James H. Schmitz Novice 
 
 
 Transcriber's Note Pg 1 
 This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction June 1962. 
 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright 
 on this publication was renewed. 
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 2 
 There was, Telzey Amberdon thought, someone besides TT and herself in 
 the garden. Not, of course, Aunt Halet, who was in the house waiting 
 for an early visitor to arrive, and not one of the servants. Someone 
 or something else must be concealed among the thickets of 
 magnificently flowering native Jontarou shrubs about Telzey. 
   
 She could think of no other way to account for Tick-Tock's spooked 
 behavior--nor, to be honest about it, for the manner her own nerves 
 were acting up without visible cause this morning. 
   
 Telzey plucked a blade of grass, slipped the end between her lips and 
 chewed it gently, her face puzzled and concerned. She wasn't 
 ordinarily afflicted with nervousness. Fifteen years old, genius 
 level, brown as a berry and not at all bad looking in her sunbriefs, 
 she was the youngest member of one of Orado's most prominent families 
 and a second-year law student at one of the most exclusive schools in 
 the Federation of the Hub. Her physical, mental, and emotional health, 
 she'd always been informed, was excellent. Aunt Halet's frequent 
 cracks about the inherent instability of the genius level could be 
 ignored; Halet's own stability seemed questionable at best. 
   
 But none of that made the present odd situation any less 
 disagreeable.... 
   
 The trouble might have begun, Telzey decided, during the night, within 
 an hour after they arrived from the spaceport at the guest house 
 Halet had rented in Port Nichay for their vacation on Jontarou. Telzey 
 had retired at once to her second-story bedroom with Tick-Tock; but 
 she barely got to sleep before something awakened her again. Turning 
 over, she discovered TT reared up before the window, her forepaws on 
 the sill, big cat-head outlined against the star-hazed night sky, 
 staring fixedly down into the garden. 
   
 Telzey, only curious at that point, climbed out of bed and joined TT 
 at the window. There was nothing in particular to be seen, and if the 
 scents and minor night-sounds which came from the garden weren't 
 exactly what they were used to, Jontarou was after all an unfamiliar 
 planet. What else would one expect here? 
   
 But Tick-Tock's muscular back felt tense and rigid when Telzey laid 
 her arm across it, and except for an absent-minded dig with her 
 forehead against Telzey's shoulder, TT refused to let her attention be 
 distracted from whatever had absorbed it. Now and then, a low, ominous 
 rumble came from her furry throat, a half-angry, half-questioning 
 sound. Telzey began to feel a little uncomfortable. She managed 
 finally to coax Tick-Tock away from the window, but neither of them 
 slept well the rest of the night. At breakfast, Aunt Halet made one of 
 her typical nasty-sweet remarks. 
   
 "You look so fatigued, dear--as if you were under some severe mental 
 strain ... which, of course, you might be," Halet added musingly. With 
 her gold-blond hair piled high on her head and her peaches and cream 
 complexion, Halet looked fresh as a daisy herself ... a malicious 
 daisy. "Now wasn't I right in insisting to Jessamine that you needed a 
 vacation away from that terribly intellectual school?" She smiled 
 gently. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 3 
 "Absolutely," Telzey agreed, restraining the impulse to fling a 
 spoonful of egg yolk at her father's younger sister. Aunt Halet often 
 inspired such impulses, but Telzey had promised her mother to avoid 
 actual battles on the Jontarou trip, if possible. After breakfast, she 
 went out into the back garden with Tick-Tock, who immediately walked 
 into a thicket, camouflaged herself and vanished from sight. It seemed 
 to add up to something. But what? 
   
 Telzey strolled about the garden a while, maintaining a pretense of 
 nonchalant interest in Jontarou's flowers and colorful bug life. She 
 experienced the most curious little chills of alarm from time to time, 
 but discovered no signs of a lurking intruder, or of TT either. Then, 
 for half an hour or more, she'd just sat cross-legged in the grass, 
 waiting quietly for Tick-Tock to show up of her own accord. And the 
 big lunk-head hadn't obliged. 
   
 Telzey scratched a tanned knee-cap, scowling at Port Nichay's park 
 trees beyond the garden wall. It seemed idiotic to feel scared when 
 she couldn't even tell whether there was anything to be scared about! 
 And, aside from that, another unreasonable feeling kept growing 
 stronger by the minute now. This was to the effect that she should be 
 doing some unstated but specific thing.... 
   
 In fact, that Tick-Tock _wanted_ her to do some specific thing! 
   
 Completely idiotic! 
   
 Abruptly, Telzey closed her eyes, thought sharply, "Tick-Tock?" and 
 waited--suddenly very angry at herself for having given in to her 
 fancies to this extent--for whatever might happen. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 She had never really established that she was able to tell, by a kind 
 of symbolic mind-picture method, like a short waking dream, 
 approximately what TT was thinking and feeling. Five years before, 
 when she'd discovered Tick-Tock--an odd-looking and odder-behaved 
 stray kitten then--in the woods near the Amberdons' summer home on 
 Orado, Telzey had thought so. But it might never have been more than a 
 colorful play of her imagination; and after she got into law school 
 and grew increasingly absorbed in her studies, she almost forgot the 
 matter again. 
   
 Today, perhaps because she was disturbed about Tick-Tock's behavior, 
 the customary response was extraordinarily prompt. The warm glow of 
 sunlight shining through her closed eyelids faded out quickly and was 
 replaced by some inner darkness. In the darkness there appeared then 
 an image of Tick-Tock sitting a little way off beside an open door in 
 an old stone wall, green eyes fixed on Telzey. Telzey got the 
 impression that TT was inviting her to go through the door, and, for 
 some reason, the thought frightened her. 
   
 Again, there was an immediate reaction. The scene with Tick-Tock and 
 the door vanished; and Telzey felt she was standing in a pitch-black 
 room, knowing that if she moved even one step forwards, something that 
 was waiting there silently would reach out and grab her.  
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 4 
 Naturally, she recoiled ... and at once found herself sitting, eyes 
 still closed and the sunlight bathing her lids, in the grass of the 
 guest house garden. 
   
 She opened her eyes, looked around. Her heart was thumping rapidly. 
 The experience couldn't have lasted more than four or five seconds, 
 but it had been extremely vivid, a whole, compact little nightmare. 
 None of her earlier experiments at getting into mental communication 
 with TT had been like that. 
   
 It served her right, Telzey thought, for trying such a childish stunt 
 at the moment! What she should have done at once was to make a 
 methodical search for the foolish beast--TT was bound to be 
 _somewhere_ nearby--locate her behind her camouflage, and hang on to 
 her then until this nonsense in the garden was explained! Talented as 
 Tick-Tock was at blotting herself out, it usually was possible to spot 
 her if one directed one's attention to shadow patterns. Telzey began a 
 surreptitious study of the flowering bushes about her. 
   
 Three minutes later, off to her right, where the ground was banked 
 beneath a six-foot step in the garden's terraces, Tick-Tock's outline 
 suddenly caught her eye. Flat on her belly, head lifted above her 
 paws, quite motionless, TT seemed like a transparent wraith stretched 
 out along the terrace, barely discernible even when stared at 
 directly. It was a convincing illusion; but what seemed to be rocks, 
 plant leaves, and sun-splotched earth seen through the wraith-outline 
 was simply the camouflage pattern TT had printed for the moment on her 
 hide. She could have changed it completely in an instant to conform to 
 a different background. 
   
 Telzey pointed an accusing finger. 
   
 "See you!" she announced, feeling a surge of relief which seemed as 
 unaccountable as the rest of it. 
   
 The wraith twitched one ear in acknowledgment, the head outlines 
 shifting as the camouflaged face turned towards Telzey. Then the 
 inwardly uncamouflaged, very substantial looking mouth opened slowly, 
 showing Tick-Tock's red tongue and curved white tusks. The mouth 
 stretched in a wide yawn, snapped shut with a click of meshing teeth, 
 became indistinguishable again. Next, a pair of camouflaged lids drew 
 back from TT's round, brilliant-green eyes. The eyes stared across the 
 lawn at Telzey. 
   
 Telzey said irritably, "Quit clowning around, TT!" 
   
 The eyes blinked, and Tick-Tock's natural bronze-brown color suddenly 
 flowed over her head, down her neck and across her body into legs and 
 tail. Against the side of the terrace, as if materializing into 
 solidity at that moment, appeared two hundred pounds of supple, rangy, 
 long-tailed cat ... or catlike creature. TT's actual origin had never 
 been established. The best guesses were that what Telzey had found 
 playing around in the woods five years ago was either a bio-structural 
 experiment which had got away from a private laboratory on Orado, or 
 some spaceman's lost pet, brought to the capital planet from one of 
 the remote colonies beyond the Hub. 
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 5 
 On top of TT's head was a large, 
 fluffy pompom of white fur, which might have looked ridiculous on 
 another animal, but didn't on her. Even as a fat kitten, hanging head 
 down from the side of a wall by the broad sucker pads in her paws, TT 
 had possessed enormous dignity. 
   
