The most frightening thing I
have ever seen is the Gulf of Mexico from space. It is circular. A circle is a crater.
*-*
The hunter waited. A terrifying brilliant ferocious huge man
eating tiger, he chuckled, very quietly of course. It was just another job. Once it is a money matter, it becomes so
simple. The goat was bleating
plaintively on its’ tether. All as it
should be. He cradled the rifle in his
arms thinking about how he would spend the money and with whom he would spend
it. He startled, looked at the goat, it was still there. What was wrong? The goat was sitting. It was quiet.
Too late, the hunter realized the goat was staring at him. His position
revealed, he felt the tiger’s breath.
*-*
One place to look for aliens
is dust. Large successful alien civilizations left a lot of trash, at least at
some periods of their development. The difficulty is that chemists usually
start by burning or dissolving their samples. Finding a Teflon molecule in moon
dust or an arctic ice column seems definitive. Just as we don’t yet have the
technology to understand advanced communication, we probably won’t recognize
alien detritus. When we do, it will seem obvious even common.
*-*
-People have seen flying
saucers.
-People have seen the Virgin
Mary.
-That’s not real.
-More people have seen the
Virgin Mary than have seen flying saucers.
-It’s not the same.
-The people who see the
Virgin Mary sneer at the people who see flying saucers. The people who see flying saucers sneer at
the people who see the Virgin Mary. If
you see both you’re a Mormon. Just
because people see something, doesn’t make it so.
-Why would they make it up?
-Loss of faith; people want
to believe in something.
-What about the aircraft
carrier visits?
-Excellent example, here we are
waving nuclear reactors over the ocean. Why would we prefer a visitation over
an admission of ignorance of the physics?
-You think it’s all made up.
-That’s the most likely
explanation. It’s very unlikely that
someone came all the way from Andromeda just to drain somebody’s sinuses. It’s
an order of magnitude more likely that they are from the neighborhood.
-Where?
-Atlantis, it’s not likely. However,
a higher level of primate is certainly more probable than aliens.
-Wouldn’t we know?
-Why would they tell us?
-Why would they let us live?
-Good point. Primates are sometimes kind to each other,
much less to other primate species. They
could be that different I suppose. It’s
more likely some small difference that gives them a big advantage. Maybe they don’t have our resistance to
disease. Maybe they are moving forward
in time until we wipe ourselves out. If it’s just us and them, why are we still
here?
-So much for that theory.
-If it’s just us and them,
they wouldn’t keep us around.
-Why would they otherwise?
-Bait.
*-*
He stared at the blue
planet. Other species might sneer at the
windows in their craft, at his species sense of wonder, now the windows were
essential to their plan. That planet had
once been their home. Then they met the
Federation. They had prospered with the
Federation, assured themselves some measure of perpetuity, now it was time to
pay their dues.
For thousands of years they
had groomed the planet, allowed that other primate species, humans to have
it. It was horrifying to watch. They had protected them from intrusion,
waiting for this moment. Now the enemy
was approaching, a ghastly foe that enslaved the universe.
Their own craft was equipped
with manual air systems, not the slightest electronic indication. They waited for the enemy to materialize from
their jump gates. First the scouts came,
next would come the huge behemoth ships.
Each jump gate had its own planet. After their experience in an earlier
engagement the enemy made its jumps in two large waves.
The plan was after the scout
wave, to power up and fire as one. The
destruction of such a huge ship in a jump gate would devastate its’ host
planet. Without their gates, the enemy
would be helpless and the Federation could finally drive this scourge back into
the darkness.
In the distance, they could
see the haze that indicated the arrival of the behemoth enemy ships. He stared at the planet and wondered if it
would survive. There were bright red
lights shining from the planet. He
squinted. As he looked around, he gasped.
Each of their ships was glowing red.
The humans were shining lasers at their ships.
-Those bastards lit us up!
He screamed.