Species

Visions flowed into his mind, it was something he did not understand and could only feel.

It took several long minutes for that to pass.

"What in the hell was that?" He finally managed.

"I felt it too." Miriam said in a quiet voice.

"Something? Something in my head?" Stan sat up.

"That ship. It came from that...ship. There are beings on board." Miriam said. Her face was still contorted.

"They are still...they are doing...They are not like....us." She passed out.

+++

Za knew when the tiny ship arrived again. He could not cloak the ship they were in, it would take a very large amount of energy and they just could not spare it.

Stan stared out the small window at the ship. It was the strangest looking thing he had ever seen, it looked something like a large black Beetle.

"We are from the One." Za thought to them. If he could get them to turn on the negative energy field, the ships would settle into the bubble and they could be taken somehwere.

"What?" Stan said to Miriam.

"That wasn't me, I heard it too. It came from...them." She said.

"Aliens? They read minds?" Stan said.

"No, I think we can read theirs but they can't read ours, not very well. Something is interfering."

Stan reached for the radio.

"That's a waste of time, Stan." Miriam told him.

Stan felt it also at about that moment.

"They can speak to us with thought, but when they do that, they can't hide any of their thoughts." Miriam's voice took on a sudden trace of fear.

"What is that? It's like they don't want us to know but....?" Stan concentrated.

"My God! There are here to...they...? My God!" Stan exclaimed.

"They are asking for our help." Miriam had her eyes squeezed tightly shut, also concentrating.

"OK. What do we do?" Stan was getting bits and pieces of it, they both were.

Miriam's eyes flashed open, she had a look of shock on her face.

"Stan? They are here to...to..harvest."

"What? Harvest what?"

"Us." Her voice was trembling.

+++

Za picked up on the female's thoughts, she got much more than he had intended. It was fear, and Za knew very well that fear in this species meant they were very likely to strike.

He looked over at Doe. Getting up, Za reached over and grasped the dial with one claw, rolled back the side of the ship for a visual.

The small ship sat there motionless, just a few miles away.

"She knows." Za thought. He turned to Doe. She was so beautiful, he had spotted that way back when she was assigned to the harvest ship.

Their blending the day before had been beautiful, the first blending with a female Za had ever known.

Forbidden by the one, the carrier of the eggs.

Doe looked at Za. She was not blocking him at all, once again. They both knew.

"God! It's starting again! I can't...I just..." Miriam began to shake, her body out of control.

"Load one and two!" Stan ordered. Miriam didn't respond.

"Miriam! Load one and two! My God, this is....?" She forced her hand out, turned the dials. Then she passed out.

Stan closed his eyes, forced his thoughts to fishing back home on Earth. The stream was so clear, so beautiful. The waves of pleasure wafted over him, his mind spun.

Aliens, fornicating, broadcasting it in all directions. So powerful it seemed to bend the mind out of control.

In his mind's eye, in the background he could see them, the tangle of bony limbs, their bodies blending obscenely.

There was another vision, their claws biting into the protein, feeding bits of it to the one.

Harvesters. Tearing living flesh from living human beings.

Stan touched the button. His hand came back, moved to the other button, pressed.

There was a flash, intense and then nothing.

He passed out.

He never saw the second nuke hit the carrier.

+++

Miriam had control of the ship when Stan came to.

"What happened?" He asked her.

"We are all right." She told him. She turned her head, looked at Stan. His face was white.

So was hers.

"We are all right." She said again.

Stan's mind cleared, he remembered what he had envisioned.

"All right?"

He was not so sure of that.