"This is none of your affair!" Renzu snapped. "Go back to your business of running this ship. I didn't hire you to run my business."
"This may be your expedition," Arlen replied stubbornly, "but while we're in space, I'm the captain of this ship and my orders are to be obeyed. My orders are to give this Venusian beast humane treatment."
A whimpering sob broke from the throat of the brute on the floor.
Renzu sullenly twisted his arm loose from the captain's grasp. He appeared more calm now.
"You are right, Arlen," he said. "Your orders are to be obeyed. But you aren't a scientist. You don't know Gheal. He's not like the animals we know on the earth. He has to be beaten."
"Not while we're in space. I won't stand for it."
"You can't stand in the way of science, Arlen. I shall whip Gheal, if I deem it necessary." Renzu ended his words with a suggestive snap of his fingers in Gheal's direction. The monster cringed into a corner of the stateroom.
"Come with me, Gheal," Arlen ordered, beckoning to the monster.
The creature, seeming to understand, rose to his feet and followed Arlen out of the door.