The Mansly Affair

The feet were flat areas of skin without digits of any kind.

They spoke in their native tongue which consisted of clicks and incomprehensible language, and yet it seemed very pronounced and complicated the mouth area hardly moved more than a few centimetres.

The creature carried on communicating with the others while they watched lights and readouts on the display set before them. A diagram of a building appeared on the screen in graphic form and rotated 360 degrees before them. The controller pushed a few more buttons and the image disappeared. The image was the design brief for a building that the creatures needed to have constructed before they landed on Earth. It would maintain their food supplies and medical necessities, along with technology. They couldn't use their craft as when they eventually arrived at Earth they planned on taking smaller shuttles to the planet's surface. Their larger craft were too big to land on Earth, measuring approximately two Earth miles in length and one in width. The creatures had encountered many species and races before on their travels through the universe and galaxies and every new race had different atmospheres and climates. To land on Earth the creatures had prepared a simple breathing apparatus to thin the oxygen levels. The instructions they had sent for the building to be constructed was a larger version of this apparatus, meaning the creatures could work in the structure without restrictions. The satellite was sent a message to notify the craft as soon as the building had been completed.

The leaders had chosen a site as instructed in the brief the satellite had transmitted to the computers at the research laboratory. It would be a floating platform ten miles off of the east coast of Canada.

The building itself was of simple design by the technology of the age, requiring simple pollution control and temperature regulations. The estimated time until completion was set at six months. The leaders had no problems attaining the materials, finances or labour needed for the task and apart from sceptic groups staging protests on the coast, the project began on schedule and budget. All the materials were shipped to the platform by boat or industrial hovercraft, where a larger platform had been erected to allow for staff and materials to remain on site. Research technicians noticed the satellite had moved from its stationary position above the North Pole to situate itself closer to the platforms. The computers in the research labs began showing new information of precise temperatures and oxygen levels that should be set in the completed structure.

The building itself was hexagonal in shape, 60 foot high, 200 foot wide and contained two floors, as per instruction. An entrance had to be placed on either side of the six faces measuring ten foot in height by seven foot width, which could be air sealed manually both from the interior and exterior. The pollution filters and oxygen filters had to be located at strategic locations in the building as did the temperature controls. No power supplies were required by instruction.

All the filters and electronics that the building needed had to be battery assisted. This was a point strongly put forward in the brief.

The console in the craft began to beep as a transmission from the satellite filtered through. Two of the creatures began communicating to each other, the image of Earth once again appearing on the screen in front of them and began to magnify towards the east coast of Canada, before stopping at the image of the newly built building. Data translated to the creatures' language scrolled down next to the image on the screen as one of the creatures stood up and walked towards the hatch situated at the back of the control area. The door slid open revealing a rectangle room with a large number of seating areas with waist height desks symmetrically arranged.