Story #224 - Wrong Number

Wrong Number

Lekker heard the hum, and looked up from his computer. A moment later, the spinning portal in the corner of his living room pulsed slightly, drawing in on itself as it was connected to another inter-dimensional gateway. Three years ago, he had been stunned to learn that his small country home was the sight of a conduit from one world to the next, but saddened to learn it only went one way – onto earth. The black and purple, slowly spinning mass had seemed beautiful at first, as if a constellation of stars had taken up residence.

Now, it was just a pain in his ass.

A green man-shape coalesced in the center of the portal, and Lekker reached for the pistol he kept nearby. So long as the thing stayed inside the confines of the swirling portal edge, it was not bound to earth and could continue on its merry way. Once out, however, there was no going back in, and thankfully only one had made it so far, a hideous thing Lekker had no problems killing. Despite their advanced technology in many cases, there was a moment of disorientation when they stepped out of the portal, a moment where he could take advantage.

He wouldn't have minded hearing what some of the creatures had to say, if he could even understand them, but the National Security Office had been quite clear – if a creature escaped the portal, they would come take it and then bomb his house back to the stone age. Lekker could have just left his place and moved elsewhere, since the Office had been more than willing to offer him a compensation package, but he'd built his house from the ground up and was loathe to leave it, whatever the reason. The Office had tried to force him out after he'd rejected their first “generous” settlement, but a few veiled threats about cellphone cameras and the local media and they'd left him alone, making his responsibilities in the matter clear.

The thing inside the portal was moving toward the edge, its clawed hand just starting to bulge out the top right section of the cosmic curtain that separated worlds when Lekker called out.

“Wrong number!”

Inside, the creature paused and then turned to look at him, golden eyes wide. Its hand pulled back into the portal and went to a device on its wrist, and with a flash and a low whine, it was gone. He'd never been sure if the beings in the portal could understand him, but they always heard him, and that seemed to be enough. Perhaps the portal was a part of some kind of ancient travel network, or maybe it was an artifact of the maker of the Universe, but no matter its origin, interest in visiting earth seemed to be at an all-time low, judging by the reactions of those inside when they caught a glimpse of him.

Lekker was just going back to his work when the portal brightened again, and he trained his pistol on the center. It was odd to see the thing light up more than once a day.

A smaller shape than the one before appeared inside, blue-skinned and closer to the edge than the center. Before he had time to call out, the creature was flying backward, the portal edge tearing as it came through. The thing landed with a hard thump on his living room carpet, then raised a device in its hand and fired a bolt of energy forward. It struck the portal hard, causing it to swirl and pulse rapidly, and Lekker could see another being was also in the portal, its skin the same green color as the first one he'd seen today. Its face was twisted in a snarl, but he saw nothing else as the portal collapsed on itself, searing the edge of his carpet and wall as it went.

“What the hell?” He screamed, training his pistol on the thing that had landed in his living room. The creature turned, and it was all Lekker could do to keep his gun pointed in the right direction. Jeweled eyes stared back at him from under a blue and hairless head, but he couldn't help but be distracted by shape of the lips, the curve of the body. This creature was definitely a female.

“Who are you?” He demanded, forcing himself to focus. The camera on the wall had already relayed what had happened to the Office, and they would be here in under twenty minutes. Whatever he was going to do, he had to do it fast.

“I'm...” there was a hesitation there, but Lekker was sure he understood the words. “Nyala. You speak standard?”

“I speak English,” he said, and she shrugged. Whatever they wanted to call it, at least they could communicate. “What are you doing on Earth?”

“Arth?” She said the word slowly. “I'm not familiar with your world. I was being...chased is the best way to put it, and I random-dialed the portal when I jumped in. I had no idea one of those Ickrots would follow me.” Lekker saw her shiver at the name, and found it hard to take his eyes from her. She might not be his own species, but that didn't seem to matter when it came to his instinctual reaction.

“Well, you've ruined this portal – and it's one-way only, so even if you hadn't, you'd be stuck.”

Nyala frowned, then pulled a small silver tube from her belt. “There's a two-way nearby,” she said, “and you can't destroy portals. It'll reconstitute soon enough, and those Ickrots will come pouring through.”

This was bad – whatever Nyala had done, she had put Earth in the middle of it, and now a hostile alien force was going to come looking for her. Lekker considered. He could kill her, like the Office wanted, and maybe the Ickrots would take her body and leave. Of course, that would mean he'd have to murder a women, whatever her species, and there was no chance of that happening.

He spun quickly and fired off a shot at the Office camera. At least he could give them a bit of a head start.

“Come on – people here will be looking for you as well. Let's go!”

Nyala didn't ask questions, just stood with a smile on her face. It carried all kinds of promise, the most obvious being that he was a sucker for a pretty face. Some wrong numbers were better than others.

- D