Eleanor shivered as the factory door clicked shut behind her and the Sergeant. It was cold and dark, and the guards had stayed outside. She whispered, “Hello?”

A man's voice nearby asked, “Do you have food or water?”

Eleanor said, “No. Nothing.”

The Sergeant asked, “Is Jeanne here?”

The man said, “She's further inside. How do you know Jeanne?”

“I'm her husband.”

Two knocks sounded in the darkness, and the air became slightly breezy. The man said, “Wait here.” The air became still.

After a few minutes the air felt warmer, and breezy again.

Something touched Eleanor's hand, and she flinched. Then fingers grabbed her hand and pulled her forward.

She walked through the darkness, hearing footsteps around her. After a short walk, the hand released her, and a woman said, “New prisoners.”

“Very good,” said a voice with a Green Man's slight accent. “Sir, madam, I must require secrecy from you both. Will you agree to tell no one what I'm doing here?”

The Sergeant said, “Sure, I agree.”

Eleanor rarely kept secrets from Minnie. She asked, “What happens if we don't agree?”

“Then you will starve to death in the darkness, unless the so-called king releases you first.”

“Oh. Well, then yes, I'll keep your secret.”

“Very good. I am Mr. Thowulle.”

“I'm Eleanor Menacky. Pleased to meet you.”

A light glowed in the air, with no obvious light source, and the room instantly became comfortably warm.

Mr. Thowulle was a Green Man wearing overalls and sitting cross-legged on the floor near the center of a room filled with conveyor belts and chutes and pulleys and gears. A number of other unclothed Green Men lay in a corner, stacked like firewood. They weren't breathing.

Eleanor glanced at them, and looked away. “Are they dead?”

Mr. Thowulle watched Eleanor. “They were never alive. Early prototypes that weren't quite right.”

The Sergeant shrugged. “That's utterly odd, but is Jeanne here?”

“She's working, and doesn't wish to be disturbed.”

The Sergeant smiled. “I've been yelled at plenty of times for disturbing her work. I'm used to it.”

“Nevertheless, you must not distract her. Blodger is gathering supplies, and I believe he's going to kill me soon if I don't agree to his demands.”

Eleanor noticed bruises on Mr. Thowulle's neck and hands. She remembered the scalpels in Zeek's bag. “What is he demanding?”

“He insists that I must return everyone to your original planet. But I'm not capable of that, and the beings who I serve won't return any species to a planet if that species is destroying its home planet.”

The Sergeant said, “We weren't destroying the Earth.”

“The beings believe otherwise, or you wouldn't be here. But I'm a mere servant, of no consequence. It is pointless to argue. I can only hope to leave this prison alive, and free the humans trapped here. If I die, you will all starve.”

Eleanor looked around at several other prisoners sitting in the room. They looked thin, but not starving. “What do we eat here?”

“This factory once produced olives and oranges and figs, among other things. The machines are unpowered now, but I can use my life force to energize them.”

The Sergeant asked, “Is Jeanne building a machine to power the factory?”

“No, she is building a machine to help us escape. We cannot safely remain here.”

Eleanor asked, “Is there anything we can do to help you?”

“No, we must simply wait.”

*

Later, after a meal of tropical fruit and olives, Eleanor and the Sergeant were allowed to walk further into the factory to another bright room where Jeanne worked.

She was a small, wiry woman, who gave the Sergeant a long hug. Then she picked up a heavy wrench and asked Eleanor, “Why are you wearing my clothes and traveling with my husband?”

The Sergeant said, “Even worse, she broke your spider and stole your dog.”

Eleanor opened her mouth, but was too shocked to say anything.

The Sergeant began to laugh.

Jeanne laughed too, and set the wrench on a worktable. “We're just joking around. But you look like you swallowed a fish.” She grinned.

Eleanor forced herself to smile, although she still felt flustered. “I'm sorry. I know too many truly dangerous people. But I am truly sorry about your spider.”

The Sergeant said, “Jeanne can fix it. She can fix anything. So what are you working on here, anyhow?”

Jeanne pointed to a large machine made of belts and pulleys and gears. The inside held a glowing white flame that floated and sputtered inside a glass ball. One end of the machine held an elaborate metal cone.

