Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

There was no doubt about that. The hull of the lavelin was banging

continuously with the admonitory small shot from the bubble ships,

obviously not intended to wound the great clumsy interstellar vessel much,

but only to see to it with a fusillade of whipcracks that she came to

ground conveniently near her proper cow-barn. She could no longer see the

landing place she had picked for herself; suddenly the quiet atmosphere

into which she had been settling was aroil with black storms, blinking and

bursting with gigantic, jagged lightning-bolts.

‘No,” Ailiss said,_ in a hoarse whisper. “Ob, no.”

The beautiful black creature on the screen smiled at her, but without

mercy.

“And why not?” he said, in a voice as deep and rich as that of an organ.

“You cannot say no to us. You never could. You were stupid to try; and now

ies far too late. Too bad-anywhere else, you might have gotten away with

it.”

As Afliss swallowed and attempted to muster an

150 fames Blish

answer, he burst into a peal of musical, glistening black-and-white

laughter. There was no humor in it, though there was a great deal of joy: it

was the amusement of a demon, part delight, part calculation, and part the

compulsive wbicker of insanity.

While the laughter died away, they had time to realize that this tall black

man-thing without lashes, brows or hair which glittered at them from the

screen like volcanic glass spoke their language as fluently as through he

had been born to it-and as contemptousIy as though he had picked it up

entirely just yesterday afternoon.