Odd, he thought, how so much could hinge on a single twist of circumstance. Vrausot would return to the Shoal and become a symbol around which Tzarean determination would rally.
On the other hand, if he, Mittich, were leader of this expedition, he too would receive a hero's welcome. Only, his praises would be hissed in the same breath with glorious tribute to the concepts of peaceful contact.
Vrausot turned to check the readiness of his landing party.
"All stun weapons loaded and set?" he asked, his voice sounding coarse both in Mittich's earphones and through a bulkhead speaker.
He received twenty affirmative tail flicks.
Of the pilot, standing by the hatch control switch, he demanded: "Status of the aliens' robots?"
"They are all impotent," Kavula reported back into the bulkhead speaker. "The last one used up its remaining power as we descended."
Vrausot stepped toward the hatch, but hesitated again. "Kavula, you will double check the detention compartment and see that the proper protein nutrient is being synthesized."
The pilot acknowledged with a thump of his tail and opened the hatch.
A short while later the landing party was making its way across the plain toward the area strewn densely with boulders and the cave in the cliff beyond. Formality was strictly observed. Vrausot went first. Twenty paces behind him came Mittich; then, at intervals of ten paces, the remainder of the detail.