Question: What is Red Spot Fever in the context of a science fiction tale involving an eccentric writer, strange landscapes, and mysterious occurrences?

Answer:
The symptoms of the fever are described as “garrulousness” followed by the victims leaving their post and walking into the Baldric desert.

The fever is brought on by infra-red rays from Jupiter’s great spot. Normally, people on this moon aren’t coming down with the fever from their regular activities. However, a lens-like device mounted in the window of the worker barracks at Larynx Incorporated projects the infra-red rays from the great spot around the room onto the sleeping workers which puts them into this trance-like state.

Antlers Karn is responsible for causing the Red Spot Fever by having the devices installed in his competitors' barracks. He also claims to have developed an antitoxin that would reverse the fever, however, it is implied that this was only a lie to cover up his actions.

Answer: Red Spot Fever makes the people who catch it start to talk a lot, and after rambling for a while the people wander into the Baldric as long as they can do so unnoticed. When someone is watching them to try to see where they are going, they stop until they can slip away. This is a big issue for the mining companies that rely on their workers for survival. The Fever comes about by the infra-red rays from Jupiter's great spot, and exposure to these rays over time causes the Fever in humans. The good news is that the infra-red rays can be combated with ultra violet light, which we see Jimmy Baker and Xartal use at the end of the story, shining the light on the miners to counteract the exposure.

Answer: Jimmy Baker believes he is losing his workers to onset Red Spot Fever, the symptoms of which include extreme talkativeness followed by a tendency to wander away and disappear. Following the discovery of the massive store of Acoustix around Shaft Four, his workers began wandering into the vastness of the Baldric. Billy and Ezra confirm Jimmy's suspicions when they discover a device hidden in the barracks at Larynx Incorporated that concentrates and amplifies the power of the infra-red rays from nearby Jupiter's great spot. The device operates on a timer so that it beams onto the workers as they sleep. Antlers Park admits to having installed the device because he feared the resultant competition from Jimmy Baker's discovery of the deep Acoustix vein. In order to combat the Red Spot Fever, Annie and Jimmy concoct a plan to utilize Jimmy's kite car as a makeshift beam from which to cast ultraviolet rays upon the wandering workers. Since the rays are at the opposite end of the vibratory scale, they can be used to subvert the symptoms of Red Spot Fever and draw the workers back to Larynx Incorporated.

Answer:
Red Spot Fever is an illness that Jimmy Baker's workers come down with after Antlers Park hatches a plan to make them sick. He or one of his minions sneaks into the workers' barracks and places a piece of metal with a lens on the wall. The lens works to amplify Jupiter's infrared-rays, and the rays hit the men while they are sleeping. The workers are affected by this contraption because it makes them extremely talkative and forces them to walk out of their mines. Importantly, Billy looks through Jimmy Baker's folder of victims and makes a connection that the men are becoming sick while they are sleeping, and not while they are working. This gives Ezra and Billy the idea to go to the barracks and look around, and that's when they find the lens that amplifies the harmful rays.

Grannie Annie is able to solve the problem by hitting the infected men with ultraviolet light which counteracts against the infrared-rays. When the men are no longer poisoned by the infrared, they walk right back to their work stations.


Question: What is the plot of the story that revolves around a young boy's adventurous day at the beach, where he explores a world filled with fantastical creatures and encounters unexpected challenges?

Answer:
Purnie, an animal, is going to see the ocean on his fifth birthday. He has heard stories about this place, and experiencing it firsthand is surreal for him. Purnie is careful not to disturb the animals he sees along the way because he has frozen time, and everything must resume normally when he unfreezes it. He knows that time-stopping is forbidden for animals his age, but he chooses to believe that his family will be proud of his bravery.

Finally, he sees the ocean in front of him, and he resumes time. He does a head-stand and feels weak and dizzy. These feelings are a result of the time-stop, and he knows it. Purnie approaches some humans on the beach. A man named Forbes is in the middle of explaining to his captain, Benson, that he has found 17 planets to claim as his own. Forbes is hellbent on raising his FORBES flag as soon as possible. He is eager to stake his claim to the land and says that his mission is much bigger than real estate alone. Benson retorts that yes, his mission is bigger than just real estate because his paperwork says that Forbes will own all of the inhabitants of the planets he claims as well as the land.

The crew members use a special machine and  find radiation emanating from Purnie. Forbes demands that they put the animal in a box. Benson protests and reminds Forbes that it’s against Universal Law, but Forbes insists. Purnie experiences his first-ever impulse to run away with fear when a noose comes towards him. He goes back to pick up his fruit, and Forbes shoots him in the leg. When the man throws the noose again, Purnie involuntarily stops time. He drags himself up the knoll where he originally came from.

The humans are astonished when time resumes and Purnie is not where he was a split second ago. They spot him up on top of a pile of petrified logs, and suddenly the logs fall down the hill and pin the men down. Purnie is shocked and regretful. The whole thing was an accident. He deliberately stops time and uses all of his remaining strength to lift the logs off of the humans. Purnie begins to lose consciousness, and he knows that he must resume time or he will die. After pouring all of his strength into this action, time does begin again. The humans resume life and feel as though they have gone mad. They know that they were just facing death by drowning, and now they are free. The logs were so heavy that it would have taken superhuman strength to move them. Forbes, in particular, has really gone mad, and he laughs to himself uncontrollably. Benson believes that Purnie was responsible for moving the logs, but of course that seems physically impossible.

Purnie stares off at the beautiful ocean views and watches the men leave in their vehicle as he dies.

Answer: On his fifth birthday, Purnie--a small, kangaroo-like creature with large eyes--runs through the forest as he goes to see the beach for the first time. Bemoaning the fact that days are so short, he triggers his ability to stop time. He marvels at the bees frozen in mid-air and reminds himself to not abuse his time-stopping power or it could drain all of his energy and kill him. Before arriving at the beach, he gathers some fruit for lunch and then pauses atop a small, rocky hill from where he takes in his first view of the ocean. Purnie is overwhelmed and thrilled at the idea of making friends with the new animals he sees: three-legged tripons, a flock of spora, and, further down, a group of ten humans making their way onto the beach. When he unfreezes time, Purnie climbs down the rockpile and runs around the beach, showing his new animal friends his headstand technique. Next, he visits two humans, who barely notice his presence. Captain Benson is the hired leader of the expedition; Forbes is a wealthy real estate investor who owns seventeen planets and considers himself a "pioneer". Forbes explains to Benson that coming to the planet is a mere formality as he has already staked his claim to make this planet his eighteenth; planting a flag emblazoned with his name is a symbolic gesture. Benson's men wish to explore the new planet and its native species, but Forbes is impatient to build his flagpole and leave. He has no interest in learning about the creatures there, only in owning their land and tripling his investment over time. Purnie wants to play with the humans, and Forbes expresses his annoyance and tries to get a crewmember to take him away. One of the crew members, Miles, checks the planet's surface for radiation while Benson and Forbes investigate the rockpile where Purnie had perched earlier to see if the rocks may be used to support Forbes' flagpole. After they determine the rocks are extremely heavy petrified logs and cannot be moved, Miles alerts them that Purnie is emitting a large amount of radiation. Forbes orders the crew to capture Purnie so he can take him home, reproduce him, and profit off of his radiation resource. As Purnie evades capture, thinking he is playing with the men, Forbes grows impatient and shoots him, causing Purnie to instinctively stop time. Injured, Purnie takes shelter atop the petrified logs, which fall under him and crush the humans below. Panicked, Purnie rushes to remove the logs, using up his own energy. When he unfreezes time again, the men are astonished. In one moment, they were crushed by logs, and in the next, the logs had disappeared. This drives Forbes insane, and he laughs as they take him away to the ship. Having exhausted all of his energy saving the men, Purnie watches them leave, succumbs to his wounds, and dies.

Answer: Purnie, a five-year-old creature, is off from school for his birthday and takes a secret trip to see the ocean. When he is near enough to smell the ocean, Purnie freezes time even though he has been warned about the amount of energy this takes, and there is a maxim that small children who stop time without an adult may not live to regret it. When he reaches the shore, he recognizes the petrified logs, spora, and tripons from his brothers’ descriptions and is delighted to find two-legged animals there as well. Purnie approaches the two-legged animals who are actually humans and speaks to them but is ignored. The humans discuss the men who are curiously looking at the animals around them, and Forbes, the leader, orders Captain Benson to have the men work right away. Purnie follows the men closely, and Forbes gets annoyed and kicks at him. They talk about this being Forbes's eighteenth planet, and Forbes wants his flag planted and a cornerstone and plaque installed. One of the men gets a strong reading on his scintillometer, a device that detects radiation. Tracing the reading, they find it is coming from Purnie. Forbes orders Purnie put into a lead box, thinking radioactive animals can reproduce and provide an endless supply of radioactive materials. Benson is reluctant because putting Purnie in the box will kill him, and it goes against Universal Law. Forbes reminds him of their contract, and Benson has his men try to rope Purnie, who thinks it is a game and playfully comes near the box before running away. When Forbes loses patience, he shoots at Purnie to wound him. Stunned, he stops and sees the noose coming toward him. Purnie freezes time again, limps away, and climbs to the top of the bluff. When he restarts time, the men are shocked he is no longer there on the beach with them. Spying Purnie on the bluff, they approach him; Purnie shifts, causing the logs to slide down and hit the men. Purnie is shocked and saddened at their suffering and feels awful he caused it. He realizes some of the men will drown because they can’t move and the tide is coming in, so he freezes time again, pulls the logs off the men, and drags them onto the beach. At the top of the hill, he restarts time, and the men are puzzled to be back on the beach with the logs off them. They question their sanity, and Forbes really has gone insane. The men help those who are seriously wounded, disarm Forbes and tie his hands together, and return him to the ship. Benson wonders why Purnie would come back to the humans who tormented him and goes back to the beach looking for him. He calls out for Purnie, tells him they made a mistake, and he would like to help Purnie if he is hurt. When he doesn’t see him, Benson leaves.

