Alien Attack - short story

ALIEN ATTACK

"Excuse Me", Sharab pushed himself through the crowd trying to move towards the dais, "Excuse me.. Ohhh sorry", he had stepped on somebody's foot who gave him a menacing look. He looked around to see if he could find a familiar face, someone who could give him company in this melee .And suddenly his eyes spotted her.....Daanaa...she was so beautiful ,his heart skipped a beat. She had been his crush ever since he had joined school.

At 9 she was just a year older than him, he moved towards her. "Hi" he called out approaching her .Daanaa looked at him with a surprised but 'pleased to see you' glance, "Hi" ,she replied and asked , "You came alone?" Sharab smiled "Yup", he replied with a smirk." But how did they allow you? You are not even as old as me." "My dad is here. How about you?" He asked her." That's my father", she pointed at a tall person who was talking to another elder. "Hmm...." She looked back at him, "and where's your father?"

Before he could answer the loudspeakers blared, "Excuse me everyone." The crowd which was blabbering earlier suddenly went silent and every eye moved into the direction of the dias.

There stood a figure wearing a scientist's attire and he was the one speaking into the microphone. "Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, I m Dr.Sharab Sr, Senior scientist in Alien Research Department ... ARD ... and I welcome you all on the behalf of my department to this grand specter where we will be communicating with the people from other world or in layman term ALIENS."

"There..... Is my dad", beamed Sharab with pride as Daanaa looked at him appreciatively. The phrase about communication with the ALIENS let a surge through the people around there who started chatting among themselves again. "We have here..." the loudspeaker blared again,"...with us some distinctive guests...Dr.Raaagaa, the executive director of the ARD... Dr.Baafaat, security chief of the country and Dr.Kurtzo, senior scientist ARD".

Suddenly someone walked up to Dr.Sharab Sr and spoke something in his ear. Dr.Sharab seemed ecstatic as he listened to what the new member on the dias had to say.

"Sorry for the interruption ladies and gentlemen, but I have great news for all of you. To address us all today we have a sudden and very very important guest...please welcome...supreme head of our states, His Highness THE PRESIDENT..." the applause for welcome was deafening as the crowd in the open air auditorium stood on their feet to welcome their beloved leader.

The President walked on to the stage accompanied with his body guards...he had a short stature but a powerful built. He walked to the microphone and raise his hands to acknowledge the reception .As soon as he did this the roar of the crowd doubled...the auditorium seemed to shake with sound explosion...They were the people who needed no microphone to show that they were elated...these were the people who loved him and for whom the President was ready to lay down his life happily.

"Thank you one and all, I am overwhelmed by your response .....And let me tell you I am also overwhelmed to see so many people interested in Science. Science has been the key to development always and its science today which has made us come together to welcome the guest from the other planet. Let us roll before them the red carpet which will make them feel that ours is the best planet in terms of generosity and graciousness. Let us be the model guests the universe has ever seen."

The President ended his speech and the sea in front of him clapped until their palms were sore and shouted until their throats were hoarse.

Dr.Sharab came to the front again. He waited for the cries to die before he spoke. "Now I would like to invite Dr.Raaagaa to speak about all the efforts that went into this project."

Dr.Raagaa came on to the Dias and waved to the crowd, "Good evening to everybody. I am very happy to see that you have all gathered here for this grand occasion, to welcome our guests.

For long the concept of Aliens has been used for Horror movies, stories have been written about how they have attacked our planet and tried to capture it, about how they have ray guns which reduce anything it is attacked upon into ashes.

But, these all are myths, folk legends and not be believed in. We at ARD have been trying for years to find the facts about Aliens and if they are then how to contact. Years of dedication and hard work from our scientists has resulted in today. We were able to detect an alien object headed towards our planet. We have deduced it to be a spaceship and also have information about life on it. We had been able to communicate with those beings aboard the spaceship. We will now play it for you".

Dr. Raaagaa signaled to a band of scientists sitting next to the stage. They all were seated with a lot of electronic devices and gadgets, even the names of which were not known to Sharab. There was also a big screen. The scientist started playing something, some sort of gibberish noise which no one could understand .It seemed like the TV which has lost its signal. The waveforms on the screen were continuously changing shapes falling down and rising up just like the waves. He looked around at the faces of people around him; everyone was as puzzled as him.

The noise stopped and Dr.Raagaa's voice came through the speaker, "What you heard now is the language of the Alien Life forms. We took time to decipher it but finally we found the right key and this is the final result." At his hand signal the scientists started playing it. A mechanical voice could be heard saying, "We got your message. Heading towards your planet" and the pattern repeated.

