Another Story
Well, a few people liked the last one I posted, so I thought I'd try another. This one is basically straight from a dream I had about a year ago, which should explain the rather laxical approach to causical sense-making. I decided I really wanted to keep the feel of the dream.
Here goes:
You could tell, when the aliens landed, that they’d planned it all out for maximum impact: the ray guns that blew up random geographical landmarks, the ECM pulse that took out every computer and television on the globe and then the booming voice-over that informed us of the arrival of our new alien overlords. They lit up the sky when they finally came down, the red fire of their thrusters rebounding off the storm clouds above so that it felt like Armageddon was upon us.
The effect was rather undone however by the small, mousy girl who walked up to the now-landed spacecraft and knocked on the metal hull. She had her brown hair done up in a tight bun and wore one of those painfully intense expressions that breaks your heart just to look at it.
A landing door descended and the aliens emerged. It was a little hard to tell, what with the green tentacles that grew out of their cheekbones and such, but the aliens appeared a little nonplussed by the girl.
‘How dare you approach us, human?’
‘Uhm, you see, well… I…’ the girl stuttered. Then she took a deep breath. ‘I want to see the stars. Can you help me?’
The aliens, there were about five or six of them, turned to each other and went into conference, their tentacles wavering around excitedly. Finally, they returned their attention to the girl.
‘Yes, we can help.’
After which, all six of them bellowed out a hollow, ringing sound that appeared every bit the stereotype of evil, alien laughter.
~*~
When I said they knocked out every computer, I may have been exaggerating slightly, as there are exceptions to every crass generalisation and in this case, the exception was called Chris Dell.
‘How did you get us this feed anyway?’
‘I did something you wouldn’t understand,’ said Chris, with a slight, understated smile.
‘Oh, okay.’ I returned my attention to the screen, watching as the aliens lead the girl away. ‘This really isn’t good. What is that girl thinking?’
‘I can understand it a bit. Think of the adventure.’
I shook my head. ‘They’re going to kill her. Is there anything we can do?’
Chris shrugged. ‘I can hack a few more satellites.’
‘Cool.’
~*~
She was bundled into a flimsy looking pod and, without ceremony, launched from the ship and out of orbit. Chris and I looked out on her using some sort of videological miracle.
‘Damn it,’ I cursed. ‘We have to save her.’
‘What about defending the Earth from the ongoing alien invasion?’
‘Bah, they’ll get killed by microbes soon enough.’ I glared at the image of her pod shooting through the black. ‘Can’t you think of anything?’
Chris bit his lower lip. ‘Well, I do have one idea, but it’s a bit of a long shot…’
~*~
After a long and technical explanation, there was only one point among many which I understood enough to know that I didn’t understand it.
‘I didn’t know we had an unmanned space station orbiting Mars.’
‘Oh, we do,’ Chris assured. ‘New Scientist did an article on it last week.’
‘Hmm… alright. Let’s do this then.’
The plan involved sending out drones to capture the girls’ pod and redirect her to the space station, where, now that Chris had taken control of it, an oxygen atmosphere was being generated. Once she was safely there we could begin putting together a plan to get her back to Earth.
She streaked through space like a meteor. Cameras mounted on our drones kept her in our sights, as they got closer and closer.
‘I’m getting some odd readings on the pod.’
I glanced at Chris. ‘Oh?’
‘It appears to be full of water.’
The drones got closer and the view cleared, revealing the transparent walls of the pod. Chris was absolutely right. The girl hung suspended, her hair now free and sleek in the water. Her face and hands were pressed against the wall, her eyes wide with what must be terror.
‘How is she even breathing?’
‘I don’t know.’
My heart wrenched as I stared at her. She was mouthing something, again and again.
‘We have to -’
‘The pod!’ Chris interrupted. ‘It’s breaking apart. Or… something!’
The water writhed inside the pod and a hatch opened at the bottom. The girl was sucked down by some force and right to the bottom of her cage. She let herself go, raising her hands above her head like a child jumping into a swimming pool. And then she was jettisoned, pushed out into empty space, while the pod crumbled behind her.
‘No,’ I whispered.
