Tales of a Lost Galaxy (Warning! Experimental fic!)

[Mewfour]

Yep, you read that right, this is nothing but a little experiment fic. Yes, I know it leaves a lot of loose ends, but it's unlikely that I will post the other chapters here on TPM. I'll just test the water here first, and then maybe, just maybe, begin to update this. Maybe.

Tales of a Lost Galaxy

The night-blanketed sky was dotted with the millions of sparking stars. The view from atop the cliffside was nothing short of breathtaking, and it looked so much comforting to behold from behind the windshield. Yawning, Brendan took his hands off of the wheel, and slowly draped one arm above the headrest of the seat beside him. The blonde woman underneath his arm gave a tired sigh. "Can't you be a bit more original?" she asked, adjusting her glasses.

Brendan rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll think of something better, Kathrine."

Brendan groaned silently to himself. Everything he tried had failed to get her started. When the flowers only got a thanks from her a week ago, Brendan was contemplating giving up entirely. This was going to be his last attempt at wooing her. If a serene lookout from his car above the city lights did not win Kathrine over, Brendan was calling it quits.

Suddenly, Kathrine grinned. "Hey Brendan, look," she said, pointing out of the windshield and into the sky, "a shooting star."

Brendan's mind immediately switched tracks. "They say they're not stars," he said, hoping she would reply.

"Yeah, they're just rocks and dust from space burning in the ozone," said Kathrine. "You never told me you liked astronomy."

Brendan blinked. "Oh, didn't I?" He murmured, trying his best to sound honest. He could not care less about astronomy, and yet he said, "I love astronomy."

"So do I," Kathrine said. "That's why you brought us out here, isn't it?" she asked with a grin.

"Sure is," said Brendan, resting his hand over Kathrine's.

Kathrine gave a quiet giggle. "All right, that's original enough," she said.

"Yes!" Brendan's brain cheered, "Finally!"

When they looked at each other, it was the first time that they had ever looked into each other's eyes. Something was suddenly pulling them together, something so captivating that neither one of them noticed a bright light racing closer and closer towards them. And right when Brendan opened his mouth to speak, the bright glare shone in the corner of his eyes. Looking out of the windshield, Brendan and Kathrine saw the speeding fireball just in time to reach for the doors.

They both flung their doors open and threw themselves onto the ground, seconds before a massive object shot through Brendan's car, smashing over the windshield and tearing off the hood. The giant chunk of metal crashed into the ground, and skidded a long crater into the land. Almost as soon as it has stopped, a fire suddenly lit up at the arrow-shaped chunk's tip.

Brendan hardly gave the gigantic chunk any notice as soon as he was on his feet again. Leaping over the trunk of his car, Brendan slided onto the other side, and rushed to Kathrine. "Kathrine, are you all right?" Brendan asked.

Kathrine sat up and groaned. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, quickly staring at the strange heap of metal before them.

Brendan gazed at the alight chunk. "What is that thing?" he asked.

"It looks like some kind of aircraft," Kathrine murmured. "It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before though."

Suddenly, Brendan figured it out. "It's a UFO," he said quickly. Kathrine studied the craft more carefully, and she eventually agreed with Brendan.

Before they could say another word, a quick hiss filled the air, and steam billowed out of the craft's hull. "Brendan," Kathrine murmured, "I think someone's coming out."

The wide open cliffside left nowhere to run, and Brendan looked at the remains of his car. "I think we'd better hide for now," he said, grabbing Kathrine by the hand and leading her behind his car. They quietly crouched down and peered behind the sides as the craft's hull slowly began to open up a small doorway, unfurling a set of stairs down to the ground below. Brendan and Kathrine watched in silent awe as they saw a crew of figures descend.

As soon as all five of them were on the ground, the one at the front looked around. "I don't recognize this one," he said in a stern, gruff voice. "Where did we land?"

"Past the 719 region," came a deep yet soft voice from the creature behind him.

"Great," said an assertive female voice, "The uncharted area."

One of the shorter creatures looked at the flames coming from the nose of their craft. "Blimey, she's alight," he said. "Best be puttin' 'er out quick."

As the alien rushed to the tip of the craft, the largest of the five suddenly straightened. "Quiet," he said in a low voice, "I thought I heard something.

Immediately, the creature at the front whipped out a slim pistol, aiming it at Brendan's car. "Whoever's hiding behind that landcraft had better show themselves," He ordered.

Brendan and Kathrine did not dare move. "Don't you do anything besides shoot first and ask questions later?" the female asked.

"Shut up, Littich," the alien growled. Turning his attention back on the car, the creature spoke again. "Maybe you didn't hear me."

With that, he fired two shots. Both of Brendan's tail lights were busted in a flash. Brendan had to clamp his hand over Kathrine's mouth to keep her from shrieking.

