A collection of short stories and journalistic commentaries depicting my simple life
and how I fit in with the modern day universe of our times



            January 3rd 2009. It was just another ordinary late afternoon in downtown Manhattan. People from all walks of life were milling about within the city limits, swarming in and around the streets and buildings, habitually herding themselves home after another gruelling day at work and generally going about their daily business without a single thought for the unexpected.

            Little were they to know that things were not as half as normal as they would first appear to have been. Far from it in fact. For at exactly 5:45 as the daylight was rapidly subsiding into the evening darkness, amid all the hurly burly of the rush hour traffic, an extremely bright light lit up the New York skyline and drastic changes to the daily routine of the rushing hoards began to take their effect.

            Accompanying the oncoming brilliant glare was a loud fizzing sound passing through the bustling streets below. It was heard echoing its way through the skyscrapers as a massive, circular unidentified flying object was seen burning its way through the atmosphere, not very dissimilar to how a meteorite or perhaps a shooting star would act. Louder and louder the noises got, the light rapidly intensifying and buildings beginning to shake in unison with the rumblings as the projectile sought its way to the Earth’s surface.

            It was only a matter of seconds before the object had landed with an almighty explosion, tearing its way through and into the heart of the New York grounds of Central Park.

            Filled with a torturous panic and fearing for their lives, people were running for cover in all directions. Insanity reigned in from every corner of the city. To many, it was September 11th all over again. Those not close enough to know any better, even feared the onset of a third World War. Nevertheless, within about an hour, the whole park area had been cordoned off from the panic stricken general public. Fighting against the crowds and the rapidly fading sunlight, the police, government officials, FBI, CIA, FEMA and scientists alike were all rushing around in a frenzied attempt to discover what had just happened to their city and from whence it had all come from.

            Civilians were herded further and further away from the mystery object’s landing site. Snooping photographers and press-men gathered around the perimeter fences, as the emergency services tended to the injured and eye-witness statements were being taken. Speculation was rife whilst hard fact evidence was slow to be uncovered. As the White House was kept informed of any further developments, the Pentagon was scrambled into action and the President summoned to this new threat on American soil. A global alert was instantly issued to all the world’s leaders. NATO officials and the United Nations were linked up in direct communication with each other and all together, the elite of the world were globally united as they observed in relative silence, worriedly watching the latest developments in America as they unfolded before them.

            Although on the ground, things were happening far too fast for comfort, it was close on for another hour before the Government officials and scientists were able to uncover their newest, and yet to be further explained acquisition. Dressed in their white anti-radiation suits, with full breathing equipment and radio connectivity, they cautiously advanced in on their deeply buried target of unknown treasure. Using the best in thermal imaging equipment, sonar, radiation detectors and every other latest bit of whiz-bang technology available to them, they had finally located their mystery object.

            It was perfectly formed, completely spherical in shape and appeared to be constructed from an ultra-shiny, solid metal. Gingerly they dug around it and cautiously lifted their trophy from within its newly formed burial mound. It wasn’t a large object by any means, a mere 1200mm (4ft) in diameter, but such was its weight, it still took a team of twenty able bodied men and an over-engineered haltrac hoist to stretcher it away as they loaded it onto a military truck and shipped it back to their science labs for further analytical testing.

            A team of handpicked top military scientists were specially assigned and jetted in to take over any further investigations. Upon subsequent examination, within the first twenty minutes inside the specially assigned top secret laboratories, it was found that the sphere was made of an alloy never before seen by mankind and scientists scrambled to unlock the orb’s outer casing for the treasures they were sure they would find within.

            Unnerved by this new revelation, the military top brass, in a state of extreme wariness immediately urged that the President should issue his orders to have it destroyed.

            “It has to be an alien weapon,” they exclaimed. “We could be sitting on a veritable time-bomb of unknown magnitude, just waiting to happen.”

            “But think what we could learn from it, what advances we could make from studying it. Already we have found a new alloy. Who knows what other things we might find for the good of mankind within its casing? Surely, if it was such a threat, something would have happened by now. We ought to run further tests at the very least.” interjected the President’s chief scientific advisor as he pleaded to save it. “I advocate we exercise a little patience here, and until such a threat is proven ……”

            “Proven by what?” argued the generals, “The annihilation of half of America perhaps?” And a loud shouting match ensued between the scientists and generals.