Answer:
On an alien planet, a small non-human creature named Purnie is turning five years old. Purnie is precocious and adventurous, with the amazing ability to stop and start time with its mind. However, the super power comes with consequences. It tires Purnie to use time-stopping, and if done too much it can kill the user.

Purnie leaves brothers and parents in a village in the forest and stops time while venturing beside a stream towards the ocean. Upon reaching a cliff overlooking the orange colored ocean, Purnie restarts time and discovers a group of human space explorers that are attempting to claim the planet and have only been onshore for 20 minutes musing at the strange creatures they are finding.

Forbes is from San Diego and has a history of claiming planets, this current one being the 17th if successfully staked with his flag, cornerstone, and plaque. He orders around Captain Benson and the rest of the crew, in a hurry to claim the planet upon their arrival.

Purnie thinks the humans are friends to play with and tries to interact with them on multiple occasions. When the crew discovers that Purnie is radioactive, Forbes orders them to capture it and place it in a lead box to bring to Earth, which Forbes thinks will make him very rich. Purnie’s confusion about their hostility leads to an involuntary stopping of time which is used to return to the top of the cliff. Accidentally, Purnie sets off a rock slide after restarting time from the location on the top of the cliff and sets off a rock slide while peering over the edge that traps most of the humans under rocks and petrified logs along the beach and in the ocean. Deep horror causes Pernie to once again stop time, go down to the beach, and move all the debris off the humans - saving their lives.

When time restarts once again, the humans are completely baffled as to how they were rescued, and Forbes loses his grip on reality entirely - having to be tied up by the crew for their return trip. Captain Benson wonders why a creature they tried to capture and kill would have come back to their rescue from their almost certain deaths and goes looking for Pernie as the crew prepares to leave. Not finding Purnie, the spaceship takes off, and the final sight of Purnie’s life before dying of exhaustion from using the superpower is a floating wet flag of Forbes' in the ocean.


Question: Describe Forbes' relationship with Benson in the context of their adventurous endeavors and interactions in a fantastical setting.

Answer:
Forbes is the head of the expedition to claim planets, and Benson is the Captain of the crew. Forbes provides all of the money to make the trips possible, and he pays Benson’s and the other mens’ salaries. Captain Benson is responsible for keeping all of the men safe and making sure the trip goes smoothly.

Although Forbes is Benson’s superior, Benson does feel the need to speak his mind to Forbes. When Forbes demands that Benson’s crew stop dawdling and hurry up and put his FORBES flag up, Benson tells Forbes that they are only humans. Of course they are interested in the new environment and want to take a moment to look around. He is not afraid to tell Forbes that capturing Purnie or injuring him is against Universal Laws. Benson does not want to take part in illegal activities, and he scoffs at Forbes’ remarks that he is a pioneer and not a real estate developer. He openly tells Forbes that he knows he will triple his money after claiming these planets, so it’s not like he’s doing it for the greater good of humanity. Benson also asks Forbes if he’s going to take his 17 new planets back home with him to San Diego. It’s clear that Benson has little respect for Forbes and the way he conducts his business, but at the same time, he needs a job and Forbes is providing him with an incredible opportunity to survey all sorts of different planets.

Benson has to face Forbes’ wrath when Purnie goes missing after Forbes shoots him and they attempt to put a noose around his neck. After Purnie unfreezes time, the men are confused as to what they just saw. Forbes turns to Benson and tells him that he is holding him responsible for this mishap even though there is zero evidence that Benson did anything wrong.

After the logs fall on the men and Purnie uses all of his remaining strength to save their lives, Forbes is completely out of his mind. Benson finds it a bit humorous, especially since he has an inkling that Purnie, the bug-eyed creature, was behind the whole thing. He does not respect Forbes and thinks his disconnect to reality and repetitive laughter is what he deserves for the way he treated Purnie, himself, and the crew.

Answer: As a wealthy real estate investor who hires Captain Benson to lead the expedition to the new planet, Forbes treats Benson with a great amount of flippancy and disrespect. He disregards Benson's request to let the crew explore the planet before rushing to build his flagpole to symbolically stake his claim there. He completely ignores Benson when he shows concern for Purnie's well-being when Forbes wants to capture Purnie and take him home to profit off of the radiation in his body. While Benson cares for the safety of his crew and the lives of the new species they discover on this new planet, Forbes only sees ways in which he can personally profit and build his real estate empire. Forbes infuriates Benson when he shoots Purnie, and he goes so far as to call him a fool in spite of Forbes' warnings against talking to him with disrespect. While Benson attempts to understand how Purnie was able to evade capture, Forbes simply wants to maim Purnie and blame Benson for his own mistakes. When the crew gets pinned by the logs dislodged accidentally by Purnie, Benson's instincts are to find and help as many people as he can, including Forbes.

Answer: For the most part, the two men seem to tolerate each other. Forbes has employed Benson to hire men to explore the eighteenth planet that Forbes intends to claim as his own. As the employer, Forbes uses his position to order Benson to carry out his demands, although sometimes Benson questions Forbes's orders and resists carrying them out. Benson also questions Forbes's right to claim all the planets he is claiming and pokes a little fun at him at times. When Forbes wants Benson to order his men right to work after they arrive, Benson counters by asking if Forbes is human since they’ve only been there twenty minutes, and the men are curious about the new planet. Benson also needles Forbes when the men discover radiation, pointing out that he will make enough money to buy his next planet. Forbes is unimpressed with the discovery of radiation since they’ve found some on each of his other planets so far, but not in significant quantities. Forbes is most concerned about staking his claim by installing his flag, a cornerstone, and a plaque. When Benson questions the importance of the flag, Forbes tells him it signifies an empire, development, and progress. When Benson says Forbes will practically own the people who buy real estate on Forbes's planets, Forbes angrily replies that it is he and other people like him who risk their own money to give Benson and others space ships and places to go so they can get away from their thirteen-story tenement houses. Once it becomes clear that Purnie is the source of the large amount of radiation their equipment is detecting, Forbes orders Benson to have the animal put in one of their lead boxes meant to hold radioactive minerals. When Benson starts to remind him that this is forbidden by Universal Law, Forbes asserts his authority, reminding Benson the planet is his, and he is the law. After Purnie avoids capture and Forbes wounds him, Benson calls Forbes a fool and tells him to put his gun away, but Forbes claims he just nicked the animal. When Purnie escapes their attempts to rope him, Forbes blames Benson for ruining everything and is determined to capture Purnie himself. Benson tries to stop him, but Purnie shifts on the pile of petrified logs, sending them onto the men. When Forbes goes mad at the end of the story, Benson orders his men to take his gun from him and tie his hands together as they take him to the ship.

Answer: Benson is the captain of Forbes’ expedition spaceship that has landed on the ocean shore of an alien planet. Forbes is very much in charge and makes repeated orders to Benson throughout the story that he obeys. Benson attempts to keep the peace by following and acquiescing to Forbes’ sometimes unethical orders (like placing the creature, Purnie, in a sealed lead box that would kill him). Benson has a sensitive reasoning that Forbes does not possess, like when he thinks it possible Purnie may just come along without being sealed in the box, and when he wonders why Purnie would return to rescue the men that had tried to capture him.


Question: Describe the setting of the story, which involves a young character's adventurous journey through a fantastical landscape filled with peculiar creatures and challenges.

Answer: The unnamed planet where the story takes place is breathtaking, colorful, and lively with all sorts of fauna and flora unknown to Earth. There is blue moss on the forest floors, bubbling streams, and orange pools of water. There are also bees, purple clouds, petrified logs by the ocean, and three-legged animals who eat seaweed. The orange ocean waves crash against the sand, and two moons hover in the sky. Humans have never touched this land, so Purnie is surprised that he has never heard his brothers or parents talk about the two-legged animals who make strange sounds. He does not understand that they have just landed their ship here and are experiencing the land for the first time.

Answer: The story takes place on an unnamed planet home to a great amount of biodiversity. Purnie is a small, kangaroo-like creature with large, bugged-out eyes; there seem to be several of his kind on this planet as well. There are forests with plentiful foliage, tall trees, and blue moss. The sky above has two moons and makes the trees seem endlessly tall with its low, dense, purple clouds. Throughout the forest flow milky-orange streams and whirlpools; bees buzz about pollinating paka plants. Purnie runs through this environment filled with the joy of life and makes his way to the ocean, driven towards it by its acid-sweet smell, and gathers fruit along the way. When Purnie arrives at the ocean, he stands atop a large rock pile, which turns out to be comprised of heavy petrified logs. He has stopped time, so everything he sees is frozen mid-action: The orange-and-white waves of the ocean tower mid-break, and he sees a flock of spora flying overhead, three-legged tripons chewing on seaweed, and a group of humans. According to the human crew member, Miles, there appears to be a great amount of radiation present on the surface of the planet as well as its creatures.

Answer: The setting is on a planet similar to Earth, with a varied landscape featuring forests, oceans, and valleys. Purnie lives in a village where there is a school that he and his brothers attend. There is a nearby ocean on the other side of the forest that separates it from the village. The forest is colorful with patches of blue moss and a stream with milky-orange water with little whirlpools, bees and other creatures, and low-hanging purple clouds. The forest extends for quite a distance because Purnie has never been to the ocean before. It is lush with foliage, including paka plants, plants that produce pollen and fruit, and tall trees that seem to reach as high as the clouds. From his brothers’ descriptions, Purnie knows what to expect at the beach, but he is still amazed when he sees everything for himself. The forest ends at a rocky knoll formed by petrified logs that overlooks the sea with its orange waves higher than a house and breakers coming onto the shore. There is a flock of birds called spora who land on the beach in a deep glide and humorous three-legged tripons that stand in the water and eat seaweed. As day ends, two moons appear in the sky, and their light is bright enough that Purnie can see the men leaving to return to their ship.

