Carol Emshwiller tells us that “PS Publishers in England is
doing a sort of ‘Ace double’ collection of my short stories.
One side will be my antiwar stories and the other my regular
tales.” In her latest story for Asimov’s, Carol explores the
divide between the alien and the human and in the process
spins a deeply disturbing tale about who, exactly, is . . .
We knew they were on their way long before they got here. Several years ago we
saw the speck moving toward us.We said, Oh, no, not more smart people . . . if people
they are . . . if smart . . . (but they do have to be fairly intelligent to get here in the
first place) . . . but we’re already full up. There are limits to how big a population a
world can hold comfortably, and so that everybody has fun.
We were watching from the trees when they landed. They took us for creatures
both ignorant and wild.We played into that role, howling and jumping up and down.
Our hooting was really our laughing. They looked so funny we couldn’t help it so we
hooted to cover it up.
Then we glided out from the trees and moved closer to the clearing where they had
set up camp. That was a clearing we had prepared for them ahead of time. Plenty long
enough for their lander. From our experiences with space flight we knew the exact dimensions
they would need.We also knew they’d like it near a stream.We picked a little
stream, not suitable for navigation.We didn’t realize until they’d landed and we
saw who they were, that they’d need a path before they could reach the water.
We pretended to get tamer and tamer.We pretended to accept their gifts of beads
and bracelets. Couldn’t they see those would just hold us down?
And they brought what they call dogs. They use them for all sorts of things, including
warning them that we’re about to glide in.
Editorial Sheila Williams: The 2010 Dell Magazines Awards
