The Garbage Chronicles by Brian Herbert Page B

again. “How were we blown back out of the hole?” he asked, turning to face the pineapple prince.
    “Don’t step on me!” Wizzy squealed. A prune man stood on him.
    Prince Pineapple hesitated as he focused on Fruit people who were pressing in around them, listening to every word. Some took notes on long clip pads or whispered back and forth excitedly, using their Corkian legalese.
    “Move along now!” Prince Pineapple commanded. “Make way!” He waved his arms demonstratively.
    Javik noticed now that the prince and all the Fruits had four fingers and a thumb on each hand like any human, except the thumb was on the outside of the hand.
    Slowly, the throng moved back.
    “Come with me,” Prince Pineapple said to Javik and Evans. He guided them toward an opening in the crowd. “It will be dusk soon.”
    “I’ll join you later r ” Wizzy said. “I need a breather.”
    Javik held back. “My ship will be safe here?” he asked.
    “Your ship is nearly new. New things have no value to our people.”
    Javik scratched his head thoughtfully. “Is that so? Well, it’s received quite a bit of damage. Doesn’t look so new to me anymore.”
    “Hmmm,” Prince Pineapple said, studying the Amanda Marie, “The damage helps a little. Still, I do not find it very appealing. Perhaps with a few more dents and abrasions . . . ”
    “I can’t leave my ship with this mob,” Javik said.
    The prince shrugged. “Very well,” he said. “I’ll post guards, then. Will that make you feel better?”
    “It will.”
    Prince Pineapple spoke with a cluster of banana man lawyers, instructing them to stand guard over the craft. Then he drew forth a purple and black checkered wallet, removing several creased pieces of paper which looked to Javik like old Earth candy bar and gum wrappers.
    Leaning close, Javik verified this. He recognized wrappers from a Big Hunk, a Hershey’s plain, and a Juicy Fruit.
    Solemnly, Prince Pineapple handed a creased wrapper to each of the banana men. They nodded and stuffed the wrappers in their pockets.
    “Juicy Fruits are the most valuable,” the prince said to Javik. He slipped the wallet back into his pants pocket.
    “I see,” Javik said.
    When they were out of earshot of the lawyers, Prince Pineapple said: “Poor devils. Our law schools still pump out so many of them.”
    Evans caught Javik’s gaze. She raised her eyebrows.
    Prince Pineapple led the way along a rough path which skirted the piney woods: ‘The sacrifice hole appeared several years back,” he said as they reached late afternoon shade. “Lord Abercrombie’s metal men dug it. I saw them.”
    “Metal men?” Evans said. “You mean meckies?”
    “I don’t know what they’re called,” Prince Pineapple said. The prince’s cadence changed now as they continued along the path. His steps became staccato-quick and inefficient. The big pineapple man was expending a lot of energy but not moving commensurately fast.
    Javik and Evans rolled as best as they could on the uneven surface, but tripped several times as their moto-boot wheels encountered stones, twigs, and tufts of dirt. At one point, Javik fell to his knees.
    “Hurry now,” the prince said, looking back. “The king is waiting.” I must act as though I care, he thought. Or the king will suspect . . .
    Javik touched a button on his moto-boots to eject the wheels and wheel frames. He tossed them aside.
    Evans did the same, leaving both of them wearing unmotorized service boots. “That’s better,” she said, testing them on the ground.
    “Unusual shoes you Earthians wear,” Prince Pineapple said. “Hurry now!”
    “More suited to Earth, it seems,” Javik said as they resumed their course. He added: “This Planet God, Lord Abercrombie. He is terribly upset at the gar-bahge situation?”
    “Oh yes! Indeed he is! And so is King Corker, It is a good thing you arrived now. We could not have survived much longer.” Odd that Earthians would appear just now, he thought.