"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.