THE NIGHT THE STARS FELL FIRST CONTACT

Outside at the bottom of the driveway, about fifty feet from the house, the man stood under a tree with an infrared camera around his neck. He had been waiting over two hours from nine pm until eleven skulking unseen from the owners of the house. Gravel crunched under his feet as he moved. The thick tall trees gave him good cover as he edged closer to the house, this was one scoop he did not want to miss, he had seen what happened in the bank, and had taken some good shots of the dog, being careful he didn’t get himself shot in the furore. He was certain he saw the ship land that night, but he did not get any evidence as the ‘Idiot’ he was, left his camera at home, and by the time the ship took off again he was too late.

His name was Kevin Davis, a failed journalist who couldn’t be bothered to finish law school and get a degree in journalism, he wanted everything easy, his brain was more than likely the size of a pea anyway. The infinitesimal grey matter in his pea brain was probably harbouring a tiny grain of sand, preventing any kind of intelligence from getting through at all! Because he was stupid!

He was a bit on the lean side, with a nose that looked like a ski slope, his eyes resembled the large quick eyes of an owl, and he was about thirty, with dirty sandy hair, and an oval face.

He had been standing there all night practically. He was desperate for a photo of the dog doing something remarkable. The pictures he had were a bit grainy, if he wanted to sell them to the highest bidder, they would have to be better than that.

He knew there was something when the bank robber fired the gun, there was no way he could have missed the dog, he fired straight at him! And something dropped from the dog’s mouth, it looked like a bullet. Something happened in those few moments between the animal and the robber, he had him pinned to the floor, and most huge dogs would have savaged him to protect their owner; but this one didn’t! By the terrified look on his face, all he could do was nod his head frantically, and it seemed almost positive that the dog was communicating with him. Besides, he noticed a strange blue hue around the dog, but he was not sure if he had seen it or not as the day was very sunny and reams of sunlight streamed through the windows, so it could have been an optical illusion. He needed more proof.

He suddenly looked towards the house as he saw movement. He craned his neck as a light came on the front porch. He stepped back in alarm; gravel crunched loudly under his feet. Before he could get his legs to move, he saw the dog racing down the drive towards him; followed by Todd and his parents.

“What are you doing here? I remember you, you’re the man we met in the park.” Todd shouted.

Ellen had grabbed Lasko’s lead from the hooks on the wall in the kitchen and she slipped it around Lasko’s neck. He stood with his hackles up and growled, Ellen could hardly hold on to him as he pulled and strained on the lead, then he barked loudly. Showing his teeth.

“DON’T LET GO OF HIM!” Davis shouted.

“It’s ok boy.” Ellen soothed, the last thing she wanted was Lasko to bite him and then the police would be involved, but he kept barking and growling. “SHUT UP LASKO!” Ellen yelled, and he went quiet immediately sitting back down on his haunches, looking up at her with sad soulful eyes.

Brian stepped in front of his family, his face close to the intruder. “What were you doing skulking around my driveway, with a camera in your hand? You have two minutes to explain, or I will be calling the police!”

Davis was shaking, mainly from the fright the dog gave him.

He stepped back from his invaded space.

“I. I was just passing and looked at your lovely house sir; I met your lad in the park the other evening, and he told me he lived here, I swear there was no bad intent. I am a photographer I was on my way home after taking wildlife pictures near the lake when suddenly I realised this was the house your son lived in; It’s such a beautiful house so I thought I’d look, I swear there was no bad intention’s I’m sorry.” He repeated.

Brian studied him for a minute and decided he did not look like a burglar, he was too nicely dressed, besides, he carried nothing but the camera, which he had placed around his neck.

So, Brian asked cautiously. “Why have you got an infrared camera around your neck mate?”

“Oh, this is for taking night shots of wildlife,” he slipped the strap from around his neck and handed the camera to Brian. “Foxes, Deer, Badger’s, all kinds of things. I love nature and particularly photography, and I am sorry for startling you.”

Brian looked at the camera turning it around in his hands. It looked like an expensive camera, and obviously, the guy was telling the truth.”

“Ok.” He said handing him back the camera. “Next time, don’t go sneaking around private property in the dark. You were lucky this time, if the dog had been on his own, he would have bitten you badly, he’s always out here in the evening.”

“Point taken sir, once again I apologise.” He walked quickly away towards his car.

***

Once they had got inside, they all settled in the living room, Lasko by the fireplace on his favourite rug.

“Strange,” Brian remarked.

“What is?” Ellen replied.