 Telzey studied her, the feeling of relief fading again. Tick-Tock, 
 ordinarily the most restful and composed of companions, definitely was 
 still tensed up about something. That big, lazy yawn a moment ago, the 
 attitude of stretched-out relaxation ... all pure sham! 
   
 "What _is_ eating you?" she asked in exasperation. 
   
 The green eyes stared at her, solemn, watchful, seeming for that 
 fleeting instant quite alien. And why, Telzey thought, should the old 
 question of what Tick-Tock really was pass through her mind just now? 
 After her rather alarming rate of growth began to taper off last year, 
 nobody had cared any more. 
   
 For a moment, Telzey had the uncanny certainty of having had the 
 answer to this situation almost in her grasp. An answer which appeared 
 to involve the world of Jontarou, Tick-Tock, and of all unlikely 
 factors--Aunt Halet. 
   
 She shook her head, TT's impassive green eyes blinked. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 Jontarou? The planet lay outside Telzey's sphere of personal 
 interests, but she'd read up on it on the way here from Orado. Among 
 all the worlds of the Hub, Jontarou was _the_ paradise for zoologists 
 and sportsmen, a gigantic animal preserve, its continents and seas 
 swarming with magnificent game. Under Federation law, it was being 
 retained deliberately in the primitive state in which it had been 
 discovered. Port Nichay, the only city, actually the only inhabited 
 point on Jontarou, was beautiful and quiet, a pattern of vast but 
 elegantly slender towers, each separated from the others by four or 
 five miles of rolling parkland and interconnected only by the threads 
 of transparent skyways. Near the horizon, just visible from the 
 garden, rose the tallest towers of all, the green and gold spires of 
 the Shikaris' Club, a center of Federation affairs and of social 
 activity. From the aircar which brought them across Port Nichay the 
 evening before, Telzey had seen occasional strings of guest houses, 
 similar to the one Halet had rented, nestling along the park slopes. 
 Nothing very sinister about Port Nichay or green Jontarou, surely! 
   
 Halet? That blond, slinky, would-be Machiavelli? What could--? 
   
 Telzey's eyes narrowed reflectively. There'd been a minor 
 occurrence--at least, it had seemed minor--just before the spaceliner 
 docked last night. A young woman from one of the newscasting services 
 had asked for an interview with the daughter of Federation 
 Councilwoman Jessamine Amberdon. This happened occasionally; and 
 Telzey had no objections until the newshen's gossipy persistence in 
 inquiring about the "unusual pet" she was bringing to Port Nichay with 
 her began to be annoying. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 6 
 TT might be somewhat unusual, but that was 
 not a matter of general interest; and Telzey said so. Then Halet moved 
 smoothly into the act and held forth on Tick-Tock's appearance, 
 habits, and mysterious antecedents, in considerable detail. 
   
 Telzey had assumed that Halet was simply going out of her way to be 
 irritating, as usual. Looking back on the incident, however, it 
 occurred to her that the chatter between her aunt and the newscast 
 woman had sounded oddly stilted--almost like something the two might 
 have rehearsed. 
   
 Rehearsed for what purpose? Tick-Tock ... Jontarou. 
   
 Telzey chewed gently on her lower lip. A vacation on Jontarou for the 
 two of them and TT had been Halet's idea, and Halet had enthused about 
 it so much that Telzey's mother at last talked her into accepting. 
 Halet, Jessamine explained privately to Telzey, had felt they were 
 intruders in the Amberdon family, had bitterly resented Jessamine's 
 political honors and, more recently, Telzey's own emerging promise of 
 brilliance. This invitation was Halet's way of indicating a change of 
 heart. Wouldn't Telzey oblige? 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 So Telzey had obliged, though she took very little stock in Halet's 
 change of heart. She wasn't, in fact, putting it past her aunt to have 
 some involved dirty trick up her sleeve with this trip to Jontarou. 
 Halet's mind worked like that. 
   
 So far there had been no actual indications of purposeful mischief. 
 But logic did seem to require a connection between the various 
 puzzling events here.... A newscaster's rather forced looking interest 
 in Tick-Tock--Halet could easily have paid for that interview. Then 
 TT's disturbed behavior during their first night in Port Nichay, and 
 Telzey's own formless anxieties and fancies in connection with the 
 guest house garden. 
   
 The last remained hard to explain. But Tick-Tock ... and Halet ... 
 might know something about Jontarou that she didn't know. 
   
 Her mind returned to the results of the half-serious attempt she'd 
 made to find out whether there was something Tick-Tock "wanted her to 
 do." An open door? A darkness where somebody waited to grab her if she 
 took even one step forwards? It couldn't have had any significance. Or 
 could it? 
   
 So you'd like to try magic, Telzey scoffed at herself. Baby games.... 
 How far would you have got at law school if you'd asked TT to help 
 with your problems? 
   
 Then why had she been thinking about it again? 
   
 She shivered, because an eerie stillness seemed to settle on the 
 garden. From the side of the terrace, TT's green eyes watched her. 
   
 Telzey had a feeling of sinking down slowly into a sunlit dream, into 
 something very remote from law school problems. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 7 
 "Should I go through the door?" she whispered. 
   
 The bronze cat-shape raised its head slowly. TT began to purr. 
   
 Tick-Tock's name had been derived in kittenhood from the manner in 
 which she purred--a measured, oscillating sound, shifting from high to 
 low, as comfortable and often as continuous as the unobtrusive pulse 
 of an old clock. It was the first time, Telzey realized now, that 
 she'd heard the sound since their arrival on Jontarou. It went on for 
 a dozen seconds or so, then stopped. Tick-Tock continued to look at 
 her. 
   
 It appeared to have been an expression of definite assent.... 
   
 The dreamlike sensation increased, hazing over Telzey's thoughts. If 
 there was nothing to this mind-communication thing, what harm could 
 symbols do? This time, she wouldn't let them alarm her. And if they 
 did mean something.... 
   
 She closed her eyes. 
   
        *      *       *       *       * 
   
 The sunglow outside faded instantly. Telzey caught a fleeting picture 
 of the door in the wall, and knew in the same moment that she'd 
 already passed through it. 
   
 She was not in the dark room then, but poised at the edge of a 
 brightness which seemed featureless and without limit, spread out 
 around her with a feeling-tone like "sea" or "sky." But it was an 
 unquiet place. There was a sense of unseen things on all sides 
 watching her and waiting. 
   
 Was this another form of the dark room--a trap set up in her mind? 
 Telzey's attention did a quick shift. She was seated in the grass 
 again; the sunlight beyond her closed eyelids seemed to shine in 
 quietly through rose-tinted curtains. Cautiously, she let her 
 awareness return to the bright area; and it was still there. She had a 
 moment of excited elation. She was controlling this! And why not, she 
 asked herself. These things were happening in her mind, after all! 
   
 She would find out what they seemed to mean; but she would be in no 
 rush to.... 
   
 An impression as if, behind her, Tick-Tock had thought, "Now I can 
 help again!" 
   
 Then a feeling of being swept swiftly, irresistibly forwards, thrust 
 out and down. The brightness exploded in thundering colors around her. 
 In fright, she made the effort to snap her eyes open, to be back in 
 the garden; but now she couldn't make it work. The colors continued to 
 roar about her, like a confusion of excited, laughing, triumphant 
 voices. Telzey felt caught in the middle of it all, suspended in 
 invisible spider webs. Tick-Tock seemed to be somewhere nearby, 
 looking on. Faithless, treacherous TT! 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 8 
 Telzey's mind made another wrenching effort, and there was a change. 
 She hadn't got back into the garden, but the noisy, swirling colors 
 were gone and she had the feeling of reading a rapidly moving 
 microtape now, though she didn't actually see the tape. 
   
 The tape, she realized, was another symbol for what was happening, a 
 symbol easier for her to understand. There were voices, or what might 
 be voices, around her; on the invisible tape she seemed to be reading 
 what they said. 
   
 A number of speakers, apparently involved in a fast, hot argument 
 about what to do with her. Impressions flashed past.... 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 Why waste time with her? It was clear that kitten-talk was all she was 
 capable of!... Not necessarily; that was a normal first step. Give her 
 a little time!... But what--exasperatedly--could such a small-bite 
 _possibly_ know that would be of significant value? 
   
 There was a slow, blurred, awkward-seeming interruption. Its content 
 was not comprehensible to Telzey at all, but in some unmistakable 
 manner it was defined as Tick-Tock's thought. 
   
 A pause as the circle of speakers stopped to consider whatever TT had 
 thrown into the debate. 
   
 Then another impression ... one that sent a shock of fear through 
 Telzey as it rose heavily into her awareness. Its sheer intensity 
 momentarily displaced the tape-reading symbolism. A savage voice 
 seemed to rumble: 
   
 "Toss the tender small-bite to me"--malevolent crimson eyes fixed on 
 Telzey from somewhere not far away--"and let's be done here!" 
   
 Startled, stammering protest from Tick-Tock, accompanied by gusts of 
 laughter from the circle. Great sense of humor these characters had, 
 Telzey thought bitterly. That crimson-eyed thing wasn't joking at all! 
   
