“He can’t do that—”
“But Magda can. He said Magda told him that’s what she was going to judge.”
Linc shook his head. “No, Magda wouldn’t make up her mind before hearing your side of it.”
Peta glanced back over his shoulder. “I was hungry. And tired. I’d been working in the tanks for a long time… everybody else had a chance to eat, but Slav said I couldn’t stop until I finished weeding my whole tank.”
“Slav knows what’s right,” Linc said. “He’s fair.”
Even in the shadowy light of the tube-tunnel, Linc could see Peta’s normally pink face had gone completely white with fright. “I know… but I stuffed the weeds I had pulled into the water trough.”
“Oh no—” Linc could feel the back of his neck tensing. “And they clogged the pump…?”
Peta nodded dumbly.
“And that’s why the pump broke, and now half the farm tanks can’t get water,” Linc finished. “Half our food supply is ruined.”
Peta’s voice was a miserable whine. “Monel came to my compartment with his guards. They took me out… said they were taking me to the deadlock to… to cast me out.”
“He can’t do that!”
“I ran away from them,” Peta babbled on. “I grabbed the stick that Monel carries and hit the guard that was holding my arm and ran away.”
“You what?”
“I… hit… the guard.” It was a tortured whisper.
“You hit him? You really struck him?” Linc sank down onto the metal step and let his head droop into his hands. Peta stood fidgeting in front of him, his mouth opening but nothing coming out except a barely audible squeak.
Looking up at him again, Linc asked, “How could you do it? If you had deliberately tried to break every rule Jerlet’s given us you couldn’t have done worse.”
“They were going to push me into the deadlock,” Peta cried.
Linc shook his head.
“Help me!”
“Help you?” Linc spread his hands helplessly. “How? Half the people will starve because you were lazy. Maybe I can fix the pump, but you know Jerlet’s laws about touching the machines. And you hit a guard. Violence! All the tales about the wars and the killings… didn’t they mean anything to you?”