A Holiday Adventure

As the alien spaceship headed for the blue planet, all inside speculated on what they would find there. Zokar, the pilot, warned the others not to prejudge. “Remember what we found on the last place,” it warned. “We barely escaped with our ship intact.” Four heads nodded at this memory.

Slowly, the ship descended, mile by mile, until the green of land replaced the blue of the sky. With a gentle bump, the journey ended, and Zokar opened the hatch. Oxygen-rich atmosphere entered the ship, and the creatures quickly put on their filter masks. Nothing, though, prepared them for the gravity, a fifth of their home planet. Floating slowly out of the hatch and up away from their ship, each struggled to grab something to keep from losing touch with the planet underneath them.

Eliv yelled out to the others, as it wrapped itself around the top of a yellow object, “Here, here, come to me.” Slowly, using the air currents, the others joined Eliv on that object and a red one near it.

Zokar counted heads and saw one of its group was missing. “Jakat? Where is our youngest?” All started swiveling back and forth, searching for the one that was the hope for their future. Without Jakat and the small ones breeding inside it, their species would die out.

“Here I am,” a voice called out from a distance away. They saw it holding on tightly to a long brown object, and then lifted in the air even further away from them. Eliv yelped to find itself also lifted and moving towards Jakat.

The other four heard the youngest squealing as Eliv fell, landing next to it. Tebra and Selak, on the nearby red object, watched in horror as Jakat and Eliv disappeared into a large hole that closed behind them. The brown object soon came out, shorter and minus the two aliens. Zokar, scrambling off the yellow object to join Tebra and Selak, wailed its sorrow at the probable death of its two youngest. All three howled with the knowledge that now they all would die.

Over the heads of the three remaining aliens, moisture came out of the hole to land down on the green ground. Eliv and Jakat lay there soaking wet, motionless, but still alive. It took some time, but the other three eventually joined them.

“It was terrible,” Eliv cried, when finally conscious. Jakat could only nod its head in agreement, too stunned to speak. “Big white creatures nearly cut us in half, and we almost drowned in the hole’s liquid.” Eliv’s words had the others shuddering, as liquid was often deadly to them. Coming from a hot dry planet, their bodies had not evolved to handle large quantities of moisture.

“This place is not for us,” Zokar said, echoing the thoughts of the other four. “Perhaps the next planet will be better.” Sadly, all five of the aliens struggled through the green to where the spaceship waited for them. Over their heads, they saw colored lights and heard loud explosions. Other frightening sounds soon had them practically flying towards their ship, holding on to each other to keep from floating away.

“Hurry, hurry,” called out Jakat, in the lead. “I feel the ones inside me wanting to come out.”

“No, not here. Not yet.” This came from Eliv, pushing past the youngest. It grabbed Jakat and brought it into the safety of the ship, soon followed by the other three. As the hatch door closed behind them, the aliens removed their filter masks and breathed in deeply of the ship’s thicker atmosphere. Zokar started the ship, and all tried to relax as it rose above the place of their recent adventure.

Without any warning, the ship crashed back to the ground. A heavy object flattened the ship and its occupants, as a young voice cried out, “Mom, I think I just killed the bug I almost swallowed.”

Around the young boy, the Fourth of July celebration continued. Fireworks filled the early evening sky, while his family continued their picnic on the town’s common. Hot dogs and hamburgers sizzled on the grill, sending up pleasant aromas. No one noticed the smell, reminiscent of skunk, coming from the decaying bodies underfoot.

Thus, a day that marked a country’s independence ended with the death of a small group of travelers, far from home.

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The winning entry in

Science Fiction Short Stories  (E) A Science Fiction contest for all to enter! #1561026 by C. A. Smith ~ The Reviled

Why not write a story about first contact with aliens and enter this contest? I know you have the words inside your imagination just begging to be written.

WC = 733

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