CHAPTER 5
“This does not look good,” Tarkos whispered.
They stood before the open door of the cruiser, parked on a narrow stone road that terminated, two hundred meters before them, at a black cliff wall. Buildings of pale brown stone lined the road, with windows and doors so tall and wide that it made Tarkos swallow to imagine the size of the Kriani who must dwell within. From each building, without exception, smoke poured from broken windows. The black fumes drifted overhead, blotting out the twin suns. No sound but wind, and the ticking of the cooling hull of the cruiser, could be heard.
And, in the center of the road before them, a dead Kriani lay sprawled.
The Kriani looked to Tarkos like a giant ant. It had six limbs, which lay akimbo in the dirt. Green ichor and pink blood
