Pid shook his entire body in annoyance. "You can't," he said, very slowly, as one would explain to a Gromling. "The Hunter shape is forbidden to you." "Not here it isn't," Ger said, still wagging his tail. "Let's have no more of this," Pid said angrily. "Get into that installation and set up your Displacer. I'll try to overlook this heresy." "No," Ger said. "I don't want the Grom here. They'd ruin it for the rest of us." "He's right," a nearby oak tree said. "Ilg!" Pid gasped. "Where are you?" * * * * * Branches stirred. "I'm right here," Ilg said. "I've been Thinking." "But--your caste--" "Pilot," Ger said sadly, "why don't you wake up? Most of the people on Grom are miserable. Only custom makes us take the caste-shape of our ancestors." "Pilot," Ilg said, "all Grom are born Shapeless!" "And being born Shapeless, all Grom should have Freedom of Shape," Ger said. "Exactly," Ilg said. "But he'll never understand. Now excuse me. I want to Think." And the oak tree was silent. Pid laughed humorlessly. "The Men will kill you off," he said. "Just as they killed off all the other expeditions." "No one from Grom has been killed," Ger told him. "The other expeditions are right here." "Alive?" "Certainly. The Men don't even know we exist. That Dog I was Hunting with is a Grom from the twelfth expedition. There are hundreds of us here, Pilot. We like it." Pid tried to absorb it all. He had always known that the lower castes were lax in caste-consciousness. But this was preposterous! This planet's secret menace was--freedom! "Join us, Pilot," Ger said. "We've got a paradise here. Do you know how many species there are on this planet? An uncountable number! There's a shape to suit every need!" Pid ignored them. Traitors! He'd do the job all by himself. So Men were unaware of the presence of the Grom. Getting near the reactor might not be so difficult after all. The others had failed in their duty because they were of the lower castes, weak and irresponsible. Even the Pilots among them must have been secretly sympathetic to the Cult of Shapelessness the Chief had mentioned, or the alien planet could never have swayed them. What shape to assume for his attempt? Pid considered. A Dog might be best. Evidently Dogs could wander pretty much where they wished. If something went wrong, Pid could change his shape to meet the occasion. "The Supreme Council will take care of all of you," he snarled, and shaped himself into a small brown Dog. "I'm going to set up the Displacer myself." He studied himself for a moment, bared his teeth at Ger, and loped toward the gate. * * * * * He loped for about ten feet and stopped in utter horror.