|1-First Contact By <>------<>------<> | ** Sparhawk ** | <>------<>------<> The room faded. The bed, cupboards and other furniture seemed to become insubstantial. The boy sleeping in the bed remained floating in a ghostly nothingness. As if the room suddenly realised what it was doing, it snapped back into reality - looking stronger than it did before. An alarm sounded. The loud ringing woke the boy from his sleep and an arm emerged from the bed to grab at the reason for its annoyance. He glared at the clock for a moment, then groaned. It was six o'clock - time for work. Soon, the boy was on his bike. He had a bag over one shoulder, containing the newspapers he was going to deliver. He rode furiously along his route as he was already late. It was raining. He neared a junction in the road and had to swerve hurriedly to avoid an early driver. The driver had missed but the puddle she had driven through had not. He first noticed that something strange was happening when he approached the sea front. The sea was red. A crimson, seething mass. His mind screamed at this, but his consciousness took over. It was as if a thought had been implanted to reassure him. It's just the sun. Atmospheric conditions... You know how it is. His last newspaper delivered, he prepared to ride home. First though, he had to stop at the local grocers to buy the milk for his mother. When he arrived, the shop had gone. And soon everything else had gone as well. It started with a shimmering in the air. A crackling erupted all around and blue lines of electricity pierced his body. A loud whining noise built up to a terrible volume, causing him to clutch his hands to his ears in agony. The sky turned red to match the sea. The ground heaved. He fell of his bike, and lay on the road surface, but even that was disappearing. The whole world was a series of intermingled images. There was his own, safe, familiar world. There was a black void, and there was a strange city of gigantic proportions. Of all the images the dark scene grew in strength, and soon the others fell under its vision. His home dissolved away before him. He felt himself falling into a dark abyss. His arms flailed around trying to clutch at anything to reduce his fall, but of course there was nothing there. He sensed the floor arriving, although he couldn't see it. He felt the moment of impact must be soon. At this point some people cry, some pray, some faint. He screamed. He awoke. He could hear a quiet humming in the background, the high pitched whine of machinery. He could feel liquid encompassing his body, and he felt restrained. He struggled to open his eyes. They felt impossibly heavy but soon he managed it. He gasped at what he saw. He was in an upright bath, held in place by clamps around his arms, legs and torso. Multicoloured cables and wires were wrapped around his body and connected to his flesh via cup-like appendages. Where am I? he thought, Who am I? He hadn't realised he had spoken aloud, but a voice answered. "You are Astapho 1st Viswelia." said the Voice. It was loud, and came from all around. "You have led the... " the voice was cut off abruptly and choking could be heard throughout the room. "You have no need to know, Astapho." The new voice was menacing. Somehow, Astapho sensed he was in danger. He struggled within his bonds, but couldn't even budge them, let alone break lose. "We want your report. What is the new land like? Can we live there? Are the natives ready for slavery, or do they have to be destroyed?" "Where am I?" repeated Astapho. "Answer! I am your Supreme Commander!" "Where am I?" A screen emerged from a wall within in his line of sight. It was switched on and revealed a stern-looking man. The image continued to speak. "Very well. I will tell you all. Your memory will perhaps return, and I will get my report! "You are in station Cariavoc. We are in orbit around a small class-3 planet. It seems to offer a solution for us. We, as a race, have left a dying planet..." The Commanders voice droned on. Astapho had no reason to listen, for now he remembered everything. They were deep within the body that the Humans had called the Moon. Cariavoc was a very small station. The carefully cultured covering had deceived the Earth people. His own home planet was dying. In a last attempt the whole race had entered giant star cruisers to escape death, and set out to discover livable planets. Most of his race had long since perished, only around a hundred star cruisers remained. Each carried in the region of twelve thousand members of his race. It was a pitiful amount, but better than death. They had long known that an ideal planet would never be found. Their class-1 planet, with its very low gravity and dense atmosphere of breathable gases, like sulphur, was ideal. A class-2 would have been sufficient, and a class-3 could be terraformed. This planet, known to its dominant race as 'Earth', was a class-3. In a new method of determining suitability the scientists aboard Cariavoc had decided to use the Thought Transmitter. This device had sent Astapho's mind into the