（外文电子版资料）Joanna Russ - Invasion.pdfVIP

INVASION by Joanna Ross ____________________________________ Taken from: Years Best SF 2 Edited by David G. Hartwell Copyright © 1997 by David G. Hartwell ISBN 0-06-105746-0 eBook scanned proofed by Binwiped 11-30-02 [v1.0] They were terrible. The Doctor found one under the operating table in the hospital (impossible to tell its sex) that regarded her suspiciously and then, as she reached for it, vanished with a pop! of inrushing air. The Second-in-command discovered three of them between the sheets as he started to make the bed in the quarters he shared with the Captain. The creatures rolled away from him, grinning, and vanished. An especially small one—whod been in the swimming pool, it seemed, and who was dripping wet, its yellow costume all soggy—materialized against the hand-woven tapestry on the cabins wall, slid down, and left a trail of water-blurred color behind it. It shrieked excruciatingly and vanished. The Navigator walked into her study area and found two of them sitting on top of her antique wooden bookcase. Normally a peaceful woman, even a bit shy, she threw herself at the intruders, shouting No! only to receive a painful barrage of books in the face, most of which then rolled under the bed as she grabbed for them, acquiring disc-destroying grit in the process. Several hit her on the forehead, hard. When she was able to scramble out from under the bed, her hands full of them, the intruders were gone. One perched weightlessly on the Communicators head as he was combing his hair. Two others landed heavily in his lap. One said, Comb my hair; another, Give us a kiss. The one sitting on his head dropped into his lap, crowding the other two (who kicked and rocked for a few seconds, trying to get the lap back for themselves alone) and asked, in an unexpectedly deep, hoarse voice, Do you like worms? The Communicator thought for a moment. Then he said, Worms are fine in the soil of Botany Level Tw