If there was ONE thing Kenneth Kody Kogane didn't want to happen today, it was to have a crashed alien ship spawn outside his shack.
But that was what happened.
Ken rolled onto his side, groggily turning on the light beside his bed. He blinked hazily as his eyes adjusted to the light, and he sat up slowly, donning his brown jacket as he headed to the window. He found himself staring down at wrecked metal, smoldering and blazing. It took on a form similar to that of a ship. Fear struck Kenneth as he rushed outside, grabbing his fireman's ax as he went, he wasted just enough time trying to find out where the cockpit was to worry that whoever was inside was dead.
Kenneth slammed his ax into the ship, surprised when it easily dug through the metal. It was even more surprising when he discovered that he could easily press it away from the pilot's chair, finding before him a injuried…woman. She had beautiful purple skin, her helmet's visor cracked, and she couldn't have been more then twenty-five.
She opened her eyes blearily as the light of the moon hit her eyes, staring at him for a half-second before sinking back with a soft groan into the chair.
Kenneth's medical training kicked in, and he began to speak. "Hello. My name is Ken. I'm a firefighter, I'm going to get you out of there. I only need you to do one thing; keep breathing." He busied himself with finding a way to pull open the ship's hood without hurting the woman inside. "I'm not sure if you can understand me, but, even if you can't, hold on. I'm going to save you." Kenneth found a way to pry open the ship enough for him to reach in and pluck her out without having anything land on her.
She sighed with pain when he touched her, but Kenneth ignored it. His first priority was getting her out. Once she was completely in his arms, he carried her, bridal style, into his house, making sure that she didn't bump into anything. Once she was safely indoors and upstairs, resting on his queen-sized bed, he pulled off her helmet, sucking in his breath.
Her hair was a beautiful mix of pink and purple, the purple forming a beautiful halo around her head, and the pink seeming like the extra layer at the bottom. Some glass shards were mingled with her hair, and one side of her face was scratched up, but for the most part…
"Lord." Kenneth whispered, carefully removing the shards. "Tell me I'm dreaming."
He undid the clasp on her breast plate, carefully removing it from her. This would help her breath more easily. Ever so gently, he removed the rest of her armor, inhaling sharply if ever she began to stir. He had to keep remind himself that she may be hostile.
"There we go." Kenneth murmured, setting all her armor off to the side. She had donned a skin-tight suit as extra protection underneath her armor, and, currently, that was all she wore. "You're beautiful." Kenneth assured her as he tended to the wounds adorning her body.
The alien murmured something as she adjusted her position, eyelids twitching.
"That's it." Ken murmured, taking a step back as he moved himself in front of his ax, the tool within easy reach if she attacked. "Wake up."
The alien opened up her eyes as if responding to his command, slowly moving her head. When her eyes caught sight of Kenneth, she started, her fingers gripping the covers like a vice. "Wha-?! Where're-?! Who're-?"
"I'm-" Kenneth was taken back. So she COULD speak English! This was weird.
"Where am I?" She demanded, giving him the stink eye.
"This my home." Kenneth informed her.
"Who're you?!" She hissed, sliding of the bed and drawing herself to her full height. She was only about an inch taller than he was, but it was still a shock to have to look slightly up into her eyes.
"My name is Kenneth." Ken informed her, "and I reckon I just saved your life."
"I'm…" the alien frowned at him suspiciously. "I'm Krolia. Thank you for your service, brave Earthling." She hardly looked at him before going over to the window and spotting the remains of the ship just a little past his fence line.
"We prefer the term 'humans' if you don't mind." Kenneth told her, leaning against the window frame. "Anyway, I advise you take it easy. You got pretty banged up in the crash." Oh, she was beautiful.
Krolia turned to him suddenly, stopping only to cough something awful. "My knife. I demand to know where the Quiznak my knife is!"
"I'm afraid I don't know where your knife is." Kenneth lied, feeling the false words burn through his tongue. He had discovered it while removing her armor, and had stashed it somewhere safe for the fear that she would try to kill him with it.
"It must have been thrown by the crash." Krolia realized, glancing down at her person. "Hey! Where's my armor?! You weren't planning to-?!"
"No, nothing like that!" Ken protested, having a strong suspicion what she would ask about. "I removed it to get a better look at your wounds. You have quite a few."
"Right." Krolia didn't even look at her body to determine where her wounds were. "Then where's my armor?"
Kenneth pointed to the scrapped up armor in the corner.
