First Encounter
Two days have passed since her parents went on a honey moon and Samara has done nothing productive. Just as she planned. Spending days while doing nothing was the luxury she didn't have for quite a long time, since there was always something to do, while her father and Stella were around. Lucas would always ask her for some help with his car or to fix his phone, or computer, or anything else similar to this. Sam perfectly knew that he was capable of doing everything by himself, but she never refused to spend more time with her father. And Stella… If she ever found the moment, when Samara wasn't occupied with her work, studies or helping Lucas, the crazy woman would drag her out to the town. For various reasons. One time she was so into helping poor people, she started working as a volunteer in the canteen made for homeless people. And, of course, she made Sam join too, but she didn't complain. After all, it was something kind as sweet. And Sam also learned to cook from Stella at that time, so everything went for the better in the end. Another interesting experience, which she gained because of her new 'mom', was when she took great interesting in learning to dance. But not any kind of dance. In the town there were lessons, where the art of dance was mixed with combat exercise. It was called Weapon Dance. Traditionally this style of dance was used to stimulate, recall, or reenact combat or the moves of combat in the form of dance, usually for some ceremonial purpose. How crazy was that? Pretty crazy, but Sam loved those practices and went there a whole month longer than Stella. As Samara thought, Stella let because the physical exertion was getting bigger and bigger, and Stella's little body just couldn't handle it. But the most favorite dance for Sam was dancing with a spear. Using this tool (they used simple poles, not the real thing) she could jump around, throw it around and spin it in her hands, pretending that she was in a battle 'till the death… So, yeah, right now Samara was really happy that she was able to relax at the moment. But all this time growing up in action and chores filled environment, she couldn't stay put for too long… She'll have to think of something to do the next thing tomorrow morning.
After taking her evening shower and dressing in her pajamas, Samara went to the balcony for a smoke. Since she wasn't that much into it, for her smoking was just an activity that helped her relax. After a one cigarette she would sit on the rocking-chair, which was in the same terrace, until the dark, thinking of her future, or simply day-dreaming about all kinds of things: from meeting her prince charming, to re-thinking a book or a movie, and what would she do, if she ended up in a similar situation. On rare occasions she would take another one, light it up and look up at the night sky, guessing what could be out there? Besides humans… She was already 100 percent sure, that in this life she won't meet any aliens, just hoped that generations after her will be able to travel through space, to distant galaxies… And that they would find something… Preferably friends, but you could never be sure, just hope… Same thing was happening right now. After sitting motionless for the past two hours, Sam lit another cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke, while gazing at the early stars. Even though she smoked from time to time, she was still fit from all the dancing, normal exercises and her work (fixing cars in the service isn't as easy as it sounds…), so she never had breathing problems. She was still the fastest in her P.E. group. That was also because she was tall compared to other girls… Sam was about to extinguish the cig, when she caught something in the sky with the corner of her eye. At first, she thought it was just a plane, as always blinking it's lights up in the air, so she didn't put much attention to it. But when the dot blinked again, this time brighter and, what seemed, closer, Sam started to observe with slight curiosity. She even stood up, like that would have helped her to see better… She could have gone inside and take a pair of binoculars, but she didn't want to miss whatever was happening. When it blinked again, this time clearly closer than the previous time, Samara's eyes lit up and a word popped into her head – 'meteor'. Through her life she has never seen a falling star. Strange, isn't it? Since they fall, like, two times in a year… But she was never lucky enough to see one. And now she was all hyped-up, knowing, that she was seeing one right now. Hugging herself a bit, since the little breeze became slightly colder, she continued to watch the small dot in the sky, that grew bigger and bigger every second. Equally, her enthusiasm grew as well. Even the cold didn't bother her anymore (Ha, ha, laugh at Frozen reference). But what happened afterwards gave more fear than excitement. Samara was never a scaredy-cat. Hunting, while being afraid to find a bear or a wolf instead of a buck, was simply inappropriate and her father made sure that, if she wanted to go hunting with him, she would not be scared. But what was happening to her right now… Lucas never prepared her for this! After few more minutes the dot in the sky was big enough for her to understand, that it wasn't a shooting star. Sam could already see the outlines and she saw, that that thing was huge! Not as big as their two storage house, but big enough as their whole first floor. And it was blazing… It was heading straight for the forest and it was flaming as hell. She assumed, that it was natural, since everything, that was caught in Earth's atmosphere would catch on fire. But usually, it either burned to a crisp or the fire would go out before it reached the surface. But something was wrong… As Sam was still standing, not able to move because of the sight, another thought came to her head. If it wasn't a meteor, it might be a satellite, which was hit and now was falling down. That would explain the flames, wouldn't it? Maybe… But she never thought satellites could be this big… With every second the thing was gaining speed, while the gravity pulled it down, and a minute later it crashed on the surface. The sound was similar to a thunder, a really big and loud one. And then the second sound of explosion followed after few seconds. Samara's eyes widened. It crashed in the forest… There wasn't any rain for the past two months now and all the trees and grass were dry enough to easily catch on fire… The explosion could cause a forest fire… She had to do something! And fast!
