"Long-winded cuss, ain't he?" said Euston O'Better, a tall, shambling fellow with a grin that suggested unplumbed depths of ignorance. He emphasized his point with an elbow in Tay-Shun's ribs. "But what the hell, let's go meet this captain so we can get it over with. The sooner I can start shootin' a few critters, the better, sez I. I ain't even seen no dinos yet."

"Dinos might not be the right term," said Armstrong, glad of a chance to change the subject. "The local sophonts do resemble certain species of dinosaurs, but the other fauna we've seen are pretty varied. Why-" He broke off suddenly, as a strange being came into his view. "What in Ghu's name is that?" The creature that had emerged from the hunters' shuttle was furry, long-eared, round-faced, and about two-thirds Armstrong's height}t was evidently some kind of sophont, because it was wearing a large backpack and a loose black garment that had a remarkable resemblance to . .. a Space Legion uniform? Armstrong watched openmouthed as it approached him. It stopped a short distance away, came to attention, and saluted rather smartly, Lieutenant Armstrong thought. As he stared openmouthed, the new sophont said, "Legionnaire recruit Thumper reporting for duty to Omega Company, sir!"

"Legionnaire? Thumper?" said Armstrong.

"Oh, yeah, we forgot to tell ya," said L. P. Asho. "The gov'ment asked us to give the bunny a ride here, since there wasn't no other ships coming this way. He wasn't really much trouble, and I -guess he's yours, now."

"I'll be doggo." said Gears, who'd stood back and watched the conversation between Armstrong and the hunters without comment. "Every time you think you

know what to expect in-Omega Company, it just gets weirder. Throw your pack in the jeep, buddy-I guess you'll be riding back to camp with us."

"Yes, sir," said Thumper, who still had the recruit's automatic (and generally accurate) assumption that everybody and everything wearing a Legion uniform outranked him.

"Save the sir stuff for officers;' said Gears. "I'm Gears, and since the lieutenant still seems to be gaping for air, I guess I'm the one who's got to welcome you to Zenobia and to the Omega Mob. And I don't know what kind of outfit you come here from-but I can guarantee you it's a whole lot different here."

The monitor of Sushi's computer displayed a rapidly changing series of not-quite-random characters, and the speaker emitted a tantalizing series of hisses and grunts, which the autotranslator stubbornly declined to render into anything that the three men in the room could make sense of. Sushi and Lieutenant Rembrandt had delivered the AEIOU inspectors to the captain, at which point Sushi had remembered that Rev was coming by today for a progress report. Fortunately, the officers were willing to dispense with his services for the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately, what Sushi had to report to Rev was not exactly progress...

"Looks like nothin' but garbage to me," said Do-Wop.

"Hey, Soosb-you sure that ain't just somebody's..unshielded belt sander, or maybe a can opener?"

"Well, it's the wrong frequency for that," said Sushi. "I know this is some written document off the Zenobians' Web, or whatever they call it. But until we can get the translator to recognize, the input as some kind of articulate language, it might as well be garbage."

"Well, we know the translator works on spoken Zenobian," said Rev. "We can all understand Flight Leftenant Qual, or at least most of the time. So the written language shouldn't be all that much harder." He paused and looked at Sushi. "Should it?"

"I'd need to know a lot more about written Zenobian to tell you, Rev," said Sushi. "I suppose one of us ought to ask Qual just how their writing system works. If it's straight phonetic, the translator ought to be able to make sense of it sooner or later. If it's not... well, if it's not, then we could be way over our heads, guys."

"I'm over my head just listenin' to this stuff." said DoWop. "Do you know what he means, Rev?"

"Mostly," said Rev. "What kinds of things are you worried about, son?"

"We don't know how many languages the Zenobians speak, or who speaks what," said Sushi, counting on his fingers. "Maybe the ruling classes speak a different language from the ordinary people. Maybe their older books are in the same language as their modem ones, maybe not. I mean, there were some religions on Old Earth that used a whole different language for their sacred texts than the people spoke in everyday life. Maybe..."

"That's way too many maybes," said Do- Wop, a concerned look on his face. "Y'know, you keep runnin' your mind so hard, you're gonna get a really rotten headache. What I do, is whenever my brain starts running around in circles, I go get myself a couple-three cold brews and stop thinkin' for a while. You oughta do that, Soosh. You don't watch it, you'll be just like an officer."

"Yeah, yeah," said Sushi. "And if I don't do this job, I'll have to go back to work on something a lot less interesting. The problem we have right now is to find out how the Zenobians' written language works, which means doing some fieldwork with the only Zenobians we have handy. Who's gonna go talk to Qual?"

"He's bound to get suspicious if I ask him anything about their writing," said Rev. "And when that happens, he starts messin' with my head-at least, I think that's what he's doin'. Anyways, his answers don't hardly make sense.

One of you boys is gonna have to go ask him for me."

"Well, I'm out," said Do-Wop. "I can't understand half of what you guys are talkin' about, let alone Qual. I think his translator's buggy, the way it screws up words."

"Buggy translator..." mused Sushi. "You know, that gives me an idea. I think I know just the trick to get Qual started talking about spoken and written Zenobian, without him suspecting what Rev's up to."

"And what's that, son?" asked Rev.

Sushi grinned. "I'll tell you after I've found out whether it works. Which I'm going to go find out right now. See you later!" And out the door he went, leaving Rev and DoWop staring at each other.

After a moment, Do-Wop shrugged. "Guess this is as good a time as we're gonna get for some cold 'ones. Gotta stop them headaches before they start. Catch you later, Rev." And he went out the door as well, leaving Rev alone.

Rev turned and looked at the shifting characters on Sushi's computer monitor, squinting as if it might help him discern a pattern in the rapid flow. After a while, he shook his head and blinked. Everything was tantalizingly close to making sense... And yet none of it did. He put his hands in the pockets of his not-quite Legion-issue jumpsuit, turned to the door, and sauntered out. For now, he would have to leave it up to Sushi. If Sushi couldn't solve the problem, he'd decide what to do then. Until "to' that point, Do-Wop's advice actually sounded good. He stopped and looked in a mirror, taking a moment to touch up his hairdo. The King had always made it a point to keep up his appearance. Finally satisfied, he turned and headed down the corridor towards the Officer's club, whistling softly to himself.

Thumper's departure for the Legion base was delayed while Lieutenant Armstrong persuaded the hunters to stay and set up their camp instead of coming immediately to see the captain.

"We'll take you there this evening," Armstrong told the hunters, smiling. "Captain Jester just sent me to make sure you had everything you needed, and it looks as if you do. Since that's straightened out, I'll head back to the camp, and you'll be seeing the captain as soon as he's free."

"I can't imagine what your captain's got to do on this here planet that's so important he can't talk to some of his constituents," said Austen Tay-Shun, who seemed to be the leader of the hunting party. "We've contributed..."