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"Let me see," the female exhaled. She convulsed her own fat-encased leg appendages, balancing on
the bones and joints, and moved across the room. She was grotesque, with ponderous masses of meat-
flesh padding her limb-bones in places that distorted their outer configurations without enhancing
their locomotive efficiency, and additional fat-stifled gland masses dangling from her torso, so that
they had to be tied in place externally by a special band of material. Her glistening eyeball orbs slid
about in their malformed sockets, showing white around the fringes, and an extraordinarily thick mass
of fibers, completely dysfunctional, hung from her head. Incongruously, these superfluous fibers were
yellow-the same color as Cirl's own substance.
Rondl was amazed. He saw the female Monster as she was in all her horror-but the sodden tissue-
brain of the male Monster perceived her entirely differently. The Monster perceived her as a lithe,
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slender, well-formed woman with excellent legs, an outstanding bosom, lovely green eyes, and
beautiful golden tresses. The convolutions of her torso as she walked directed his mind immediately
to reproductive matters. But he could only look, not act, because she had committed her reproductive
capacity to the attentions of another male. Whatever faults they might have, Monsters had some brute
sensitivities about interbreeding.
Cirl, too, was surprised. "This female believes herself to be attractive to another of her species," she
commented. "She thinks the orbs of your male are liquefying from their perusal of her meaty
anatomy. Such illusion!"
"No illusion," Rondl responded. "The male Monster wants to-" But he broke off his explanation, as he
assimilated a more direct notion of the actual mechanics of what the male would like to do to facilitate
reproduction, had he the opportunity. The actions were barely comprehensible, and completely
disgusting.
As the female tried to touch the kill-machine, Cirl exerted her will and prevented her. "Something's
stopping me!" the female Monster exclaimed, alarmed.
The male's attention departed from the female's posterior and returned to the machine. He tried to
reach it again, but Rondl made the muscles convulse all wrong. The female's liquid eyeballs seemed
about to burst as she glared about in panic, her torso jerking in ways that were no longer quite so
appealing to the male.
The Band nightmare was becoming the Monster nightmare. "We can control them!" Rondl flashed.
"We can make them do our will!"
Then he woke. Cirl remained with him, ring fastened to ring. He could no longer communicate with
her objectively-strange how subjective expression turned objective in the dream state-but he could do
so emotionally.
Exhilarated at their success in controlling the nightmare Monsters, Rondl proceeded to the other thing
this position was good for. He did not choose to admit that the thoughts of the male nightmare
Monster had given him the notion, but he did like the notion. "Love! Love!" he flashed.
Cirl returned his signals. Soon they were deep in unmentionable bliss. Yet Rondl remained buoyed
independently: together they had conquered the nightmares! They had prevented the Bands from
being annihilated, this one time. He need no longer fear the Monsters of his dreams, thanks to Cirl's
timely help.
Chapter 8 Campaign
Rondl and Cirl reorganized their group, which despite prior losses was now swelling enormously as
increasing numbers of Bands became alarmed about the alien intrusion. Rondl set up a hierarchy of
the trainers and staffers, so that each newcomer's skill could be integrated into the effort. He
appointed a special corps of record-keepers who kept track of the others, since Bands had no written
or computer records. When he needed a good geographer to chart the pattern of magnetic lines in a
given region of space, the record-Bands identified one; when he needed a good circle-organizer for a
conference, they located one.
The Bands were intrigued by what Rondl was doing. This was their first experience with government;
they regarded it as a game or an emotional discipline, and once they mastered the fundamental
principles, they cooperated well. A virtual nation of Bands was evolving and gaining in competence.
Not again, Rondl hoped, would he lose half his party to disbanding without accomplishing anything.
Tembl, the blue philosopher, became more valuable. She was always near by, and willing to perform
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