They Came From Outer Space

Of course, the odds were overwhelming. Never in human history had this planet faced such odds.

The alien ships appeared on the edge of the solar system in ever-increasing numbers. There were thousands of them, all approaching Earth orbit and there was nothing we could do to stop them.

Soon the night sky filled with the orbiting ships, like hundreds, thousands, of new stars in the sky. Then, in addition, the daytime sky filled, with the ships grown massive in the sky like solid metal storm clouds. They hung there over every point of human habitation on the planet. From the largest cities right down to the humblest nomadic tents. Each and all had at least one of the massive starships hovering in the sky above it, all casting huge shadows across the ground.

We learnt to live in perpetual shadow, learnt not to look up to see something impossibly huge just hanging there over our heads.

All we could do was wait, wait and tremble. Everyone was scared, too scared to mention the fearsome objects filling our skies. Soon we knew they would turn their attentions on us and we would be doomed.

The voice came from everywhere, from every speaker in the world, from every resonating surface that could vibrate at those frequencies and in every language spoken by those beneath the ships.

‘We want your cheese!’

The world’s leaders, hastily prepared to face impossible demands contacted one another. The world’s armies all ready for inevitable defeat and death at the hands (or whatever) of the overwhelming alien horde all dared breathe again.

‘What?’ said the leader of the free world, when she could find her voice – and get the American president to stop praying long enough for her to get a word in.

‘Your cheese. We want it now…. Or there will be war. War you puny humans can never win!’

‘But…well, cheese?’

Earth is the only planet in the entire universe that has the precious cheese.’ The voice was calm, almost reasonable. ‘We must have your Stilton. The future of the universe depends upon it.’

 

[Books by David Hadley are available here (UK) or here (US)]