He is—
I should use clinical language.
I should describe what I see in terms of height and weight and morphological classification, the taxonomy of the Kovalev-Chen Accords, Appendix C, subsection 4: Drone (Worker-Reproductive Class): Bipedal, chitinous exoskeleton, multi-ocular visual array, prehensile maxillary palps, reproductive organ retractable within ventral carapace.
The thing that walks through the aperture in the stone is not a taxonomy.
He is seven feet tall.
The photographs were accurate about that.
Bipedal. Two arms, two legs, the limbs long and jointed in places that make my brain itch because the geometry is close enough to human to trigger recognition.
It’s also wrong enough to trigger the specific, ancient, lizard-brain alarm that says this is not your species, this is not your species, this is—
Beautiful.
