Ashili was already backing up, unable to take her eyes off the gargantuan shape. “Preserve my life? From what?”

“From who summoned me.”

She could make out the details of the massive being now. A long echoing moan boomed from the top of the platform, as of a great gust of wind compressed through a narrow orifice. She hesitated to activate her gun. Instinct as well as logic suggested that any overt display of aggression was likely to be met with instant annihilation.

“What … what is it?” she heard herself mumbling.

“Why, I should think that obvious.” The Autothor bobbed brightly. “It is a member of the crew. A Drex. Surely you did not think that this vessel was utterly abandoned?”

“By your own admission it’s been a million years.”

“Yes. A long sleep.”

“Nothing organic can be functionally preserved for a million years!”

“Okay,” said Ksarusix timidly, “you tell it that.”

“I wouldn’t mention it just now,” the Autothor advised her.

By the time she considered running for the portal it was too late. The gigantic alien had turned and dropped four massive limbs, each as big around as a good-sized tree, over the side of the platform, blocking her route. Each limb ended in a heavy, thick pad dominated by six short, blunt claws; three in front and three behind. She reversed direction and retreated the other way.

The Drex straightened. Erect, it was nearly twenty meters tall. She could not estimate its mass. The thick legs expanded into a barrel-like torso from which hung four seven-meter-long tentacles that tapered at the tips to delicate round points. They writhed and curled like a quartet of hyperactive anacondas. The bloodred leathery skin stood out in sharp contrast to the black garment which covered the body and upper portions of all four legs.

Four muscular tubes surrounded a pale pink fifth atop the torso. Riding above this peculiar multiple neck was a skull like an upswept vermilion wave, from the forepart of which, or crest of the wave, four slightly protuberant, elliptical black eyes stared out from beneath a single curving lid of scaly flesh. They had round, crimson pupils. Below the curve of eyes was a protruding diamond-shaped structure with holes at each point of the diamond, and below that a round proboscidian mouth lined with inward-facing fangs. The mouth expanded and contracted obscenely in time to the monster’s breathing.

Ashili’s first thought was that the Drex were not vegetarians.

The four tentacles rose and extended, quivering as the creature stretched. A deep-throated trill came from somewhere within the multiple neck, or perhaps from the complex of light-emitting instrumentation it wore around its body just beneath the tentacles.

Its immense stature cleared up one mystery. The ship had been designed to operate with a much smaller crew than anyone had initially suspected. The cavernous corridors and vast chambers had been constructed not to impress and overawe, but to accommodate a normal Drex crew. The rock formations which had formed the charming little cove in the exotic searoom weren’t cliffs at all: they were benches. The monolithic structures in the observation chamber were seats. The inscriptions which covered so many walls had been installed at eye level for the crew. And so forth.

No doubt there were innumerable other details of anatomy that Ashili overlooked. She could be forgiven this, since her principal concern of the moment lay in saving her own skin.

So that’s an alien, she found herself musing wildly. So many decades of deep-space exploration had passed without finding any sign of other intelligent life that except for a lunatic fringe the majority of humankind had ceased to fantasize about them. As so often happened, to the extreme discomfort of the majority, the lunatic fringe once more turned out to have been right.

The Drex wasn’t cute and cuddly as aliens were so often portrayed in speculative fantasies. It looked overpowering, competent, and nasty. But then weensy little purring furballs weren’t apt to build a warship on the scale of the artifact.

Feeling like a bug hunting for a hole to hide in, she wondered if it would find her cuddly.

“Real impressive.” Feeling somewhat vindicated, Ksarusix was staring up at the tentacled titan.

“Keep your voice down,” she hissed at the robot. “It’s ugly and horrible!”

“I wouldn’t let him hear you say that,” the Autothor advised her. “Impolitic.”

“That thing has a sex?” Somehow the thought rendered the creature’s appearance even more grotesque. Even as she searched desperately for an escape route she found herself mesmerized by the twisting tentacles, the elephantine feet, the bizarre multiple neck, the crimson pupils floating in pools of black oil, and especially the steady sucking sound it made as it inhaled air past wicked inward-curving teeth.

