Journey Beyond the Sea - 17. Chapter 17

As the Raptor touched down on the snow, they could see a wall before them, one of a gray material that could have been steel, or just about anything else. It was taller then the Raptor by far, and certainly had to be the rim of the alien vessel. Jem had to marvel at it, had to remind himself that this craft had been built by an alien civilization beyond the limits of human expansion, and long before he was born. It had crossed uncounted light years to be here, following the twisting lines of a complex interstitial gravitational presence that bound the stars together, and lines as yet untraveled by the explorers of Old Earth. The very idea of it amazed and thrilled Jem. This meeting would be a first!

Snow swirled around the landscape, blown by a constant wind, and the sky looked gray and unnaturally highlighted. That was due to the amplification of the ambient light by the Raptor's viewing gear, a process that their face masks could continue once they were outside the ship.

Mister Kim had put them down perhaps a hundred meters from the edge of the hull, but Bzup had urged him to move the Raptor closer, and after a discussion, they had closed the distance to twenty meters. Here in the lee of the gigantic hull the snow was more patient, less apt to swirl back upwards the moment it touched the ground. Mister Kim touched something among his instruments, and the section of hull before them was illuminated with with a bright white glow.

The hull was featureless, an absolutely blank wall.

"I don't see a way in here," Mikulsa said, frowning. He turned back to look at Bzup, and then Jem. "He did say to land anywhere along the edge, right?"

"Yes." Jem looked at the little alien. "Bzup? How go in?"

But instead of answering, Bzup simply raised a hand and pointed at the gray wall. "Jem wait."

All eyes turned back, and even as they did, Jem saw a lightening of the gray material the hull was made of. A dot of soft light appeared down by the ground, and quickly started moving, drawing a large circle of light, which extended from the ground to a height above their heads, and finally came back around to return to where it had started. At that moment a dimple appeared in the center of the circle, and the hull simply parted and drew back from that dimple to the ring of light everywhere around, leaving them faced with what looked like a tunnel, lit from within.

"Knock, knock," Til Majors said softly. "I love how they do doors!"

"Go," Bzup said now, waving at the entry.

"Are we all going?" Ana asked.

"I'm not," Mister Kim announced. "The Raptor is my responsibility."

"Just like Vespris kept the master at home," Mister Sharples offered. "We understand completely, Mister Kim."

Mikulsa turned to look at Bzup. "Bzup? If we go in...can we get back out whenever we want?"

The alien looked up at Jem a moment before answering. "Yez. Come out eazy."

Jem nodded. "Seems clear enough."

The bearded man scowled briefly, but then shook his head. "I just hope I know what I'm doing."

That brought a mix of reactions from all quarters.

"You feel a worry about this?" Jem asked. "I thought you'd come to trust Bzup?"

Mikulsa's face clearly demonstrated the war within. "Jem, I'm going against a lifetime of experience here, that is clearly telling me we don't know enough yet to simply walk inside an alien spacecraft!"

"And yet, Bzup clearly made the decision to come directly into our midst," Nita pointed out carefully. "He felt that getting to know us was more important than anything else. It seems to me he wants our peoples to be friends, not enemies."

Mikulsa nodded at her. "You think I don't feel that, too? But it's a gut feeling, a...a...whim. We have a lot of assumptions, and a lot of observations, and a lot of opinions. But very few actual facts!"

"It's the leap of faith we talked about earlier," Mister Sharples reminded. "Sometimes, feelings are all you have to go on."

Mikulsa made an annoyed sound at that, and turned to Jem. "Do you think this is the right course of action?"

Jem didn't hesitate at all. "Yes. I trust Bzup."

Til sighed at that. "I have to say, that even if they did us in the moment we got inside, we are simply seven human beings out of nearly three-hundred thousand here on Benteen. It would hardly change anything, in my book."

"They're not going to do that," Nico said, shaking his head emphatically.

"I don't happen to think so, either," Til returned, smiling.

Mikulsa squeezed his eyes shut a moment. "I knew from the moment I met Bzup that I would be unable to judge this situation by the experiences of my own life." He opened his eyes. "This is too rare an event. Too special an event. First contact."

"We all feel that way," Jem said quietly. "We have all had to decide whether to trust Bzup, or not. Doesn't it count with you that all of us have decided he is a friend, and not an enemy?"

