Polyputheketlon, the most expensive sock in the world.

Masklin looked farther up. Beyond the great sweep of blue trouser and thedistant clouds of sweater was a beard.

It was Grandson Richard, 39.

Just when you thought there was no one watching over nomes, theuniverse went and tried to prove you wrong.

Masklin took a standing jump and landed on the trouser leg, just as thefoot moved. It was the safest place. Humans didn't often tread on otherhumans.

The foot took a step and came down again. Masklin swung backward andforward, trying to pull himself up the rough cloth. There was a seam aninch away. He managed to grab it; the stitches gave a better handhold.

Grandson Richard, 39, was in a crush of people all heading the same way.

Several other humans banged into him, almost jarring Masklin loose. Hekicked his boots off and tried to grip with his toes.

There was a slow thumping as Grandson Richard's feet hit the ground.

Masklin reached a pocket, got a decent foothold, and climbed on. A bulkylabel helped him up to the belt. Masklin was used to labels in the Store, but this was pretty big even by big label standards. It was covered inlettering and had been riveted to the trousers, as if Grandson Richard,

39, were some sort of machine.

" 'Grossbergers Hagglers, the First Name in Jeans,'" he read. "Andthere's lots of stuff about how good they are, and pictures of cows andthings. Why d'you think he wants labels all over himself?"

"Perhaps if he hasn't got labels, be doesn 't know what his clothes are,

" said the Thing.

"Good point. He'd probably put his shoes on his head."

Masklin glanced back at the label as he grabbed the sweater.

"It says here that these jeans won a Gold Medal in the Chicago Exhibitionin 1910," he said. "They've certainly lasted well."

Humans were streaming out of the building.

The sweater was much easier to climb. Masklin hauled himself up quickly.

Grandson Richard, 39, had quite long hair, which also helped when it wastime to climb up onto the shoulder.

A doorframe passed briefly overhead, and then the deep blue of the sky.

"How long, Thing?" Masklin asked. Grandson Richard's ear was only a few inches away.

"Forty-three seconds."

The humans spilled out of the wide concrete space in front of the building. Some more hurried out of the building, carrying machinery. They kept running into one another because they were all staring at the sky.

Another group was clustered around one human who was looking very worried.

"What's going on, Thing?" Masklin whispered.

"The human in the middle of the group is the most important one here. It came to watch the shuttle launch. Now all the others are telling it that it's got to be the one to welcome the Ship."

"That's a bit of cheek. It's not their Ship."

"Yes, but they think it's coming to talk to them."

"Why should they think that?"

"Because they think they 're the most important creatures on the planet."

"Hah!"

"Amazing, isn't it?" said the Thing.

"Everyone knows nomes are more important," said Masklin. "At least ...

every nome does." He thought about this for a moment, and shook his head.

"So that's the head human, is it? Is it some sort of extra wise one, orsomething?"

"I don't think so. The other humans around it are trying to explain to it what a planet is."

"Doesn't it know?"

"Many humans don't. Mistervicepresident is one of them. 001010011000."

"You're talking to the Ship again?"

"Yes. Six seconds."

"It's really coming?"

"Yes."

Gravity: This is not properly understood, but itis what makes small things, like nomes, stick tobig things, like planets. Because of Science, thishappens whether you know about gravity or not.

Which goes to show that Science is happening allthe time. - From A Scientific Encyclopedia for theEnquiring Young Nome by Angalo de Haberdasheri.

Angalo looked around.

"Gurder, come on."

Gurder leaned against a tuft of grass and fought to get his breath back.

"It's no good," he wheezed. "What are you thinking of? We can't fight humans alone!"

"We've got Pion. And this is a pretty good ax."

"Oh, that's really going to scare them. A stone ax. If you had two axes I expect they'd give in right away."

Angalo swung it backward and forward. It had a comforting feel.

"You've got to try," he said simply. "Come on, Pion. What are you watching? Geese?"

Pion was staring at the sky.

"There's a dot up there," said Gurder, squinting.

"It's probably a bird," said Angalo.

"Doesn't look like a bird."

"Then it's a plane."

"Doesn't look like a plane."

Now all three of them were staring upward, their upturned faces forming a triangle.

There was a black dot up there.

"You don't think he actually managed it, do you?" said Angalo, uncertainly.

What had been a dot was now a small dark circle.

"It's not moving, though," said Gurder.

"It's not moving sideways, anyway," said Angalo, still speaking very slowly. "It's moving more sort of down."

What had been a small dark circle was a larger dark circle, with just a suspicion of smoke or steam around its edges.

"It might be some sort of weather," said Angalo. "You know-special Floridian weather?"

"Oh, yeah? One great big hailstone, right? It's the Ship! Coming for us!"

It was a lot bigger now, and yet, and yet ... still a very long way off.

"If it could come for us just a little way away I wouldn't mind," Gurder quavered. "I wouldn't mind walking a little way."

"Yeah," said Angalo, beginning to look desperate. "It's not so much coming as, as ..."

"Dropping," said Gurder.

He looked at Angalo.

"Shall we run?" he said.

"It's got to be worth a try," said Angalo.

"Where shall we run to?"

"Let's just follow Pion, shall we? He started running a while ago."

Masklin would be the first to admit that he wasn't too familiar with forms of transport, but what they all seemed to have in common was a front, which was in front, and a back, which wasn't. The whole point was that the front was where they went forward from.

The thing dropping out of the sky was a disc-just a top connected to abottom, with edges around the sides. It didn't make any noise, but itseemed to be impressing the humans no end.

"That's it?" he said.

"Yes."

"Oh."

And then things seemed to come into focus.

The Ship wasn't big. It was so big, it needed a new word. It wasn't dropping through the thin wisps of cloud up there, it was simply pushingthem aside. Just when you thought you'd got some idea of the size, acloud would stream past and the perspective would come back. There had tobe a special word for something as big as that. "Is it going to crash?" he whispered. "I shall land it on the scrub," said the Thing. "I don'twant to frighten the humans."

"Run!"

"What do you think I'm doing?"

"It's still right above us!"

"I'm running! I'm running! I can't run any faster!"

A shadow fell across the three running nomes.

"All the way to Floridia to be squashed under our own Ship," moaned Angalo. "You never really believed in it, did you? Well, now you're going to believe in it really hard!"

The shadow deepened. They could see it racing across the ground ahead of them-gray around the edges, spreading into the darkness of night. Their own private night.

"The others are still out there somewhere," said Masklin.

"Ah," said the Thing. "I forgot." "You're not suppose to forget things like that!"

"I've been very busy lately. I can't think of everything. Just nearly everything."

"Just don't squash anyone!"