Non-Stop - Brian W. Aldiss [36]
‘He’s coming round,’ a voice commented, in a curious accent Complain hardly understood.
This observation worried him a great deal; partly because he thought he had given no indication he was recovering, partly because the remark suggested they might now gas him again.
Another body was handed up through the opening, the original Giant climbing up after it. A muttered conversation took place. From the little Complain could hear, he gathered that the body was that of the Giant Roffery had killed. The other Giant was explaining what had happened. It soon became apparent he was talking to two others, although Complain, from where he lay, could see only wall.
He slumped back into a mindless state, trying to breathe the dirty odour out of his lungs.
Another Giant entered from a side room and began talking in a peremptory tone suggestive of command. Complain’s captor began to explain the situation over again, but was cut short.
‘Did you deal with the flooding?’ the newcomer asked.
‘Yes, Mr Curtis. We fitted a new stopcock in place of the rusted one and switched the water off. We also unblocked the drainage and fitted a length of new piping there. We were just finishing off when Sleepy Head here turned up. The pool should be empty by now.’
‘All right, Randall,’ the peremptory voice addressed as Curtis said. ‘Now tell me why you started chasing these two dizzies.’
There was a pause, then the other said apologetically, ‘We didn’t know how many of them there were. For all we knew, we might have been ambushed in the inspection pit. We had to get out and see. I suppose that if we had realized to begin with that there were only two of them, we should have let them go without interfering.’
The Giants spoke so sluggishly that Complain had no difficulty in understanding most of this, despite the strange accent. Of its general intention he could make nothing. He was almost beginning to lose interest when he became the topic of conversation, and his interest abruptly revived.
‘You realize you are in trouble, Randall,’ the stern voice said. ‘You know the rules: it means a court martial. You will have difficulty in proving self-defence, to my mind. Especially as the other dizzy was drowned.’
‘He wasn’t drowned. I fished him out of the water and put him on the closed inspection hatch to recover in his own time.’ Randall sounded surly.
‘Leaving that question aside – what do you propose doing with this specimen you’ve brought here?’ Curtis demanded.
‘He’d have drowned if I had left him there.’
‘Why bring him here?’
‘Couldn’t we just knock him off and have done with it, Mr Curtis?’ One of the Giants spoke for the first time since Curtis had come in.
‘Out of the question. Criminal breach of the rules. Besides, could you kill a man in cold blood?’
‘He’s only a dizzy, Mr Curtis,’ spoken defensively.
‘Could he go for rehabilitation?’ Randall suggested, in the tone of one dazzled by the brightness of his own idea.
‘He’s far too old, man! You know they only take children. What the deuce was the idea of bringing him here?’
‘Well, as I say, I couldn’t leave him there, and after I fished his pal out, I – well, it’s pretty creepy there and – I thought I heard something. So I – nipped him to safety with me quickly.’
‘It’s quite obvious you panicked, Randall,’ Curtis said. ‘We certainly don’t want a spare dizzy here. You’ll have to take him back, that’s all.’ The voice was curt and decisive. Complain took heart from it; nothing would suit him better than to be taken back. Not, he realized, that he had much fear of the Giants; now he was among them, they seemed too slow and gentle for malice. Curtis’s was not an attitude he understood, but it was certainly convenient.
There was some argument between the Giants as to how Complain’s return should be effected. Randall’s friends sided with him against the one in command, Curtis; the latter lost his temper.
‘All right,’ he snapped, ‘come into the office, the lot of you, and we’ll buzz through to Little Dog