By Craig Borri
The saucer slid down out of the night sky in full stealth mode. The two greys aboard had activated their electron negation field, which made them invisible to the human’s radar. It would also turn off any nearby electrical devices, but they didn’t intend to stay long enough to be noticed. They glided over wood and stream, looking for their next victim.
“There,” the grey commander said (for want of a better term) to his companion. The greys didn’t speak as such, but it wasn’t full telepathy either, more a mixture of sound and thought.
“I see it.”
It was a perfect target. A human sitting alone by a pond, engaging in their curious activity known as “fishing”. They moved over their target and engaged the hypnosis device to stupefy the human so it wouldn’t remember anything, then turned on the tractor beam. However, there was a problem. The human wasn’t ascending to their ship.
“What is the malfunction?”
“Unknown, commander. The device is functioning perfectly. It’s like the target is attached to the ground.”
They were so intent on their target, they failed to detect the twang of a massive bow string. They had no warning before the armor piercing explosive on the head of the telephone pole sized quarrel blasted into their ship and sent them careening down into the brush. The ship hit and flipped, crushing trees and starting fires.
Several uniformed humans burst from their IR-shielded cover and sprinted towards the smouldering ship. They got to work with various types of cutting implements, trying to see what would get through the hull. They were followed by two other men — one with colonel’s insignia, and one in civilian clothing.
“By God, Doctor, that worked! You did it! This is amazing!”
“Thank you, Colonel. I admit I wasn’t sure myself.”
“Tell me again how you hit on a crossbow?”
“Well, the aliens were clearly using some kind of electricity dampening field. Since a crossbow, well it’s really a ballista, uses no modern technology, it wouldn’t be affected. I also figured they’d never be able to see it. So, I gave them the perfect target in our dummy over there who’s anchored to the ground, and hoped they’d bite.”
“Sir,” called one of the soldiers. “We’ve got it open. Looks like there are two of them inside. I think they’re still alive.”
The two men came up and looked down at the aliens. Both greys were heavily manacled and appeared to be unconscious but looked like they were breathing.
“Okay, bag ‘em and tag ‘em and we’ll get them back to the lab. Great job everybody. I’ll call in the cleanup crew to take care of this ship.”
The greys weren’t entirely out but could only communicate on a low telepathic level. Not that they needed to communicate, since both shared the same thought.
“We are so screwed.”
About the Author
The author, whose most noteworthy feature is an uncanny resemblance to Chevy Chase, is an old software engineer with four kids, one wife, one grandson, and one somewhat annoying dog.
His life is boring enough that he'd much rather write stories than biographies about himself.
Geraldine Borella writes fiction for children, young adults and adults. Her work has been published by Deadset Press, IFWG Publishing, Wombat Books/Rhiza Edge, AHWA/Midnight Echo, Antipodean SF, Shacklebound Books, Black Ink Fiction, Paramour Ink Fiction, House of Loki and Raven & Drake
My time at Nambucca Valley Community Radio began back in 2016 after moving into the area from Sydney.
Merri Andrew writes poetry and short fiction, some of which has appeared in Cordite, Be:longing, Baby Teeth and Islet, among other places.
Sarah Jane Justice is an Adelaide-based fiction writer, poet, musician and spoken word artist.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
Brian Biswas lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Ed lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.
Emma Louise Gill (she/her) is a British-Australian spec fic writer and consumer of vast amounts of coffee. Brought up on a diet of English lit, she rebelled and now spends her time writing explosive space opera and other fantastical things in
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.
Barry Yedvobnick is a recently retired Biology Professor. He performed molecular biology and genetic research, and taught, at Emory University in Atlanta for 34 years. He is new to fiction writing, and enjoys taking real science a step or two beyond its known boundaries in his
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
Tara Campbell is an award-winning writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, fiction co-editor at Barrelhouse, and graduate of American University's MFA in Creative Writing.