Marshall Duetta Spyder received a telepathic
communication about the olives, but had already seen them rise out of the night
sky. She made a wavy sign with one of her eight legs and all her spiders
held position. "You are in controlled space," breathed Duetta in a silky telepathic
voice. "Identify yourselves and state your business." There was a long
pause before she became aware of the faintest of oily voices. "Controlled by whom?" "By me!" snapped Duetta. "But we are Primeval Olives," said the voice. "Yes I
can see that." Duetta rubbed her two front legs together irritably and made
clicking sounds that only the spiders could hear. "We were liberated from the
alien craft by a strange rabbit," said the oily voice. Duetta also thought the Wabbit was strange but she snapped again. "That is the Commander!" Countless
thousands of spiders hung in space awaiting Duetta’s next instruction. The oily voice returned. "We must seize the
blue craft. Fall back." "The Commander is in charge of seizing things," said
Duetta, "so stand down." "What if we don’t comply?" said the voice. "We will take
you prisoner and destroy you later over cocktails," rasped Duetta and she made a
wavy sign with another leg. All at once the spiders tripled in number and the synchronous rattle of millions of legs caused a shock wave that hurled the olives back ...
