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St. Theresa of the Aliens |
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 Writing aliens may be the toughest job in science fiction, and although I’ve attempted it several times in my career, I always approach the task with fear and humility. I try to find some middle ground between having my aliens be as familiar as humans in rubber masks and having them be unintelligible and thus unknowable. I understand that I’m probably going to screw up somehow, but then who knows for sure just what aliens will be like?
“St. Theresa of the Aliens” came out in the June 1984 issue of Asimov’s, after I had finished my first novel, PLANET OF WHISPERS, which was all aliens all the time. There were a couple of different flavors of aliens in the book, some more knowable than others. The aliens in “St. Theresa” are creatures of logic and thus fairly intelligible, but the story isn’t so much about them as it is about the idea of first contact.
If we are ever visited by another sentient species, I believe the second question out of our mouths after “So how does your spaceship work?” will be “So what’s the Answer?” Yes, that is Answer with a capital “A.” I’m thinking that the chances are good that whatever their Answer is may come as a surprise to us.
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