The Enlissa weren't quite as tall, on the average, as a human
being. The skeletal structure was a little heavier, and the section
corresponding to the human rib cage was a series of armor plates that
completely enclosed the viscera. The pale blue-violet of their skins
came from the cobalt-protein complex that carried the oxygen through
their blood, performing the same function that hemoglobin does in the
human animal.
They were noseless; breathing was done through the mouth. The teeth
were widely spaced, and the lips could not close over them, thus
allowing the Enlissa to breathe, even when unconscious. The eyes were a
solid black. It was impossible to tell, from a superficial inspection,
where the deeply-pigmented surface of the eyeball ended and the dead
black of the lens opening began. They were somewhat larger than human
eyes, but they were set in front of the skull, allowing stereoscopic
vision.
Their protective covering might have been called hair, by stretching
the definition somewhat. By an equal amount of stretching, it could
have been called fingernails or scales. It would have taken an awful
lot of stretching to call it feathers.
The "hair" consisted of ribbons of thin chitinlike material. The
ribbons weren't much thicker than human hair, but they were nearly a
sixteenth of an inch in width, and ranged in color from a glossy black
to a royal blue, depending on the individual.
The feet were splayed, almost radial; the hands were
four-digited--double thumbed and double fingered.
The clothing they wore, though radically cut, was analogous to the
styles worn by human beings.
Roysland waited until the aliens were herded out of the ship. They had
to be prodded like beasts, since there was no way to talk to them. No
exchange of language had ever been achieved; but, like their human
counterparts, the mindjammed Enlissa seemed to be perfectly willing to
obey any exterior commands.
"What?" said Roysland. He had been so engrossed in his own thoughts
that he had only dimly realized that Kiffer Samm was talking to him.
"I said that we'll have to check on them, too, after we see what this
weapon is all about."
Roysland folded his hands and rubbed his thumbs together. "Maybe
before."
"Huh?"
"Never mind," Roysland said. "Here come the last of them. We want
to get all the samples out of their supplies that we can, and we've
already been promised first look at those projectors the Enlissa have
on board the ship. Come on; let's take a look."
The Enlissa ship wasn't organized too differently from the human
version. On the surface, things looked odd; but the laws of the
universe function the same way in all places, so the internal workings
of the ship were essentially similar.
The Special Weapons men went through the ship with the men of the
Inspection Division, photographing, tracing circuits, analyzing,
checking differences, and organizing similarities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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