Ftaeml translated. Nothing happened, though the Hroshii stirred uneasily. Greenberg said, “Boss, how about asking Lummox and the kids to come out here? That crowd doesn’t smell friendly.”
“No. I dislike shouting into this wind. Please call out to the Stuart lad and tell him to have them make way.”
“Okay, boss. It will be fun to tell my grandchildren-if I have grandchildren.” He cupped his mouth and shouted, “Johnnie! John Stuart! Tell Lummox to have them clear a path.”
“Sure!”
A path wide enough for a column of troops opened as if swept with a broom. The little procession moved down the ranks of Hroshii. Greenberg felt goose flesh crawl up and down his back.
Mr. Kiku’s only worry seemed to be keeping his hat on in the wind. He swore primly while clutching at his head. They stopped in front of Lummox. “Howdy, Mr. Kiku,” John Thomas called out. “Shall we come down?”
“Perhaps it would be best.”
Johnnie slid off, then caught Betty. “Sorry we messed things up.”
“So am I. If you did. Will you introduce me to your friend, please?”
“Oh, sure. Lummox, this is Mr. Kiku. He’s a nice fellow, a friend of mine.”
“How do you do, Mr. Kiku.”
“How do you do, Lummox.” Mr. Kiku looked, thoughtful. “Doctor, is not that the commander, there by the Hroshia? The one with the ugly glint in his eye?”
The Rargyllian looked. “Yes, it is he.”
“Um. Ask him if he has reported the conference to his mistress.”
“Very well.” The medusoid spoke to the Hroshij commander, was answered. “He says not.”
“Um. John Thomas, we concluded a treaty with the Hroshii to permit all that I discussed with you. Suddenly they repudiated the agreement when they discovered that we would not surrender your person without guarantees. Will you help me find out if such were the wishes of your friend?”
“You mean Lummox? Sure.”
“Very well. Wait a moment. Dr. Ftaeml, will you report the essentials of our agreement to the Hroshia Lummox-in the presence of the commander? Or are the concepts beyond her?”
“Eh? Why should they be? She was perhaps two hundred of your years old when she was brought here.”
“So much? Well, speak ahead.”
The Rargyllian commenced the curious whines of the Hroshij tongue, addressing Lummox. Once or twice Lummox interrupted, then allowed him to continue. When Dr. Ftaeml had finished she spoke to the expedition commander. Ftaeml said to the humans, “She asks, ‘Can this be true?'”
The commander made as wide a circle as space permitted, crept up in front of her, with the little group representing the Federation giving way. His legs were retracted so that he crawled like a caterpillar. Without lifting his head from the ground he whined his answer.
“He is admitting the truth but pleading necessity.”
“I wish he would hurry with it,” Kiku fretted. “I’m getting chilly.” His thin knees trembled.
“She is not accepting the explanation. I will spare you the exact tenor of her language-but her rhetoric is superb.”
Suddenly Lummox spat out one squeal, then reared up with four legs clear of the ground. With arms retracted the great beast swung down her head and struck the unfortunate commander a smashing sidewise blow,
It lifted him off the ground, bowled him into the crowd. Slowly he regained his feet, slunk back to the spot in front of Lummox.
Lummox began to speak. “She is saying. . . I wish you could hear this in her language!.. . that so long as the Galaxy shall last the friends of Johnnie are her friends. She adds that those who are not friends of her friends are nothing, less than nothing, never to be suffered in her sight. She commands this in the names of. . . it is a recitation of her ancestry with all its complicated branches and is somewhat tedious. Shall I attempt to translate?”
“Don’t bother,” Mr. Kiku told him. ” ‘Yes’ is ‘yes’ in any language.”
“But she tells it with great beauty,” Ftaeml said. “She is recalling to them things dreadful and wonderful, reaching far into the past.”
“I am interested only in how it affects the future. . . and in getting out of this pesky wind.” Mr. Kiku sneezed.