The bearded man nodded slowly. "Of course it does. And I have been doing my best to adapt."

"And you're doing it so well, too!" Til said, smiling.

Mikulsa grunted, and frowned again...but then he laughed, and Jem could see the decision the man had made. "Okay. Too late for cold feet now. Let's go."

Jem quickly held up a hand. "Um...we're all wearing sidearms. Is that a good idea?"

Mikulsa's eyes narrowed, and he placed a hand on his own weapon. "Now, wait a minute--"

Nico bent down to look into Bzup's eye. He patted the holster at his belt. "Bzup? Take off, or leave on?"

The answer came quickly. "Take off or leave on. All good."

Mikulsa stood up. "At least that makes me feel better. Shall we?"

They donned their face masks, and Mister Kim let them out of the Raptor. They instinctively crowded around Bzup to shield him from the wind as they crossed to the tunnel in the side of the alien ship, where the group paused as if by common consent to examine the scene before them. The tunnel was straight, and went back some ways into the hull of the vessel, and was lit by a glow from no particular source. Jem squinted down the length, and thought he could see a door or other obstruction in the distance.

"In," Bzup said, his voice now amplified to be heard above the wind. And with that, he pushed up gently against Jem and Mikulsa, as if to accent his request.

Mikulsa wasted no time in stepping forward. "Let's go. I imagine our friend here is getting cold."

They entered the tunnel, and Jem was not surprised to see the doorway seal behind them with a reversal of the fascinating circular swirl of light. The wind was cut off, and the snow that had blown in upon the deck beneath their feet began to immediately vanish. Bzup turned to gaze up at Jem. "Mask off."

Their face masks warmed and filtered the air they breathed, but could not supply them with a breathable atmosphere if there was a lack of one. The air inside the alien vessel seemed as fresh and clean as what they had been breathing outside. Jem raised a hand and pulled off his mask.

The air of the tunnel seemed warm after the cold outside air they had just left, and was absolutely odorless. It felt good against his skin. The others only briefly looked at him before removing their own masks, too.

"Come," Bzup told them, and started forward.

The soles of their boots played a dulcet tune against the deck as they moved, nothing like the sort of clatter that Jem figured a group this size should make. And their footfalls did not reverberate within the confines of the tunnel, either, another sign that the sounds were somehow actively muted.

"I like this," Mister Sharples said as they walked along. "Shows a decent feel for aesthetics."

"And they don't even wear shoes, themselves," Til pointed out.

"I suspect they are much more aware of unnecessary noise then we might be," Nita suggested. "Their transducers are certainly more effective than our own ears."

"I think you're right," Ana agreed. "If I were one of these people, I would certainly try to alleviate any extraneous sounds that might interfere with effective communications and movement."

They continued along the tunnel, until Jem could clearly see the obstruction ahead. It looked like a bulkhead, without any sign of way beyond. Surely this wasn't all there was?

But even as they neared the obstruction a blob of light appeared at the bottom, traveled around a full circle, and the bulkhead pulled back to reveal what was beyond...

Jem stopped in his tracks, as did everyone. On the other side of the doorway was a crowd of the aliens.

"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzup!"

"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzup!"

"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzup!"

"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzup!"

A small chorus of the calls burst forth from the group ahead, and Jem flinched at the suddenness of it. But then he was grinning in delight, unable not to sense the welcome among the group of aliens now moving through the doorway with their arms up, as if to greet a long-missing friend. Bzup shuffled forward to meet them, and soon was being patted fondly by at least a dozen of the aliens as they crowded around him, all making hums and buzzes of pleasure.

"They all have arms like Bzup," Nita whispered loudly. "And each has an eye!"

It was true. The new crowd ahead looked exactly like their own Bzup!

"By the denizens!" Mister Sharples said quickly. "How will we tell them apart?"

But Jem had his eyes on Bzup, seeing clearly the affection of the reunion. This was a grand welcome, if ever he had seen one!

Nico leaned against Jem to whisper to him. "That's really sweet! They're happy to see him!"

Jem just nodded, enthralled by the welcome Bzup was receiving.

But then he became aware of movement to the rear of the crowd of aliens, and three slightly taller creatures gently pushed their way through the crowd.

"Azzzzzzzzzzzim!" the leader announced, and those aliens around Bzup went quiet.

"Azzzzzzzzzzzim!"

"Azzzzzzzzzzzim!"

