"Good solid stone buildings too—definitely not native huts."
"Of course the survey team was composed of both males and females," the captain muttered, "but, no, reproduction alone couldn't account for this, not in five years, even if you do allow for the mysterious influence of cosmic rays."
"What's all that light!" Lieutenant Wilkins exclaimed. "Damned if it doesn't look like a Christmas tree."
It was a Christmas tree, thirty feet tall, composed of interlaced branches and illuminated bladders. And, as the scout ship settled gently to the ground, its occupants could hear a chorus of sweet, true voices coming to them through the frosty air: "Ark uh er-ald an-gels ing/ O-ry oo uh oo-orn ing;/ Eace on Urbish and ercy i-yuld...."
"It's a hallucination," the captain said, rubbing his eyes. "We've been too long in space."
Lights came moving toward them through the darkness, and there was the babble of excited voices. "Captain Harnick!" Ned McComb cried. "We thought you were never coming!" All four members of the survey team crowded around the scout ship, shaking hands and talking at once. They looked fit, the captain noticed, although thin and strangely pale in the torchlight.
"We have so much to tell you!" Judy cried. "So much has been happening here we've hardly had time to turn around. I never knew five years could pass so rapidly."
Harnick and Wilkins looked at one another. They climbed out of the ship, and saw the choristers—a dozen small creatures in soft, lovely hues of blue and violet, standing in a semicircle nearby, regarding the newcomers without fear, as they continued to pipe lustily: "I-lent ight, O-ly ight;/ All is alm, all is ight...."
"You were entirely wrong about the natives, you know." Judy linked her arm through the captain's as she drew him through the cottage. "They're not only remarkably intelligent, but talented. Don't they sing beautifully? And you should see the murals they've done!"
"The natives!" Suspicion became certainty. "Then this," the captain thundered, pointing to the neat rows of stone houses, "is their work. You've enslaved them!"