Seventy Years
The gravitational pull of the Earth’s atmosphere had been much stronger than we had anticipated. We had originally only meant to whip around the small blue planet once or twice and perhaps take a glimpse at what was so grand about it. We had only heard rumors of the soft-flesh humanoids that inhabited it, but we were much more interested in the terrain.
From what the human creatures called “space” we could see the rich blues that covered most of the planet, dotted strangely with green and brown shapes, white masses swirling around them. Siggly had called the planet a word for beautiful just before our ship felt a hard pull bringing us closer than we would have liked.
Our adventure had been carelessly planned. The thought of Earth being even slightly dangerous hadn’t even crossed our minds. Regardless, this force dragged us closer. Through our ship’s small windows I could see the green and brown shapes growing larger.
“You’ve done it again this time, Siggly,” I said, shouting over the alarms cautioning us of our entry. “I’d really love to see how you get us out of this one.”
If I recalled it correctly, our interest in Earth had been sparked by something Siggly had said. “We’ve already come all this way, who will notice if we take a small detour?”
Unfortunately, our disappearance from our fleet of ships had been noticed by another ship, manned by two of our kind that were equally interested in a closer look. Their involvement in our party was announced by their own shouting over our communication devices.
The descent into the lower atmosphere of Earth had taken moments, not nearly enough time for either of us to form a successful plan of action. Though, as unexpected as our fall had been, it had been even more unexpected when our ship came to a soft halt, leaving us hovering just among the white masses.
Siggly and I sat in our seats for a brief moment in silence, staring in awe out over the land we saw. Far out to one side of the ship were deep moving blues while out to the other side stood what I could only consider large monuments of green that stuck out like peaks from overall blue surroundings.
Our silence was interrupted by the sound of an engine much louder than our own.
“Did you see that?” Siggly asked me, pointing out the window. I looked just in time to see the dusty green ship fly past us, black crosses very distinctly painted on it’s two strange appendages as well as it’s hull. It circled us before firing its own blasters.
We reacted by throwing our engines into gear, not having weaponry of our own to retaliate. The rumors of how violent the human race was, were only being confirmed in my mind. We fled over the blue landscape. Though, our escape was futile, as our ship’s defenses were no match for the cannons.
Siggly screamed as smoke filled the command center while I braced myself for impact. I could only think about how stupidly idealistic we had been to consider our venture. Our collision with the blue was more giving than I had expected, the surface seeming to open and swallow our ship whole.
Slowly, we sank deeper into the blue. I watched as the color grew darker the farther we fell.
