CHAPTER 2
FIRST CONTACT AND ESCAPE
The weather was dreadful for that time of year. The sky was pitch black, save for the forks of lightning that pierced the sky. I just kept walking. I didn't care were my legs took me, just as long as it was away from the Bar. I just kept walking, until I found myself in front of a sheltered bus stop, a bright light shining from its roof.
I slumped down on the bench, and held my head in my hands. I just felt like crying. My mother had ripped up my favourite book. I was really upset. How would I break it to the Optician? I leaned back against the bench and sighed once again.
"I wish I could have an adventure like in Treasure Island," I said aloud, "Finding a map, searching for treasure. It would be fantastic. Maybe I might find a cute girl who would like me for who I am. But what are the chances of that?"
It was at that time that everything started to happen.
Suddenly, out of the sky, there came a large bang! At first I thought it was the thunder, but then, barely five seconds after the sound, a large streak of red shot out of the clouds above, before hitting the road in front of me.
I stared at what had the impact place, where a small crater now was. After another second, something fell out of the sky and shattered through the glass roof of the shelter pitting me in darkness as I drove out of the way.
I looked up from the place were I fell, squinting in the darkness to see the remains of the shelter.
A flash of lightning briefly lit up the scene, and I had to double check to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
It was what appeared to be part of a sail, attached to a broken hunk of metal that could have been a mast. But what was a mast doing in the middle of Dorset? The nearest ocean was miles away.
Above me I suddenly heard a sound that kinda sounded like a plane over head, only the engine was stuttering.
I looked up just as a flash of lightning shot across the sky.
In the bright moment of light, I managed to catch the outline of a circular pod, with several odd staffs of metal, with pieces of cloth hanging raggedly around them. It kinda looked like a ship, with masts and sails, and it was coming down fast.
My first thought was it was some kind of Military plane, perhaps a secret development project by the Royal Navy, they had an Airbase not far from here after all.
As the ship made it's final decent, small landing pads jutted out at odd angles, causing it to dip slightly and lean on the main mast that produced from the front.
There was an eerie silences after the ship powered down, the pitter patter of rain drops on it's metal surface.
Slowly and carefully, I made my way to the ship, being careful in case anything else decided it wanted to fall from the sky.
On the side of the pod was a glass dome, slightly tinted, allowing me to see absolutely nothing of the inside.
I bit my lower lip, unsure of what to do.
Slowly I reached up to the glass dome and knocked lightly.
"Um, hello? Is anyone in there? If there is, do you need help?"
What followed, surprised me even more than the ships landing.
Out of the gloom of the dome, a large, green, scaly, three four hand suddenly pounded against the glass, causing me to jump back several feet.
As I did so, the glass dome popped open upwards, causing the owner of hand to fall out of the contraption, a large chest coming out after him.
My first impression was a turtle, a very large turtle. Roughly my size, though hunched over. He was wearing a blue overcoat, a red shirt buttoned up the front and a large pair of britches on his lower half. On top of his aged looking head sat a hat that wouldn't have looked out of place on the head of a captain of an old navy vessel, and looked rather interesting perched on this turtle-like beings head.
My first thought was to ask if he was ok, for the poor...
thing was coughing and spluttering like the engine of his ship had a few moments before. Before I could say anything though, the Turtle had grabbed me round the coat and was now nearly nose to nose with me.
"He's a comin' " he muttered looking at the skies, "Can you 'ear 'im? Those gears and gyros clicking and whirring like the Devil 'imself?" as he said this his neck extended father and father making me lean father back to avoid him. After he finished speaking he let me go and went to pick up his chest.
"Err, are you ok sir? Do you need to see a..." I trailed off. What did a Turtle who could speak English need to see? A doctor? A Vet? A guy from the Sea-life centre? I didn't know, but the Turtle Alien was talking again.
"'E's after me chest," he wheezed as he slung the big box onto his stubby shoulder, "That fiendish Cyborg, and his band of cutthroats! But 'e'll have to pry it out of Billy Bone's cold, dead fingers before I..." But he didn't finish his sentence as another series of coughing fits overcame him, forcing him onto the wet pavement and dropping the chest.
A stood there helplessly, a lot of things going through my mind. The first was that the only logical explanation was either this was a Alien or a genetic experiment, or I had really lost it.
