Lima Beans
Officer Pendanski and Officer Dickson were standing outside their cruiser in the parking lot discussing the New York Giants when the meteor crashed into the side of the cliffs.
“This is our year, I’m telling you,” Pendanski said.
“Our year? You’re telling me your fat ass plays for the Giants?” Dickson retorted.
“Who’re you calling fat?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, do you prefer the term thick-boned or what? Don’t get fucking sensitive on me, ‘danski.”
“You know you’re not the skinniest yourself, you know.”
“Yeah, because your wife likes it that way,” Dickson laughed.
They didn’t look up once. Otherwise, they would have noticed the flaming blue ball hurtling toward the cliffs. Though it moved in silence, the bright flames lit the sky as it left a trail ten feet out. No, it wasn’t until the meteor had impacted the side of the rocks that they noticed. It shook the ground and sent Pendanski’s coffee sliding off the hood of the car, and unfortunately, that didn’t leave them much time. Small pebbles flew across the air in every direction, and a thick cloud of dust choked them both as dirt burned their eyes.
“The fuck was that?” Dickson coughed as the dust settled.
Before they even knew it, directly in front of the car stood a seven-foot-tall, slender creature with an athletic build, long fingers, and smooth skin; this being from the unknown sniffed the air through slits in the middle of its face as the officers froze.
Neither could make a sound. Slightly crouched to the car's sides, they tried their hardest not to move a single muscle and swallowed their coughs because, as far as they knew, this thing was blind but using sound and smell to weed them out. His eyes burned as Dickson moved ever so slightly, gesturing his head to Pendanski that this thing couldn’t see. The creature stiffened when Dickson moved. It inhaled deeply and opened its wide beak to let out an ear-piercing scream. The sound was deafening, high-pitched, and so loud that you could physically see the sound waves produced from its mouth.
From there, it all goes black. Because the creature moved so quickly and silently that before Pendanski and Dickson could even cover their ears from the noise, they were already dead. The beast had pounced on Dickson first as he was closer. It glided through the air, perched its legs on his shoulders, and squatted. It placed its overgrown hands on either side of Dickson’s head and ripped it from his body in one swift movement. There was a quick crack, followed by the snap of his tendons.
Penandski had no time to react, and since the two men were only the hood of a car's distance from one another, the creature moved his slender body from one man to the next. As it reached for Penandski, it used its sharp as knives nails to dig long fingers into his throat, pulling itself from the recently deceased Dickson. Its arm lodged in his throat, it placed its feet on Penandski’s chest and used its free hand to hold the man steady by the nape of his neck, and with a quick tug, his insides were out.
Once the two men collapsed, the creature slinked around the police cruiser on all fours. It sniffed the tires and caressed its body against the cold metal frame. There rumbled a sound from deep inside the creature that could be considered a type of purring. It turned its back to the cruiser and slid its body upwards against the car. It arched backward and spread its arms to the opposite tires in a backbend. With a push, the creature kicked its legs into the air and landed them softly on the ground, returning to a crouched position.
Head cocked to the left, the creature stared without eyes at the remains of the scene. With the potential threats neutralized, it crept through the trees toward the still-burning meteor it rode in on. The rock was massive and left the side of the cliffs in disarray. A fire was beginning to catch in the trees that surrounded the meteor. The creature dodged floating flames and made its way towards a matte black smooth surface that sat discreetly between cracks in the meteor.
Bits of rock crumbled away as the creature banged its hind legs against the door to the spacecraft. Hands placed firmly on the ground, the creature slammed its heels repeatedly until most of the meteor rock had cleared. A soft tap came from inside, and the creature halted immediately. The creature sat back on its hind legs, arms on either side of its body. Looking like a disfigured dog, it stayed perfectly still.
There was a slight hiss as steam was released from the door as it slid across the meteor. The ship's inside glowed red and reflected against the creature's skin as it sat like a gargoyle. A tar mat began to roll out slowly, though no sign of life had yet moved from inside the ship. The air was still. No critters crept; no owls hooted; the entire forest held its breath as if nothing happened. Or was it something?
From deep within the ship, there was a steady humming sound, steady as a heartbeat and perhaps just as comforting. Then came signs of life; a break in the tension after what felt like an eternity, but it could not have been more than mere seconds. A slight hiccup from within the ship disrupted the steady humming, and the creature leaped to its feet, hands clapping.
It looked like a lima bean, green and small, no larger than 10 inches, with skinny legs and thin arms on either side. It had bold and bright golden eyes, two slits in the middle of its face, and a thin line for a mouth. It waddled from the back of the ship towards the now elongated tar mat entrance that guided its door to the Earth. The creature was no longer frozen in place. It danced, clapped, and gyrated as this small lima bean descended.
“Oh my,” the lima bean alien looked at what was left of the two police offers, “Gerard! What did you do?”
The slender creature, Gerard, bowed its head and whined.
