Founding Father

Stranded on a harsh alien world, the Thalassan explorers Eu and Ven expect only a routine search for fuel and signs of native life. Instead, they uncover humanity: enormous, foul-smelling bipeds whose size, strangeness, and unsettling familiarity upend every assumption they have about the planet. What begins as cautious scouting becomes a tense first contact laced with humor, fear, and the disorienting realization that the "monsters" may be the dominant intelligence on the world. As Eu and Ven capture and study the humans, fascination quickly collides with control. They use neuro-probes and bio-circuits to turn Donald and Edith into monitored subjects, even riding one of the controlled creatures back to the ship in a burst of exhilaration and physical awe. But the humans awaken changed, remembering fragments of their ordeal and sensing the truth behind their nightmare. When Donald proves shrewd, proud, and impossible to dismiss, the aliens shift from exploitation to negotiation, demanding tin and cooperation while offering knowledge, healing, and even extended life. Beneath the satiric reversal of alien and human perspectives lies a sharp struggle over intelligence, autonomy, and the ethics of power. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.