I tried to sleep. I couldn't. I tried to think of you and Joanie and what it would be like back on Earth. I couldn't concentrate. It grew dark slowly, the way it does on Halcyon. I thought they never would come with my supper. I thought they were starving me before the trial so I would confess readily. Then I began to think that maybe someone had seen Lar Luk give me the weapon. Perhaps the cell was wired and every word we said was heard in the stockade commander's office.
Then I heard footsteps in the corridor. It always sounds like more than one person, the Halcyonians having more legs than we do. I stood there at the door of my cell, waiting. I could feel my heart fluttering around inside me, like a bird.
The cell door opened.
At first I was going to use Lar Luk's weapon, but I didn't know what kind of noise it would make. He hadn't told me. Instead, I used the butt of the gun, banging it down across the guard's head. He slumped at my feet. I hoped I hadn't hurt him too badly. I even hoped Lar Luk's weapon was effective but not lethal. I had nothing against the Halcyonians. I just wanted to escape.
Out into the corridor I ran, passing three cross-corridors before I reached the stockade quadrangle. In the halls, I met no one. So far, I was lucky. But then....
"Halt! Who goes there?"
A guard in the quadrangle challenging me!
I was trembling so much I had to hold Lar Luk's weapon in both hands to fire it. It made a noise like a siren.
The guard didn't fall. He kept coming.
I fired again.