A little late but still on Friday. Enjoy.

Saving A Life

Emil and Teresa Gerhardt huddled with several hundred other humans in the camp the Aliens had put them in. Their children, fourteen- year-old Mikail and ten-year-old Ruth sat between them.

“Mom, what are they going to do with us?” Mikail whispered.

Teresa didn’t know. Their colony, founded three generations ago, was emptied yesterday by the aliens, the Krtit, who had let them settle here. The aliens, pink shaded, six legged hippopotamus looking creatures with eyes like crabs and circular mouths like sea anenomes with razor sharp looking teeth herded them through the Alien city they called Rylab, and into this fenced area yesterday. “I don’t know, son.” She looked at her husband.

He shrugged. “If we knew why they rounded us up, we might make a guess.” He was worried. The Mayor was at the gate, talking to one of the aliens. Hopefully trying to get them all released.

A bell sounded and they stood up. The Krtit had prepared food and the humans lined up to get it. It wasn’t much, two dried bars each and a bottle of water. One bar was savory and hard to chew. The other was sweet and soft. Both of them made the people thirsty. The line at the tap to get water was always long.

#

Bice was at home in his pool. The Krtit were ocean creatures in their distant past. They were land creatures now, but still, a pool was an essential part of any Krtit home. He manipulated the controls of the communication device on the wall with the first pair of legs which had twenty fingers on each. He watched the news of the human round up as he floated in the pool. “It’s not right,” he told his spouse when she joined him. “We told them they could live here.”

“You know what happened. The government changed and the groups that didn’t want them here began to control the government. There’s been increasing anti-human sentiment for the last few years.”

“They want to exterminate them. It’s not right. Why don’t we just have them get on their ships and move away?”

She shrugged, a motion that caused her entire body to wave in the salty water. “What can we do, Bice? We’re just one couple.”

“Something has to be done. Look, they have young in the camp too.” He pointed at the screen.

She nodded. “I agree, but what?”

The next day he called the government office that was responsible for the round up. “I’d like to pay for some of the humans to leave Ytic. Can you arrange that?”

The official was stunned to silence. When he recovered he said, “I don’t know. It’s not been offered as an option. I’ll contact you when I know more.”

A few hours later Bice was called back.

“It seems that if a toll is paid, you can choose your humans and send them away.”

Bice worked out the details and closed the connection.

He began calling friends. This was going to take a lot of credit.

#

A week later, Emil, Teresa and their children were called to the gate along with four other families. Emil was nervous. Other families had been called to the gate in the last three days. The Krtit didn’t say what was going on and the other families had not returned. Rumors flew around the camp; humans were being killed, the families were being released, no one really knew.

Outside the gate they were loaded into a transport and Emil could see they were heading to the spaceport. “Maybe they’re releasing us,” he said.

Teresa’s face was grim. Two of the other wives were weeping. “I hope so.”

At the spaceport they were lined up beside the transport and handed plastic cards. An officious looking Krtit told them, “These are your identicards. They contain your personal history and one thousand credits each.” The Krtit, pointed at a space liner on the tarmac. “You have each received permission to leave Ytic. You are never to return.”

“But I had more than a thousand credits in the bank! I have a business, property” cried out one man.

The Krtit stared at him. “You may now board the ship.”

“But what about…,” another man began to say.

The Krtit cut him off. “Enough. You can leave. You’re passage has been paid.”

Emil put his hand on his wife’s back and urged her toward the ship. “Let’s go before they change their minds.” They grabbed their children’s hands and headed for the ship, the other families followed.

#

Three weeks later the Krtit government declared war on the Human race. The remaining families were slaughtered.

Bice stared at the communication screen from his pool, his wife beside him, the video of the slaughter on the screen. “You tried,” she told him.

“We saved some at least.” He turned the screen off. “What a waste.”

The End

817 Words

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