First Contact

Science officer Sandra McGee waited in the airlock. With a hiss the door slid up, exposing her to the new world visible through the clear bubble helmet of her excursion suit. She stepped to the small ladder and climbed down. This was her favorite part. No human had ever set foot here before and that thought sent a charge of excitement through her.

She let go of the ladder and turned, taking in the lush landscape. Deep green grass covered gently rolling hills. Tall trees with leaves that looked like the wing of a bi-plane surrounded the meadow that they had landed in. She bent and took a sample of the grass, and then quickly set up her atmospheric analyzer.

“All systems nominal, Captain. I am going to head into the forest and get a few tree samples. I’ll be back in thirty minutes or so.”

“Roger that. Be careful out there.”

“Aren’t I always?” She asked back with a small laugh.

She walked to the forest edge and was just about to pluck one of the strange leaves off of the tree when she thought she saw a metallic glint on the other side of the trees. She pushed through the low brush. She felt a crunch under her boot. She looked down and saw broken glass and a cylindrical casing made of a material she did not recognize. It reminded her of a monocular.

“This should not be here,” she thought to herself. She stood, and all most fell over backwards. There, standing about fifty feet in front of her was at least a dozen creatures. They were humanoid, at least 8 feet tall, standing on two legs, except that their knees bent the wrong way. They had four very long arms that hung down all most to their knees, reminding Sandra of multi limbed spider monkeys. Their exposed skin was covered in a short, wiry fur of forest green and brown. They were wearing some kind of armor that shone in the sun, as well as some sort of side arm and a spear with a wicked looking wavy blade across their back.

Sandra stood staring. “Captain, I have contact with alien life forms. They appear intelligent and are most definitely armed.”

“Get back to the ship now. I will prepare for lift off. We are not prepared to initiate first contact!”

“Ummm, I hate to tell you, but I think I already have. I will try to break off contact and get back. You prep the ship and I will keep you updated on the situation.”

She raised a hand, palm out and open. “That is peaceful, right?” She thought to herself. Across from her the alien in the center imitated her gesture. She dropped her hand, and he did the same.

“O.k. so far so good.” She muttered. The entire group of aliens started to move towards her, slowly, but all at once. Sandra was not sure what that meant, but it made her exceedingly nervous. She took a tentative step back, and stepped on the remains of the monocular. Her foot rolled out from under her and shot straight up in the air. She flew up in the air and landed hard, flat on her back. When she landed, the ground hit the bottom of her small rock hammer’s handle and shot it out of its belt loop. The hammer spun end over end and hit the center alien right in the head. His head snapped back like he had been hit by a Mike Tyson jab, and then he collapsed. The rest of the aliens stopped to examine their fallen comrade and then turned to Sandra. They all had looks that could only be taken as angry and they were coming towards again. She stumbled to her feet, turned and ran as fast as she could back to the landing ship.

“Captain, I am coming in hot. Really angry aliens right behind me, I hope you are ready!”

“Will be by the time you get here. What happened? I thought things were going well?” She heard him ask as one of the spears went sailing by her.

“Negotiation breakdown caused by clumsiness. I will fill you in later.” She gasped. She could see the landing ship growing closer as she ran for her life. More spears passed over her head or to her side. Then, she heard a low wine. She threw herself to the ground before she even knew why. A blue bolt of energy cut through the air and passed right through where she had been only seconds before.

“They are armed with some kind of energy weapon Captain!” she shouted as she started running again. Somehow she made it to the ship, got the airlock shut behind her, and screamed that the ship was secure. She felt the rockets fire and the ship begin to slowly rise. She got her helmet and gloves off, threw them in the storage rack, and ran to a window. The ship was already several hundred feet in the air. She could see the alien that had been hit with her rock hammer starting to rise. “Thank goodness he's not hurt” she thought. Then she noticed that he was pointing at the ship. The ship rocked as laser fire found its mark. She heard some cussing from the cockpit, and then the voice of the Captain telling her that the shields were full strength and not to worry.

She watched out the window until the main ship was in site. At least they were not being followed, that she could see.

It was at that moment that she realized what had happened. She was the first human to have contact with an intelligent alien race, and she'd managed to hit the leader in the head with her rock hammer.

She began to laugh. How was she ever going to write this report?

1000 words