"You'd better do the same," he advised Gop, his thought-tone peevish.
Silently, Gop drew in his tails. One unwise move, he knew, and the Senior Scientist would start thinking in roars.
One of Gop's tails scraped slightly against a huge boulder. The scales made a tractor-on-gravel sound.
Pud thought in roars.
The tiny creature had stopped and was turning its helmeted head this way and that, as if trying to see where the sound had come from. It had drawn a weapon of some sort from a holster at its belt—another thermonuclear popgun.
The creature turned and came back toward the Vegans, heading for his ship. Pud lifted his tail again. The creature passed under it, reached the ship, joined its partner.
"I heard it too, Johnny," Helen Gorman said nervously. "A loud scraping noise—"
"It seemed to come from right behind me," Johnny Gorman said. "Damn near scared me off the planet ... I thought it was a rockslide. Or the biggest critter in creation, sneaking up on me. I couldn't see anything, though ... could you?"
"No."