THE NIGHT THE STARS FELL FIRST CONTACT

Todd was up at 5 a.m., he couldn’t sleep; his mind was in complete turmoil worrying about the day ahead. His stomach kept turning over like a cement mixer and he had that feeling of dread hanging over him. He went down to the kitchen and took out the cornflakes, poured milk over them and sat at the table swirling the cornflakes around with his spoon, gazing into the bowl. He could hardly believe what was happening, he had watched so many sci-fi films, Star Wars, Star Trek and countless others, and often thought ‘Was there life on other planets?’ and now here he was, witnessing a real-life alien invasion. The most terrifying thought of all was waking up to find out this was just one hell of a wild dream, Lasko never existed, and he still had his brain tumour! Oh my god! It would be his worst nightmare! Without Lasko in his life, there would be no life at all. The thought depressed him so much he cried sometimes pinching himself to see if he was dreaming when he saw Lasko beside his bed or on it. He soon heard the ‘pat pat’ of heavy paws as Lasko came down the stairs into the kitchen and straight for his water bowl. After lapping down most of his water and leaving a small puddle on the floor, he looked up at Todd.

“Couldn’t sleep either huh?”

“No, been up most of the night worrying about what’s going to happen.”

“Well, I can’t settle while you’re so worried Todd, we bounce off each other like ping pong balls.”

Todd laughed. “Well, we have something to worry about, now, don’t we?”

“See! You got your sense of humour back. Todd, try not to worry, my people will stop them, of that I can promise you.”

“What do you think they will do?” Todd frowned.

“Exactly what they said they would do, and more, depending on how the lizards react.” Lasko wagged his tail wildly.

***

Kevin was asleep in the spare bedroom, his dreams were visions of terrible lizards. The green cold pools of their eyes projected hostility and hatred pouring right down to the bottom of their souls. Their hearts were like chips of ice and sharp talons reaching out towards his face to force his mouth open so its cold fetid tongue could slither inside and bite off his tongue.

He awoke with a gasp flaying his arms and pulling himself bolt upright, he turned to the snow-spotted window and thought he saw a lizard face, and he screamed, sweat pouring from every orifice as he tried to get out of bed, no matter how he struggled he was paralysed with fear, his legs wouldn’t move!

His door opened and Brian and Ellen rushed into the room, Ellen reaching out to calm him.

“What’s happened Kev? You are ok, there’s nothing here. You had a bad dream.”

“Ok mate, it’s ok,” Brian said snatching up Kevin’s dressing gown and draping it over his shoulders. Kevin looked up at him in perpetual confusion, still unsure if this dream was real or his imagination, or if he had been asleep or awake. It all seemed so real.

“Oh, I’m so sorry to wake you, I’m sure I saw a lizard staring at me through the window.”

“Kevin, it was just a bad dream, that’s all it was.” Ellen soothed.

Brian noticed the room was icy, even though the central heating was on low, he walked over to the window and looked out, apart from the snowflaking down it was quiet, with no shadows or movement. “Nothing there.” He said, “I’ll take a look outside.” He headed towards the stairs.

Brian was surprised to see Todd and Lasko at the table, he picked up his flashlight and switched on the floodlights in the garden. “Kevin’s had a nightmare, he thought he saw a lizard staring at him through the window, I’m just going to check, I need the torch for the side of the house, it’s pretty dark around there.”

“I’ll come with you.” Lasko trotted behind him.

Brian walked down the driveway flashing his torch into the bushes, then walked back towards the side of the house training his torch on the tall thick hedges around the back, while Lasko checked the garden.

“Nothing here,” Brian called.

“Nothing here either,” Lasko called back.

Todd stood on the porch looking anxious. “He must have had one hell of a bad dream.”

As they came back up the steps to the kitchen Brian said, “Must have been the mother of all nightmares, the poor guy was in a terrible state he was so pale he looked like a ghost returning to the graveyard.”

Todd grabbed his jacket and sat down at the table; the cold had seeped right into his bones. “Can you wonder at the state he’s in Dad? I do not think I would have survived if it had been me! I would have died of fright.”

“I don’t think they would come tonight, it would probably be tomorrow, that is if Kevin doesn’t show up.”

***

By the time Brian had got back to Kevin’s room, he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “There was no one there, it’s all clear, I checked the back as well.”

“Brian, I’m so sorry for waking you all, and so grateful to you for letting me stay. God alone knows what would happen to me alone in my flat, I am not the bravest person on earth I can tell you.”

Brian smiled at him. “Who the hell would be? Faced with hostile creatures from another world, I certainly wouldn’t.”

Ellen replied. “You can stay here as long as you want, we have the room.”

“I’m going down to make tea anyone want one?” Brian asked.