Everyone gasped and a grin broke on Dr.Raagaa's face. "See, now we have a rare opportunity of seeing the Aliens land on our planet. Let's dispel our myths about the Alien enemies and welcome our guests. As you see above in the sky the spaceship is reaching our planet. You can see it as a meteor now as it moves nearer we can see the shape of the spaceship. We have setup a signaling system to tell them where to land. These advanced signal system use solar energy to generate light signals. So my friends, lets welcome our guests."

The speech ended but even before that Sharab was looking towards the sky as did the others. The Aliens were coming...He had always read about them in books...Now he was about to see them for real. Would they be friendly or would they be frightening as shown in movies...will he get a chance to talk.

Back at home, his father had repeatedly scolded him for watching those alien movies they used to show on TV. He said that these moviemakers were defaming an unknown species just to mint money. Then his father had gone on to explain about ARD and their research and their findings and about the incoming spaceship. When he had asked his father if he could come he had accepted.

And now was the moment.....he was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts as Daanaa nudged him..."Look the spaceship".

He looked up what looked like a meteor now seemed to be of a shape.....but...but it was huge....too huge...the aliens would be huge then. He was frightened seeing the size...but he didn't want to admit it in front of Daanaa...Suddenly he felt Daanaa catch hold of his hand..."Its enormous "she stammered...she was frightened.

Sharab looked around...Everybody else was tensed too. He looked toward his dad and the other scientists and Supreme ...they were all happy...his dad was busy coordinating the signal system while Dr.Raagaa was shouting out instructions for the alien spaceship into a device which looked like a wireless set...."All must be okay", he thought.

He looked up again, the size of the spaceship seemed to be growing ... and .....and ....oh no it was heading to land on them...."god" he shouted and again looked at the team of scientists....His dad was perspiring as he was still working on the signal system.....frantically.....Dr.Raagaa was barking landing instructions in his wireless set like a maniac. "Not there you fool to your left to your left..." but there was no response as the spaceship continued landing.

Suddenly a voice boomed in the microphone..."Run...everybody run for your lives....we are under attack from aliens..."it was Supreme and he seemed frightened. No sooner had he said, people started running...There was a vast expanse in front of them. A rocky terrain riddled with caves....they were all running...Nobody cared where ....they were just running....Suddenly Daanaa pulled him and started running..."Run Sharab we are gonna get killed by the spaceship", she cried....Sharab looked up, the spaceship was quickly descending on them... red flames were emitting form the sides of the spaceship. He looked at his father who shouted at him "Run Sharab run towards the caves.....", the entire team of ARD and supreme too were running now.

This frightened little Sharab more than earlier and he started running with Daanaa....he ran faster than her, dragging her half the way looking over his back...The spaceship was very close now...he looked in front, the shadow of the spaceship was on them...Daanaa was crying with fright...His legs were shaking...He would die for sure...These aliens were not good after all...he thought.....he contemplated to stop running when he saw his dad beckoning him into a cave...."Run Sharab run..." he gathered all his strength and ran towards the cave .

He jumped into the cave with Daanaa. "We are saved "he shouted in disbelief. His dad rushed towards him and took him into his lap....he turned back to see the spaceship landing on the auditorium...the auditorium was crushed. The apparatus destroyed...many unlucky people who couldn't make it to the caves were burnt by the flames of the spaceship and were lying there...Dead.

He looked at his dad, "But dad they had replied that they were coming as friends??" he asked Sharab Sr. who had no answer. He looked at Dr.Raaagaa and Dr. Kurtzo...they too had a blank expression....."May be we deciphered it wrong", Dr.Kurtzo said. Sharab could not stop his tears.

He turned .....A door opened from the spaceship and two enormous figures got down..."The Aliens", everybody in the cave gasped...They were huge...too huge even for description....dressed in white....with a huge backpack on their backs. Their face was shining like glass.....they had no eyes no mouth or nose...they were ugly...Uglier than in the movies.....and yes they had attacked their planet. - Their lovely planet.

Sharab's mind had many questions, "Why did they attack us ... we wanted to be friends...? Why did they have to kill all these people to show that they were supreme beings...why? Why??" but he knew these questions will never be answered...

The door of the spaceship opened and an Alien got out of it....he hopped on the surface....he was gliding not walking.....just minutes later another Alien came out ..He too hopped towards the first one.

When he came near to the first one he asked, "Neil Armstrong....How does it feel to be the first man to land on moon..."Armstrong chuckled, "It's like heaven Aldrin it's just like heaven ...I can see the beautiful earth from here .. ..."he pointed towards earth...

"Now pass me the flag... let the world know that the Americans have set foot on moon.

Sharab could see the two aliens talking to each other....were they happy with the kill? He noticed them pointing into the sky...he peeped out a bit out of curiosity. They were pointing towards a planet...a beautiful planet. Sharab knew about it...he had read about that planet in his geography class. It was called the Earth.....Tears welled in his eyes as he imagined his home - the Moon devastated by theses Aliens from Earth.

------ The End-----