The other two of the new aliens also announced the same thing! These three were like the one that Bzup had met with on the deck of Vespris, taller, slightly stockier, and with the thicker and more ropy tentacles in place of the slender arms Bzup had created. And these aliens also had the dark dots spaced all over their bodies, that looked like tinier versions of the large transducer disk that served as the Bzup's ears and voice.

"Amazing," Nita said softly. "They're identical!"

Jem had kept his eye on their own Bzup, and now that alien turned to face the first of the taller newcomers. "Azzzzzzzzzzzim. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzup."

The taller alien seemed to slightly compress as he faced Bzup. "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzup. Azzzzzzzzzzzim. "

And there followed a repeat of the amazing conversation they had witnessed on the deck of Vespris, incorporating the most astonishing sequences of sounds that Jem had ever heard. They crawled up and down the spectrum, reverberated, went flat, elevated, went low, twisted into incredible convolutions interspersed with pauses at one or two single frequencies, and then abruptly changed to something else entirely new. The sounds were delicate and robust in turn, yet somehow formed a stream of sound that, even to Jem's ears, seemed to have some sense of purpose to it. And this was just the part he could hear!

The air vibrated with the power of it, and Jem found himself shaking his head in amazement at the incredible energy of the conversation. The sounds went on for several minutes, too intense for the humans to talk over, even had they not felt it impolite to do so. This was Bzup's conversation, not to be intruded upon by outsiders.

Jem and Nico grinned at each other, and Nita, her ears covered with her hands, was laughing in delight. Even Mukulsa seemed enchanted by the scene before them.

And then it simply ended, and the two aliens stood facing each other in silence.

"They didn't sound exactly the same," Nita pointed out immediately, in a whisper at Jem's ear. "Their voices, I mean. Maybe because this Azim has many small transducers, while Bzup has just the one large one."

"Look there!" Ana said then, indicating Azim. "These tall fellows each have an eye, too!"

It was true. Jem peered closely, and was able to make out a single eye, smaller than Bzup's own eye, but located roughly in the same position on the taller alien, and almost lost among the many same-sized transducers. His gaze shifted to the other two taller aliens then, and he saw that they were similarly equipped.

"That's new since the last time we saw this fellow," Ana finished quickly. "I'm sure the one that met Bzup on Vespris didn't have an eye."

"These other ones that came with Azim - they all look just like him," Nita added, just as quickly.

"And the others all look like Bzup!" Nico responded. "There's two distinct groups of them!"

Jem didn't answer, though, as Bzup turned back to him then. "Jem."

"Bzup." Jem answered, smiling at the alien. "See you have some friends there."

Bzup moved closer to the humans, then turned back to Azim, and motioned the alien to come closer. Jem felt the single eye of the taller alien examine him a moment, could discern the intensity of that stare; but then Azim shuffled slowly forward to stand beside Bzup. "Azzzzzzzzzzzim," Bzup said then. "Jem."

The taller alien's eye locked on Jem's own. "Jem." The voice was melodic, the result, perhaps, of many transducers with slightly different capabilities?

Jem smiled, and nodded. "Azim. I'm very pleased to meet you."

Azim was led down the line of humans, and introduced to each one. Names were traded, impressions gathered, and opinions formed, on both sides. Jem watched, entranced, as Azim's tense stance slowly moderated as he moved down the line of visitors. The alien seemed unconcerned by the human's abbreviated use of his name, just as Bzup had quickly recognized that it was easier on the human's vocal equipment to shorten his own name. But it seemed to Jem as if all the humans responding to him put Azim at ease.

Finally, everyone had been introduced, and Bzup and Azim returned to where Jem stood. Bzup turned then, and waved a small hand at the others like himself. "Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzup. Jem."

The aliens replied en masse, a chorus of voices that shook the very air itself. "Jem!"

Jem was amazed at the volume of the greeting, but knew what was required of him. He smiled at the massed aliens, took a deep breath, and called out, "Bzup!"

Azim turned to his two compatriots, and also introduced Jem, and Jem responded in kind. The two aliens walked slowly down the line of humans again, introducing each to the crowd, and names were traded. Jem understood then that they had been on the right track in their thoughts before; clearly, introductions were very important in Bzup's culture. He now wondered if that had been some of the cause of Azim's anxiety? What happened if one of Bzup's people was introduced to someone, who failed to introduce himself in return? Was it an insult? A world-ending crisis? Worse?