Answer:
On an unnamed Earth-like planet with orange water and purple clouds, there are creatures with spoken language that communicate amongst themselves, but are not able to communicate with humans when they speak.

Purnie adventures away from his family village, along a small stream in the forest to a cliff by the sea, where it innocently tries playing along the water’s edge with human explorers attempting to make a claim to the planet. Most of the story takes place in this beach location where the ocean is orange colored, there is a tall cliff with petrified logs piled up along its edge, and many hiding places.

The creatures on the planet are all very different to what humans are used to seeing, which creates a distracting setting for the crew through the story.


Question: What is Purnie's role in the story, which involves a young boy's adventurous day at the beach that takes an unexpected turn?

Answer:
Although Purnie is an animal and not a human, he plays a very important role in the story. Through his understanding of the world, we learn that he has never felt real fear before. This makes sense because although he has been warned about stopping time, and he has explicitly been told that it could lead to his death, he decides to go ahead with his birthday plan anyway and stop time and see the ocean. When the humans throw a noose at him in an attempt to capture him, he is shocked to find that his body instinctively runs from it. He doesn’t really experience the fear because he wants to play with them and has no interest in leaving the fun, but his natural impulses as an animal save his life at this moment. Humans have never before visited his planet, so this means that no other animal Purnie has come in contact with has made his body react this way.
Purnie also demonstrates how evil Forbes is for trying to capture and kill such an innocent and caring animal. When Benson reminds Forbes that it’s illegal to shoot or capture Purnie, Forbes does not care at all. He wants the animal that is emitting radiation because he believes he can make a profit off of him. The value of Purnie’s life means nothing to him. However, as soon as Purnie feels as though his “friends” are in danger, he is willing to risk his own life by stopping time to help them. Purnie feels guilt, regret, and sorrow when he accidentally causes the petrified logs to fall on the men, yet Forbes has none of those feelings when he shoots Purnie in the leg and causes him pain.

Answer: Purnie celebrates his fifth birthday by taking his first-ever trip to the beach to take in the sights and meet new friends with the animals his brothers have told him about. Purnie is a small, kangaroo-like creature with the ability to stop time and an extremely upbeat and friendly attitude. Not only does he want to be friends with every animal he encounters, but he also wants to share his lunch with them and show them his ability to do a headstand. Purnie lives in harmony with the forest and its creatures and contrasts with the human explorers who come to lay claim to his planet. Purnie uses his time-stopping ability to extend his birthday because he feels there is not enough time in the day to enjoy all the wonders life has to offer. When he encounters the humans, he is curious because he has never seen their kind before. He listens to the funny sounds they make and follows them persistently, trying to share his lunch with them and demonstrate his headstand. When Forbes orders the men to capture him, Purnie believes they are simply playing a game, and he obliges by evading them. Even after Forbes shoots him, Purnie maintains his positive view of the humans and is more confused by what he did wrong than he is hurt by his actions. This further demonstrates Purnie's naivete and purity of heart. Although his family had warned him about the fatal danger of using his time-stopping powers for too long, Purnie cares more about the survival of the humans he perceives to be his friends and therefore sacrifices his own life to save them when they are crushed by the petrified logs.

Answer: Purnie is a mischievous creature with the ability to stop and restart time who innocently causes a tragedy that he then tries to set right. Purnie is out for a day of exploration for his birthday when he comes across the humans on the beach. The humans have no interest in him until they discover Purnie is radioactive; then Forbes, the man financing the expedition and claiming the planet as his, orders them to put Purnie in one of their lead boxes. He is excited that animals are radioactive because they can reproduce and provide him with an endless supply of radioactive material to make him extremely wealthy. Purnie doesn’t know this, of course, and tries to engage the men in play with him. When he realizes they want him near the box, he teasingly runs close to it then away again. When Forbes shoots Purnie, Purnie sees the noose coming toward his head and instinctively stops times. This allows him to evade capture, make his way atop the bluff, and watch from a safe distance once he restarts time. The men are puzzled at Purnie’s sudden disappearance but plan to catch him when they see him on the bluff. As they approach, Purnie accidentally triggers a rockslide of the petrified logs that spill onto the men, trapping them where they are. Purnie is horrified at what he has caused as he hears the men’s cries of pain. He also notices that the tide is coming in, and the men will drown, so he stops time again, removes the logs from the men, and drags them onto the beach where they will be safe. After everyone is safe, Purnie restarts time, and men are incredulous to find themselves suddenly freed from the logs and on the beach. Forbes goes insane. Before they leave, Benson goes back to look for Purnie and offers to help him if he is wounded.

Answer:
Purnie creates the juxtaposition of innocent youth against corrupted power in adults. Purnie’s role is of childlike wonder in trying to interact with what it thinks are new friends along the shoreline - while those very friends attempt to capture and kill it.

Because Purnie is unable to communicate with humans, it also acts as a mime-like guide to the story, providing many physical actions that convey its emotions rather than language. Purnie’s ability to start and stop time creates pause for the reader to exist in the moments of great emotion that Purnie experiences - joy adventuring to the beach, confusion in trying to be captured, horror in thinking it has killed the humans. Ultimately, this superpower drains Purnie to the point of death.


Question: What leads to the unraveling of Forbes' sanity amidst the events that transpire during a peculiar day at the beach?

Answer:
Forbes believes he can control anyone and anything he comes in contact with. His first order of business upon landing on the gorgeous planet is to put up his flag emblazoned with his name. When Benson reminds him that the crew members are interested in taking a moment to look around, Forbes reprimands him for suggesting that they have the right to waste his money. He believes that putting up his flag is a symbol of defeat, and he is incredibly eager to take over a planet he literally just landed on and knows almost nothing about. He incessantly talks about the 17 other planets he has already conquered, and he calls himself a pioneer. Although Forbes definitely makes a lot of money by claiming these planets, he is more interested in the control and fame it brings him than the money he will inevitably make.
The first time that Purnie freezes time to escape the noose after Forbes shoots him in the leg, Forbes is incredibly confused but willing to blame the glitch on Benson. He shot Purnie after explicitly being told not to, so he assumes that Benson secretly managed to aid Purnie in getting away. He is furious at this act because capturing the animal emitting radiation is very important to him. He doesn't care if it’s illegal or immoral. He wants control of the planet, the animal, and the crew.
The second time that Purnie freezes time, Forbes cannot simply ignore it. He knows that he saw the petrified logs falling down the hill, he knows that he saw several crew members pinned under the logs, about to drown, and he knows that he himself was in a near-death situation one second and saved in the next. There is simply no explanation in his mind for what occurred, and his brain can’t compute the mysterious event. He laughs hysterically because he can’t process the information that his brain receives. He was about to die, and now he is perfectly fine, and he has no explanation for the chain of events.

Answer: When Forbes shoots Purnie in an effort to try to capture him and bring him back to Earth to exploit his radiation for profit, Purnie instinctively triggers his ability to stop time. He uses this opportunity to retreat back to his perch atop the pile of petrified logs. When he unfreezes time again, Forbes and the rest of the crew are astonished as it appears he has disappeared right before their eyes and reappeared atop the logs. As Purnie moves across the log pile, the logs begin to slip and roll down toward the beach, crushing the men and pinning them to the beach. As the surf begins to cover them, Purnie fears they will drown, pauses time, and begins to save them one-by-one as he slowly bleeds out and expends his energy. Once he has removed the logs from all of the crew members, including Forbes, he once more retreats to the top of the hill and collapses, exhausted. His mind un-freezes time, and the men are once more flabbergasted as it appears the logs have disappeared from their bodies in the blink of an eye. Purnie has saved them, but the experience is too baffling and too overwhelming for Forbes to process. He goes mad, and the men carry him away back to the ship.

Answer: Forbes goes mad after Purnie stops time, removes the petrified logs from the men, and moves them up to the beach out of reach of the water so they won't drown. All of the men knew that the logs were so heavy they could not have moved them. And because the men don't know that time can be stopped, they have no idea how they moved from where they were or how the logs were pulled off them. After time resumes, Forbes is seen sitting in the water, talking about his seventeen planets that will do anything that he says. However, he says this planet has a mind of its own. Forbes is astonished that the rocks seemingly moved on their own. Forbes laughs continually and comments that he will hold Benson personally responsible. The men speculate that Forbes will never be the same after this experience. In fact, they take his gun so he can’t shoot any of them, and they tie his hands before they take him back to the ship.

Answer:
When Purnie stops time on two occasions - escaping from being put in the lead box, and saving the crew from death under fallen rocks - it creates a disappearing act that Forbes cannot wrap his head around. Forbes thinks he is rooted in reality, and then all of a sudden Purnie no longer exists, or the entire crew has been saved by what must have been superhuman strength to move petrified logs off their bodies.

When Forbes can’t make sense of mysteriously being rescued from near-death in the ocean, he doesn’t know what is real any more. He goes mad into a giddiness of having done what he considers capturing this strange and wonderful planet for himself.


Question: What is the plot of the story involving a dangerous hunt where the lines between hunter and prey blur?

Answer:
Extrone is a very important person of influence who is on a hunting trip looking for farn beasts on an outer planet. He has hired guides, Ri and Mia, who are businessmen who have successfully shot a farn beast on a prior private trip. They attempted to conceal their killing of a farn beast on that trip, however, the word got out and now Extrone has forced them (seemingly against their will) to be the guides for his own trip. Ri and Mia do not turn out to be very good guides. Mia is unsupportive of Extrone and suspicious of his activities and potential plans to violently attack the aliens, and Ri is fearful of that talk and of Extrone himself causing him to be unhelpful as a guide.

