[ WP ] A child is playing in the woods and stumbles upon a piece of 'Old Earth ' technology , managing accidentally to turn it back on ...

Nina sighed as she finished wiping up the counter top. She had finally gotten around to piling the weeks ’ worth of dirty dishes into the machine. She squinted out the window of the cabin, looking for little Brad and Billie playing out in the woods. This was supposed to be a getaway, a nice little family vacation for her and the two kids. The lake area was her favorite place to get away from everything and unwind. A place to get away from the bustle of the city, from being overworked, from the mess of the divorce… 
 
 She shook her head and pursed her lips, straining to see until finally a pair of wild dots came around the corner. The flouncing movement of the brown hairs on her children resembled something out of a Jim Henson story, as the two young children hurried excitedly toward their cabin. Brad had found something fascinating and was running with it, his right hand stretched out in front of him, his left hand clumsily providing some balance. Nina wondered what it would be this time. Perhaps something alive this time. Or maybe just another curiously shaped twig that, in the mind of an 11 year old boy, was clearly a whale carved by some ancient being. 
 
 As Brad and Billie approached, Nina wiped her hands and went to the back porch to greet her excited children. Brad ’ s fraternal twin sister was exclaiming “ I found it first! ” 
 Brad retorted “ Yeah, but I got it out from the ground! ” 
 “ No you didn ’ t! ” 
 “ Yes I did! ” 
 “ Well, I helped! ” 
 
 “ Kids, kids, you both found it! Calm down! ” Nina shouted to them as they approached, chests heaving and hair flying around wildly. “ Let me see what you ’ ve got there. ” 
 
 Billie snatched the cool blue-grey object from Brad and handed it to Nina, sticking her tongue out petulantly at Brad. 
 
 Nina frowned. 
 
 “ What is it? ” She asked them blankly, not expecting an answer at all from them. She continued to stare at the heavy object as her twin kids argued in the background. 
 
 “ It ’ s an alien communication device! ” Brad exclaimed excitedly, his fascination with sci-fi and fantasy surfacing rapidly. 
 
 “ No it ’ s not, you nerd. It ’ s probably just some stupid kids toy ” retorted Billie amusedly, ever the logical one. “ It doesn ’ t even do anything! Look, all it does is just light up! ” 
 
 Nina continued to stare at the object in her hands, the buzz of her arguing children droning in the background. Her intuition told her that something about this device was… different. It didn ’ t seem like a normal kids ’ toy. For one, it was very heavy. For only being about 5 inches wide, square, and about an inch thick, it seemed to weight about 15 pounds. Nina was impressed that her kids had hauled the object all the way back to the cabin. 
 
 The object was solidly built, the cool dry surface indicating to her that it was some sort of metal alloy. The center was filled with what seemed to be sort of a dirty-looking screen of some sort, emitting a cool blue light. It just didn ’ t compute. The object looked to be at least a couple hundred years old, from the ancient-looking characters carved into the side. Nina was no archaeologist, but it seemed to resemble some sort of Egyptian hieroglyphs. There was a character on the side that looked like a star with a small crescent above it. 
 
 Nina blew on it gently to get some of the dirt off, but that wasn ’ t enough so she licked her finger and rubbed some of the dirt off of the symbols. The object seemed to vibrate, or was she just imagining things? Then, the glowing blue brightened intensely, and suddenly some noises started coming from the object. The glow continued to intensify until the light itself seemed to buzz, and then a blinding bright light shot out from the device into the evening sky. The twins gasped in shock as Nina dropped the object, startled at the sudden noise and light coming from the device. 
 
 Brad and Billie grew wide-eyed, regarding the object with curiosity as Nina stared at the thing in terror. Seven second long messages that seemed to come in different sounding languages, some resembling that of Mandarin Chinese, some sounding like that of Russian, similar, but not quite the same. Then suddenly, in clear old-sounding Queens English, the object declared one startling message, as Nina ’ s mouth dropped open, her vision suddenly becoming narrow, her face seeming to get hot around her cheeks. 
 
 “ Reconnaissance mission: complete. The third planetary body from the star is a Reevak Class system. Commence colonization upon receipt of this message. ” 
 
 ** ( my first story heh, hope you enjoy! ) edit: oops, formatting** 

