"It was horrible, my Lord, simply horrible." *

"Explain."

Research Lead Nu'tauk cleared his ebrilleum and shook his vishaft. He turned to the holoscreen and brought up the holovid.

"Here is a holo of my findings on this planet. As you can see, it is composed mostly of a hydrogen-oxygen compound in liquid state. The species I studied exists outside of this liquid, on top of various solid compounds and within a gaseous compound of oxygen."

"I've already read your report, Nu'tauk. I know the facts. Tell me what is troubling you about this species."

"Right, my Lord, of course." He paused and scratched his hotauk. "I used my wave deflection field, so I could watch this species undetected. I arrived during some kind of feeding ritual. My earlier observations seemed to indicate that this species was compassionate and courteous. But what I saw in this feeding ritual was just ghastly."

Nu'tauk started to pace around the holoscreen. His vishaft was visibly purple and inflamed now.

"I watched one of them take an inert creature that appeared to be dead. I assume it was dead because it wasn't moving. Then the being reached into the dead creature's mouth and pulled out several organs."

"Interesting. So it's a carnivorous species."

"Yes. And I was able to view one in close detail. It pulled out three organs, a cubical structure, a cylindrical structure, and a trapezoidal structure. First, it stabbed the cylindrical structure with a hollow spear and began sucking out its juices."

"Quite disgusting."

"Yes, my Lord. Then it tore open the cubical structure, which I assume is made of bone or some hard organ-protecting material. The real food of that structure was inside of it."

"Did the being radiate the organs first, before consuming them?"

"No, my Lord. They seem to just eat these creatures raw."

"That's not only disgusting, that seems most unwise."

"Yes, my Lord. Then the being devoured the soft organ inside that cubical structure. It was dripping with blood and organ matter."

Both of them shook their vishafts. Nu'tauk cleared his ebrilleum again and, after a pause, continued.

"Then the being took the trapezoidal structure and one side of it appeared to have no covering or protection. It poured out the internals of that organ into the hull of the cubical structure. The internals appeared to be rods of cartilage. I assume it was cartilage and not bone, because the being took some and ate them."

"So this species eats cartilage too. I wonder if it can eat bone as well."

"I have not seen any evidence of that yet, my Lord, but perhaps they do as well. After this grisly meal, it easily crumpled all of the structures and bones together and shoved them back into the creature's mouth."

"Barbarous!"

"Yes, my Lord. That's why I assume they can eat bone as well. This being crushed the bones of this dead creature quite easily. Then it disposed of the dead carcass into a receptacle"

"Did you harvest the carcass?"

"Yes, my Lord. I have it here for further study. Perhaps if we can examine this species' feeding rituals, we can determine whether or not they are a threat to the Xeresian race."

"Let me see this carcass."

"Yes, my Lord." Nu'tauk popped a vulluck and the carcass appeared on the examination table.

"Curious. It has markings on the side of it."

"Yes, my Lord. Some kind of primitive skin marking ritual, it seems."

"You've studied some of the language of this species, correct?"

"Correct, my Lord."

"What does it say?"

Nu'tauk twisted the carcass and stretched out its dead skin. "It reads…" He narrowed his golugalians and widened his notulal. "'McDonalds'…"

* Translated from Xeresian

. . .

Have you ever looked at an everyday object through the eyes of an alien before?