Winston K. Marks

“ How very typical of the superficial Vegan mentality, the Sirian thought to himself. Worrying themselves over some minor biological detail, when the obviously fascinating mystery lay in the creatures' ability to cause nuclear fission and fusion. These thoughts he screened from them, for the Vegans are quick to take offense, a rather childish lot, for all of their advanced culture. ”

“ He scanned the general atomic-molecular-cellular-structural patterns of the entities, inventoried his own energy content, decided he could just about make it, and set about carefully condensing his photons. As the swirling energy came to a focus, people still did not stare up, but hundreds sought the shade of their beach umbrellas, donned their sun-glasses or decided they'd had enough for today. ”

“ Where they popped the H-bomb."
"H-bomb?" At last the hazy double meaning became clear to him. His subconscious survey of many human minds had found nuclear energy mixed up with females' scanty bathing attire, and the connection had evaded him until this moment. "Could we see one if we went there?"
"One what?"
"An H-bomb, of course."
"Oh, naturally. The government would just love to show us how they shoot off a H-bomb," she said. He missed the sarcasm entirely. "Matter of fact, they're testing out there again this week. Why don't you call up the president." ”

“ Subjectively?"
"A few minor anatomical differences, that's all. Added up to very little." His words were belied by tiny streaks of badly polarized photons.
The Vegans radiated ripples of disappointment, losing what little patience they possessed. One blurted out angrily, "Very well, if you can't explain sex, what about the nuclear reactions? You should be an expert on that subject. You appeared to ascend from the very island where they just fused a lithium-hydride bomb."
"Bomb?" the Sirian said dazedly. "What bomb?"
The Vegans circled him and vibrated with cynical laughter. ”

“ He had, indeed, discovered that there were two kinds of "humans" on the beach. The physiological differences seemed very minor, and the deciding factor was that one category wore attire only in one place, whereas the other covered its body at two points, thus excluding a bit more of the delicious radiance of the golden sun. ”

“ Transmuting the kinetic energy into assimilable light, the Sirian enjoyed the tiny tweak of power.
The big man jerked back his wrist and stared at it. "Like a rock, yet. Huh! Wipe that smirk off, Mac."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Still snotty, huh?" The big fellow slammed two lefts and two rights to the body with no more effect.
The gorgeous blonde said, "Oh stop, Tony. He's one of these whaddayacallems—masochists. He likes to get slugged. Now stop it, I tell you, or the cops will—"
But Tony was unstoppable. ”

“ Did you find out about that?"
"Yes."
"Is there a significant difference?"
"They call it sex," the Sirian temporized.
"Come, come, delete the alien terminology."
"There are men—and there are women," he said, striving to gather his thoughts and his dignity about him. It was no use. The patina of his vastly expanded corona was a dead, pink giveaway. "Just one minute ago," he confessed, "I was a man, juxtaposed with a woman, exploring the differences between the categories."
"Were the differences important? Significant?" ”

“ They're a violent, vicious, suspicious lot—some two or three billion of them. And they have some nasty little weapons at their disposal. Their nature seems to be to hate what they don't understand. Shoot first and question later. ”