right, Sylvie,” Jeff said, completely untouched by the gibe. “At that time I had the wrong attitude — do as little as possible without getting punished or killed. Of course, I was never rewarded with an invitation to the cockpit.”
“What’s your attitude now?” Thelma asked.
“Do as little as possible without Monty getting mad at me.”