The Tragedy of Meeting an Alien Short Story - Assignment Example

Teacher Short story: The Tragedy of Meeting an Alien It is 2100. But still, man has not made any progress in confirming the existence of extra terristial beings. Most have abandoned the idea dismissing it as fiction and non-sense. Yet, putative alien sightings continue with news of alien abduction here and there. But as it always its won’t, government is quick to dismiss it as something else as it cannot be verified. Everybody believing except for the eccentric Professor X who is bent that there should be life out there, an intelligent being other us. And all these sightings and abduction are just becoming too frequent to be just pure nonsense. There must be something to it. For years he toiled and explored exploring the depts of the universe as well as here on earth for signs of an extra territestrial being. Those work and exploration did not yield anything for years. Until 15 years later. It was in circa 2115 where Professor X, head of Planet University Physics department was in his usual routine of sending radio signals into the outer space. Nobody took Professor X’s effort seriously dismissing that the Professor has been chasing a pipe dream of looking for something that does not exist. A wasted genius they say. But still, Professor X continued beaming his signals into the outer space. It was a sunny afternoon. Professor X has finished taking his lunch after completing his routine of sending signal beam into the space in his previously planned plots. Everything was usual, he supposed and went about after his lunch. Routine. Then suddenly, a blip. A blip in the radar. It seems to be a response. But Professor has to confirm first if indeed it was response to the signals he beamed. Diagnostics were run. The lethargy of the engineers were suddenly replaced by enthusiastic gusto. It was confirmed. It is a response. Professor X was ecstatic, he himself cannot believe that his radio transmission were returned. For the first time in the history of science, a contact was made with an intelligent creature light years away. Who would have thought that life beyond our planet and solar system exists? Since time immemorial, it has always been the fascination of mankind to see an intelligent being from aother planet. Yet, aside from rumors that extra territestrials had been caught or found, nothing was ever proven that almost all scientist abandoned the idea of finding one, except for Professor X, the eccentric scientist of Planet University. And here he is now, running back the recording of response. Enjoying every moment of it, relishing his redemption from years of contempt and condescension. But the work has just begun. The response is useless if they cannot decode it. There are a lot ofquestions running through the head of Professor X and his pool of scientists and engineers. They asking the same question, what are the aliens trying to say? Are they friendly? Hostile? Why only now? The possibilities made their head spin. It can only be figured out by decoding the message and communicating with the aliens. Experts were quickly assembled. Through the help of a team of expert of linguists, Professor X’s team were able to understand the language of the alien. The creature’s name was Apex. He was a male and an astronaut from the Planet Gaul of the Lunar System Ephsus who just like Professor X, has also been scouring through the stars for a possible contact with an intelligent being. They are as excited to have made a contact from another planet just as the people of the Earth. The alien is not hostile. So a contact is possible. After months of exchanges of information about each other’s planet and civilization, it was finally decided that an official meet up and physical contact should be made. Earth does not have the technology yet to visit Planet Gaul so it was agreed that it will be Apex’s team who would be visiting the Earth. According to Professor X’s estimate, the aliens will be arriving on earth six months from now. Excitement mounted. Necessary preparations were made for the arrival of Apex’s party. This is the first time that earth will be receiving an alien. How they should go about it? Nevertheless, the engineers and scientist responsible for receiving the aliens had quickly constructed a grand and massive landing site for the anticipated arrival of Apex’s party. They are curious about the spaceship, how it was constructed, the technology involved for it to travel in space for thousands and even millions of lightyears away. Meanwhile, all honors were conferred to Professor X who suddenly rose to sudden popularity from his obscurity due to his recent contact with an extra terrestrial being. He suddenly became a “rising star” and was recently awarded as a Hall of Famer scientist. Extra terrestrial topics became in vogue when it used to be a crazy idea before. All of this this talk is appended to Professor X’s name. He also received unlimited funding from the United Nation’s for his research. In addition, Professor X also received funding from private foundations and businesses. And silly as it may seem for a scientist, Professor X rose to stardom as he became an endorser of products. In short period of time, Professor X got rich beyond his imagination. And all of this happened because of bleep in a radar, a contact with Apex’s party. Of course Professor X was made in-charge of the receiving party since it was only Professor X who was privy in communicating with Apex’s party. Besides, this is his real job and not as product endorser or a show host. He is a scientist after all. After much preparation, the landing area was finally constructed. As envisioned, it was grand and sophisticated costing United Nations billions of dollars. It may be a hurried up work, but their ability to construct such a grandiose landing