"Alex!" I broadcasted. "Return to ship at once!"
"I can't, Skipper," Alex's projection came back to me. "I'm surrounded."
"By what? Where?"
"They look sorta human--bigger than us. I'm near the edge of the forest
nearest the ship. I can't do anything. I didn't bring a blaster." There
was panic in his thoughts. And then suddenly I saw two hairy bipeds
flash across Alex's vision. Both of them were carrying spears. The
nearest one jumped and lunged. The scene dissolved in a blaze of red
panic and the projection cut off as though someone had turned a switch.
I had a fix now and turned to face a knob of forest jutting out into
the plain. Near the forest's edge I saw a flurry of movement that
vanished as I watched.
"Break out a 'copter," I ordered.
"Why?" Warren asked, and then I realized that I alone of all the crew
had seen what had happened to Alex.