Illegal Alien

Hask was in his dorm room on the second floor of Valcour Hall, clearing out his personal belongings. What with the other six Tosoks being taken away to jail, there was little point in him continuing to reside in this giant residence, which, after all, USC did have other uses for.

It was bad enough being a traitor to his own people, and knowing that he would never see the stars of home again, but at least his few possessions would help him remember his old life. Hask picked up the lostartd disk that had decorated his dorm room. The crack in it where the two halves had been joined together was only visible if he held the disk obliquely to the light. He carefully packed it in the suitcase Frank had given him, wrapping it in two of his tunics for protection.

Suddenly the sound of a gunshot split the air. It had come from upstairs.

Hask felt all four of his hearts pounding out of synchronization — the sound reminded him of the shot that had dug into his own chest on the lawn outside this very building. Moments later he heard the sound of five Tosok blaster discharges. By the absent God — one of them must have brought a blaster along on the journey! Hask hadn’t thought any handheld weapons had been among the mothership’s supplies; no direct contact, after all, had ever been intended with aliens.

The sounds fell into place in his mind — the other Tosoks were resisting arrest. Another sound, faint and distant, came to his sensitive ears — the echoing slaps of Tosok feet on concrete. One of the Tosoks was coming down the stairs.

There had been five blaster discharges — presumably five humans now lay dead. And the Tosok with the blaster might very well be coming to get him.

Valcour Hall was large. If Kelkad — who but the captain would have brought a hand weapon on the journey? — had been up in the sixth-floor lounge, he’d have to come down four flights of stairs. The sound was clearly coming from the stairwell at the end of the other wing; that meant he’d also have to run the length of both wings to reach Hask’s room, which was at the opposite end of the building.

Hask thought about making his own escape, smashing his dorm-room window and jumping to the ground below. Earth’s gravity was less than that of the home world; it was a significant fall, but probably one that he could survive. Hask would then have to try to escape by running across the campus. But the blaster had a range of several hundred meters — Kelkad could probably pick him off with ease. No — no, he would make his stand here.

Hask understood much of human law now: he was about to be attacked with a high-energy weapon and he honestly believed his life was in danger.

He was entitled to respond with deadly force.

If only he had a weapon of his own…

Captain Kelkad rounded one stairwell and then another. He almost lost his balance several times; human steps weren’t deep enough for him, and the hand railings were unusable. But he continued down, passing landing after landing, until he’d reached the second floor. He leaned his front arm against the horizontal bar that operated the door mechanism, clicking the locking bolt aside. He then took a step back and swung the door open, while remaining shielded behind it. He peered around it: no sign of Hask, or anyone else. He paused for a moment. His breathing orifices were spasming, gulping air — but they were also gulping aromas. He could smell Hask’s pheromones wafting this way; Hask must be in his room at the far end of this floor. A fitting place for the traitor to die.

It had taken a minute to get ready, but Hask was prepared now. He could hear the pounding of Kelkad’s feet coming down the perpendicular corridor.

Hask looked out his door, down his own stretch of hallway. Ten meters away was one of the glass-and-metal doorways that normally served to muffle sounds; when Valcour Hall was eventually filled with students, anything that helped keep sound down would be welcome. That doorway had been left open for most of the time the Tosoks had been using the facility; a wooden wedge was jammed underneath the door to keep it open.

Kelkad surely knew that Hask had no handgun; judging by the sound, Kelkad was running down the adjoining corridor at top speed. But Hask knew his captain well: Kelkad wouldn’t open fire at once. First he would want to confront Hask, cursing him as a traitor—

Suddenly Kelkad appeared in the lobby between the two wings. Hask ducked mostly behind the wall of his room, only his head sneaking out of the doorway to watch. Kelkad lost some speed as he changed directions, but soon was charging down the corridor, knowing that he didn’t have much time, knowing that more human police officers were doubtless rushing to the campus.

"Hask," screamed Kelkad. One advantage of having separate channels for the mouths and the respiratory system was that he could still speak clearly while gulping for breath. "You treasonous distalb! You complete—"

And then he hit the open doorway in the middle of the hall—