I was on Earth now, and I couldn’t go home. The sensible, rational thing to do would be to find somewhere to hide the craft and figure out some kind of plan. For that to work, however, I needed Philip to be functioning properly. I tried again.
‘Philip, how long till you are finished?’
‘Internal repair under way. Duration of repair uncertain. At the roundabout take the third exit on to the A404.’
I sighed, and then was startled by a bang, seemingly on the side of the craft. Craning round to look out of the window just behind me, I gasped when I saw two Earth people in a tiny, unstable boat, about three metres away. There was something else moving in the boat as well, which looked like a bird, although it probably was not.
It seemed as though their boat had hit my craft. Could they see me? Perhaps the VI was not working after all?
I could not hear them.
‘Philip,’ I said. ‘External audio.’
‘Internal repair under way. Please hold the line. Your call is important to us.’
‘Oh, be quiet.’ Philip’s nonsense was unnerving me.
‘Please hold the line. The person you are calling knows you are waiting.’
One of the people outside began throwing things – small stones, it seemed – at the craft. I tried to turn the vehicle the old way, by expelling some compressed gas from a vent in the rear, and it worked. Slowly, my craft rotated and I was facing the two humans. They looked straight at me, but it seemed as though they could not see me.
These were the first Earth people I had ever seen, other than exhibits at the Earth Zone. They were smaller than I expected. Juveniles. Both had pale skin and hair of different shades. And those strange, tiny noses. How can they smell anything with those?
They had ‘clothes’ on. I know about clothes: human beings wear them nearly all the time. The thought of it is enough to make me itch.
I advanced the craft forward a tiny bit to look closer, but I think I alarmed them. One of them took out something which glinted in the moonlight, and I was momentarily fearful. Was it a ‘gun’? I know about these as well: little hand-held devices used to kill other humans.
Anyhow, it was not a gun, but something that he used to create a beam of light which he shone towards the craft, angling it differently, and I thought I knew what he was doing. If this was the sort of low-diffraction, amplified light source that you call ‘laser’ then he would be getting an idea of the invisible shape in front of him.
If I am honest, I was quite impressed. This was some way beyond the level of intelligence that we have come to expect from human beings.
Then something went wrong. Something frightened them. Maybe it was the movement of my craft. But one of them stood up, the other wobbled in the boat, and suddenly they were both tipped into the water and were swimming hard to get back to the shore, one of them holding something. I saw them scramble out on to the wooden deck that juts out above the water. One of them appeared to be hurt.
‘Philip? Can we move yet?’
‘Limited propulsion is now possible, Hellyann. Thank you for your patience.’
‘You’re back!’ I said, relieved.
‘System damage is significant. Internal repairs are under way.’
I risked a further tiny amount of power to follow the boys, but I could not land on the beach – it was too narrow. I stopped alongside the wooden platform.
I was quite close to them now, and I could see that:
- It was definitely a bird accompanying them. It was wet, which may be why it did not fly away.
- There was something … familiar about one of them, which I felt odd about, for how could that be? There was just something about this one that made me curious. He was hopping about next to the other one, who was lying on the wooden deck, crying in pain and bleeding quite heavily. I could not bear to see him in such distress and not help.
I made a fast decision. I would:
- Exit my craft
- Heal the injured one with my stick because I did not like him suffering, then memory-wipe them both, assuming it worked the way it should.
- Return to the craft and decide on a course of action.
It would all be over quickly.
The uninjured one started shouting ‘Help!’
I did not know who was around to help him, but this was not good. If someone came, my task would become much harder.
I had to act quickly.
‘Philip? I am going to exit.’
‘Are you quite sure that is wise, Hellyann? You will exit an invisible craft and thus simply appear as if from nowhere. This will startle the Earth people.’
This turned out to be an understatement. I think they were definitely startled.
Nonetheless, I healed the injured one. That worked at least. But it was the other one that I kept looking at. It was his freckles and his big, dark eyes that were familiar. They were just like Tammy’s.
And then I learned his name. Ee-fan, he said.
Was he … could he be … her brother? Perhaps even her twin brother? Grown in the same womb at the same time and with a tendency to look alike. (That never happens at home, but then we do not reproduce quite like you.)
An idea began to form in my mind. Perhaps my situation was improving. After all, humans were better liars. Perhaps this was what humans, in their irrational way, called ‘luck’ or ‘fate’: that I should take Ethan back home with me, to save his sister.
That was how the whole adventure began. That was how I met Ethan, and Iggy, and his chicken.
When I said that thing about ‘Or you will never see your sister again’, I was guessing. But I knew he was her brother when Ethan gave a little gasp and his eyes widened.
But to explain why I was there in the first place, I will have to go back, back to when I first saw a human being.