"Can you come here and get me?"
"We'll be doing fine if we get off with our skin," said Larry. "We definitely have not enough power to go roaming all over Telfu. We're on the one spot that will allow us to leave under the emergencies. An hour and thirty minutes from now that spot will be somewhere else. We'll wait an hour and ten and take off on the edge of the spot."
"Won't they come back and get me?"
"Wait a minute." Then he turned to Tet'h. "Could you send them back for Drake?"
"Yes," answered Tet'h. "Better not, though. She bad ... but lazy. Teach Terran so not ... learn Telfan."
"Sandra? No dice. That's it, toots. Take it or leave it."
"Look, Larry, isn't there something you can do?"
"I doubt it. Give you a tip, though. Next time you poke someone else's nose into a mess remember that he who laughs last isn't always too dumb to catch on quick. At the next sound, it will be exactly three people making with deep belly laughs. So long, until we meet again—in about six months! In-you, we're at these Telfan co-ordicidentally, if you should find someone who would like to get rid of nates: South Longitude.... Hey, Tet'h, how do you pronounce these figures?"
Tet'h caught his meaning and said: "Me tell."
He addressed the microphone, and spoke in Telfan. "There," he finished, "is where ... are!"