Short Story - Alien in Central Park - Grant Eagar
The Pod
Melba felt a hand gently shake her shoulder. She opened an eye. There stood her android mother who smiled and brushed a wisp of blue hair from Melba’s emerald eyes. “Precious girl, welcome to your special day.”
Melba sat up and stretched. “Happy morning Mother, what brings you into my room so early?”
Her mother forced a pensive smile. “Today is a wonderful occasion; not only is it the 20th anniversary of your conception, it’s also your day to board the pod. We’ve finally arrived at the earth colony’s planet system; your mission will begin.”
"Why do you keep bringing this up? I’ve told you repeatedly I’m not going."
The android, who was in the form of a middle-aged woman, wrung her fingers and cleared her throat. "Dearest, we know you’re hesitant to go on this mission, but it’s such a simple thing. You get in the pod and go on your way and in a couple of weeks you’ll be in earth’s orbit. You take a few pictures of the planet then visit the place and report back. What could go wrong?"
Melba scratched her ear with her tail which resembled a lion’s tail with fingers. She scowled. “I don’t feel up to boarding the pod today; maybe tomorrow.” She then lay back down and covered her head with her blanket.
Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Girl, we’ve arrived! There is no tomorrow. We just have a thirty-minute window to launch the pod.” She glanced at the timepiece in her hand, “correction, we now have a twenty-seven-minute window.”
Melba peered out of the covers. “Perhaps we could wait until we reach the next colony? I’m confident given ten more years I’ll be in a much better disposition to visit a planet. The Earth Colony as you know is hostile. This planet is the most unfriendly of any of the colonies; so why was I roped into visiting this Karentium pig hole?”
“First, another child is being prepared for the next colony. Secondly, you were the one selected and prepared for the Earth colony. Your parents chose this for you, don’t blame me. This is your mission, your future, your destiny. Now hurry and get up.” She then yanked the covers off Melba. “You don’t want to leave this way, do you? It’s your fate to visit the planet.”
Melba sat up and ran her hands through her electric blue hair and felt the nubs of the horns in her temples. She considered the robot and offered a toothy grin. “Why don’t you go in my place, I’ll stay here and I promise I’ll change: I won’t hide during language training and I’ll work harder in Earth studies. I’m sure you’d do a much better job than me. I appreciate the gift of life and all and I’m indebted to you for raising me, but going down to an unfriendly planet is more than I can deal with today. I’m sorry.” Melba then grabbed the blanket and covered her head with it.
The robot sighed. “Oh dear, this is not going well.” She turned and hurried away.
Melba hopped up and ran to the door and peered down the hall and watched her mother robot disappear around a corner. I don’t think she’s going to give up. She is getting the others to help her. Now where to hide? She ran down the hall, peered around corners, and finally arrived at her hidey-hole. This was where she would hide when things became too hectic. There was a loose floor panel which she removed and climbed into the opening and pulled the metal panel back into place. If I can avoid the stupid robots until the 30-minute flight window is over, I won’t have to go.
She waited several minutes, heard the robots walk overhead, and then headed towards her room. She looked at a small digital clock on her fingernail. Just twenty-two more minutes and she would be safe. There was the sound of her robotic family running up and down the hallways of the ship. This went on for ten minutes. There was a faint beeping sound which became louder and louder until it was directly over her.
The floor panel was removed and Melba peered up at the robots.
“Melba my sweet, I’m sorry our disagreement has come to this, but you’ll now have to enter the pod,” said her father.
Melba peered up from inside the cavity and regarded the four robots. “Leave me be.” They did not move. “I’m not going to the stupid planet. You can’t make me go.” She jumped up and sprinted down the hall. She was caught by her brother and sister then dragged kicking and screaming to the launch bay where she was tossed into the pod. “Can’t you see I don’t want to go? I love my life here. Let me stay!” She regarded them with narrow eyes for a moment. “I’m alive and you’re just dopey robots, you should do as I say, now let me out.”
“You’re making this much harder than it needs to be,” said her father blocking several punches and kicks. “I’m sorry we have to part like this, but it’s time for you to go.” He blocked a flying scissor kick that sent her sprawling then slammed the hatch closed.