 More laughter as the circle caught her thought. Then a kind of 
 majority opinion found sudden expression: 
   
 "Small-bite _is_ learning! No harm to wait--We'll find out 
 quickly--Let's...." 
   
 The tape ended; the voices faded; the colors went blank. In whatever 
 jumbled-up form she'd been getting the impressions at that 
 point--Telzey couldn't have begun to describe it--the whole thing 
 suddenly stopped. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 She found herself sitting in the grass, shaky, scared, eyes open. 
 Tick-Tock stood beside the terrace, looking at her. An air of hazy 
 unreality still hung about the garden. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 9 
 She might have flipped! She didn't think so; but it certainly seemed 
 possible! Otherwise ... Telzey made an attempt to sort over what had 
 happened. 
   
 Something _had_ been in the garden! Something had been inside her 
 mind. Something that was at home on Jontarou. 
   
 There'd been a feeling of perhaps fifty or sixty of these ... well, 
 beings. Alarming beings! Reckless, wild, hard ... and that red-eyed 
 nightmare! Telzey shuddered. 
   
 They'd contacted Tick-Tock first, during the night. TT understood them 
 better than she could. Why? Telzey found no immediate answer. 
   
 Then Tick-Tock had tricked her into letting her mind be invaded by 
 these beings. There must have been a very definite reason for that. 
   
 She looked over at Tick-Tock. TT looked back. Nothing stirred in 
 Telzey's thoughts. Between _them_ there was still no direct 
 communication. 
   
 Then how had the beings been able to get through to her? 
   
 Telzey wrinkled her nose. Assuming this was real, it seemed clear that 
 the game of symbols she'd made up between herself and TT had provided 
 the opening. Her whole experience just now had been in the form of 
 symbols, translating whatever occurred into something she could 
 consciously grasp. 
   
 "Kitten-talk" was how the beings referred to the use of symbols; they 
 seemed contemptuous of it. Never mind, Telzey told herself; they'd 
 agreed she was learning. 
   
 The air over the grass appeared to flicker. Again she had the 
 impression of reading words off a quickly moving, not quite visible 
 tape. 
   
 "You're being taught and you're learning," was what she seemed to 
 read. "The question was whether you were capable of partial 
 understanding as your friend insisted. Since you were, everything else 
 that can be done will be accomplished very quickly." 
   
 A pause, then with a touch of approval, "You're a well-formed mind, 
 small-bite! Odd and with incomprehensibilities, but well-formed--" 
   
 One of the beings, and a fairly friendly one--at least not unfriendly. 
 Telzey framed a tentative mental question. "Who are you?" 
   
 "You'll know very soon." The flickering ended; she realized she and 
 the question had been dismissed for the moment. She looked over at 
 Tick-Tock again. 
   
 "Can't _you_ talk to me now, TT?" she asked silently. 
   
 A feeling of hesitation. 
   
 "Kitten-talk!" was the impression that formed itself with difficulty 
 then. It was awkward, searching; but it came unquestionably from TT. 
 "Still learning too, Telzey!" TT seemed half anxious, half angry. 
 "We--" 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 10 
 A sharp buzz-note reached Telzey's ears, wiping out the groping 
 thought-impression. She jumped a little, glanced down. Her 
 wrist-talker was signaling. For a moment, she seemed poised 
 uncertainly between a world where unseen, dangerous-sounding beings 
 referred to one as small-bite and where TT was learning to talk, and 
 the familiar other world where wrist-communicators buzzed periodically 
 in a matter-of-fact manner. Settling back into the more familiar 
 world, she switched on the talker. 
   
 "Yes?" she said. Her voice sounded husky. 
   
 "Telzey, dear," Halet murmured honey-sweet from the talker, "would you 
 come back into the house, please? The living room--We have a visitor 
 who very much wants to meet you." 
   
 Telzey hesitated, eyes narrowing. Halet's visitor wanted to meet 
 _her_? 
   
 "Why?" she asked. 
   
 "He has something _very_ interesting to tell you, dear." The edge of 
 triumphant malice showed for an instant, vanished in murmuring 
 sweetness again. "So please hurry!" 
   
 "All right." Telzey stood up. "I'm coming." 
   
 "Fine, dear!" The talker went dead. 
   
 Telzey switched off the instrument, noticed that Tick-Tock had chosen 
 to disappear meanwhile. 
   
 Flipped? She wondered, starting up towards the house. It was clear 
 Aunt Halet had prepared some unpleasant surprise to spring on her, 
 which was hardly more than normal behavior for Halet. The other 
 business? She couldn't be certain of anything there. Leaving out TT's 
 strange actions--which might have a number of causes, after all--that 
 entire string of events could have been created inside her head. There 
 was no contradictory evidence so far. 
   
 But it could do no harm to take what _seemed_ to have happened at face 
 value. Some pretty grim event might be shaping up, in a very real way, 
 around here.... 
   
 "You reason logically!" The impression now was of a voice speaking to 
 her, a voice that made no audible sound. It was the same being who'd 
 addressed her a minute or two ago. 
   
 The two worlds between which Telzey had felt suspended seemed to glide 
 slowly together and become one. 
   
 "I go to Law school," she explained to the being, almost absently.  
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 11 
 Amused agreement. "So we heard." 
   
 "What do you want of me?" Telzey inquired. 
   
 "You'll know soon enough." 
   
 "Why not tell me now?" Telzey urged. It seemed about to dismiss her 
 again. 
   
 Quick impatience flared at her. "Kitten-pictures! Kitten-thoughts! 
 Kitten-talk! Too slow, too slow! YOUR pictures--too much YOU! Wait 
 till the...." 
   
 Circuits close ... channels open.... Obstructions clear? What _had_ it 
 said? There'd been only the blurred image of a finicky, delicate, but 
 perfectly normal technical operation of some kind. 
   
 "... Minutes now!" the voice concluded. A pause, then another thought 
 tossed carelessly at her. "This is more important to you, small-bite, 
 than to _us_!" The voice impression ended as sharply as if a 
 communicator had snapped off. 
   
 Not _too_ friendly! Telzey walked on towards the house, a new fear 
 growing inside her ... a fear like the awareness of a storm gathered 
 nearby, still quiet--deadly quiet, but ready to break. 
   
 "Kitten-pictures!" a voice seemed to jeer distantly, a whispering in 
 the park trees beyond the garden wall. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 Halet's cheeks were lightly pinked; her blue eyes sparkled. She looked 
 downright stunning, which meant to anyone who knew her that the worst 
 side of Halet's nature was champing at the bit again. On uninformed 
 males it had a dazzling effect, however; and Telzey wasn't surprised 
 to find their visitor wearing a tranced expression when she came into 
 the living room. He was a tall, outdoorsy man with a tanned, bony 
 face, a neatly trained black mustache, and a scar down one cheek which 
 would have seemed dashing if it hadn't been for the stupefied look. 
 Beside his chair stood a large, clumsy instrument which might have 
 been some kind of telecamera. 
   
 Halet performed introductions. Their visitor was Dr. Droon, a 
 zoologist. He had been tuned in on Telzey's newscast interview on the 
 liner the night before, and wondered whether Telzey would care to 
 discuss Tick-Tock with him. 
   
 "Frankly, no," Telzey said. 
   
 Dr. Droon came awake and gave Telzey a surprised look. Halet smiled 
 easily. 
   
 "My niece doesn't intend to be discourteous, doctor," she explained. 
 "Of course not," the zoologist agreed doubtfully. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 12 
 "It's just," Halet went on, "that Telzey is a little, oh, sensitive 
 where Tick-Tock is concerned. In her own way, she's attached to the 
 animal. Aren't you, dear?" 
   
 "Yes," Telzey said blandly. 
   
 "Well, we hope this isn't going to disturbed you too much, dear." 
 Halet glanced significantly at Dr. Droon. "Dr. Droon, you must 
 understand, is simply doing ... well, there is something very 
 important he must tell you now." 
   
 Telzey transferred her gaze back to the zoologist. Dr. Droon cleared 
 his throat. "I, ah, understand, Miss Amberdon, that you're unaware of 
 what kind of creature your, ah, Tick-Tock is?" 
   
 Telzey started to speak, then checked herself, frowning. She had been 
 about to state that she knew exactly what kind of creature TT was ... 
 but she didn't, of course! 
   
 Or did she? She.... 
   
 She scowled absent-mindedly at Dr. Droon, biting her lip. 
   
 "Telzey!" Halet prompted gently. 
   
 "Huh?" Telzey said. "Oh ... please go on, doctor!" 
   
 Dr. Droon steepled his fingers. "Well," he said, "she ... your pet ... is, 
 ah, a young crest cat. Nearly full grown now, apparently, and--" 
   
 "Why, yes!" Telzey cried. 
   
