Extraterrestrial by Michael Loring
Years ago, before I had published my first ever short story The Fox in the Field, I had written a short story based on the music video for E.T. by Katy Perry. It was a spur of the moment thing, to be perfectly honest. I’ve never really been a fan of Katy Perry’s (although I don’t hate her in any way) but her song E.T. really did catch my attention when it first came out. But, it wasn’t truly the song that captured my affections… it was the music video.
Other than the part with Kanye West (who I shamelessly admit I hate) I really loved Katy Perry’s music video for E.T. From the opening song Where In The World (Could My Lover Be) by Midge Williams & Her Jazz Jesters to Katy Perry and Shaun Ross walking off into the sunset, I really did enjoy this video.
And it’s because of my love for the music video did I write this short story based on the abstract storyline featured within it.
Keep in mind, I wrote this when I was 17. It may not live up to my standard nowadays, but I am still very proud of this story.
I hope you enjoy it!
Extraterrestrial
by Michael Loring
The black void of space ran for eons, littered with beautiful novae that twinkled in the darkness. Stars, so bright and full of energy, traced her path as she languidly flew through the blackness. Her eyes gazed over the lights, all blinking as their energies rose, then fell, signaling her return to this sector. She had flown through the vastness of space, traveled from the most beautiful nebula to the harshest of asteroid fields. Each star collected a piece of her essence, lying dormant until her return to remind her of her last visit. The last she had come to this area was almost three millennia ago; though it felt no longer than a blink of an eye.
In all of her travels, she had seen so much, yet done so little. She was an observer, nothing more. She had watched civilizations rise, then fall. She had witnessed the beginning of over a thousand races, had been there when a planet rotted from the inside out. She had seen death of all kinds, and had gazed into the eyes of a million species. Some tall, some small, some with gray skin, others with no skin at all. She was nothing more than a watcher; passing by and witnessing the story of others unfold. An enigma, taking no true shape as her body morphed and mirrored that of the race she last visited.
She was the alien to aliens. She had no people of her own, no race of others who shared her capabilities. Hers was a unique DNA structure, and she loathed it. Lonely, she flew through space, no true destination in mind. She gave a soft frown, her current form being that of the gray skinned woman with long yet thin limbs and a bulbous head with beady eyes. She did not know the name of the race she was taking the form of, only that it was a relatively new species that had been born only a decade ago. No name had been placed into their chubby hands as of yet; but when a name was appointed she would be the first outsider to know.
She had many names, all given by the people she visited, but she had no name for herself; no self-given name that she could go by. She could only refer to herself as such: Herself. Did having no birth-given name make her not real? How was she conceived? Did she come from an egg, or was she the procreation of one or more parents? How had she, in all of her sentient being, come to be alive? Was she even alive? Was she nothing more than a ghost – an echo that travels through space in search of the voice that had spoken her existence?
Planets stood far off in the distance, glowing with life and vegetation. She passed by them without a second glance. They were all places she had visited, all places that had some form of worship to her. She was a God to them, an angel from wherever they believed. But she was not. She was nothing more than a watcher.
Robes fluttered about her body as she floated along the stream of life. They were an assortment of colors, all portraying an experience she shared with others. Pinks and purples and yellows, all beautiful in her eyes. So vibrant; so alive. They sustained themselves through her will alone, created from her own imagination and maintained by her existence. Where she got the power to do such things, she did not know. Yet again, she asks, what is she?
No purpose, no location to land and settle. She drifted, as if in search of something. Was she looking for something? Was this long voyage an adventure towards some sort of goal that had been set up for her long ago? Has someone forged a path, and set her on it? So many questions…
She spun in a circle, gazing out into the stars. No matter how many times she looked out, she still found beauty in her surroundings. The stars blazed with such fierce determination that she would have bowed in respect to them had they been sentient; the gases of space twisted and turned, taking shapes and letting her interpret them as whatever thing she desired them to be; the planets had a light about them, such a light that it illuminated the darkest recesses of space and gave the galaxy a welcoming feeling. She gave a thin smile with her gray lips, letting her robes dance about her as she basked in the glorious universe she was in. Despite her melancholy she could still conceive beauty, could still relish the marvels of the universe which was her highway. She gained strength from the life that vibrated around her, be it from the planets or from the stars. No matter how down she would get, the beauty of life always brought her spirits higher and higher again.
In her dance, she let her guard down. In her conscious mind she did not notice the massive energy ahead, but now, as her body moved to a rhythm only she recognized, she was hit hard by the energy and was thrown aback by it. She halted, flattening her body against an invisible wall she had conjured up just for this moment. She gave a curious frown, looking in all directions for whatever had hit her.
Off in the distance she could feel a power so deep it almost made her cry. There was a kinetic pulse that spread through the cosmos, echoing off from planet to planet, as if asking for help. She followed the energy, entranced by its unfamiliar presence. The last she had been here in this area she had not felt such a power. But how could she not? It was so massive, so grim and stale. Had she been not strong enough to sense it? Had it been that she needed more power to understand this signature? She moved by planets, stars, gases and even an asteroid field in search of the source of this energy.
