I'm Not From Earth - 17. Seventeen

s e v e n t e e n

Slade stood up, offering Rover his hand.

"I think it's best if I show you."

"Show me?" Rover asked, his eyebrows furrowing. "What's there to like, show?"

Slade's voice was strange, a mixture of mockery and heavy honesty, but his words were even stranger.

"My parent's grave."

Rover stood staring, and then voiced the only thought that came to his head. "A crashed spaceship?"

Slade smiled. "No, a crashed flying pirate ship."

Then he pulled Rover to his feet.

They walked fast through the grassy plain, almost at a jog, without a word. There were no pleasantries exchanged to lift the air, no pretenses or even questions. Not once did Rover ask where they were intending to go, or how long it was until they have reached their destination. He didn't feel the need to.

Yet still, Rover had to admit, he was skeptical. Which sixteen year old wouldn't be skeptical if a human looking alien told them that he was going to show him a crashed spaceship?

The clearing was large, more a grassland than anything else, so he didn't see it coming until the last few moments. The ground suddenly dipped down, forcing them both to stop. Rover looked downwards and felt his breath catch in his throat.

They were standing at the edge of a crater. It was nearly as big as the ones he had seen in books and television shows, almost enough to leave him squinting for the other side. It was however, dizzily deep. One fall straight to the bottom would spell certain death. Wild flowers wove a cascade of light hues that shone in the silver light, tapering to the centre of the gaping dent in the earth.

Rover followed them with his eyes, stopped, and felt all his doubts vanish.

And that was because he was shocked into submission.

He didn't know exactly what he was expecting, but Rover had a general idea of a black saucer with a glass bauble on top. However, it was nothing he could have ever imagined. And that was because it wasn't something extra terrestrial that was dreamt up from a movie producer.

It was something alien, from an alien world.

It was disc shaped, but that's where the similarities between it and Rover's image of the saucer ended. The craft was colossal, and its beauty was breath catching. Spectacular. Impossible. It looked like it was unearthed from a mountain of grey diamond. A whorl of sharp planes and gorgeous ridges were sculpted out from the majority of the top mantle, giving the impression that the craft was a giant plate with a rose carved into it. Blossomed all across the ship were fantastic tattoos of grooves, forming intricate designs that gave it a mysterious, ancient appearance. It shone a little too brightly in the moon, almost seeming to glow with a light of its own.

Most unbelievable however, was the centre of the ship. Massive structures rose from there, glinting like a city of giant needles, points so keen that they vanished into the night sky.

Its imperfection was lain in its condition. Over half of the magnificent craft was demolished and submerged into the bottom of the crater, standing like a boat sinking into a frozen sea. However, even in its tragic tilt to the side, the ship would tower over any building that stood on the face of the earth.

What could have happened to render something so powerful, into something so powerless?

Rover stared until he lost track of time. It could have been just minutes, or it could've been a whole hour. He finally brought it upon himself to speak.

"Maybe I am dreaming," he muttered.

Slade laughed. "I know it's a bit to take in."

"A bit, huh?" Rover burst out stupidly. "It's a hell've a lot to take in! How come no one has like, discovered this thing? Hasn't any hikers gone past here? And what about helicopters and planes and stuff? They could spot this thing from..."

"The moon?" Slade suggested.

"Uhm, yeah, sure. The moon."

"Well," Slade said, "I've yet to see a helicopter pass overhead, or a hiker drop by with a camera. And I think the reason why no one has spotted this thing from the moon is because no one lives there."

Rover scowled. "Why didn't you like, tell everyone?"

"And what makes you think I would ever start doing that?"

Fame, thought Rover, money even. Anything. A three minute appearance on television. His photogenic face on the cover of a magazine. But as he pushed aside his so called logic and surveyed his friend's questioning expression, he knew that Slade didn't care for any of those conventional desires.

"C'mon," Slade said, abruptly turning around. He stepped in front of Rover and then bent down, extending his arms backwards as if to proffer him his back. Rover looked at him awkwardly, unsure of what he was doing. After a few seconds of waiting, Slade looked back, his face a mixture of exasperation and amusement.

"Have you ever gotten a piggy back ride before?" He asked.

Rover stared. "Uhm..."

"Sir, just get on."

"What?" Rover blinked and took a step back. "Why?"

In response, Slade leapt backwards in his crouch, knocking into Rover's knees and forcing him onto him.

"What the hell are you --!" Rover gave a yelp as Slade took hold of both his legs, and hoisted him above his waist. His strength was frightening.

"Just calm down."

"What?! Why should I be calm?"

To Rover's horror, he felt himself poised with an entirely different problem. The position he was in -- with Slade's warm hands fixed under his thighs, his body pressed so close that he could smell the scent that could make him lose control any moment -- Rover's arousal was receiving too many right signals in one very right place. Which, could be really bad at such a time.

Slade didn't seem to notice, and instead was poised in mock thought.

"Hrmm," he said, "to be quite honest with you, you have no reason to be calm. I'm just cautioning you so you won't panic and fall off me halfway down."

Before Rover could question him to what exactly he meant by halfway down, Slade showed him.

He jumped right off the edge of the crater, whooping while his passenger screamed in terror.

They reached the bottom a moment later, landing surprisingly softly and stirring nothing but a wave of dust.

"You can put me down now," Rover said, hiding the trembling in his voice. He hated roller coasters to begin with, and had no intention of getting used to free falls any time soon. Slade released his grip but to Rover's great distress, he realized that his legs would not relent its hold. They were fixed there, deadened from the jump. Permanently, he was sure. They would remain locked there forever and he would have to stay in such an awkward position for the rest of the night, fighting as hard as he could just not to drill a hole through the back of Slade's shirt from all the friction...

Slade reached back with his right arm and pried Rover from his waist, setting him gently on the ground. He stood for a second and swayed, in which Slade steadied him.

"Thank you for almost killing me," Rover mumbled.

Slade rolled his eyes again. "You weren't going to die."

"I so could have."

"You so couldn't have. Not with me around." He flashed a bright smile. "I'm a superhero, man."

"Can you fly?"

"No, but I can dodge bullets. I'll prove it to you some day... with you on my back."

"You brag," Rover stated flatly, pulling an unimpressed expression. He smiled inside, though. The thought of Slade conducting Matrix-worthy flips while Rover was straddling his waist was a deathly sexy idea. Even if he had to endure all those acrobatics.

They both fell silent as they stared up the spacecraft. It seemed even bigger from the bottom of the crater, its wide mantle towering high over them, the strange city of needles winking. Oppressive as it was, there was something that drew Rover to it. It wasn't just curiosity, or the morbid portion of fear. It was something very physical. Rover felt the edges of his hair flutter forwards, reeled by some invisible force.

It was almost as if the craft was a sleeping lion, drawing wandering feathers closer with each inhale.

"She's calling for us," Slade said softly, and with that, started forwards.

*