She never had a chance to discuss this detail with Mitford because she saw the repair crew vehicles, massive affairs, Catteni-style eighteen wheelers, come careening across the field. She had only enough time to shake him awake before the trucks screeched to a halt by the cargo hatch. Someone 'banged on it. Chuck gave her a shove forward to the bridge compartment.
"You're on com watch," he muttered and then in fine, annoyed Catteni, yelled that he was coming, he was coming.
He undogged the hatch and was almost mowed down by the Emassi who charged in, scowling and punching Chuck out of his way. But years of army discipline intervened, and Chuck assumed a properly military stance, far more humble than any American soldier would present even if a four star general or the president of the United States confronted him. Kris' com unit blurped for her response.
"Crew are there?" was the inimical query.
"Yes, Emassi;' she replied meekly.
"Get Emassi Yoltin to speak;'
"Yes, Emassi." And Kris actually managed to increase her stride to something approximating "hurry" to the hatch and, with a proper salute, begged Emassi Yoltin to speak to Emassi on com.
Meanwhile, the repair crew, burdened with heavy kits and a variety of portable affairs that resembled the weaponry of a bad science fiction movie, went astern to the gyro unit. Another group waited outside the hatch, carrying more carefully some packaged units that looked like control board replacements.
Managing to glance outside, she saw others, led by a second Emassi, examining the "meteor" damage, Pete Snyder's magnificent efforts.
Several of the outboard sensors on the port side had also been broken off to add verisimilitude to the supposed crash. Suitable gashes had taken a lot of time to make but the Emassi was nodding, touching the marks and then rattling off orders to his crew. A third group were setting up what looked amazingly like a field kitchen. Kris breathed a little sigh of relief that she wouldn't be expected to feed this lot.
Considering what she saw being prepared and smelled cooking, she hoped that she and Chuck wouldn't have to eat any of it.
"You/' Emassi Yoltin said, returning from the bridge, but he pointed to the group waiting outside, "repair controls." He passed by her as if she didn't exist but Chuck now followed Yoltin astern.
"Emassi Venlik orders me to check replacement unit," he said.
Emassi Yoltin gave Chuck such a look that a snake would have died of the venom in it but Chuck held his ground until Yoltin gave an abrupt nod of his head and allowed Chuck to follow him.
Totally superfluous, Kris decided she needed more Mayock to get through this experience.
When the control panel repairs were finished, she did resume her station at the com unit. And saw the arrival of another vehicle. This time she remembered how to initiate communications with an on-surface vehicle and made contact.
"Cargo, supplies. Open hatch/' she was told and dutifully followed such orders, wondering what Zainal had acquired.
It was considerable. Foods, crates with runes she couldn't quite understand, but thought they were spare parts. Certainly a good deal of fuel canisters was onloaded, taking up a full cargo deck and then half of another.
Some open slatted crates proved to be fresh foods.
"Good," she said, when the Drassi supervising the loading looked at her for some reaction. She smacked her lips. "Not much fresh to eat for a long time," she added. She recognized some of the fruits she had seen, and bought, in the Barevi markets. She'd thought they were indigenous. Then remembered that Zainal had said the Rassi worked the land and produced great quantities of food for both Eosi and Catteni ships. "We eat well."
"We will. And soon," the Drassi said but he jerked his head to the exterior and the rather unusual smells coming from the outdoor kitchen.
The Drassi had been marking off items on the clipboard as the Rassi came on board with their burdens. These seemed slightly more intelligent than the ones there the other day. Possibly because they had resupplied ships so often. '.
Then the truck was empty and the Rassi sat on the floor, waiting for whatever would happen to them next.
The Drassi handed her the clipboard, and she wrote down her rune and then took it from him to get Chuck's signature. He was standing in the passenger hatch, watching the repair crews eating. He signed and winked at her.
"We weren't invited;' he said, mouthing the words with little sound.
She rolled her eyes in relief, aware out of the corner of her eye the ravenous way in which the meal was being consumed, with much smacking of lips and slurping. Even eating in such company would have been nearly as nauseating as the food they consumed so greedily.
She returned the double-signed records to the Drassi, and he also jumped to the ground and barked an order at the apathetic Rassi. They slowly rose and followed him around the ship to the eating place.
She closed and locked the cargo hatch, three of its decks now full of supplies. Zainal had gone whole-hog here. Would they get away with such bald-faced piracy?
"We can eat," Chuck muttered to her as he pushed her past the open cargo hatch. "Water's pretty good."
They used that to dilute the Mayock with which they washed down the fresh fruit and what passed for bread in the Catteni cuisine. It was so fresh that it was easy to chew and didn't taste half-bad.
"D'you know what they're eating out there?" she asked Chuck.
"You don't want to know," Chuck said and took a long swig from his mug.
That was enough to inform Kris that the Catteni were probably eating Kassi. She ate nothing more despite Chuck pantomiming that she should.
The exterior crew had filled in the gouges, and the main hole, using some sort of mastic. When the interior specialists had finished their job, they drove off but left EmassiYoltin behind to supervise the rest of the repairs.
A Catteni day was longer than one on Earth but shorter than one on Botany. There was actually more exterior damage, between the "meteoric" gashes and the hole, because the stumps of the broken external units had to be removed and replaced. This required technicians going in and out of the ship, and coming awfully close to where the undamaged control panels had been secreted. Kris thought she might have indulged in the first faint of her life but managed to pinch herself hard enough to retain consciousness.
They'd come so far and done so well, she simply could not jeopardize everything with such a reaction.
So they had another day to endure the proximity of sweaty men whose clothing was smeared with the repair compound, which intensified the stench of them.
Chuck did offer the Emassi the captain's quarters but that was curtly refused, and Chuck and Kris were left to themselves. They did, however, close the passenger hatch as night descended on the field. That meant they didn't smell whatever it was the Catteni were eating. Kris was ravenous by now and made a huge meal for them both.
'I'll take first watch," Chuck told Kris, and she could not demur. The day's excesses as well as the gravity had reduced her to total exhaustion.
He woke her six hours later. "We've had a few calls, and one from Yoltin to be sure we're keeping watch. So you've got to stand one:'
"I'm fine, Chuck, fine;' she assured him. Indeed, she realized that it wasn't quite as difficult to sit up and get out of the bed though she still felt as if all her muscles and flesh were being pulled inexorably groundward.
She got a call from Yoltin shortly after she took the com. Yoltin was a real Catteni bastard. Checking up. She had a sudden notion and put it into action by removing the undamaged control panels from where they had been stashed and putting them quietly behind a huge crate in the cargo deck that was currently available. If they should be discovered, though she doubted that, they were no concern of hers. The Drassi had checked off all the items that were brought on board, and being Drassi herself she could pretend she didn't read well. Not many true Drassi did unless they "needed to know" as Zainal would have put it.