Kitten answered between breaths as they jogged around another corner. "The darts themselves are made from a specially constituted gelatin. It dissolves untraceably into, the bloodstream. It also contains a coagulating agent to halt bleeding around the wound. Thirty seconds after impact, it would take careful chemical analysis of the blood to tell that a target's been drugged, much less shot."

Mal examined his own pistol with renewed interest as they swung to their left. A trade item with excellent possibilities. True, it might not be for sale by the Church, but still ...

"Here's one that says 'Life-Systems Monitoring,"' said Kitten. "It's the first one I've seen with that blue danger seal on it. Let's try it."

The latch lifted easily to Porsupah's soft touch and he slipped inside, Kitten following close behind and Mal covering.

There were three AAnn in the room. All wore similar expressions of surprise and bewilderment at the nocturnal alien invasion. One soldier and two scientist-types, judging by the toga-chainmail of the intellectual elite the others wore.

The soldier's hand got about halfway to the ugly pistol strapped to his haunch before he collapsed on his snout, unconscious. The younger of the two scientists continued to stare in disbelief until he was sent sleepward. The oldster, however, made a dive for something at the far end of the big central console. He didn't reach it. Singeing Porsupah's left shoulder, Kitten caught the scientist in the midsection. He doubled up in midair and she shot him again, to make sure.

Mal took a fast glance up and down the, corridor, then closed the door. Kitten was replacing the gas cartridge and dart cluster in her pistol. At the same time she was examining the section of console the scientist had been trying to reach. Mal looked at her questioningly and she indicated a clearly marked azure button.

"General alarm. Close."

Porsupah was rubbing his shoulder where the hot gas from her pistol had singed him. "Good! If it were anything less, soft-and-round, I'd mark you."

"They're all quite alive, if not kicking," she said, turning over the last of the three. Mal and Porsupah had moved to a wide glassite panel and were staring unmoving into it. She put hands on hips. "Well, aren't you even interested?"

"Come and take a look at this," whispered Porsupah without turning from the glass.

"What could fascinate you cretins so ..." She caught sight of what lay beyond the panel and stopped talking'.

A Brobdinguagian chamber showed on the other side. If was brightly, almost painfully, illuminated. Small silver-suited figures of what were clearly AAnn technics clustered in groups about the wall to their left.

Most of the chamber was filled with a gigantic spheroid of nightmare black. It quivered slightly here and there, like jelly. The fur at the back of Porsupah's neck stood on end.

There was a sharp crackling sound, audible through a speaker set above one cabinet of instruments. A small bolt of electricity jumped from a far device to the ebony mountain. Ponderously, the massive bulk shifted away from the generator. It flowed/crawled towards them. Another crackling followed and the second bolt drove the thing back to the center of the chamber. It halted just short of three silver-suited figures.

"Well, that explains a lot,' Kitten murmured. "The AAnn have some peculiar tastes, all right. Can't say I care for their style in pets."

"That winds down the 'invincible alien' theory of our resurrected friend," said Mal grimly. "Our bescaled neighbors seem to have managed to keep it in hand."

"Directing it, too," put in Porsupab thoughtfully. "Moving it from place to place via electrical stimulation.

Conditioning."

"Could be Peot overestimated its powers. Just sizewise, though, it's plenty big enough to do a lot of damage, improperly directed," said Kitten.

"Direction depends on your point of view," said Mal.

"You're always looking for an angle, aren't you, throwback? That's the sort of evaluation I'd expect from one of them." She pointed at a cluster of techs.

"Listen, I've had just about-"

"Surely," Porsupah put in hastily, "it is of sufficient mass to destroy a good-sized village. And it may be an especially tough organism. Such a creature could indeed prove a formidable threat on a world as undeveloped as Repler."

"We've no assurance they plan anything along those lines," said Kitten. Mal snorted. "Still, I think it's time we concluded our temporary circumvention of the official policy on non-intrusion into Concession territory. Let's get back to the raft." She headed for the door, Mal and Porsupah following.

"Do I detect the advocation of violence in your words?" asked Porsupah. "It would amount to an act of war."

