One night Liberty got away from the cave and was
detected walking slowly near some dried-up trees,
out in the open. The “Baldies” started right away
the activation sequence for their new weapon, code
name “Arrow”: an arrow-like wooden missile having a
small rocket engine at its rear end. A tiny homing
device installed near its arrowhead would help to
locate it soon after impact.
The Arrow is launched from a large Launch Pad that
provides its initial velocity, so the rocket engine
is only for additional drive, to help it maintain
speed even after it has flown 10 miles or more.
Its initial velocity is only as fast as a regular
arrow shooting from a large strong bow, but its
heavy weight and the fact that it hardly loses
velocity before hitting the target, make for its
devastating impact. In experiments conducted on
animals the Arrow managed to spike two tigers onto a
thick wooden board, with such impact that the Arrow
could not be pulled out and had to be sawed away.
The secret of Arrow’s strength is not in its
velocity – no speed is effective after 10 miles
because the victim can jump aside when he detects
the nearing object (a rocket engine is a noisy
little thing).
Arrow’s secret is in ITS MANEUVERABILITY and its
ability to CORRECT
ITS COURSE EVEN AT THE VERY LAST MOMENT BEFORE
IMPACT.
Liberty is enjoying her walk, breathing the night’s
crisp air and observing the star-strewn sky. “What do the stars
conceal? Is there another girl walking on her
distant star right now? Does she, like me, want to
find her way to freedom?”
A faraway shrike disturbs the nightly silence. Is
this the voice of Poly the Parrot?? Birds chirping
is usually short or chopped, but this shrike is long
and continuous…
What’s there on the ground by the old tree? On the
tree there is a wide nest, lying crooked on a half
broken branch, maybe a baby bird has fallen off…
She approaches the tree. The shrike gets more
intense by the second. And indeed, on the ground
there’s a baby parrot, with beak open and neck
stretched forward. Liberty walks vigorously toward
it. The shrike has turned horrible. But she
continues, no backing off now.
A heartless Arrow corrects its course
and lowers down to the center of her chest. Liberty
gets to the baby bird and then kneels down with one
swift move, as she always does.
An object that flew right above the top of her head
hits the trunk with such impact that the old tree
breaks in half, falls apart and goes down. The large
nest falls over Liberty and the birdie. She protects
it with her body, collects the birdie gently into
her palms and gets out of the wreckage. And then she
turns to the directing from which the Arrow came and
shouts angrily:
“SHAME ON YOU!!! SHOOTING
GIANT ARROWS AT SUCH A SMALL BIRDIE! GO FIND A
TARGET THAT BETTER FITS YOUR BIG EYES!!!”
The Baldies are not listening. They’re busy yanking
out the last of their hair.
Liberty takes a handkerchief out of her dress belt,
wraps it gently around the birdie. In and around the
fallen nest she can see nothing the baby bird might
call food.
“Come little one, I’ll take you
home with me. You’ll sleep in a tiny little cave
that will be like your bird house. And in the
morning I’ll find you tasty worms and such, OK?
You’ll grow up to be a big and pretty parrot and
then you can fly to the mountains. You’ll be free
and happy.”
She leaves the place and lightly steps back to the
cave, enjoying the night’s curved air while warming
the bird between her palm and the red scarf around
her neck. The Arrow? The broken tree? She has
already forgotten all of those.
The commander of the Bald Squad, having no more
hair to pull, bangs his head repeatedly on the
Launch Pad.