Eleanor asked, “What is it?”

Jeanne said, “A drill, basically. Which should be almost silent when I finish it.”

The Sergeant said, “What's the plan for escaping?”

Jeanne said, “You'll like this. Thowulle thinks it's brilliant. We make a big hole. Then we sneak out. Then we run.”

The Sergeant laughed. “That's the whole plan?”

Jeanne shrugged. “That's all Thowulle told us. He's pretty secretive. But he also doesn't think quite like we do. He's an elaborate construct, but he's biological. Not a machine.”

Eleanor thought about the Green Coal activator that was still knotted into her skirt. “Can we trust Mr. Thowulle, do you think?”

Jeanne nodded. “He doesn't lie, and he's been keeping people alive who King Blodger believes are long dead. I trust him.”

“In that case, I should mention that I have a Green Coal activator with me.”

Jeanne shrugged. “I have no idea what that is, except that I suspect it activates Green Coal.”

Eleanor unknotted her skirt and held out the shiny cube with buttons on it. “It's this.”

Jeanne looked at it. “I don't think it will help us. This factory is a patchwork of things that humans and Green Men can use and understand and other things, like the energy ball in the drill, that Thowulle can use, although he doesn't understand them. But Green Coal is only used in the sky cities, to replace the real coal that was poisoning our planet, at least according to Thowulle. But we don't have any here.”

The Sergeant said, “King Blodger has some, though. The tax collectors take it, from crashed ships.”

Jeanne said, “But that won't help us. Why don't you go and show that to Thowulle and see what he thinks. And shut the door behind you. I haven't seen my husband for several weeks.”

The Sergeant put his arms around her again.

“Oh, right.” Eleanor left them alone together and went to find Thowulle.

He was in another room of the factory, waving his hand over a box out of which a conveyor belt carried fresh, perfect oranges.

She said, “I was wondering if this might help us.” She showed him the activator.

He continued waving his hand. “No, we have never used Green Coal in the factories. But where did you find it? They aren't for humans to use.”

“A crewman of King Blodger's, named Scurvy Zeek, gave it to me to bring to him.”

Mr. Thowulle froze and stared at her. The conveyor belt stopped with a squeal. “Who do you work for?”

“Scurvy Zeek threatened to kill one of my family members, so I was trying to work for him. But I think now that it's more important to keep the entire sky level safe, so I'm not going to deliver it. You can have it if you like.”

Mr. Thowulle resumed waving his hand, and the belt began to move, conveying more oranges into an old basket beside the machine. “No, you should keep it. But if you return to the sky city, please take it to a police station and give it to the man in charge.”

Eleanor said, “I'll remember that,” and acted sincere, although she felt that the device was far more likely to go to one of Minnie's pirate friends.

“If you wish to be helpful, you can deliver two oranges to each person here.”

Eleanor knotted the activator back into her skirt, and took a full basket of identical oranges to the front room.

*

The next day passed slowly. Eleanor dozed and helped with the meals, and the Sergeant spent his time with Jeanne. The other prisoners included inventors who refused to harm the sky city, a very sickly mutinous pirate who had flown down with Captain Blodger, several thieves who had tried to steal water from the City, and a man who belived that the center of the current planet held all the secrets of the universe, who spoke at length to anyone who would listen to him.

Eleanor listened politely to everyone, but she hoped Jeanne's drill would be finished soon.

That evening, Eleanor heard Miss Locke's voice shouting outside, “No. Please. It wasn't my fault. I didn't do anything. Please.”

Somebody else spoke, muffled by the heavy walls.

A minute later, from the entrance room, Miss Locke shouted, “Mrs. Menacky, are you still alive?”

Mr. Thowulle told Eleanor, “Go and see what she wants.” He waved his hand, and the room darkened.

Eleanor reminded herself to act starved and weak, and she dragged herself into the front room. “I'm... here.”

Miss Locke pounded the inside of the door, and said, “She's here.” More softly, she said, “The King will see you. Say a good word for me. I'm not a saboteur. I'm just working with idiots.”

Eleanor said, “I'll do my best.”

The door swung open, and Eleanor stepped out, remembering to blink in the dim daylight.