I am awoken to the cough of Ed, in the neighbouring hut. It is a cough unlike any common one, and all in the village know he soon will be dead, when the komi-gallia will pop from his flesh and writhe hideously on the ground. But this will never be allowed to happen.

We know that Clement, our village chief, he of the Blood Of The Chinese Who Ruled The Ancient Earth, tekele, and Blessed We Are To Have Him Among Us, will place his mighty countenance on the judgement seat and utter, Im Mani Koyotuk, The Cursed To The Coyotes. And I, and our other coming-of-age-brother Kevin, will lead him in front of our silver Fazer to the Vale Of The Dead, seven kilometers hence.

Oh! But how the village girls will wail, and beat their chests! For Ed, the oldest among our three who passed the fires together, was to recieve the first of his Blessed Four in only a months time. She was to be Karmen, of the Eldsworth House, and she too was eager to find if she was merely a Barren Jar or a Lifespring Eternal, to bring more of our tribe into the great mother Mekele, The Earth.

It will never be known. For likely, our Chief, tekele, and Blessed we Are To Have Him Among Us, will pronounce also her sentence, Im Mani Koloura Koyotuk Melekam, The Bedwoman To The Cursed To The Coyotes. She will go with him, for she and he had close contact previously, as is known to all in the village.

Unlike him, however, she will probably scream in terror as the evil creatures separate her body from her komi.

But let me tell you of this Vale Of The Dead. It lies near the hull of the Great Vessell, which brought our ancestors here. The black creatures, The Coyotes, have taken residence near there, but we must travel often to it. We know little of this sacred shrine, but our legends tell that it once sailed the stars. Our holy tools, our Fazer, and other sacred items were taken from it millenia ago. Our destiny has been to populate mother Mekele, but instead we have been held to a dwindling number by these twin evils, The Coyotes, and now the komi-gallia, The Glowing Worms Who Bring Corruption.

More than Ed will perish of the komi-gallia. I will likely suffer some sickness, and perhaps even die. Red welts will likely appear on my skin, for my hut lies within three yarks of his. This is how it has been for others. I will live in one of the satellite villages, for I can never be accepted as a pure member. But I will thank mother Mekele if I am spared the twin horrors that my coming-of-age brother, Ed, will suffer.

The grass flute is sounding. Chief clement has awoken and is ascending the judgement seat! I will return for my fazer after the judgement is spoken, for I wish no disrespect to Ed. For now, however, a knot ties itself in my gut.

***

The Rayon Troubadour circled wide in the sky over Lemnon IV. Captain Picasso Moldiva commanded the vessel to sweep low over a particular valley where a wreckage had been detected.

"Well, I'll be. That's an old one! Looks like a G-41 Starcruiser to me. Crew of 44, at least. And four thousand years old."

The thin, wiry helmsman known to the crew only as Tucker wheeled his chair around and spoke in a whiny voice: "Hah, hah, hah! Captain. That's not all! There are neo-tribalists in the area. Hah hah hah! You know it! I can see them on scan! I can see them! Sixteen villages! Hah hah!" He chewed spit his chewed tabaste leaves into a jar he kept at the helm, black drool running down his chin in dark rivulets.

Picasso Moldiva grew grim. "Why must you be so happy at the most gruesome aspect of our job? Don't you know they are people too, in spite of the threat they represent?" After a moment: "Don't answer it. Turn around, man your station, and I don't want to hear anything out-of-duty from you for the rest of this patrol."

The ship circled high over the wreckage. Green indicators overlaid on the main viewscreen where there were scattered villages. Alien life forms crawled over much of the planet, which upon closer viewing were seen to be hideously powerful black creatures resembling large, terrifying Wolves. They stayed away from the villages, and this itself seemed a feat of amazement.

Slowly the ships instruments began a long range, high intensity Tacheon scan of each humanoid in the vicinity of the wreckage. The results would not be good.

***

I pointed to the sky. The judgement had been cast, and we had been walking for three hours. Karmen had shown herself much inner strength, more than we would have expected of her. It was Ed who had to be shackled, and force-prodded with our Phazer to walk the distance. Kevin and I had gone along in silence, but Ed ranted on.

But a large bird was circling. We wondered what it meant. We could see that it had no wings, and a blue fire trailed behind it. Some unknown god, or spirit-force? It made us uneasy, as if it were to bring some fate worse.

I coughed slightly. It was a normal cough, but the knot in my stomach tightened.

***

"I'll reccomend an L7 sir. And an ammunitional strafing of the four targets wandering outside the village. It's got to be done. They have worm phage." The second-in-command, Parmex Karmela, was a very intelligent man, and not insensitive. He knew the history of Humanity's War With The Worm Phage, which had destroyed entire populations in days. These were spaceborne parasites. It was completely unfathomable that the small population on Lemnon IV had not been completely erased by them.

"No, use an L8. I really don't need to see another ammunitional strafing on this mission. We will forge the logs if neccesary, say the village complex was larger. If we include the ruins to the west, it's not much of a stretch, although those seem to have been abandoned for a few millenia."

"Understood. Tucker, prepare a Level 8 Sleeman Torp and target it to Mark 1, the epicenter of the village."

"Affirmative." A breif moment passed. "Level 8 Sleemen Torp is armed."

The captain sighed in his chair. "Slaughtering innocent humans is not my idea of a war. But if the Worm Phage are given another foothoold... Well! We can't forget Del-Rasma. Del Rasma, Hoi!" He stood in his chair. "Del Rasma, Hoi!"

The crew was silent for a moment, and then quietly responded, "Del-Rasma, Hoi", more-or-less in unison. The captain sat back down, and stared at the ground.

"Fire."

"Torpedo fired."

The green arc of it seemed to float like a ribbon as the Torp wended its way to the village. The screen went white. When, in four minutes, it would finally clear, it would reveal a hemispherical crater, 15 kilometers in diameter. Tucker chewed fresh tabaste, his eyes wide.

"I'll be in my ready room. Continue the patrol. And turn off that damned vidscreen."