Strange lights and other occurrences; a guide to alien housemates

Chapter 10: What does red mean?

"A bigger Telescope? Why?" Dan had a feeling that something was wrong.

Anya turned to the student, and asked,

"Can you grant me access to the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia?"

The student laughed. Anya waited.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh. Sorry, it just sounded like... Like you wanted access to one of the World's largest steerable radio Telescopes on the authority of a junior from Manchester"

Anya raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah. I... sure did say that."

The student's eyes rolled. He blinked.

"I'll... uh... see what I can do" He looked like he had just been handed a block of wood and asked to polish it until it was reflective. It was almost impossible and he got the feeling there was a deadline.

"Thank you... uh... I'm so sorry, what did you say your name was?" Anya scratched her head.

"Um... Stan... Stanley"

"Stan Stanley?"

"Oh... ha... no, Stanley Wilsom"

"Wonderful, Thank you Stanley. If you could call me when access is granted." She wrote a phone number on a card and passed it to him. "That would be great." She said, giving a warm smile.

She unplugged the controller, placed it back in her bag, and nodded to Dan and Phil. They walked out, leaving a bemused Stanley standing in the middle of the room, staring at the card, wondering what the hell had just happened.

"What about all of the scan data?" Dan asked "Will it still be on that machine?"

"No, my scanner saved all of the data before we left. As for the machine's activity, none of its subroutines were interrupted by the scan, I merely added to its capacity, so no research will be lost." Neither of them were wondering, but this answered the question anyway.

By the time they reached home, it was midday. Yawning, Phil crept into bed. Dan did the same. Though she could easily have followed suit, Anya did not have time to sleep. Her communicator needed a repair.

Waiting until the other two were fast asleep, Anya stepped from her room, communicator repaired, her footsteps making almost no noise at all. Once she reached the living room, he closed the door behind her, being careful not to slam it. Light still streamed in through the windows. It was just another normal day out there. She took the device from her bag, plugged it into the TV, and began to search.

After about 10 minutes, the red lettering appeared on the screen again. Anya looked at it, without taking her eyes off the screen, picked up the communicator. Yanthor appeared on its screen. As she spoke, her voice cracked, tears welling in her eyes. They talked for a long time, but the tone of conversation did not lighten.

"Send me a message when you land, brother, I'll be ready for you here."

Yanthor nodded, and the picture faded.

"What does Red mean?" Phil's voice made Anya jump. She turned round, her eyes glinting, and smiled.

"I thought you were aslee-"

"What does it mean?" He was more serious now. Anya took a deep breath, cleared her throat and spoke

"A red signal denotes a vessel which is recognised as one which has been prohibited, by the Alliance of Classified Universal Representatives, from entering this solar system, associating with locals, or being used at all. Those are the three categories. The signal which was received was classified as the third. The vessel in question is... not supposed to be running." She spoke uneasily and reluctantly

Phil was visibly shaken.

"What... what does that mean?" he muttered.

"Well, judging by the signal, its definitely being piloted, and has reached, by all calculations, approximately twice the distance from here to Proxima Centauri. Its course appears to be... Heading straight for Earth. This means... "

She paused, stood up so that she was closer to his eye line.

"It means... that Earth is under threat from invasion, from whoever is piloting the vessel."

"How long til it gets here?" Phil had so many questions, but no idea what to say.

"With current estimates, I would say, a few months."

Phil sat down. He couldn't believe it.

"What can we do?" He finally reached a conclusion after 3 minutes staring into the near distance.

"My brother will be here in a few days. I will travel with him to the lager telescope, where we can find more specific information, prove the threat to governments and hopefully... contact the Alliance."

She looked over to her stunned friend, and suddenly felt guilty that she had explained the situation.

"Would... You like a cup of tea?" She attempted, though this seemed rather far from enough to help.

He nodded silently.

After a few minutes, Anya returned with a hot cup of tea, passing it to him. She had to find a way to reassure him.

"Hey," she waited until her friend was looking up "Don't worry, I do this sort of thing all the time."  This at least received a small grin. She placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly and took a sip of her own drink. Though the situation was much like she had experienced before, Anya knew, even then, that the outlook for humanity would be bleak. She kept this to herself, not wanting to cause worry or panic.

Within the next few days she had gone, bags packed, nothing left behind except the events of the past. After several weeks, it was almost as if she had never even been there. There were very few messages from Anya, though she did not break connection completely. Life went on, and the boys were left wondering if any of it had happened at all. Things became relatively normal again.