"I don't think so, Captain." Though far from positive, the first officer felt secure in hazarding a guess. If he was proved wrong, he would be delighted to admit the mistake. He hoped he was wrong. The inherent pacificity of the Quillp was well known.

Looking sharply to his left, Burgess snapped a question. "Any response to our queries, Tambri?"

The diminutive communications officer glanced over at him and shook her head. Her dark eyes were very wide. "Nothing, sir. I'm trying everything, from Terranglo through High and Low Thranx to straight mathematical theorems. They're chattering noisily among themselves - I can pick up the wash - but they're not talking to us."

"They will. Keep trying." Burgess turned back to the three-dimensional image floating in the air of the ship's bridge. "Who are they and what the blazes do they want here?"

"Maybe they've already claimed this world." The observation no one had wanted to voice came from the back of the command section. "Maybe they're here to inform us of a claim of prior rights."

"If that's the case," the first officer declared, "they've been mighty subtle about advertising any prior presence here. There isn't so much as an artifact on the planet, much less an orbital transmitter. There's nothing on either of the two small moons, or anywhere else in the system."

"That we've found yet, you mean." Having stated a contention, the dissenter felt bound to defend it. "We've only been here a couple of months."

"Okay, okay," Burgess muttered. "Let's everybody keep calm. Whatever the situation, we'll deal with it. We didn't expect to encounter sapience here, much less evidence of another space-traversing species. They're probably taking our measure as carefully as we are theirs." But I wish they'd respond to our communications, he thought tensely.

"Look there!" Someone in the growing crowd pointed.

A second, much smaller vessel was emerging from the side of the first. Winged and ported, obviously designed for atmospheric travel, it began to recede swiftly from the flank of it; parent vessel. Its immediate purpose was self-evident. Any thing else those aboard might intend could not be divined from tracking its progress.

"Get on to Pranchavit and the rest of the landing party,' Burgess barked at the communications officer. "Tell their they're probably going to have company."

Once again the officer looked up from her instrumentation "They'll want to know what kind of company, sir."

Burgess glanced over at the tridee holo. "Maybe they car tell us."

By the time Kairuna and his companions arrived at the camp, it was alive with questions and concerns, anxiety and confusion. No one seemed to know what was going on, including those who had recognized the audible signal for what it was. Now they troubled themselves with unsupported inferences and paranoid suppositions. In such company, Alwyn was in his element.