Starport: Zeta Prime (Alt) by S.A. Jackson Page A

compatibility with alien food long
forgotten. Although she had done nothing but sit and think all day,
she found she was hungry, and enjoyed the food as much as she had
that morning, paying no attention to the female’s warnings. She
would eat tonight and then sleep. Tomorrow she would deal with when
it arrived.
    By the human prison bunker, Faron and his brother observed the men patrolling around
the invisible fence protecting it.
    “ They don’t seem to
have any undue concern.” Camil leaned in to speak to
him.
    Faron gave a short
nod, the men acting as guards walking without any haste or urgency,
exactly as he had thought. After a while of watching, noting
nothing of any significance, Faron motioned to his brother that
they should move on. He wanted to check one more place, and then
his mind would be set at ease.
    The whole area felt nostalgic to him now, heading to the
site where he had first noticed the woman. As they swung through
the trees, a familiar journey to them both, Faron suddenly froze atop a branch and held out
his hand to stop Camil.
    “ Slow down. Something feels wrong,” he whispered. He was not
sure what it was, but an overwhelming atmosphere of despair had
crept up to him. Moving much more slowly, as the massive clearing
that had become the invaders workplace came into view, Faron saw
why.
    The giant,
circular construction that had been erected over the years that the
colony had been on Zeta Prime was now a gigantic pile of broken
boulders, dust and rubble. He had no idea what this meant or what
it was–but he knew enough to see and feel that the ruin before him
was not an intentional design. He had witnessed the careful work
that had gone into building this strange-shaped object, sure that
they would not have knocked it down intentionally.
    “ This looks bad, ”
Faron commented. Camil, looking as stunned as he, had to agree. The
scene ahead of them was full of the small-eyed beings, some simply
staring at the wreckage, touching each other in comfort, others
trying to make headway into clearing the stones with large, noisy
machinery, while some paraded–appearing to be on the lookout. Faron
saw a male who he had seen spend a lot of time with the female now
residing in his village. He had obviously taken her place as
leader–pointing and guiding others to places around the
site.
    Faron tapped his
brother on the shoulder. Time to go.
    “ They have enough going on here– too much for them to be concerned over a missing
female. Let’s return. I have news for the tribe.”
    Just as she
entered the fuzzy state between dreaming and wakefulness, Jillian
became aware of much movement from up in the village. Mentally
exhausted from the worry and theorizing over the last two days, she
didn’t have the energy to pull herself from the oncoming slumber to
take a look and see if she could access the noise. It was far
enough away for her not to feel in imminent danger, and as she rode
the final wave to unconsciousness, she could have sworn that she
heard cheers erupting from the main building.
    As the men
returned, passing fresh carcasses of fat mammals to some of the
women to start preparing, there was a great buzz surrounding the
tribe in the moonlit cool of the late evening. Faron waited
patiently in the communal hall while the candles and fires were
lit, and his men greeted their loved ones.
    The light from the flames reflecting off of the scarlet
floor made the space feel womb-like and safe. As his people sat
down at the tables, Faron
made his way to the head of the room to inform his people of his
plans.
    “ It has been witnessed
that we are in no danger from the invaders.” His voice commanded
quiet from the crowd. The men who had been out with him nodded in
affirmation of his statement.
    “ You do not need to be
concerned about the safety of our village, or the trustworthiness
of the female I have taken. They seem to be unconcerned with her
location.” He omitted the fact that he had seen great