“That guy hovering around our garden.”

“Nothing strange about it!” Lasko commented.

“Well, the way you were growling and barking you looked ready to eat every little piece of him up.” Ellen laughed.

“That’s because I saw him before, I recognised those smirky lips on the sneering twisted smile, I told Todd I didn’t like him, there was something not right about him, I can sense a good human or a bad human, and he is a bad one.”

Todd scraped hair from his face, it was growing rapidly now almost past his neck. “If Lasko says he’s a bad one then he is right Mum, the night we met him in the park he was very interested in Lask, he tried to stroke him, but Lask was uncomfortable with him.”

“That means nothing, son,” Brian replied. “He probably likes dogs. Don’t you?”

“Yes Dad, but this person was too interested in him, I felt awkward as if he might try and steal him from me.” Todd’s face turned into an uneasy frown.

Lasko stood up. Excuse me?” he said comically. “I’m not supposed to harm or kill any human on this planet, but I will make an exception to this one. How far do you think he would have got? Before different parts of his anatomy would have been found, spread in different parts of the park?”

At this, they all laughed.

“Seriously, this guy is out for something, I think he is one of the greedy humans that takes everything he wants regardless of anyone else’s feelings. We need to watch him Todd, and as for him trying to take me anywhere, I can do a lot more damage to him than he could do to me.”

Lasko sat down again, paws stretched out in front of him, and chin resting on the rug. He had no more to say on the subject.

Kevin Davis opened the door to his one-bed apartment, closing it behind him he threw his coat on the armchair put his camera by the computer, and switched it on. The experience tonight had shaken him. How stupid he was! He could have sat in his car and taken pictures instead of getting out of his car and walking up their drive; he was asking for trouble, why did he buy a camera with a long-range lens and infrared…Idiot, that’s why he wanted it, to take far-away shots! He needed a strong black coffee to steady his nerves, his hands were still shaking. He went into the kitchen and put the kettle on, ran his hands through his greasy hair, and thought about the dog. Could he be wrong? While he waited for the kettle to boil, he went back to the living room to upload the photos he had taken so far, the bank and tonight’s.

Kevin’s apartment was plush, neat, and tidy with everything in its place. It had cost him money decorating the walls all in soft light colours, his beige sofa and armchairs matched the décor well. He had bought a beige marble coffee table and matching two side tables, with impressive grey lines running through them; it had cost over a grand, but they were the centrepiece of the room, his television was on brackets in the centre of the wall as you came in.

His inquisitive eyes gave the impression of a clever, well-organised person, but he was far from it! He was stupid. He went to university to study law and become a journalist but dropped out before he was in his second year. Without qualifications. No editor would give him room space, so he decided to become freelance, selling snippets to small local rags. You needed to be in the right place at the right time, and that was easier said than done. He heard the click of the kettle as it came to the boil and hurried back to the kitchen. He poured two spoons of coffee into his mug, added two spoons of sugar, and noticed his hands were still shaking as he poured the boiling water. A trickle of fear had found its way into his mind, ‘What if the dog knows what I’m going to do and comes after me?’ and as he walked back to the living room that trickle of fear was almost turning into a stream. For a moment on shaky legs, he sat down in the armchair placing his mug beside him on the side table. He leaned his head back and took some deep breaths to calm his panic. He needed to think clearly! After a few gulps of coffee, his breathing slowed, and his hands stopped shaking. What he needed was a video of the dog doing something amazing, and a few good pictures, and present them to the press, which would blow the whole media circus into overdrive and Kevin would become very wealthy! Or he hoped!

He got up and went over to his computer printed off the pictures and there it was! He had clear pictures of the dog racing towards him, teeth bared, ready to tear him apart. But the strange thing was, he had the actual photo of his sparkling fur, the blue flashing lights on the tips as his hackles stood up. How much would the local Cornwell rag pay him for these pictures?

His excitement grew, and so did his nerves, he went back to the kitchen and made another coffee. He looked up at the clock on top of the fridge that had a sun for a face, and he realised it was almost two a.m. On the way back to his bedroom he had heart palpitations, “Too much caffeine” he told himself and proceeded to the bedroom. Kevin placed his coffee on the table mat beside his bed and fluffed up his feather-down pillows, he stripped off his clothes to his underwear and pulled the duvet back, and then switched off the bedside lamp, turned over shuffling himself about until he could find his ‘comfortable’ position; on his right side with his legs drawn up. ‘Foetal position’ that’s how babies sleep in their mother’s wombs, and that’s how he always slept as a child.

