Book Of Ha Ha 2

The Silver Woman

One dark night a Frenchman by the name of Guillaume was hiking through the forest. Enraptured by the natural beauty of the world around him, he paused for a moment, taking in the cool breeze blowing through the trees, the sparkling ceiling of stars, and sighed contentedly. Looking up he saw a bright light fire across the sky.

"A shooting star, incroyable! I must make a wish." As he thought of his wish, he noticed the 'star' seemed to be a lot closer than he'd initially thought. It banked hard towards the ground and a plume of smoke and fire came out from where it landed with an earth-shaking thud.

Guillaume had lived a simple life, albeit a happy one, and had never ventured into danger before, always kept his nose down and minded his own business, yet somehow he was compelled towards the area of impact. He ran through the forest until he came upon what he now saw to be a crash site, not for a meteorite but a large metal object, rounded and pointed to one end, almost like an egg, though now the point was clearly heavily crushed.

Guillaume inched closer, somehow unafraid.

"Hello!? Is anyone there?"

He saw some movement near the tip of the "egg" and rushed forward.

A woman lay there, humanoid though clearly not human, with skin of pure silver. There was a large gash in her side and she must have been in immense pain, though her expression was blank, betraying no emotion.

"Mon dieu! are you alright? What happened?"

The alien formulated a number of sounds which sounded much like garbled static before eventually morphing into French.

"Please, I am in need of your aid. I my medical kit was destroyed in the crash. Help..."

The alien passed out.

Guillaume was beginning to panic, he didn't know what to do, but he knew he could not let this woman die. He picked her up and put her on his back, carrying her back to his home. He cleaned her wounds as best he could and patched her up, sitting with her through the early hours of the morning as she remained unconscious.

Finally, around 7.00am she groggily opened her eyes and flicked them around there room, though she did not appear concerned by her change of location.

"Thank heavens you're awake, I was not sure you would make it."

"Thank you for tending to my injuries, you have my utmost gratitude".

"My name is Guillaume, and yours?"

"My name does not translate into your language, but my designation is T-Na 528491."

"I must ask, your wound was severe and you must have been in great pain, yet you made no sound of pain and your features remained impassive, do you not feel pain?"

"My species feels pain, but we must not show emotion. You see, our race is immortal, but past adolescence the chemical imbalance brought on my strong displays of emotion causes our system to break down, leading to death within a day. We can express our emotions verbally, but not manifest them."

"Surely that must be very tiring?"

"Not particularly, we are taught to control our emotions from a young age and so learn to live with it."

Over the course of the next few weeks while T-Na 528491 - called Tina by Guillaume - recuperated, Guillaume salvaged parts from her craft to contact her people. Tina explained she was part of a first contact expeditionary force and needed to communicate with her people that Earth was safe for them to visit.

Over the coming months more silver people came and the inhabitants of Earth learned much from them. Both cultures found the relationship mutually beneficial and it brought about the first age of intergalactic exploration for humanity.

Tina lived with Guillaume for many years, each enjoying the others companionship until, many decades later, Guillaume had become sick and old. He lay on his hospital bed with Tina by his side, watching over him, her face still emotionless, though a hint of sadness in her eyes, preparing to say good bye.

"Do you know... what I was doing when you landed on Earth?" said Guillaume in a weak voice.

"I saw your craft.... going overhead. I thought it was a shooting star... so I made a wish..."

"What did you wish?" she asked

"I wished to meet someone remarkable. Someone who would change my life forever. I never expected my wish to be granted so quickly... thank you."

The old man stretched out his hand to the alien and she held it firmly. Despite her centuries of containing and controlling her emotions, the alien was no longer able to bear it. She welled up with tears and wept openly, not caring what this meant for her.

Guillaume was deeply moved and began to weep himself, knowing the consequences of her act of grief. Not knowing what to say, he said the only think he could:

"Don't cry for me argent Tina."