Extrone refers to being loved by his “subjects” suggesting he has a position of royalty or power. The military is at his disposal and seem eager to please him. He is highly focused on finding and killing a farn beast any way possible - and attempts sacrificing his guide Ri as bait for the animal to do it. He kills Mia by shooting him in the back after Ri accuses him of intent to kill Extrone, suggesting Extrone is a violent ruler.

Extrone’s focus is on killing a farn beast and this blinds him to the existence of an alien trap on the planet. It is heavily implied that the aliens have intentions to do harm to Extrone, and it is revealed that his fixation on the farn beast led him directly into a trap set by the aliens to capture him.

Answer:
Extrone, a prominent leader of the humans, has taken his hunting party to track down a farn beast, a newly-discovered creature. His guides are two businessman, Ri and Mia, who were the first to come across and kill a farn beast. They are there begrdugingly, but their fear of Extrone is clear. They arrive on the wrong side of the ridge and are searching for a way to cross it to reach the farn beasts. Ri hears the cough of a farn beast on their side, and Extrone is pleased they won’t have to waste time crossing the ridge. They set up camp there, and Extrone asks Mia and Ri to scout ahead and find farn beast tracks. No one is armed, except for Extrone, so Mia and Ri are extremely cautious not to get too far into the beasts’ territory. They’re sweating as they come across land marred by a rocket’s blast off probably from a year ago. They theorize that it’s the people who discovered the beasts, though they don’t know who.
Ri reveals that they shot their guide after finding the farn beast, but not their pilot. They bicker a little, scared of Extrone and the possibility of him killing them afterward. They agree to hide the blast area from him, but inform him they found tracks instead. A rocket flies over the camp, looking for Extrone. They land near and tell Extrone that an alien ship was spotted on this planet. They were unable to destroy it at the time. Extrone gives out orders to destroy it and then sends them away. Extrone asserts his dominance over Ri after they return. Ri and Mia rest in their sleeping bags, discussing what they need to do about Extrone.
The next morning, Extrone’s personal bearer, Lin, presents alien information about the farn beasts. They begin their trek into the forest, people cutting the way for Extrone who managed to kill one small animal with his weapon. Extrone’s men were able to shoot down the alien ship. Lin finds a spoor and leads Extrone to it, revealing on the way that the farn beasts are great hunters. Extrone decides to use Ri as bait to draw the beasts to him.
When he informs Ri of his decision, Ri betrays Mia in a way to guarantee his safety. So, Extrone kills Mia and then uses Ri as bait anyway. After stringing him up and torturing him, his screams eventually draw the farn beast near. A farn beast and its mate appear and charge Ri. The story ends with Extrone holding fire as the farn beast nears, and the alien trap being sprung.

Answer: General Extrone is on a hunting trip to kill a farn. To help him track the farn, he has hired two businessmen, Ri and Mia, who actually killed the first farn, which Extrone resents; he wanted to kill the first one. While Ri and Mia are out tracking the farn beast, they talk about how much they hate working for Extrone since he is a self-centered, egotist who cares nothing about anyone except himself. After Ri and Mia killed their farn, they killed their guide to keep word from getting out about it. Now they wonder if their pilot was the one who told others about it. Mia points out to Ri that Extrone might just shoot them after the hunt is over, but Ri says Extrone wouldn’t do that because they aren’t a couple of nobodies. Meanwhile, a low-flying rocket passes overhead and lands; it is part of Extrone’s Ninth Fleet with news that an alien ship has been sighted near the planet where the general is hunting. Extrone refuses to leave with them for someplace safer, instead making it clear he expects them to take care of the problem. Ri and Mia return to camp, and Extrone has Ri give him an update. Extrone makes it clear that the two businessmen had better not have killed the last farn beast and then make Ri say he knows and loves Extrone. Later than night, Mia tells Ri he is afraid Extrone will kill them before he lets them return to civilization. Mia points out lies that Extrone has told, such as that the army tried to plot against him; Mia figured out that the army was helping him. He also thinks Extrone cut off trade with the aliens because he is getting ready to invade them. The next day, Extrone talks with his personal bearer, Lin, who has read an alien manual about the farn beast. When Extrone complains about Ri and Mia, Lin keeps telling him facts about the farn beast. Extrone allows Lin to disagree with him, but Lin always follows his statement with “Sir.” Hunting later that day, Lin spies a spoor and shows it to Extrone. When they hear the farn cough, Lin says it’s a good thing they are downwind; otherwise the farn beast would track them down. This gives Extrone the idea of using a human for bait and chooses Ri. When Ri realizes what is planned, he tells Extrone that Mia has been talking about killing Extrone. Extrone shoots Mia and still uses Ri for bait, which does lure two farn beasts. Instead of killing them, Extrone waits to see what they will do. The the aliens spring their trap.

Answer: Ri and Mia are two businessmen hired as guides by Extrone, a violent, though popular leader, on his mission to hunt farn beasts. They were hired because of their success killing a farn beast during one of their Hunting Club missions. Soon after their arrival on the planet where the hunt takes place, Ri hears a farn beast cough while plotting their course with Extrone, and Extrone sends him and Mia into the forest to track it. Ri and Mia bemoan the fact that they have been hired for this purpose in spite of the fact that neither of them is a professional guide; they merely have hunted a farn beast in the past. As they track the beast, they discover a blast area and cannot identify the source of it, although they do know it wasn't created by one of the Hunting Club's rockets. When they make their way back to camp, they worry about if Extrone will kill them after the hunt in order to keep the discovery of the farn beasts a secret despite the fact that rumors of their existence had already spread. Extrone has killed others in the past. Back at camp, a group of high-ranking officers from the Ninth Fleet visit Extrone to warn him about the presence of a nearby alien spacecraft, fearing it is seeking him out to exterminate him. Extrone orders them to destroy it and scoffs at the idea that he might not be safe on this planet. After the officers leave, Extrone calls Ri into his tent and admits he needs him because he has never seen a farn beast and would have hunted them on alien planets (where he has heard they hunt them frequently) had it been safe for him to do so. It is clear from his conversation with Ri that Extrone is loved by his constituents and hated by his alien enemies. When Ri joins Mia later, they again discuss their fear of being killed after the hunt, and Mia suggests the army purposefully installed Extrone as puppet leader during the anti-military rebellion in order to gain popular support for their eventual attack on the alien system. Ri refuses to believe Mia's theories whether out of fear or denial; either way, Ri and Mia guides Extrone's hunt the next morning, joined by Extrone's personal bearer Lin and several other attendants. Lin warns a dismissive Extrone of the dangers of the farn beasts, and Extrone decides to use Ri as bait to lure them to their spot. In a panic, Ri tells Extrone to use Mia instead, since he had plotted to kill Extrone. Without missing a beat, Extrone kills Mia and continues to use Ri as bait. Lin and Extrone hideaway as Ri screams and draws the farn beasts to their location. Suddenly, the aliens the Ninth Fleet officers had warned Extrone about spring their trap. They had been using Extrone as bait to catch the farn beasts themselves.


Question: What is the farn beast and its significance in the context of the dangerous hunt taking place in an alien environment?

Answer:
The farn beast is capable of killing humans and aliens. It resides on alien planets, but is rare within the human-occupied system. It is thought by Extrone that Ri may have been one of the only humans to ever see and shoot one.

They are described as having long fangs and being carnivorous. Their main sound is a coughing noise, which can be used to locate how far away they are. They do indeed seem attracted to humans, as they are drawn to Ri screaming when he is placed as bait at the watering hole.

The farn beast is significant, because as Extrone and his party are focused on hunting them, it is revealed that the beast itself is being used as bait by aliens to lure Extrone to the planet.

Answer: The farn beast is a newly-discovered creature. Although they are newly discovered by humans, aliens have known about them for some time. They are a dangerous and terrifying animal with long fangs and red beady eyes. After two businessman discovered and killed the beast on their hunting trip, it soon became the new adventure each man must attempt. The farn beasts in this story are being hunted by a party led by Extrone, an extremely powerful man. The hunt for the farn beast reveals Extrone’s true colors as he kills Mia, one of his guides, and uses the other guide, Ri, as bait to kill a farn beast. The farn beasts also act as a great plot progressor and keep the characters moving forward.

Answer: The farn beast is the whole reason for the expedition in the story, and it is Extrone’s obsession, so much so that he pays no attention to his army intelligence about aliens in the area near the planet where he is hunting. The farn beast is a rare creature that has only been seen by a few humans and only recently been killed by humans. They wanted to keep it a secret, so they killed their guide before returning home. Now General Extrone wants to kill a farn beast, and he is forcing the two men who killed the last one to be his guides to find one. He is angry that the two men didn’t tell him about finding and killing one. The farn beast is distinguishable by its coughing roar and is known to be dangerous to humans. They are carnivorous, have long, sharp fangs, and when angered, can tear a man apart. They charge when they detect the scent, sight, or sound of prey and will track and hunt down a man even if it takes all day. After Extrone uses one of his guides as bait, two farn beasts are drawn to it. They have tiny eyes that are red and full of hatred; they swing their heads wildly and flare their nostrils in anger. Their tails thrash against the flora of the forest. When Ri screams, the farn cross the watering hole directly toward him. The story says this is when the aliens spring their trap.

