The Inkleozese arrived by their usual form of transport: abrupt materialization. Her Exactitude arrived first. She provided Benita with both a tape and a disc of the recorded voice Benita had asked for, then suggested Benita go to the bathroom and stay there while they and their “baggage” transitted the living room. Since no one was willing to gamble on how things would turn out, everyone was being very careful of what Benita saw and didn’t see, just in case she had to testify about it. She took the opportunity for a long, luxurious shower while poor Sasquatch, who’d tried a sniff at one of the Inkleozese and had been abruptly flattened for it, lay on the bathroom rug whining at her. Poor dog, he didn’t know what to think or who to bark at or even who to smell.
Late that evening, right after the arrival of the Big SA and the president, it was Chad and Benita’s turn. Benita had already arranged for Simon to do dog duty again, and he’d wished her well. She had hinted to him that something epochal was happening, so he’d feel better about all the bother she was causing him. She really didn’t want to get back and find she had no job. She liked her job. Besides, if they were successful in their efforts, things would go back to more or less normal, on its way to being forgotten except by historians, and nobody would give her a pension for her part in it.
The shuttle delivered the last few of them to the larger ship on the moon, pausing there while the Inkleozese delivered cease and desist documents to the predator ships, denying their right to stay on Earth without decision by the Confederation. While they were waiting, all the Earthians had their pictures taken in front of the window wall of the big ship. The little “SAs” had been promised they could use the trip as a CV item later on, so pictures were absolutely essential, that and bits of moon rock and certificates signed by the president and by Chiddy or Vess. Chiddy protested at putting himself in the position of seeming to endorse the Earthian visit, when it was being required by the Inkleozese, so Chad suggested he write “Real moon rock,- best wishes” in Pistach. It was doubtful anyone would ever know the difference.
While everyone slept a good bit of the time, all the waking hours were spent working. Half a dozen animatronics people were working with the recorded voice Benita had obtained from the Inkleozese, and all the artists (who would pretend to be little SAs, when they arrived at Pistach-home) had copies of a Fresco panel or panels, copies that had been enhanced, enlarged, and had the colors corrected by the FBI labs from those Chad had recorded during the previous trip. The conversation that went on about them was constant and fascinating, or so Benita thought. She wouldn’t have dreamed there were that many things to say about artworks that all the little “SAs” agreed could be compared, at best, to Grandma Moses on a very bad day. The talk about color and composition and message went on, deep into every “night” that they were aboard. (Both Chad and Benita were grateful that the larger ship was able to prevent the exhaustion they’d felt in the smaller one.)
Though the humans occasionally encountered Chiddy and Vess, nothing was discussed where they would be able to hear it. The Inkleozese had assured Benita the Earthian quarters were strictly private, and the ship was large enough that the Pistach were encountered only at meals.
Each member of the group had been given a copy of Chiddy’s journal also, as a guide to Pistach thought. At one point in the journey, the Big SA, looking very stern, asked Benita just what Chiddy meant when he wrote “dearest” Benita.
“Chiddy’s an affectionate sort of person,” she answered, after a moment’s thought. “I assume he, or it, or ai, feels toward me pretty much the same way I feel about my dog, or perhaps, my dog about me, when I come home from work. I mean, that’s a cross-species relationship, but we both have a sense of security and pleasure in it, and perhaps even rapture. Sasquatch does act rapturous sometimes.”