"Out of my way," grunted Jon, waving the stubray. "I'm hungry."
"I'm the first Steel-Blue you met," said the creature who barred his way. "Go back to your torture."
"But I'm so hungry I'll chew off one of your tentacles and eat it without seasoning."
"Eat?" The Steel-Blue sounded puzzled.
"I want to refuel. I've got to have food to keep my engine going."
Steel-Blue chuckled. "So the hemlock, as you call it, is beginning to affect you at last? Back to the torture room."
"Like R-dust," Jon growled. He pressed the firing stud on the stubray gun. One of Steel-Blue's tentacles broke off and fell to the rocky sward.
Steel-Blue jerked out the box he'd used once before. A tentacle danced over it.
Abruptly Jon found himself standing on a pinnacle of rock. Steel-Blue had cut a swath around him 15 feet deep and five feet wide.
"Back to the room," Steel-Blue commanded.