The Memorial

The war memorial in the capital of the planet Orligia is unique. It’s a huge cube made of transparent plastic, and inside it—an destroyed cabin of an ancient spacecraft and two astronauts, a human and an Orligian. The Orligian stands slightly leaned forward, his chest-and-head fur glued together with blood. A dying human lies a couple of steps away. His uniform is torn to shreds; his whole body is horribly wounded, especially the ripped-open wound that has split his belly. But this man—whose orders are not to move, not even to breathe—still reaches out his hand toward the Orligian…