Robert Grist stood outside his tent, breathing in a lungful of cool, crisp arctic air. When he exhaled, a stream of frosty air billowed out his mouth, which was instantly carried away by a strong breeze blowing behind him. He stared up into the clear blue sky, not a cloud, of either the white or grey variety, could be seen. Off to his right stood the monstrous black rock that had come crashing into his world less than a week ago. He watched it, as he had done every day since it arrived, with a wary eye. Although it hadn’t moved or done anything else since cracking open and spewing the grey specks into the air, he still regarded it with suspicion.
Helicopters hovered above it, dozens of them. They circled in random patterns far away from the rock, making sure they didn’t make the same mistake the last group made. Getting themselves killed. Every few minutes three or four stealth bombers screamed through the air above his head, leaving smoke trails behind them. He figured the military would have its fingers clutched tightly around this problem, but what had they discovered?? What was this thing and where did it come from?? And then there were the grey specks that he had seen in the air. What had happened to them?? He refused to believe that the rock opened up like a flower and sprayed its pollen, or whatever it was, in the air without there being a purpose for it. But for now, those concerns would have to be left to the government or whoever else was involved in this. Inside his tent, lying face down on a sleeping bag with her arms and legs hogtied behind her, was an even bigger problem.
Grunting, he turned to his tent, unzipped it and slipped inside. Moving over to the back corner where he had setup a makeshift chair for himself, he sat down and stared at the unconscious figure breathing quietly in the corner. She was like nothing he had ever seen before. At first, when she had jumped out her plane, or what he had thought was a plane at the time, and shot that goddamn firebreathing gun at him, he thought she had been human. But after sneaking up on her and knocking her out with the back of his rifle he was taken back by what he was seeing. Her body was, afterall, of human proportion. The blue skin-tight body suit she wore accentuated her figure. She had the body of a gymnast; strong and very toned. But when he saw her face, he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. It was very thin, it reminded him of how a Japanese geisha looks with her face painted white. She certainly had the same mouth, it was small and pouty. And her eyes were very thin and slanted slightly. She was beautiful. Damn, she almost looked human, but there was a shine to her pale blue skin that made it seem very thin, almost transparent. He stared at her, questions running through his mind. He wanted to go over and shake her, wake her up and ask her who she was and where she came from. But he still needed time to think.
Sliding his left arm to the belt around his waist he unclipped the gun she had used to shoot at him and looked it over. It was definitely not from this world. Its body resembled that of a fish, it was sleek, aerodynamic and made of what looked like an alloy of some kind, but he couldn’t figure out what. It was the same metallic silver color as the spaceship she had crashed in. And there were little buttons and strange numbers all along its body written in a language that he had never seen before. The strangest thing about it is that it was warm to the touch, even after being outside in the 20 degree weather. He had seen the stream of fire shoot out of it, hell he had a front row seat as the blast shot right past his head. He figured there was something inside of the gun that produced the fireball, but what it was that created so much power inside a package this small he didn’t know. It was beyond anything humans had ever created, that’s for sure. He wanted to test it out, feel its power in his hand, but he didn’t even now how to turn it on, let alone fire the damn thing! There wasn’t even a trigger on the gun. He shook his head, and clipped the gun back on his belt.
He began to stand, to go outside and see if there were any developments with the rock when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. She was awake!

When Toshi’ko opened her eyes, she felt an incredible pain in the back of her skull. She had to blink her eyes a few times to clear the blurriness from her vision, but the pain remained. She tried moving her arms, but discovered much to her surprise, that she couldn’t move. Panicking, her eyes shot open wide and she stared around, trying to figure out for the second time today, where she was. Only this time, her situation was worse. Instead of being buckled to her cockpit seat by a simple belt, she knew that this time it was much more complicated than that. She felt something in her mouth, a piece of cloth of some kind was keeping her from screaming out. Fuck.
She thought back to the moment she had jumped out of her ship, shooting the gun frantically like an idiot and the sharp pain that had knocked her unconscious. And now here she was, tied up in an incredibly vulnerable position with no means of escape. Damn, what a fucking mess.
She looked around at her surroundings. She was inside a structure of some sort. It was small, and the walls were thin, they swayed back and forth as if a strong wind was blowing against them. And they were red, the light from the outside world pushed through the thin layering casting a crimson glow on everything inside the structure. There wasn’t a lot here besides the soft material she was lying on and a bag of some sort in the corner. But where was the figure that has knocked her out? It was nowhere to be seen. She decided this was a better time than any to try and make her escape. She began struggling with the ropes tied around her arms and legs when she suddenly heard a buzzing noise behind her accompanied by a cold wind that blew over her body. She tensed, waiting for another blow to knock her out. When none came she relaxed, on slightly, and heard another buzzing noise behind her and the cold wind immediately stopped moving over her. But there was something else, she felt movement to her left. She tried to look but the pain in her skull was too much and she came very close to passing out again.
Closing her eyes, she feined sleep, but whoever was out there wasn’t fooled. She felt something touch her arm and her eyes immediately shot open and she struggled desperately with the ropes. Whatever had touched her moved away very quickly. She looked around, her eyes scanning everything. And then there it was, in front of her, the cloaked figure!! It began to kneel down in front of her, it had something in its hands but she couldn’t tell what it was. it was round and there was some steam rising off of it. The figure pushed it close to her and said something in a very gruff sounding voice, but she couldn’t make out what it was trying to say. It was a harsh, broken language. It pushed the steaming object closer to her face again but she turned her head away, refusing whatever it was offering. She heard a loud, grunting noise and turned her head back to see the figurer moving over to the bag in the corner. It lifted up the gun it had earlier, and pointed it at her. A wave of panic shot through her body, she struggled with the ropes again but to no avail. She relaxed her body and waited for the shot that would inevitably kill her. But none came.
The figure moved closer to her, speaking in its harsh voice, keeping the gun trained on her head. She saw its right arm move behind it and when it came forward again she saw a large, sharp blade in its hand. What the fuck is this?? The figure kneeled down again, the gun still pointed at her head, and the words that were impossible to understand were still coming out of its mouth. It moved in closer with the blade, it was behind her now, out of her line of sight. Her breathing was fast, the cloth in her mouth was soaked from her saliva. She waited for the blade to sink into her back. So this is how it wanted to kill her, nice and clean. Closing her eyes, expecting death to come at any moment she was surprised when she discovered that her arms and legs were no longer attached to each other by the rope. Her arms and legs were still bound, but the figure must have cut the tie that held them both together. Perfect!
With the swiftness of a cat, she kicked her legs out, trying to trip the figure. But it was faster, somehow expecting this. It jumped over her legs and brought the gun toward her again, pressing it hard against her body. It was yelling now, its voice was very deep and threatening. Okay, okay she thought to herself. Bad idea. She nodded her head a couple of times, hoping the figure understood that she wasn’t going to try that again. It seemed to get the hint and pulled the gun away from her, but only slightly. It had trusted her not to do something foolish and she had. A bad way to start things.
She slowly moved her body into a sitting position, keeping her legs pointed directly in front of her. The figure was close to her, she could feel its hot breath rolling over her body. It had a strange smell to it. It wasn’t foul in anyway, it was almost intoxicating. It was a sweet, salty smell. It reminded her of the oceans on her planet. She turned to look at the figure and that’s when she saw it, for the first time. What the figure really looked like.