body of a Human. At first the sensation was very distasteful, but with practice, during which he had stayed in bed with 'the flu', he had discovered that control of the human body was easy. Somehow, some remnant of the human mind had remained inside, so Astapho had left all control of the limbs to that. Of course, breathing was an early difficulty. The humans breathed mainly a combination of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide. Astapho's consciousness had rebelled at this, believing them to be the poisonous gases that they were. Of course, the human body could breathe it easily, but Astaphos mind had prevented it. Soon though he managed it. It was another job for the human mind remnant. The attempt on Earth would be successful. Astapho had duly recorded the necessary information. The Humans were subservient, but unfortunately would not survive the atmosphere change so they would have to go. Nearly all local life, both animal and plant, would die as well. The deadly oceans of hydrogen and oxygen would have to be filled and replaced, and the land, rich in other poisonous chemicals, would also have to be changed. There would be plenty of time though. Once all pretence was discarded, Cariavoc would dispense of its outer shell and reveal its true intentions. The necessary chemicals and chemical-producing machinery would be jettisoned to the earth. Other star cruisers would be summoned to the race's new home, and they would also aid in the terraforming. Perhaps in as little as four earth-years the conquest would be complete. But he couldn't do it. With the time he had remained in the mind of a human he had discovered what a calm, peaceful race they were. Of course, they had a warring past and had nearly destroyed their own planet with pollution, or Air as Astapho would call it, but they had put that behind them. They had planted massive groves of plants known as 'forests'. They had cleaned the oceans of dangerous chemicals. They had cut pollution and they had found new sources of energy. They now led a peaceful existence. There had been no knew technological discoveries in a long time. The computers they had were still in the basic stages, still based on electric pulses. But they liked it that way. They liked it as it was. The commander suddenly stopped talking. The silence thrust Astapho from his thoughts. "Well! What is your report!" he demanded. "I can't say. I've... forgotten." "Forgotten?" the Commander said angrily. "I warn you, Astapho, we may have to use the Mind Scraper. We don't want to, you are a good subject, but if we must... I will return shortly." Astapho knew he must act now. The Mind Scraper! It would of course leave him a mental wreck, but more importantly it would reveal the truth about the earth. The clanps around his body had retracted, and the cables and wires were easily detatched. Astapho climbed out of his tank. The room was a store-room. In one corner an inconspicuous terminal stood. Astapho walked across to it. He typed a message to his wife and transmitted it. He also typed a message to the general archives. It said "I, Astapho 1st Viswelia, hereby declare that the class-3 planet known as Earth is not fit for terraforming nor is it a habitable planet. The warlike humans have technology much like ours, and I fear it would be a dangerous battle to take them." Astapho knew that his death would have to be complete. If done quickly, the Mind Scraper could also retrieve the memories of a corpse. In the corner of the storeroom, stood two tanks of chemicals. Astapho well knew what would happen if those were combined and set alight. He did so. The two scientists stared at the body before them. Although alive, its eyestalks waved frantically, and its carapace was heaving under intense muscular strain. "He was a failure." said one. "Yes, it seems standards are dropping." "It's a pity. The Conquest must begin soon, and we are still short of our quota." "How can these men not realise the scenario is false?" "I know. How can someone believe in the existence of a Mind Scraper? a Thought Transmitter?" the creature chuckled. "These are elements taken from childrens stories!" "True. How naive can these pilots be? Do they not notice that when they return from the dream scenario into the main scenario that they are still in human bodies? Do they not realise that when the time comes to die that the instruments of their destruction are, perhaps a little to coincidental, at hand?" "I see what you mean. Still, it is better they fail here in the testbeds rather than in battle." "Yes." the Scientists uttered a sigh. "Well, shall we dispose of this batch?" "We had better, the next lot arrive soon." The two scientists pushed the tray on which the body lay into the wall, where hundreds of other similar cavities were located. They walked outside the room and operated a computer for a moment before activating the airlock. A thousand screams filled the chamber as the bodies were jettisoned into the airlock. On the dark side of the moon a thousand alien bodies disintegrated in the vacuum of space. End