After jumping into pair of jeans and putting on her leather jacket, which she used to wear on summer nights, Samara quickly grabbed a flashlight and a big fire extinguisher from the garage. She had one in her truck, but she guessed one will not be enough, if the fire has already gone wild. She quickly jumped into her truck and drove towards the forest. While passing by the two lone houses, which were in between the park and the forest, she saw no lights. The people were either out or sleeping like bricks, if they haven't heard the explosion. Of course, it was summer and already past midnight. Normal people were going on vacation in summer, or sleeping on this kind of hour. Sam looked through her front window only to see a big pillar of smoke coming from the middle of the forest. "Please, let it be only the thing burning. Please, let it be only the thing burning…" Sam whispered, still trying to understand from which place of the forest the smoke was coming. When Samara was somewhere around ten years old, there was a forest fire, but their little hunting community, with the help of the firefighters, managed to stop it from spreading. Dad didn't take her with him that time, saying that it was too dangerous to take her with them. She didn't argue with him then, but she was cursing now, that she wasn't persistent enough… And why didn't she call the fire department in the first place?! It was too late, anyway. Sam was already driving in the forest through the little, almost visible path, towards the pillar of smoke, and there were no mobile connection in here. She guessed the thing crashed somewhere near her father's hunting spot and, apparently, she wasn't mistaken. The closer she got to the spot, the better she could see where the smoke was coming from. When the path ended, Sam had to stop the truck and continue to go on foot, because the trees were too close to each other for a clear passage with a car. She took out the two fire extinguishers and put the flashlight into her jacket's pocket. She left the truck's lights on, so she could see where she was going and it wouldn't be so hard to carry the extinguishers. It wasn't long before she reached the impact zone. When Samara saw the thing that fell, she let out a faint hiccup. God, it was huge! She didn't have the time to think, what the hell was it, because there was another explosion. It wasn't as big as before, but it made her to set her priorities straight – put out the fire first, then wonder what the fuck was that thing. Fortunately for her there weren't any treetops that caught on fire. The thing managed to crash in a little clearing and the explosions didn't do much damage either. Few of the tree trunks were burning, but she managed to put out the fire before the problem became bigger. It was harder with the grass, though. While she was busy with the trees, the fire on the grass spread further, but not far enough, so she managed to extinguish the fire before it caught the trees again. The other problem was the thing, which was still burning. If Sam won't manage to put the fire out in time, the grass will start to burn again or even worse – there will be another explosion. She was still confused, that until this moment no one else showed up. Was she really the only one to notice this thing falling down from the sky? And wasn't there any person that heard the crash and the explosion following it? Though, she wouldn't be surprised, if someone, who was woken up by the sound from their sleep, would simply think it was just a thunder and would go back to dreaming. She thanked to God that the fire hadn't spread, otherwise she would be screwed. Sam ran around the thing, trying to extinguish the fire as soon as possible, though it wasn't so easy as it looked like. She managed to put the fire out in those places, where it was close to the ground, but there were still few spots on the top that were still blazing. How will she ever reach that? Taking the smaller extinguisher, which was in the car before, she found a route she could use to get on the top of the satellite. Though it looked nothing like a satellite, she simply didn't have another word for it yet. Climbing to a nearby tree, she sat on the lowest branch, which was a little above the satellite. Not high enough to jump straight at the burning area, but the place was good enough to get to stair-like steps that went to the top. Sam jumped down and fell over at the metal surface. The extinguisher got away from her grip and she almost managed to catch it on time, before it rolled down back on the ground. Sam slowly stood up, trying not to slip and fall down again, and made her way towards the steps. She was cautious, since she wasn't sure if there's going to be another explosion or not. Fortunately, there was none, until she managed to extinguish the top. But before Sam made it safely to the ground, something blew up again, this time in the right side of the satellite and it made her to fall down on the ground on her back. Growling from the numb pain her back, Samara stood up slowly and walked to the newly made fire. "Stop burning, you piece of shit!" she yelled, like the thing