"You want _me_ down there?" Blue Jaw gasped. "Why sure, sure."
The giant dropped to the deck with a catlike grace that nevertheless
vibrated Ben's rear teeth.
"You want to talk about something?" the big spaceman inquired. Ben
could almost see the paws hanging down and the tail wagging eagerly.
* * * * *
"Yeah," Starbuck said. "I'd like to talk about all of these men staring
at me. What's wrong with them? Nobody's said a word to me but you.
What are they waiting for? What are they going to do? I can't stand
the suspense. Is that it? I get the silent treatment until I go off my
rocker, get violent, and then something happens to me--" He stopped and
swallowed. He was talking too much. He was working himself up into a
state of terror.
"Say, you sure are _friendly_," the ox said with some confusion. "My
name's Percy Kettleman."
Starbuck steadied his hand and put it in Percy's grasp. It came out
whole.
"Those other fellows," Percy inclined his head.
"What about them?" Starbuck asked edgily.
"They'd probably like to come over and say 'hello' but them and me
don't get along so good. They know better than to come around bothering
me."
"You're not on their side? You wouldn't be a new man too, Percy?"
"Me? Hell, I've been spacing since I was sixteen. Those guys don't have
any side. A bunch of anti-social slobs. They can't stand each other any
more than I can stand any of them."
Starbuck decided he had picked a good ally in the midst of a pack of
lone wolves. Percy was the biggest man on board, physically. Still he
didn't like the idea of all the rest of crew looking daggers at him, or
throwing them, for that matter.
"Mind if I say 'hello' to the rest of the men?" he inquired of Percy.
"It's your nickel," gruffly. "Spend it the way you want."
Starbuck flexed an elbow. "Hello there, fellows. Looks to be a taut
ship." It sounded a shade inane. Starbuck had barely passed Socializing
at the university. But the men replied in good spirits, their faces
blooming with teeth, arms waggling, calling out modest insults.
Starbuck recalled that among a certain class of men an insult was a
good-natured compliment in negative translation.
"_Pssst._"
"Pssst?" Starbuck asked.
Kettleman passed him down half a roll of white tablet underhand.