The Other Stories Volume 1.1 Alien (An Original Short Sci-Fi Story)

These aren't the stories you're mother used to tell you ... no ... these are The Other Stories

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It was cold that night. Colder than normal for that time of year. I remember clear as yesterday, though how could I not, given that it was when this nightmare began.

I’d been out in the field, tending to my flock, when I’d first seen the light in the night sky. It was a fiery speck that twinkled like a distant flame at the end of a pitch-dark cellar. I remember glancing up at the time and disregarding it as meaningless, the folly of the heavens, but I’d soon find my initial assessment to be wholly inaccurate.

A while later, for reasons still unknown to me, I glanced up a second time to see the speck had now doubled in size. This time it held my gaze and I just stared upwards until my neck got sore. Within the burning orange the shape of a dark disc was now visible. There was something solid in the fire.

A rock maybe? I’d thought.

I considered running to the local town to alert the village council in case it was something more, but thought better of it.

What’s the point? I’d asked myself. Space rocks fall in my fields all the time.

Only recently had I found a large meteor the size of my skull still smouldering in its crater not too far from where I was standing that night. This was just another rock; I was sure of it.

After rounding up my wayward cattle and herding them into their night dwellings, I set back to my house sparing one last glance upwards. This time I was stopped dead in my tracks. The ‘rock’ was now as large as our star in the night sky. Now, however, the ‘rock’ was recognisable as something else, something artificial. A metal disc that I remember thinking at the time looked like a burning plate; a burning plate that was getting larger as it drew closer. This certainly merited the attention of the local council, but at this point I’d never reach the town in time so, instead, I just stood with mouth agape and watched.

I watched as the fire grew brighter, I watched as the disc grew larger and I watched as the object came to a surprisingly gentle collision with the ground of the field adjacent to the one I was standing in. The ground shook as dirt flew into the air and, still, all I could do was watch. Eventually I somehow managed to move and did so in the direction of this landed heavenly thing as fast as I could.

This apparently wasn’t the first time a metal object had fallen from the sky. I’d heard stories from far away of metal beasts descending from space, shrouded in fire. They would unfurl themselves from the ball they arrived as and view our world with cold, glassy eyes. They were wordless and mechanical and sought only to take our plants, our livestock and, on a couple of reported occasions, one of our own. These were just rumours though, hearsay, and most had disregarded them as such. But now, faced with the thing in actuality I realised there must be at least some truth to the stories.

As I arrived in the adjacent field I found the ‘disc’, which, as it happened, was more conical in shape, sat smouldering in the dirt bowl its impact had formed – like a metal egg in an earthen nest. From its metal panelled side a doorway began to open with a hiss revealing a dark interior. Then… stillness.

A slave to my curiosity I took a couple of foolish steps forward, eager to peer inside. Edging closer step by step I came almost within arm’s reach before a tall figure appeared in the doorway with enough suddenness to send me falling over backwards onto the ground.

The visitor was garbed in strange, chunky pale clothing that appeared seamless. This was save for the hole its head, the only visible part of the creature, poked out of. It appeared fragile by comparison to us, its pale skin was pulled taut over an angular bone structure, large eyes set close together and far into their sockets, and with a patch of something strange and burnt orange on its crown. Was this headwear or something organic? It looked almost plant-like, as though it was growing from the creatures scalp.

Seeing me sat on the floor it took a step forward and extended its hand, adorned with an extra digit, in my direction. I viewed it suspiciously. Was I to be taken with the visitor like the victims of the stories I’d heard?

It pulled the tight skin around its mouth back to reveal rows of tiny teeth, far more than normal, all of near uniform size. I couldn’t tell if this was an expression of aggression or reassurance, though given the circumstance I assumed the latter. I felt far from reassured.

Who are you? I wanted to scream. Where do you come from?

I already half-knew the answer to this second question: upwards. Outer space. What stood before me was a creature from another planet, another galaxy for all I knew.

After a moment’s hesitation I reached up and grabbed the creature’s hand, covered in its strange armoured glove, and allowed it to pull me up. Teeth still bared, it spoke words in a language we’d later come to understand and fear. This was only when its peers used this language to talk us from our homes, which we’d soon learn were positioned over rich mineral and ore deposits we had yet to discover for ourselves. This was also the language that was used to tell us they were taking our resources, our land, for themselves and they would let us live peacefully if we stayed in our designated ‘safe’ zones. They then used their words to ‘negotiate’ the terms of our slave-like labour in the mines they’d set up in the rubble of our former towns.

“Don’t worry,” the visitor said after helping me to my feet. “I’m from the planet Earth. We come in peace.”

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This has been Episode 1.1 of The Other Stories | Sci-Fi/Horror/Thriller/WTF stories delivered to your Steemit feed every Monday morning.

Written by Matt Butcher
Published by Hawk & Cleaver | A digital story production studio bringing you the best new stories for you to watch, read, sniff, and absorb.