could not be shocked. And, rather than build
up the tension within himself to an unbearable degree, he thought about
Tallis rather than about himself.

Tallis, like the rest of the Kerothi, was unbelievably humanoid. There
were internal differences in the placement of organs, and differences
in the functions of those organs. For instance, it took two separate
organs to perform the same function that the liver performed in
Earthmen, and the kidneys were completely absent, that function being
performed by special tissues in the lower colon, which meant that the
Kerothi were more efficient with water-saving than Earthmen, since the
waste products were excreted as relatively dry solids through an
all-purpose cloaca.

But, externally, a Kerothi would need only a touch of plastic surgery
and some makeup to pass as an Earthman in a stage play. Close up, of
course, the job would be much more difficult--as difficult as a Negro
trying to disguise himself as a Swede or _vice versa__.

But Tallis was--

* * * * *

"I would have a word," Tallis said, shattering MacMaine's carefully
neutral train of thought. It was a standard opening for breaking the
pause of adjustment, but it presaged good news rather than bad.

"I await your word," MacMaine said. Even after all this time, he still
felt vaguely proud of his ability to handle the subtle idioms of
Kerothic.

"I think," Tallis said carefully, "that you may be offered a commission
in the Kerothi Space Forces."

Sebastian MacMaine let out his breath slowly, and only then realized
that he had been holding it. "I am grateful, my sibling-by-choice," he
said.

General Tallis tapped his cigarette ash into a large blue ceramic
ashtray. MacMaine could smell the acrid smoke from the alien plant
matter that burned in the Kerothi cigarette--a chopped-up inner bark
from a Kerothi tree. MacMaine could no more smoke a Kerothi cigarette
than Tallis could smoke tobacco, but the two were remarkably similar in
their effects.

The "surprise" had been delivered. Now, as was proper, Tallis would
move adroitly all around the subject until he was ready to return to it
again.

"You have been with us ... how long, Sepastian?" he asked.

"Two and a third _Kronet_."

Tallis nodded. "Nearly a year of your time."

MacMaine smiled. Tallis was as proud of his knowledge of Earth
terminology as MacMaine was proud of his mastery of Kerothic.

"Lacking three