She didn’t, although funny sounds came from her throat. One of the technicians wasn’t so bashful and did scream. Another fainted. All four eyes did open, slowly, all at once. The pupils, Mal noted as he took four large steps backwards, were slitted like a cat’s in the two big ones but were round in the small peripheral ones. He drew his own pistol. If the thing decided to charge he had more confidence in running than in the gun’s stopping power. The alien looked frighteningly efficient, was clearly carnivorous (that hooked beak, never mind the teeth) and powerful enough to shred armor-plate.

“Hey, I can’t scream. I’m too scared.”

“Scared, Lieutenant?” said Mal, immediately regretting the unkind dig.

“Fang you, ape. This isn’t in the manual.”

They all heard the voice at the same time.

It was similar to the voices one hears in dreams. Precise, sharp, but very far away.

“Do not be scared, female-image-of-small-furred-animal-with-long-claws. After such Time, it is sad to be awakened to thoughts dissonant and unfriendly.”

“Interesting,” she said, recovering rapidly. Whatever else could be said about the voice, it was completely devoid of any hint of malice. She was instantly, perhaps unreasonably, reassured. “Telepathy.”

“A serviceable label, given lack of proper referents,” the creature murmured. The eyes shifted slowly, slightly. “Also for want of a better term, you may address me as ‘Peot.’ I am quite immobile. I can, however, detect a number of your species pointing what I ascertain to be lethal devices in my direction. While I do not believe they could do me harm, I would prefer to avoid the possibility that one may stumble accidentally, thus forcing me to find out. I assure you I mean you no evil.”

One of the guards, an older man with some gray in his sideburns, turned his head to face Kingsley. His weapon did not move.

“Sir?”

Kingsley had not become wealthy by hesitating. “Take the rest of the boys and resume your normal stations. Stay there unless you’re sent for.”

“As you wish, sir. I protest, though.” He gestured to the other five and, without taking their weapons off the alien, they began to edge out of the chamber.

“Oh, and Haddad?”

“Sir?”

“Call Martinez at stores and tell him it seems we won’t be needing that cannon after all. Tell him just to get back here himself.”

“Aye, sir.”

The engineers had edged back and were slowly resuming their multiple conversations—quietly, this time.

“I’ve a million questions and no place marked ‘begin the game here,’ ” began Chatham, “so . . .”

“A moment,” said Peot solemnly. The eyes closed and the alien went incommunicado for several minutes while the humans shifted about restlessly. They reopened.

“There were a number of things I had to determine. It is difficult also for me to adjust to the span of time that has passed.”

“No more so than it is for us to adjust to your presence,” said Kitten.