At least the snow had stopped, but the morning had arrived dull and gloomy. It was the 31st of January, and the dirty dishwasher sky promised a very cold and rainy day. They all sat at the kitchen table with a sense of foreboding, watching the day pass. No one was hungry, so Ellen made sandwiches instead of cooking.

Ellen looked up at the battered and bruised sky, at the clouds that were rolling along in thick clumps, she thought back to Christmas, no one celebrated, there had been nothing to celebrate really, and now it seemed the world had been tilted on its axle with an uncertain future or even if anyone would survive! She noticed suddenly, it was starting to get dark, and then she looked at the clock It was already after 4 pm, and she wondered where the day had gone, the day seemed to roll like fast-flowing liquid into the next.

“What time do you think they will come?” Brian asked Lasko, who was sitting disinterested on his bed in the kitchen corner with his head on his paws; stretched out in front of him. Suddenly he rose to his feet. “Not long now, it needs to be dark, where we will be less conspicuous. First Kevin has to take them to the place where the ship landed, they can track them from there, and then we go to the location where they told Kevin to meet them.”

Kevin sat stiffly at the table his hands laced so tightly together that his knuckles showed as white as the insides of eggshells.

“You okay Kev?” Todd asked. Pale-faced Kevin nodded, but his features looked shockingly white amid dark circles under his eyes. He was dreading this encounter. “I will be when this is over.”

They all looked towards the back door where three figures appeared among a silver frosty mist, Ellen jumped up and opened the door.

Valadon, Shirak, and another person entered, the third person was human, and as they stepped into the kitchen they nodded in greeting. The human looked dangerously ill, he made Ellen want to dart forward to catch him before he fell. “Oh! Would you like to sit down?”

The man smiled warmly. “No, thank you, I am perfectly well…It’s me Zyrian, I am the decoy.” Ellen was speechless, he looked as if he was not long for this world, with his deathly pale features and almost blue lips. He wore a simple white jumper over stonewashed blue jeans, his dark hair was hanging around his collar in wispy curls, and almost black soulful eyes gazed at them with a hint of amusement. “Valadon did explain we are shift-shapers did he not?”

“WOW…This is amazing.” Todd yelled.

Valadon turned to Todd frowning. “It will not be amazing if things go wrong Todd…It could mean the deaths of millions of humans! To you I understand this is strange, yet wonderful as you see us as we really are, but you must not jump to conclusions that this will end well.”

Todd frowned and shook his head. “Oh, I didn’t mean to make light of the situation, I’m sorry.” He felt slightly embarrassed.

“I know you did not. You are a young human, excited by drama, our young are the same. But I am confident we can resolve this situation without alerting your government now, the last thing we want is bloodshed. So here is what is going to happen. We go to the park, and then, Kevin; you can take us to the meeting place. How are you today?”

“I’ve had better days.” The cuts on his face looked angry and sore, signalling an infection had installed itself into his system.

“I was going to get him antibiotics today,” Ellen replied

“No need, come here Kevin”

Kevin came around the table and stood in front of Valadon, he felt calm, and safe, happy to place his life in his hands. Valadon took Kevin’s face gently yet firmly in his strong hands. They felt cool and comforting, Valadon’s eyes lit up as he lay his fingers along Kevin’s brow across his forehead and down the side of his face, circling his whole hairline. A warm sensation filled his head right down to his chin, then a numbness followed the warmth. Kevin brought his hands to his face; all the pain had gone, and there was nothing there, no deep cut, no soreness at all it was as if nothing had ever happened.

“The cuts…They have all gone as if they had never been there in the first place…It’s a miracle…Thank you.”

Valadon smiled placed his hands together and slowly nodded his head.

This was the third time Ellen had seen him smile, and that smile revealed white sparkling teeth. They really were a beautiful race with three beautiful hearts, and they all knew a bond was forming.

Valadon placed his hands on his chest and bowed his head.

“I thank you for your patience.”

“No, Valadon, THANK you for your patience and your time.” Brian smiled.

Valadon turned to Kevin who was still running his hands over his face. He placed his hand on Kevin’s shoulder.

“Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be; The thought of meeting those creatures face to face again doesn’t exactly fill me with happiness and joy!”

“You will be safe, I promise you, I have removed the poison they can’t harm you.”

“Ok,” Kevin replied nervously.

“Are you ready Brian?”

“Yes, we’re all ready to go, let’s get this over with.”

Todd went to get his heavy coat when Lasko halted him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not! It is too dangerous!”

He turned to Valadon. “I can help!”

“No!” Valadon replied sharply, “You have no idea what you are dealing with. We do! you need to keep away for your own safety.”

Todd knew there was no point arguing, Valadon had made his decision.