Answer: The farn beasts are dangerous, carnivorous creatures with small, red eyes, long, sharp fangs, and tails. Although their behavior is largely unpredictable, they are able to dismember men and aliens alike when they are angry. They also have excellent tracking skills and will pursue the scene, sight, or sound of their prey for as long as a day. Lin calls them the "particular enemy of men" although they are also frequently hunted by aliens. As members of the Hunting Club, Ri and Mia hunt a farn beast, and this successful kill draws the attention of Extrone, who hires them as his guides to hunt farn beasts himself. Farn beasts emit loud coughs, which is how Ri determines one of them is nearby in the first place. Later, Lin and Extrone realize there are multiple farn beasts nearby on their hunt when they hear multiple coughs. Extrone's alien enemies not only hunt the farn beasts, but they have also developed a manual for identifying and understanding them; they clearly understand the beasts much better than Extrone. This works to their advantage later as they use Extrone and Lin as bait to spring a trap to catch the farn beasts they were hunting.


Question: What is the relationship like between Lin and Extrone in the context of their dangerous expedition involving alien creatures?

Answer:
Lin is Extrone’s personal bearer who does anything that is asked of him by Extrone. Extrone is pleased when people are fearful of him, but it appears that Lin may not have a fear or may be suppressing it.

Lin appears very loyal to Extrone, which is proven when he rejects an attempt of bribery by Ri who wants to know if he is in danger by Extrone’s plan. Lin does Extrone’s bidding by tying up Ri and staking him out for bait to lure the farn beast.
However, when Lin and Extrone hide in a nearby tree to shoot the farn beast when they come after Ri, Lin’s actions become more sinister and it is revealed that he may have different beliefs from Extrone. Lin says hunting animals should be done for reasons like survival, not just for killing - which is the opposite of what Extrone believes - that the waiting and then the killing is the appeal. It is never clear if Lin is part of the alien trapping of Extrone that results, or whether he was as blind to it as Extrone.

Answer:
Extrone is the head hunter and hotshot of this particular expedition. It seems as though he holds a monopoly over humanity through his control of the Army. Lin is his right-hand man and personal bearer. Lin is one of the few in the camp who will challenge Extrone, but not in an obvious way. He presents information to him in a way that is subtle and not demeaning, usually aided by his addition of the word “Sir,” at the end of a sentence. Extrone respects what Lin has to say, possibly through him proving himself over and over, and even chooses not to kill him when he says something contradictory. Lin presents the manual on farn beasts to Extrone, who hates that it’s developed by aliens. Lin explains how dangerous and fast these beasts are and remains calm and impassive when Extrone tries to challenge him.
Later on, Lin discovers a spoor close to where the farn beasts are living. He races back to tell Extrone, and the two of them journey together alone. On this trip, Lin reveals that the farn beasts are excellent trackers and hunters, which inspires Extrone to set up bait for the beasts.
In the end, however, there seems to be a change in Lin’s composure. While discussing Extrone’s love for hunting, Lin claims that no one should hunt for fun, only out of necessity. He argues a little with Extrone, until the farn beasts arrive. Perhaps this signals that Lin is not as loyal to Extrone as we are led to believe.

Answer: While the two men don’t completely accept each other, they seem to be more accepting of each other than the other characters. In a position of authority, a leader cannot afford to be too friendly with those under him; however, Extrone takes this concept to the extreme and is downright hateful and hard to tolerate. The only person he is somewhat civil to is Lin, and even then, his civility is limited. Extrone treats other people in a very arrogant manner, barking orders at them (“You! Hey! Bring me a drink!”), making veiled threats (“It would be a shame if you had killed the last one. Don’t you think?”), and treating them as if they are utterly useless. With Lin, however, Extrone allows him to respectfully disagree with him or contradict him. Extrone acknowledges that very few people will stand up to him like Lin does, and yet it may be Lin’s manner of doing so that enables him to get away with this. Lin does not act afraid of Extrone, and when Extrone drones on about the way people disrespect him, Lin focuses on the topic at hand, the farn beast. When Extrone confronts him about contradicting him, Lin affects an impassive response rather than kowtowing to him. And when Lin says people should only hunt when they have to for food, Extrone says people should hunt for the love of hunting. Lin names it “killing,” but Extrone corrects him with “hunting.” Lin drops the topic as if he knows better than to debate Extrone.

Answer: Lin has been Extrone's personal bearer for a while, having accompanied him on several expeditions such as the one on Meizque, and he does Extrone's bidding. However, he is also intelligent and clever and understands how to say the right thing to Extrone to get the reaction he wants; he appears emotionally unaffected by Extrone's bombastic behavior and is matter-of-fact in most of his actions. Lin does his best to educate Extrone about the characteristics and known behavior of the farn beasts and their potential danger to humans. Lin is practical and encourages proper precautions when they get closer to the farn beasts; he guides Extrone to the farn beasts more effectively than Ri and Mia. Lin wrangles Ri when Extrone orders him to be used as bait to catch the farn beasts. For his part, Extrone treats Lin with the same dismissiveness and condescension that he treats any of his associates. However, he does have some amount of deference for Lin and, although he does not absorb much of the information Lin tries to give him, he does listen to much of his practical advice when pursuing the farn beasts.


Question: What settings does the story, which involves a dangerous hunt and the tension between hunters and their quarry, take place in?

Answer:
On the surface of a planet which is wooded in scrub forest and one of the few places known to have farn beasts. The hunting party is next to a ridge that would be a significant effort to cross, and there are “blast sites” around the woods. The hunting party also uses a nearby water hole location to lure farn beasts while hiding up in a tree.

Extrone’s camp set up by “bearers” and his tent, which is extravagantly decorated, are also scenes used throughout the story.

Answer:
Hunt the Hunter by Kris Neville takes place on a mostly unexplored planet inhibited by the farn beast and other creatures. The coughing roar of the farn beast can often be heard in the distance. Great sprawling vines, trees, and bushes cover the land, and the heat is oppressive in its thickness. It only gets hotter, too. Once the sun goes down, the breeze dies off too, leaving just stale heat in its wake. There is a ridge separating the humans and the farn beasts, and the humans spend their time searching for the pass.
Rocket blast-off marks cover the ground in some places. Other spots are watering holes, lakes, and rivers, perfect for the creatures living on this land.
Ri and Mia sleep in sleeping bags on the ground when they pitch camp. However, Extrone has a luxurious tent equipped with electric lights, tiled floors, and a feather bed. A crystal chain hangs from the front opening too.

Answer:
The story takes place on an unnamed outer planet where the characters are involved in hunting for the farn beast. At the same time, alien space ships are seen nearby, and the military wants Extrone to return to an inner planet where he will be safer. The unnamed planet has many features that support wildlife and include land features such as ridges. We know that, in addition to farn beasts, there are birds and arboreal creatures in the forest. The forests are thick with many trees, and it is sweltering, especially in the forest where the foliage stops outside air from entering. There are dense thickets that the men have to hack in order for Extrone to pass through the area. There are gently swaying grasses in some areas, and in the mornings, they can hear the birds singing. While Extrone sleeps in a luxurious tent, the other men sleep under the sky where a smooth-surfaced moon hangs, bisected into twin hemispheres by a central mountain range. The drinking hole is where they see the farns’ prints and where Extrone has Ri tied to a tree to serve as bait.
	Another setting within this setting is Extrone’s tent. Inside it is absolutely luxurious. The bedding is composed of feathers and is surrounded by silk curtains. The flooring is made of tile blocks that have been transported to the planet and laid neatly and smoothly in the ground to create an even floor. There is a chain of crystals hanging from the top of the tent, and the electric lights are powered by a portable dynamo. Extrone seems to have every luxury available to him.

Answer: The primary action of the story takes place on an unnamed planet, where Extrone and his entourage travel to hunt farn beasts. They make camp in a field of grass next to a scrub forest somewhere in the southern region and there is a ridge to their north over which they previously sighted farn beasts. The forest is hot and dense and filled with trees and vines. Military officers from the Ninth Fleet visit Extrone to provide a warning about the sighting of an alien spacecraft; the officers come from the military outpost on a nearby moon. When Extrone invites Ri inside of his tent, the luxuriousness of his lifestyle highlights not only Extrone's wealth but also the glee with which he shows it off: His bed is expensive, full of heavy feathers, and flanked by silken sleep curtains. Solid tile blocks form the base of his floor, and a chain of crystals hangs in the middle of the tent to the left of a thin, hand-carved pole. Electric light brightens the space. Juxtaposed with Extrone's extravagancies, Mia and Ri sleep in sleeping bags under a gnarled tree. During the hunt for the farn beast, Extrone and Lin discover farn beast tracks in a muddy waterhole, and this is where they tie Ri to the base of a scaling tree.


Question: What is the relationship like between Ri and Mia, who are involved in a dangerous situation with an ominous figure while navigating an alien environment?

Answer:
They are businessmen that have been recruited (seemingly against their will) as guides for Extrone on a hunting trip seeking to kill farn beasts. They had come to the same location once before on a hunting trip together in good relations, and killed their guide to keep their finding of the farn beasts a secret. Initially, they seem to be bonded in their misery about being forced into this situation by Extrone. However, this relationship changes and deteriorates over the story.

Mia is highly suspicious of Extrone, his possible appointment by the Army, and what he thinks is an impending invasion of the alien system to be led by Extrone.

Ri has had several personal meetings with Extrone and is completely terrified of him and what he is capable of. Ri rejects the notions suggested by Mia and is scared to be caught speaking of them. When Extrone threatens to put Ri out for bait to lure the farn beasts, he rats Mia out as having intention to kill Extrone in order to avoid his own death. The plan fails when Extrone kills Mia on the spot by shooting him in the back, thus ending their relationship.

