Six Blind Men & an Alien by Mike Resnick Page B

she can."
        "Shall we find one today?"
        "Why not?" agreed Nibolante.
        He waited for the children to finish eating, then led them down past the tree line. They spent almost two hours looking for a lizard without finding one.
        "Don’t worry," Nibolante told his daughter. "If we don’t find one soon, we’ll try again tomorrow."
        "Maybe we should split up and cover more ground," suggested Sallassine.
        "I don’t want you out of my sight," said Nibolante. "There are many predators on the mountain."
        "They don’t come this high."
        "They do if they’re hungry enough. Just stay within sight."
        "All right," said Sallassine, heading off to his left.
        Nibolante took his daughter by the hand and began looking for a lizard again, checking behind every rock and under every bush. Every few minutes he turned and made sure that Sallassine was still in his line of sight.
        They’d been looking almost half an hour when he heard the scream. He turned and saw something small and black tearing at his son’s torso with sharp claws, biting him on the neck and shoulder. He raced toward them, screaming as he ran, and the creature scurried off at a speed he knew he couldn’t match. Nor did he want to. Sallassine was torn and bleeding, barely conscious.
        "Don’t move, don’t try to talk," said Nibolante. "I have nothing with me that can stop the bleeding. We have medications in the ship. I’ll carry you there."
        "I was looking out for lions and leopards," whispered Sallassine.
        "Be quiet. Don’t waste your strength."
        "It was a honey badger," said Sallassine just before he lost consciousness.
        Nibolante carried Sallassine as fast as he dared, conscious of the fact that Cheenapo couldn’t keep up with him if he increased his speed. By the time he reached the ship his son’s breathing was barely discernable.
        "Marbovi!" he yelled as he reached the hatch. "There’s been an accident! Bring the medication kit!"
        She was waiting for him when he entered and laid Sallassine on a counter. She didn’t ask what had happened. She just took one look at the child and turned to Nibolante.
        "He’s dead," she said dully.
        "He moaned just a minute ago."
        "He’s dead ," she repeated. "He’s not breathing."
        Nibolante tried to discern a heartbeat, and couldn’t.
        "Will he stay dead?" asked Cheenapo.
        "Yes," said Marbovi. "He is just the first. This planet will kill us all."
        "He never saw it," said Nibolante miserably. "It was such a small animal."
        "And you never saw it," said Marbovi. "The difference is that you were supposed to see it." She glared at him. "You and this planet have killed my child. Go outside until dinnertime. I don’t want to look at you."
        He was about to say something, thought better of it, and walked out onto the glacier, riddled with guilt. The moment he did so the hatch slammed shut behind him.
        "Why bother?" he muttered. "I’m not coming right back in."
        Even as the words left his mouth, he realized that she had activated the engine. He raced to the hatch, pounding on it.
        "What are you doing?" he yelled.
        Of course there was no answer. A moment later the ship took off, and somehow he knew it would never land again on Earth.
        He looked across the glacier. His weapons were on the ship. So was any protection against the elements, should it get any colder. So were all the medications.
        He considered walking down the mountain into one of the villages, but he was not prepared to die just yet, and his observations of the human race’s goodwill were not encouraging. Not that it would make any difference. He was alone on an alien world, the last of his species on this particular colony.
        Still, he wasn’t prepared to die just yet, if only because Marbovi had doubtless