DISCLAIMER: This is a piece of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is unintentional and complete coincidence. Some references within this piece of fiction are to actual events and existing movies and TV shows. This is intentional.

I should have seen it coming long ago. After all, you can't be in my line of work without scoring the bullseye on occasion. At least, it's improbable. And as it turns out, I had actually scored several. Sorry, am I losing you? I'd better start at the beginning. That seems to be a trend, anyway...

~~~

FEBRUARY 12TH, 2000

Gary Katz was, as usual, probing the internet for new corny conspiracy theories to rip off, mangle and embed into his column, "Conspiracies Galore", in the tabloid he was working for.

So far, he'd come up with a new angle on that TWA flight that blew up, a few weird thoughts about what the Cydonia area on Mars really was all about, and, naturally, tons and tons of annoying pornographic pop-up windows.

Gary was about to kick his computer when he became suddenly aware of a tall man wearing a tailored charcoal suit and very standing dark sunglasses before him.

"Gary Katz, author of the column 'Conspiracies Galore'?"

"Yeah, that's me? And who are you, and how'd you get in here?"

"Who I am is of lesser significance. What is interesting happens to be some of your columns."

This guy was really beginning to annoy Gary, but there was something intriguing about him. "Yeah?"

"Some of your recent columns concern Titanic, the Tunguska explosion, and the concept of 'aliens on earth'. We'd like to know where you get these stories from."

Gary frowned. "Huh? Where from? My own head, mostly... at least those you referred to there. Some I come up with by myself, others I write based on ideas I get from a wide variety of sources."

"Thank you, Mr.. Katz, that was all the information I needed. If you please come with me?" The stranger motioned for Gary to follow.

"And what if I won't follow?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know." The stranger lowered his sunglasses a little, revealing a pair of pitch-black eyes staring at Gary. "Now, my superiors wish to have a word with you. I can guarantee that no harm will come to you by our doing."

Gary stared for a moment at the stranger's eyes, then nodded. "Yeah, okay, I'm coming. I always kinda liked this conspiracy stuff, anyway. Probably why I took this job to begin with."

Gary shut off his computer and followed the stranger outside to a waiting car. A gloved hand opened the door from inside.

"Please step inside, Mr.. Katz."

Gary climbed into the back seat. Beside him sat an aging man, also he wearing dark sunglasses.

"The reason we wanted to contact you, Mr. Katz, is that your theories on Titanic and Tunguska are a bit too close to the truth for us to be comfortable about it."

Gary raised a brow. "What, you're some government officials here to shut me up, or something?"

The old man pressed a button, and the windows of the car darkened. He then removed his sunglasses, revealing a pair of pitch-black eyes, just like the guy in the charcoal suit.

"Please pardon me for darkening the car like that. You see, our eyes are rather sensitive to light. We are not government officials. In fact, we're not connected to any government at all, save our own internal government."

Gary gaped. "You... you're..."

"Yes, I'm an extra-terrestrial, as you like to call it. My kind, we're galactic outcasts, a species without our own home. We were forced to land on this planet, although we would rather have chosen a planet without sentient life..."

~~~

1900, EARTH TIME, ORBITING A STAR BEYOND HUMAN KNOWLEDGE

Chief Engineer Xadd was struggling with the last systems checks on the great starship Salvation when a loud explosion rocked the underground hangar fiercely.

How long had the war been going on? Ten years? Twenty? Hard to tell... these blasted invaders had come out of the blue and attacked without mercy. Now, the remaining population of the planet were huddled in small shelters, waiting for the completion of the Salvation, or the final attack... and right now, Salvation had a chance of winning.

A few minutes later, Xadd sent out the signal that the ship was ready for takeoff; all that was missing was the cargo and the passengers. Within hours, people from far and near were approaching through an elaborate set of tunnels, carrying foodstuffs, injured people, and

various personal belongings.

At the same time, an alarm rang. Xadd paled, and started yelling at people. "Hurry up! The Final Strike is underway!"

People were increasing their pace now, without trampling each other. After a few minutes, the last of the passengers was on board, as well as the cargo. The dome above the Salvation opened slowly, and the great starship started going through takeoff procedures.

