Battlefield Earth by Hubbard, L. Ron Read Free Book Online

tremble.
        
    Zzt finished the disassembly and threw the last ring on the bench. His yellow orbs contracted as he looked at Terl. “Well? What have I done now?”
        
    Terl lumbered closer and looked around. “Where are your maintenance men?”
        
    “We’re fifteen mechanics under complement. They were transferred to operations over the last month. I know it and you know it. So why are you here?”
        
    As chief of security, Terl had learned through experience not to be very straightforward. If he simply asked for a manual reconnaissance plane, the transport chief would demand the emergency voucher, not get it, and say “No transport.” And there were no emergencies for security on this dull planet. Not real ones. In hundreds of years of operation, there had not been the slightest security threat to Intergalactic Mining operations here. A dull security scene, and consequently the chief of that department was not considered very important. Apparent threats had to be manufactured with guile as their sole ingredient.
        
    “I’ve been investigating a suspicion of conspiracy to sabotage transport,” said Terl. “Kept me busy for the last three weeks.” He eased his bulk back against a wrecked car.
        
    “Don’t lean on that recon. You’ll dent its wing.”
        
    Terl decided it was better to be friendly and rumbled over to a stool at the bench where Zzt was working. “Confidentially, Zzt, I’ve had an idea that could get us some outside personnel. I’m working on it, and that’s why I need a manual recon.”
        
    Zzt batted his eyebones and sat down on another stool, which creaked despairingly under his thousand-pound bulk.
        
    “This planet,” said Terl confidingly, “used to have a sentient race on it.”
        
    “What race was that?” asked Zzt suspiciously.
        
    “Man,” said Terl.
        
    Zzt looked at him searchingly. A security officer was never noted for his sense of humor. Some had been known to bait and entrap and then file charges. But Zzt couldn’t help himself.
        
    His mouthbones started to stretch, and even though he sought to control them, they spread and suddenly his laugh exploded in Terl’s face. Zzt hastily got it under control and turned back to his bench to resume work.
        
    “Anything else on your mind?” asked Zzt, as an afterthought.
        
    This was not going well, thought Terl. Well, that’s what happened when you were frank. It just didn’t mix with security.
        
    “This suspicion of conspiracy to sabotage transport,” said Terl as he looked around at the wrecked cars with half-lowered eyebones, “could reach to high places.”
        
    Zzt threw down a wrench with a clang. A low snarl rumbled in him. He sat there, staring in front of him. He was thinking.
        
    “What do you really want?” he asked at last.
        
    “A recon plane. For five or six days.”
        
    Zzt got up and yanked a transport schedule clipboard off the wall and studied it. He could hear Terl almost purring.
        
    “You see this schedule?” said Zzt, pushing it under Terl’s nose.
        
    “Well, yes.”
        
    “Do you see where it has six drone recons assigned to security?”
        
    “Of course.”
        
    “And do you see where this has been going on for-’ Zzt peeled back sheet after sheet, “-blast! For centuries I suppose.”
        
    “Have to keep a minesite planet under surveillance,” said Terl complacently.
        
    “Under surveillance for what?” said Zzt. “Every scrap of ore was spotted and estimated long before your and my living memory. There’s nothing out there but mammals. Air organisms.”
        
    “There might be a hostile landing.”
        
    “Here?” sneered Zzt. “Company probes in outer space would detect it ages before it ever arrived here. Terl, transport has to fuel and maintain and recondition those drones two and