Humans, not aliens, in sleek, form-fitting suits had surrounded him. They picked him up and dragged him quickly along with them. He knew it wasn’t a hallucination when his fingers burned against the suit’s gloves as they jostled him. That was too real. Timas wanted to be grateful, but he was too confused. He hadn’t found aliens. But he had found people? The figures dragged Timas into an airlock with a boulder that rolled aside as its door. Inside, once pressure was reduced to normal, heat normal, they skinned out of their suits, leaving just their gloves on to manhandle Timas’s cherry-red and smoking groundsuit. They cracked his helmet and ripped it off. Timas tasted brutal, cold air through his cracked lips. “Stupid, stupid child,” the nearest figure snapped. It looked like a woman with her black, silky hair cut short but with long bangs. They tickled Timas under the nose as she leaned forward. “Look at the light.” A bright light made Timas flinch. “Okay, he’s responsive.
