Diplomacy was called for. I sighed and dragged out the plastiflesh equipment.
Working from 3-D snaps of Grandson, I modeled a passable reptile head over my own features. It was a little short in the jaw, me not having one of their toothy mandibles, but that was all right. I didn't have to look exactly like them, just something close. To soothe the native mind. It's logical. If I were an ignorant aborigine of Earth and I ran into a Spican, who looks like a two-foot gob of dried shellac, I would immediately leave the scene. However, if the Spican was wearing a suit of plastiflesh that looked remotely humanoid, I would at least stay and talk to him. This was what I was aiming to do with the Centaurians.
When the head was done, I peeled it off and attached it to an attractive suit of green plastic, complete with tail. I was really glad they had tails. The lizards didn't wear clothes, and I wanted to take along a lot of electronic equipment. I built the tail over a metal frame that anchored around my waist. Then I filled the frame with all the equipment I would need and began to wire the suit.
When it was done, I tried it on in front of a full-length mirror. It was horrible but effective. The tail dragged me down in the rear and gave me a duck-waddle, but that only helped the resemblance.
That night I took the ship down, into the hills nearest the pyramid. An out-of-the-way dry spot where the amphibious natives would never go. A little before dawn the Eye hooked onto my shoulders and we sailed straight up. We hovered above the temple at about two thousand meters, until it was light, then dropped down. It must have been a grand sight. The Eye was camouflaged to look like a flying lizard, sort of a cardboard pterodactyl, and the slowly flapping wings obviously had nothing to do with our flight. But it was impressive enough for the natives. The first one that spotted me screamed and dropped over on its back. The others came running. They milled and mobbed and piled on top of one another, and by the time I had landed in the plaza fronting the temple the priesthood arrived.
I folded my arms in a regal stance. "Greetings, O noble servers of the Great God," I said. Of course I didn't say it out loud, just whispered softly enough for the throat mike to catch. This was radioed back to the MT, and the translation shot back to a speaker in my jaws.
The natives chomped and rattled, and the translation rolled out almost instantly. I had the volume turned up and the whole square echoed to my amplified machine voice.
Some of the more credulous natives prostrated themselves, and others fled screaming. One doubtful type raised a spear, but no one else tried that after the pterodactyl Eye picked him up and dropped him in the swamp. The priests were a hard-headed lot and weren't buying any lizards in a poke; they just stood and muttered. I had to take the offensive again.
"Begone, O faithful steed," I said to the Eye, and pressed the control in my palm at the same time.
It took off straight up a bit faster than I wanted; little pieces of wind-torn plastic rained down. While the crowd was ogling this ascent, I walked through the temple doors.
"I would talk with you, O noble priests," I said. Before they could think up a good answer, I was inside.
The temple was a small one built against the base of the pyramid. I hoped I wasn't breaking too many taboos by going in. Since I wasn't stopped I was all right so far. The temple was a single room with a murky-looking pool at one end. Sloshing in the pool was an ancient reptile who clearly was one of the leaders. I waddled toward him and he gave me a cold and fishy eye, then growled something.
The MT whispered into my ear, "Just what in the name of the thirteenth sin are you — and what are you doing here?"
I drew up my scaly figure in a noble gesture and pointed toward the ceiling. "I come from your ancestors to help you. I am here to restore the Holy Waters."
This raised a buzz of conversation behind me, but got no useful response out of the chief. He sank slowly into the water until only his eyes were showing. I could almost hear the wheel turning behind that moss-covered forehead. Then he lunged up and pointed a dripping finger at me.
"You are a liar! You are no ancestor of ours! You will—"
"Stop!" I thundered before he got so far in that he couldn't back out. "I said your ancestors sent me as emissary — I am not one of your ancestors. Do not try to harm me or the wrath of those who have Passed On will turn against you."
When I said this, I turned to jab a claw at the other priests, using the motion to cover my flicking a coin grenade toward them. It blew a nice hole in the door with a great show of noise and smoke.
The First Lizard knew I was talking sense then and immediately called a meeting of the shamans. It, of course, took place in the public bathtub and I had to join them there. We jawed and gurgled for about an hour and settled all the major points. I found out that they were all new priests; the previous ones had all been boiled alive for letting the Holy Waters cease.
Cheered by this information, I explained that I was there only to help them restore the flow of the waters. They bought this, tentatively, and we all heaved out of the tub and trickled muddy paths across the floor. There was a bolted and guarded door that led into the pyramid proper. While it was being opened, the First Lizard turned to me.
"Undoubtedly you know of the rule," he said. "Because the old priests did pry and peer, it was ordered henceforth that only the blind could enter the Holy of Holies." I would swear he was smiling; if thirty teeth peeking out of what looked like a crack in an old suitcase can be called smiling.
He was also signaling over an underpriest who carried a brazier of charcoal, complete with red-hot irons. All I could do was stand and watch as he stirred up the coals, pulled out the ruddiest iron and turned toward me. He was just drawing a bead on my right eyeball when my brain got back in gear.
"Of course," I said. "Blinding is only right. But in my case you will have to blind me later, before I leave the Holy of Holies, not now. I need my eyes to see and mend the Fount of Holy Waters. Once the waters flow again, I will laugh as I hurl myself on the burning iron."
He took a good thirty seconds to think it over and in the end had to agree with me. The local torturer sniffled a bit and threw a little more charcoal on the fire. The gate crashed open and I stalked through; then it banged to behind me and I was alone in the dark.
But not for long — there was a shuffling nearby and I took a chance and turned on my flash. Three priests were groping toward me, their eye sockets red pits of burned flesh. They knew what I wanted and led the way without a word.
A crumbling and cracked stone stairway brought us up by a solid metal doorway labeled in archaic script mark III beacon — ENTRANCE TO AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. The overly trusting builders had counted on the sign to do the whole job, for there wasn't a trace of a lock on the door. One lizard merely turned the handle and we were inside the beacon.
I unzipped the front of my camouflage suit and pulled out the blueprints. With the faithful priests stumbling after me I approached the antique machinery. There was a residue of charge in the emergency batteries, just enough to give a dim light. The meters and indicators looked to be in good shape; if anything, unexpectedly bright from constant polishing. I checked the readings carefully and found just what I had suspected. One of the eager lizards had managed to open a circuit box and had polished the switches inside. While doing this, he had thrown one of the switches and that had caused the trouble.
Rather, that had started the trouble. It wasn't going to be ended by just reversing the water-valve switch. This valve was supposed to be used only for repairs, and then only after the atomic pile had been damped. When the water was cut off with the pile in operation, it had started to overheat and the automatic safeties had dumped the whole works down into the pit.