Meeting
By
Tom Olbert
Copyright © 2010 by Tom Olbert
Lillibridge Press
www.lillibridgepress.com
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover design by Stanley Edwards
Edited by Marla Wick, Ph.D.
Thaddeus Brewster dug his fingernails into the arms of his chair, cringing in primal terror as the alien opened its immense, slavering vertical maw, its multiple fangs gnashing. He felt like a fly snared in a web, the spider drawing near…
Thaddeus wrinkled his face in disgust as the alien ambassador exhaled a withering blast of hot, fetid air, hitting his nostrils like rancid meat on a hot summer’s day. He took odd comfort from the fact that the alien diplomat was probably no more capable of reading his animal fear than he was of understanding whatever the hell it was thinking or feeling now. Staring into the drooling, fanged horror of the alien’s mid-section, Brewster wondered if he looked like much more than a snack to it. It resembled a magnified version of a household pest to him. Or, at best, something he might crack open on a restaurant plate and season with lemon juice.
Staring into that slimy, sucking hole larger than his own head, what he found most disturbing of all was that it was beginning to resemble something quite apart from a predator’s maw. Something he hadn’t seen since the porn implant he’d sampled on the long shuttle trip to the inter-star station…