Special Guest Appearance

906 words.

“Man, some of these people are dressed weird” muttered Sam as they entered the 25th annual Sci Fi Convention. 

His friend Josh glanced at him, one eyebrow raised.  “And this is coming from someone who is dressed as a Dalek?” he said.  Josh himself was wearing a long coat, black hat and multi-coloured scarf that had been made famous by a Dr Who from before he was even born.

“There’s nothing weird about dressing as a Dalek”, Sam shot back.  “Dalek’s are cool – besides, they could beat any of these people in a fight.  They’re the most powerful beings in the universe.”  He pressed a button in his costume and the Dalek’s signature cry of “Exterminate” rang out from his CD player.  Sam was quite proud of his costume – he’d made the salt shaker shaped shell out of papier mache and gold paint. 

Nobody spared them a second glance as they made their way through the hall.  It was set up with a large stage at the front of the room.  A microphone and a row of chairs were ready for the information sessions that would take place later in the day.  Around the edges of the hall, stalls were selling everything from sci-fi action figures and comics, to t-shirts and DVDs.  The walls were covered in posters of Science Fiction TV shows and movies, like Dr Who, Star Trek and Avatar.

“There must be thousands of people here” Josh said as they looked around.  “I wonder if any of the other kids from school are here yet?” 

Sam could only see through the slit at the front  of his costume - he could see plenty of Mr Spocks, a few Xenas, some Klingons and some Jedi Knights, but it was impossible to recognize anyone.

They spent some time browsing the stalls.  Sam had his heart set on buying something to add to his Dr Who collection.

It was the noise they noticed first.  A high-pitched humming noise that Sam could hear even inside his full-length costume.  Josh clapped his hands over his ears and shuddered “Ugh, that noise is going straight through me – it’s like its vibrating in my head”.

“What’s going on?” Sam said.  “Can you smell something?  It smells like a storm – you know, when there’s lightning.  I wonder if something’s just blown up?”

“I’m not sure – hey look over there.  Where did that come from?”  Josh pointed to the front of the room.

On the stage, a large, shiny elliptical object about the size of a small car had appeared.  It looked metallic and had a row of round windows across the middle.  The humming noise stopped.  Everyone waited for something to happen.  A baby started wailing and was hushed by its mother.  At the front of the silver egg, a chink of blinding light appeared, then, inch by inch, a ramp lowered to the ground.  The light streamed out from the open door.

To Sam’s surprise, everyone was pushing forward and craning to see better.  No one appeared to panic or try to get away.  “I guess they knew what they were doing, landing a space ship at a sci fi convention” Sam thought to himself.  “It hasn’t freaked anyone out – they’re all just curious instead”.

He was curious too, but he had to admit to himself that he was a little freaked out by what was happening.  He started to edge to the back of the crowd.  He could hear whispers as he went - “..of course it’s not real..  what an awesome prank…  wow, the organizers have outdone themselves this year..”

Three creatures emerged from the space ship.  They were short and squat with purple skin that hung loosely on their bodies.  They looked so funny with their long arms, short legs and over-sized head that several people in the crowd started laughing.  “Where did you get the costumes?  eBay?”, someone jeered. 

The “aliens” spread out through the crowd, selecting random people and motioning them to stand on the stage.  The audience were having fun now, ribbing their friends who had been selected.  “Don’t know what the aliens want you for – I thought they were after intelligent life forms!”, one man called out.

Sam was still feeling uneasy though – he just had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right.

The tallest creature pushed through the crowd in front of Sam.  The ‘Mr Spock look alike’ in front of him stepped aside, leaving Sam in direct sight of the alien.  It spotted Sam in his Dalek outfit and froze.  As Sam tried to step back, he bumped his CD player and the Dalek voice rang out “Exterminate, exterminate..”.  With an anguished cry, the alien turned and fled back to the space ship, calling to its shipmates as it went.  They hurried back as fast as their little legs would carry them.  The door pulled up and with a whoosh, the space ship lifted off in a puff of smoke.

The crowd broke into applause and cheers.  “What an awesome stunt”, said Josh. “I wonder how they did that with the space ship.  That was so cool”.

Only Sam was left wondering whether it was a prank or whether they really had been visited by aliens.  He’d seen the look of stark terror in the alien’s eyes when it had spotted him.  “I said the Daleks were the most powerful things in the universe” he thought to himself with a grin.