Work Text:
Bella Swan was seriously considering running away to live in Forks, when the alien spaceship crash landed in the backyard.
She would only be intruding if she stayed with Renee and Phil and even if they were too kind to say it outright. They had left her alone to go celebrate Thanksgiving with Phil’s family in Tucson. And yes, Bella had begged Renee to let her stay back, complaining about her (already finished) project that Phil’s toddler nephews would make a mess of. But… Renee had agreed all too readily to really want Bella there.
The crashlanding was a welcome reprieve from her spiraling thoughts. Bella rushed to the kitchen window, heart in her throat. The strangest aircraft she’d ever seen sat at the end of a scorched path. A few embers had caught in the brush and Bella rushed out the door with the fire extinguisher before she could think twice. As she put out the embers before they could truly catch, a loud KSHHHHH came from the aircraft and a glass dome at the front popped open and smoke billowed out.
The figure who emerged from the craft bore only a passing resemblance to humanity and was breathtakingly, devastatingly beautiful. His skin seemed to glow in the setting sun, light refracting off his every pore into a prismatic halo of rainbow light. His hair shone like polished bronze and his features were too uncannily perfect. When he turned his head, looking around the backyard like an imperious god, she could make out pointed elven ears. His shiny blue flightsuit seemed disheveled and he held one of his arms at an awkward angle.
When she could peel her eyes off of the figure to glance at his aircraft, she took in the details she had missed before. The craft had no wings, no obvious jet engine or other means of propulsion. The entire body of it seemed to be made out of some unidentifiable metal that camouflaged itself into its surroundings.
Look, Bella had watched her fair share of Star Trek. Renee had this boyfriend, Rick, when Bella was about 10 who had all the Star Trek movies on tape. It was loser behavior, Bella knew, even her mom would think so (and she dated Rick for an entire year) but Bella had watched them all on repeat. All that was to say, Bella was vibrating out of her skin with the thrill of establishing First-Contact with this obvious (hot) alien.
“Hello?” Bella said. She hastily tossed down the fire extinguisher, hoping the alien wouldn’t mistake it for a weapon.
The alien's piercing eyes met her own, his gaze so cutting it made her falter. He opened his mouth and his voice rang out like the chiming of bells, beautiful, entrancing, and utterly incomprehensible.
Bella laughed nervously, “Sorry, I don’t understand.” Why hadn’t she realized this would be a problem?
The alien seemed to let out a sigh before reaching back into the spaceship to retrieve a small black metallic device. The alien spoke in his bell-like voice again and the device read out in a robotic tone “Go back inside. You don’t need to concern yourself with this,” and then in a slightly different robotic voice it said, “[TONE: DISMISSIVE, IRRITATED]”
Ohmygod was that a real life Universal Translator?! “Are you okay? That looked like a nasty crash.” The device repeated after her in a jingling of bells.
The alien’s translator said, “I’m fine [TONE: ABRUPT, SHORT-TEMPERED]” He moved to step away but staggered, barely catching himself against the spacecraft.
Bella stepped forward, reaching out to help him but the alien flinched away. Oh no, was he scared? Then, out of some mind-bogglingly brain-dead reflex to try to make the situation less awkward, Bella shifted her extended hand into a Vulcan salute. She was so stunned by her own stupidity that she spent several moments staring at her hand in betrayal before hiding it around her back.
“You uh, are you sure you’re not hurt? I could help.” She wasn’t sure how she could help but she would figure it out.
“No, it is nothing Carlisle cannot fix in a moment. Go away [TONE: EMBARRASED, RUDE, DISMISSIVE].”
Bella blinked at the unfamiliar word “Sorry, what’s a Carlisle?”
The alien looked at her expressionless. “Carlisle is my captain, a scientist, a beautiful healer, and the officer in charge of the observation post of this decrepit planet. [TONE: ADMIRING, DEVOTED] He invented this device in an attempt some form of communication with your primitive species. [TONE: PROUD, PROUD].”
“Oh wow that’s so cool! I’d love to meet him!” Bella tried to ignore the primitive species comment. Maybe it wasn’t too unfair from his perspective, humans weren’t truly spacefaring yet, pre-warp capable.
The alien’s eyes were flat. He spread his mouth in an approximation of a friendly smile exposing his teeth, which looked whiter than a Hollywood actor’s veneers and twice as sharp. Bella fought the urge to step back. “You will have that honor. Not that you will remember any of this. He won’t take long once I signal where I landed. [TONE: COLD, DEFENSIVE].”
Bella shivered. Woah, were they going to Men In Black her? “I wouldn’t tell anyone, I promise! You don’t have to do that,” She laughed uncomfortably.
