Apocalyptic fiction; Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Outer space -- Exploration -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
It was then that the creatures attacked for the last time. They must
have crept into the building and gathered there in the dimness, waiting
their opportunity. There were six of them. They poured through a rear
door into the room of writings, howling, their projectile-throwers
barking. Their wild ululations were the screams of the demented. The
commander could see the madness in their eyes and he knew why he had
been afraid.
The astrogator was down before they could return the fire, and then the
projectors cracked out their blue-flamed doom.
The lieutenant cursed as he was hit; he dropped to one knee, firing
swiftly, and then the creatures were down and it was over. The wild
bearded faces were charred and blackened, and in the sudden silence was
the crackle of the little blue flames as they danced over the filthy
ragged clothing of the dead. The commander let his breath go, at last,
in a long gasping sigh.
He started to walk toward the bodies, knowing that they were the
last, knowing that if there had been any more they would have waited,
gathering strength, and they would not have made the crazy suicidal
attack. The fighting was over. The savage creatures, unbalanced by
their miserable existence among the ruins of the glory that had been
theirs, would never again threaten the bridgehead he had carved on this
world. It was his world now.
There was a frantic tugging at his sleeve, and he shook the battle fog
from his eyes and grinned at the scholar. The commander remembered
that even while the fight had roared hot and sharp, the scholar had
not moved from his corner, nor taken his eyes from the pages he was
studying. And now the scholar was fairly dancing with excitement.
"I've got it!" he said, almost chortling. "It wasn't hard with the
key--and I found the key!"
He gestured toward the little tangle of bodies, silent in the room of
writings.
"They called themselves 'Men,'" he said.
The commander shrugged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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