14

It was a month into winter, and Orion still wore nothing but the breeches Blackmoor had forced him to
wear, and the chains, which got very cold. Plundaarian winters were not cold enough to be life threatening, at
least not in this region, but they were miserable to work in and miserable to sleep in.

He was finally back to working with Hyder, and happy about it. The older cub had hugged him when
they were allowed back together, and Orion had not minded. He was getting so that he did not like to be
touched by anyone, but Hyder was the exception. He was the one person he could trust in this whole miserable
place.

"It's cold out," Orion complained to his friend as they pushed the cart. He was still doing that duty.

"I know. And Master Blackmoor says 'too bad' when anyone complains. I guess it's not that bad. One
place I used to live had snow in the winter. But I worked inside, not outside, so it was okay.

"Snow? Some of Thundera has snow. I want to go back there. I want to go back where I can see the
sun and where's it's light out and warm. It doesn't get cold where I live."

"You can see the sun where you live?" Hyder seemed surprised. On Plundaar, the sun is a deep
orange-red. The sky is a dull orange. And so the sun is only visible when it is lightest, around noon, as a disk a
slightly different color from the rest of the sky.

Orion nodded. "And the sky's not orange like this. Well it's orange some of the time, but it's a bright
orange and you can see the sun, and later, the sky gets a really light blue." The cub wiped his eyes. "I want to
go home."

Hyder was not sure what to say...although it sounded like a neat place to live. "If...if you ever get back
there...can I come with you?" he asked.

Orion nodded his head. "Yeah, I wouldn't leave you behind. My papa would like you, too, but a lot of
Thunderians don't like Mutants. They're at war."

The hyena cub nodded. "I know. I hear the adults talking about it all the time. Even most the other
slaves don't like the Thunderians here. I think there are only two or three others in the whole compound, not
counting the ones that came here with you."

Orion scowled darkly. "I know. They shove me around a lot."

The two worked in silence for a while, and then started talking of lighter subjects, and Hyder asked his
friend what he would want to be if he was ever free.

"I...I don't know," Orion admitted. "Maybe a pilot. A racer. I think about that a lot. There are races
the Thunderians do where you have to race around the galaxy to different planets that you can reach in a small
ship, and you have to go to each of the planets. And to make sure that no one cheats, you have to get a certain
thing off each planet. There's enough of each for everyone to take one, and there are people there to make sure
they only take one. And the winner gets a prize. If there are enough racers, there is first, second, and third.
And sometimes you have to have special suits or something for the planets, and you have to know about the planet so you know what you need for it. If you can't get on the planet, you lose the race."

Hyder listened to this with a grin, and when Orion was done with the explanation, he said, "That sounds
cool! It's like a race and a treasure hunt at the some time!"

Orion giggled and nodded. "Yeah, sometimes the thing you have to get is funny, sometimes just neat
looking." He grinned at his friend and whispered, "Once, one of the things was something they weren't supposed to use, and they almost got in trouble for it because kids and stuff watch it on the televiewers."

Hyder's eyes widened, and he asked eagerly, "What was it?"

Orion looked back to make sure the other two slaves on the cart were not listening, and to make sure no
one else would hear him. He leaned over and whispered in Hyder's ear, "It was a bra!"

"No way!" Hyder exclaimed, and he burst out laughing.

The Thunderian cub nodded. "That was one of the things they had to get," he said. "And it was pink,
too! The grown-ups all thought it was funny, and the cubs did too. One of the racers even held it up to the screen so everyone could see. But some people got mad, and the racing committee almost got everyone in trouble."

"Awwww, they're no fun!" the hyena protested, still laughing. "I wish I could've seen that."

"It was a long time ago, but I saw it on the televiewer. That's what I want to do." His face turned red
and he amended, "I mean race, not get bras." He looked at his friend as they all stopped the cart to be unloaded. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to be a fighter pilot." The hyena cub grinned "We both want to be pilots, but for different
things! Anyway I want to be a fighter pilot in one of those new Mantis fighters. They're really fast, and have
four lasers instead of two, like the Skycutters, and they look like Mantis bugs. Except the Skycutters can't fly
in space."

"What's a Skycutter?" Orion asked.

