Inspired by this image on Elizabeth Moon’s Website. (Click on the picture to go to the photo gallery.) This was originally intended to be a 200-word contest entry, but makes little sense without the photo!
***
***
Memory glittered like diamond dust on the floor. The landing could have been worse, but Zzzrtss couldn’t think how. Zzzrtss couldn’t think much of anything, since most of his mind had fallen off in the controlled crash he’d managed after being attacked by a creature bigger than his ship.
If he made it back to the mothership, his memory could be re-integrated, the tiny crystals artificially bonded to his body until new connections formed. But Zzzrtss did not have much hope. The damaged scoutship was easy prey for the hostile creatures of this planet. Oh, it was possible. The propulsion shaft was intact, and the nanos could repair the ship. But Zzzrtss didn’t think they could do it before the creature returned to finish them off.
Zzzrtss had never been so happy to be wrong.
From orbit, this dry, busy place, near a warm sea almost completely encircled by land, had seemed especially hospitable to their kind; a place filled with creatures like them, flitting about in merry abandon.
With what was left of his mind, he clung to the knowledge of how false that illusion was. He must remember.
His people must be warned.