Kevin had not seen his mother in five years. After his dad died, she went downhill and developed dementia, it broke his heart but found it difficult to cope, getting up a few times in the night to see if she was ok, and having to change her when she had little accidents. In her lucid moments, she nagged the hell out of him “Why don’t you get a proper Job Kevin, instead of walking about half the time taking stupid pictures! All that money I and your father spent on university fees all gone to waste.”

Of course, she was right; and he felt guilty, but it was too late now, and as time progressed, she could not be left alone. Eventually, Kevin always had to keep the front door locked and hide the key. He didn’t make the decision lightly when he realised, he had to put her in a home, he could not watch her suffering anymore, and he needed to get on with his life, so rather than watch her die he decided to take the cowards way out; not to go and see her at all, and in some ways, she would not even know if he was there or not, as far as he was concerned he had lost his Mother when Dad died years back. But he missed her terribly.

Kevin sold his mother’s four-bed house it was far too big and expensive for him to run on his own and after paying for the care home, he had enough to buy his one-bed flat.

Sleep slipped far away, so he lay on his bed just watching the pictures. Something suddenly hit him! He hadn’t noticed it before, but the dog’s eyes were bright blue! WOW. Here is solid proof! No dog can change eye colour. He was so excited he could not settle so he stared up at the ceiling, the white was beginning to yellow a bit from his smoking, and the duck egg blue walls were looking a little faded, the whole flat needed decorating. He turned off the light once more and after much fidgeting, tossing, and turning, he finally got up. he pulled on his jeans and jumper and headed back to the kitchen for another coffee. He was wide awake now and cold, he switched on the heating and looked out of the kitchen window. The sky was clear, it looked like a calm night and there was not one star in the sky and no wind to shake a leaf, but the moon was full and bright. The streetlights threw down ghostly shadows on the quiet icy streets, it was now almost three thirty. Kevin drank his coffee and went back to the bedroom to put his shoes on, then grabbing his camera he went out closed the door quietly behind him and went for a walk.

***

It was way past 3 a.m., and only Venus blinked from the black velvet night, hardly seen by the naked eye, but there was one dark shape approaching with an opaque light throbbing like a weak heartbeat as it got nearer to Earth. It had not broken through the cloud yet, but soon it would, and humanity would be split into groups. Test subjects, slaves, and extinction.

***

He walked about a quarter of a mile towards the park gazing up at his neighbour’s windows; there were no lights on in any of them, not even their bathrooms. He knew how they were situated because they were all built at the time, he had bought his flat. As he walked on, he heard the acid tone of a female fox, sharp and loud It was a scary sound like an animal being tortured; it reverberated through the isolated streets. To the right there was the Park it stretched for miles it was as big as Primrose Hill in London, where he had spent some time renting a cheap run-down property, he would take walks on Primrose Hill on summer evenings before it got dark Kevin was afraid to go into parks in the dark, you never knew who could be around, so he usually avoided them, to him they were places you visited in the daylight hours.

Suddenly he saw a huge dark shadow descending from the sky, it had a dull throbbing light, and the clear sky only just made it visible as it got lower, but Kevin could see it now, his heartbeat wildly as he watched it, he crossed the road and ran towards the centre of the park where he thought the spacecraft would land. He hid behind a big oak tree with a thick bark, holding his hand to his chest in anticipation, yet total fright as he watched it come down. He was about fifty feet from the object, but he could see it crystal clear It was about the size of three double-decker busses, maybe a little larger, it was not exactly oblong more like a fat cigar shape. There were porthole windows on each side and the object seemed to be made of a strong blunt metallic material with silver-coloured strips up the sides, and a long black but narrow window at the front.

Kevin wasted no time in grabbing his camera from around his neck, he took picture after picture of the spacecraft landing. Suddenly all the lights went out, he turned to night mode and kept snapping; his flash lit up the night announcing his presence to the new hostile invaders. No one could be more stupid than Kevin because now whoever was on that ship knew he was there! Ten tripods supported the ship as it landed. Kevin stepped back behind the tree; it was deathly silent. He waited, his breath catching in his throat…Imagine! The first alien species to land on Earth and I am the one to film it! OHH MAN! It’s going to make me millions! All over the world anchors will want the footage! And that comes with a massive price! After about twenty minutes of silence, a hissing sound was omitted from the ship. Kevin popped his head around the bark and saw two ramps emerge on each side of the ship. His eyes widened in fright; His hands were shaking. What was coming out of that ship?

***