"Don't you say things like that, Wes! You don't know."
"It's what everybody says. Why else would they guard the Ship the way they do? We can't even get near the outside of it."
Lil tossed her head. "Well neither do they."
"Not when we can see 'em, no. Of course not. But how do we know they haven't got ways of getting into the Ship that don't show from the plain? Jakk says a lot goes on that we don't know about."
He got up, forcing his belief at them with his big square hands.
"There must be something in the Ship that they don't want us to have. Something valuable, something they want to keep for themselves. What else could it be but heat-stones and maybe dried meat?"
"We don't know, Wes! The Ship is—well, we shouldn't talk about it. And the Officers wouldn't do that. If they wanted us killed off they'd let the Piruts in on us, or the shags, and let 'em finish us quick. Freezing and starving would take too long. There'd be too many of us if we found out, or got mad."
Kirk snorted. "You women know so much. If they let the shags or the Piruts in on us, how could they stop 'em before they killed everybody, including the Officers? As for slow death—well, they think we're dumb. They've kept us away from the Ship ever since the Crash, and nobody knows how long ago that was. They think they can go on doing it. They think we'd never suspect."
"Yah!" said Lil sharply. "You just like to talk. Why should the Officers want us killed off anyhow?"
Kirk looked at the thin fuzzy baby curled tight in the skins.