 The zoologist looked at her. "You knew that--" 
   
 "Well, not really," Telzey admitted. "Or sort of." She laughed, her 
 cheeks flushed. "This is the most ... go ahead please! Sorry I 
 interrupted." She stared at the wall beyond Dr. Droon with a rapt 
 expression. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 The zoologist and Halet exchanged glances. Then Dr. Droon resumed 
 cautiously. The crest cats, he said, were a species native to 
 Jontarou. Their existence had been known for only eight years. The 
 species appeared to have had a somewhat limited range--the Baluit 
 mountains on the opposite side of the huge continent on which Port 
 Nichay had been built.... 
   
 Telzey barely heard him. A very curious thing was happening. For every 
 sentence Dr. Droon uttered, a dozen other sentences appeared in her 
 awareness. More accurately, it was as if an instantaneous smooth flow 
 of information relevant to whatever he said arose continuously from 
 what might have been almost her own memory, but wasn't. Within a 
 minute or two, she knew more about the crest cats of Jontarou than Dr. 
 Droon could have told her in hours ... much more than he'd ever known. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 13 
 She realized suddenly that he'd stopped talking, that he had asked her 
 a question. "Miss Amberdon?" he repeated now, with a note of 
 uncertainty. 
   
 "Yar-rrr-REE!" Telzey told him softly. "I'll drink your blood!" 
   
 "Eh?" 
   
 Telzey blinked, focused on Dr. Droon, wrenching her mind away from a 
 splendid view of the misty-blue peaks of the Baluit range. 
   
 "Sorry," she said briskly. "Just a joke!" She smiled. "Now what were 
 you saying?" 
   
 The zoologist looked at her in a rather odd manner for a moment. "I 
 was inquiring," he said then, "whether you were familiar with the 
 sporting rules established by the various hunting associations of the 
 Hub in connection with the taking of game trophies?" 
   
 Telzey shook her head. "No, I never heard of them." 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 The rules, Dr. Droon explained, laid down the type of equipment ... 
 weapons, spotting and tracking instruments, number of assistants, and 
 so forth ... a sportsman could legitimately use in the pursuit of any 
 specific type of game. "Before the end of the first year after their 
 discovery," he went on, "the Baluit crest cats had been placed in the 
 ultra-equipment class." 
   
 "What's ultra-equipment?" Telzey asked. 
   
 "Well," Dr. Droon said thoughtfully, "it doesn't quite involve the use 
 of full battle armor ... not quite! And, of course, even with that 
 classification the sporting principle of mutual accessibility must be 
 observed." 
   
 "Mutual ... oh, I see!" Telzey paused as another wave of silent 
 information rose into her awareness; went on, "So the game has to be 
 able to get at the sportsman too, eh?" 
   
 "That's correct. Except in the pursuit of various classes of flying 
 animals, a shikari would not, for example, be permitted the use of an 
 aircar other than as means of simple transportation. Under these 
 conditions, it was soon established that crest cats were being 
 obtained by sportsmen who went after them at a rather consistent 
 one-to-one ration." 
   
 Telzey's eyes widened. She'd gathered something similar from her other 
 information source but hadn't quite believed it. "One hunter killed 
 for each cat bagged?" she said. "That's pretty rough sport, isn't it? 
   
 "Extremely rough sport!" Dr. Droon agreed dryly. "In fact, when the 
 statistics were published, the sporting interest in winning a Baluit 
 cat trophy appears to have suffered a sudden and sharp decline.  
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 14 
 On the 
 other hand, a more scientific interest in these remarkable animals was 
 coincidingly created, and many permits for their acquisition by the 
 agents of museums, universities, public and private collections were 
 issued. Sporting rules, of course, do not apply to that activity." 
   
 Telzey nodded absently. "I see! _They_ used aircars, didn't they? A 
 sort of heavy knockout gun--" 
   
 "Aircars, long-range detectors and stunguns are standard equipment in 
 such work," Dr. Droon acknowledged. "Gas and poison are employed, of 
 course, as circumstances dictate. The collectors were relatively 
 successful for a while." 
   
 "And then a curious thing happened. Less than two years after their 
 existence became known, the crest cats of the Baluit range were 
 extinct! The inroads made on their numbers by man cannot begin to 
 account for this, so it must be assumed that a sudden plague wiped 
 them out. At any rate, not another living member of the species has 
 been seen on Jontarou until you landed here with your pet last night." 
   
 Telzey sat silent for some seconds. Not because of what he had said, 
 but because the other knowledge was still flowing into her mind. On 
 one very important point _that_ was at variance with what the 
 zoologist had stated; and from there a coldly logical pattern was 
 building up. Telzey didn't grasp the pattern in complete detail yet, 
 but what she saw of it stirred her with a half incredulous dread. 
   
 She asked, shaping the words carefully but with only a small part of 
 her attention on what she was really saying. "Just what does all that 
 have to do with Tick-Tock, Dr. Droon?" 
   
 Dr. Droon glanced at Halet, and returned his gaze to Telzey. Looking 
 very uncomfortable but quite determined, he told her, "Miss Amberdon, 
 there is a Federation law which states that when a species is 
 threatened with extinction, any available survivors must be 
 transferred to the Life Banks of the University League, to insure 
 their indefinite preservation. Under the circumstances, this law 
 applies to, ah, Tick-Tock!" 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 So that had been Halet's trick. She'd found out about the crest cats, 
 might have put in as much as a few months arranging to make the 
 discovery of TT's origin on Jontarou seem a regrettable 
 mischance--something no one could have foreseen or prevented. In the 
 Life Banks, from what Telzey had heard of them, TT would cease to 
 exist as an individual awareness while scientists tinkered around with 
 the possibilities of reconstructing her species. 
   
 Telzey studied her aunt's carefully sympathizing face for an instant, 
 asked Dr. Droon, "What about the other crest cats--you said were 
 collected before they became extinct here? Wouldn't they be enough for 
 what the Life Banks need?" 
   
 He shook his head. "Two immature male specimens are know to exist, and 
 they are at present in the Life Banks. The others that were taken 
 alive at the time have been destroyed ... often under nearly 
 disastrous circumstances. They are enormously cunning, enormously 
 savage creatures, Miss Amberdon!  
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 15 
 The additional fact that they can 
 conceal themselves to the point of being virtually indetectable except 
 by the use of instruments makes them one of the most dangerous animals 
 known. Since the young female which you raised as a pet has remained 
 docile ... so far ... you may not really be able to appreciate that." 
   
 "Perhaps I can," Telzey said. She nodded at the heavy-looking 
 instrument standing beside his chair. "And that's--?" 
   
 "It's a life detector combined with a stungun, Miss Amberdon. I have 
 no intention of harming your pet, but we can't take chances with an 
 animal of that type. The gun's charge will knock it unconscious for 
 several minutes--just long enough to let me secure it with paralysis 
 belts." 
   
 "You're a collector for the Life Banks, Dr. Droon?" 
   
 "That's correct." 
   
 "Dr. Droon," Halet remarked, "has obtained a permit from the Planetary 
 Moderator, authorizing him to claim Tick-Tock for the University 
 League and remove her from the planet, dear. So you see there is 
 simply nothing we can do about the matter! Your mother wouldn't like 
 us to attempt to obstruct the law, would she?" Halet paused. "The 
 permit should have your signature, Telzey, but I can sign in your 
 stead if necessary." 
   
 That was Halet's way of saying it would do no good to appeal to 
 Jontarou's Planetary Moderator. She'd taken the precaution of getting 
 his assent to the matter first. 
   
 "So now if you'll just call Tick-Tock, dear..." Halet went on. 
   
 Telzey barely heard the last words. She felt herself stiffening 
 slowly, while the living room almost faded from her sight. Perhaps, in 
 that instant, some additional new circuit had closed in her mind, or 
 some additional new channel had opened, for TT's purpose in tricking 
 her into contact with the reckless, mocking beings outside was 
 suddenly and numbingly clear. 
   
 And what it meant immediately was that she'd have to get out of the 
 house without being spotted at it, and go some place where she could 
 be undisturbed for half an hour. 
   
 She realized that Halet and the zoologist were both staring at her. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 "Are you ill, dear?" 
   
 "No." Telzey stood up. It would be worse than useless to try to tell 
 these two anything! Her face must be pretty white at the moment--she 
 could feel it--but they assumed, of course, that the shock of losing 
 TT had just now sunk in on her. 
   
 "I'll have to check on that law you mentioned before I sign anything," 
 she told Dr. Droon. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 16 
 "Why, yes ..." He started to get out of his chair. "I'm sure that can 
 be arranged, Miss Amberdon!" 
   
 "Don't bother to call the Moderator's office," Telzey said. "I brought 
 my law library along. I'll look it up myself." She turned to leave the 
 room. 
   
 "My niece," Halet explained to Dr. Droon who was beginning to look puzzled, 
 "attends law school. She's always so absorbed in her studies ... Telzey?" 
   
 "Yes, Halet?" Telzey paused at the door. 
   
 "I'm very glad you've decided to be sensible about this, dear. But 
 don't take too long, will you? We don't want to waste Dr. Droon's 
 time." 
   
 "It shouldn't take more than five or ten minutes," Telzey told her 
 agreeably. She closed the door behind her, and went directly to her 
 bedroom on the second floor. One of her two valises was still 
 unpacked. She locked the door behind her, opened the unpacked valise, 
 took out a pocket edition law library and sat down at the table with 
 it. 
   
