The Skyfolk held no ill will toward penguins. Why would they fear such harmless creatures? In Antarctica and elsewhere, penguins could approach the alien settlers without so much as a second glance.
Thus, the U.N. Military devised a cunning plan.
A human—myself, it turned out—would be mind-linked to an Emperor penguin via psionics.
Neon lights. Scores of people. A quick glance over her shoulder. She popped the collar of her leather coat and hurried along the market street. How long would it take them to find her?
A kiosk to her right showed the Washington Post. She’d made the front page:
DOCTOR CYBER HAS VANISHED
It was completely transforming the Moon, and I was the last hope of stopping it.
As I waited on the balcony of the one human-accessible building there, I stared out at the vast network of steel and silicon. It looked like the inside of a laptop, but on a monstrous scale. There were trains, ships, and satellites moving in a myriad of ways, spinning and whizzing and drifting, a jigsaw in perpetual motion. I felt dizzy and weak and had to turn away.
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“The citizens of New Earth must be expecting someone to appear from the ancient depths of space.” I didn’t know if I was trying to reassure myself or my assistant. “After all, the cradle of life is littered with functioning spaceships.”
The tractor beam continued to draw us in.
“They’ll welcome us, surely.”
The human must’ve been shocked upon its awakening to see a bear using a computer. The sight of a bear alone would’ve been enough to set alarm bells ringing, but one checking emails over a morning coffee was something else entirely. It explained the hysterical cries issuing from the human’s mouth.
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