I can still, clearly, recall the day when, not so very long ago, the aliens first landed.Dawn was crawling red-eyed over the horizon when they first came down from the sky, in a big machine. With a loud, whirring sound, hurtful to hear, and emitting a dense cloud of smoke, the machine had landed and the aliens had emerged from its interior.
Although each of the aliens was encased in some kind of bulky suit, their faces were clearly visible through their transparent helmets. Their faces were very different from ours. Where we have our eyes, they had their nose. Where we have our nose, they had their mouth - and so on. Also, they were about twice as tall as us and much stouter.
One of the bulky figures had approached those of us who had gathered, wonderstruck, to see this amazing spectacle. Then, raising a small box to its face, it had said: “Er…..take us to your leader.”
That was how it all began. The aliens met our leaders and told them that they had come from a distant planet. They had been observing our planet closely for many years and now wanted to trade with us. They showed our leaders some wonderful machines which, they said, they were ready to exchange for our goods. Our leaders gave them permission to open a trading outpost. About a month later, two more strange machines landed near our city and many more aliens came out of them. They had brought with them many wonderful things which they traded with my people. Slowly, they set up more trading outposts in other cities. Finally, the aliens asked our leaders for permission to build a city of their own on our planet, as a good many of their people were now living here. The trade with the aliens had given a boost to our economy and our leaders readily agreed. The aliens built their city very quickly, indeed.
But now, things seemed to change. Alien spaceships began to land on our planet with increasing frequency, and not all of them contained merchandise for trade. Some even carried weapons of many kinds. And then, without taking permission from our leaders, the aliens began to build another city of their own. Our leaders now became alarmed and ordered the aliens to stop construction of the new city.
The aliens refused.
For a short - very short - time, it looked as if war might break out between the aliens and us. But, in the end, counsels of prudence prevailed. The aliens were obviously, much stronger than us, and were equipped with highly sophisticated weapons whose capabilities we could not match. The aliens would clearly win any war with us, and might even annihilate us completely! Our leaders did not press the point – the aliens built their second city.
They built another city. And another. And another.
Now, our leaders are very worried. They say that the aliens have taken control of the economic and political life of our planet. They say that we are slowly becoming slaves in our own planet…
I wish that these humans - which is what the aliens call themselves - had never come to our planet. I wish that they had never left their own planet – the planet they call Earth.