Her robes whipped behind her, glowing as her interest was piqued. Something within her stirred, and she couldn’t help but become obsessed with finding this energy. It was so odd, so void of any of the feelings she normally felt when finding something new. It held no life, yet at the same time held more life than any other system she had visited. It was dark, yet bright. Happy, yet sad. She gave a gasp as the energy fully engulfed her and she was hit by visions she had never experienced before in her long existence.
In her mind’s eye she began to watch a series of events take place somewhere she had never seen before. It was a world of water and grass, of trees and blue skies. There were no wastelands where the creatures evolved, but only cocoons of love and warmth in which they grew then emerged from to continue their evolution. She watched as strange things moved about under the water, then grew legs and walked on land. She witnessed animals ruling the planet with peace and instinct. Before her eyes did she see the birth of what would later be called a deer; before her eyes did she see the life of a bird, the battle of lions, the unity of wolves, the blossoming of a flower. Then the inevitable creation of the planet’s master race.
What she saw was a man, standing tall on two, bulky legs covered in hair and cloth. That man was joined by a woman, and they procreated. More came, until the world was full of them. Hunting for their nourishment, adapting to their environment to survive, mating to keep the race progressing. She felt the joy of life through these things – these… humans, as they called themselves.
She stared in stunned awe as these people advanced, growing in number and learning to accommodate for themselves under their own established rule-set. They built laws without the aid of other planets, came to believe in a God that they worshiped without being visited by another species. They were truly pure, and she couldn’t help but relish the light that washed over her body as she changed form. She was taking on their appearance, shifting from her gray body to a smaller, more effeminate shape.
At first, changing forms hurt. It was an unbelievable pain that ruptured every strand of DNA in her body, but now it was comforting; soothing to her conscious mind. She moaned into the void of space, letting her voice carry on as her skin turned into the color of peaches, as her head shrunk and long, black hair grew down her neck and back. Her mouthed pursed, and the voice that came out was that of true purity. She opened her eyes, looking down at her lithe hands. They were now the hands of a human, as was the rest of her body.
Her hair was black, long and straight with white curls at the end. Her body was curvaceous by the standards of normal human women, and her skin was a fare shade of pink. Her eyes, amber with round pupils, gave a glow of wisdom and knowledge as she manifested. She was in all forms beautiful, and she knew this without a doubt.
More visions came to her once she was transformed. She watched as man married woman, bore children and watched them grow. She watched as man betrayed woman with another woman, as woman left man for other men. She watched as children grew with frowns and ended themselves before life could truly grasp them. She listened to the cruel words people threw at one another, heard their spite towards the ones who were different. She frowned, feeling the strife of the human race as it continued to evolve, but in the wrong way.
She yelled out in pain as she felt the torment of war, the petulance of killing animal for sport rather than survival. The harsh stab of betrayal between brothers and sisters. She writhed as the once beautiful landscape became contorted, a parody of what she had seen earlier in the planet’s life. Trees became buildings, grass became streets, oceans turned into dry pits, and the smiling face of humanity turned into a bitter frown of hatred.
She held onto her chest, where the human heart would be, and cried out as tears raced down her cheeks. She gazed into the eyes of children without parents, into the void of many a heart, into the vacant abyss where love and charity should have been, but instead it held emptiness and longing. This was once a proud planet, but now it was nothing more than ashes.
She now drifted along the atmosphere of the very planet she had been seeing in her mind. It was a shadow of its former glory; now the very wasteland other planets emerged from. But as she broke through the clouds and floated down to the surface she found that this wasteland was not empty like on other planets. It was full of the rotted remains the humans had left behind when they expired. Black ashes covered the technology the humans had become so dependent on, deluding their inanimate faces and shying away their bodies from her view. She gave a distasteful frown at the machines, blaming them for the downfall of man.
“Such a waste,” she spoke with the tongue of man, respecting their memory as such. She let her feet touch the dirt, and felt that energy surge through her yet again. She shivered, closing her eyes and scanning the area for the source of it with her mind. It wasn’t the planet itself that exuded this power, but something more specific on it.
She walked with graceful strides, stepping over trash and other forms of waste. This was all the planet was now: a giant trash ball in space. She couldn’t see much of the natural ground, just more garbage. She stared into the soulless eyes of the robots; let her robes graze the faces of metal contraptions that the humans held so dear. What they saw in these things, she would never know, nor did she truly care. She had seen the birth and death of this race, just like many others, but for some odd reason this planet held something more to her than just another empty world. It almost made her feel at peace, as if walking into her own home after so long. It was impossible though that this place could be her home, for she was much older than it by millennia.
Could it have something to do with the energy she felt?
After what could have been hours, she finally found the source of the power. She hadn’t known what to expect, made no assumptions as to what this feeling may be, but she was pleasantly shocked to find that the power that had smacked her from nearly trillions of miles away was nothing more than a simple ring.
