
Two highway patrolmen stumble onto a bizarre, egg‑shaped craft that has landed in a field outside a small town. When the door slides open, a pale, blue‑nailed alien steps out, greeting them with a garbled phrase that sounds like a mix of nonsense and foreign tongue. The officers, used to dealing with earthly emergencies, are suddenly faced with a creature that has no wheels, no cockpit and a humorously incomprehensible language.
The alien produces a strange box and two metallic caps, insisting one of the men wear it. As the reluctant officer places the device on his head, a series of odd sounds and a sudden, painful reaction ensue, leaving the patrolmen bewildered. Their orders are clear: keep the visitor calm and contained until higher authorities arrive, all while trying to decipher whether the creature’s baffling speech is a threat, a joke, or something in between. The scene sets the stage for a light‑hearted clash of Earthly protocol and extraterrestrial oddities.
Language
en
Duration
~16 minutes (15K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2009-09-19
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1917–1983
Best known for lively, idea-driven science fiction, this prolific American writer explored politics, economics, and possible futures with a sharp, often satirical edge. His stories were especially popular in the 1950s and 1960s, when he became a familiar name in magazines such as Galaxy and If.
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