With its little legs moving at what appeared to be a hundred miles per hour, the lima bean creature approached the police cruiser and looked out over the cliffs.
“Beautiful, isn’t it, Gerard?”
Gerard bounced up and down in agreement.
The sound of the police cruiser’s radio broke the silence. Emergency notices were being put out for the closest cops, firefighters, and ambulances in the area as the cliffs' fire started to take off, and people had called about the thunderous clap that shook their homes. Gerard turned his eyeless face to the bean and walked towards the cruiser.
“No, Gerard, you’ve done enough.” The lima bean raised his tiny arms, and Gerard instinctively picked him up and placed him on the driver's seat through the open window.
The lima bean was perplexed. The technology of this vehicle was so primitive that he didn’t know where to start. He used the steering wheel to mount himself near the walkie-talkie and searched for a way to speak into it. The noise was so loud that he had to take frequent breaks to cover his ears.
Gerard watched outside the car, his head snapping at every sound the forest offered. The creature was fiercely projective over the lima bean, Apollo, as he was called back home because this was their last chance at survival. The two had been placed together since birth; each child from the planet Kepler-186f was paired with an animal guardian to protect them from potentially life-threatening harm. When Apollo was just a seedling, he was one of the first of his pod to give his animal a name.
On Earth, Gerard would be considered a dog; loyal, fierce, and incredibly smart. Though they looked nothing like the traditional dog on Earth, no, these creatures were tall and slender, with smooth icy skin. They evolved beyond the need for eyes, using sonar, heat, and touch. Their skin has light-sensitive tissues that connect to nerve endings to help them navigate the world. This evolutionary enhancement happened after many other space travelers blinded the creatures to kill their masters.
The intergalactic war had plagued Kepler-186f since its conception, and when Earthlings learned of Kepler-186f's potential for life, they began to make advancements for the colonization of the planet. Unbeknownst to the global public, top government officials and the incredibly wealthy 1% had started to send ships, missiles, and robots to the world to see if there was life. When the Beans were discovered, they were immediately targeted for extinction. Earthlings were destroying their planet faster than they could inhabit another one, and the desperation made them aggressive and violent.
Fortunately for the Beans, they were far more technologically advanced than the Earthlings and could keep the humans at bay for a decade. And the Elders had watched from a distance how the humans were devolving and had many discussions on how to defend themselves. But now, since more and more humans were entering the space race, it wouldn’t be long before they began to send humans themselves to the planet. This worried the Beans of Kepler-186f. Their home was a delicate, interconnected ecosystem, similar to Earth, but the humans hadn’t lived in harmony with their planet for a long time. And discussions about protection are useless if there is no plan in place. The Beans were just simply running out of time.
Apollo rolled the receiver of the walkie-talkie over in his hands a few times before ultimately deciding it was futile to continue trying. He pulled himself onto the center console of the cruiser, placed his hands on his hips, and looked at the vehicle's dashboard.
“So many pointless buttons and gadgets, Gerard. Who even needs all of this stuff?” he spread his arms before him as Gerard peeped his head around the open door. A low sound came from his throat, and Apollo looked over to see a computer prompt on the dashboard with a video feed that looked like it was pointing up at the sky.
They both stared at this feed, thinking they were watching some space-related television program. Gerard first broke the trance and silently crawled to Officer Dickson’s body. The slits in his noise widened as his face was mere centimeters from Dickson’s chest. He placed a talon over the cool silver bodycam attached to his uniform's lapel. With a swift movement, he ripped the camera clean off. Apollo watched and turned back to the computer, where he could see the car's windshield. Still watching the computer, Apollo watched as Gerard carried the camera to him.
“How fascinating!” Apollo squeaked. “They don’t watch the stars; they watch each other!”
Gerard tensed as Apollo placed the camera's lens directly into his face. Just then, the walkie-talkie screeched, and Gerard swooped Apollo into his hand and crushed the camera into pieces with the other free hand. Before Apollo could protest, Gerard was sprinting back to the ship. He placed Apollo back on his tarp and was four strides back to the cruiser when a sharp whistle halted him. Gerard froze on command, and in one fluid movement, so fast he looked like liquid, he was back at Apollo’s feet.
Apollo placed two tiny hands on either side of the creature's face, which soothed him.
“Gerard, it is okay. I am okay. These are silly machines made by confused beings. I am fine.”
Though Gerard had no eyes, Apollo stared deeply into where they would have been. Apollo loved Gerard, and Gerard he, but sometimes he worried that Gerard was too protective, too quick to react.
The pair stood there like that for a long while, Apollo lightly moving his nubbins over Gerard’s face until he eventually laid down. After such long travels, it felt nice to have a moment. Apollo looked beyond Gerard at the edge of the cliffs, now entirely on fire, and heard screaming in the distance. It may not have been a perfect moment, but he thought he might stay in it a bit longer.
October 23rd, 2023