Answer:
Ri and Mia are two businessmen who were on a hunting trip before this current expedition. There, with their guide and pilot, they discovered the farn beast and killed at least one. Extrone hired them to be his guides on his own expedition, seeing as they found the beast in the first place.
After their discovery, Ri and Mia shot their guide but left the pilot alive. This meant that the word about farn beasts spread and soon became a hot topic. Now, Ri and Mia are trapped on this planet with Extrone, a scary and powerful man, and their relationship begins to crack under the weight of all this pressure.
Mia firmly believes that Extrone will kill both of them once this expedition is over. Ri disagrees, choosing to remain optimistic. On one of their guide trips, they discover blast tracks, a sign that others have been here. They choose to not tell Extrone out of fear.
After Mia divulges his plans to expose Extreone for what he really is when they return to civilization. Ri feels nervous about the prospect and tries to shut the conversation down. Later on, when Extrone calls Ri into his tent to use him as bait, Ri betrays Mia and reveals his treacherous plans. Extrone kills Mia quickly and efficiently but uses Ri as bait anyway. Despite their history as hunters and friends, Ri still betrays Mia in order to save his own skin.

Answer: Ri and Mia have a friendly camaraderie until the end of the story when Ri lies and tries to convince Extrone to use Mia as live bait for the farn beast rather than himself. Ri and Mia killed the first farn beast in their world, and when Extrone heard this, he hired them for a pittance to be his guides on a hunting expedition for the farn beast. Neither man wants to be there, but they have no choice. When Ri and Mia killed a farn beast, they killed their guide to prevent news of it from leaking, but other people still found out. Mia worries that Extrone will kill them, too, when the hunt is over, but Ri insists that they are too important for that to happen. Ri insists their friends and influence will prevent Extrone from doing that, but Mia counters that Extrone can always claim it was an accident. The two men are suspicious about how Extrone came to power, and Mia suspects that he is planning to invade the aliens and, for that reason, cut off trade with them. Ri disagrees and says the trade discontinuation was to keep an economic balance. While the two men disagree about Extrone’s methods, they both agree that he is a scary guy. At the end of the story, however, when Extrone’s plan to use Ri as live bait for the farn beast becomes clear to him, Ri lies and says Extrone should use Mia as bait because Mia has been talking about killing Extrone. Extrone has Ri point out Mia to him and then shoots him and still uses Ri for bait. So Ri gains nothing and causes his friend’s death.

Answer: Ri and Mia are two businessmen who are hired by Extrone to serve as guides on his hunting trip because of their association with the Hunting Club and their success in killing one during a recent mission. Although they successfully hunted a farn beast in the past, they are not professional guides by any means. Despite this and the low pay that they receive for their efforts, they feel compelled to meet Extrone's demands out of fear of reprisal. Mia is more assertive and confident than Ri, and he strongly believes that Extrone is a puppet leader installed by the military to ensure the people will support future military action against the aliens. Ri, fearful and timid, does not want to believe Mia's conspiracies and espouses faith in Extrone. Mia further fears that Extrone will kill them once the hunt is over because he does not want them to reveal the location of the farn beasts. Ri's fear of Extrone takes over when Extrone wants to use him as bait to catch the farn beasts, and he throws Mia under the bus by claiming Mia has suggested assassinating Extrone. Extrone immediately kills Mia and uses Ri as bait anyway.


Question: What is the plot of the story that revolves around a man facing constant danger, requiring a bodyguard, while navigating complex relationships and personal transformations?

Answer: Gabriel (Gabe) Lockard, an attractive man, is sitting in a bar with humans and extraterrestrials. He knocks over a man's drink while he talks to a girl. He offers to pay for a new suit, showing off his wealth. The other man reaches to throw his drink at Lockard but is stopped by a third man wearing a gray suit, who seems to know Lockard. This man warns Lockard to be careful, and when he leaves, Lockard tells the woman he's with that he's never seen him before, even though they talked as if they were acquaintances. The stranger visits a locker at a nearby airstation, puts most of his belongings inside, including all forms of identification, and sets the lock to the word "bodyguard". He climbs into a helicab, where he pressures the driver into taking him to a zarquil game. This man has been floating around without an identity, but operates as a flying dutchman, floating between zarquil games. Another day, Lockard crashes a helicar on a rainy fall night in a dark corner of a degrading city, and a fat stranger pulls him and his wife out of the helicar before it exploded. The man who saved them has the ID of Dominic Bianchi, a milgot dealer who seems to have disappeared in the past few weeks. Mrs. Lockard warns her husband to be more careful lest something happen to him. It seems the stranger's job is to rotate identities and protect Lockard. On yet another day, a thin stranger chases off a thief with his gun, and checks in on Mr. and Mrs. Lockard. Mrs. Lockard realizes that he is the same man who pulled them out of their aircar crash, and was the man wearing the gray suit at the bar. He has been changing bodies this whole time. She wants to know why, but the stranger suggests she ask Gabriel. She suspects they've been running from this stranger, and has started to be able to identify him, which the stranger is disappointed by as he explains it is not Gabriel he is helping. Because Gabriel is going to run-down cities, the bodies the stranger is getting are not well-vetted, and can't last too long. It turns out the stranger was the original Gabriel Lockard, the implication being that he's trying to protect his original body. As the stranger tries to swap bodies again, he finds that nobody wants the one he's in. He's offered a body that is healthy but likely a criminal, for three times the usual fee, and the stranger accepts the expensive deal. After the bodyswap, he recognizes the man as someone police are ordered to burn on sights. Mrs. Lockard interrogates her husband about his stolen body, which starts an argument. She recognizes he can't get his old body back, but lies and says she'd stay with him if he switched back, and the two talk about how ugly he was.

Answer:
Gabriel Lockard, a good looking man, stands at the bar with his wife. He accidentally hits another man’s drink, and the ugly little man winds up to hit Gabe. However, a stranger in a gray suit interjects. Gabe’s wife asks who the stranger was, and he tells her that he’s never seen him before.

The stranger hails a cab  and requests to be taken to the zarquil game. The cab driver tells him that he might as well commit suicide, but the stranger insists.

On a dark and rainy night, Gabe refuses to allow his wife to drive the helicar. When they crash, the stranger, with a brand new look, is right behind them. He pulls them out of the car before it blows up. Mrs. Lockard has a feeling that she has met the stranger before, but she dismisses her thought as ludicrous. When she asks for an introduction, Gabe asks the stranger for his name. He pulls out an ID card with the name Dominic Bianchi on it and explains that Bianchi lost all of his money a few weeks ago, and now he’s nothing. Mrs. Lockard tries to compensate the stranger for saving their lives, but he tells her that he has plenty of money. Gabe promises to be more careful in the future.

The stranger then makes his way to the zarquil game, which is an illegal activity. The game is run by the Vinzz, and it is very expensive to play. While there, he gains a new body, and this time he has small, angular features.

Later, the stranger approaches Gabe, laying on the ground in an alleyway, and his distressed wife. Mrs. Lockard recognizes the skinny stranger as the same man that has been following them and saving their lives. He admits that he is all of them, and she realizes that the stranger is playing in the zarquil games. The stranger calls a cab so that Gabe won’t freeze to death outside, once again saving his life.

The stranger then goes to a zarquil game to change his appearance again. The Vinzz tries to turn him away because his body is in poor condition, but he asserts that he has lots of money to fork over. The alien offers him the body of a criminal. The stranger agrees to take the body, and he finds it to be very handsome. He recognizes the new face he wears as one that belongs to a man who will be burned immediately by any police officer he encounters.

Mrs. Lockard tells Gabe that she knows that the stranger who has been chasing them is the real Gabe Lockard, and he wants his body back. When the man in Lockard’s body becomes defensive, she assures him that she would stay with him regardless of what his actual body looks like. He has zero interest in returning to his old body, and his wife says it’s sad that he can’t buy a new personality as well.

Answer:
The story takes place in a reality where humans can trade bodies through a game called zarquil, thus taking on the physical appearance of a new person while someone else gets their old body. The premise is that the body of Gabriel Lockard is actually inhabited by an unknown person. His wife, Helen, is the one to unravel the story as she begins to discover that “strangers” (the real Gabe inhabiting the bodies of strangers, changing form repeatedly through the story) keep coming to their rescue.
The “strangers” that Helen starts to realize are a single person (Gabe’s consciousness) changing bodies over time appear when the arrogant and incredibly handsome body of Gabriel Lockard: gets a drink thrown in his face at a bar, crashes his vehicle into a tower with Helen as a passenger, and when he is face down unconscious in an alley.
Helen first realizes what is happening when the “strangers” seem deeply concerned that Gabe remain alive. Through their interactions, she comes to realize that Gabe is not actually in his own body, and that the real Gabe is following his body around like a bodyguard, resentful of the person in there and not wanting any harm to come to what he considers his perfect physique.
The stranger continues to change forms throughout the story to evade detection by Gabe, though Helen foils that plan. He also does this for the reason of wanting to inhabit a body as perfect as he believes his original body was, hoping to “trade up” to a body he finds suitable through the process. The last body switch he makes is a dark deal into the body of a wanted criminal that is very handsome and fit. He is happy with the outcome as he thinks he may be able to get away with the crimes this body committed with his cunning wit.
The story closes with Helen confronting the body of Gabe with an unknown person inside, in which he confirms that what she knows is true. The person inside Gabe is unkind to her and does not treat her well, and the story ends with her in this predicament, having to make a choice whether to stay or go.