"I said, come out. Now."

Not wanting to end up like his tail lights, Brendan released Kathrine and slowly raised his hands above the hood of the car. "See? Look at that," said the female, annoyed. "They're unarmed."

"Yeah, we're unarmed," Brendan said loudly, trying to keep his voice clear from the panic that almost made him collapse, carefully rising with Kathrine huddled close behind him as they cautiously crept away from the car.

"They appear to be more frightened than hostile," said the soothing, deep voiced alien.

The lead alien muttered to himself. "Both of you, stay there," he barked, keeping his gun upon them. Brendan and Kathrine dared not move anyway. "Klamor, how's our ship?"

The shorter alien swiftly joined the lead alien's side. "She's got a torn spark belt," he said. "Unless we replace it, she ain't going nowhere."

"So we're stuck here," The female groaned. "Well, isn't that just great."

Unbeknownst to the crew of aliens, Brendan and Kathrine were quietly whispering to one another. "Ask them," Kathrine insisted.

"No way," Brendan whispered back. "I think now we should run while we can."

"But Brendan, they're stranded here. Sure, they're aliens, but we can't just leave-"

"They're aliens with guns, and their leader just fired on us," Brendan quickly pointed out. "I think that's reason enough to leave. Quickly."

"Try to help or I'm not going out with you anymore," Kathrine said firmly.

Brendan groaned. "Hey, excuse me," Brendan said meekly. The five creatures were now focused on him. "My friend-" Kathrine gave Brendan a quick jab with her elbow in the ribs. "-We, just couldn't help but overhearing that you're spacecraft's broken down. We maybe have something you could use to fix it with."

The lead alien looked at his surrounding shipmates. "All right," he said, keeping his pistol on Brendan, "but don't try to pull any tricks."

"Oh don't worry, no tricks," said Brendan shakily as he shuffled backwards to the trunk of his car. Letting the gun-toting alien see his hip, Brendan slowly dipped his hand into his pocket. When the creature snarled and began to put pressure on the trigger, Brendan slowly took his hand out, and jingled his keys in the air, trying his best to smile. Gingerly unlocking the trunk, Brendan reached in and whispered quietly to Kathrine.

"Uhm," Kathrine uneasily began, "What kind of parts do you need?"

"Something like a belt," said the shorter alien. "Flexible and durable."

Brendan rummaged through the accumulated junk in his trunk, thankful that he never got around to cleaning it up. After a minute of searching, Brendan pulled out a pair of bungee hooks. "Would these work?" Brendan asked.

The short creature approached him, and Brendan managed to get a good look at his face for the first time. Wild green hair decorated his head and jaw, with the same pinkish skin of a human. What really caught Brendan's attention was that the creature lacked a nose as he took the cords from Brendan. The creature stretched them a few times, and then said, "Aye, these'll do just nicely. Many thanks," he said before walking back to the ship.

Suddenly, a watch-like device around the lead alien's wrist bleeped. The creature took his pistol's aim off of Brendan to look at it. "Time to eat, everyone," he said, "And we'd better make it quick."

"Finally," said the female, "I'm starving."

Then, turning back to Brendan and Kathrine, the lead alien said, "And until we fix our ship, you two will be joining us."

The thought sent shivers down Brendan's spine. "Thanks for the offer," said Brendan as meekly as he could, "but you know, you seem to be pretty busy right now, and we really don't want to intru-"

Brendan was silenced when the alien held his pistol at him again. Kathrine huddled closer to Brendan, and Brendan groaned. "I hope it's steak."

[Mewfour]

It's New Year's Eve, so if I'm going to update today before I get stone cold piss drunk, it'll be this experimental fic

The fire crackled as the seven of them sat on the ground around the warm glow of the fire. There was no food for Brendan or Kathrine, the large, red-haired alien told them that they could not afford to spare any. That satisfied Brendan and Katherine just fine- what the aliens ate looked like a mixture of mud and motor oil. Kathrine had noticed the tall, bald alien was had kept his eye on them for a long time, and she kept close to Brendan. Brendan was much too occupied to notice- he glanced uneasily at their dark-haired leader from time to time, who had kept his eyes, all four pupils with two in each, locked on Brendan. As soon as the crew had finished, the tall, bald creature with the deep, soft voice spoke up. "If we have frightened you, please forgive us." When neither Brendan nor Kathrine replied, the alien said, "My name is Cova. And yours?"

Brendan bit his lip hesitantly before he said, "Brendan, and this is Kathrine." Kathrine gave a tiny wave with a weak smile.

Cova looked at the tall, bulky alien beside him. "I'm Dragista," said the red-haired alien.

Dragista in turn looked at the short alien across from him. "Klamor, expert mechanic,' said the short, green-haired creature.

