Read Illegal Aliens for Free Online

was facing away from the Earth towards the distant stars. Then the door opened wide and out erupted a mighty tachyon particle beam, steady at 14 seconds of arc above the orbit of Pluto. The refrigerator's message was terse, concise and left nothing to the imagination. Much too soon, the golden light beam terminated and the enameled door closed with a soundless thump. Next, tiny jets flared from underneath the water drip pan, and the golden box moved off to relocate itself above the North American continent, in a geosynchronous orbit that would hold it relatively motionless above the source of those extremely disturbing transmissions:
    The 81st Street ballfield of Central Park, New York.

FOUR
    Leader Idow reclined in his formfitting chair and scowled at the viewscreen before him, his hairy face a sober study in blue.
    The first contact with an alien species was always a ticklish job at best. So far, everything had gone well. He could only hope that succeeding events would justify this expedition.
    The control room of the starship All That Glitters flowed around the humanoid being like a sine wave, with the ship's Leader placed at the apex of his pristine, high tech domain. This position gave him a comfortable feeling, as his primitive ancestors had often perched in the top of trees, dropped onto unsuspecting creatures traveling below and blithely sold them insurance.
    Glitters was a modified Mikon #4 space module, exactly four hundred meters in diameter, precisely the same size of your average Mikon. Powered by their justifiably famous exothermic reactors, the spacecraft had a mean cruising speed of light to the twelfth power, making the ship just about the fastest thing in the galaxy. Only a single planet had faster ships, and those were not for sale at any price. The 24 levels of the vessel varied in height and width, depending entirely upon their owner's wishes and intended use. Only the control rooms were standardized.
    On the curved walls aft of Leader Idow, were the tech stations of his crew: Protector, Engineer, Communicator and Technician. The latter station was rarely used, and was situated here in the control room only because of the irrefutable fact that the damn thing had to be somewhere. An armored Security Door closed off the base of the room and provided the sole means of entry into this, the nerve center of the starship. At present that door was ajar, which permitted a glimpse of the outside corridor, whose seemingly endless walls were lined with a multitude of wires, pipes and junction boxes.
    The control room and its furnishings were composed entirely, and on purpose, in multiple shades of white. Only the operating beings themselves adding a splash of color: blue, gray, brown, green, and even those were toned down by the ivory uniforms the crew wore. Every tech station aboard the All That Glitters had an independent viewscreen, but at present Idow had them slaved to his, so that each showed the same unremarkable scene.
    Amid the stark white immensity of the Test Chamber, which occupied the entire middle portion of the starship, there stood a handful of figures, the tremendous distance making them appear weak and frail, which in every probability they were. Idow could see them marching up and down, shaking angry limbs at the ceiling. No doubt they were shouting questions, threats and pleas. All the usual things. But the audio pickups in the chamber had yet to be activated, so their verbal barbs never reached the ears of Those-Who-Command.
    Besides, Leader Idow liked to watch the test subjects first. It helped him to better evaluate their chances of success. And furthermore, being pointedly ignored seemed to drive most primitives into a splendid frenzy, and these Dirtlings showed every indication of running true to form. Why, at this moment, the largest Dirtling was attempting to tunnel through the cushioned floor. His fellow subjects appeared to be cheering him on, although with alien species it was often