Encounter

         I am dead.  So far from Home.  The enemy has won.  It stands between me and my vessel and my weapon has failed.  I see it raise its weapon and point it at me.  I huddle down to the ground and wait for the end.  My poor mate will die now too, without my continued service to justify nutrition allotments.  This will be the end of my line.  I am the last and the young my mate carries will perish without ever breathing the air of Home.  I wait for the end.  The enemy is acting strangely.  Perhaps it is exhibiting the behavior I have been warned about.  I was told that the enemy will draw out the end, make it unnecessarily painful.  I was told that they do this to extract payment in pain from us for the termination of their kind.  Revenge.  It is a most strange concept.  My pain will not return their kind to life.  My pain will not prevent my kind from continuing to kill their kind.  We must kill their kind to prevent them from reaching Home.
         The enemy is no longer pointing its weapon at me.  I am puzzled.  Is this more of their revenge?  The enemy is backing up, giving me a path to my vessel.  Will it shoot me as I flee?  Will it let me think that I may live, only to kill me as I reach my vessel?  This is unnecessary.  The enemy is moving its weapon between me and my vessel, back and forth.  I believe it wants me to return to my vessel.  Something is wrong.  This must be a trap the enemy is setting for me.  I am puzzled.  I move slowly toward my vessel.  I yet live.  The enemy has not killed me while I flee.  I am puzzled.  I have reached my vessel.  I am inside.  The enemy is standing outside my vessel, looking up at me. I can see through the strange helmet it wears, its two eyes.  They glimmer in the harsh light.  The enemy’s mouth is closed, making an upward pointing crescent.  I am puzzled.  I activate my vessel’s weapon and fire at the enemy.  The enemy is dead.  I am puzzled.  I remember another strange behavior of the enemy.  Compassion.  It is a most strange concept.