Wednesday 23 May 2007

Aliens Have Landed: Part 1

The first suggestion that Laoren had that something was amiss was that Melinda was in. Mel was never in. Laoren frowned.

“What’s kept you inside today?” she asked.

“You haven’t seen!” exclaimed Mel excitedly. “Come in!”

She walked into the living room, where Greg – fully dressed already– was bouncing in his seat, watching the television.

“Aliens have landed, Laoren,” Mel explained. “So exciting!”

Laoren’s stomach sank. Had the media somehow found out about Trenavass?

But no. There were lots of these aliens. But they did look familiar – they were quite clearly the same species as Trenavass himself.

“Shame I had my monthly night out last week,” said Mel. “This is worth celebrating.”

“I’m surprised you’ve allowed it to disrupt the morning’s schedule, let alone anything else,” said Greg. Mel threw a cushion at him.

Laoren ignored them. She was watching the news intently.

“One of the aliens has approached the Prime Minister,” the reporter was saying. “However, there have been severe communication problems, and the government is trying to get hold of some linguistic specialists to decipher their unusual grasp of the English language.”

“Bugger this,” said Greg. “I’m off to the pub. No point in celebrating history in my living room.”

“I’d better head off too,” said Mel. “I’ve got plans.”

Laoren was secretly glad. She needed to speak to Trenavass urgently, and as soon as her housemates had left, she dragged him into the living room – ensuring that the curtains were closed first.

“Ah,” said Trenavass.

“Ah?” asked Laoren.

“It seems I’ve made a mistake,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m so sorry,” said Trenavass. “But I lied to you. I’m not an explorer, or a scientist, or an ambassador from my planet. In fact, I wasn’t meant to come here at all. My spaceship is stolen. And my suit wasn’t just intended to hide myself from humans – it’s a disguise.”

Laoren simply stared at him.

“I’m very sorry,” he said.

“Then … who are you?” breathed Laoren. She took a step back. “Are you a criminal?”

“Oh, not at all,” said Trenavass. “A criminal able to speak English this well? Certainly not.” He straightened up to his full height. “I’m a prince.”

“What?!”

“Of quite an important country, in fact. But I didn’t like it there, and I thought I could find a way to live on this planet instead.”

“What?” exclaimed Laoren. “You came here rather than remain a prince in your own world?”

“Yes,” said Trenavass simply.

“And these other aliens. They’re here to find you?”

“Yes.”

“To take you home.”

“To arrest me,” said Trenavass. “Having stolen a ship and fled the planet, I actually AM a criminal now, technically. And being a prince, that means I’ve committed treason.”

“I see,” said Laoren, her head spinning

“My maths were wrong. It should have taken them a week to find that the ship was missing, and even with their faster ships, they shouldn’t have been able to find me until tomorrow at the earliest.” He put his hand to his forehead. “Unless they checked early, or knew for certain I’d come to Earth …”

The reporter suddenly looked extremely alert.

“We’ve just received further information,” she said. “Apparently, a second ship has landed in a secondary school, its location so far undisclosed …”

Laoren turned to Trenavass.

“Why would they go …”

But she didn’t need to finish. The colour had drained from Trenavass’s face, his eyes wide. He snapped out of it, but still he seemed scared.

“Another lie, I’m afraid,” he said. “I told you my ship needed to recharge. That wasn’t true either. I merely needed an excuse to hide here before there was any chance of their arrival.”

“You didn’t need assylum, then?”

“I did,” he said. “But I’d hoped to move on before anyone arrived.”

“And what’s that got to do with the school?”

“That’s where I sent it,” said Trenavass. “That’s where the spaceship’s hidden.”

-10001-

Children surrounded the Byllkwyr, keeping their distance, but nonetheless locking them in. Most of the aliens were bulky and heavily built – security guards and policemen – but a few were smaller. These were the technicians, pilots and experts.

One such expert, his helmet removed, approached the crowds.

“We are Byllkwyr,” he said. “Hopelijk, we not here for very long will be. We zoeken because a spacecraft cloaked, and as soon as we finding, we will only leave your education venture.”

The kids stared in silence.

“We someone wishes our around this school will lead,” he continued. “We some volunteers our want rapidly and efficiently accompany.”

There was some confusion, until one girl realised what they wanted. She stepped forward.

“I greet you in the name of Earth,” she said clearly. “My name is Ffion, and I volunteer to lead you around this school.”

The Byllkydd seemed to follow her speech, and nodded.

“We three others us at you want connect,” he said, slowly and clearly. Seeing the girl frown, he repeated himself, holding up three of his six fingers. “Three others.”

Ffion looked around, seeing her friends Stacey, Stephanie and Karen behind her.

“What do you think?” she asked softly.

“These guys are a bit creepy,” said Stephanie in a stage whisper.

“Know what you mean,” said Stacey. “Don’t know if you can trust blue people.”

The interpretor turned to one of the policemen and spoke in Byllkeg.

“[The two girls are of limited intelligence and therefore of limited use,]” he said.

“[They will be administered an Apathy Dart,]” said the policeman. He pulled out a dart gun, and shot Stephanie in the shoulder, then Stacey in the leg.

The playground went insane. Kids started running around like headless chickens. Stephanie and Stacey, meanwhile, calmly walked away, their most recent memories already fading.

“[You shouldn't have done that,]” sighed the interpretor. “[They are unfamiliar with our technology. Remember, we're like aliens to these people.]

He turned towards the children again.

“Not panic!” he blared. “We are very sad. The child is safe. The dart is not dangerous.” He was speaking clearly, using short sentences.

Most of the kids settled down, but were still clearly anxious.

“Please don’t do that again,” said Ffion, firmly but humbly.

“We are very sad,” repeated the interpretor.

Ffion turned to Karen, who held up her thumb.

“Karen and I will still accompany you,” she said.

“So will I,” said a small voice from behind them. They looked behind them. It was Elizabeth Norris, a girl a few years older than them.

“We are grateful,” said the alien. “We need more only one.”

“I’ll do it.”

Dylan stepped forwards.

“What do we do?”

2 comments:

Quoth the Raven said...

Excellent, dealing with the aliens at last! And, of course, shooting Stupid Stephanie in the eye, a necessary scene in everyone's fiction, the bitch. Nice to see Ffion out of Dylan's head, too. She needed some sun.

Bit of a tried-and-tested plot twist with good ol' Trenavass, so I'm looking forward to seeing you doing something exciting, fun and original with it. 'Course if I was Laoren I'd have poked him in both eyes for lying to me because he thought he could, on the grounds of me being ignorant about his technology and social structures, but, you know... that's just me, eh?

Very good, though, write more. And remember Jeremy.

Jester said...

I loved the Aliens bizarre grasp of English! The Apathy dart is a great idea- as is having foreign language bracketed, but still in English.

I don't think this section matches up with the Stephanie diary chapter- so you may want to go back and revise what Stephanie wrote.