 She clicked on the library's view-screen, tapped the clearing and 
 index buttons. Behind the screen, one of the multiple rows of pinhead 
 tapes shifted slightly as the index was flicked into reading position. 
 Half a minute later, she was glancing over the legal section on which 
 Dr. Droon had based his claim. The library confirmed what he had said. 
   
 Very neat of Halet, Telzey thought, very nasty ... and pretty idiotic! 
 Even a second-year law student could think immediately of two or three 
 ways in which a case like that could have been dragged out in the 
 Federation's courts for a couple of decades before the question of 
 handing Tick-Tock over to the Life Banks became too acute. 
   
 Well, Halet simply wasn't really intelligent. And the plot to shanghai 
 TT was hardly even a side issue now. 
   
 Telzey snapped the tiny library shut, fastened it to the belt of her 
 sunsuit and went over to the open window. A two-foot ledge passed 
 beneath the window, leading to the roof of a patio on the right. 
 Fifty yards beyond the patio, the garden ended in a natural-stone 
 wall. Behind it lay one of the big wooded park areas which formed most 
 of the ground level of Port Nichay. 
   
 Tick-Tock wasn't in sight. A sound of voices came from ground-floor 
 windows on the left. Halet had brought her maid and chauffeur along; 
 and a chef had showed up in time to make breakfast this morning, as 
 part of the city's guest house service. Telzey took the empty valise 
 to the window, set it on end against the left side of the frame, and 
 let the window slide down until its lower edge rested on the valise. 
 She went back to the house guard-screen panel beside the door, put her 
 finger against the lock button, and pushed. 
   
 The sound of voices from the lower floor was cut off as outer doors 
 and windows slid silently shut all about the house. Telzey glanced 
 back at the window.   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 17 
 The valise had creaked a little as the guard field 
 drove the frame down on it, but it was supporting the thrust. She 
 returned to the window, wriggled feet foremost through the opening, 
 twisted around and got a footing on the ledge. 
   
 A minute later, she was scrambling quietly down a vine-covered patio 
 trellis to the ground. Even after they discovered she was gone, the 
 guard screen would keep everybody in the house for some little while. 
 They'd either have to disengage the screen's main mechanisms and start 
 poking around in them, or force open the door to her bedroom and get 
 the lock unset. Either approach would involve confusion, upset 
 tempers, and generally delay any organized pursuit. 
   
 Telzey edged around the patio and started towards the wall, keeping 
 close to the side of the house so she couldn't be seen from the 
 windows. The shrubbery made minor rustling noises as she threaded her 
 way through it ... and then there was a different stirring which might 
 have been no more than a slow, steady current of air moving among the 
 bushes behind her. She shivered involuntarily but didn't look back. 
   
 She came to the wall, stood still, measuring its height, jumped and 
 got an arm across it, swung up a knee and squirmed up and over. She 
 came down on her feet with a small thump in the grass on the other 
 side, glanced back once at the guest house, crossed a path and went on 
 among the park trees. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 Within a few hundred yards, it became apparent that she had an escort. 
 She didn't look around for them, but spread out to right and left like 
 a skirmish line, keeping abreast with her, occasional shadows slid 
 silently through patches of open, sunlit ground, disappeared again 
 under the trees. Otherwise, there was hardly anyone in sight. Port 
 Nichay's human residents appeared to make almost no personal use of 
 the vast parkland spread out beneath their tower apartments; and its 
 traffic moved over the airways, visible from the ground only as 
 rainbow-hued ribbons which bisected the sky between the upper tower 
 levels. An occasional private aircar went by overhead. 
   
 Wisps of thought which were not her own thoughts flicked through 
 Telzey's mind from moment to moment as the silent line of shadows 
 moved deeper into the park with her. She realized she was being sized 
 up, judged, evaluated again. No more information was coming through; 
 they had given her as much information as she needed. In the main 
 perhaps, they were simply curious now. This was the first human mind 
 they'd been able to make heads or tails of, and that hadn't seemed 
 deaf and silent to their form of communication. They were taking time 
 out to study it. They'd been assured she would have something of 
 genuine importance to tell them; and there was some derision about 
 that. But they were willing to wait a little, and find out. They were 
 curious and they liked games. At the moment, Telzey and what she might 
 try to do to change their plans was the game on which their attention 
 was fixed. 
   
 Twelve minutes passed before the talker on Telzey's wrist began to 
 buzz. It continued to signal off and on for another few minutes, then 
 stopped. Back in the guest house they couldn't be sure yet whether she 
 wasn't simply locked inside her room and refusing to answer them. But 
 Telzey quickened her pace. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 18 
 The park's trees gradually became more massive, reached higher above 
 her, stood spaced more widely apart. She passed through the morning 
 shadow of the residential tower nearest the guest house, and emerged 
 from it presently on the shore of a small lake. On the other side of 
 the lake, a number of dappled grazing animals like long-necked, tall 
 horses lifted their heads to watch her. For some seconds they seemed 
 only mildly interested, but then a breeze moved across the lake, 
 crinkling the surface of the water, and as it touched the opposite 
 shore, abrupt panic exploded among the grazers. They wheeled, went 
 flashing away in effortless twenty-foot strides, and were gone among 
 the trees. 
   
 Telzey felt a crawling along her spine. It was the first objective 
 indication she'd had of the nature of the company she had brought to 
 the lake, and while it hardly came as a surprise, for a moment her 
 urge was to follow the example of the grazers. 
   
 "Tick-Tock?" she whispered, suddenly a little short of breath. 
   
 A single up-and-down purring note replied from the bushes on her 
 right. TT was still around, for whatever good that might do. Not too 
 much, Telzey thought, if it came to serious trouble. But the knowledge 
 was somewhat reassuring ... and this, meanwhile, appeared to be as far 
 as she needed to get from the guest house. They'd be looking for her 
 by aircar presently, but there was nothing to tell them in which 
 direction to turn first. 
   
 She climbed the bank of the lake to a point where she was screened 
 both by thick, green shrubbery and the top of a single immense tree 
 from the sky, sat down on some dry, mossy growth, took the law library 
 from her belt, opened it and placed it in her lap. Vague stirrings 
 indicated that her escort was also settling down in an irregular 
 circle about her; and apprehension shivered on Telzey's skin again. It 
 wasn't that their attitude was hostile; they were simply overawing. 
 And no one could predict what they might do next. Without looking up, 
 she asked a question in her mind. 
   
 "Ready?" 
 Sense of multiple acknowledgment, variously tinged--sardonic; 
 interestingly amused; attentive; doubtful. Impatience quivered through 
 it too, only tentatively held in restraint, and Telzey's forehead was 
 suddenly wet. Some of them seemed on the verge of expressing 
 disapproval with what was being done here-- 
   
 Her fingers quickly flicked in the index tape, and the stir of feeling 
 about her subsided, their attention captured again for the moment. Her 
 thoughts became to some degree detached, ready to dissect another 
 problem in the familiar ways and present the answers to it. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 19 
 Not a very 
 involved problem essentially, but this time it wasn't a school 
 exercise. Her company waited, withdrawn, silent, aloof once more, 
 while the index blurred, checked, blurred and checked. Within a minute 
 and a half, she had noted a dozen reference symbols. She tapped in 
 another of the pinhead tapes, glanced over a few paragraphs, licked 
 salty sweat from her lip, and said in her thoughts, emphasizing the 
 meaning of each detail of the sentence so that there would be no 
 misunderstanding, "This is the Federation law that applies to the 
 situation which existed originally on this planet...." 
   
 There were no interruptions, no commenting thoughts, no intrusions of 
 any kind, as she went step by step through the section, turned to 
 another one, and another. In perhaps twelve minutes she came to the 
 end of the last one, and stopped. Instantly, argument exploded about 
 her. 
   
 Telzey was not involved in the argument; in fact, she could grasp only 
 scraps of it. Either they were excluding her deliberately, or the 
 exchange was too swift, practiced and varied to allow her to keep up. 
 But their vehemence was not encouraging. And was it reasonable to 
 assume that the Federation's laws would have any meaning for minds 
 like these? Telzey snapped the library shut with fingers that had 
 begun to tremble, and placed it on the ground. Then she stiffened. In 
 the sensations washing about her, a special excitement rose suddenly, 
 a surge of almost gleeful wildness that choked away her breath. 
 Awareness followed of a pair of malignant crimson eyes fastened on 
 her, moving steadily closer. A kind of nightmare paralysis seized 
 Telzey--they'd turned her over to that red-eyed horror! She sat still, 
 feeling mouse-sized. 
   
 Something came out with a crash from a thicket behind her. Her muscles 
 went tight. But it was TT who rubbed a hard head against her shoulder, 
 took another three stiff-legged steps forward and stopped between 
 Telzey and the bushes on their right, back rigid, neck fur erect, tail 
 twisting. 
   
 Expectant silence closed in about them. The circle was waiting. In the 
 greenery on the right something made a slow, heavy stir. 
   
