Will is a retired chiropractor who lives in Pacific Grove, California. This story was originally published in Aberrations. His story "Life Sentence" appears in DP #4.
Dark Planet
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Life-List
by Will Sand
An additional alien sighting would boost her life-list to thirty, a
lifetime accumulation matched by few. Her iridescent scales
shimmered in anticipation.
She felt her solo-ship slow to enter the local system. She
consulted her Lonely Planets guidebook. Prefacing the scant three
pages on Earth was a warning: "Here there be Humans!"
No excretion-mess! she thought. That's why I'm
here!
According to the guidebook, the most predicable sightings were
made of scavengers, living off the ruins of once-glorious cities.
She tucked her crown feathers into her helmet and donned her suit
and methane tanks. She landed her sled on a high roof. She would build
her blind under the cover of night.
But as she stepped out, she detected motion. She froze.
She was struck by a thrown object, her glasside helmet cracked
and leaking.
Within minutes, her liquid methane had boiled away and she was
dead.
The man hadn't seen one like this before. He smiled at his
companion."Meet number thirty on my life-list."