Accidental Encounter by Noel Carroll

• Forewords & Introductions
• Read an Excerpt

Forewords & Introductions

"There! Over there! Just above the tree line. To the right of the tallest peak!"
"I see it. The poor thing dashes from point to point with no sense of purpose."
"Frightened, no doubt. The forest it sees now makes no sense. Once familiar, it has become alien. But 'poor thing' or not, we must act quickly to defend ourselves."
"We are adequately protected."
"You are; I am not; I convert more slowly than you, remember?"
"Sartor, the creature is but two meters long and one meter high. It is hardly a monster."
"What it is capable of doing to us and to our world is beyond monstrous. Set to sterilize."
"'Sterilize.' Such an innocent term when posed by those on the giving end."
"Set to sterilize!"
"You misunderstand, Sartor. I am not refusing the order, I am merely philosophizing. We are about to terminate an innocent being whose only fault was to stumble uninvited into our home."
"Such is the nature of life and circumstance. Were we to do nothing, the error would be ours."
"And it is not ours now? Was it not we who left the transporter on too long?"
"Point conceded. And it is we who must ensure that no Earth creature enter uninvited again."

Read an Excerpt

"God, no!" Mark's cry was a whisper on the outside but a scream on the inside. Whatever this thing had once been, it was now trying to become a German shepherd. Like his German shepherd, and like the many other German shepherds that moved unopposed through Kelly to unknown places beyond. His nightmare had reached a new plateau."