Excerpt
PROLOGUE “There! Over there! Just above the tree line. To the right of the tallest peak!” *** “I see it. The poor thing dashes from point to point with no sense of purpose.” *** “Frightened, no doubt. The forest it sees now makes no sense. Once familiar, it has become alien. But ‘poor thing’ or not, we must act quickly to defend ourselves.” *** “We are adequately protected.” *** “You are; I am not; I convert more slowly than you, remember?” *** “Sartor, the creature is but two meters long and one meter high. It is hardly a monster.” *** “What it is capable of doing to us and to our world is beyond monstrous. Set to sterilize.” *** “‘Sterilize.’ Such an innocent term when posed by those on the giving end.” *** “Set to sterilize!” *** “You misunderstand, Sartor. I am not refusing the order, I am merely philosophizing. We are about to terminate an innocent being whose only fault was to stumble uninvited into our home.” *** “Such is the nature of life and circumstance. Were we to do nothing, the error would be ours.” *** “And it is not ours now? Was it not we who left the transporter on too long?” *** “Point conceded. And it is we who must ensure that no Earth creature enter uninvited again.”