area in such a short period of time is in itself an achievement. A runway was constructed just to be safe. Apex party would not disclose anything about their spaceship for obvious reasons. It is not only governments who are concerned about security and espionage but also aliens as well. They just are not giving the specifics of their technology away. There was also a control tower, hangar, basically all facilities available to an airport. And as it is a hurried up project, there were portions that were not finished but Professor X is satisfied with the finished portion of the landing area to suffice for the landing of Apex’s party. The day arrived. As expected, Apex made an advance announcement that they will be arriving. This was also fortunate because Professor X cannot track Apex’s ship on the radar. But they just dismiss it that perhaps, Apex’s alien ship is just very advance that it can cloak itself from the radar that it cannot be detected. According to Apex, their party is already in the Earth’s atmosphere. But still they cannot be seen nor detected. Where are they? The army is already playing up scenario that Apex party may be gearing for an invasion because they seemed to be cloaking themselves for an attack. But Professor X dismissed it and keeping his faith on the goodwill of Apex. The army is getting ready but they cannot move unless they receive orders from Professor X. They are under direct order that they are only to receive orders from the Professor with the arrival of Apex’s party. Finally Apex made an excited announcement that his ship has already landed in the designated landing field which Dr. X prepared for Apex’s arrival. But there is a problem. A very big problem. Professor X and his receiving party cannot find the ship. It cannot also be verified in the radar because the radar was not even able to register it. Did Apex land on the wrong planet. Panicky messages were sent asking for confirmation if Apex has indeed arrived. Confirmation was received and the coordinates were also read back. It is correct. Apex is on earth. But where are they? Again Professor X asked for confirmation from Apex who replied they have landed as confirmed by the engineer of Professor X’s triangulation that they are already in the designated landing field. But they cannot be found. Professor X asked if they are using some sort of cloaking device or hiding mechanism that they forgot to switch off. Apex replied they are not using any of that since they are considering earth as a friend. Professor X asked if Apex is on earth. Apex said yes and even described the landing area accurately. Professor X is baffled. Is this a new scientific phenomena that he is not aware of? Suddenly the communication made a blip with Apex’s cry. There is turmoil and panic in the end of the receiver. There were loud cries and yelling of pain and gasps in the radio. It added Professor X’s bafflement. What the hell? What is happening is just too baffling even for a scientist that the professor cannot even figure it out. Suddenly the cries became audible and understandable. Its Apex crying. Shouting and crying “why are you attacking us? We came in good faith and friendship!” And then cries and yells followed. Professor X replied, attack what? We have no intention to attack you! We also would like us to be friends! We are friends! It’s getting dark, why are you sending your monsters to attack us! They are so many! We can’t hold our line! You fooled us! You may not have sent your army with your weapons to kill us but you send us your monsters to kill us! You are treacherous! You betrayed our friendship! A series of cry was heard from the radio of Apex. Professor X would like to help but he cannot do anything. He scanned the landing field yet nothing can be found on the surface. It is empty! Until finally, a distress call was heard from the communication of Apex calling his headquarters, with a distress “this is Captain Apex of Ship Amegdala on exploration to Earth, we are under attack and cannot survive, please send in rescue immediately! Receiving party hostile, come armed! And screaming and yelling was heard afterwards and the com went dead. Professor X tried to call Apex again. Captain! Can you hear me? Captain! The line is dead. Bewildered, Professor X ordered his engineer to check the triangulated area where Apex might have landed. Upon heeding, the engineers examine the soil from the area and they discovered that Apex’s ship was just a tiny dot which landed near an ant mound where the ants have mistaken their ship for food. This explained everything. Why their ships do not register on the radar and why they cannot be seen. Professor X is so sorry to have missed that possibility. He was anticipating a huge ship. How could such a molecular ship could travel in space? He asked. A hysteria ensued. It was difficult if not impossible to explain to UN and general public that Apex’s ship is as tiny as a dot and that they were attacked by ants. Suspicion grew that Professor X might have invented the whole thing for personal gain. Accusations followed and went out of proportion that Professor X was a hoax and invented the whole thing to gain popularity and obtain funding. Professor X was divested of all the honors and funding and convicted for defrauding the government. Professor tried to warn them of the distress call that Apex made to his headquarters to come to earth armed because we are hostile. But instead of listening, Professor X’s facilities were dismantled as a hoax so there was no longer a way to explain to Apex’s headquarters. Professor was tried as a fraud and convicted. He was stripped of all the awards given to him and humiliated in public. He was treated as a criminal and sent to jail. There he still attempted to explain and warn the people. But it fell on deaf ears. It was taken as another attempt to