 TT's lips peeled back from her teeth. Her head swung towards the 
 motion, ears flattening, transformed to a split, snarling demon-mask. 
 A long shriek ripped from her lungs, raw with fury, blood lust and 
 challenge. 
   
 The sound died away. For some seconds the tension about them held; 
 then came a sense of gradual relaxation mingled with a partly amused 
 approval. Telzey was shaking violently. It had been, she was telling 
 herself, a deliberate test ... not of herself, of course, but of TT. 
 And Tick-Tock had passed with honors. That _her_ nerves had been half 
 ruined in the process would seem a matter of no consequence to this 
 rugged crew.... 
   
 She realized next that someone here was addressing her personally. 
   
 It took a few moments to steady her jittering thoughts enough to gain 
 a more definite impression than that. This speaker, she discovered 
 then, was a member of the circle of whom she hadn't been aware before. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 20 
 The thought-impressions came hard and cold as iron--a personage who 
 was very evidently in the habit of making major decisions and seeing 
 them carried out. The circle, its moment of sport over, was listening 
 with more than a suggestion of deference. Tick-Tock, far from 
 conciliated, green eyes still blazing, nevertheless was settling down 
 to listen, too. 
   
 Telzey began to understand. 
   
 Her suggestions, Iron Thoughts informed her, might appear without 
 value to a number of foolish minds here, but _he_ intended to see they 
 were given a fair trial. Did he perhaps hear, he inquired next of the 
 circle, throwing in a casual but horridly vivid impression of snapping 
 spines and slashed shaggy throats spouting blood, any objection to 
 that? 
   
 Dead stillness all around. There was, definitely, no objection. 
 Tick-Tock began to grin like a pleased kitten. 
   
 That point having been settled in an orderly manner now, Iron Thoughts 
 went on coldly to Telzey, what specifically did she propose they 
 should do? 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 Halet's long, pearl-gray sportscar showed up above the park trees 
 twenty minutes later. Telzey, face turned down towards the open law 
 library in her lap, watched the car from the corner of her eyes. She 
 was in plain view, sitting beside the lake, apparently absorbed in 
 legal research. Tick-Tock, camouflaged among the bushes thirty feet 
 higher up the bank, had spotted the car an instant before she did and 
 announced the fact with a three-second break in her purring. Neither 
 of them made any other move. 
   
 The car was approaching the lake but still a good distance off. Its 
 canopy was down, and Telzey could just make out the heads of three 
 people inside. Delquos, Halet's chauffeur, would be flying the 
 vehicle, while Halet and Dr. Droon looked around for her from the 
 sides. Three hundred yards away, the aircar began a turn to the right. 
 Delquos didn't like his employer much; at a guess, he had just spotted 
 Telzey and was trying to warn her off. 
   
 Telzey closed the library and put it down, picked up a handful of 
 pebbles and began flicking them idly, one at a time, into the water. 
 The aircar vanished to her left. 
   
 Three minutes later, she watched its shadow glide across the surface 
 of the lake towards her. Her heart began to thump almost audibly, but 
 she didn't look up. Tick-Tock's purring continued, on its regular, 
 unhurried note. The car came to a stop almost directly overhead. After 
 a couple of seconds, there was a clicking noise. The purring ended 
 abruptly. 
   
 Telzey climbed to her feet as Delquos brought the car down to the bank 
 of the lake. The chauffeur grinned ruefully at her. A side door had 
 been opened, and Halet and Dr. Droon stood behind it. Halet watched 
 Telzey with a small smile while the naturalist put the heavy 
 life-detector-and-stungun device carefully down on the floorboards. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 21 
 "If you're looking for Tick-Tock," Telzey said, "she isn't here." 
   
 Halet just shook her head sorrowfully. 
   
 "There's no use lying to us, dear. Dr Droon just stunned her." 
   
        *       *      *       *       * 
   
 They found TT collapsed on her side among the shrubs, wearing her 
 natural color. Her eyes were shut, her chest rose and fell in a slow 
 breathing motion. Dr. Droon, looking rather apologetic, pointed out to 
 Telzey that her pet was in no pain, that the stungun had simply put 
 her comfortably to sleep. He also explained the use of the two sets of 
 webbed paralysis belts which he fastened about TT's legs. The effect 
 of the stun charge would wear off in a few minutes, and contact with 
 the inner surfaces of the energized belts would then keep TT 
 anesthetized and unable to move until the belts were removed. She 
 would, he repeated, be suffering no pain throughout the process. 
   
 Telzey didn't comment. She watched Delquos raise TT's limp body above 
 the level of the bushes with a gravity hoist belonging to Dr. Droon, 
 and maneuver her back to the car, the others following. Delquos 
 climbed into the car first, opened the big trunk compartment in the 
 rear. TT was slid inside and the trunk compartment locked. 
   
 "Where are you taking her?" Telzey asked sullenly as Delquos lifted 
 the car into the air. 
   
 "To the spaceport, dear," Halet said. "Dr. Droon and I both felt it 
 would be better to spare your feelings by not prolonging the matter 
 unnecessarily." 
   
 Telzey wrinkled her nose disdainfully, and walked up the aircar to 
 stand behind Delquos' seat. She leaned against the back of the seat 
 for an instant. Her legs felt shaky. 
   
 The chauffeur gave her a sober wink from the side. 
   
 "That's a dirty trick she's played on you, Miss Telzey!" he murmured. 
 "I tried to warn you." 
   
 "I know." Telzey took a deep breath. "Look, Delquos, in just a minute 
 something's going to happen! It'll look dangerous, but it won't be. 
 Don't let it get you nervous ... right?" 
   
 "Huh?" Delquos appeared startled, but kept his voice low. "Just 
 _what's_ going to happen?" 
   
 "No time to tell you. Remember what I said." 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 Telzey moved back a few steps from the driver's seat, turned around, 
 said unsteadily, "Halet ... Dr. Droon--" 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 22 
 Halet had been speaking quietly to Dr. Droon; they both looked up. 
   
 "If you don't move, and don't do anything stupid," Telzey said 
 rapidly, "you won't get hurt. If you do ... well, I don't know! You 
 see, there's another crest cat in the car...." In her mind she added, 
 "Now!" 
   
 It was impossible to tell in just what section of the car Iron 
 Thoughts had been lurking. The carpeting near the rear passenger seats 
 seemed to blur for an instant. Then he was there, camouflage dropped, 
 sitting on the floorboards five feet from the naturalist and Halet. 
   
 Halet's mouth opened wide; she tried to scream but fainted instead. 
 Dr. Droon's right hand started out quickly towards the big stungun 
 device beside his seat. Then he checked himself and sat still, 
 ashen-faced. 
   
 Telzey didn't blame him for changing his mind. She felt he must be a 
 remarkably brave man to have moved at all. Iron Thoughts, twice as 
 broad across the back as Tick-Tock, twice as massively muscled, looked 
 like a devil-beast even to her. His dark-green marbled hide was 
 criss-crossed with old scar patterns; half his tossing crimson crest 
 appeared to have been ripped away. He reached out now in a fluid, 
 silent motion, hooked a paw under the stungun and flicked upwards. The 
 big instrument rose in an incredibly swift, steep arc eighty feet 
 into the air, various parts flying away from it, before it started 
 curving down towards the treetops below the car. Iron Thoughts lazily 
 swung his head around and looked at Telzey with yellow fire-eyes. 
   
 "Miss Telzey! Miss Telzey!" Delquos was muttering behind her. "You're 
 _sure_ it won't...." 
   
 Telzey swallowed. At the moment, she felt barely mouse-sized again. 
 "Just relax!" she told Delquos in a shaky voice. "He's really quite 
 t-t-t-tame." 
   
 Iron Thoughts produced a harsh but not unamiable chuckle in her mind. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 The pearl-gray sportscar, covered now by its streamlining canopy, 
 drifted down presently to a parking platform outside the suite of 
 offices on Jontarou's Planetary Moderator, on the fourteenth floor of 
 the Shikaris' Club Tower. An attendant waved it on into a vacant slot. 
   
 Inside the car, Delquos set the brakes, switched off the engine, 
 asked, "Now what?" 
   
 "I think," Telzey said reflectively, "we'd better lock you in the 
 trunk compartment with my aunt and Dr. Droon while I talk to the 
 Moderator." 
   
 The chauffeur shrugged. He'd regained most of his aplomb during the 
 unhurried trip across the parklands. Iron Thoughts had done nothing 
 but sit in the center of the car, eyes half shut, looking like instant 
 death enjoying a dignified nap and occasionally emitting a ripsawing 
 noise which might have been either his style of purring or a snore. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 23 
 And Tick-Tock, when Delquos peeled the paralysis belts off her legs at 
 Telzey's direction, had greeted him with her usual reserved 
 affability. What the chauffeur was suffering from at the moment was 
 intense curiosity, which Telzey had done nothing to relieve. 
   
 "Just as you say, Miss Telzey," he agreed. "I hate to miss whatever 
 you're going to be doing here, but if you _don't_ lock me up now, Miss 
 Halet will figure I was helping you and fire me as soon as you let her 
 out." 
   