The question of the uniformity of these new aliens now bothered Jem, though. After the introductions had been made, and Bzup had returned to stand beside Jem, he bent down to look at the alien. "Bzup?" Jem indicated those that resembled Bzup with a hand. "All like Bzup?"

"All Bzup," the little alien corrected. "All one."

"And Azim?"

"All Azim. All one."

"I wonder now if Bzup is a name at all?" Nita mused aloud. "It may be a much more complicated designation than we realized."

"I'd say it is, to them," Ana agreed. "We only hear a small part of what they say. When they are speaking together, much more may be happening."

Jem nodded, and smiled down at Bzup."You didn't have arms when you came aboard Vespris. Or an eye. How come all Bzup have them now? And Azim?"

The alien gazed up at Jem with what was certainly a look of patience. "Bzup tell Azim all on Vespris. Bzup and Azim here learn."

Nita blew out an amazed breath, and turned to Ana. "Do you think he means that...he somehow relayed even his physical characteristics to Azim in that conversation aboard Vespris?"

The older woman's eyes widened at the idea. "That would be astounding!"

Mister Sharples grunted. "That was a long talk those two had, and across an amazing spectrum of frequencies. Supposing that different information was passed in different streams of sound...they could have exchanged quite a lot of data."

Nita shook her head. "I...the idea of them having multiple conversations at once is unprecedented."

Mikulsa shook his head. "You mean these exchanges between them could be several conversations going at a single time? How would they keep track of them?"

"That four-lobed brain," Nita mused. "And their tremendous memory. If nothing else, those streams could be retained and sorted later, if they couldn't follow them all at one time."

Bzup reached up to place a hand on Jem's sleeve, but his eye moved to take in all the humans. "Come. Learn."

Jem turned to look at Nico, who smiled encouragingly. "That sounds productive."

Jem nodded, and let his gaze move on to the others. Each of them displayed the intense curiosity that Jem himself was feeling, mixed with varying degrees of uncertainty and caution. Do I look like that? Jem wondered briefly.

"Mister Mikulsa?" he said. "This is your show."

The bearded man squinted at him a moment, and then smiled. "Actually, I think it's yours." He nodded then. "But if you're asking me what to do...I'd say follow your instincts here. They seem to have proven themselves to be pretty reliable."

Jem blinked in surprise at that, and turned to Til Majors. That man simply smiled, and looked around the tunnel once, and then back to Jem. "We're here. Be a shame to miss the sights."

Jem nodded. "Nita?"

The biologist smiled. "You lead, I'll follow." Ana simply smiled at that, and nodded.

"Let's go, Jem-lad," Mister Sharples said then. "I trust Bzup. Don't you?"

Nico moved closer and took Jem by the hand. "Let's go."

Jem nodded, and turned to Bzup. "We're ready."

The alien's eye displayed something that Jem thought could only be satisfaction. "Come."

Bzup turned back towards the others of his kind, who simply parted to allow them to pass through, and then followed at a respectable distance. Jem could hear them talking softly to each other as they all walked along, and wondered what the aliens were saying. Incredibly, their hushed tones suggested a pivotal moment had come, and Jem wondered what lay ahead of them. Whatever it was, he was determined now to make the best of it.

They progressed down the tunnel until they arrived at a circular junction, off of which other tunnels could be seen. Bzup turned right and led them into the second tunnel off the circle, which quickly deposited them at another blank bulkhead. Bzup raised a hand, and the circular light show repeated and produced a new opening. Bzup led them inside, and Jem gasped at what he saw.

Above them seemed to be an immense dome, darkened and full of stars. It was the night sky as Jem had never seen it before. Even the holos he had seen of night skies paled in comparison, for this sky burned with the light of living stars.

"Incredible," Mister Sharples breathed, craning his neck to look upwards.

"Stunning," Til agreed. "I can't claim to be an expert, but this looks like maps I've seen of the local star group around Benteen's sun."

"Yez," Bzup agreed. He continued to lead them to the center of the large room, where a short, semi-circular column glowed softly, standing all by itself. It was low to the deck, scarcely higher than Jem's thighs. Bzup stepped into it, and it accepted his form precisely, obviously made just for that task, leaving his arms, his eye, and his transducer just above the rim.

