Clacks took his shell cracker thing with him, so I was defenseless. The five men rushed us. The two former military met them full on. Renny grabbed one of the attacker's clubs as it was being hoisted, and pounded him with the butt of his knife, wrenching the club away. The attacker pulled a small knife with his free hand, and jabbed at the marine's arm. Blood welled from the wound, but Renny just reversed his combat knife, and gutted the guy.

I turned a little ill watching all this. The marine turned quickly, ducked a swing from a second attacker, and threw the club at him. With a loud crack, the assailant used his club to knock it away. It went revolving off into the bushes, but before the thug could recover for a second swing, Renny was in his face, too close for it to be of much use.

The Ex ranger, John, had scooped up a large rock and threw it at one of the others, hitting him dead center in the face. That one went to his knees dropping his club to claw at his head. John immediately rushed the fourth. The sounds of heavy bodies scuffling filled the air. John took a bad club hit on his left forearm. John bore it, swept the attacker off his feet, and stomped on his throat. Segudson, who had stayed back, rushed me. I'm not a trained fighter, and automatically threw my hands up to ward a blow, shutting my eyes. There was a yowl and a scream.

My eyes opened on a ball of fur obscuring Segudson's head. Reems had jumped some six feet through the air, and viciously attacked the man. The cat seemed to be everywhere on the guy. There were rents in his cheeks, blood dripping into his eyes, and he was struggling to keep the cat away from his neck, getting his hands chewed up in the process. The club was now at his feet. The pair, now done with the rest, grabbed Segudson as the cat jumped away.

Bottom line, we now had two men tied up next to the tree, one dead and two more laying on the forest floor. Bill was shaking, eyes all over the carnage. I wasn't much better off. Renny had bandaged his gash, and splinted John's arm which he wound with what looked like athletic tape, though where that came from, I hadn't a clue. From the wincing and grunting, it must have been really painful.

Noticing my interest, Renny proffered, “From th' Kreeb. After the fire, they pulled some field dressings, all that, out of th' ship. Not much, though. We grabbed up some of the supplies. Hope your pet bug has things in hand by the time we get back.”

I looked around, sickened. This had turned violent in a way I hadn't been prepared for. “Me too.”

Meantime, there were still questions. I squatted between Bill and Segudson. The blood on Segudson's forehead looked to be coagulating. One of the marines had wiped some off, but his cheeks were shredded and wet; anger and pain mixed across his face. Bill, untouched, flicked wide stunned eyes back and forth between me, and Segudson. Fear was writ large on the old timer. Seemed the better choice to just continue quizzing Bill.

I tugged on Bill's shirt again. “Where were we? Oh Yeah, the Kreeb, and Reese Corp.” Bills eyes again flicked to Segudson.

“Don't worry about him. They came out to shut you up, not to rescue you from evil diamond hunters. I told you, Reese's agri-biz scheme here is done with. They lost their top Kreeb and their cane farm. You can consider your employment as Reese's rep extinct.”

This was another reach, but not much of one. Pretty obvious Reese corp was snooping the minerals and arable land here, Bill had already stated he reported finds to them and they supplied the equipment he passed on. The ship should be in Clack's hands by now. I just needed to know the extent of this. The more he thought I already new, the less fluff I'd get off the guy.

“Uh, the...the Kreeb churches eh, sects, Reese Corp used just the two of 'em, ones Reese had handy – they made a couple 'a Big bugs for them, had em send their sects out to find off-world ores, farm sites. Places people could work, without million dollar space suits, an' billions in support kinda thing. There's lotsa stuff in space, but getting at it efficient n' fer profit, that's another thing. They came up with this place. By then, the orbit problem stuff an' fate of the world stuff, was understood pretty much. Paper money perty much collapsed, so paying' people with it meant nothin' save fer a few local, what they call, scrip systems.”

Bill took on a pleading look. “Had ta offer somethin' or trade somethin', right? Got the sects to go get volunteers to be “saved” n' sent 'em here. Backed the Kreeb with enough salvaged food, so on, to get th' camp set up, though the Kreeb do some of that too. Once't things started up proper, the Kreeb, well they'd be the only way ta' ship stuff in and out'a here. The Kreeb Bigs keep faith, cause they don't want trouble with the other sects – eh, hives. The queens, eh, they'd just go nuts over what they done did, ain't natural. Too much of what passes fer politics is genetic stuff in bugs."

I shook my head. Made no sense to me. “To ship what, for example?”

“Food buys lots'a big machines purty cheap right about now, stuff that's needed here ta' develop all those resources ya been yapping about. So Reese Corp gets their cut. So what? Reese starts these guys farmin, mining, then develops a new Technical culture. Ever-body wins, Okay?”

“To begin with, they didn't tell people. It's still a choice, one not all would make, to join a labor camp. I wouldn't have, if they hadn't sacked me up. These guys,” I swept my hands over the messy battleground, “didn't come at us with clubs to protect some humanitarian gesture. What's the rest of it.”

“Dunno all of it. That's the truth, now. Had a company scientist aboard once, said the space rock ruining the planet could be dragged off course by the gravity of a few well placed orbital rocks - take centuries though. Don't think that plan was part of Reese Corp's. Then more fiddling could set one ta slow th' planet back down, heh, more centuries; iffy stuff. Big project; take generations..”

This got me really mad. “So they could have worked with the Kreeb to stop the damage, maybe reverse it, and instead...”

No wonder they were so keen to keep the whole thing quiet. They went for the simple and quick, a decision it wasn't theirs to make. Set themselves up with a planet of their own. If that got out, there would be lynchings in the streets.

There was more thrashing coming from the bushes. I steeled my nerves for a new invasion, and looked somberly at Renny and John. Neither one were in great shape after the scuffle.