X’lart sipped his admittedly decent hot drink and glared at the crowds. So much for his ‘wilderness planet vacation.’ His disguise was holding up, or at least nobody was staring at him. He pulled up his guidebook and reread Earth’s entry. ‘The Planet shows hints of intelligent life, but no civilization.’ The publisher’s data was about a million years out of date, probably harvested from public astronomical data.
He’d wanted to go camping on a truly undeveloped planet. Maybe Mars would be nice this time of year.
He dropped his empty cup in the trash and headed for his spaceship.

“Alien” by Jonas B is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Everyday Drabbles © 2025 by Hugh J. O’Donnell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.

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