Floona tapped her fingers nervously. "Are we there yet?" Malbess and Thistledown had both chimed in at the same time, so she made faces at each of them. Thistledown laughed,"They want a picture of your cute face,regardless of the manners, it seems!" Malbess smiled,"At least you are coming along for crowd-control! I'm just a glorified Public Relations Rep, working for our system! At least I'M in uniform!" She grinned at Floona, who fidgeted in her overalls. Floona stood up as the shuttlecraft sat down on the pad and was drawn inside the structure. She growled,"I WANTED to see the alien ship that Obett guy has! WHY am I in this stupid thing? I wore it ONCE out of curiosity to see what we might end up wearing on that primitive backwater planet,Earth! NOW, the Tapponok are hot for me to pose in it? GAWD! Those little buggers bother me SO!" Malbess and Floona stepped back as a huge Xantini female opened the door to the shuttlecraft. She looked at Floona and grumbled out in passable common language of Balaam,"My eyes know you, little glowing one! You gave us the CURE for the Blight! Much great goodness of removing bad diseases let us all live longer and make more money than we have right to! Life is good for all because of you! The Tapponok give you a DAY!" The Xantini engineer stepped aside to show the thousands of Tapponok hostesses all dressed in blue overalls. The women spotted Floona and shrieked in unison. Floona grabbed the inner door handle and jerked it down hard and shouted behind her,"ALRIGHT! I SAW THEM! LET'S GO! LIFT OFF! LET'S GO!!" The hugely strong Xantini lifted the door open, leaving Floona dangling in front of the crowd. She cursed only loudly enough to NOT be heard and dropped to the deck-plates. She stood and waved, feeling in REALLY alien territory. Thistledown came out after her and stood next to her and yelled at her,"Smile and wave! If you can't think of anything else!" She smiled as best as she could, looking more like she was going to scream and waved like she she was meeting someone else's relatives. She screamed mildly at Thistledown,"GET ME OUT OF HERE! You know? SAVE ME!" Huge glowing banners were let down from the ceiling to show huge cartoons of Floona, flashing the bunny-head sign of perseverance and grinning like a fool. She whispered,"Forget SAVING me,just toss me out the air-lock! Oh--my--GAWD!" One of the Hostesses came up with a cadre of fellow hostesses and she saluted. She shouted enthusiastically,"On behald of myself, my planet and my people, we salute you, our hero! It is you who piloted the brave starship,Nautilus, on her voyage of rescue! We dedicate the next solar day to your name and honor as we pay tribute to you and to other rescuers!" The crowd went crazy cheering. A stream of hostesses carried one flower each, but soon that was a hazard. Thistledown asked her,"Since WE're just your helpers, what do YOU want to do now?!" Floona cut him a look as Malbess came over,"Take some pain-killers and hide in my closet until this is OVER!" Malbess said,"Nix on THAT! Here comes a VIP!" Administrator Comes-The-Dawn addressed Floona,"Lieutenant Floona of the USCOMM of Balaam, thank you for your peerless flying when you saved us. Never have any of us seen someone pilot such a primitive ship through what you maneuvered her through! Indeed it must be because you are one of the best pilots in the Milky Way! I'd like to invite you ALL to the celebration we have planned evening tomorrow on the planet surface. There should be several million in attendance by then!" Floona blinked at the crowd of only several thousand ,who cheered loudly. Thistledown noted all the variety of cameras that the off-duty hostesses carried. He looked grim as he talked with Rose,via radio, in a nearby hangar. He began to see the threads of a plan raising up to swallow them. --TO BE CONTINUED!--