could understand her. Few seconds later, she finally managed to put out the fire. With a heavy sigh, Sam sat down further away from the thing, so she could see it better. She was almost sure, that there was still fire burning inside of it, but as long as it doesn't explode again, she should be fine… She turned on her flashlight and looked at the thing more closely, trying to identify what it was. It was torn apart from the impact and from all of the explosions, details scattering around it… But it's form somehow reminded her of an airship. Not the ones that you see every day on TV, more of those that you see in Sci-fi movies. There was the nose, smooth and slightly tapering towards the end, making it more aerodynamic. There were also something similar to windows, but they were all tanned, so Sam guessed, if it was a cockpit, the view of the outside was seen either via cameras or a sonar. On the other end there was the engine and the turbines. At least, what was left of them… Sam continued to scan the airship with her eyes, trying to understand what happened. It seemed that the engine malfunctioned and set the turbines on fire, which made it fall. When it crashed, the fire probably got into fuel storage, which would explain the first explosion. After that, the electric systems also malfunctioned, and so on. Of course, she was only guessing. If she wanted to know the real reasons, she should take a closer look, but she didn't want to risk it.
Samara leaned back to a tree she was sitting at and closed her eyes. God, she wanted a cigarette right now… Well, why wouldn't she want one? She was stressed and her heart was pounding from all the adrenaline. She really needed a moment to relax… The airship was still stuck in her eyes, even though she wasn't looking at it at the moment. It was definitely made to fly, she had no doubts about that… But something was off… None of the ships that US army had were this big, nor any other army for that matter. Maybe it was its first flight? Like a test flight, or something? Maybe the pilot… Samara's eyes went wide open. "The pilot!" she jumped up from the ground and turned on her flashlight again. She was so busy with taking down the fire, she completely forgot there could be people inside. She quickly ran to the part where the pilots' cabin should be, searching for a door, but there was nothing like it. Cursing silently she then tried the sides. There was an outline which could identify the door, but she didn't find any button that could open them. "Hello?!" she yelled, giving a hard tap on the door. "Please don't be dead…" Sam muttered, once again trying to find any button or a lever, which could let her in, or the pilot – out. Before she started to look for the third time, she heard a faint click, then a hiss, like the air was coming out from a tire, and suddenly the door shot up, leaving a hole. Sam squeaked and jumped back from the sudden action. She turned her flashlight to the door, but there was so much smoke coming from the inside of the ship, she couldn't see a thing. "Hello?" she squint her eyes a bit, trying to see was there anyone in the smoke or not. Sam took a step closer, but soon stopped, when she heard a faint growl. "Hello?" she asked again, not daring to take another step or even move. "Are you alright?" she didn't receive an answer, but when the smoke faded away slightly, she saw an outline of someone or…something… It was huge and Sam slowly took few steps back, when he (she assumed it was 'he') started to come closer. Thump, thump… His steps were heavy and it seemed it was hard for him to walk… When the smoke fully cleared out, Samara finally saw the thing, which was standing in front of her. She was 100 percent sure that it was not human. At least, she never saw a human that looked like this. He was approximately over 7 feet tall, dressed in leather and fishnet clothes (she guessed those were clothes… Not to mention something like armor on his shoulders and legs), which showed his muscular greenish body with dark brown and golden tiger stripes. There was a utility belt on his waist and some sort of tech on his wrists and left shoulder. There was a metal mask, hiding his face, on which Sam focused her look, trying not to stare at his strange dred-like hair coming right out of the mask, or maybe his head, she couldn't tell. The creature growled again, slowly coming towards her, lumping slightly. Only then did she noticed that he was hurt. There were three deep open cuts on his right leg and one big, almost the size of her fist, wound on his right side of his waist that he was holding, so it wouldn't bleed so much. The neon green luminous blood was dripping everywhere and Samara felt like fainting from the amount of adrenaline she was receiving right now. Should she run? She doubted that the creature would go after her with these kind of wounds… But she didn't need to run. When the beast took another two steps, he suddenly fell on his knees, letting out a faint growl, and after that, he dropped on the ground unconscious. Samara finally started to breathe again. How didn't she saw at first that she found a God damned alien spaceship?