Harpies of Planet Sutherland Page 10

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  "Look at it." Eldon shook his head in wonder. "It's incredible."

  Ralph whistled. "It's hair is still sparking. Even in death it's still kinda shimmering."

  "Do we really know that it's even dead?" Eldon kicked the body, and the harpie didn't move.

  Everyone who had held a sentry position amid the rocks spilled down from the valley following Gavin's rifle shot. Everyone hurried into the rows of water baskets to see what Gavin had hit.

  "I hit it exactly where I aimed," Gavin smiled. "I aimed where I imagined the harpie might have a heart. I couldn't miss with the enhancement lenses on my eyes."

  Ralph grinned. "It was a fine shot. You should be proud no matter if you have enhancement lenses on your eyes. You covered some real distance with that shot."

  Eldon smiled. "Your father will be proud, Gavin."

  A team from the United Systems arrived very quickly to haul away the alien, harpie corpse. Gavin and his fellow settlers felt no impulse to argue that the body belonged to them, felt no desire to claim Gavin had the right to mount that harpie's head, with its featureless face, onto one of his home's walls, where it might be a trophy of Gavin's skill. The corpse was too strange. Taking such a thing home was surely to invite a curse. Gavin certainly didn't wish to attract any harpies who might descend from the rocky hills in search of their dead companion to his home. Let the United Systems dissect and study the alien carcass however they might. That harpie was the first alien body amid the known cosmos to come into the possession of the United Systems. No settler would fault the United Systems for their curiosity.

  Gavin had done what was important. He had done his duty. He had protected the water baskets that now belonged to the settlers who called Sutherland home.

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