"Stop!" Esticus cried. "Stop, stop, stop!"

He was still crouched down, exactly where he had landed after ducking Immu’s tail. His own tail was tucked tight beneath him; he showed no sign of joining the fight. And yet… he had spoken in Shaddill-ese, not English. That was because his translation cloud was gone — it had vanished in the past few seconds, while I was concentrating elsewhere. Had the cloud’s component bits been scattered by Immu’s tail as it swept through the air? Or had the cringing Esticus sent his cloud on some terrible mission?

A look of horror passed over Festina’s face. Suddenly, she began to choke.

26: WHEREIN I FACE THE GREATEST RISK OF ALL

Four Starbiter Lookalikes

Esticus was only a step away. I planted my foot on his tail, just below the scoop so he could not swing it. Then I grabbed him by the wrists and heaved him up as high as I could lift. Since I was so much taller, he ended up dangling by his arms, feet off the ground.

In this position, I did not have to worry about his claws or tail, and I held him out far enough that he could not reach me with his mandibles. That only left his feet… and with haunches like a rabbit, he was well built for kicking at things behind his back, but not so good for attacking persons in front of him. Anyway, he seemed too scared to put up a fight — his mandibles trembled, his eyelids fluttered, and he made anxious grunts in his throat.

I too may have uttered the occasional grunt. A creature of Esticus’s size may not be as heavy as a human, but it took great strength to hold him hanging in that position. There was no chance of keeping him suspended for more than a minute… but with luck, that was all the time I needed.

"Let Festina go!" I shouted into his face. "Whatever you are doing, stop at once."

Esticus did not answer. Neither did Immu. As for Festina, she was clutching her throat and making horrible wheezing sounds. It had to be the work of the missing translation clouds… for Immu’s cloud had disappeared too. I could imagine billions of translation nanites crowding inside my friend, sealing off her windpipe, clotting up her lungs. She was still on her feet, having staggered back to get away from Immu’s tail; but her face was turning dark with blood, and her eyes were bulging. With the hand that was not at her throat, she raised her stun-pistol and fired at Immu.

Immu gave a raspy laugh. "I told you. Those guns don’t work on us."

"Let Festina go!" I yelled at the two Shaddill. "Perhaps the gun cannot hurt you, but I surely can." I gave Esticus a shake and he gasped out a hiss.

"You’re the one who should let go," Immu said, speaking in my own language. Without the translation cloud, her voice was nothing more than a whisper. "We have enough nanites to choke you too."

"Do not try," I said. "If I feel the smallest tickle in my throat, Esticus will regret it." At that, Esticus wriggled and squirmed, trying to slip from my grip. He could not. The foolish Shaddill had made me stronger than they were themselves.

Immu got to her feet, her tail lashing angrily around her haunches. I turned quickly, placing Esticus between me and his wife as a protective shield.

"Lajoolie!" I shouted. "Sergeant Aarhus! Nimbus and Uclod! Could you please lend me assistance?"

"Save your breath," Immu said in her whispery voice. "Did you think we’d be stupid enough not to deal with them?"

She clapped her hands: a sharp smack with an after-clatter of claws clicking against each other. It was obviously a signal of some kind; I looked around quickly, wondering if I would be attacked by robots or nanites. But the attack was not aimed at me… and by all evidence, the attack had taken place some minutes earlier, so quietly I had not noticed it.

Four stringy blobs rolled in through the door. They looked like human-sized versions of baby Starbiter — gray threads sunk into damp goop that glistened wetly in the dim light. In this case, however, the goop was not white but murkily clear… making it possible to see dark silhouettes embedded in the heart of the blobs. I had no trouble identifying the silhouettes by their shape and size. Lajoolie. Sergeant Aarhus. Uclod. The last blob had no figure visible inside, but I did not doubt it contained Nimbus and his child.

Somehow my friends had been taken by surprise. They had been encased in guck, caught like mosquitoes landing on pine gum. If they were trying to struggle free, I could not see any evidence of it — they seemed frozen in place, helplessly stuck as the blobs rolled across the floor and stopped in a ragged line behind Immu’s back.

"You see?" Immu said. "You’re all alone." She glanced toward Festina. My friend had toppled onto her knees and was doubled over now, her head almost touching the floor. Her whole face was approaching the port-wine color of the birthmark on her cheek.

"I won’t let your precious friend die," Immu told me in a raspy smirk. "I’d never do anything so non-sentient. But I’ll let her pass out before I call off the nanites in her throat. And," Immu continued, raising the sharp end of her tail above Festina’s head, "once she’s unconscious, I won’t have trouble cutting off her ears… lopping a few fingers… scooping out an eye… unless you put Esticus down. As long as I don’t actually kill this human, the League of Peoples won’t stop me."

"Then the League will not stop me," I said, "from ripping off parts of Esticus… which I shall certainly do if you hurt Festina." I gave the Shaddill in my arms another fierce shake.

"Not so fast," Immu snapped. "You don’t know a thing about our anatomy. You don’t know what’s safe to rip off and what could be lethal. For all you know, Esticus might the from losing a single claw."

"I do not believe he could be so frail."

"But you don’t know," Immu replied. "As for me, I’m thoroughly familiar with Homo sapiens physiology." She swung her tail idly toward Festina; my friend grabbed at it weakly but missed. "I know what will and won’t cause fatal bleeding," Immu continued. "I know which human body parts are expendable. But if you so much as break one of Esticus’s bones without knowing what you’re doing,that’s callous disregard for the possibility you might do lethal damage. Not a sentient attitude, Oar — the League will kill you on the spot."

"For breaking a finger? When you are threatening to pluck out Festina’s eye?"

"I’m threatening to do something I know won’t kill her. You, on the other hand, would be taking a blind risk with someone else’s life. That is definitely non-sentient. Let my mate go before you get hurt."

Esticus whispered, "Yes, please, yes, please, yes, please…"

I stared at the whimpering beetle as he dangled in front of me… and suddenly I became furious. For five thousand years, these cowardly creatures had not hesitated to violate entire cultures, to kidnap and imprison individuals who interfered with their plans, to coerce whole species into insipid decadence, and to give people Tired Brains — yet Immu dared suggest I should be executed if I snapped off somebody’s claw? My best friend was choking in front of me. My other friends were enveloped in gooey string, and who knew how well they could breathe inside those cocoons? The Shaddills wished to jelly me against my will, rather than take the slightest personal risk in pursuit of transcendence; yet I was the wicked one who might be punished?

Enough of this nonsense. I would command the Shaddill to remove the nanites from Festina’s windpipe, to release my friends and leave us alone… or else I would grab Esticus’s trembling mandibles and rip them right off his face. It was ridiculous for Immu to claim she could hurt my friends with impunity, but the League would not permit me to hit back.