defraud the people for his personal gain. The poor Professor was helpless and gave up to resignation. He only prayed that the people of Apex will not retaliate. Months later, a swarm of mosquito like machines came from outer space and attacked Earth. The radar barely noticed them because they are so tiny. But when they came, they were so many and immediately attacked without warning. Earth was defenseless because the ships were too small to be hit by its bullets, missiles or any armaments. How can you shoot a mosquito size ship anyway? The smallest bullet is even way way bigger than the attacking ships that they cannot even be seen. They cannot be nuke also because they are everywhere. Gas also cannot be used because they are already here. The attack was spontaneous, moving from major cities to the suburbs with weapons so destructive even if they came from small ships that can barely be seen. The attack was merciless and deliberate. And it only took a couple of days and all of earth’s defenses fell. Earth was destroyed with few surviving people. Professor X survived because he was in a strongly fortified prison. Prison after all worked well for his survival. He proved that he was right, the UN Secretary General admitted but it was already too late. Earth is already obliterated and it would not do any more good even if the Professor is right becasue earth is already obliterated. The aliens on the other hand looked for Professor X. Upon seeing him, they took him and the Professor did not resist. He said he understand why they have to take him. In the ship, the Professor was interregorated and the Professor answered all their questions truthfully and candidly. He explained that Captain Apex landed on an ant mound and they did not expect them that their ships to be small. Professor X took the aliens to what was remained of the landing area. They were also able to locate the records of his last communication during that fateful day because his equipments and laboratory was confiscated by the military and kept it in a secure place. There it showed that it was indeed a simple case of miscommunication. Apex did not know that he landed on an ant mound whom he thought to be monsters and that his receiving party did not see him because he was just too small to be seen by a human eye. The aliens felt sorry but cannot undo what has been done. Too many lives were lost. Man’s civilizations and great monuments were also destroyed. No amount of compensation could ever pay what was lost. And all of these happened because we did not understand each other well, quipped Professor X. The alien raiding team also felt guilty as ever and wept for what they have done. Professor X wept with him and sobbed “if only I can turn back time again”. And this gave the aliens an idea on how to rectify the mistake they have done. “Its possible” said the commander. But we don’t have the technology here. Its way back home. If you can come with us and help set the date back, we can still correct all of this. The Professor quickly replied, “yes I will come with you. Anything just to restore everything back”. The Professor went with the alien and set back the time. And the next thing he remember is he was back on his control deck looking for the Captain. But this time the professor knew where he is. He then ordered his engineer to move quickly before the ants could attack Apex and his crew and saved the Captain whereupon he asked “how did you know?”. The Professor smiled at the Captain and Apex understood. Analysis The short story is a science fiction. The central idea of the story is how miscommunication and wrong assumption could be deadly. This was emphasized several times in the short story. First was during the arrival of Apex and his crew. The Professor made a false assumption when he constructed a grand landing area when Apex’s was as tiny as a dot. So it was not surprising that he really cannot see Apex and his party. Second is on the part of Apex who assumed that their receiving party saw them. But instead of welcoming them, sent monsters to kill Apex and his crew. Apex assumed that the ants were sent by Professor X and his party when they were just random insects that can be found anywhere on earth. And because of this wrong assumption, he sent distress signal to his headquarters that the receiving party is hostile and indicated that they should attack back. Professor X heard this and tried to warn authorities in earth. But instead of being listened to, he was instead branded as a fraud. And instead of communicating back to Apex’s headquarters to avert an attack by explaining that they were not attacked but rather mistaken as food by ants, Professor X’s equipment was dismantled and confiscated. The raiding alien party was also not spared from miscommunication. They attacked wantonly only to realize later that they attacked on wrong assumption. Good thing that they have the technology to turn back time otherwise, it would have been a very costly mistake. The setting of the story is in the future. It is in circa 2100 to 2150. During that time, advances in communication is already very sophisticated that we could already communicate in deep space and able to translate them. But despite of these advances, we still have not established the presence of an extra terrestrial being. An attempt was made by Professor X in his laboratory in the desert of Texas. The governing body that preside the work of Professor X is the United Nations which is headquartered in New York, New York. Apex is the character used as alien who was like Professor X searching for an intelligent being in the universe. But unlike Professor X who is a man of science, Apex is a military person, equivalent to our Air Force today. The setting of the story may be futuristic but its theme is timeless – that misunderstanding can be dangerous. Read More