Hard Contacts
Somewhere in the Lawndale backwoods. Summer, 1999.
As the door on the giant lander opened, the two frightened teenagers
could see the outline of...something, sillouetted by the blazing light
from within.
The door stopped against the ground, looking eerily like a ramp. A
moment later, the sillouette began to grow larger...something was
coming out.
Daria gently wrapped her hand around Jane's, and held it, shaking but tight.
"Well, amiga, this is it..." Jane whispered. Daria only nodded.
The shadowy form grew closer...closer. Until...
...the robot arm of the alien probe emerged into the evening light,
angled down, and extended it's coffee-cup sized scoop into the soil. A
second later, the scoop tried to retract with it's sample of dirt, but
seemed to struggle under the weight of a modest little rock that it had
wedged itself under. Daria briefly hesitated, then helpfully kicked the
rock away.
The scoop bobbed up, like a spring doorstop, then retracted back into
the arm. Maybe a minute later, the arm angled back up, and what was
obviously a little Anemometer popped out of the end. It turned lazily
in the mild breeze.
Jane shuffled her feet.
The light from inside the door shut off with a whine. Nothing else happened.
Daria coughed, and said, quietly, "This...isn't really as exciting as I thought it would be."
"Just like the science on THIS planet, I guess." Jane said, with a sigh.
Original post date: Unknown.