Bzup raised a hand, and the view above turned. Another star came into view, much larger, much closer than all the others, yellow-white in color, pulsing with nuclear life.

"Benteen ztar," Bzup announced.

"We call it Alpha Zarius," Mister Sharples informed. "It's never come up before now."

The view revolved back the other way, until only the distant stars were in view. And then that view faded, and the room brightened.

They seemed to be standing on the ice now, with the ocean before them. The sky was streaked with white and gray, and the seas seemed fairly calm. Both Bzup's kind and Azim's kind were present, moving among what looked like containers, as well as what could only be technical constructs of some sort, totally alien in nature. A large device stood near the edge of the ice, and from it extended many tendrils, which snaked towards the edge of the ice pack and disappeared into the sea.

They could hear the many hoots and songs of conversation, as those busy upon the ice performed their tasks. Whatever they were doing, it looked both industrious and orderly, and was proceeding with a noticeable sense of purpose.

The view shifted, and something else came into view. It was one of the black disks, parked now on the ice on a half-dozen stubby legs. There was an opening in its side, and a ramp led down to the ice. Behind this disc another was parked, and cables of some sort trailed from inside the craft to a large device sitting outside, that was featureless save for a row of what looked like dish antennas across the top. They were pointed at the sea.

"I have a premonition about this," Til said softly.

Jem felt a crawling sensation at his back as he, too, had an inkling of what was coming.

"Jem--?" Nico began, in a stunned whisper.

But Jem held up a hand. "Wait. Let's see."

The aliens continued to bustle about, seemingly intent on their mysterious objective. Jem noted that none of the aliens had eyes, though many did have arms like Bzup had produced. Yet they seemed just as sure of themselves, of their motions and their duties, as any sighted human Jem had ever seen. That the aliens were utterly focused on what they were doing seemed just as clear.

And so they were caught unawares when something suddenly appeared on the sea off the ice, having come out from behind a massive section that had calved from the pack and then rolled upright on the waves.

Several of the humans gasped.

"That's--" Nita began.

Mister Sharples grunted. "Yes! It's Chregar!'"

The activity on the ice suddenly froze, and for a moment the aliens turned as one to inspect the orxhunter. Jem could see humans on the deck of the vessel, some now turned to gaze their way. It was a moment that would surely go down in history some day, when the accounts of these times were written.

Azim - it was simply an Azim, because Jem could not tell them apart - suddenly raised its tentacles to point at the human vessel, and unleashed a furious tumult of sound that seemed to reverberate across the ice.

Something happened to the view then. It spun almost dizzyingly, and then raced across the ice and plunged into the sea. For a moment the room darkened, and then brightened again as the view came back to the surface, the hull of the orxhunter right before it. Jem could see the enormous tentacles of an orx as they reached upward over the rail, and realized now that his view was through that immense animal's eyes!

The orx caught hold of something and hoisted itself up the side of the ship and over the rail. Jem could see the deck then, and realized that another orx had pulled itself up alongside the one providing his view. At that moment one of the hunting heads before them went off, and the orx next to Jem's was peppered with shockers. The orx convulsed, and fell to the deck.

Jem could see orx hauling themselves up on the other side of the ship, too, and the hunting heads there going off in response. Another orx pulled itself up onto the deck next to Jem's beast, and immediately a tentacle reached out to swat at the shotsman's console. The man behind it ducked, and in that moment Jem's orx pulled itself forward, past the hunting heads, and around the shotsman's console. The man there danced backwards, pulling his sidearm and aiming it at Jem's viewpoint orx...but then the gun swerved rapidly to the side to take aim at the second orx. A stream of pinpoint explosive munitions erupted forth, and the other orx made a terrible, high-pitched sound, and reared backwards.

Jem's orx thrust a tenatacle forward, the sharp lance at the end going right for the man's chest. At the last second the shotsman simply dropped with amazing speed underneath the thrust, pivoted in a squat and launched himself in another direction, and ran for his life.

Jem's orx grabbed the console and pulled itself after the fleeing shotsman, just as another orx pulled itself onto the deck on the other side of the running human. The man swerved, realized he had nowhere to run, and turned to one of the lifeboat capsules in its holder and dived inside the small craft. Jem's orx pursued, and a stream of explosive rounds hit the deck nearby. Jem's orx raised a tentacle, and thrust the lance into the opening of the lifeboat capsule, withdrawing it and thrusting multiple times while the explosive rounds continued to come forth. But suddenly there was a scream, and the shooting stopped.

