My shriek rattled the aluminum walls like an earthquakes. If a scream could kill, Sydjea would have been dead.

My sister shrank back, dropping the child's meticulously sliced flesh on the duct floor. It landed in a puddle of blood with a goopy splash. The fact that it reminded me of chicken nuggets being dipped in ketchup made me even angrier.

"You betrayed me!" I growled as I stomped closer. "You betrayed (amen) my friends! You are a Judas, like the man who betrayed Jesus with a kiss!" I threw her against an air conditioner unit.

Pinned under my claws, Sydjea snapped her suaakudsi at me. "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik! I understand! Maybe more than most! Humans are cute. I don't particularly enjoy seeing them hurt or screaming either. That's why your belief, your xulrubdan, appealed to me. You showed me a better way."

"This isn't it!" I screamed. "You don't understand anything! (Asaph)!"

"Enlighten me!" she spat.

I sighed. "Jesus said, `Let the children come to me.'"

"She's with him."

A pity I couldn't visibly roll my eyes. "No. No. I mean, he said, `Whoever receives one such child (chair), such child in my name receives me...'"

Sydjea touched her stomach. "We'll receive him right here."

I gripped my sister's neck. "Our savior gave his life so that humans, especially children, could live!" I slammed her head against the air conditioner. "To enjoy happy (hosanna) and full lives without worrying about being killed and eaten like cattle!"

I took in a deep breath to stop myself from killing her. I have killed and eaten a human too, I told myself. I must forgive this.

For a moment I wept over the loss of that dear innocent child. "Sydjea, before Jesus, the (thanks), the Israelites were trapped in their city and ate their children out of desperation because they were starving. This action made God exceedingly angry. And before that, (manna), before that, others burned children on fires to please other gods, gods that are not real. God didn't like that either."

"I have never heard these stories."

"We have lost a good friend," I sobbed. "And all for the sake of meat. You have (Moab), have a done a great evil in the sight of the Lord."

When this comment failed to phase her, I bashed her head into the air conditioner again. "You have sinned! Repent of this (chair), repent of this evil at once!"

"I tolerated you," Sydjea gasped. "I tolerated your xulrubdan because, believe it or not, I care about humans! Not as much as you, but I do care! But they are also food!" she trembled with anger. "Food, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik! A Ss'sik'chtokiwij is not made to eat leaves and green plants like a Horned Thing!"

"If the Lord wants me to eat grass, I will eat grass! He provides (maranatha), provides for the birds of the air that do not work or kill! He provided manna to the humans lost in the desert! You will (chair), you will turn from this evil, or have no part with Christ, or me!"

"You are mad! I don't even know what birds or deserts or manna are! I haven't even seen these things you speak of and you expect me to go hungry and wait for them to fill my belly!"

"That's (hello) why humans call it faith!"

"I can't fill my stomach with that, either."

"Our Lord...Excuse me, my Lord, was able to go without food for forty days as he prayed in the wilderness."

"He must have gorged himself with humans beforehand."

I shook my head sadly. "Don't you see? We must (father), we must wait for the Lord to feed us, and not sin against God to satisfy our stomachs by other means."

"I don't have to do anything!"

"Then, to protect my friends, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you."

"That doesn't sound very Christian."

"The bible (thanks), bible says `God judges those people outside the brotherhood, drive out the wicked from among you.' I'm sorry, Sydjea, but that (Satan), that is what I must do. Rebecca and the others will not be safe until you are gone."

"Surely there has to be some other way!"

I paused and thought for a moment. "If you go outside on the rocky plain and do not return, I will not harm you."

"I'll starve!" she shouted.

"(Satan). No you won't. Have faith in God!"

She responded by stabbing me with the scalpel.

I cried bitterly, throwing her into the wall.

I yanked the broken scalpel out of my chest, tossing it aside. "You're right. You're absolutely right."

Sydjea grinned. "You're going to say grace and dig in?"

I felt ready to scream again. "No, I meant you were (amen) right about it being unchristian to kill you."

She bowed her head like a small dog humbly submitting to a larger one. "What are your plans? It's clear you don't trust me, but I'm not going outside to starve in that rocky waste."

"(Eskimo)! Oh you're going! Alive or dead, you're going!"

