"Not knowing word for how many. More than you," he said, "more on
voyage than you, and more more at home."
"Home? Where's home?"
"The system Lluagor, home planet Chwosst," said the other, sitting
up cautiously and clasping his knees. He smiled. His expression said
clearly, If these insignificant mites want to question me, what harm
can it do? Trace, fighting a surge of Irish rage, went on. Bill prowled
over to the openings that showed the deserted theater, squinting
through the gloom. They had turned on the lights in the projection
booth, and that worried him, for the searchers might come in below at
any minute. He found the house lights and threw them on, so that the
booth would not glow a warning. Thank heaven the power plant's still
working, he thought. As Trace hammered at the green man with questions,
Bill began tinkering with the machines.
* * * * *
Bird-foot was saying, in his unpleasant tones, "How many saucers
about twenty to forty thousand, this worked out by our mathematicians
Chwefft and Hlamnig after learning your system of numbers. Interesting
primitive system without knowing sub-space and lacking even name for
_fpiolhesit_."
"Sub-space!" exclaimed Slough, darting forward until he stood directly
before the alien. "How did he learn the name for that concept, I
wonder? But it makes sense. Certainly it would seem logical that such
an advanced race would have conquered the mathematically-conceived
sub-space, in order to travel interdimensionally from galaxy to galaxy.
How else could they go distances that even at light's speed would take
a portion of eternity?"
The green man eyed Slough, his head cocked. "Intelligent," he croaked.
"Come closer." He reached out a finger that was crooked as if to
beckon, bumped it against Slough, and recoiled, an expression of dismay
fleeting over his hard features. Then the olive-green skin smoothed
out. "Ah. Small, small man. Not know."
"You got a looney," said Bill.
"He's not crazy," said Trace. "I had that sort of figured out before."
He left the subject as Bill frowned at him, quite uncomprehending, and
said to the alien, "What do you want here?"
"Your planet."
The words were rasped out without emotion, but they were as cold as the
wind of January that played outside the theater. Trace said, "Why?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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