As she died, the girl smiled and mouthed the same words one last time. This time I caught them:
‘So beautiful.’
And then she was nothing but a body, spinning gently in the dark.
Here goes:
You could tell, when the aliens landed, that they’d planned it all out for maximum impact: the ray guns that blew up random geographical landmarks, the ECM pulse that took out every computer and television on the globe and then the booming voice-over that informed us of the arrival of our new alien overlords. They lit up the sky when they finally came down, the red fire of their thrusters rebounding off the storm clouds above so that it felt like Armageddon was upon us.
The effect was rather undone however by the small, mousy girl who walked up to the now-landed spacecraft and knocked on the metal hull. She had her brown hair done up in a tight bun and wore one of those painfully intense expressions that breaks your heart just to look at it.
A landing door descended and the aliens emerged. It was a little hard to tell, what with the green tentacles that grew out of their cheekbones and such, but the aliens appeared a little nonplussed by the girl.
‘How dare you approach us, human?’
‘Uhm, you see, well… I…’ the girl stuttered. Then she took a deep breath. ‘I want to see the stars. Can you help me?’
The aliens, there were about five or six of them, turned to each other and went into conference, their tentacles wavering around excitedly. Finally, they returned their attention to the girl.
‘Yes, we can help.’
After which, all six of them bellowed out a hollow, ringing sound that appeared every bit the stereotype of evil, alien laughter.
~*~
When I said they knocked out every computer, I may have been exaggerating slightly, as there are exceptions to every crass generalisation and in this case, the exception was called Chris Dell.
‘How did you get us this feed anyway?’
‘I did something you wouldn’t understand,’ said Chris, with a slight, understated smile.
‘Oh, okay.’ I returned my attention to the screen, watching as the aliens lead the girl away. ‘This really isn’t good. What is that girl thinking?’
‘I can understand it a bit. Think of the adventure.’
I shook my head. ‘They’re going to kill her. Is there anything we can do?’
Chris shrugged. ‘I can hack a few more satellites.’
‘Cool.’
~*~
She was bundled into a flimsy looking pod and, without ceremony, launched from the ship and out of orbit. Chris and I looked out on her using some sort of videological miracle.
‘Damn it,’ I cursed. ‘We have to save her.’
‘What about defending the Earth from the ongoing alien invasion?’
‘Bah, they’ll get killed by microbes soon enough.’ I glared at the image of her pod shooting through the black. ‘Can’t you think of anything?’
Chris bit his lower lip. ‘Well, I do have one idea, but it’s a bit of a long shot…’
~*~
After a long and technical explanation, there was only one point among many which I understood enough to know that I didn’t understand it.
‘I didn’t know we had an unmanned space station orbiting Mars.’
‘Oh, we do,’ Chris assured. ‘New Scientist did an article on it last week.’
‘Hmm… alright. Let’s do this then.’
The plan involved sending out drones to capture the girls’ pod and redirect her to the space station, where, now that Chris had taken control of it, an oxygen atmosphere was being generated. Once she was safely there we could begin putting together a plan to get her back to Earth.
She streaked through space like a meteor. Cameras mounted on our drones kept her in our sights, as they got closer and closer.
‘I’m getting some odd readings on the pod.’
I glanced at Chris. ‘Oh?’
‘It appears to be full of water.’
The drones got closer and the view cleared, revealing the transparent walls of the pod. Chris was absolutely right. The girl hung suspended, her hair now free and sleek in the water. Her face and hands were pressed against the wall, her eyes wide with what must be terror.
‘How is she even breathing?’
‘I don’t know.’
My heart wrenched as I stared at her. She was mouthing something, again and again.
‘We have to -’
‘The pod!’ Chris interrupted. ‘It’s breaking apart. Or… something!’
The water writhed inside the pod and a hatch opened at the bottom. The girl was sucked down by some force and right to the bottom of her cage. She let herself go, raising her hands above her head like a child jumping into a swimming pool. And then she was jettisoned, pushed out into empty space, while the pod crumbled behind her.
‘No,’ I whispered.
As she died, the girl smiled and mouthed the same words one last time. This time I caught them:
‘So beautiful.’
And then she was nothing but a body, spinning gently in the dark.