And though she didn’t know it, the Drex were the good guys.

A ponderous rumbling issued from the creature’s mouth.

“Sorry, got to go now.” The Autothor was apologetic.

“Wait, don’t leave me!” But the blue ellipse, burning intensely, rose until it was hovering just to the right of the Drex’s upswept skull.

Espying its presence, the alien emitted several modulated booms, to which the Autothor replied in kind as it spun exuberantly on its axis. Moments later, it descended and disappeared inside the alien’s chest-adorning instrumentation. It emerged soon after as Ashili crouched behind a corner of the massive sleeping platform.

On all four legs the Drex turned and inclined its great skull so that all four bulging, penetrating eyes were staring directly into her own. A tentacle reached. Letting out an involuntary moan, she reached for her gun. The tentacle tip struck and knocked it easily from her fingers before she could take aim, then curled firmly around her waist.

She did not die, her ribs crushed by that massive limb, organs ruptured and blood exploding from her mouth. Instead, the Drex lifted her up and placed her atop the platform. It was warm beneath her boots and if anything, stank even worse than the rest of the suspension chamber.

As that gargoylish head dipped toward her she shrank backward until she tripped over her own feet and sat down hard.

“What are you doing here?” The volume was overpowering and she clapped her hands to her ears and shut her eyes. It was repeated a moment later, more softly. “What are you doing here?”

Opening her eyes, she saw that the words were emerging not from the alien’s flexible mouth, but from the instrumentation attached to its ventral side. She was puzzled until she remembered the Autothor’s visit within. In a few quick moments it had imparted all it had learned of human language. She could see it now, hovering like a turquoise earring next to the bony skull.

“Speak!” The Drex leaned closer and she skittered backward on her hands and backside, trying to put as much space as possible between her feet and that twitching mouth. Far below, serving robot six was wearing tread as, with the way now clear, it made a hasty rush for the unblocked portal. The alien ignored it. For a machine that claimed to possess no self-preservation programming it was faking its intentions admirably. Not that she blamed it.

She tried to think of something to say. “Uh, just having a look around. It all started when …”

“You need not relate your entire history. The Autothor has imparted much to me.” A tentacle rose and the blue ellipse danced atop the tip. “Just looking around? It said you were both curious and moderately intelligent. Well for you that it was here to so inform me, else I would have taken you for an on-board parasite and squashed you.”

“Your restraint is appreciated,” she stammered.

Multiple eyes danced over her and she started to shiver. “Difficult to believe that intelligence can be contained in so small a biological envelope.”

She climbed shakily to her feet. “I sympathize. I’m having trouble believing that it can be found in anything so huge.”

“Intriguing. We share a common disbelief.” The skull heaved back and tentacles worked the instrumentation on its chest. “I must take up my station.” It took a giant, four-legged stride toward the portal.

She rushed to the edge of the platform and found herself confronting a sheer ten-meter drop. “Wait!” The alien paused, the head twisting ‘round on the multiple neck to gaze back at her.

Did I say that? she wondered. “Don’t leave me up here. I can’t get down.”

The single flap of leathery skin that curved above the four eyes drooped slightly. It was an unsettlingly human gesture.

“Why shouldn’t I leave you there?”

“Because … well, because if not for our presence on board your ship you’d still be asleep, or in forced estivation, or whatever your suspension process involves.”

“No. Only the approach of the enemy would result in my rejuvenation. I am awake and conscious again because the ship needs me.”

“Well … maybe I can help you.”

The Drex boomed. “How could anything so insignificant be of assistance to me in any forthcoming action?”

“That’s something you’ll have to find out. Does it make sense to turn your, uh, dorsal side on possibilities involving unevaluated potential? Besides, after a million years asleep I’d think you’d be glad of another being to talk to, size notwithstanding.”