GENELLAN: PLANETFALL(124)

"Et Avian! Can you hear me? Report in!" he shouted, keying the transmitter on his helmet radio. "Scientist Lollee! Report in!" There was no response.

"Should we investigate?" Kateos asked. The noises had stopped.

"I do not have an answer," Dowornobb replied.

"Perhaps their helmet transmitters are out of range. Why did they not take a field radio?"

"A mistake," Dowornobb replied dolefully. "We will wait."

Minutes crept by. Dowornobb decided to venture to the tree line and Kateos insisted on accompanying him. As Dowornobb crept from the shadow of the airplane's wing, he detected movement. Something moved from the shade into the sunlight. An alien! Two-legged, erect and spindly, tiny head covered with golden hair, it waved at them; it beckoned. Dowornobb looked disbelievingly at Kateos, and she at him. They returned their attention back down the hill.

"It brandishes Lollee' s blaster!" Dowornobb shouted. "The aliens have killed Lollee!" Dowornobb raised his weapon, aiming it at the alien. The alien dropped out of sight in the long grasses. The grasses would do nothing to attenuate the beam; Dowornobb started to fire.

"Wait! It could have discharged the blaster at us," Kateos whispered, putting a hand on his arm. "It did not. It is trying to communicate."

"A trick!" Dowornobb exclaimed. "How else would they disarm our comrades?"

"Hold," Kateos said. "Wait here and protect me. I will go forward."

"That is inappropriate, my mate. We proceed together." He lowered the weapon.

"As you wish, my mate." Kateos pointed. "Look! The alien shows itself. Do not aim the blaster."

The alien crouched nervously in bright sunlight, holding the blaster's barrel straight in the air. It wore faded, buff-colored garb with streaks of black-edged crimson smeared across the front. With emphatic intent, the alien threw the weapon to the ground and waved its arms in an agitated manner. It pointed downhill and walked backward into the forest shadows, waving its arms. Kateos fell on all fours and loped toward the mysterious creature.

"Something is amiss!" she shouted. "Et Avian needs our help!"

Dowornobb knew it was a trap, but he could not forsake his mate. He bounded after the headstrong female.

* * *

Hudson heard thudding footfalls behind him; his own strides widened in fear. He tried not to look back but could not help himself. One monstrous alien was on his heels. It had fallen into a gentle trot, easily matching his pace. The other giant had stopped to pick up the discarded weapon and was galloping frantically to catch up.

Hudson breathlessly led the aliens down the forested hillside, quickly reaching the clearing, where he found Buccari, sitting in the sun with her back against a tree, dressed only in her thermal underwear. She attended the stricken alien, holding its great head in her lap, the alien's shattered helmet at her side. Buccari had used her jumpsuit as a bandage; the material, black with seeping blood, covered the alien's huge neck and shoulder. Across the clearing, Jones's body lay in the cool shadows, limbs composed and face covered with his fur jacket. Nearby, two cubs fretted and pulled on the carcasses of the destroyed she-bears, whining and mewling.

"You were right, Sharl. They had crewmates—good grief, the smell!" Hudson gasped. "They must of lost control of their bowels!"

Buccari nodded silently, hair falling in her eyes.

"You okay, Sharl?" Hudson asked, glancing over his shoulder. Buccari looked up, wet tracks running down her grimy face. She wiped away tears with the back of a hand.

"We were a team, Nash. Jones and me," she wept. "Jones was . . . my..."

"I'm sorry, Sharl, but...we got visitors."

Buccari shook the hair from her face and lifted her chin. She sighed heavily, firm resolve returning to her strong features. "Yeah, I guess we have other things to worry about now, don't we?" she said, her voice growing louder. She grimaced in pain.

"Yeah! You sure you're okay?"

"Shoulder's killing me," she groaned.

"What do we do now, Sharl?" he said, turning to face the aliens.

The monsters had stopped at the edge of the clearing and were slowly making their way on all fours. They communicated quietly, a low-pitched, melodious sound with infrequent word breaks. Helmet amplifiers gave their speech a hollow, mechanical tone. The spectacle of injury and death did not seem to deter them as much as did the human presence. They looked nervously at the activity of the cubs and at the sundered carcasses of the dead bears.

* * *

"What now?" Kateos asked, edging closer to Et Avian.

Dowornobb lifted onto his hinds and walked over to Lollee' s gruesome corpse. He sniffed the dead kone and delicately touched the side of the scientist's mutilated neck, a perfunctory search for a pulse.