Margo called Gummidgy with a com laser as soon as we were out of hyperspace. By the time we landed, the news would be ten hours old. We would land at three in the morning, ship’s time, and at roughly noon Gummidgy time.

Most of us, including me, went to our cabins to get some sleep. An hour before planetfall I was back in the lounge, watching us come in.

Emil didn’t want to watch. He wanted to talk.

“Have you heard? The kidnappers called the base a couple of hours ago.”

“What’d they have to say?”

“They want ten million stars and a contract before they turn the Kdatlyno loose. They also—” Emil was outraged at their effrontery. “—reminded the base that Kdatlyno don’t eat what humans eat. And they don’t have any Kdat foodstuffs!”

“They must be crazy. Where would the base get ten million stars in time?”

“Oh, that’s not the problem. If the base doesn’t have funds, they can borrow money from the hunting parties, I’m sure. There’s a group down there with their own private yacht. It’s the contract that bothers me.”

Gummidgy was blue on blue under a broken layer of white, with a diminutive moon showing behind an arc of horizon. Very Earthlike but with none of the signs that mark Earth: no yellow glow of sprawling cities on the dark side, no tracery of broken freeways across the day. A nice-looking world, from up here. Unspoiled. No transfer booths, no good nightclubs, no tridee except old tapes and those only on one channel. Unspoiled.

With only half my mind working on conversation, I said, “Be glad we’ve got contracts. Otherwise we might get him back dead.”

“Obviously you don’t know much about Kdatlyno.”

“Obviously.” I was nettled.

“They’ll do it, you know. They’ll pay the kidnappers ten million stars to give Lloobee back, and they’ll tape an immunity contract, too. Total immunity for the kidnappers. No reprisals, no publicity. Do you know what the Kdatlyno will think about that?”

“They’ll be glad to have their second-best sculptor back.”

“Best.”

“Hrodenu is the best.”

“It doesn’t matter. What they’ll think is, they’ll wonder why we haven’t taken revenge for the insult to Lloobee. They’ll wonder what we’re doing about getting revenge. And when they finally realize we aren’t doing anything at all…”

“Go on.”

“They’ll blame the whole human race. You know what the kzinti will think?”

“Who cares what the kzinti think?”

He snorted. Great. Now he had me pegged as a chauvinist.

“Why don’t you drop it?” I suggested. “We can’t do anything about it. It’s up to the base MPs.”

“It’s up to nobody. The base MPs don’t have ships.”