The hike was about to come to an unpleasant end.
The trees appeared to cease abruptly ofi to one side. Espying what seemed to be a glint of sunlight on water, he turned in that direction. His supposition was correct. In front of him was a large clearing which bordered on a good-sized lake. In the foreground stood the diminutive figure of Flip, the native’s offspring. He was gazing at a pair of massive, glowering figures in space armor. These did not fit into the picture.
Yops!
Phrnnx stood paralyzed with shock. The Yop battleship that he thought they had lost near that red dwarf sat half-in, half-out of the blue-green lake. He assumed it was the same one. Its gunports were wide , open. Troops were clustering around a landing portal on one side of the kilometer-and-a-half-Iong monster. Dirt had been gouged out on all sides by the sheer mass of the huge vessel. These two figures in the foreground were doubtlessly scouts.
How in the central chaos had they slipped in past the cruiser’s screens? Unless they, too, had found a way to negate the Shield—and this seemed unlikely—
17
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . ,,
then they must have entered by way of the temporary hole made by the Tpin. A quick glance at the sky showed the now familiar gold tinge still strong. So they hadn’t destroyed the generating equipment on the planet’s satellite, then. Yop invisibility screens were known to be good, but this good? . . . His speculations were interrupted by what happened next.
The nearest Yop reached down and lifted the Rip in one massive, knobby claw. It held it like that, steady, while it examined the youngster along with its partner. The boy, in turn, appeared to be examining them with its wide, deep-gray eyes. Both were making the motions and gestures which Phrnnx knew indicated Yop laughter.