Starquake.pdf

When they reached the crust, Power-Pack slid aside the low gate and moved back. Steel-Slicer paused,
then glided off onto the crust of Egg.
"I have returned," Admiral Steel-Slicer declared softly into the warm, yellow-white crust. He paused as
the others flowed off the elevator to surround him on all sides, awed by their return to their homeland.
Then he spoke.
"Call me Admiral Steel-Slicer no longer," he said. "I used to be called Star-Glider, but from now on call
me Crust-Crawler. For I am tired of space, and I am tired of rejuvenations. I shall stay here until I flow."
Letter-Reader was tending one of his remaining food Slinks, which had been acting sick. He pulled in his
normal, dark red eyes and allowed only his three pink eyes to scan the creature. The ultra-red glow from
one side of the food Slink indicated a problem. Thankful that his speckle-vision had saved another of the
herd, he held it down, reached into one of its feeding pouches, and took out a number of small pebbles
that the stupid creature had mistaken for ground nuts. Then he set the food Slink back to grazing.
Thereupon he heard the strangers far off in the distance. They were very noisy. Letter-Reader flattened
himself down behind a crust-rock, pulled down his eye-stubs, and let his tread do the seeing. He was
glad his hide had some speckles; that made him harder to see.
It was too early for the arrival of the dothbute takers from Bright Center. Besides, they rode Swifts, and
even off their mounts they never would have made as much unnecessary noise as these cheela.
He listened carefully and could make out a few voices. The accent was clipped, and he didn't
understand a lot of the words.
"Eagle really plowed a furrow in the crust when we came down," Otis-Elevator said as they pushed
single file through the disturbed crust dust raised by their passage.
"I see something up ahead," said Lieutenant Star-Counter. "It has black stripes."
"It must be one of the herd animals." M.D. Len-McCoy looked at her scroll. "I prepared a list of the
types of animals and plants that were said to have survived the starquake." She rolled quickly through the
scroll and stopped. "Here it is. It is a food Slink. The stripes go through to the meat inside. The dark
meat has the taste of groundnuts, while the white meat has the flavor of singleberries."
"My pouches are juicy already," Star-Counter said. "Let's capture it and take it back to base."
"I don't think we'll have too much trouble," said Otis-Elevator. "It doesn't seem to be moving. But let's
surround it anyway."
Letter-Reader pushed one eye up. The strangers had found one of the food Slinks that had died when
the flying star landed. They moved cautiously, as if they thought the food Slink were still alive. The animal
was obviously dead, since there was no pulsing in the crust from the creature's fluid pumps. There must
be something wrong with the treads of the strangers if they couldn't feel that.
Len-McCoy approached the motionless black and white striped food Slink, then finally saw the large
wound on the topside where a falling piece of crust had struck it on the brain-knot.
"It's dead, Captain."