Forgone Conclusion

hen the alien space ship arrived in orbit, nobody knew what to make of it. Nobody had seen it coming. Religious Zealots hailed it as the second coming. Military commanders drew up attack plans. The man in the street didn't know what to do.

It stayed there for three days and three nights. The Military put up a shuttle. The Zealots gathered at Stone Henge. Joe Public watched the news agog.

The ship, as big as it was silent did nothing. Radio signals it ignored and prayer seemed to have no effect. The shuttle stayed in orbit and watched.

On the seventh day, radio communication was lost with the shuttle. Telescopes couldn't locate it and the worst was feared. A second shuttle was prepared. This one carrying armaments. It detonated on lift off, irradiating an area thirty miles in radius around the launch pad.

The ship still did nothing.

By the tenth day there was panic in the streets. The Zealots had committed suicide at Stone Henge and an unidentified plague raged through the streets of London, Moscow and Washington.

The Military had had enough. On both sides of the Atlantic missiles were readied for launch.

The ship sat silently by.

On the twelfth day, the missile were launched. All over the world, missiles soared up into orbit and homed in on the Alien ship. Then as silently as it had arrived, it left leaving the missiles without a target. Some exploded anyway. Other collided with satellites and the rest burnt up in the atmosphere raining their deadly cargo down over the Earth.

In another part of the Universe, the Alien ship continued on to its next destination contented by the knowledge that it had completed another mission successfully.