As if on cue, a knock came on the office door. Dillon opened it, and stood aside for the thoroughly bedraggled alien waiting outside. Bila was a sorry caricature of himself, with his down plastered to his body. Water dripped from him in a steady stream.
"Tarsa, starman," he said.
"Tarsa, Bila," replied Dillon. "I've been expecting you."
"Oh? Do you then have the powers of foreseeing the future, too?"
"No," he said, laughing. "It's just that it's been several days since you were last here. You were overdue for a visit."
Cassidy cleared his throat, and Dillon turned to him.
"This is Cassidy, Bila," he said. "He is my brother from the stars, and has come to visit me for a short while."
"Tarsa, Cassidy," the native said, gravely.
"Tarsa, Bila. I have been hoping to meet a member of your people."
"Oh? Has the fame of Kash spread far through the universe then?"