The Salvation plummeted out of the atmosphere as the planet began to crumble under the massive attack. The alien vessels, all crescent-shaped and black, were firing great blobs of raw energy down on the planet's surface. One or two halted for a moment, and spun, facing the Salvation, before resuming the attack.

~~~

1910, EARTH TIME, AT THE BORDER OF THE SOL SYSTEM

The Salvation was scanning yet another system for life-sustaining planets without sentient life forms. The third planet showed signs of both. As the Salvation was about to kick the warp drive back into motion for the nth time, a black, crescent-shaped vessel popped into vision and began to fire.

The Salvation took a few hits and began to fall apart as the alien vessel disappeared again, its mission completed. Within the Salvation, Xadd directed as many as he could to the survival pods, then hurried to the nearest one, himself.

Just before the Salvation collapsed, a dozen large capsules were launched toward the third planet of the star system... Earth.

~~~

1912, TUNGUSKA

The first of the survival pods slipped through the atmosphere and toward the planetary surface. As the pod headed for a mountain range, the reverse thrusters gave up a few sparks and died... a few seconds later, the pod vanished in a massive explosion, destroying a vast area of forest.

~~~

1912, THE NORTH ATLANTIC

The Second pod dove into the ocean and started slowly drifting back up, when it collided with metal. At the same time, the captain of the S/S Titanic was informed the ship had just hit an iceberg. Shortly afterwards, upwards of 1500 humans had lost their lives in the greatest tragedy in the history of seafaring.

~~~

1913-1916

The ten remaining pods landed safely in various locations on the planet earth, and the survivors began tracing each other, at the same time seeking disguises that could let them wander around unnoticed.

The first scouts were blinded on the first day, and it became painfully clear that this planet's sun

was far brighter than the one they had come from. Chief Engineer Xadd soon developed a special type of lightfilters, specially designed for the eyes of his people.

Within few years, the refugees had all found each other, and started to lay plans for the next generations.

~~~

BACK IN THE CAR

"...So, Mr.. Katz, we're truly homeless. Now, we had a special reason for contacting you; you've managed to find out a lot about how we arrived here, and we suspect it is due to a certain frequency your brainwaves are able to reach. Or to put it in layman's terms, you're able to tap in on our memories."

Gary blinked. "So, because I have managed to figure out this much about you, you want to

capture me, is that it?"

"No. Our civilization is built on mutual trust and respect. We do not believe in imprisoning others. Far from it. What we've contacted you for is this: we are waning in numbers. The only hope we have of survival is by your species learning of our existence and aiding us, and that cannot happen today, seeing as you humans are still terribly xenophobic."

"So, what do you plan to do? Reveal yourself to us one by one?"

"No, for years, we've been doing covert attitude campaigns, particularly directed toward your younger generations, to preach open-mindedness, and to show that you shouldn't hate what is different."

"And where do I come into the picture?"

"Well, we need to run a few tests on you, establish your exact level of PSI. Then, we can easier equip you with a special device that can improve contact between us, and we need you to keep writing articles, ones portraying us as benign beings, hoping to live in peace with you humans."

"What's in it for me?"

The old alien sighed. "That's often the problem with you humans. So selfish and greedy. But, we do have bargaining material. For instance, we have a small serum that will grant you a slightly prolonged life, free of any disease. You can enter old age as healthy as you are today. Or, if that doesn't suit you, we have means of actually enhancing your physical abilities, and various other such deals."

"Yeah? I kinda like that first one... but you mentioned attitude campaigns. What did you mean by that? I haven't precisely seen any 'Have you hugged an extra-terrestrial today' posters around."

The old alien chuckled. "Relax, my friend, we're far more subtle than that. Some of our projects are movies like 'E.T.', and televised shows like 'Gargoyles'..."

Gary lit up.

"Hey, I liked Gargoyles. Pity it was cancelled!"

"Yes, well, that's corporate America for you. There was nothing we could do. Still, our projects are going efficiently, and we're even hoping to be able to reveal ourselves to the public within the

next fifty years."

"Hey, that's great!"

"Yes, it is, isn't it? Pity I won't be here to see it."

The car rolled into a parking lot.

"Well, we're here. This is where we'll test your PSI levels. Are you ready?"

Gary opened the door and stepped outside, stretching his legs. "Yeah, ready as I'll ever be."

"Good. And by the way, if you hadn't worked it out yet..."

"...You're Xadd. Hey, I really didn't know before you were about to tell me!"

Xadd stared at Gary for a few seconds.

"Most impressive. I shall assume your levels are higher than anticipated."

They headed for a small warehouse nearby.

~~~

So, that's how I wound up siding with the refugees. They did go public before 2050, sure, but it was too early. Now, the lot of us who spoke for them are branded as traitors of our own species, and we're being hunted down one by one. Of course, the refugees have begun building a Salvation 2, since their long-distance scanners detected a fleet of crescent-shaped starships in the distance...

THE END

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