Aphelion

I’m not sure what the theme of this story was about. The Aliens and the Indians and Marine Captain Jesse Williams, presented an ever-shifting scenario to me. Historically, Marines didn’t fight in the desert but that has changed over the years. Now, Marines fight like the army.

I don’t know if the story had any meanings intertwined in it or not. One meaning jumped out at me: When on a combat mission, anything and I mean anything can happen! If the Lazotians were so superior to humans in intelligence as the beginning suggests, then we would have had no chance against them unless another alien force helped earth. Also, what started the war?

A nice read, and good story-line and I enjoyed all the events that happened. The true purpose behind this story is pure entertainment, I believe, because it was entertaining

As it turns out, "we beat them" about the same way that the U.S. beat the insurgency in Iraq around the time of the "Mission Accomplished" photo-op...

Aside from their interstellar transportation technology, the Lazotians' primary weapon turned out to be telepathic or empathic. Of course, if the final sequence where the narrator's consciousness seems to have been looped back into his own infant body, the Lazotians may have combined psionic abilities with space-time manipulation (related to their interstellar travel technology?) to remove soldiers from the battle without actually killing them. While Bradbury's Martians (and the Caretaker from Star Trek: Voyager, and ...) neutralized threats by giving them the illusion of their hearts' desire (to see long-lost loved ones, or homes that might no longer exist), the Lazotians seem to have taken things beyond the casting of illusions.

RM