Why do you think there is only the one group of Aliens...? 'The Alien lowered his gaze to look around him. This planet seemed to be a very attractive place. In a way, he envied the humans this lush green planet, so full of as-yet untapped resources. Resources that included the humans themselves. Of all the planets that the Race had visited over the millennia, only the Humans of this insignificant little blue-green planet were able to supply their needs; spare parts to replace their own diseased and failing organs. In many cases, it would not even be necessary to kill them - Nature on this planet had given them spares of some of the most useful organs. It was merely necessary to isolate a human, remove one of its organs, stitch it up, erase the most recent events from its memory then put it back. Some on his home planet had objected on moral grounds, saying that it was wrong to use lower animals in this way. But, it had been pointed out, Medical science had been unable to provide artificial replacements that could last more than a century or so. It was ironic; the scientists who had perfected the means to travel for months at many times the speed of light were still unable to produce an artificial heart or kidney, to replace their own diseased and failing organs. And besides, the Humans actually ate lower animals on Earth, breeding them as food. Perhaps, one day, it might be possible to set up a captive breeding programme, offering advanced technology in exchange for organs. Not too advanced, though - the Humans seemed to be a particularly warlike race. They had even taken their first steps off of the planet, with crude chemical-powered craft, little different from the missiles the humans often rained on each other. So far, two of these craft had crossed the void, to land on the barren surface of the Earth’s rocky satellite before lifting off and returning home. The small size and low speed of these strange craft had almost spelled disaster; veiled by the glare of the system’s central star, one of the missiles had almost collided with the watching scout as it dropped out of superluminal space. With no time to react, the crew had been unable to prevent the automatic defence systems from acting to prevent detection; the energy beam had all but destroyed the rear section of the humans’ craft. Despite being mortally wounded, the human-carrying missile had managed to swing around the back of the planet’s satellite before returning home. Evidently, the humans were resourceful. Who knows what devastation they could cause if they got their hands on a scout craft with its energy weapons? The more reactionary faction of The Race saw Mankind’s aggressive nature as justification for a programme of total extermination. Fortunately, theirs was still a minority view but it had been considered prudent to build in auto destruction units into the Scout craft. Unfortunately, though, something in this planet’s atmosphere seemed to trigger the unit - leading to the destruction of the craft if the crewmembers were unable to cancel the destruct sequence in time.' From 'Edge of Armageddon' - page 15
|