a BEM asked us in stelspeak. His voice had a metallic ring. His sable pelt was streaked with gray, perhaps from age. A white scar ran along the right side of his mantle. Joe, Chancey, Huff and I stood before a curved platform in a BEM military outpost built of stones, somewhere in a Denebrian des...
I knew it for a predatory ground forest of planet Halcyon that was hungry for animal tissue and not above a meal of Homo sapiens. I'm an astrobiologist, and Halcyon is a feast of alien species. The planet's evolution is directed by Spirit, as he likes to be referred to in our telepathic conversat...
The sky was darkening, the temperature was dropping even further. I blinked in the flurry of light snowflakes that burned my nostrils. There is a smell to snowy air that I can only describe as “cold.” “Hi,” I said and waved to the villagers. No one moved or smiled. A child picked up a rock and th...
This cargo was not for eating. It was for growing plants from seeds and animals from fertilized eggs. I wanted no trace of our presence left behind. Lisa was asleep. “Stay away from there!” I whispered, as though Tikkie could understand. But he recognized the command in my voice. He hung his tail...
Al, how could you? I felt betrayed, though I knew better. I'd known the stakes all along, even if I hadn't admitted it to myself. What was it Jack had said? Unless you're just fooling yourself. Fuck him too. I stared out the window at a distant canyon which broke the late sun's color and left sha...
Joe threw his remaining coffee into the fire, then threw the metal cup onto the clay ground of the cave. The fire hissed. Smoke erupted, like a little dragon that had been kicked. I cradled my cup of hot brew on my thighs as I sat, my back against the cold wall. It was two days since we'd arrived...
Joe stormed through the drak corral, slid on drak feces, caught himself and strode out the makeshift wooden gate, followed by Bat, Sophia, Oldore and Galrin, while Huff stayed behind. “An' he took Chancey with him.” Bat scratched under his cap. “And he took Chancey with him!” Joe kicked a rock th...