She pounded on the hatch and attempted to open the round glass door then stared out at her robotic family with a look of pure hate. After half a minute her face softened and she placed her hand against the portal and wiped a tear from her eye.
The androids all touched the glass opposite to hers as she wept. A minute later her mother touched the ejection button and the pod was sent on its way. Melba watched the mother ship accelerate and then get smaller and smaller in the distance.
She pounded on the portal and yelled “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you all.” After several minutes she took one final glance at the tiny dot which was the mother ship. When the ship had disappeared, Melba continued to stare at the area where the golden vessel had vanished. She put her head in her hands and wept. She thought, Melba, there is no use mourning what is lost. They aren’t coming back. There is only one way and it’s through this. You just as well fulfill the bloody mission.
She dried her eyes and went through the pod’s protocol and began releasing satellites to be used to convey the Earth colony’s status. She checked the pod's course and sat back and waited.
Today is the twentieth anniversary of my conception, what a way to celebrate the day? Kicked out of my home like a Karentium street rat, bloody hell! Being raised by the dopey robots, all I’ve ever heard was this is your fate; this is your destiny, you must go. Ugh! What a load of goat dung!
#
She watched the blue orb approach her and she wept for the wonder of it. She floated over to the portal and pressed her face against the window. Have I died and gone to the Elysium fields? The earth planet is glorious to behold. How could something so beautiful be such a wild and barbaric place? What kind of Shia pig-dogs live there? The pod slowed and intersected the planet’s orbit.
The girl gently pushed off the wall and floated back to her seat. She strapped herself in and grasped the controls. Using the computer, she put the ship into a predetermined orbit seventy miles above Antarctica. She directed high-powered cameras and sensors at the planet's surface. Below her, she gazed into the monitor and she gasped at the ice of Antarctica and she was struck with the magic of the shining wall of an aurora borealis rainbow that played across the sky below her. She then noticed the numerous satellites filling the heavens. After figuring out the human’s level of technology Melba fed the information into the computer which changed the protocol. It was not Melba’s intent to make herself known to the humans. This change in procedure adjusted the profile of the pod to keep the vessel from appearing on radar. The change to the pod’s aero profile made it uncomfortable and cramped, but it couldn’t be helped.
The pod moved northward and then back south after each revolution of the earth to map the planet. As the ship moved across the earth, she looked through the camera and was enthralled by the world below her and she realized the earth was now a vastly different place from what had been reported on the last mission, two hundred years earlier. Her people had not realized the earth planet’s technology would progress so rapidly. Even though her cameras and sensors were much more powerful than those on earth, it still took her a month to map the planet.
After mapping the North Pole, she felt she had completed her job. She broadcast a transmission to the chain of long-range satellites. This record would reach Alexandria, her Grecian homeworld, in thirty years.
With the remaining fuel, she guided the pod directly above the area she intended to land. While she mapped the planet, she loved to look at all the lights on the planet's surface at night, and she noticed one of the places where the lights were the brightest was New York City. The city lights reminded her of the Milky Way when she would gaze up at the stars. She also noticed a green place in the center of all the lights. This is where she would make her new home.
Once she had chosen where she would make her home, using an anti-gravity device, she set the capsule into a geostationary orbit 50 miles above the city. She had a crude Am radio which she tuned into several AM stations. These allowed her to learn the language with the aid of a translating program. Diane Reams became her daily companion reminding her of what she had learned about her biological mother, talking about social causes such as aids and global warming.
A month later she could her the beeping sound of the ejection warning going off. She could see on the earth’s surface the shadows lengthen and the lights of the cities begin to wink on as twilight made its way westward. The pod would soon take its plunge towards her destiny. She picked up the pictures of her parents, Ja-Roc-Nog a warlord, and Lady Ophelia, the ruler of the planet Alexandria. Why did you do this to me? I could’ve had a wonderful life at home on Alexandria, but now this? I would have been a princess if I had stayed on Alexandria, but here, what is to become of me? She then picked up the picture of the androids who had raised her. You dopey robots. She leaned down and gave the three-dimensional plate a gentle kiss. She glanced down at her shaking hands and wiped away a tear. I’m not ready to go down, this mission sucks, please help me.
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