"Great." Krolia hissed, walking over to it and giving it a kick. "Now I'm stuck here. The best I can do is wait for another patrol that hopefully had a Blade Member on it, and then I steal one of their ships, and…" Krolia sighed, closing her eyes in frustration. "May I take sanctuary here for a few days?"
"Of course." Kenneth assured her. "Stay here for as long as you like."
"Thank you." Krolia hummed, her voice dropping to a whisper as he sunk back onto the bed. "Is this your dorm?"
"Yes." Ken told her, gesturing to the stairs at the far side of the room. "I'm going to sleep on the couch, instead."
"If you wish, I will take this 'couch'." Krolia insisted, standing again as she stood beside him. "I'm an uninvited guest, you probably want your bed back."
"No, no, it's fine."
"Are you sure?" Krolia asked, sending it a withering look.
"Yes. Is there anything I can get you?"
"Yes. There is something." Krolia decided. "I wish to get in contact with your leaders. Perhaps they can arrange to take me back to the outer rim of this solar system."
"I'm afraid I'm not sure how the president would react to…you. Also, we haven't gotten ships past Jupiter, and they just arrived at Jupiter about a month ago."
"Do you have ANY means of getting me past Ranglor?"
"Ranglor?"
"Yes! Ranglor the planet."
"Which Planet?"
"Let me see a map of the planets in this Solar System!"
Kenneth left the room for a brief moment before returning with a chart of all the Planets. "This is us." He told her, pointing to the Planet Earth. "Then, in order, this is Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune."
"To the Galra, it goes Vinclar, Dagur, Earth, Mars, Jarnnicar, Xalum, Ranglor, and Proncathius." Krolia pointed to each one in turn, blinking softly at him.
"How come you got these two right?"
Krolia rolled her eyes. "Both are POPULATED. We simply called them by whatever their inhabitants named them."
"Oh." Kenneth glanced down at the sheet, frowning at it. "Well, no. We don't have any means of transportation going past Uranus, or Ran-whatever."
"Ranglor." Krolia interrupted. "Well, any means of communication so I may get in contact with Kolivan?"
"Nope." Ken told her, sorrow in his voice. "Sorry."
"I hate this planet already!" Krolia groaned, burying her head in her hands.
"Hey, Earth ain't all bad…" Kenneth began, but Krolia cut him off.
"Oh, what do you know about planets, you stupid dolt?!"
"Hey!" Kenneth placed his hands on his hips. He had tried to be kind as she questioned everything, but this was over the line! "My planet, my country, my property, my house, so my rules. Nobody can call me a dolt here!"
"Don't you have freedom of speech here?" Krolia flashed back, barring her fangs at him.
"Yeah, but that don't mean we use it!"
"Oh NO! We're on one of THOSE Planets…" Krolia moaned, one hand pinching the bridge of her nose as she tilted her head back. "This is just PERFECT!"
"Woah!" Kenneth snarled. "At least I didn't crash into your property, making radiation leak everywhere!"
"At least I know that the fighters have NOTHING to do with radiation, therefore couldn't leak it!"
"At least I'm a native and not a weirdo from outer space!"
"At least I'm actually SMART!"
Kenneth let out a shout, swinging his fist towards her angrily.
Krolia easily grabbed it, even in her weakened, injured state, and swung him towards the ground.
Kenneth grabbed her leg and pulled her down too, rolling out of the way as she crashed down. Krolia easily pounced upon him, claws, or maybe really, really sharp finger nails, digging into his neck.
Kenneth reached up an was able to grab the handle of his ax, dragging it towards him as he lifted it up to strike.
Krolia glanced up at the last second, leaping out of the way as he began to bring it down. It splintered the ground, throwing bits of wood everywhere. Krolia grabbed his bedside table and hurled it as far as she could towards him, catching him off guard. Kenneth dropped to the ground, the wooden furniture crashing into the ground right behind him.
"Okay, lady," Kenneth snapped. "Stop ruining my house, or I'll turn you into the police!"
Krolia, still with the wild spark in her eye, stopped, though she watched him tentatively, sitting down as she glared. "Fine." She snapped, one hand wrapping around her stomach as she gazed at him. There was a few moments of silence as they stared at each other, which Krolia finally broke.
"You have spirit, Earthling. I think I like you."
"Human. But, yeah, and you can hurl a twenty-pound piece of furniture like it was nothing." Kenneth replied. "We need somebody like you in the Fire Department."
"I guess we both need each other." Krolia stated thoughtfully.
"Yeah…" Kenneth blinked. "I guess we do…"
Both of them didn't realize that this was the spark of something truly beautiful.