The Mansly Affair

In addition, add the lunar colonies and an approximate time could be reached.

During the leaders meetings and negotiations, slight differences of opinion did occur as to the nature of our visitors, mainly being, would they be a peaceful race. All signs up to now showed that they were a non aggressive species, with no sinister objective. During the orbit and data retrieval from the satellite, key images from Earth history were sent to the computers in the research laboratories that it was feeding information to. The symbol for nuclear disarmament was one, used in the 20th century to promote peace and an end to the production of nuclear weapons.

Even clips from science fiction movies were used, always showing the visitors as a peaceful, non violent race.

The military of each country did, unlike the leaders who maintained a diplomatic view, disagree over procedure. It varied from having the major strike forces of air, land and sea defences on full standby to complete deployment of forces as soon as the visitors were detected. The leaders thought that for the visitors to arrive and be greeted by a hand of friendship while a fully armed force stood in the background was not an option. The decision was agreed that standby, with strategic low grade placement was the best compromise for the situation.

The leaders had worked hard together to keep the negotiations running without delay and conflict among the different nations, and they all secretly prayed it would prove to be worth it.

A long, dark grey finger like digit reached forward and pressed a glowing blue button on a simplistic control panel, then a red button and finally ran a full circle round a two dimensional graphic image of Earth. The interior of the craft was lit by a dim, yellow light, occasionally switching to a more red colour. A hatch slid open and a large creature, some seven foot in height, walked through. Its skin colour was a varying grey. The head was an oval shape and set directly in the centre were two dark black slits, on top of each other. Above these were two holes, about an inch in diameter. Inside these holes sat a circular, orb like ball that glowed green in colour. Under the two slits was an opening, in the skin about two-three inches long, horizontally set. The neck was short and thin, running from the back of the head down to the top of the shoulders where it joined the torso. This was the largest part of the creature. The grey colouration lightened here making the muscular definition of the creature more prominent. The limbs were attached at the back of the torso and hung down to the base, so when not in use they lay flat against the back of the creature. They were jointed at the top and at three other places along the limb. The last one led to a jointed ball with six digits protruding from it. The torso joined the legs seamlessly before another ball joint led to the upper leg limb. These lower limbs bent in the middle in both directions, as when the creature walked through the doorway they were bent backwards, yet once he stood still they moved to the forward position.