Tony Ballantyne - Twisted Metal

‘Controller, what are they?’

‘I don’t know!’

The ship was getting large enough for Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah to make out its shape, to see its smooth lines. It seemed to be built entirely of metal. He looked for its propulsion system, but saw nothing. There were no propellers, nothing to indicate how it moved.

Closer and closer the ship came, and then suddenly it swung around in a wide loop.

‘Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah, did we not ask you to set a course for Huru base?’

The words shook him from his reverie. ‘Affirmative,’ he replied, banking his craft once more. The silver ship moved smoothly alongside him, and Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah picked out more details on it. White flashes marked with strange red symbols. Tiny little pits in the metal skin. And there, at the front, a transparent section: the cockpit.

Who was flying this ship?

Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah opened the throttle to its fullest extent, his craft slid slowly forward along the great silver length, his enhanced eyes peering across at the cockpit.

He saw a figure in there, looking back at him. The figure appeared to be waving to him. He turned his eyes up to their fullest extent, and felt his gyros lurch.

The figure in the ship. It wasn’t a robot.

It was organic.

It was an animal.