Under the Mango Tree: 101 Tales (5)

RETRIEVAL

Challenge No.85. Ripped from the Headlines.

Write a scene or story inspired by one of these recent bizarre stories in the news:

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

A list was provided. I chose this headline.

Metallic Monolith in Utah Vanishes Just as Mysteriously As It Appeared*

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Not everything that floats above earth is space debris, neither are they communication satellites nor are they military property for that matter. Some of the items up there really are from over there and definitely not from here.

The spaceship was designed to look like space trash and no matter how many times the scientists of earth scanned, probed and photographed the region, they were never able to spot much less identify that there was a ship in orbit from Planet Zod.

The Zod-I were blue humanoids who in their natural state were translucent. They had the ability to become opaque and would do so when on away missions. They also had the ability to stretch.

They were on a generational galactic ship in orbit around earth on a monitoring mission. Teams would visit on a rotation basis, collect data then return to the mothership to conduct analysis.

Yell'Ow was the captain of the vessel. She was conducting a routine inspection when the notification came through.

METALLIC MONOLITH IN UTAH APPEARS

She did a double-take. Her eyes fell out. She put them back into their sockets, read the notification a second time, and then tapped the link for the details.

A three-sided metallic prism has been discovered by Utah public safety and wildlife officials while conducting a survey of bighorn sheep by helicopter in Red Rock Country in southeastern Utah.

"She'Rac!" Yell'Ow's bellow rang out.

"Yes! Captain" The young Zod-I came running. But stopped two meters short of the captain.

"You were playing darts again! How many times must you all be warned?! A planet that has sentient life is not a dartboard! Especially this one! They are aggressive!"

"I assume you–"

"Don't even try to spin this!" The captain stretched out and reached for She'Rac. Held him by the ear, retraced her arm pulling him in.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" He ran to her.

She pointed at the headline. "Fix this. Do no further contamination in the process enough has been done."

"Apologies, Captain. We were playing on the dark side of the moon. We did not realize that a dart had gotten away to earth. It should have been vaporised in the atmosphere."

"Indeed. But it didn't so fix this She'Rac and fast!"

"Yes, captain." He rubbed his throbbing ear. Yell'Ow had strong fingers.

The retrieval took planning. Landing on the planet was easy. They were usually identified as meteors. Leaving was a different matter. A favourite disguise was the weather balloon. With the advent of the billion-dollar boys club, the Zod-I had hitched rides on those joyrides. What had really worked in their favour was the obsession of Terrans to deny any unusual object spotted in the sky. Say UFO on planet earth and all credibility went out the window.

Plans were in place.

The mission unfolded.

The dart was retrieved.

The away team was back.

Yell'Ow accepted the device from She'Rac. It read...

METALLIC MONOLITH IN UTAH VANISHES JUST AS MYSTERIOUSLY AS IT APPEARED.

© 24 May 2022

* https://www.npr.org/2020/11/29/939882228/metallic-monolith-in-utah-vanishes-just-as-mysteriously-as-it-appeared

Disclaimer

Link was valid at the time of publication.

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