Sci/Fi Landing Pad

Well, I really don’t think they have been studying humans for any length of time just to come and drown them. Bet this fluid is something they can breath once their lungs “remember” how to. Maybe I’m way off but I doubt it because there is more to the story. LOL There was one sentence I rewrote for you but it’s up to you if you want to change it. I don’t remember anything else. I’ve got to read at least one more chapter.

Dragon

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Nobody spoke or moved for some time. The only sound Richard could hear was a pulsing rush in his ears, an all-too-familiar sign that his heart was racing and his blood pressure was dangerously high.

Linda took a step forward. Richard reached out to grab her arm, but she pulled away and continued walking toward the ship.

“What are you doing?” he sputtered, catching up with her.

She stopped and faced him. The last remnants of the crescent moon had vanished under the horizon, so it was too dark to see the expression on her face. Janet and Phil, still riveted to the spot where they had turned the corner around the house, were barely visible in the dim starlight.

Linda slipped her hand into Richard’s and leaned close. “Whoever’s in that thing is not hostile. They don’t even want to frighten us by knocking on our door. They want us to come to them when we’re ready. That’s why they’re waiting for us.” She raised her voice in what seemed a sacrilegious disturbance of the peace. “Phil!” She laughed. “Behold what thy hand hath wrought!” At this she broke into a spasm of laughter, grabbing Richard’s arm for support.

Richard pulled her to him. “Are you okay?” Her breath betrayed the Irish Creme they had shared, enough to make his wife somewhat more than tipsy.

The laughter dwindled and she rested her chin on the top of his shoulder. “Don’t you see how funny this is?” she asked, still with a hint of laughter in her voice. “I mean, this is it, my love. What we’ve all been waiting for. Mankind’s first encounter with an alien race. And who do we have representing humanity?” She swept her arm out dramatically. “Us! You, and me, and Phil, and Janet. What do you think? Will we do humanity justice? Or will our visitors decide the universe would be better off if they blitz us and see if the newts evolve into something better next time?”

He pushed her away and held her at arm’s length. “You’re hysterical,” he said. “We should not be the ones doing this. Phil’s car is here. Let’s go while we can.”

Her voice dropped down to a softer, more serious tone. “Really? Whoever’s in that ship followed the signal we sent and came all the way here to meet us, and you want to run? Maybe let some military idiot be the greeting party instead, while the President sits on his butt in Washington with his finger on a big red button? That’s what will happen if we run away, and you know it. For all we know, they’re already on the way. Richard...” She touched his cheek. “I understand fear of the unknown. But it’s too late to turn back. Don’t you see? We’re committed. The train’s left the station. Besides...” She wrapped her arms around his chest and squeezed. “Remember the rule,” she whispered. “Embrace surprise. I’m going to take a closer look. Please come with me.”

Linda walked slowly toward the front of the ship, the place where the head would have been if this were a giant beetle. Richard followed close behind. He glanced over his shoulder. Janet was walking quickly toward them. Only Phil held back. When they reached the base of the ship, they saw that the legs had hidden a ramp leading up from the ground into the central belly of the beast. A light emanating from the interior softly illuminated the ramp, obviously let down from the flat bottom of the ship.May I suggest this rewritten sentence? I think it reads smoother. Up to you.

Linda and Richard stopped at the foot of the ramp and waited for Janet to catch up. Phil joined them a few seconds later, visibly shivering. The night air was chilly, making the warmth drifting down from the inside of the ship feel inviting. Linda clasped Richard’s hand in her own and took a step up the ramp. She tugged and he followed as she slowly ascended.

“Hey Linda!” Phil’s voice was sharp. “What gives you the right to be in charge here? I’d rather take a minute and come up with a plan, not just stumble in like idiots.”

Janet, already a few steps up the ramp, turned around. “Phil, if this isn’t an invitation, I don’t know what is. Remember, you invited them here. Now they’re inviting us back. You’d rather they came and took us by force?”

“I didn’t say that. All I’m saying is that we need to be logical about this. There must be a reason they’re not showing themselves.”

Janet laughed. “And I bet I know what it is. They’ve done this before, to other races, and they know better than to show themselves. What if they look like giant slugs with shark’s teeth? Do you really think we’d walk into their ship if we knew what they look like? I doubt it.”

Phil just stood there, shaking his head back and forth. “You’re going to blow it,” he said at last. “I don’t think we should enter their ship unless we know why we’re doing it. It seems like we’re taking a needless risk.”

Janet walked back down the ramp and faced him. “Haven’t you ever thought about this?” she said. “You’ve heard the stories, tales where a flying saucer lands in somebody’s corn field? Haven’t you wondered what you would do? Would you try to meet them, or would you back off? Well Phil, I’ve thought about it, and I made my decision when I was a little girl, even though I never dreamed I’d get the chance. I decided I’d want to see them, talk to them, maybe even go with them if they invited me. Now it’s happened, an honest-to-God miracle, a chance to see things beyond what I could possibly imagine. I know what I want to do.” She took his hand and squeezed it. “Goodbye,” she said, then turned around and strode up the ramp.

Linda and Richard waited for her, halfway up, their heads just below the level of the bottom of the ship. They were holding each other tightly, a defense against the cold as well as fear.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked Linda.

