fishpole-aerial

Updated: July 21, 2025

It was what we call a tread-snail, because it moves on a double row of pads like stumpy feet and leaves a trail like a tractor. The fishpole-aerial thing it had erected out of its head was its stinger, and the yellow stuff was venom. A tenth of a milligram of it in your blood and it's "Get the Gate open, St. Peter; here I come." Tom saw it as soon as I did.

H. Beam Piper - Four-Day Planet