Caught by Gork
Captain King often tells his friends stories of his adventures. This is one of them.
Part I
Peters, our navigator, was lost again. We were running out of food, so towards evening, we landed on an unexplored planet. Lam, our pilot, brought us down gently in a valley close to a great cliff of smooth, black rock. In the cliff there were doors—each two storeys high!
All twelve of us left the spaceship and approached the doors carefully. One was opened a little. We went through it and entered a huge cave. The furniture inside was similar to the type on the Earth, but huge!
‘Let's get out of here,' Peters said. ‘This is the home of a monster.'
‘It's clearly partly human, so it may be a friendly monster,' I said. ‘We'll wait.'
The ground began to shake. The door opened and some animals hopped in. They looked like kangaroos, giant kangaroos. Following them was a huge monster. It looked almost human except that it had a single, huge, red eye.
The kangaroos shouted, ‘Good night, Gork,' and hopped away.
Then Gork saw us. He gave a roar that turned our blood to ice. ‘Aliens! Aliens in my cave! How did you get in here?'
Part II
I thought fast, and said quietly, ‘Good evening, Mr Gork. My name is Nobody and these people here are my ...'
Gork roared again, ‘I know who you are. You're aliens and we kill all aliens in this valley. Tomorrow morning, you are going to die! All of you!'
Before we could move, Gork pressed a button on the wall beside him. Steel bars sprang from the ground around us and closed over our heads. We were caught like rats in a trap. Gork pressed another button, and a powerful magnet above the cage pulled our guns from our hands.
‘Well, Captain,' Lam said, ‘you were wrong about the monster being friendly, weren't you? And why did you say your name was “Nobody”?'
‘I have a plan and “Nobody” is part of it.' I replied. ‘You'll see.'
I turned to Gork and said, ‘Mr Gork, it is true that we are aliens, but why can't we be friends? Believe me, sir, we come in peace.'
Gork said, ‘You come in peace, but tomorrow you'll be in pieces. But listen, Nobody. I'll do you a “favour”. Tomorrow, you'll be the last one to die.'
Peters turned towards me. When he spoke, his voice shook. ‘I hope your plan's a good one, sir.'
‘Trust me,' I said. ‘We're all going to live!'