
Part 1
The story opens on a windswept shore where an alien mind called the Klygha slips into the consciousness of a local cat. Through the feline’s eyes the creature watches a group of Terran explorers as they tend their glittering vessel and catalog mysterious markings on the sand. The Klygha, a solitary intelligence unlike the herd‑mind of its own kind, tries to learn the visitors’ habits by making the cat mimic their sounds. As the cat’s mews turn into garbled human words, the explorers react with curiosity and unease.
As the Klygha’s mental link deepens, the beach becomes a quiet stage for an uneasy dialogue between species that cannot fully understand each other. The alien hopes the cat will reveal enough about the Terrans to guide it home, while the humans scramble to decipher the strange noises and markings on their vessel. The story balances eerie atmosphere with moments of humor, as the cat’s unexpected vocalizations spark frantic speculation among the crew. Listeners are left wondering whether this fragile bridge of minds will lead to cooperation, conflict, or something unforeseen.
Language
en
Duration
~28 minutes (27K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
New York, NY: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1963.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Dec 14, 2023
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1918–1997
A lively mid-20th-century science fiction writer, he filled magazine pages with clever ideas, spacefaring adventure, and a wry sense of humor. His stories often put ordinary people in contact with alien worlds, then let human ingenuity do the rest.
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