The original pair of Taxxons scuttle toward the visser, followed by a few more from the ship. The reason soon becomes clear: Visser Three is a messy eater. Stray pieces fall from his mouth, to be gobbled up by the ravenous worms with a whole new series of horrible sounds.

This goes on for a while. The Hork-Bajir make rhythmic huffing sounds that might be a form of applause; from the axe-blade ship there drifts a very human sound of laughter.