A small tear appeared in the corner of his eye. “Be careful Lasko!” Lasko trotted over to Todd and rubbed his head against his legs as Todd knelt, he gave him a sloppy kiss with his enormous, long tongue.

“Don’t worry, I can do them far more harm than they can do to me…Trust us.”

Outside It was velvet black, the snow had stopped giving way to soggy fat droplets of sleet slanting down after being pushed by the wind.

Brian used his Land Rover with Lasko in the boot, three at the back with Kevin in the passenger seat guiding the way towards the park.

“When you get to the bottom of the road, you will see a row of houses, turn right there and keep going down until you see the park, It’s pretty straightforward you can’t miss it.”

It seemed quite a long way until Brian saw the houses lined up like soldiers on the opposite side of the road, he turned right.

“Ok, keep going I think it’s a bit further up.” He leant forward almost touching the glass. The street looked grim in the amber streetlights, half of them were not working which made the road that much more depressing. The wind was tossing up dead leaves and debris from the frozen grass.

“OK stop, it was just about here.” Kevin pointed a finger towards the trees lying back from the road. As they got out of the car Brian noticed how near they were to the gates of the park. “Unbelievable they landed so near to the road, someone must have seen them, heard them even. People are up at that time of night they must have seen the craft land.”

“There was nothing in the news so maybe they didn’t” Kevin added. He started walking to the centre of the grass, he walked quickly his hands tucked inside his heavy coat.

“It was definitely about here.” He pointed to a large patch of grass that looked darker in the shaded light. Valadon right behind him produced a long oblong device and pointed it on the spot. It lit up in colours of red, blue, and yellow light spinning around the centre of the grass, it began to make ‘Bleeping’ sounds as it spun.

“They are docked thirty thousand feet above ground.”

“What about planes, can’t they be tracked?”

“No, they are under the flight path and have a force field around the ship that stops them from being detected.”

Brian and Kevin looked at Valadon. “Now we know they have been here before.”

Shirak answered. “Yes, this is what we think; they can go undetected and as Valadon said they may have taken people before. Now we go to the meeting point, do you have time?”

“Yes, I’m supposed to be at the quarry no later than one a.m.

Valadon led the way back to the car.

“Brian, you need to stop quite far from the quarry in case they detect you, we can walk from there.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, better you stay in the car, you will be safe.”

“You’re sure?”

“Perfectly, we can deal with them.”

They got out of the car and let Lasko out of the boot, Brian noticed Kevin’s legs shake as he walked around to the front of the Land Rover, and he felt sorry for him.

Brian shouted, “Good luck guys.” As he watched them walk up the gravelly road towards the quarry, Lasko’s immense furry tail wagging in the wind like stardust falling from the sky.

***

Brian felt anxious, he found himself gripping the steering wheel so tightly as if he were frightened it was going to fly off its axle and take off into the sky. “Oh my god.” He said to himself still wondering if this was some crazy dream he was having; that was quickly turning into a nightmare. The sleet seemed to turn into hail thundering down on the rooftop and sliding down the window in gossamer strands. It was settling into potholes made by the big dumper trucks that once used this road to take their load to the quarry, It formed crystal droplets in the holes, and by morning they would have frozen over. Brian shifted his seat back to give him more legroom, he had no idea how long he would be here, and pulled his black woolly scarf around his neck, then zipped up his black padded jacket. He blew on his hands to bring some warmth into them then fumbled in the glove box for his gloves.

He looked at his watch “Should be there now,” he said to himself feeling more anxious as the minutes skidded by, he wiped his hands over his cold face and suddenly noticed movement from the back of the car.

Brian stiffened; he pulled himself up from the seat with the hairs at the back of his neck standing up. So far, he had not seen these awful creatures with their hateful arctic glare, but he was sure he was about to, any minute now!

Tensing, he slowly reached for the glove box, fingers working tentatively as he looked up at the mirror, The glove box snapped open and he fumbled about for the scissors he kept there for minor uses, his fingers closed around the sharp object and he gently pulled them towards him; he had no idea the strength or magnitude of these creatures, or what capabilities they possessed, but at least he had some protection. He pulled himself up further so he could have a clearer view of the back of the Land Rover and turned his head; there was nothing at the back, at least nothing big enough to see. Then a movement startled him to his left, and to his horror he saw Todd racing across the hard stony surface towards the quarry. Brian shot from the car as if he had springs on his heels and raced after him. “TODD, TODD WAIT!” The boy raced ahead of him vanishing at the top of a steep bend. He would never catch him now! He bent over with his hands on his knees breathless after the chase and the cold, he swore, stood up walked in a circle with his hands on his head, anguished he started to Trott towards the quarry.