She surveyed Cassidy. "Be you a chaser?"
"No, but I could do with a couple of stiff shots."
This drew Papa's attention back to the matter at hand. "Trespassers! The road hit! Scat! Some dust kick up!"
"Quiet!" Cassidy shouted. "Will you listen a minute? I—"
Two loyal Fuzzy Tails came charging up to the fence and added their raucous chatter to Papa's screeching diatribe, which had continued unchecked despite Cassidy's loud, desperate plea.
In the next instant, though, it seemed that a dam had burst overhead. Materializing from nowhere, at least a ton of water poured down on the agile-tongued native, the two Fuzzy Tails, Riva and Cassidy himself, bringing an abrupt end to all the commotion.
The animals streaked for the safety of the bushes while Papa and the girl dived back through the hedge. Bedraggled, Cassidy headed for the ship, wondering what sort of meteorological quirk he had encountered.
"No, sir," he said some time later as he attacked the directional selector with pliers and a screwdriver, "I don't like the setup. I don't like it worth a damn."
Mason traced the power lead to the junction box beside the hatch. "Maybe they aren't all like that."