“Pleased to see us alive,” Loo said. “Disappointed that we could not do more. I explained to them that we now have a friend. This they understood, for a friend can often be worth more than freedom.”

“I am sure it will be so,” Ryo replied confidently. “I will explain all to these authorities.” He indicated the rows of busy Thranx crowded around them. “This mistake will be straightened out soonest. There is much to do between our peoples.”

“Yes,” Bonnie said. “There is nothing like a mutual enemy,” and she made the gesture for the AAnn, “to produce understanding among potential friends.”

One of the officials was gesturing urgently to Ryo. He turned back to his friends. “They want to talk to me now and I am equally anxious to talk with them. Will you be well?”

“Well enough,” Loo replied.

“Then all is calm for now. I will return as soon as I am able. Burrow deep and warm.” He inclined his head slightly and extended his antennae.

“Be warm,” Bonnie said, reaching out to touch the tips of the delicate organs.

Several of the Thranx guards turned away or otherwise indicated their disgust. Of sterner stuff, the researchers and scientists simply recorded the exchange with cool detachment. Then Ryo turned and joined Wuu and the little cluster of specialists gathering around him. The two aliens rejoined their own companions, who crowded excitedly around them.

Ryo was escorted to a nearby chamber and promptly sat down in a comfortably padded saddle. The scientists who’d packed in around him immediately threw a barrage of questions at him.

“What was it like? … What did they do out there? What did they do to you out there? … How did you learn the language so quickly? … How did they learn ours so quickly? … How did they avoid the search parties for so long? … How? … Why? … When? …”

“Slowly, gentlesirs. I will—” He paused, suddenly dizzy.

Wuu stepped close. “Leave the youth alone for now. Can’t you sense his exhaustion? Doubtless he is weak from hunger as well.”

Ryo looked gratefully up at the poet, made a third- degree gesture of assent. “I am far from starving, though it would be wonderful to have a good soup. I’ve had little but meat and raw greens for a month.”

“Then they are omnivorous like us?” one scientist inquired anxiously. “It seemed thus because they ate much of what we supplied them, but it is helpful to have it confirmed by nonlaboratory experience.”

“I said, no questions,” Wuu broke in firmly.

But Ryo gestured his confirmation. “Yes, though they take their meat largely in burnt chunks and not in proper soup or stew.”

There was muttering among the assembled researchers at this fresh assurance of alien oddity.

“They don’t boil it or cook it with any other liquids?”

“Not that I saw.”

“But they eat soups and stews here,” another pointed out.