Sweet Starfire

the metal case where the clear section joined the black portion.
    “Fine.” She swung around determinedly. “I’m leaving.”
    “Cidra! Don’t be a fool. You can’t leave without me.”
    “Want to bet?” She was sure of herself, absolutely convinced that she had to get him out of the ship. The same sense of wrongness was permeating her senses as she had experienced when she had kicked the blue reptilian carcass out of die protected circle.
    “Damn it, Cidra, come back here. That’s a direct order.” “No. You’ll have to come with me if you don’t want me to leave alone.” She paused, about to shoulder her way through a wall of vines, and glanced back. “Severance, I mean this. I’m leaving and I…. Severance!”
    His name was a scream on her lips as she looked back and saw him silhouetted in the doorway. Behind him a deathly black light flashed inside the ship. But light couldn’t be black, Cidra thought in horror. For a timeless instant everything seemed frozen. Energy crackled from the depths of the round ship, flickering around Severance’s body as he stood poised with the pulser in his hand. For a few seconds he stood staring out at her, his face a mask of agony, and then he collapsed backward, out of sight. The black glare flashed again and then died out.
    Cidra caught her breath in fear and raced forward, slamming to a halt at the opening in the ship. “Severance, where are you?” She could see nothing. The quartzflash no longer shone in the darkness. He was dead, Cidra thought in a flash of hysteria. No, it wasn’t possible. She refused to believe it. Frantically she started to scramble over the torn hull. She had one leg swung over the edge when she heard the heavy scrape of claws on metal.
    Cidra froze. She knew with sure instinct that the long coffin-like case had opened. The shock of that knowledge was enough to make her feel dizzy. Clutching at every ounce of willpower she possessed, she started to edge back out of the ship. Slowly, her eyes never leaving the jagged opening, she backed away from the horror that lurked within. But her body seemed to be moving in slow motion. It was like a dream in which she was trapped, knowing that she should flee but finding herself unable to make her body respond.
    The blue, leathery body appeared in the opening of the ship. Cidra was mesmerized by the shock of its size. As tall as a man but far heavier. Standing erect, its pale, iridescent blue belly looked obscenely shiny. The head was massive, built to hold the teeth of a predator. Red eyes gleamed with the flat, lethal, unemotional expression of a true reptile. The little appendages she had seen on the hatchling were indeed sickeningly handlike. One of them held Severance’s pulser.
    The jungle was safer than what waited in the alien ship. Cidra whirled to run.
    “Racer!”
    Stunned to hear Severance’s voice, Cidra glanced over her shoulder. There was no sign of him. The alien lifted one massive clawed foot over the edge of the jagged metal. It was coming after her. Frantically Cidra tried to peer around it.
    “Severance, where are you?”
    “Damn you to hell, Racer. You’re dead. This time you’ll stay dead.” The blue reptile raised the pulser it was holding, aiming it at Cidra.
    The voice was coming from the mouth of the alien. Disoriented, Cidra reached out to grab a tree limb to steady herself. The creature moved closer. “Severance, if you have any control over that thing, make it stop. Don’t let it come any closer.”
    “Stop talking with Cidra’s voice, damn you. Where is she? What have you done with her? You’re already dead meat, Racer. Tell me what you’ve done with her or I’ll make it slow this time.”
    “No!” With a staggering sense of disorientation Cidra began to realize what must be happening. “Severance, listen to me. Can you hear me?”
    “Cidra, where are you?” The six-foot reptile swung its scaled neck, searching the vegetation. The pulser didn’t wave.
    “Severance, is that you holding the pulser?” She was trembling with the force of will it took to stay where she was, instead of fleeing into the jungle.
    “Of course it’s me. Where are you?” The huge mouth moved as if haying trouble shaping the words, but the voice was definitely Severance’s. “Come out, Cidra. It’s all right.”
    “I’m standing right in front of you. Severance, it’s another illusion trap. I must look like Racer to you, and you look like a monster to me.