Have we missed something? 

 

If there are as many planets in space as grains of sand on a beach, then what are the chances of some form of life existing on a number of them?  

Of course, every sci-fi writer knows the answer to that one. There are an infinite number of possible forms of life just waiting to be discovered, or to discover us.  So, the question is not is there another form of life out there in space, it is what the Hell will be our reaction to it when it appears? 

Given the propensity for humanity to closet itself in little groups called nations, and to selectively look back in history to justify arming itself against invasion or to ‘take back’ land it once controlled, what are the chances of extending a friendly hand to creatures who may have no hands? 

About zilch, I would guess. And if it happened now, this sudden appearance of unknown craft, what would be the chances of Putin and Biden becoming best buddies in the face of a possible exterior threat? Again, about zilch, because they would both declare that the aliens were an invention of the other side and try to blast them from the skies. 

Which could be a mistake, if the aliens had so much more advanced technology than humans, which had enabled them to find us, maybe they would have worked out that mankind had not yet reached that stage of civilisation where killing one another had died out. They could deflect, return or react aggressively to any attack. Whatever the response would not be good news for humans. Or they could just fly away and reflect on our backwardness, appointing a flypast in another hundred years to see if things had improved. 

Perhaps they have already. 

 

Colin Payn 

24/3/22 

Charlie & Chantelle

 

The End of the World –

has been?

He sat up and yawned.

‘That was a lovely sleep.’

‘You don’t know the half of it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, you slept through it.’

‘What?’

The End of the World.’

‘What channel was it on, we can always get it on catch-up?’

‘No. I mean the End of the World. It finished last night.’

‘So how come we’re still here?’

‘We’re not. Here, I mean. We’re somewhere else.’

‘I’m still here, you’re still here, the beds still here.  I bet if I open the curtains the street is still here.’

‘It might all look the same, but “Here” is not “Here” anymore. It’s somewhere else.’

‘ Hold on, turn the telly on, let’s see the news.

‘See, all the same crap, football, famine and fanny. Nothing about the End of the World.’

‘That’s ‘cos they don’t know. Look at the date, 2018. When the Earth finished it somehow jumped six months and nobody noticed.’

‘You noticed. How come you noticed and nobody else did? Are you some sort of time traveller?  Don’t tell me I married a Time Lord?’

‘ I don’t know how I know. I went to the loo in the night, and when I came out I had to go and do it all again. It was weird.’

‘It was that kebab more like. Hold on, hold on! Does that mean that we skipped Christmas?’

‘We must have done.’

‘So, I didn’t get my iPhone 8?’

‘Doesn’t look like it.’

‘Oh, bugge🛌🛌🛌r that. I’m going back to sleep. Wake me up when the iPhone 9 is due.’

Colin Payn  26/8/17

270 words