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door stood behind it. Alone, please, the screen, said. You will not be
harmed.
Maybe a couple of us ought to come anyway, Sergeant Elliot said.
Thanks, Sarge, but I guess not, Rick said. If they really want us dead,
they ll
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let the air out of this compartment. And don t forget that. Elliot, for God s
sake, don t let the troops do anything stupid while I m gone.
No, sir. But when will you be back?
I don t know.
Cap n, if you re not back in four hours, we can blow that door open
No. Wake up Lieutenant Parsons and tell him he s in charge. I ll be back.
Rick sounded a lot more confident than he felt as he went through the
door-way. It closed behind him before the airtight in front of him dilated.
There was another corridor, and no one in sight. Rick followed that for a
hundred meters until it bent sharply left, then led through two more
rubberized pressure doors. He emerged in another cavern, one much smaller than
the one he had left.
It was well lighted, and there were at least a dozen of the TV screens of the
kind he had seen in the ship and in the cavern.
There were both people and aliens in the cavern, perhaps a dozen of each.
Several were studying the TV-like screens. An alien in grey coveralls,
possibly the one who had spoken to him in the ship, came over to him.
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The alien was six inches taller than Rick, but the extra height seemed to be
all in the legs. The torso was not much longer than Rick s. The arms were
longer than a human s, but not so much longer as were the legs. There, the
alien said. He indicated a door. You would do well to be careful of what you
say.
Rick nodded. I understand. If this were the same alien, and Rick thought it
was, it no longer spoke as easily and confidently as it had aboard the ship.
Why? he wondered.
The door opened into an office. A desk faced the door. There were papers on
the desk, along with two keyboards that Rick thought must connect to a
computer.
The desk held two of the flat TV screens, and there were other screens higher
up.
All were blank. The office had metallic square walls and floor and ceiling; a
room built into the cavern. There was a rug on the floor which Rick thought
was
Persian; it had that pattern and look to it. There were other art objects that
appeared to be from Earth: seascape paintings, a color photograph of the
Golden
Gate bridge, a Kalliroscope with its swirling shock-wave patterns.
The man he had seen on the TV screen sat behind the desk. The desk itself
looked
Danish modern and was probably from Earth. The man stood as Rick entered, but
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he did not offer to shake hands.
He was perhaps five feet ten, two inches shorter than Rick, and looked
thoroughly human. He was a bit darker than Rick, face rounder, but he would
not have attracted attention on any street in the United States or Europe. His
expression was not unfriend-ly, but he looked harried, very busy and
preoc-cupied.
The man spoke. It sounded to Rick more like the twittering of a bird than any
human speech. A par-rot in a cageful of cats, Rick told André Parsons later.
The alien answered in the same language, and the human nodded.
Excuse me, Captain, he said. Please be seat-ed. He indicated chairs, both
of aluminum and plastic, one a normal-height chair, the other like a highchair
for an adult. Doubtless you have many questions.
Now there s an understatement, Rick thought. Yes. Beginning with, who are
you?
The man nodded, tight-lipped, again his expres-sion more of impatience and
mild annoyance than anything else. You would find my name hard to pronounce.
Try
Agzaral, which is close enough not to offend me. I am you do not have the
occupation. Think of me as a police inspector. It is close enough for our
purposes.
And do be seated.
Rick took the normal chair. The alien went to the highchair. It fitted
perfectly.
And my rescuer? Rick asked. It was difficult to know how to speak. There
were no referents, and Rick had no idea of what would offend ejther the human
or the alien. Obviously he should avoid terms like this critter or stretchy
here,
but what could he call the crea-ture?
His name translates as Goldsmith, Agzaral said. Many
Shalnuksi names derive from ancient occupations. That seems a nearly universal
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