“How marvelous…” she said to the dust coated air, still speaking in human tongue. She kneeled down onto the ground, her robes flowing about her body as if the gravity of this planet didn’t affect it – which it didn’t. She leaned down and plucked the ring from between a pile of black rubber the humans had called tires. She blew on it gently, the dust floating away into the air. She smiled as she held the ring, feeling the energy flow through her. It was just a simple golden band, made for the finger to signify the bonding of a man and a woman in marriage. A wedding ring, it was called. She held it in the palms of her hands, smiling the whole while at its simple, yet elegant structure.
She brought it to her face and ran a delicate finger over its smooth body, allowing her energy to mix with its own. It then began to glow, lifting from between her fingers into the air, suspended by the brilliant light that emanated from it. She watched it, unblinking and unfazed by the light. She had stared into the brightest of suns, and this could not compare to their destructive light. But no sun in the universe could even come close to the way this light washed over her, igniting little fires along her skin and making her feel so… real. So alive.
The light faded, and before her stood a man. He stood tall, a good few inches taller than her in this form, with a broad build and pale as the moon skin. His head was bald, and his body naked. He was void of the soul his body required to live. He was nothing more than an empty vessel, waiting for when he would live again.
She stood and looked into his face, tracing his jaw line and the bridge of his nose. She stepped forward, marveling at his beauty. She placed her hand on his cheek, tilting his stiff head downwards towards her. She leaned into him, placing a soft kiss to his cold lips.
In that instant, she lived through his life. She tasted the food he had eaten, felt the warmth of his loved ones, enjoyed his favorite hobbies. She watched his existence go by; all the love, hate, angst, desire, and pain that had built this finely tuned boy into a man. His essence was collected from the universe, all flowing into him to bring him back from wherever he had been scattered. Once she could feel no other trace of him left anywhere but right here, she knew she had done it.
As she pulled back, she gazed into the now life-filled eyes of who she had been for a mere instant. He gasped as life coursed through him, dark hair growing atop his head and his body shifting into the unique shape he had adorned in his human years. His eyes were a brilliant green, his skin still as pale as the moon. He stood tall with pride, his posture erect as he was brought back into this dimension through her power alone. She gave him life, and he basked in its glory right before her eyes.
She smiled at the man as his eyes landed on her. He breathed in the air, coughing lightly as dirt and dust entered his frail lungs. She wanted to laugh at how fragile humans had been, but she held her composure and just watched him scan the area, taking in all of this new stimulation.
“Where… are we?” he asked her, his voice raspy, yet masculine. Confusion shone bright in his eyes as he looked over the piles of artificial filth lying for miles upon miles across the planet.
“Earth,” she said simply, acknowledging the planet’s name for the first time.
He turned to her, his eyes wide with human innocence. “E-Earth?” He still was confused, she could see it. His vision of Earth wasn’t this wasteland, but of other people and bright blue skies and buildings as far as he could see. In his mind, this had to be a dream. But it wasn’t, she thought, never once losing her smile.
“Yes,” she said, cupping his cheek yet again. “I have brought you back to life, my darling.”
The man instinctively leaned into her palm, enjoying the warmth it brought to his cold skin. “Was I… dead?”
“Yes.”
He took this in with a quiet demeanor. He was stunned, and could not believe the truth. She could feel the power of him growing with each passing second, expanding over the terrain like water. She felt comfort from the power, and closed her eyes for a second to revel in it.
“Are you God?” he finally asked in a hushed tone. She opened her eyes and stared into his almost frightful eyes. He feared her answer, and with just cause. What he believed to be happening was a punishment; some sort of hellish treatment for a wrong-doing he had committed in life.
“No, I am not your God,” she said, shaking her head, strands of her black hair swishing in front of her face.
He was entranced by the strands of hair. “Are you… an Angel?”
She again smiled at him. “Only if you want me to be,” she said, running her thumb over his cheekbone with fascination.
He sighed in content at her touch, closing his eyes as she soothed him with her power. “Who are you, then?”
Such an innocent question, she thought. This man was so untouched by the cruelties of the universe, so pure in his own convoluted way. It attracted her to him.
“I am yours,” she proclaimed then leaned in to kiss him again, but not to revive him. Instead, it was a seal that merged their energies together into one being. In this kiss they became two halves to one whole – two parts of the same being. She could feel him, as he could feel her.
They pulled apart, and he stared into her amber eyes, watching as her pupils dilated from the rush of power running through her body. “You are mine?” he echoed.
“Forever,” she whispered back, and they kissed again.
They held hands and walked off into the black void of space. They would copulate and breed new life into the universe, starting their own race. A mix of human, with a dab of whatever she was. They would be powerful, and they wouldn’t fall victim to the same fate as the human race had. History repeated itself, only if you forgot it. And neither would ever forget.
She took the name Eve, as he the name Adam, playing along with an old biblical tale told to human children. The beginning of man was through the reproduction of Adam and Eve, as was told by men in white robes holding the book of God. And so, their race would start the same way. Through the reproduction of Adam, and his Angel from the stars, Eve.
If you want to see the parallels between my short story and Katy Perry’s E.T. music video, you can watch it here: