The Alternate Host

Evelyn E. Smith

• Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781649741622
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Science Fiction
• Index: Literature

This was no place for these aliens. It was no place for anyone not resigned to life such as they all knew it.... Evelyn E. Smith has that rare ability—surprisingly rare, actually, in SF—to set herself into the minds of the aliens, or the alien life-forms, about whom she writes. The result is intelligent and challenging SF, instead of badly disguised Westerns! Evelyn E. Smith is best known as the author of the Miss Melville mysteries. From 1952 to 1969 she wrote dozens of science fiction and fantasy short stories that appeared in magazines such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy, Super Science Fiction, and Fantastic Universe. Her stories were witty, well written, often humorous, and always unforgettable.

This was no place for these aliens. It was no place for anyone not resigned to life such as they all knew it.... Evelyn E. Smith has that rare ability—surprisingly rare, actually, in SF—to set herself into the minds of the aliens, or the alien life-forms, about whom she writes. The result is intelligent and challenging SF, instead of badly disguised Westerns!

I watched their vessel land across the valley, jetting fire as it gouged out a resting place for itself in the turf. Whoever they were, they must have come from the stars, for we were all the intelligent life that remained on this planet—and we were not travelers.

After a little time had passed, a section of the vessel swung out and two of the newcomers emerged. They were bipedal and appeared to be mammals. I could sense that there were more—perhaps a dozen—inside; however, although I had the greatest perceptive range of my clan, the newcomers were still too far away for me to do more than catch the edge of their thoughts.

The two who had come outside wore bulky coverings, probably as protection against a hostile atmosphere. And I hoped that the atmos- phere would prove hostile, so that they’d go back in their vessel to wherever they’d come from. It wasn’t that I objected to mammals; on the contrary, the rest of my race and I had enjoyed the most amicable relationship with the Dmroi until they died out...But this was no place for mammals. It was no place for us either, as a matter of fact, but those of us who were left were old and more or less resigned to their eventual fate.

When the suns began to go down, the two mammals returned to their ship. Soon it grew dark and rather chilly. I sensed that those inside the vessel were preparing for rest, and I retired to my rest, hoping that when I awakened to sensation in the morning the ship would be gone.

But it was still there, clean and shining in the golden-yellow light of the two suns. And I thought with regret t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• The Alternate Host