Sassy Sunday Story Starter.... from Sassy Brit 'Alternative-Read'

Sassy Brit's story starter for Sunday was something unusual, and with art work of the author available on her blog, instead of looking for something else to spark my imagination, nothing else was needed. The War of the Worlds, all four or five re-tellings of Orson Welles masterpiece as always been a favorite of mine. Jeff Wayne's art work was perfect for the prompt....

I'm very late with my response, I had to rejoin the land of the living.... it was questionable for a time.....

The Life and Time of Thomas Moore

by Dottie Taylor

word count: 500

“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one,” he said.

“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one?"

"but still they come!”

Thomas glanced around the table, was his the only voice of reason, did no one understand the threat? “You have to believe me, I saw it on the monitor, a sudden flare of energy from the Martian Delta Quadrant!”

Eyes filled with skepticism peered back at Thomas. “If there was a sudden energy burst from any of the Quadrants, how come our equipment isn't picking it up? Are you going to tell us it's been magically cloaked somehow? How much time do you spend watching those old re-runs of Star Trek anyway?” There was a burst of laughter around the table as Thomas's face reddened.

It was a well known fact he was a Star Trek buff, but this wasn't some fantasy of an overactive imagination, he saw what he saw, either they believed him or not. “Never mind, I should have known better than to broach the subject.” He stood to leave, dinner uneaten. “If you want my resignation, just say so.”

“Thomas, sit down, finish your dinner, no one is asking for your resignation.” Chief Wilson responded, Thomas's boss. “We only ask that you be reasonable, stop making these wild statements.”

Thomas sank down into his chair. He knew he was the odd man out, it'd always been the case. “Sure Chief, you won't hear anymore about it.”

For the next two nights, Thomas nervously watched the monitors in the lab set aside with a direct link to the Hubble Telescope. Nothing, the days stretch to a week, maybe it had been a figment of his imagination.

On the eighth day, there was a sudden flare in the Earth's atmosphere, Thomas watched it happen, but had learned from his earlier mistake. The bomb shelter had been build under his home during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960's. After witnessing the first flare in the Martian atmosphere, he'd had the place cleaned and stocked with survival gear, food and water.

When the U.S. Government announced the disturbance in the Earth's atmosphere, Thomas installed a small gas generator and hundreds of gallons of gas, capable of sustaining his needs long after his death, for at least next hundred years.

When media reports began to announce the sighting of alien cylindrical objects in the heavens, Thomas quit his job. And when the first reports of an alien invasion screamed through the radio stations, Thomas sealed his shelter.

It was all over in a matter of weeks, Earth had been stripped of most of it's population, natural resources, food was scarce, water precious, but the Martians had left.

When Thomas was able to once again pick up a local radio station still broadcasting, he found out his old boss, Chief Wilson was one of the first to die. Pay back was a bitch.


A new twist on an old favorite, this time the Martians won, weren't killed off by Earthly viruses.  Stronger, better aliens....

Okay, I don't write much scifi, but at least I had fun, and it only took about an hour.  Now, back to NaNo, a long way to go if I'm going to finish on time.