Sliding Scales by Alan Dean Foster Read Free Book Online Page A

burying him beneath work that ordinarily was dealt with on a daily basis. Subordinates in his department could deal with a portion of the backlog, but not all of it.
    Nor had he been consulted. That was what galled him most. To be ordered around by a simpleton like Qerrudd, may her ovaries shrivel and be voided through her alimentary canal! But there was nothing he could do about it. Qerrudd had invoked clauses relating to matters military. Before these, even a high-ranking administrator like himself had to submit.
    He would retaliate. He would get back at that domineering, supercilious, self-centered—he ran out of breath before he ran out of expletives. He had no idea how he would do these things, but accomplish them he vowed to do. Meanwhile, he was as stuck with the situation as a juvenile who had forgotten to retract its own tongue whileeating and had accidentally chomped down on that sensitive appendage.
    His studies, common to all AAnn who entered the Service, did not prepare him for the height of the human. While AAnn varied considerably less in individual physical dimensions than did the softskins, they tended to see eye to eye with a goodly number of them. That was not the case with this specimen. It gazed down at Takuuna from a considerable, if not commanding, height. Takuuna guessed its weight at a hundred kuyster or less. The administrator was not intimidated, only surprised. Of additional interest was the small winged creature that lay across the human's shoulders like a decorative insignia. Though not sapient, it was scale-skinned and quite colorful. It eyed the administrator intently, almost as if sensing his irritation.
    Turning from the window through which he was contemplating the city, the human took notice of the administrator's gaze. Reaching up and out with one spongy hand, he smiled. Takuuna recognized the expression from his lessons. It was one of an extensive range of expressions the softskins could produce with their disgustingly flexible, soft facial features.
    “This is Pip.” Though he had been told that the human could speak the civilized language, Takuuna was still startled by the human's glibness and lack of accent. Well, fluency would simplify things.
    “I am Ssecondary Adminisstrator Takuuna. I am to be your esscort during your sstay on Jasst.” He saluted, simultaneously sheathing his claws, bowing slightly, and turning his head to the right to expose his jugular. Adding to his astonishment, the human proceeded to replicate the gesture, though he had no claws worthy of the designation to sheathe. Instead, he curled the tips of his fingers slightly inward.
    The impressive showing only enhanced Takuuna's suspicions. How came a human who professed to be traveling alone, on his own private business, and having nothing to do with either the Commonwealth military or diplomatic service, to have such knowledge of AAnn language and ways? In the straightforward AAnn manner, he asked as much.
    “The gaining of knowledge is a hobby of mine,” the human replied. “In some ways, it's my life. By the way, you can call me Flinx.”
    At least that was pronounceable, the administrator appreciated. Not the usual barbaric multiplicity of vowels that made so many human names and words sound like their user existed in a state of perpetual drowning. In fact, he found it easier to enunciate than the great majority of Vssey names.
    “I am told you have come to Jasst to do nothing.”
    “More or less.” The human smiled anew. With a couple of modest exceptions, Takuuna noted, every one of its teeth was as flat as the soles of an infant's feet. As useless in a fight as Vsseyan grinding plates, he mused. It did not make him less wary. Humans, he knew from his studies, could fight well without having to resort to biting. He glanced down at the equally hopeless excuses for proper claws that tipped each of the softskin's fingers. Or scratching.
    Too soon to think of fighting. Rationale first. Meanwhile, the