The orx reared upwards, placing more and more weight on the lifeboat's cradle. It was made of ironwood, but the cinches on the davits that held the lifeboat in place were simple steel. On the last movement, two things occurred: the tentacle pulled out of the lifeboat with the shotsman impaled upon the lance, and the lifeboat cinches snapped, dumping the lifeboat overboard into the sea.

The orx raised its tentacle, the shotsman's impaled body limp upon the bony lance...

All motion on the deck of Chregar seemed to freeze. Jem's orx looked around, and Jem could see a number of the aliens like Bzup on deck now. They had obviously walked up the side of the ship. For a moment the very air seemed to tingle with the violence that had been unleashed here...and then a strange and haunting sound arose, and seemed to pervade the deck area now. It throbbed and it pulsed, almost like the sound of a beating heart, and Jem felt a most curious languor overcome him. The urge to go to sleep mounted, until the sound suddenly died, while the view continued on around him.

Several Bzups came to Jem's orx, and the tentacle descended, lowering the impaled shotsman to the deck. The Bzups crowded around him, gently worked the lance out of him, lifted the man, and moved him rapidly to the rail of the ship. There awaited a conveyance of some kind, another disc, but a small one with an open top. The shotsman was placed inside, and two of the Bzups got in with him. And then the craft raced away, back towards the black discs parked on shore.

"Master Terpin's guess was correct!" Nita said then. "It was a chance encounter that went bad!"

"Awful," Ana breathed then. "It certainly looked like that man was killed!"

"He was alive when we found Chregar," Mikulsa said quietly. "Asleep in his bunk, just like the rest."

"They fixed him," Nita said, her voice filled with wonder. "Healed him, or repaired him, whichever you choose. They used their fantastic ability with creating life to undo what the orx had done."

"No kill," Bzup said then, and even Jem could detect the distaste in the alien's voice. "Wrong."

Jem shook his head at the alien. "Why, Bzup?"

"Jem? Why?"

"Yes. Why...all of this? What were the orx doing with the riders on them?"

"Gather...food, Jem."

"We had that right, anyway!" Mister Sharples exclaimed.

Nico shook his head. "But you've never done this before now. You never got your food this way, not with orx."

In the soft light from the console, Jem could see Bzup's eye watching them. "Need much food, fazt. Raw? Raw. Make own food."

Ana squinted at Nita. "Raw? As in, raw tissue?"

"Maybe." The girl gazed speculatively at Bzup now. "The orx can regurgitate a lot of what they eat. I wouldn't find it acceptable as food...but maybe that's not what Bzup's people wanted it for. Maybe, with their abilities, they were simply using the catch as raw material to make the sort of food they wanted."

Bzup waved a small hand at them. "Yez. Need much food."

"Why?" Jem asked again. "Why so much more than before?"

Bzup moved at the console, and the view of Chregar vanished. The dome above them darkened, and the stars returned. Only this time, the view was different. The stars were now linked by red lines, which twisted and turned in a most devious manner as they ran from star to star.

"Oh," Mister Sharples said softly. "Righoff lines!"

Bzup raised a hand and pointed off to one side, well away from the overhead. Jem turned with the others, and saw a white dot on one of the red lines.

"Zhip come," Bzup said then.

"By the denizens of the deep!" Mister Sharples exclaimed. "Someone is coming here!"

"That explains it," Mukulsa said, staring at the dot overhead. His voice sounded tight now, worried. "That's why they need all the food. Their people are coming, and they'll need to feed them!"

Jem frowned. "It's just one ship."

Mikulsa glared at him. "That's all it will take. We're about to be invaded!"

"No," Bzup said then. His voice sounded amplified now, more commanding, more insistent. All eyes turned to him. "Azim protect Bzup," the alien said. "Gather raw food, fazt. One-zhip leave Benteen. Need much food to go."

"You're leaving?" Jem asked, a feeling of dread overcoming him. "But...why?"

The alien's eye seemed filled with sadness. "Bzup not want leave Benteen. Azim feel must go." Bzup pointed at the dot of the starship overhead. "Zhip come, not zhip Bzup-kind. Zhip come, zhip Jem-kind!"

Jem gasped along with the others, his eyes focusing on the glowing dot above them. The ship coming to Benteen - was from Earth!