What We Found on the Way to Alpha Centauri: A Miniature Novel
by David Paul Rogers
Chapter One
Our ship met four others, one at a time. The first ship held many Centaurians, as we called them, not knowing what they called themselves. Their trajectory pointed straight back to the Centauri System. They looked a lot like us but were shorter on average by half a meter and had two opposable thumbs on each hand and were all brown-haired. And all dead. Our engineers said their nuclear reactors leaked tremendous quantities of radiation. Our navigators said they were headed straight for Earth.
Chapter Two
The second ship was a lot like the first except the reactors were fine, but our astrobiologists said a fungus had apparently killed every plant on board. Without plants, their ship's ecosystem decayed faster than an Altairian eagle swoops down on a pygmy marmoset. Which, believe me, is pretty fast. These Centaurians were also headed for Earth and all dead.
