sought to chase the rapidly diminishing silver speck. It was flying in the direction of Shull, he thought. Was it one of their own craft? No, it couldn’t be! Shull was a backward continent. They had little knowledge of flying craft; they could not build something like this. Was it true then that it had come from space?
The distant speck was changing direction. It seemed to be curving around, back towards Yukawa.
Control came back on the radio. ‘Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah, the craft is changing direction.’
‘I can see that.’
‘Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah,’ the controller’s voice was low and hollow with emotion, ‘the craft has spoken to us, using the radio. It is coming to Yukawa. It is coming to us, Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah!’
‘Controller, control yourself!’
‘They say they have come from the stars! You are to escort them to Huru base!’
The silver speck was growing.
‘Controller, they are so big! They could knock me from the sky!’
‘They say that they can see you, small though you are. They say they can see all of our aircraft with their ship’s senses!’
‘Controller, what are they?’
‘I don’t know!’
The ship was getting large enough for Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah to make out its shape, to see its smooth lines. It seemed to be built entirely of metal. He looked for its propulsion system, but saw nothing. There were no propellers, nothing to indicate how it moved.
Closer and closer the ship came, and then suddenly it swung around in a wide loop.
‘Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah, did we not ask you to set a course for Huru base?’
The words shook him from his reverie. ‘Affirmative,’ he replied, banking his craft once more. The silver ship moved smoothly alongside him, and Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah picked out more details on it. White flashes marked with strange red symbols. Tiny little pits in the metal skin. And there, at the front, a transparent section: the cockpit.
Who was flying this ship?
Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah opened the throttle to its fullest extent, his craft slid slowly forward along the great silver length, his enhanced eyes peering across at the cockpit.
He saw a figure in there, looking back at him. The figure appeared to be waving to him. He turned his eyes up to their fullest extent, and felt his gyros lurch.
The figure in the ship. It wasn’t a robot.
It was organic.
It was an animal.