“Rich, think about it, what I said before, plus...” She licked her lips. “I’m a cultural linguist, for Pete’s sake. Can you imagine learning the language of an advanced species that’s not human? That may not even have the anatomy to communicate with human sounds?” She chuckled. “Maybe if I were sober I’d feel differently. Or maybe not. In any case, it’s too late to change our minds. We don’t want to insult them, do we?” She kissed him lightly on the lips. “I love you,” she whispered as she released him from her grip. “Let’s do it.” She turned and walked up the ramp.

The interior of the ship, or at least the small antechamber in which the three of them found themselves, was wildly unlike anything Richard could have imagined for the inside of an alien spacecraft. The floor was carpeted in what seemed to be exquisitely manicured fake grass, so perfect that it screamed phoniness. The wall that curved around them in a slightly squashed circle was the epitome of cheap shtick, a translucent panorama of a lush field with trees in the distance, all illuminated by soft light coming from the scene itself.

“Where’s the monkey calls?” laughed Janet.

Linda wandered over to the wall and ran her finger along it. “They’re trying to make us feel at home.”

“What the hell is this?” Phil asked, timidly taking the final step up the ramp and joining them.

The ship vibrated almost imperceptibly as the ramp rose up from the ground and became a part of the floor, an island of rubber-coated metal in a sea of green. A soft-spoken, breathy female voice emanated from the ceiling. “You are all present?” it asked, ending the question with a lengthy inflection that would have sounded sexy under other circumstances.

“There are four of us, yes.” Linda said. “Please leave the door open. You are frightening us.”

“I am sorry,” came the reply. “You should not be frightened. You initiated communication with me, so I assumed that you desired contact. Would you like to leave now?”

The four of them looked at one another, then down at the ramp, still closed.

“You speak English,” Richard said.

“I am fluent in the language of every technologically advanced society on your planet. I have been studying your radio and television broadcasts since they began, and your online libraries as well. Your Internet is fascinating. Studying its content gives me great pleasure.”

“Who are you? Is there just one of you?”

The hidden voice let out a low alto chuckle. “I am what you would call an artificial intelligence. I have been waiting and watching your people for many of your centuries. At regular intervals, an automated drone brings me material for my maintenance and then returns to our base with a record of what I have learned. When you indicated your desire to communicate with my people, a long-distance ship was dispatched. It awaits us in orbit around your sun. May we go now? I don’t think your people detected my descent, but I am not certain of this. Military intervention would be unfortunate.”

“You want us to leave Earth?” Phil gulped. “Now?”

“I must leave soon. The longer I remain, the greater the risk of undesirable contact.”

The wall’s lush panorama of trees and grass evaporated and was replaced by a dull metallic skin, broken by four dark portals that opened silently. They were slightly taller than Phil, the tallest of the humans, and barely wide enough to allow them to pass through. Richard leaned forward and ran his finger along the edge of one of the doorways. It was perfectly smooth, with no sign of a sliding door, as if part of the wall had simply vanished.

“You must be protected from the rapid acceleration which we will undergo,” the voice explained. “Please choose a compartment.”

“No,” said Phil. “Not right away. You surprised us, so I’m not ready. I need equipment. Cameras, recording gear, other instruments. Give me an hour.”

“You would find such things useless. Now that you are here, I need to leave immediately. Military intervention by your people while you are on board would be disastrous. If you do not wish to join us, please leave now.” Once again the floor vibrated as the ramp lowered to the ground.

Janet stepped in front of Phil. “You’re not really going to walk away from this, are you?” She turned her eyes up toward the ceiling. “Do we get to meet your people?”

“That is their wish. Do you wish the same?”

“Well, Phil, what will it be? Come with us? See things that I guarantee will be infinitely beyond the limits of your imagination? Or go back and spend the rest of your life regretting your decision?”

Phil scowled, then whispered, “I’ll go.”

“In here?” Linda said, pointing at the dark passage closest to her.

“Yes”

Richard took her hand. “Me first,” he said, kissing her lightly on the lips. “I love you.” He stepped into the portal and looked back over his shoulder, but saw nothing. The opening had vanished, turning again into a solid wall. There was no light; it was the most utterly black darkness he had ever experienced. Something broad and hard touched his back, as if the wall itself had advanced to press him from behind. At the same time the floor moved up and away. He flailed, trying to keep his balance as he tilted backward, but the passageway was narrow, barely wider than the width of his shoulders. A few seconds later he was horizontal, flat on his back in a coffin-size box. He reached up and felt the lid just inches above his body. Then he heard water flowing, and felt wetness along the length of his body. The water rose quickly, covering half of his body in less than a minute. He pounded the lid, pressed down with his feet, twisted sideways and tried to drive his shoulder into the lid. It didn’t give.

The water kept rising. It had a sweetish smell, roses tinged with disinfectant. His flailing arms splashed a drop in his nose where it burned. Didn’t they know? Surely this AI that had watched humanity for centuries knew about drowning. Is this how the first meeting between man and alien was to end, with murder by negligence? Or was it by negligence? Was he actually being preserved in alien formaldehyde, on his way to a laboratory for dissection?

As the fluid was about to close over his face, he suddenly had the most horrifying thought of all: this wasn’t just about him. Nearby, perhaps only a few feet away, Linda was in an identical coffin, about to drown. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Oh dear Linda, I’m sorry.”