The alien seemed to have dismissed her. He had turned back towards the ship, reaching in to retrieve a large gadget he fiddled with. It began to emit tones that reminded Bella of a computer dialing up and a small bulb on the top of it began to flash red.
He moved to set it on the ground but his knees gave out under him and he fell into a half-seated slump on the ground.
Bella hovered unsurely nearby. “Are you sure you don’t need help? I could help you over to that chair,” she said, indicating the lawn chair on the patio.
“Fine. If you must [TONE; BEGRUDGING, EMBARRASSED, PROUD]”
She reached out to help him up. It was like going to lift a cinder block only to discover it was made of styrofoam. Bella yanked him up easily, overbalanced, and sent the both of them sprawling backwards. He landed atop her, feather-light.
The alien boy let out a wheeze of a breath that sounded like wind chimes clattering across the ground.
Bella was beyond mortified. “Oh my God, I am so sorry! Did I hurt you?!” Why was he so light? That could not be natural (wait, did that mean he would think she was fat?)
“Unhand me, beast [ANGRY, PAINED]” the alien clambered off her, laying himself out on the ground.
Bella made a scrambled retreat. “I’m so sorry, oh my God, oh my God.” She looked back at the chair and decided to bring it to him instead. Why hadn’t she done that in the first place?
“Is your species even capable of being sorry? [TONE: ANGRY, DISISSIVE, RHETORICAL]."
What?
He continued, and Bella hadn’t realized the chiming of bells could sound so condescending.
“Carlisle is convinced there is more than air rattling around in your kinds’ skulls. But I can sense nothing of your thoughts, even less than simple animals. And I’m the most powerful sensor in the crew.”
He can’t sense their thoughts? Wait “Do you mean that your species is telepathic? But humans are psi-null!” Bella realized.
“Psi-null? [TONE: QUESTION, HUMORING]”
“We don’t have psionic or telepathic abilities like other alien species!”
The alien stared at her. “What do you mean other alien species? [TONE: CONFUSED, DISBELIEVING]”
“Uhhhh,” Bella really, really did not want to explain she was talking about make-believe species from a nerd show.
The alien’s attention shifted to something in the sky. Bella tried to follow his gaze but couldn’t make anything out. Then suddenly, she saw a similar spacecraft hovering a few feet above the ground. The ship was ghostly silent and seemed to barely disturb the grass when it touched down.
The ship opened and another unearthly being stepped out.
“Carlisle [TONE: WARM, GRATEFUL]”
If the alien who crashed was bronze, Carlisle was gilded in gold. His hair and eyes shone unnaturally in the dusk. He had a perfect, angelic face that looked like it was carved out of marble.
“Edward, I’m glad you’re alright. You should have told us you were going out flying. [TONE: RELIEVED, PATERNAL].” Carlisle scanned the yard taking in the scene. His lips curled up in a slightly more natural looking grin. “Was one of the locals helping you? [TONE: QUESTION, PLEASED].
“Yes. Well, to the extent it’s capable of anyway [TONE: REASSURING].
Which, while still rude, was honestly nicer than what Bella thought the alien would have to say about her. (Also why was there an alien named Edward?)
Carlisle turned his smile on Bella, full-force. Anything resembling a thought scattered from her mind. “Thank you so much for taking care of Edward! [TONE; GRATEFUL, HAPPY]” Carlisle was far more expressive than of the two aliens, but his expressions looked a bit overwrought, like someone overdoing it in a community theater play. But the tone indicators seemed to indicate he really was sincere.
“I am sorry we’ll have to make you forget but the Volturi Empire is very strict about the beings who remain on unadvanced worlds. I can promise that it won’t hurt [TONE: APOLOGETIC, ASHAMED].”
There were aliens out there, existences so much grander and more important than Bella’s and she couldn’t bear the thought of returning to her ignorant, pointless life. “Take me with you!” Bella said before her mind caught up with her mouth.
Carlisle turned his luminous gold eyes back to her. “Sorry, what was that? [TONE: QUESTION, CONFUSED].
“I could help!” Bella said. “With the science! I was just telling him that humans don’t have telepathy, but we have hypothesized about species that do! I could help you with–with your umm theories…”
“Don’t you want to stay here with your family unit? [TONE: QUESTION, KIND]”
“They left me. They don’t want me around anymore,” Bella said.
Carlisle’s face shifted into a heartbroken expression. “I’m so sorry to hear that! [TONE; SYMPATHETIC, SAD]. He frowned, tapping his finger on his chin, thinking in a visible way Bella had only seen in cartoon characters. “Are you sure [TONE: QUESTION, KIND].
Bella felt like her heart was in her throat. “Yes, I’m positive.”
“Alright then, welcome aboard! [TONE: WELCOMING, HAPPY].”