Out of the corner of his eye Ty something move. His heart stopped as he saw a shadow appear in front of him. Eyes wide, fearful, Ty turned and saw the hideous visage of some black and silver monster standing beside him. He screamed, threw himself off the bed, and ran straight into the wall.
As he turned, Ty's guts dropped into his shoes and he cowered against the wall. Bearing down on him was some kind of tall four armed... thing! It was wearing some kind of spacesuit. Futuristic... shimmery. Oh God! An alien?? Ty was about to be killed by an alien!
The creature stopped its advance, looked down at Ty, and suddenly raised all four hands up, palms facing him, in the universal signage of 'easy dude.' Ty started breathing again.
To his amazement, a strangely modulated female voice emitted from the creature's long faced helmet. "Sorry! Sorry!" The being said apologetically. "I forgot you don't use teleportation here. My fault."
The creature crossed her arms and sat on the edge of the bed, seeing Ty relax somewhat. "There we go. Just relax."
"Y-You're not going to... like... disintigrate me?" Ty gulped.
"What?!" The voice giggled. "Nooo!"
At this, Ty smiled and felt at ease. Oddly, he was no longer scared. Just curious. "So... I mean... you're an alien right?"
"Well, to you." The creature nodded. "Yes."
"What's your name?" Ty asked excitedly. "What are you? Where are you from? Do you have a ship??! Can I see it?!"
"Whoa, easy, junior! Easy!" She laughed again, and stood up to help Ty to his feet. "Well, you can call me Xen."
"Shen?" Ty got to his feet and stood in front of the tall alien.
"No, Xen." She corrected. "Like Jen. Only not."
"Oh." Ty nodded. "Okay."
"I'm a Paraxian, from the Deep Core. Way the heck out of this galaxy, lemme tell ya. And yes, I have a ship. There's not much left of it to see, which is why I'm here. If you get the drift."
"I do. So you're stranded?" Ty cocked his head, feeling sympathetic.
"Yeah. For a while now." The strange electronic voice sighed heavily and Xen lowered her head.
"If you take your suit off, will you die?" Ty asked.
"Oh, no, actually. I can breathe your atmosphere just fine. It's got a bunch of gadgets and stuff that I can use though." She paused. "You want to see me, right?"
"Well... yes." Ty grinned.
"Okay. I can arrange that. Just don't scream or faint or anything. That would be awkward."
"Promise. This is really cool!" Ty grinned.
"Okay. Here goes." With that, Xen raised her top set of arms to the back of her helmet and unclasped something. There was a hiss of air and the sound of rubber stretching as she peeled away the helmet in two pieces and held them under her arm.
Ty gasped, not so much in horror but delight. "Wow! You're awesome!"
Xen smiled. "I know." She blinked four eyes. Two above her long horse-like snout, the other two smaller ones above those. They burned a bright green against the blue shades of her soft snake like skin. The nostrils on the end of her muzzle flared and her pouty lips curled into a smile. Hairless, her fan-like ears twitched as she adjusted to the natural ambient sound without her helmet. The thin fan from the top of her nose to the back of her neck rattled as she shook her head.
"Wow." Ty said again. "This is so cool. I just met a real alien. Er... Paraxian?"
"Yes. Paraxian." She set her helmet down on the floor and stretched. "So! Have you done your thing yet?"
"My... what?"
"You know!" Xen motioned. "Your thing. Change stuff!"