"Don't touch anything," warned Teucrete. "Exact alignment is important."
She stopped before a keyboard like the console of a gigantic organ.
Behind it rose massed ranks of vacuum tubes, all glowing, humming,
flickering. The girl's fingers skipped nimbly on the keys, and notes of
sound rose in tinkling, chiming sprays from the shafts. Colors stormed
and raged in the crystalline forest, running up and down the visible
octaves of light. One sensed other scales beyond, in both upper and
lower wavelengths. Glass panels and crystal shafts vibrated to sound
and light, like tuning forks. They stirred, quivered, vanished, then
reappeared. A tall man appeared among the shafts and strode toward the
travellers.
"Khaljean!" said Pao Chung nervously.
It was sufficient introduction. There was uncanny resemblance between
father and daughter, like two matched paintings in different keys. The
animal man listened quietly, while Teucrete explained the situation. He
looked at Pao Chung and laughed. He shrugged.
"A bargain is a bargain," said Khaljean. "Perhaps I should go back to
Venus and fabricate some gnawed bones to convince the police searching
parties that the animals devoured you. All of you had better remain
here and wait till I send for you."
"You are good at faked evidence," Pao Chung jibed bitterly.
"In a good cause, yes," agreed Khaljean good-naturedly. "Even in a bad
cause, this time. Stay here. You will be safer."
"Wait!" ordered Ferris.