            “Quiet please, there is something coming through.”

            By now, nearly four hours had passed since the metal orb had fallen to the Earth and it was at around this time when from way across the Atlantic, the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in deep rural Cheshire, England, had received a somewhat mysterious transmission signal. Immediately the White House was patched through to the day’s director of operations.

            “Well, what does it say then?” enquired the President.

            “We don’t fully understand it yet, it’s in a language no one has ever seen before” came the crackling, satellite-delayed reply. “We’re running it through our basic translation programs even as we speak.”

            “It sounds likely to be a greeting of some sort,” says the science chief still advocating more time to milk the globe of its hidden secrets.

            “More likely it is going to be a declaration of all out war, a global take-over bid.” retorted the gun-ho military generals.

            The President was in such a fix by now. Never before had any world leader faced such a crisis situation. A situation, for which no rules or protocols had ever been imagined, let alone written. He didn’t know which way to turn or what to do for the best. Stalling for time and praying for an easy solution to arise, he chose to review the whole situation assisted by his advisors and polled the other world leaders for their opinions. All that, as the arguments for and against continued unabated around him.

            As total chaos was rapidly overtaking the well rehearsed and regimented normal procedures, previously alerted space monitoring stations from all around the world were simultaneously registering and reporting an oncoming alien fleet from behind the moon, a hundred or so large blips were appearing on their radar screens. The Hubble space telescope was immediately deployed, only to confirm the presence of the invasion fleet with its high-resolution digital imaging. All eyes were now looking firmly upwards into the evening sky. What was to become of the human race? How were we going to deal with this? One hundred or so huge and presumably heavily armed space ships from another galaxy were now being monitored globally as they were rounding in on us from behind the protection of our own moon. They were on their way to get us and were closing in fast.

            “God help us, what if it’s an invasion force?” the generals screamed, “there’s no choice now; we have to send up the missiles while we still have the time”, they implored the President.

            The science chiefs still countered their pleas desperately. But the President could find no other reasonable option than to side with his military this time. Again he polled the world leaders and their verdict came back unanimous. A pre-emptive strike was to be the order of the day.

            “I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to take the risk of standing by and doing nothing. There’s far too much at stake here. I must save the planet for the sake of all humanity,.” determines the President. 


        “Generals, go launch your rockets. Nuke them! Give them everything we’ve got! There’s no time to lose. And God bless America!”

            The military commanders passed down their orders through their rank and file and only moments later, the missiles, one by one flew from within their silos. A thousand needles of instant death were sent racing up through the atmosphere. They were locked on to their targets and nothing now could or would stop them. The whole world held its breath as it stood by and watched as the laser guided nuclear warheads spear-headed their targets with a deadly pinpoint accuracy.

            Midst the Earth’s greatest ever seen firework display, there was total destruction and everything was blown to oblivion. Radar screen monitors changed from fields of flashing white dots to a dark green emptiness as the skies were cleansed of our enemies. Total carnage reined the Earth’s atmosphere and the alien fleet took a heavy battering whilst attempting no evasive action to save itself. It was like they didn’t even see it coming. For the next twenty minutes or so, no more was said or done in the White house command office.


          Everyone was just glued to the video screens as they witnessed the effects of the airborne savagery they had just been a party to.

            When it was all over, a huge cheer went up throughout the offices of the world leaders. The world was safe once again and a wholly united mankind had been seen to rule supreme. Just then though, as the dignitaries from all around the globe queued to congratulate the President and his officials, a computer boffin, totally isolated from and unaware of the events of the last few minutes, rushed breathlessly into the White House briefing room frantically waving a piece of paper in front of the President.

            “Mr President, Mr President. We’ve cracked it, we’ve finally translated the alien message,” he yells.

            “Well, what does it say then?” the President demanded of him, “Hurry up man, the future of all mankind could depend on it! Tell me. What does it say?”

            The unfortunate computer man looked sheepishly around himself as he reluctantly read out the message contents,             “All together, there were only seven words in the whole broadcast, that’s why we had so many problems with it. We were expecting a whole lot more”.

            “Get to the point man!” Shouted the President.

            “Well it says Mr President,” paused the messenger as he avoided everyone’s gaze, ”erm … Can we have … our ball back … please?”



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Its my own fault really, its all about what I see in the world, and how it all translates for me.

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