Kitten stood, holding her midsection, which throbbed painfully from the solid butt it had taken. She'd had her satisfaction. But Kingsley, somehow, got to his feet. He feigned collapse, then charged furiously-not at her, but at the guard, trying for the gun.

This guard was one of the Commander's personal attendants. He was neither lazy, slow, nor overly involved in the proceedings.

Kingsley rested a good two strides from the guard, who hadn't moved. There were two small black holes in his perfect skull, one in front, a slightly larger one directly in the back, where the energy bolt had sprayed out.

A strange drumming sound caused Kitten to turn, panting, from the ugly corpse. Parquit was thumping his. tail on the floor behind him.

"Well executed, female, very well indeed! And with little damage to yourself. You are formidable, yes, formidable."

"My tummy's killing me, but if you'd like to have a goround yourself, Excellency..."

"I am honored, but I fear my time for personal combat is past its prime. Nor do I feel the need of putting myself in jeopardy, even from a small female."

"I offer protest," said Rose. He was watching two attendants remove the body. "I have few enough friends left on this planet." Actually, he was more worried about ,word of the circumstances surrounding Kingsley's death getting back to his father. He had enough who were sworn to kill him.

"Why bother, since you will be leaving so soon?" said Parquit.

"I'm aware you bear no love for me, Commander. Must they be informed of such things?" He indicated the little group.

"I reiterate, why bother? They are not going to contact anyone anyplace for some time, if ever. I no longer intend to act in a manner merely pleasing to you."

"Going to risk an interstellar incident over us?" said Porsupah. "Strange priorities you have, Commander."

"I hardly think your disappearance would engender more than sincere regret among your friends and associates, since you are here quite illegally. And perhaps some mild anger on the part of the being who'll be responsible for replacing you in the ranks of the Church."

"I seem to have heard something similar somewhere before," Mal whispered to Kitten.

"Oh, shut up, ox!" She winced. "Nova, that abomination had a hard head!"

Chimes rang somewhere from within the Commander's spacious desk. He pulled out an earphone-speaker setup, appeared to listen intently for several minutes.

"I hear. Yes. For how long? Have you transcribed it? Good. I want it on record. Send it out to the transport as soon as it comes round in orbit again." He replaced the apparatus in the desk.

"It would seem, beings, that someone else is not concerned about off-planet ramifications."

"What do you mean?" asked Porsupah.

"There are three vessels of the local constabulary lying close offshore my harbor. They are very much aware of your presence here and appear quite insistent about having you back. Their attitude is decidedly unfriendly. I've never known the Major to act so belligerently. You must mean a lot to him. Or the information you've obtained."

"What do you propose to do about it?" said Kitten.

"Orvenalix is no fool. He must be conversant with the kind of defensive popgun I am permitted here. No doubt those ships axe equipped with that in mind. However, we have a few surprises not included in the agreements. I should prefer to avoid a running battle where some of the installation may be damaged and my personnel subjected to an inglorious death .... Therefore, in the interests of preserving peace and avoiding unnecessary destruction, I'll offer your would-be saviors a chance to back off and motor away to wherever they came from."

"Why should they do that?" asked Kitten. Suspicions were congealing in her mind that were not attractive.

Parquit stared at her shrewdly. "I believe you have some idea. Your gladiatorial talents, if nothing else, have identified you as what this disreputable specimen insists you to be. Namely, trained agents in the service of the Emperor's enemies. I suspect you have some idea of what is taking place here. You've been here for over a day now, operating unsuspected. I have great respect for your abilities. I don't know precisely how much you've learned, because we've no way as yet of deciphering the vidcast you sent out this morning. That's one thing I hope to persuade you to reveal, later, at my leisure. I am not confident that it was damped out sufficiently early. The presence of those three vessels is partial proof of that."

"I wouldn't attempt to deny that," said Kitten.

"That is a beginning." Parquit showed teeth. "The fact that they were able to slip inside our defenses without triggering any alarm shows they are either far better equipped than that type of vessel normally is, or that our defensive preparations here have been woefully inadequate."

"Probably both," offered Mal. "If you're referring to that animated blob of caulking putty-yeah, we've seen it" Porsupah tried to restrain Mal but the captain shook him off. "No, I'm tired of games. It hasn't done me any too good so far. Let's be direct for a change."

"You two will be the death of me yet!" the Tolian exclaimed.

If Parquit was surprised by Mal's disclosure, he didn't show it.

"it is more likely that I will be. Come with me, then. I had not planned to attempt this at this time, nor have my technicians. There are last-minute preparations to supervise. You will be able to observe from the top of the Harbor Tower. Watch closely and take note of what transpires. Possibly you may be able to convince your Major that further attempts to save you will prove unefficacious. A simple demonstration should suffice."

The Commander came around from behind his desk. "You see, we have delved deeply into the creature, its physiology, its motivations and response. It has been on an extensive training program for some time now. The results have been mostly positive. This will hurry but not disrupt things. It is a dumb animal, true, but it has proven capable of responding to training, to command."

"We watched some of your 'training,"' said Kitten.

"Really?" This time Parquit showed some surprise. "You will tell me how that was managed some time."

Clearly no one at the base had made a connection between a sudden epidemic of nye falling asleep on post and the presence of the three aliens. Which was just as well, even if it didn't seem useful just now.

No point in revealing more than was necessary. And they might have occasion to use the same stunt again-if they could recover their pistols.

Of course if someone got the idea of analyzing the contents of the ammunition ...

"I fail to see," said Kitten, "how coercing the creature from point A to point B and back again is going to frighten away three armed ships. No matter how intimidating the thing is masswise."

"Our program has been far more ambitious than that female. Clearly you did not see very much. As you will soon observe."

They were standing in the Tower. The three subs were barely visible, lying on the surface offshore. The three mammals had been offered the use of a mounted magnifier by Parquit, adjustable to human-Tolian eyesight. Tube launchers were visible on the ships, just above the waterline.

Something in the way of an escape attempt might have been tried, since the technics in the Tower were all occupied. Only the two guards the Commander had ordered to watch them every minute prevented it.

Kitten was holding an awkwardly shaped transceiver mike. The Commander's voice sounded from a speaker set in its handle, as well as from speakers around the room.

"It is time now, female. You may speak to your 'rescuers.' I suggest a brief warning. Remind that the final decision to engage in hostilities is theirs. If they still exhibit obstinacy, I will take action. Controller, open the channel."

The transceiver operator made slight adjustments to two dials, gave Kitten an unmistakable go-ahead sign .

"... supah and Lieutenant Kai-sung. Please acknowledge our ..."

Kitten spoke into the mike. "Listen, whoever you are. This is Lieutenant Kai-sung."

"Lieutenant? Are you all right?"

"Present company and location excluded, just fine. My companions likewise. The Rectory received my 'cast?"

"A substantial portion, Lieutenant. Enough- before it was damped out to the point where amphi couldn't do any good. We got the newsy parts, anyway. What's all this about some kind of 'alien monster'?"

"There is one it is alien, and it most definitely is Monstrous. Your friendly local snakes have apparently trained it to-well, I'm not sure what. But the Commander here seems pretty confident about its ability to handle you."

"We've got energy screens and gelisite torpedoes that'll kill devil-fish on concussion alone at three-hundred meters, Lieutenant. We intend to have you out of there."

"Your final wordings, human?" That was Parquit's voice, breaking in.