"Can you stop your white blood cells from acting when a germ enters your body?"

Connelly didn't answer. She didn't need to. She understood perfectly now. Europa was like a living creature, a body unto itself. The blue Europhids were the brain. The red Europhids were the immune system, reacting to perceived threats as they had been programmed to do by millions, perhaps billions of years of evolution. They attacked, and would continue to do so until the invaders had been wiped out. She and the crew of the Surveyor were simply germs invading a body.

Germs that needed to be exterminated.

"Yes," Heather said, "You understand. While we recognize that you mean us no harm, the others sense that you are a threat…and to be honest, after seeing into your minds, I believe they are correct."

CHAPTER 30 -- ESCAPE

If fear, outrage and defiance were emotions Connelly were capable of feeling at that time, she would have been filled with all three. A blue Europhid in the form of Willard's eighth grade teacher had just accused her of being a threat to the denizens of Europa. Few things made her angry more than being falsely accused. She wanted to deny the accusation, but she couldn't bring herself to say a word.

Instead, she thought about things from the perspective of the Europhids. Her crew had come from space, landed on the surface of Europa, taken and killed sample Europhids, even genetically altered one in a plant incubator. They had unintentionally committed atrocities against sentient beings.

Europhid Heather was right.

"I'm sorry," Connelly said quietly. "We had no idea…we didn't understand what you were. We thought…we thought you were—"

"Vegetables," Heather said. "I know. And the mistake is forgivable given your ignorance. Knowing what you know now, you would never repeat those mistakes." Heather stood and walked to the starboard side of the boat, her taut frame bobbing up and down with the motion of the ocean waves. "Your world is beautiful and full of creatures as spectacular as those on our world…but your people must never learn of our existence."

Robert huffed lightly. "We can't just hide what we've discovered from the world. This is our first contact with an alien species."

"This is our first contact as well," Heather said. "I would say it's not going well, wouldn't you?"

"We can learn from our mistakes," Robert said.

Heather crossed her arms across her breasts. "Neither species is ready for prolonged contact."

Robert took a step forward, "But—"

And then he was gone. He simply vanished as though he had never been there. Willard quickly protested, placing his hand on Heather's shoulder. "Eighth grade crush or not, you better tell me what you did with—" In a blink, Willard ceased to exist.

Even with the disappearance of Willard and Robert, Connelly felt no fear or ill will to or from Heather.