Seeing I knew I didn't feel like I had lost it, it was either a new form of life, or a genetic experiment. But why would a genetic experiment be flying a funny looking ship like the one he was flying? It had to be a alien, just had to be.
The second thing that startled me was that the Alien had called himself 'Billy Bones.' I suddenly realised that he had the same name as the sailor in Treasure Island. In fact, now that I looked at it, He was dressed as like a sailor, only he was a turtle...sort of.
Bones was beginning to get more silent. Worrying that he might be dead, I crouched down beside him to see if he was alright.
He was still breathing, thank goodness, but his breaths were getting more and more ragged.
"Me...Me Chest Lad," He managed to get out, reaching out for the box, which actually reminded me of a sea chest.
With out hesitation, I gently pushed the chest towards him. He gave a small sigh of relief, before tapping a 3 digit code into the lock.
The chest buzzed, before the lock clicked and opened. I peered inside, but saw nothing, save for a small sphere, wrapped in cloth.
"They'll be comin' soon. Can't let 'im have this," He mumbled to himself as he held the sphere close to him.
"Who?" I asked, confused, "Who's coming?"
He grabbed me round the shirt again and brought his wrinkled face up to my ear, pushing the sphere into my hands as he did so.
"The Cyborg," he whispered, "Beware...The Cyborg."
My eyes widened as I felt the last of his breath against my face, and let him fall back to the ground. His last words sent shivers down my spine. Quickly I pocketed the sphere and gazed down and Billy Bones. I couldn't just leave him here, what if the Authorities found him?
Biting my lip, I quickly started to drag the dead Alien into a nearby bush, covering him up as best I could. With any luck, nature would take it's course and his body would hopefully never be found. I know it wasn't the nicest thing to do, but how could I explain to the police a dead Turtle Alien away?
Once I had done this, I said a silent prayer for him before heading back to where his old ship stood.
"What am I going to do with you?" I asked myself as I sifted through my wet hair, which was plastered to my skull. I couldn't exactly move the Ship as I had done with Bones. He had been heavy, and his ship was no doubt heavier still.
Suddenly I heard another sound, a sound that made the colour drain from my face. It was a sound like the One Bones' ship had made, only much stronger. I looked up in fear as I saw the ship that had no doubt brought Bones to Earth.
It looked bulky enough, but I couldn't really make out the size of it against the dark. The one thing I did see however was a large menacing looking cannon, that would have looked better in a Star Wars movie.
Without thinking much, I quickly made sure the Sphere was safely in my pocket before making a jump for Bone' ship, the glass Dome of door slamming shut behind me.
Inside was roomy, though it must have been cramped for Billy Bones. It was lit by a deep red coming from behind the small console in front of me. There were four windows in total I realised, three large ones on the front and sides, and a smaller one half the size at the back, the large dome on the left doubling as a door.
A looked down at the console, running my hands through my soaked hair as I did so.
The controls were simple enough, there were four buttons on left side, and two leavers on the right. In the middle was a kind of steering wheel. I had only recently taking my driving test, and passed with flying colours I might add, but this was entirely different.
As I tried to figure out how to work this thing, I stole a quick glance out of the door window. Outside the lightning lit up a group of a variety of different shapes. The most obvious one appeared to lead them appeared human, but looked like he was a bit overweight, but that wasn't what was worrying me. The thing that was worrying me was the giant silver cannon that appeared to be attached to his arm.
I could feel the sweat beading down my face as I tried to figure out how to fly the ship.
Out of the four buttons, a large red one stood rather predominantly out from the rest.
"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to press a few buttons," I said to myself, and almost immediately punched it.
"Ignition standby," a mechanical voice intoned. There was the sound of the engine spluttering for a few moments, then suddenly roared to life. I gently felt the ship begin to rise beneath me and the landing pads retract. I also began to hear a furious shouts of the men below me.
Without thing I pressed the Blue button below the one I had already pressed.
I heard an audible groan and knew that something had just dropped beneath me.
"Laser Cannon enabled," The voice called out.
"Laser Cannon?" I thought to my self. Feeling inquisitive, I then pressed the yellow button on the right of the original, allowing a small joystick to pop out below the buttons.
"Manual control, Enabled,"
Finally I pushed the orange button on the left of the original.
