Lundy wasn’t surprised by the telepathic voice. Thought-communication was commoner than speech and a lot simpler in many places on the inhabited worlds. Special gave its men a thorough training in it.
“I live, thanks to you.”
There was something in the quality of the brain he touched that puzzled him. It was like nothing he’d ever met before.
He got to his feet, not very steadily. “You came just in time. How did you know I was here?”
“Your fear-thoughts carried to us. We know what it is to be afraid. So we came.”
“There’s nothing I can say but ‘Thank you’.”
“But of course we helped! Why not? You needn’t thank us.”
Lundy looked at the flowers burning sullenly in the gloom. “How is it you can boss them around? Why don’t they….”
“But they’re not cannibals! Not like—The Others.” There