Answer:
 In a bar with his wife, Gabriel Lockard draws attention to himself with his good looks and arrogance. Lockard gestures expansively, bumping another man and spilling his drink on his suit, knocking his glass to the floor. Condescendingly, Lockard offers to buy him another drink and pay his cleaning bill. When the man starts to throw his fresh drink on Lockard, he is stopped by a stranger in a gray suit. Lockard and the man in the gray suit talk as if they know each other; Lockard acknowledges the stranger is useful to have around, and the stranger, noticing signs of Lockard’s aging, comments Lockard soon might not be worth saving.
After following Lockard to his hotel, the stranger takes a cab to the zarquil games to change his body, something he does after every encounter with Lockard. In the meantime, Gabe and Mrs. Lockart go out in a helicar. When Mrs. Lockart suggests she drive because Gabe is drunk, he insists on driving. He crashes the helicar, and the stranger, now a fat man, rescues him and his wife from the helicar just before it catches on fire. Gabe introduces his wife, and the stranger mysteriously states, “I hope you’ll be worthy of the name.” He takes the Lockards back to their hotel and then goes to the zarquil games again.
As a slim, sickly man, the stranger rescues Lockard and his wife from a would-be thief. Lockard is unconscious while Mrs. Lockard and the stranger discuss the situation. She realizes he is the same person who keeps protecting Gabe but exchanging bodies over and over and wants to know why he does it; the stranger says she should ask her husband. He acknowledges Mrs. Lockard is in a difficult situation with her marriage, stating, “Too bad he got married anyway for your sake.” When Mrs. Lockard wants to know why the stranger protects Gabriel, he encourages her to ask her husband.
When the stranger tries to change bodies again, he is first told his diseased body makes him ineligible but then is offered a game where all he knows is the other body is a healthy male. He suspects this means the other person is a criminal but accepts the offer anyway, knowing he will assume responsibility for the crimes the other identity had committed. The stranger ends up with a “fine” new body that is handsome in a dark way, but the stranger recognizes the face as someone wanted by the police.
Mrs. Lockard confronts her husband about knowing the stranger better than he claimed. She asks if he would consider taking his original body back, and Gabe states she would then be the real Gabriel Lockart’s wife. She claims she would stay with her husband’s soul but knows this is a lie. He claims anything would be better than the hulk of his original body; Mrs. Lockard comments it’s a shame he could only change his body or his character, not both.


Question: Who is Mrs. Lockard and what is her significance to the narrative involving themes of identity and danger?

Answer: The young woman who Lockard is sitting with at the bar at the beginning of the story is the woman who would eventually become his wife. Her name is Helen, but she is mostly referred to as Mrs. Lockard. By the time the helicar crash happens, they have been married, and by the time they are almost robbed, they have been married six months. Her role is most clear when she is talking to the stranger after the robbery. She is the one who explicitly pieces together that the stranger she has seen, although varying in form at each event, has been the same person. The gray suit, the fat man, and the scrawny man have all been the same person. It is her perspective that changes Lockard's life and his possible path for the future, and the two of them have been on the run from the stranger the whole time they've been married. She gets enough information from the stranger to be able to confront her husband about what's happening, allowing her to uncover the whole story.

Answer:
Mrs. Lockard is Gabe’s wife of six months. She is a very good-looking woman with a penchant for furs. She does not realize that the Gabe Lockard she knows is not the true Gabe Lockard until she uncovers the mystery of why a shape-changing stranger is always saving their lives. Mrs. Lockard is not part of the seedy underclass, so she has little awareness of the zarquil games and would not know to be on the lookout for an intruder in her husband’s body.

Even before she realizes that the man she is married to is a liar, she is deeply unhappy in the marriage. At one point, the stranger who is chasing them, the real Gabe Lockard, notices that her face is bruised beneath her makeup. She is being abused by her husband, and she feels as though she has no way out of the relationship. Mrs. Lockard also complains that she has been forced to run from these strangers ever since she married Gabe. He won't tell her anything, so she is forced to figure everything out on her own, and she now recognizes that she is constantly on the run. When the real Gabe Lockard says that it’s a pity that she’s married, she agrees with him.

Throughout her many interactions with the stranger that saves Gabe’s life, Mrs. Lockard asks a lot of tough questions. She is very intelligent and continues to seek the truth even when she’s being ignored. Her persistence pays off because the real Gabe Lockard admits to her that he is the same person in all of the strangers’ bodies. She is then able to approach her husband with the information she has uncovered. When she tells him that she knows what’s really going on, she suggests that he go back to his old body and promises to stay with him. She discovers how vain and immoral he is when he tells her that would never happen; he had the worst body before and he has zero intention of living in it again. Mrs. Lockard tells him that it’s too bad he can’t get a new personality.

Answer:
Helen Lockard is the wife of Gabe. She is significant because she guides the story and unravels the mysterious plot line of her husband trading bodies. She also has a significant role in attempting to enact justice upon the person that came to inhabit Gabe’s body, though the reader does not see this situation fully resolved.

As the story’s guide, she discovers that the strangers following her and her husband continue to rescue them from the harmful situations that Gabe places them in. She realizes the strangers are actually a single person (Gabe’s consciousness) that has been taking different bodily forms by playing zarquil and following his real body around.

She often assumes Gabe is lying to her, and even considers escaping her marriage by entering a game of zarquil to become someone else. When she discovers that the body of Gabe actually has the consciousness of another person in it, she confronts them. Although she is demeaned and taunted, her motivations are set on seeking justice for Gabe.

Answer: Mrs. Lockard is first described as “the girl” with Gabriel Lockard in the bar. Gabriel is extremely good-looking and draws a lot of attention because of his looks. Compared to him, Mrs. Lockard almost looks plain. She has been married to Gabe for six months. Her husband is rude, coarse, and self-centered, and she regrets marrying him. He isn’t above striking her cheek violently when they argue. For instance, Mrs. Lockard tries to get along with Gabe, gently offering to drive the helicar when Gabe has had too much to drink. After she sees the stranger at the bar, and he rescues her from the wrecked helicar, she begins to think the stranger is familiar, although he looks different each time she sees him. After the stranger saves her and Gabe from the thief, she opens up to the stranger and confesses she feels like Gabe is looking for trouble. This is also when she realizes the stranger is definitely the same person from the bar, the wreck, and now the attempted theft. She opens up to the stranger and admits that Gabe is running from something. She wonders what it would be like to change bodies with another person in a zarquil game and escape from Gabriel, but she realizes her body is a good one and would hate to give it up. She begins to realize how closely connected the stranger is to her and Gabe. She accepts the stranger, although his significance is a secret her husband keeps from her, and her acceptance spurs the stranger to admit that his current body, thin and sickly, will only last another four or five months. She later asks her husband why he doesn’t give up the body, and he skeptically accuses her of wanting to be the real Gabe’s wife because then her husband would be sound in mind and body. She denies thinking of herself with the real Gabe and says she would stay with her husband in his “real” body. When her husband admits he doesn’t know where his real body is and thinks whoever has it might have killed himself after looking in the mirror, Mrs. Lockard comments that his real body must have matched his character and that it is a shame he could only change one of them, not both. Her husband realizes that she is dissatisfied with him, and her interaction with the stranger helps her see her husband as he really is. Compared to her husband, the stranger is much kinder, more honest, and stable.


Question: Who is the stranger in the gray suit and what is his significance in a story involving danger, identity, and unexpected encounters?

Answer: The stranger in the gray suit at the bar in the beginning of the story happens to be the original Gabriel Lockard, and it is hinted that the original Lockard only switched bodies because the current one had convinced him to when they'd had too much to drink. The stranger is keeping an eye on the current Gabriel Lockard to protect the body from harm. He does this by participating in zarquil games, run by the alien race the Vinzz, which allows him to swap bodies with other people. If he is in a reputable area, there are careful checks to make sure that these bodies are healthy, but he ends up with a sick body partway through the story, which forces him to take the body of a criminal as his only option because nobody will buy the sick body from him. The stranger's desire to protect his original body pushes him to become obsessed with this task, and it is his only real goal. He follows Lockard throughout the story, switching bodies every time he is seen, which forces Lockard and his wife to flee from him, staying constantly on the run. Lockard is used to this stranger being around, and tries to avoid making him angry, but there is a sense that he is sick of being saved and wants to live his own life. Lockard even offers to buy the stranger a drink at the beginning to try to work something out, seemingly exhausted from being followed. His single-mindedness is shown by the fact that the stranger's password on his locker is "bodyguard", in reference to his original body.

Answer:
The stranger in the gray suit is the real Gabriel Lockard. He managed to lose his body through the illegal game known as zarquil, and he desperately wants it back. The stranger thinks of himself as Gabe Lockard’s bodyguard, and he uses the term as the passcode for the locker where he keeps his valuables. His life’s mission is to guard Gabe’s body and get it back so that he can be himself once more. In order to do this, he follows the fake Gabe Lockard and his wife around town to make sure that he is treating his body nicely. Fake Gabe Lockard frequently gets into fights, accidents, and other situations that could lead to his death or irreparably damage his body, and the stranger spends nearly all of his waking hours keeping tabs on him and rescuing him from destruction.

The stranger seems sinister at first, especially since he goes to seedy areas of town where the Vinzz run illegal zarquil games. He uses his immense wealth to purchase other peoples’ bodies. However, his motivation for continuously changing bodies is to keep his secret from the fake Gabe Lockard. He does not want the man who stole his body to be able to recognize him and kill him. Although he has not found the perfect solution to his problem, he is merely doing what he can to survive, protect his true body, and try to get it back. The stranger treats Gabe’s new wife well, and he even tells her the truth about his predicament. If he did not have the incredible amounts of cash he has, he would not be able to keep up with this plan. But he is able to use his money to keep buying new bodies and chasing around Gabe.

Answer:
The stranger in the gray suit is just one of the embodiments of the “stranger” throughout the story that keeps watch over Gabe. It is revealed that this stranger is actually Gabe himself who is continuously changing physical appearance by playing zarquil. He tries to take on bodies of greater and greater physical beauty until he can find one that is as good as the body he left, which he considers to be a perfect physical form.

The stranger is significant because he ultimately provides the key information that could liberate Helen from a marriage where she is treated poorly and gets into dangerous situations that could ultimately get her killed if she stays with him.

