An alien ?

"An alien"?

   Sasanix went out of a house. It was nippy. She looked at the rising sun in the east, then at the moon appearing on the west side of the sky. It would be a good day: warm and free of sandstorms. She wrapped herself up in a coat more tightly and moved toward her small field, where she grew edible plants. Sunlight launched automatic sprinklers. The girl began to pick round sweet mevexes that she was going to prepare for breakfast. Surrounding silence disturbed only by the sound of the sprinklers, was interrupted by an overwhelming boom. Sasanix stopped terrified. She looked around seeking a source of the sound. Nothing. Suddenly, something rustled over her head. She looked up and saw a metal construction gently falling under a large sheet made of an unknown fabric. Finally the stranger from the sky quietly landed on the reddish plain, a few meters from the girl. Sasanix stood looking at it. Dust dropped. It was silent again.  Curiosity won. Sasanix moved slowly toward an unidentified object. Suddenly something screeched. A hidden door opened. A platform appeared and something emerged from the inside. It was a vehicle. Constructed of metal, it moved on six wheels with thick tires. The vehicle was bigger than Sasanix. On a long pipe, like a neck, it held something in the shape of a head. The front was equipped with a long extension arm. After a moment the vehicle drove down the ramp. Then it began move slowly toward the girl, turning its head, as if looking around. It was inexorably going in the direction of the Sasanix’s garden. The girl watched it in tension. The device run into her field, then stopped in the middle of a patch of groundeaters (oval edible tubers, slightly sweet taste). Something tingled. Then the long arm, that the stranger barged in front of him, came alive. Much to Sasanix's dismay, the extension arm turned toward her patch and then began to dig holes in it, unceremoniously devastating the plants growing there. The upset woman overcame her fear of the device and advanced on help of her groundeaters. Getting rid of remaining fear she reached the intruder. Without thinking, she tried to stop the metal arm, making harvest in the patch. The arm did nothing of her efforts. Impassively it dug the soil from the patches and threw it into a container that came out of another drawer. In despair Sasanix tried to push the intruder. At least it was on wheels. Nothing of that. It was terribly heavy. She was crying out of helplessness. The device filled the container. Then hid it inside. To Sasanix's relief devastating her patches arm collapsed and stopped. The device froze. When she thought it stopped its demolition, she suddenly heard a whistle. After a moment the head of the device began to move around, stopping for a few seconds. It looked as it was watching or ... photographing. Suddenly the device directed its "head" towards Sasanix.

“Over my dead body, you peeping Tom!” she thought, then not thinking much, she threw herself in the direction of the intruder and covered the recording device with her hands. At least she hoped for that. She took her hands when the "head" of the intruder began to make another turn.

“What do you want to photograph here?” she wondered. - Around only mountains, rocks and desert.

   Sasanix’s settlement, artificially irrigated, was literally squeezed into rock formation. Rock cornices framed a roof overhead, passing little light that in the summer time was too harsh, protecting against the cold of night and sandstorms. Some inhabitants lived in comfortably furnished caves, others in stone houses.

Finally, Sasanix decided to go for help. Her farm was off the beaten track. She had to cross the road to the rock formation behind which the settlement was hidden. 

Avoiding the "sight" of the revolving head, the girl began to run towards the rocks that had covered her after a while. She crossed the rock entrance and soon went to a centre of the settlement.

Since it was really early, the dwellers were not visible yet. In meagre gardens, curtilages, bustled home robots. The main road leading to a house of the gens’s was empty. Sasanix started to ran. After a few minutes she knocked at the door of the house of the gens’ head - the exalted Getoryx. It was open by his wife - an old but having an upright bearing woman with a slim figure.

“Good morning, dear Dorjanix. I'm sorry to trouble you at such early hour, but something has happened what requires immediate intervention...” started Sasnix panting heavily.

“You'll find Getoryx in the dining room” the woman said dryly, removing from the road.

Sasanix quickly crossed the threshold and went in the indicated direction. A man with a long, grey beard and grey hair that fell down on his shoulders, sat at a wide table. An alimentary robot had just set up a steaming bowl before him. The old man looked surprised at the coming girl.

“Dear Getoryx, I'm sorry to break your morning meal but a metal creature landed on my field. It is destroying crops and taking photos!” Sasnix chocked with one breath.

“Again?” sighed the head. “You should have made it go to the desert.”

“I tried, but this is bigger ... quite big. I need help.”

“Okay, I'll just call five men and handle this unwanted newcomer... Did it not photograph you?”

“No, I blocked its eyes when it tried.”

Getoryx looked at her surprised but continued:

“The farm?”

“The intruder is on the field, afar off. From this distance the buildings of the farm appear as a rock formation.”

“Hope so. We do not want the Aliens know about us because they will arrive here and start doing their disorders.”

   The sun was already at the zenith when a group of people appeared at the Sasanix’s farm. Together with the men appointed by the head of the house came gaping onlookers. The intruder did not go far. It looked asleep. Getoryx explained to everyone that the threat was only temporary, then the devices turned off and till next day were quiet. Possibly they were sending data or charging batteries. This object was really massive. Five men toiled away before they pushed it out of Sasanix’s field but unfortunately some of the plants were destroyed.

“If we were not hiding, we would ask the Aliens for compensation. They only make a scrapheap here,” said Getoryx. “Send this new scrap to the desert to take a photo of sand and stones like its predecessors. By the way, when will the Aliens finally get discouraged and come to the conclusion that it is the there is no life here on this planet?”

 

 

Marian sunset, phot. Curiosity, NASA

 Mount Sharp, phot. Curiosity, NASA