Guardians
Tuf finds himself at Namor, an oceanic world where sea monsters are attacking the local population. He offers to assist - as always, for a fee. The people of Namor grow more desperate and impatient, especially as monsters able to walk on land begin to appear. Tuf's hand is forced, and he unleashes a barrage of other creatures to directly counteract the monsters.
This strategy, initially successful, soon stops working as the monsters gain resistance against these other-worldly creatures. Tuf goes back to work, and manages to find a solution. Through his psionically-enhanced cat, he discovers a previously-unsuspected sapient species native to Namor: the mudpots, sessile aquatic bottom-dwellers (which had hitherto been considered dietary delicacies by the Namorian colonists) linked telepathically into a kind of hivemind, controlling the lesser species of life on the planet as skilled bioengineers.
Tuf establishes communications with the mudpots and brokers a peace agreement whereby his human employers agree to cease eating the planet's autochthonous intelligent species. He gives the leaders of Namor psionically-enhanced kittens to facilitate their dealings with the mudpots and departs.
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