The stranger also represents the great lengths humans are willing to go to for pursuing or maintaining physical beauty or health. The game required to change form is dangerous and illegal, but the stranger continues to return to it for the allure of a better form.

Answer: The stranger in the gray suit at the bar is the real Gabriel Lockart. He lost his body to the man who currently inhabits it in a zarquil game after having too many drinks with him, and now he follows Gabe Lockart wherever he goes and protects him whenever he is in danger. Actually, the stranger is not protecting the person in Gabe Lockart’s body, but the body of Gabe Lockart. The stranger shows up in the bar and protects Gabe when another man wants to throw a drink on Gabe; he also shows up and pulls Gabe and his wife from the wreckage of their helicar. He saves them from a would-be thief and calls for a cab to take them to where they are staying to prevent Gabe from freezing to death. The stranger follows Gabe wherever he goes, protecting his body. The stranger seems to want his body and identity back, but the current Gabe will not willingly give up the body and identity because he enjoys them too much.


Question: What are the zarquil games, which are part of a story involving characters navigating a dangerous world filled with intrigue and identity, and what is their significance?

Answer: An alien race called the Vinzz, from Altair's seventh planet, run the zarquil games as a way to make money so that they can buy slaves. Through these games, humans are able to swap bodies so they can experience what it is like to live as someone else. People who participate frequently are known as flying dutchmen, and the stranger in the story is called this a few times. These games are illegal and dangerous, and you must have a lot of money to participate. In larger cities with more resources and oversight, all of the potential bodies go through a detailed vetting process to make sure that the body in question does not have any illnesses or a criminal past. When the stranger ends up with a sick body near the end of the story, his only option is to accept a body with a criminal past because nobody will accept an ill body at a reputable game. Public perception shows that society looks down on these games. The cab driver that the stranger meets explicitly says that he looks down on dutchmen, saying he hates them, and very reluctantly takes the stranger to a zarquil game because he is promised the money and he knows the stranger has a gun. It is this game that caused the original Gabriel Lockard to lose his body and identity, and it is through this game that he rotates through nameless people in order to follow the new Lockard to keep an eye on the body.

Answer:
The zarquil games are illegally run by the Vinzz, an alien race. The illegal operation has such a terrible reputation that one of the cab drivers the stranger encounters suggests that he kill himself rather than playing. The cab driver almost refuses to bring him to the games, but he sees the amount of cash the stranger is holding and agrees to do his bidding. Many people in the society know nothing about zarquil because it’s an underground game that people with good reputations do not take part in. The stranger is known as a “dutchman,” which is a term for someone who plays zarquil all the time for the rush of it.

Zarquil is an interesting phenomenon because both the victim and the perpetrator are both considered guilty. The game is very expensive to play, and that’s why the Vinzz spend their time running the activity for humans. The Vinzz use the money they make to return to their home planet of Vinau and purchase slaves. The aliens rarely get in trouble for hosting the games because the Vinzz live about 2,000 years, and therefore no punishment would be worthwhile. The Vinzz are not subjected to capital punishment because the humans don’t know if their weapons are good enough to kill them.

Males are given male bodies, and females are given female bodies. The Vinzz do not play “mixed games” and switch up genders, even though there is surely a market for that. Humans are also not allowed to trade bodies with aliens. The Vinzz feel that if they successfully traded a human body for an alien one, the humans would become outraged and start a war over the matter. Some seedy zarquil games include private purchases of criminal bodies. Criminals do not pass the standard testing and must be bought in secret.

The zarquil games are an important part of the story because Gabe Lockard loses his body to the stranger in one of these illegal games. The stranger, or the real Gabe Lockard, then uses zarquil to continuously change bodies to go undetected by the fake Gabe Lockard. He wants to get his real body back, and in order to do that he must not let the fake Gabe Lockard know his true identity.

Answer:
Zarquil is an extremely illegal “crime against nature” sport which is akin to a game of musical chairs. Instead of trading chairs, the game is a high consequence one where humans trade bodies. Supposedly the entrants to the game have a physical health check to ensure the participants get into bodies free of disease, but this proves to not be well regulated as the stranger receives several bodies which he thinks are “diseased”.

The sport is run by aliens, Vinzz, from Altair’s seventh planet that have no regard for the welfare of the humans playing, only the profits. The game persists on Terra (where humans live in the story) because there is no capital punishment that can be brought upon the Vinzz, as they live over 2000 years, making prison sentences useless to discourage them from running the game.

The games are significant because they allow humans to escape their lives by changing into completely different identities. This can enable criminals to escape the law, or for a single person to follow others undetected by continuously changing appearances.

Answer:
The zarquil games are an illegal activity played by people referred to as dutchmen who go from one game to another seeking the thrills they get from it. Part of the thrill of the game was the unknown; players don’t know for sure what kind of body they will end up with. The games are very expensive and are run by the Vinzz, who are strange beings from Altair’s seventh planet Vinau. The Vinzz have no concerns for the humans playing their games; they are running the games strictly for the money they can make from them so that they can return to Vinau and buy many slaves. The Vinzz live for around two thousand earth years and bodies mean little to them; they care nothing about a human’s body. The Vinzz are not barred from coming to Earth to run their games because the trade between the two planets is so valuable that they maintain peace. In the games, people exchange bodies. The Vinzz are supposed to vet everyone who plays to make sure their bodies are healthy, but they have been known to cut corners when profits are lagging. This explains why the stranger ends up as the sickly, thin man who only has four or five months left to live.
The zarquil games are significant in the story because that is how the stranger lost his body and name to the current Gabe Lockard. Apparently, the stranger drank too much too many times and played the zarquil game, losing his body and identity. He continues playing the game, changing his identity after every interaction with the current Gabe. The stranger isn’t sure whether he keeps changing after interacting with the current Gabe because of his interaction or because none of the subsequent bodies feel right to him. Perhaps he just wants to one day obtain a body that is as close to perfection as his original body was.


Question: What is the relationship between Gabe Lockard and the stranger in a story that involves danger, identity, and unexpected encounters?

Answer: The stranger is actually the original Gabriel Lockard, and the man we know as Lockard now is the man who took this body a while ago. The new Lockard has some sense of who the stranger is, though he knows he will never recognize him because the stranger switches bodies frequently. The stranger is keeping an eye out on his original body, trying to protect it, with a bit of hope that he may one day get it back. They have a tenuous and superficial relationship, with the new Lockard being somewhat hesitant about the stranger's involvement in his life. The stranger makes it clear that it is not Lockard he is protecting, but just the body he is in. Through this story, the stranger keeps a man from throwing a glass in Lockard's face at a bar, pulls Lockard and his wife out of a helicar crash, and stops a robbery from happening. There is bitterness and exhaustion on both sides of this relationship, and at the beginning of the story the new Lockard tries to offer the stranger a drink so they can sort things out, but the stranger refuses and it seems he would only be appeased if he had his original body back.

Answer:
The stranger follows Gabe Lockard and his wife around everywhere they go in order to protect them. The stranger used to be the real owner of Gabe Lockard's body, but he lost it in a game of zarquil. Since then, he has made it his life's mission to protect his former body from harm. When an angry man at a bar almost assaults Gabe, the stranger stops the man from hitting Gabe in the face. When Gabe crashes his helicar into a beacon tower, the stranger is right behind the vehicle, and he pulls Gabe and his wife out of the crashed car before it blows up. When Gabe lies unconscious in the snow on a freezing night in an alleyway, the stranger shows up and calls him a cab to get his body back home in the warmth.

Gabe knows exactly why the stranger is following him and saving his life, but he refuses to tell his wife, Mrs. Lockard, the reason behind the strange behavior. However, Mrs. Lockard continues asking the stranger questions and eventually uncovers the truth. She realizes that she's married to the fake Gabe Lockard, and that he is a liar and a manipulator.

Answer:
The stranger is Gabe’s consciousness inhabiting the bodies of other people. Gabe left his own body in unknown circumstances, and now his body is inhabited by someone else. The relationship between them is not a shared mutual experience. The person in Gabe’s body is largely indifferent to the help from the stranger and does not recognize it is the same person sharing care towards him over time. The stranger (the real Gabe) feels a mix of protectiveness for his body and a deep resentment of the new person that is inside of it.

The stranger monitors “Gabe” closely like a bodyguard and cares deeply about his body continuing to exist, even calling a cab so it doesn’t freeze to death at one point. Potentially he does this with the hope that he can one day get back into it. The stranger continues to follow and save the body of “Gabe” while simultaneously changing physical forms through playing zarquil. This serves both to try to avoid being detected by Gabe and Helen (ultimately foiled when Helen figures it out), and to attempt to enter a physical form that is as perfect as he felt his original body was.

Answer: Gabe Lockard in the story is actually a man inhabiting the body and adopting the identity of the real Gabriel Lockard. The real Gabe Lockard is the stranger in the gray suit in the bar, the fat man who pulls Gabe and Mrs. Lockard from their wrecked helicar, the thin, sickly man who saves Gabe and Mrs. Lockard from the would-be thief, and the handsome, dark, coarse-featured hulking man at the end of the story. The stranger follows Gabe and Mrs. Lockard from town to town, acting like a kind of bodyguard for Gabe to protect him from the harm he can do to himself and from other dangers. Apparently, at some time in the past, the real Gabe Lockard crossed paths with the man who now inhabits his body, and they had drinks together. The real Gabe comments that he drank with the current Gabe “once too often” and says that things worked out well for the current Gabe. Gabe Lockard’s body is incredibly handsome and attracts attention wherever he goes. The current Gabe, though, is coarse, rude, and self-centered; he has been moving from town to town to get away from the real Gabe who is following him, protecting Gabe’s body. It seems that the real Gabe hopes to get his real body back at some point in the future.