 Telzey nodded, then cocked her head in the direction of the rear 
 compartment. Faint sounds coming through the door indicated that Halet 
 had regained consciousness and was having hysterics. 
   
 "You might tell her," Telzey suggested, "that there'll be a grown-up 
 crest cat sitting outside the compartment door." This wasn't true, but 
 neither Delquos nor Halet could know it. "If there's too much racket 
 before I get back, it's likely to irritate him...." 
   
 A minute later, she set both car doors on lock and went outside, 
 wishing she were less informally clothed. Sunbriefs and sandals tended 
 to make her look juvenile. 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 The parking attendant appeared startled when she approached him with 
 Tick-Tock striding alongside. 
   
 "They'll never let you into the offices with that thing, miss," he 
 informed her. "Why, it doesn't even have a collar!" 
   
 "Don't worry about it." Telzey told him aloofly. 
   
 She dropped a two-credit piece she'd taken from Halet's purse into his 
 hand, and continued on towards the building entrance. The attendant 
 squinted after her, trying unsuccessfully to dispel an odd impression 
 that the big catlike animal with the girl was throwing a double 
 shadow. 
   
 The Moderator's chief receptionist also had some doubts about TT, and 
 possibly about the sunbriefs, though she seemed impressed when 
 Telzey's identification tag informed her she was speaking to the 
 daughter of Federation Councilwoman Jessamine Amberdon. 
   
 "You feel you can discuss this ... emergency ... only with the 
 Moderator himself, Miss Amberdon?" she repeated. 
   
 "Exactly," Telzey said firmly. A buzzer sounded as she spoke. The 
 receptionist excused herself and picked up an earphone. She listened a 
 moment, said blandly, "Yes.... Of course.... Yes, I understand," 
 replaced the earphone and stood up, smiling at Telzey. 
   
 "Would you come with me, Miss Amberdon?" she said. "I think the 
 Moderator will see you immediately...." 
   
 Telzey followed her, chewing thoughtfully at her lip. This was easier 
 than she'd expected--in fact, too easy! Halet's work? Probably. A few 
 comments to the effect of "A highly imaginative child ... 
 overexcitable," while Halet was arranging to have the Moderator's 
 office authorize Tick-Tock's transfer to the life Banks, along with 
 the implication that Jessamine Amberdon would appreciate a discreet 
 handling of any disturbance Telzey might create as a result. 
   
 It was the sort of notion that would appeal to Halet-- 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 24 
 They passed through a series of elegantly equipped offices and 
 hallways, Telzey grasping TT's neck-fur in lieu of a leash, their 
 appearance creating a tactfully restrained wave of surprise among 
 secretaries and clerks. And if somebody here and there was troubled by 
 a fleeting, uncanny impression that not one large beast but two seemed 
 to be trailing the Moderator's visitor down the aisles, no mention was 
 made of what could have been only a momentary visual distortion. 
 Finally, a pair of sliding doors opened ahead, and the receptionist 
 ushered Telzey into a large, cool balcony garden on the shaded side of 
 the great building. A tall, gray-haired man stood up from the desk at 
 which he was working, and bowed to Telzey. The receptionist withdrew 
 again. 
   
 "My pleasure, Miss Amberdon," Jontarou's Planetary Moderator said, "Be 
 seated, please." He studied Tick-Tock with more than casual interest 
 while Telzey was settling herself into a chair, added, "And what may I 
 and my office do for you?" 
   
 Telzey hesitated. She'd observed his type on Orado in her mother's 
 circle of acquaintances--a senior diplomat, a man not easy to impress. 
 It was a safe bet that he'd had her brought out to his balcony office 
 only to keep her occupied while Halet was quietly informed where the 
 Amberdon problem child was and requested to come over and take charge. 
   
 What she had to tell him now would have sounded rather wild even if 
 presented by a presumably responsible adult. She could provide proof, 
 but until the Moderator was already nearly sold on her story, that 
 would be a very unsafe thing to do. Old Iron Thoughts was backing her 
 up, but if it didn't look as if her plans were likely to succeed, he 
 would be willing to ride herd on his devil's pack just so long.... 
   
 Better start the ball rolling without any preliminaries, Telzey 
 decided. The Moderator's picture of her must be that of a spoiled, 
 neurotic brat in a stew about the threatened loss of a pet animal. He 
 expected her to start arguing with him immediately about Tick-Tock. 
   
 She said "Do you have a personal interest in keeping the Baluit crest 
 cats from becoming extinct?" 
   
 Surprise flickered in his eyes for an instant. Then he smiled. 
   
 "I admit I do, Miss Amberdon," he said pleasantly. "I should like to 
 see the species re-established. I count myself almost uniquely 
 fortunate in having had the opportunity to bag two of the magnificent 
 brutes before disease wiped them out on the planet." 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 25 
 The last seemed a less than fortunate statement just now. Telzey 
 felt a sharp tingle of alarm, then sensed that in the minds which were 
 drawing the meaning of the Moderator's speech from her mind there had 
 been only a brief stir of interest. 
   
 She cleared her throat, said, "The point is that they weren't wiped 
 out by disease." 
   
 He considered her quizzically, seemed to wonder what she was trying to 
 lead up to. Telzey gathered her courage, plunged on, "Would you like 
 to hear what did happen?" 
   
 "I should be very much interested, Miss Amberdon," the Moderator said 
 without change of expression. "But first, if you'll excuse me a 
 moment...." 
   
 There had been some signal from his desk which Telzey hadn't noticed, 
 because he picked up a small communicator now and said "Yes?" After a 
 few seconds, he resumed, "That's rather curious, isn't it?... Yes, I'd 
 try that.... No, that shouldn't be necessary.... Yes, please do. 
 Thank you." He replaced the communicator, his face very sober; then, 
 his eyes flicking for an instant to TT, he drew one of the upper desk 
 drawers open a few inches, and turned back to Telzey. 
   
 "Now, Miss Amberdon," he said affably, "you were about to say? About 
 these crest cats...." 
   
 Telzey swallowed. She hadn't heard the other side of the conversation, 
 but she could guess what it had been about. His office had called the 
 guest house, had been told by Halet's maid that Halet, the chauffeur 
 and Dr. Droon were out looking for Miss Telzey and her pet. The 
 Moderator's office had then checked on the sportscar's communication 
 number and attempted to call it. And, of course, there had been no 
 response. 
   
 To the Moderator, considering what Halet would have told him, it must 
 add up to the grim possibility that the young lunatic he was talking 
 to had let her three-quarters-grown crest cat slaughter her aunt and 
 the two men when they caught up with her! The office would be 
 notifying the police now to conduct an immediate search for the 
 missing aircar. 
   
 When it would occur to them to look for it on the Moderator's parking 
 terrace was something Telzey couldn't know. But if Halet and Dr. Droon 
 were released before the Moderator accepted her own version of what 
 had occurred, and the two reported the presence of wild crest cats in 
 Port Nichay, there would be almost no possibility of keeping the 
 situation under control. Somebody was bound to make some idiotic move, 
 and the fat would be in the fire.... 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 Two things might be in her favor. The Moderator seemed to have the 
 sort of steady nerve one would expect in a man who had bagged two 
 Baluit crest cats. The partly opened desk drawer beside him must have 
 a gun in it; apparently he considered that a sufficient precaution 
 against an attack by TT. He wasn't likely to react in a panicky 
 manner.  
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 26 
 And the mere fact that he suspected Telzey of homicidal 
 tendencies would make him give the closest attention to what she said. 
 Whether he believed her then was another matter, of course. 
   
 Slightly encouraged, Telzey began to talk. It did sound like a 
 thoroughly wild story, but the Moderator listened with an appearance 
 of intent interest. When she had told him as much as she felt he could 
 be expected to swallow for a start, he said musingly, "So they weren't 
 wiped out--they went into hiding! Do I understand you to say they did 
 it to avoid being hunted?" 
   
 Telzey chewed her lip frowningly before replying. "There's something 
 about that part I don't quite get," she admitted. "Of course I don't 
 quite get either why you'd want to go hunting ... twice ... for 
 something that's just as likely to bag you instead!" 
   
 "Well, those are, ah, merely the statistical odds," the Moderator 
 explained. "If one has enough confidence, you see--" 
   
 "I don't really. But the crest cats seem to have felt the same way--at 
 first. They were getting around one hunter for every cat that got 
 shot. Humans were the most exciting game they'd ever run into. 
   
 "But then that ended, and the humans started knocking them out with 
 stunguns from aircars where they couldn't be got at, and hauling them 
 off while they were helpless. After it had gone on for a while, they 
 decided to keep out of sight. 
   
 "But they're still around ... thousands and thousands of them! 
 Another thing nobody's known about them is that they weren't only in 
 the Baluit mountains. There were crest cats scattered all through the 
 big forests along the other side of the continent." 
   
 "Very interesting," the Moderator commented. "Very interesting, 
 indeed!" He glanced towards the communicator, then returned his gaze 
 to Telzey, drumming his fingers lightly on the desk top. 
   
