Edges

FIFTH

Your sky survey finds a smudge of white light where none should be. You analyze the spectrum. The pattern of wavelengths identifies the object as another of the alien starships that nearly destroyed you. Its luminosity indicates it has just begun to encroach on the Near Vicinity.

Joy overtakes the ancestral mind. You’ve studied the dead hulk of the first ship, mapped its structure, analyzed its components on a molecular scale. You’ve made your preparations. You need only wait for the beast to hear your beacon. When it does, it will come in to investigate, just as the first alien ship did, but there will be no battle this time. You will lie in wait for it, and take it when it comes.

And you will finally have means to return home.

You watch the progress of the alien beast for several million seconds and then it disappears. The light of its hull cells quenched.

Fear stirs in the ancestral mind. Dread rises. Why? you ask yourself. Why has it gone dark? The first alien ship did not hide itself. Why is this one behaving differently?

The beacon continues to bleat its signal. You do not modify it or shut it off. That would be an admission of your presence here while the mindless repetition, even in the face of threat, will give the appearance of a distress beacon from a nonsentient ship.

That is your hope, anyway.

You resume your sky survey, aware that the unseen alien ship is likely modifying its course and speed. It could reappear at any time in an unexpected location.

When it finally does reappear, you realize your existence has become as precarious as it ever has been.

There are now two ships.

You wonder if this is a war you can win.