Chapter Two: The Falling Star
Then came the night of the first "falling star". It was seen quite clearly during the evening rush hour over Pasadena: a line of flame, high in the Earth's atmosphere. Hundreds of people must have seen it but presumed it to be just an ordinary falling star, an asteroid entering the atmosphere and burning up on its decent. It was bright green in colour and drawing a green mist behind it. It glowed for a few seconds. Howard, the greatest authority on space junk amongst our group, stated that the height of its first appearance was too big to have been an asteroid and the impact too small for an object of that size! I was at home that night, working on my string theory; I now find it ironic that whilst I was trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, creatures from another world had landed here on Earth.
But very early in the morning, poor Penny, who had witnessed the falling star on her way home from work, was knocking on my door. Penny was quite clear that no one was to disturb her before 1100, so I was shocked to see her at my door so early. She was scared half to death, shaking and informed myself and Leonard that she had seen the falling star and had not been able to sleep a wink, having a gut instinct that something was not quite right about it. I informed her of the same facts I had stated the previous night about the chances of anything coming from space in this manner was a million to one. "But still they come", shouted Leonard, who had been woken up by Penny's frantic knocking on our door at this ungodly hour!
The three of us grabbed our coats and set of in search of the strange falling star which had fallen that night. Curious as I was about this mysterious object, I also hated to see Penny so wound up and wished nothing more than to put her mind at ease.
Soon after dawn, we set off with the idea of finding it. Find it we did: not far from the park, an enormous hole had been made by the impact of the projectile, and the sand and gravel of the park had been flung violently in every direction forming heaps visible almost miles away. Penny stopped in her tracks; visibly trembling, she grabbed my arm. I jumped; I am not one to care for physical human contact. I'm certain she noticed me stiffen up, but she refused to let go and held onto my arm as if her life depended on it. Leonard put his arm around her, but still she held on tight to my arm. We walked closer to the park, the trees were on fire eastward and a thin blue smoke rose against the dawn.
The object itself lay almost entirely buried in the ground. The uncovered part had the appearance of a huge metallic cylinder. It had the diameter of around thirty feet. We approached the mass and were surprised to see Kripke there. The object was still hot from its flight so nobody was able to approach it for a closer look. There was a stirring noise coming from inside the cylinder, I dismissed it as the noise which would be normal for a metal cooling down its surface. At this time it had not occurred to me that it may actually be hollow. Penny kept her grasp on my arm and was looking increasingly more agitated. "We need to get out of here", she whispered. "Something isn't right, I don't like this… Sheldon, please can we leave." I detected the desperation and panic in her voice, so Penny, myself and Leonard left Kripke to it and headed towards the trees where we could still observe, but from a distance of which Penny felt safer with.
Kripke remained standing at the edge of the pit that the cylinder had made for itself, just staring at its odd appearance. He was astonished at the object's odd shape and colour; he even considered that there was some design to the strange object. A few other scientists from the university had appeared and joined Kripke in the pit. One of them pointed at the grey clinker which covered the cylinder; it was falling off the circular edge of the end. It was dropping off in flakes and raining down on the ground below. A large piece suddenly came off and fell with a sharp noise which made even Leonard jump. Penny buried her head in my chest, trying to hide the tears falling down her cheeks. I wished she would let go of me. Leonard had his arm around her, so why did she have to hold on to my arm; she knew I did not like to be touched. I'm a man of science, not somebody's snuggle buddy!
For a moment, Kripke had not noticed what the falling clinker meant and, although the heat was excessive, he clambered down into the pit, to get a better look of the whole thing. He considered then that the cooling of the body might account for this, but this idea was disturbed by the fact that the ash and clinker was only falling from the end of the cylinder. Then he suddenly realised that very, very slowly, the circular end of the cylinder was rotating on its body. It was such a gradual motion that he only realised when he observed that a black mark which had been on the top of the cylinder was now clearly visible at the bottom. He heard a muffled grating sound and observed the black mark surge forward a good few inches. Then it dawned on him all of a sudden, whatever this object was, it was hollow, with an end which screwed out! Something inside was unscrewing the top… Penny trembled and I thought I was about to lose the blood supply to my right arm, she was holding onto it that tight. She was visibly shaking; nothing neither me nor Leonard could do or say would calm her down. She kept repeating "I don't like this, I don't like this one bit… something is very very wrong."
"Oh dear lord", I heard Kripke shout. "There's life in there…. Possibly half roasted to death given that crash landing." As if there had been a great mental leap, I instantly linked the cylinder with the flashes in the night sky which we had observed. The thought of a confined creature was such a dreadful one to Kripke and he went forward towards the object, but he had forgotten about the heat; luckily the dull radiation stopped him before he could burn himself on the still glowing metal. At that he stood, thoughtful for a moment then turned, scrambled out of the pit and set of running towards Pasadena city. The time must have been about six o'clock; I thought about how I was going to miss Doctor Who, but who cares when you potentially have a real life unidentified object right here in front of you!
None of us knew where Kripke had run off to but he returned to the pit about ten minutes later, accompanied by Leslie Winkle. "Good lord!" we heard her shout when she observed the cylinder for the first time. "It's a cylinder, an artificial cylinder and there's something inside." Kripke filled her in with the morning's happenings. Winkle stood there with a shovel in her hand; she stood for a moment trying to take everything in. A thin circle of bright white metal now showed between the top and the body of the cylinder. Air was either entering or leaving the rim with a loud hissing noise. They listened, banging on the side of the cylinder with a stick and been met with no response. Of course, the two of them were unable to do anything. They kept shouting at the cylinder, although I could not fathom out why: the chances of any alien life actually speaking the same language as anybody on our own planet was remotely slim. Winkle appeared to put it down to a lost cause and left the pit; I overheard her informing Kripke that she was going to the nearby railway station to collect a morning paper.
By eight o'clock a number of passers-by had formed a crowd around the cylinder. The three of us remained at our post, hidden away in the tree-line, where Penny felt safer. She wished to observe the events which were unfolding, but she did not wish to be anywhere near the strange object which had fallen from the sky the previous night!
