Robert Sheckley - Alien Harvest

“That bothers me, too,” I said. “No one will ever really know. But I've got a theory.”

“I'd like to hear it,” Badger said.

“I figure there'd be communication of some sort between the aliens and their queen. I think she sent them an order that overrode everything else they were doing.”

“Why do you think that?”

“You know all that royal jelly that Potter's men had packed into the harvester? It was gone, all of it. I think the queen told them the first thing to do was to recover all the stolen royal jelly and bring it back to the hive. Then they could go back and finish off whatever humans were left. But we had come and gone by then. I can never prove it, but that's what I think happened.”

Badger stared at me, taking it in. I began to laugh. Badger said, “What's so funny?”

“It's not really funny,” I said. “But it is ironic. That the royal jelly that was ultimately responsible for Stan's death should also be responsible for saving Julie's life.”

ROBERT SHECKLEY is the author of over fifty books in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. His novel Immorality, Inc . was recently made into the movie Freejack . The cult classic The Tenth Victim was made from his original short story. Mr. Sheckley is a New Yorker currently residing in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and children.