A small compartment popped open in the floor, and a small box shot up to my eyelevel.
"Targeting computer, Enabled,"
Feeling a bit silly, I slowly looked into the box.
To my surprise, I could see almost everything, seeing everything had gone a distinct orange colour. As I twisted the joystick, the camera did the same.
A sudden thought came to me. These must be people looking for Billy Bones. Maybe they want his body!
Quickly as I could I spun the little control stick over to the bushes where I had laid the old Alien to rest. I aimed the Camera as best as a could, then pressed the button on top of the joystick. Almost immediately there came the sound of the powering up of something, then the whole ship seemed to rock as a bright red blast seemed to emanate from below the camera. In an instant the bushes exploded in a billion shades of yellow and red.
Hoping that it would burn Bones' Body, as well distract the men.
I didn't bother to see if they had seen it or not, I just quickly pressed the three buttons to retract their respective components, before turning to the two levers and the steering wheel.
Hoping I was doing the right thing, I gently clasped the wheel in my left hand, and gently tested the lever nearest me. As I gently pushed it upwards, I began to feel the ship rise with it.
"I guess that control's the pitch," I mused to myself. I eyed the second leaver with curiosity.
"And I guess that one must me the accelerator," I mused. I quickly glanced down at the scene below me. The bush was now entire alight, although it was going out from the rain. The things below me appeared to be a mess, but the Bulky figure seemed to be pointing his great Silver cannon at me. I panicked and quickly hit the leaver to full.
The effect was immediate. I was suddenly thrown into my seat as the ship launched forward and upward, out towards deep space.
As I soared higher and higher, I looked out of the back window, to see England become nothing more than a tiny spot in a sea of blue on Planet Earth. Then Planet Earth itself gradually became smaller and smaller, until it was nothing more than a blue dot amongst a thousand other dots.
I sighed to myself in relief, I was safe, for now.
It took me a minute to realise, but I wasn't actually the one driving the ship. I could feel the wheel moving underneath my hands.
"Maybe this is like Star Trek?" I mused to myself. My father had watched a lot of that space science fiction series when I was young.
"Um..."I pondered what to do, feeling quite silly talking to myself.
"Guess I better ask for a map," I said to myself, "Computer, Map."
As if in answer to my statement, a bright light suddenly lit up in the centre of the console. Above the light suddenly appeared a flat image of a 3-D map.
On it I could see a small blinking dot, following a green line, that went red after the dot went past it.
"Computer, erm...where are we going?"
"Planet Montressor, a small mining colony, near the boarders of the Terran Empire controlled space." The computer informed him.
I slumped back into my chair and sighed. "Very well, continue on course."
The map disappeared and the computer beeped in acknowledgment.
I sighed again and shoved my hands into my coat pockets.
It was then, I realised, I still had that odd sphere that Billy Bones had given to me.
Slowly I closed my hand around the hard ball and slowly drew out the object.
Slowly I reached for the knot of string, and pulled it off. Out of the cloth fell a sphere. A hard metal sphere, with a few criss cross lines all over it, as well as a few small circular buttons here and there.
It was like nothing I had ever seen, and I would look into it father when I reached this Montressor place. Right now though, I was beginning to feel fatigue close it's grasp on me.
"Computer," I yawned, "Please inform me of when we reach Planet Montressor."
The Computer gave a acknowledging beep. I smiled to myself and snuggled down in the big seat, before finally dozing off to sleep, the shining sphere close to my chest.
10 hours later I was rudely awoken by the sound of blaring alarms in my ears, followed by the shudder of the ship being hit by something.
"WARNING! WARNING! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!" The Computer confirmed what I was thinking in it's usual unemotional voice.
I steadied myself against the well as I pocketed the sphere again.
"Computer, Location?"
"Planet Montressor space."
I breathed a sigh of relieve. Well, maybe I would find some answers there about this sphere thingy.
An explosion suddenly erupted off to the left of me, and I felt the ship begin to descend slightly.
"WARNING! ENGINE HIT! ENGINE HIT! GOING DOWN! GOING DOWN!"
I stared in horror as the ship began to fall towards the planet below.
I quickly grabbed the steering wheel and hoped the Computer had released it's Automatic piloting, or I was gonna go splat when I hit the ground.