THE ARRIVAL
By Laura
As Tess sped across the galaxy, she chuckled to herself.
“I got away! I got away! Sure Max is not with me but I had an arrangement with Kivar to bring him Max’s baby. And since Max isn’t here, he’ll never know that I was never pregnant. Oh, wait… something sounds wrong about those two sentences… um.. is it?…. something about a baby? Oh, never mind.”
She chuckled again until she noticed lights flashing at her. The lights had alien symbols on them which Tess could not interpret.
“Ohhhh!!!” she whined, “why can’t those flashy things have words written in American? I can’t read that alien stuff. That’s why I needed Al.”
For the next few minutes, the lights continued to flash and Tess continued to whine about then. Then she distinctly felt the granilith slowing and she became very excited.
“Goody goody! I’m home I’m home I’m home! I can’t wait to meet everyone! They will bow down to me because I am the queen! I wonder what my crown looks like. I hope it’s all sparkly. I like sparkly things.”
Eventually the ship came to a halt and a panel slid open. Tess peered out, searching for royal subjects, a red carpet, a crown, gold bricks - all the things she thought a queen should have. What she saw was several naked beings, all about 3 to 4 feet high and totally bald. A few of them were glowing.
“Eeewwwwww….” She wrinkled her nose at them. “You’re all bald! And you’re not wearing any clothes. That’s so weird.”
The being at the front of the group briefly put its four-fingered hands to the places where its ears would be – if it had ears. Then it quickly approached Tess, one hand extended.
“Eeewwwwww….” she repeated, “You only have four fingers. That’s just gross.”
The being stared at her. It turned to the others and raised what would have been its eyebrows – if it had eyebrows. The others shrugged and the being turned back to Tess.
“It will take you a while to get used to the physical appearance that you once shared with us…” it began.
“Aaahhhh!!!” she shrieked. The entire group of beings quickly placed their hands where their ears might be (if they had ears). “You were just talking right now and you didn’t even open your mouth and your lips didn’t move and sound was coming from somewhere and that is just way too creepy! Oh! I wish Max were here so he could tell me what to do.”
“Max is not with you? You were supposed to bring King Zan with you. That was the arrangement.”
“Well, who the hell are you? What do you know about the arrangement? My arrangement was with Kivar! I want to see him and I want to see him now! And stop with all that glowing. It’s making me nauseous!”
“I am Kivar,” stated the being who been addressing her. “I had a deal with Nacedo that Zan would be brought back to be a puppet king.”
“You’re Kivar? Uh…. What-ever. Max didn’t come, but don’t worry. I told him I’m pregnant.”
“Oh, so you are carrying the king’s child?”
“Well, duh-uh. No. I just told him there was a child so he’d come back here! Sheesh!”
“But, my Queen, he didn’t come back here.”
“Well, duh, people! I already told you that!”
Kivar turned to the beings behind him. More of them were glowing now than before. He gave a hand signal that Tess thought was similar to the hand signals used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. She wondered how they had managed to see that movie.
“You know we can’t do that,” she heard one of them say to Kivar.
“That talking without opening your mouth is really grossing me out,” Tess whined.
“Very well,” said Kivar, refusing to move his lips. “I shall communicate telepathically only with my colleagues, so that you won’t be grossed out.”
“OK, but can we get on with this? I want my crown.”
Kivar turned again and seemed to be discussing something very important. There even seemed to be an argument going on, though she heard nothing. She just knew it was about her, because, you know, what else could it be about?
“La la la.” Tess began. “Oops I did it again… You drive me crazy… Oh, damn! I wish I had my Walkman. I am sooo bored. Would you little naked bald things stop glowing and hurry up!”
The entire group turned and pointed their hands palms out at her.
“Oooohhhh!!! Is this some kind of salute given to royalty?”
At that moment, a bright orange light flashed from the hand of each being. It hit Tess with the force of a tornado and the heat of a sun. In an instant, she was no more.
“You know,” one of the beings said to Kivar, “she was our Queen and, without Zan, our only hope of taking over for good.”
The beings all looked around at each other.
“Soooo worth it!” they shouted telepathically, and started high-fouring each other.
The End