Earth Song: Twilight Serenade by Mark Wandrey

suspected, it was the Kaatan’s medical bay. This ship’s med bay was configured much larger than their Kaatan’s, with more than two dozen treatment beds. While the beds were all empty, a solitary body floated near the center of the bay. Minu moved through them to drift closer. The body slowly was spinning on all three axis and probably had been the untold centuries.
    Like the first time they’d seen one of the beings Lilith called The People, this one was almost identical. A vaguely monkey resemblance with elongated ears and a very human looking face and big expressive eyes. Perhaps the jaws were stretched slightly giving it rather foxy look. The only major difference was their body covering of light downy fur, and a meter long tail. The seating on the Kaatan had given them fits for quite some time until Lilith came along and was able to reconfigure it. They were like humans in the galaxy, one of the rare hominids to evolve.
    This being, which had died thousands of years before humans first learned to make fire, was remarkably well preserved. It wore a simple jumpsuit without arms, a utility belt that held some tools and an all too familiar blue crystalline tablet. The eyes were closed and it looked almost to be asleep. Minu looked around to see the others all around her, Lilith included.
    “We knew we’d find corpses,” Minu reminded them. The Beezer seemed more curious than anything. Lilith, though, looked… apprehensive. “You okay, dear?”
    “They’re as much my people as you are,” she said. “I guess I was not as prepared to see this as I thought I was.”
    “Do you want to go back?”
    Lilith considered for a second, turned her elfin head to examine the bay. She took a deep breath and let it out. “I am too valuable to this effort,” she said finally, “I will persist.”
    “Good girl.”
    “They do look human,” one of the Beezer said as it reached out to stop the body from spinning. To everyone’s surprise, the touch made it begin to crumble. Everyone moved back as the reaction spread and in seconds the entire body fractured into a cloud of dust.
    “How long to do that?” Minu wondered.
    “A million years or more,” Lilith said, and moved away without another look.
    Away from the slowly dissipating cloud of alien remains to one of the inactive computer control nodes. She held out her hand and a dozen miniature blue crystal bots launched out to land on the node. They moved onto and several disappeared into the structure. Suddenly the computer came to life. Lilith accessed the controls with quick, deft motions and a moment later panels in the walls began to pop open. Inside were various containers that Lilith began to remove and float towards the Beezer.
    “These are supplies for the medical system,” she told them. Please transport them back to the Kaatan where the bots will take them.”
    “We shall,” the Beezer said as one began storing them in a flexible fabric bag attached to his suit. Lilith had already recovered the miniature bots and was swimming out into the hallway. Minu followed and the others did once the goods were secured.
    Lilith led them down a corridor and then transited to a lower deck via an inter-deck tube. Around the corner of another corridor and Lilith was again using the bots to access a control panel. More hatches opened but this time they revealed only more controls. Displays came alive listing materials in script. Having worked with the Kaatan’s tactical controls, Minu recognized the icons.
    “Shipkillers,” she said.
    “Yes,” Lilith nodded, “though not as many as I’d hoped for. They’d obviously been in an extensive battle.”
    Minu looked at the display. Eleven missiles were inventoried. Lilith activated controls and new icons appeared. “The exterior stores access for this launcher is open,” she told the Beezers and instructed them how to remove the weapons.
    “Are they dangerous?” the huge Beezer asked.
    “No, they have to be primed with