Carlos would, so Chiddy informed them, be awakened when they were ready to leave the ship, and in the meantime he suggested that Chad and Benita should change into the appropriate caste clothing. Then they could have coffee and watch the scenery. While they were so employed, Chiddy and Vess talked unintelligibly to the authorities on their planet. It was the first time Benita had heard Pistach spoken at length, and she thought it an interesting language, full of sibilant stretches and lots of Kwa and Wak and Foum sounds. She heard their names, Benita Alvarez and Chad Riley, coupled with the terms nootch and proffe, and assumed they were being introduced prior to arrival.
Came a hiatus, during which they ate breakfast, taking their time about it, and then the conversation with the ground began again, being conducted this time, evidently, with ultimate authority.
Benita and Chad both detected concern in Chiddy’s voice, as though he did not know or recognize the voice or person he was dealing with. Benita asked Vess if anything was wrong, and he shrugged, insofar as his normal shape could shrug. The Pistach didn’t have shoulders that could go up and down. Their pseudo shrug was a kind of sideways nod accompanied by a slightly raised upper limb on that side.
As Chiddy spoke, more and more worriedly, his color betraying increasing concern, Vess, with an equally worried expression, unpacked clothing they had prepared for Carlos. He suggested that Benita get him up and dressed, which she did, though awkwardly, and with bad grace and much complaint on Carlos’s part. This ship was not as tiny as the first one she had seen, one they called a quimish, a word that means, so said Vess, to scoot or buzz about, but still tiny so far as crew space went. Chad remarked that it was a good thing trips didn’t last very long, because one could severely injure oneself trying to change trousers.
By the time Carlos was dressed, permission had been granted for the ship to land near the little community where Chiddy’s family had lived for generations. Benita asked who was meeting them, and Chiddy replied that the Pistach regarded it as the height of arrogance and rudeness to confront a newly arrived person, or one who has just been given news of a possibly disrupting happening, or one who has suffered loss. “Your newsmen on Earth,” said Chiddy, making a face, “would be regressed and reselected here on Pistach-home. I have seen them sticking their microphones into the faces of the bereaved and of the assaulted and of persons just arrested or survivors of disasters asking them how they feel, as though that were news! It is incivility of the worst sort. We would not tolerate it. One should be met, of course, and welcomed, but quietly, discreetly.”
On Pistach home
They expected modest if any greeting, in keeping with Chiddy’s explanations of Pistach manners. Chiddy blanked the view ports and set down. They arranged themselves to depart. The outer hull split vertically, the opening widened, and they walked out into a numerous assembly: a double rank of large Pistach in an arc around the ship, several even larger ones standing close, one particularly large one coming forward, his pincers extended. Chiddy stopped dead in his tracks, staring, his mouth parts slightly agape, and murmured in a shocked voice, “T’Fees!”
Chad gave Benita a quick look. They had heard much about T’Fees. His being here, at this time, with this number of quite large and able-looking Pistach did not bode well for their mission.
T’Fees spoke. Chiddy spoke. Vess murmured to the humans:
“T’Fees is telling him not to be frightened, he intends no harm. Chiddy is asking if T’Fees will respect your status as visitors to whom hospitality is due. T’Fees says he is a rebel, not a barbarian, of course he will.”
T’Fees came forward and bowed, announcing his name, which sounded just as Chiddy had said it, Tuh-FEEZ. Without prompting, Chad pronounced Benita’s name, gesturing toward her, then introduced Carlos, then himself. As the highest caste among the three, this was proper etiquette, according to instructions before landing, given by Vess, who now suggested they bow, which they did, Chad dragging Carlos down by the arm.