"Oh! I'll show you next time we get to work in the hangars, maybe they'll have one. They're cool for
flying in the atmosphere. But that's what I want to be..." He thought a minute and bit his lip. "I was gonna
say I'd fight the Thunderians." He looked at the feline cub next to him. "But now I don't want to. And I'd
never fight you. Maybe the Jukra. They look like they're made out of tar and they have two tails, and they're
mean."

Orion blinked at that description. "I'd like to see one!"

Hyder laughed. "Maybe you will."

That night Orion huddled in a corner of his cell, trying to keep warm. The other slaves in the cell block
had been given blankets at the beginning of the month, but Blackmoor just did not like Orion, and had not allowed him one.

In fact he came down the hallway that partucular night, after the dinner dishes had been collected. He
peered into Orion's cell, and the boy cringed in the corner. he'd not seen Blackmoor for a few days, and had
been glad of it.

"Did I say you could look at me, brat?" the jackal demanded.

Orion immediately cast his gaze to the floor with a whispered apology.

Blackmoor nodded. "That's better."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment, and Orion timidly asked, "M-master? Can...c-can I
please have a blanket? I-it's really cold in here...please?" The building did have heat, but Blackmoor only kept
it on enough to make the cold manageable, not comfortable. He was not about to waste fuel on a bunch of low-ranking slaves.

The jackal looked down at the cub, who had still not looked up. That was good, the wretch had learned
obedience. For the most part. "Look at me." Orion did. "Have you been behaving?"

"Y-yes, master..."

"Have you talked back to your masters or disobeyed any orders?" This time a negative answer. The
jackal nodded slowly, and the said, "You wouldn't be lying to me, would you Orion? That would be a
mistake." An immediate negative. "Oh? Simi says that when you were in the jorick pit, you gave him trouble
with something he told you to do."

The cub looked at him blankly for a minute, trying frantically to remember what he meant. Jorick ants
were among the deadliest of Plundaar's insects. A small swarm of the large ants could kill a grown man in
minutes with their powerful jaws and acidic saliva, and Blackmoor captured the bugs and crushed them for that
very reason. He collected and purified the strong acid, and sold it for a lot of money to scientists and
laboratories. But you had to be careful to only work in certain areas of the pits where the creatures lived, or you
were dead.

Orion remembered working there for a few days, both fascinated and fearful of the ants, but he couldn't...wait a minute. "Y-y-you mean when Simi told me to get the lestricas?"

"Well you aren't as stupid as you look," Blackmoor said coldly. "Apparently you know what I am talking about. Explain yourself."

Lestricas were the specially made containers they used to capture the ants, resistant to the acid, with tiny
straw like vacuums to suck them into the jar part. But Orion had not known the word, and Simi had had to
explain it to him and tell him where they were. He'd smacked him for it, too. "I-I-I d-didn't mean to, Master,
I-I just didn't know what they were, I didn't know the word...when he told me I did it right away..."

Blackmoor raised a brow. "And you gave no further trouble?" A negative. "And why did you not tell
me when I asked, boy?"

Orion gulped. "I-I forgot, master, I wasn't trying to lie, honest...b-be-because you asked if I gave trouble, and I didn't mean to give any trouble..."

The jackal listened to the young slave babble, hiding his amusement. The brat feared him, there was no
doubt about it. but he did not smile outwardly. "Very well. Hakii! Get this worthless wretch a blanket." He
pointed to Orion's cell and left the area.

Hakii turned out to be the young skunk Mutant that Orion had met once before, and he threw a thick,
coarse blanket through the bars. The boy wrapped it around himself and curled back up in the corner opposite
the hole-in-the-ground toilet.

In his own cell, Hyder grinned for his friend. "You got a blanket?" he asked.

"Y-yeah...I thought I was going to get in trouble, though."

"He was testing you I think...well it got you a blanket anyway. Are you still cold?"

Wrapped in the blanket from head to toe...well from neck to toe anyway...Orion said, "Just my
head...b-but I couldn't cover it. I couldn't breathe."

"Well that's okay, at least the rest of you's warm. He says we can work back in the hangar tomorrow
too."

Orion was pleased at that news, and curled up in the blanket to sleep.

Chapter 15

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