When the Aliens Came

So, anyway, as it turned out, it was not what everyone had expected after all.

When the starships first appeared on the long-range detectors and orbiting telescopes, of course there was some initial panic about the alien invaders. Soon the first few score ships were in orbit around most of the outer planets of the solar system, with hundreds more on the way. There was a great deal of discussion between various governments about what would happen when the obviously superior aliens knocked them off the gravy trai… invaded. The governments did not know whether the aliens would kill, farm or eradicate the Earth’s population, or if we were all just in for a planet-wide intimate probing.

However, once the ships had begun parking in orbit around Mars and Earth, with a few smaller ships around the various moons, it became increasingly obvious that this was no alien invasion whatsoever.

In fact, the conspiracy theorists were all rather disappointed. The various world politicians and government officials were relieved that their cushy perks and privileges were safe. Apparently, the aliens had no interest in the Earth, or its human population, whatsoever.

However, a month the alien ships disappeared as suddenly as they arrived. Subsequently an amateur astronomer who’d intercepted some of the alien inter-ship communications released those communications onto the web. Further analysis revealed the aliens used our entire solar system merely as an overspill ship parking space for an important galactic wedding ceremony in a nearby galaxy. So it appeared the so-called alien invasion had nothing to do with Earth at all.

Good news for everyone, people thought. However, for a good many people on Earth it was almost unbearable to discover that – despite what their enormous friend count on social media implied - they were not the centre of the universe after all.