 She could tell nothing at all from his expression now, but she guessed 
 he was thinking hard. There was supposed to be no native intelligent 
 life in the legal sense on Jontarou, and she had been careful to say 
 nothing so far to make the Baluit cats look like more than rather 
 exceptionally intelligent animals. The next--rather large--question 
 should be how she'd come by such information. 
   
 If the Moderator asked her that, Telzey thought, she could feel she'd 
 made a beginning at getting him to buy the whole story. 
   
 "Well," he said abruptly, "if the crest cats are not extinct or 
 threatened with extinction, the Life Banks obviously have no claim on 
 your pet." He smiled confidingly at her. "And that's the reason you're 
 here, isn't it?" 
   
 "Well, no," Telzey began, dismayed. "I--" 
   
 "Oh, it's quite all right, Miss Amberdon! I'll simply rescind the 
 permit which was issued for the purpose. You need feel no further 
 concern about that." He paused. "Now, just one question ... do you 
 happen to know where your aunt is at present?"  
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 27 
 Telzey had a dead, sinking feeling. So he hadn't believed a word she 
 said. He'd been stalling her along until the aircar could be found. 
   
 She took a deep breath. "You'd better listen to the rest of it." 
   
 "Why, is there more?" the Moderator asked politely. 
   
 "Yes. The important part! The kind of creatures they are, they 
 wouldn't go into hiding indefinitely just because someone was after 
 them." 
   
 Was there a flicker of something beyond watchfulness in his 
 expression. "What would they do, Miss Amberdon?" he asked quietly. 
   
 "If they couldn't get at the men in the aircars and couldn't 
 communicate with them"--the flicker again!--"they'd start looking for 
 the place the men came from, wouldn't they? It might take them some 
 years to work their way across the continent and locate us here in 
 Port Nichay. But supposing they did it finally and a few thousand of 
 them are sitting around in the parks down there right now? They could 
 come up the side of these towers as easily as they go up the side of a 
 mountain. And supposing they'd decided that the only way to handle the 
 problem was to clean out the human beings in Port Nichay?" 
   
 The Moderator stared at her in silence a few seconds. "You're saying," 
 he observed then, "that they're rational beings--above the Critical 
 I.Q. level." 
   
 "Well," Telzey said, "legally they're rational. I checked on that. 
 About as rational as we are, I suppose." 
   
 "Would you mind telling me now how you happen to know this?" 
   
 "They told me," Telzey said. 
   
 He was silent again, studying her face. "You mentioned, Miss Amberdon, 
 that they have been unable to communicate with other human beings. 
 This suggests then that you are a xenotelepath...." 
   
 "I am?" Telzey hadn't heard the term before. "If it means that I can 
 tell what the cats are thinking, and they can tell what I'm thinking, 
 I guess that's the word for it." She considered him, decided she had 
 him almost on the ropes, went on quickly. 
   
 "I looked up the laws, and told them they could conclude a treaty with 
 the Federation which would establish them as an Affiliated Species ... 
 and that would settle everything the way they would want it settled, 
 without trouble. Some of them believed me. They decided to wait until 
 I could talk to you. If it works out, fine! If it doesn't"--she felt 
 her voice falter for an instant--"they're going to cut loose fast!" 
   
 The Moderator seemed undisturbed. "What am I supposed to do?" 
   
 "I told them you'd contact the Council of the Federation on Orado." 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 28 
 "Contact the Council?" he repeated coolly. "With no more proof for 
 this story than your word Miss Amberdon?" 
   
 Telzey felt a quick, angry stirring begin about her, felt her face 
 whiten. 
   
 "All right," she said "I'll give you proof! I'll have to now. But 
 that'll be it. Once they've tipped their hand all the way, you'll 
 have about thirty seconds left to make the right move. I hope you 
 remember that!" 
   
 He cleared his throat. "I--" 
   
 "NOW!" Telzey said. 
   
 Along the walls of the balcony garden, beside the ornamental flower 
 stands, against the edges of the rock pool, the crest cats appeared. 
 Perhaps thirty of them. None quite as physically impressive as Iron 
 Thoughts who stood closest to the Moderator; but none very far from 
 Motionless as rocks, frightening as gargoyles, they waited, eyes 
 
 glowing with hellish excitement. 
   
 "This is _their_ council, you see," Telzey heard herself saying. 
   
 The Moderator's face had also paled. But he was, after all, an old 
 shikari and a senior diplomat. He took an unhurried look around the 
 circle, said quietly, "Accept my profound apologies for doubting you. 
 Miss Amberdon!" and reached for the desk communicator. 
   
 Iron Thoughts swung his demon head in Telzey's direction. For an 
 instant, she picked up the mental impression of a fierce yellow eye 
 closing in an approving wink. 
   
 "... An open transmitter line to Orado," the Moderator was saying into 
 the communicator. "The Council. And snap it up! Some very important 
 visitors are waiting." 
   
 The offices of Jontarou's Planetary Moderator became an extremely busy 
 and interesting area then. Quite two hours passed before it occurred 
 to anyone to ask Telzey again whether she knew where her aunt was at 
 present. 
   
 Telzey smote her forehead. 
   
 "Forgot all about that!" she admitted, fishing the sportscar's keys 
 out of the pocket of her sunbriefs. "They're out on the parking 
 platform...." 
   
        *       *       *       *       * 
   
 The preliminary treaty arrangements between the Federation of the Hub 
 and the new Affiliated Species of the Planet of Jontarou were formally 
 ratified two weeks later, the ceremony taking place on Jontarou, in 
 the Champagne Hall of the Shikaris' Club. 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 29 
 Telzey was able to follow the event only by news viewer in her 
 ship-cabin, she and Halet being on the return trip to Orado by then. 
 She wasn't too interested in the treaty's details--they conformed 
 almost exactly to what she had read out to Iron Thoughts and his 
 co-chiefs and companions in the park. It was the smooth bridging of 
 the wide language gap between the contracting parties by a row of 
 interpreting machines and a handful of human xenotelepaths which held 
 her attention. 
   
 As she switched off the viewer, Halet came wandering in from the 
 adjoining cabin. 
   
 "I was watching it, too!" Halet observed. She smiled. "I was hoping to 
 see dear Tick-Tock." 
   
 Telzey looked over at her. "Well, TT would hardly be likely to show up 
 in Port Nichay," she said. "She's having too good a time now finding 
 out what life in the Baluit range is like." 
   
 "I suppose so," Halet agreed doubtfully, sitting down on a hassock. 
 "But I'm glad she promised to get in touch with us again in a few 
 years. I'll miss her." 
   
 Telzey regarded her aunt with a reflective frown. Halet meant it quite 
 sincerely, of course, she had undergone a profound change of heart 
 during the past two weeks. But Telzey wasn't without some doubts about 
 the actual value of a change of heart brought on by telepathic means. 
 The learning process the crest cats had started in her mind appeared 
 to have continued automatically several days longer than her rugged 
 teachers had really intended; and Telzey had reason to believe that by 
 the end of that time she'd developed associated latent abilities of 
 which the crest cats had never heard. She'd barely begun to get it all 
 sorted out yet, but ... as an example ... she'd found it remarkably 
 easy to turn Halet's more obnoxious attitudes virtually upside down. 
 It had taken her a couple of days to get the hang of her aunt's 
 personal symbolism, but after that there had been no problem. 
   
 She was reasonably certain she'd broken no laws so far, though the 
 sections in the law library covering the use and abuse of psionic 
 abilities were veiled in such intricate and downright obscuring 
 phrasing--deliberately, Telzey suspected--that it was really difficult 
 to say what they did mean. But even aside from that, there were a 
 number of arguments in favor of exercising great caution. 
   
 Jessamine, for one thing, was bound to start worrying about her 
 sister-in-law's health if Halet turned up on Orado in her present 
 state of mind, even though it would make for a far more agreeable 
 atmosphere in the Amberdon household. 
   
 "Halet," Telzey inquired mentally, "do you remember what an all-out 
 stinker you used to be?" 
   
 "Of course, dear," Halet said aloud. "I can hardly wait to tell dear 
 Jessamine how much I regret the many times I...." 
   
 "Well," Telzey went on, still verbalizing it silently. "I think you'd 
 really enjoy life more if you were, let's say, about halfway between 
 your old nasty self and the sort of sickening-good kind you are now." 
   
 
 
 
 Novice Pg 30 
 "Why, Telzey!" Halet cried out with dopey amiability. "What a 
 delightful idea!" 
   
 "Let's try it," Telzey said. 
   
 There was silence in the cabin for some twenty minutes then while she 
 went painstakingly about remolding a number of Halet's character 
 traits for the second time. She still felt some misgivings about it; 
 but if it became necessary, she probably could always restore the old 
 Halet _in toto_. 
   
 These, she told herself, definitely were powers one should treat with 
 respect! Better rattle through law school first; then, with that out 
 of the way, she could start hunting around to see who in the 
 Federation was qualified to instruct a genius-level novice in the 
 proper handling of psionics. 
   
 
 
 Publication Date: January 11th 2015 https://www.bookrix.com/-mk496e398f1e345