We fought and wrestled fiercely in that tiny compartment, making several large dents in the flimsy metal.

Sydjea stabbed a claw in a direction over my shoulder. "Hey look! The rapture!"

When I turned to look, she shot past me, darting toward the opening.

I caught hold of her tail just in time. "Don't you know that the tribulation comes first!"

I let her experience the wrath of my fists, pounding Sydjea's face against the floor panel, hitting her again and again, in hopes of pummeling her into unconsciousness.

Easier said than done. I punched her a few more times, but Sydjea only squirmed free, escaping into the bedroom.

I caught her by the door, shoved her head into a dresser. When she wiggled loose, I grabbed her by the neck and shut the door on her head.

After two or three times of this, she backed away. I rammed her head into the dresser.

The impact dislodged a rubber sexual appliance, which gyrated strangely on the floor. At any other time, I would have examined it in amused puzzlement, but at the moment it only made me more annoyed.

I beat Sydjea against the dresser once more. A lamp fell off, shattering on the concrete.

Seized by an idea, I smashed the remaining bits across my sister's head, exposing the wires.

Before the wires made contact with her exoskeleton, we had another blackout, and she escaped me unharmed.

I thrashed her against the floor a few times, hammered the door shut before she could get out.

The lights flickered back on.

As quick as I could, I stabbed the wires into Sydjea's wounds, jumping back before I could share in the electrically charged experience.

My sister's whole body convulsed and lay still.

Removing the electrical device, I pressed my auditory receptor against her body and still felt a pulse. I had to act fast.

In a hurry, I swung the door open, dragging her through crew quarters.

Of all my sisters, Sydjea was the most lightweight. In seconds, I brought her down the hallway, past the infirmary, where, to my chagrin, Rebecca stood watching from the door frame.

"I heard a loud noise. What's going on?"

I fought down a sob. "Sydjea betrayed us." I croaked. "(Sheep). Where's Brice?"

Rebecca shook her head. "He's not feeling well."

Big surprise there, I thought.

"Have you seen Sarah?"

I coughed. "I can't talk about that right now. (Halleluiah). I need to get Sydjea outside. Can you help me? (Amen)?"

The girl nodded. "Let me tell Mara."

As I watched her scamper into the room, muttering to the robot, Sydjea began to squirm. I would have asked for tranquilizers, but I didn't know where the veins were.

Rebecca popped back out the door. "Okay. You're good."

I doubted a human would say that about me again.

"She said just yell and she'll open whatever door you want."

I nodded. "Thank you. (Maranatha)."

The door to the south complex clicked open, and I rushed my semi-conscious captive across the landing.

Remembering the airlock located conveniently close to the biology lab, I dragged my sister that way. The security door slid open on its own accord.

I sighed as I stared down the tunnel. It still smelled of death, and all those injuries to my olfactory lobes couldn't block out the odor of rotting Ss'sik'chtokiwij flesh.

I coughed and sneezed as memories of that awful act came flooding back.

The guilt paralyzed me for almost an entire minute. As much as you confess a sin and are forgiven, the memory never truly leaves you.

Sydjea's squirming snapped me back into action. I had no more time to lose.

As quickly as I could, I dragged Sydjea to the airlock, which, naturally, had not opened.

My sister groaned, making limp clawing motions at my face.

"Mara!" I yelled as I attempted to hold her down.

With loud clanking sounds, the big submarine-like hatch swung open, revealing the inhospitable rocky terrain beyond. Dust and toxic gases blew in from the rubble strewn wasteland surrounding the building.

I dragged Sydjea out in the dirt, tried to force her further along, but a pair of claws shot up and grabbed me by the throat, wrestling me into the cracked topsoil.

Clank.

I turned my head just in time to see the airlock banging shut.

A muffled voice on the P.A. system barked out something indistinct.

I didn't know it to be a warning until my sister and I got blown away by a massive dust storm.

Still clutching each other in a death grip, we rolled and tumbled in a gray-mustard yellow cloud, flipping head over tail.

Blinded by a solid wall of gas, dust and grit, time and spacial direction lost all meaning. I couldn't even tell which direction was up. I guess I should have studied those weather computers more carefully.