Looking through the other side of his tank, he could see--to such
distance as the murky light permitted--the parked vehicles of the
Tridentians. Like a collection of small boats, they were of sundry
sizes and shapes, depending perhaps upon each owner's fancy, perhaps on
his skill. Harris did not know whether the Tridentians' craftsmanship
extended to the level of having professional builders. At any rate,
they were spread out like a small city. Among them were tent-like
arrangements of nets to keep out swimming vermin. Other than that, the
sea-people used no shelters.
_They were smart enough to build a cage for me!_ he thought bitterly.
_What the hell is the matter with the Terran government, anyway? That
Department of Interstellar Relations, or whatever they call it. Why
can't they get me out of here? And where did Big Fish go now?_
He saw several of the crustacean people approaching from the camping
area. Shortly, no doubt, he would again be a center of mass attention,
with cubes of compressed and stinking fish shooting at him from all the
little airlocks. He snarled wordlessly.
The groups seemed to come at certain periods which he had been unable
to define. He could only guess that they had choice times for hunting
besides other work that had to be done to maintain the campsite and
their jet-propelled craft.
_I'd like to get one of them in here and boil him!_ thought Harris.
_Big Fish claims they don't taste good. I wonder. Anyway, it would
shake them up!_
He had long since given up thinking about what the sea-people could do
to him if they chose. Their flushing the tank eighteen inches deep with
sea water twice a day had soon given him an idea, especially as he had
nowhere to go during the process. He no longer permitted himself to
fall asleep anywhere near the inlet pipe.
He noticed that the dozen or so sightseers were edging around the end
of the tank to join the first individual and his offspring. Looking
up, Harris saw the reason. A long, dark shadow was curving down in an
insolently deliberate dive. It was streamlined as a Terran shark and as
long as the tank in which Harris lived. The flat line of its leading
edge split into something very like a yawn, displaying astonishing
upper and lower carpets of conical teeth. This was possible because the
eyes, about eight Harris thought, were spaced in a ring about the head
end of the long body.
_They know I don't like to eat them, but I like to scare them a
little._ Big Fish thought to Harris. _Look at them trying to smile at
me!_
Harris watched the Tridentians wiggling and waving their eye-stalks as
the monster passed lazily over them and turned to come slowly back.
"I'd like to scare them a lot," said Harris, who had learned some
time ago that he got through better just by forgetting telepathy and
verbalizing. "Is the D.I.R. man still there?"
_Which ... what you thought?_ inquired Big Fish.
"The other Terran, the one on the island."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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