honored," the Acruxian said in a booming voice, extending a tentacle. Like all Acruxians, he had difficulty in pronouncing the letter "r" but otherwise his Terran was impeccable.

"The pleasure is all mine," returned Manning. He reached out and grasped the proffered tentacle, immediately raising his hand high in the air in the Acruxian manner of shaking hands (or shaking tentacles, to be exact).

"Ah," said the Acruxian, "you are familiar with the customs of my people?"

"Only to a small degree," Manning said modestly, not bothering to add that he had learned all he knew that afternoon from an encyclotape and this was the first time he had ever seen anyone from Acrux.

Dtilla Raishelle was a typical Acruxian. He stood seven feet tall, his huge cylindrical body supported on three sturdy legs. His body was dark gray in color and was bare except for a dark green fringed skirt, which was an Acruxian ceremonial dress. A holster, attached to the skirt, held a ceremonial tri-blast.[4] His head was a round knob, pale red, perfectly smooth except for a mouth opening and inverted ears which were covered by fine, sensitive hairs. He had four tentacles, two at waist level and two at shoulder level. Two eye-stalks reared several inches above his head.[5]

[4] The tri-blast was a three-barrelled blade-gun peculiar to Acrux. It was used in all ceremonial duels and was designed to amputate all three legs of the opponent.

[5] Although, as this description shows, somewhat of a sport model, Acruxians are related to Rigelians. As more ancient readers will recognize, Dtilla Raishelle was, therefore, a distant cousin of Dzanku Dzanku, the Rigelian who was for so long the deadly enemy of Manning Draco. It had taken Manning a full year to best Dzanku and get rid of him in a Time-Fracture which made it impossible for Dzanku to return short of a century.

At the moment, the eye-stalks were sharply inclined toward Manning and there was an expression of suspicion in them. As the Acruxian very well knew, few ordinary Terrans knew anything about Acruxians. It had been many generations since anything but a merciless cold war had existed between Acrux and its satellites and the more dominant planets of the Federation.

At this moment, Manning spoke a few words in the quick, liquid Acruxian language—a ceremonial greeting of respect which he had learned that afternoon from a linguatape.

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