"You think the AAnn would risk a full-scale confrontation over violation of territory on this tiny base?"

"Of course not," the Tolian continued. "But if they feel this project of theirs could develop into something significant..:'

"I see. Well, I wasn't considering it seriously, anyway. Fortunately, it's not our decision to make. I have a hunch that if the Major calls the AAnn Commander for a friendly chat and just casually mentions that he's fully aware of what's going on here, the AAnn won't be as inclined to try anything drastic. Not if they know they'll be held accountable."

"By the time the Commander here figures out how to proceed," she continued, "something appropriate will have been worked out in the way of restraints at the ambassadorial level. Which is all that needs to be done, I think. Obviously Peot has grossly overestimated this thing's abilities. Or else it's been dormant so long it's lost whatever it once might have had in the way of strange powers."

"One thing," said Mal. "If they follow what I understand is their usual procedure in cases like ours, we ought to be let go some time tomorrow. Next day at the' latest. With a verbal reprimand. But there :s always the chance something might hold up our leave-taking."

"Oh, I didn't intend to wait until they let us go," said Kitten, jogging easily on the sandy flooring. "We'll broadcast from the raft first thing in the morning. Their own transceivers ought to be busy then."

"They're certain, to be monitoring us as a matter of course," he replied. "You know they'll pick up any broadcasting you do."

"I expect them to. But all they'll hear is a typical screeching performance via my alias to Church authorities. That alone ought to be enough to make any listeners switch off. The real message won't be transmitted in words."

"Phycode," said Mal, pursing his lips. "You can do that?" He sounded surprised.

"Of course, silly!" Unexpectedly, she giggled, green glass chimes. For a battle-rated officer, it was indecently infectious. A corner of her mouth went up; then a cheek, the left one, twitched twice. An ear wiggled.

"I just made a long, involved comment about your probable ancestry. An AAnn wouldn't have detected a thing. To a perceptive human I'd appear to be afflicted with a slight case of the fidgits. But to someone versed in the code... "

" ... I'd have seemed properly insulted, I know," Mal said. "I've heard about it, but never seen it-or have I?".

"That's what I mean," she grinned. "I'm very good at it." They'd reached the bottom of the stairwell.

Porsupah started up.

"You're sure that when all these lizards come around, they won't remember what happened to them?

Those three in the monitoring section, for example."

Her voice drifted back from just ahead. "They'll be out for at least another hour yet. No, they won't. In addition to being a strong soporific, the drug conveniently wipes out memory just prior to being administered. An intentional side effect. But if we'd taken a minute or two longer with those three, they'd remember enough to make things awkward."

The sun and the first guard were just coming up as they reentered the sleek sportsraft. Kitten was the first to her own cabin. She changed from the skin-tight, light-bending black crawfit to something suitably grotesque and flamboyant for a young lady of her assumed station. It wouldn't do for an AAnn vidcast scanner to pick her up transceiving in a one-piece suit designed to create an effect of semi-invisibility.

Mal and Porsupah changed a bit faster, not having to be concerned with such details as, for example, coiffure. Kitten essayed a few eloquent twitches, paraphrastically speaking, and felt up to the task. She'd have to trust to memory and improvisation to handle the verbal park of the act.

Porsupah waved as she entered the plush control lounge. He was adjusting the transceiver. The AAnn would almost surely pick up the cast, but it didn't hurt to try for as tight a beam as possible, anyway.

"The arrival of your friend with the shipment you requested is due shortly, I am told," said Commander Parquit. Rose walked comfortably at his side.

"A few necessities and items of nostalgic value."

"I'm sure," Parquit replied drily. "If the shipment is as small as you claim, then both you and your materials will be removed to orbit, there to await an appropriate transport as rapidly as can be managed, as per our agreement. An event which I look forward to with more than a modicum of pleasure." The Commander was making no effort to hide his dislike.

"You don't seem to care for me especially," offered Rose.

"I am not fond of your race, as few of my kind are. You strike me additionally as a particularly loathsome example. We can bargain without friendship. It is not required I kiss you."

"Not sure I'd care for that myself."