The small, blonde female took her queue. "Littich," she said quickly. Through the illumination of the bright fire in fromt of her, Brendan saw two small, skin-covered, demon-like horns. "And there," Littich added, jerking her thumb towards the glaring lead alien with a tiny degree of contempt, "is Battar, our self-appointed captain." When Battar only kept his eyes locked on Brendan, Littich quietly whispered, "He doesn't like to trust anyone but himself." Battar growled inwardly at Littich's comment.

By now, Kathrine had completely detached herself from Brendan. "So, why are you here on Earth?" She asked.

Littich, Cova, Dragista, and Klamor all looked at Battar. "I should start at the beginning," said Battar at length.

"We come from a planet named Tatsis, or what was planet Tatsis. Tatsis was a quiet and relatively peaceful planet, as it had been for several millenia. About three stellar years ago, we were approached by an envoy of a race known as the Kilhnians, and they offered to form an alliance with us. But when the Kilhnians say form an alliance, they mean take over and enslave planets. We fought them for two stellar years, and the war was going nowhere. Then they decided to test out their new weapon- a laser that completely scorches the surface of an entire planet. They used it, but the laser didn't scorch Tatsis. The laser destroyed it."

Brendan and Kathrine fell silent, and Battar continued. "Before Tatsis was destroyed, we managed to send a few ships into space, far away from Tatsis. From those ships, seven teams of five were formed, each made of one of Tatsis' five intelligent races. Klamor is our mechanic, Cova is our navigator, Dragista is our deckhand, and Littich is our software programmer. We are the fifth team, and our mission is to find another planet to call home."

"How'd your ship break down?" Brendan asked.

"As soon as we left on our mission, a Kilhnian fighter craft spotted us. We managed to lose it, but it damaged our ship. We've been flying with the damage for a stellar year, and now we've finally crashed here."

Dragista took a quick look around the open cliffside. "What do you call this planet, anywhay?" He asked.

"Earth," said Brendan, "and if you're looking for a peaceful planet, Earth isn't one."

"Oh, really?" Battar asked testily.

"Yeah," said Brendan, "There's a lot of people with a lot of power and too many loose screws." When Brendan gathered stares from the alien crew, he continued, "If any one of them knew you were from outer space, they'd lock you up and do all sorts of tests on you for sure."

Littich looked uneasily at Klamor. "Klamor, did you fix the ship?" she asked, hoping to hear a yes.

"Those cords should work," said Klamor, "But they won't be holdin' for long. They've got enough in 'em to move her to a safe spot."

Cova rubbed his chin. "It appears that we are not safe out in the open," he said, "We need a place to hide."

Kathrine nudged Brendan in the ribs again. "We could help you out," said Brendan, glaring at Kathrine out of the corner of his eye.

Battar opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. "All right," he said, "It doesn't look like we have much of a choice anyway." Battar looked at his wrist device again. "We've spent enough time chatting," he said as he quickly rose, "time to get moving."

Cova and Dragista stood up slowly, Klamor pushed himself to his knee, and Littich sprung up and stretched. "Cova, hide the ship at the base of this cliff," Battar ordered as Littich kicked dirt over the fire. "Klamor, go with him. Dragista and Littich, we've got to find a way to fit into the Earthling's landcraft."

Brendan looked at his hoodless car. Even though it was now a convertible, Brendan doubted that all seven of them could squeeze into five seats. "Well, Brendan," said Littich as the spacecraft slowly began to trudge along the ground, "How're you going to fit us all in there?"

Brendan paused, and looked at his car. Walking over to its side, Brendan began to ponder, staring at the seats. Before Brendan could speak, a loud boom echoed though the air. Looking around, Brendan and Kathrine found the spacecraft to be gone. Battar walked over to the edge of the cliff, and looked down at the bottom. "They've buried it with a landslide completely," said Battar, "there's that problem taken care of. Brendan, pilot us down there. Now."

Brendan could hardly believe this was happening. "How could a harmless date turn into an intergalactic nightmare?" He moaned silently, opening the car door and stepping inside.

Kathrine took the passenger seat, and Battar, Littich, and Dragista sat themselves in the back. "Now hurry down there," Battar ordered, "I don't want to waste any more time."

Brendan reluctantly started the car. Sighing inwardly, Brendan muttered under his breath, "Why couldn't this have all been a bad dream...?"

[DannyBoy]

I never really looked at any of your fics because I felt I wouldn't be interested but after reading this, I bet I would like them and I am going to start reading them. I thought this was really good and funny. Katherine seems like one of those tipical g/f's who say they will brake up with you if you don't do something for someone. I never really imagined a Alien with a pistol. You would figured some kind of weird gun. The only thing was that you could have described the aliens a bit more. But its all good. Keep it up!