Clean It Up

   Hiding In Plain View

Suzanne Marsh

“Mister President, sir, the aliens have arrived. They landed on the Space Needle in Seattle. ‘

“Good, have the Defense Department contact them to set up a meeting. I don’t know

why they are here but we have to be diligent. “

“Sir, I will that immediately.”

Adam Johnson turned on his heel and left the president of the United States to his own devises. Adam had come with President James T. Thompson as his private secretary. Adam, sat down at his blond oak desk. He dialed the Secretary of Defense John Watertower;

“Hello, Mister Secretary of Defense, aliens have arrived on earth, the president wishes

to converse with them.”

“I will have NORAD contact them. I wonder if they speak our language.”

“Sir, I have no idea, but hurry and make contact. The president is prepared to leave

on Air Force on for Seattle as soon as possible.”

Secretary of Defense Watertower, contacted NORAD. NORAD, in turn contacted the alien space ship.

General Steven Putnam, thought for a moment that the Secretary of Defense was a tad bit crazy, until Captain Tom Jeffers saluted then began:

“General, we are being invaded, there is an alien ship on top of the Space Needle.”

“Yes, Captain, I am aware, get your gear and take some pictures of this thing, I am going

to attempt to make contact with it.”

“Yes sir General, I am leaving now.”

The gleaming silver jet took off five minutes later from Cheyenne Mountain Air Base. Flying westerly toward Seattle. Jeffers began taking picture of the disc shaped thing hovering just above the point of the Space Needle. He took an entire roll of pictures returning just as quickly as he had left. He hurried toward the lab. The tech had been on alert and was prepared for the job at hand. Once the pictures were developed, Jeffers grabbed them up and strode toward the General’s office. He knocked on the door:

“Enter.”

“Sir, here are the pictures I captured with the F16’s flight cameras.”

“It is disc shaped, thought it would be more spherical. Come with me.”

They transversed the hall quickly, entering into the communications room. There a specialist in languages awaited them. Jeffers, nodded to the young private:

“Son, are you sure you can speak whatever they speak?”

“Sir, this computer will translate their language to ours. Shall I begin?”

“Yes, ask them what they want from us.”

The private typed in the question, several moments later they reply came:

“We, seek peace with earth, and we have come to warn earthlings of the consequences if

they do not take better care of their planet.”

The president then asked if he could meet with them in Seattle, he would leave within the hour. The aliens agreed. The president left Cheyenne Mountain Base on Air Force One, moments later. The flight was little under two hours, giving the president time to think about what to say. In his mind he saw little green men, with antennae, and huge mouths. Air Force one landed at Mc Chord Air Force Base, just outside Seattle, Washington. The secret service was standing by to take President Jeffers to the Space Needle to meet with the aliens.

The air was completely still as the black Suburban, containing the President arrived. The spaceship, disc like in shape hovered silently. The president felt unhinged at this sight. What was he going say to these beings? He hoped they were friendly, but his job was to defend the United States, and defend it he would til his last breath.

A voice came over the radio in the Suburban:

“Greetings earthling, please step out of the vehicle, you will note there are stairs for you

to climb. I will greet you at the top of those stairs.”

This gave the secret service pause, but Jeffers did as he was instructed, he began the ascent toward the spaceship. The closer he got to the top, he noted a being that appeared to be human, a short stocky human. He was greeted politely, then escorted inside the ship. He looked around in awe, it was huge inside, with electronics he could never hope to understand. The alien smiled, pleased that the president was attempting to make some sort of peace:

“Why are you here?” Jeffers asked.

“Our mission is twofold sir. First, we wish to have peace with earth, second, we have come to

warn you about the importance of cleaning up your planet before it is to late.”

Jeffers, was genuinely confused:

“I don’t understand, the part about peace I do but not about cleaning up the planet.”

The alien, sat down in a seat across from the president:

“Earth is such a dirty planet; you have air so bad some of your people cannot breathe. Some

fills the atmosphere from your factories. Cars and other transportation is putting carbon

dioxide up into the atmosphere. It is affecting our planet Tejmor, we are twenty light years

away. You must clean this mess up or we along with others like us will attack, then there

will be no earth, however in the interim, with all the destruction here on planet Earth, you

earthlings are destroying yourselves quicker than we can.”

Jeffers, was stunned:

“Just what do you suggest we do? We can’t kill people for no reason!”

“That will not be necessary, just clean things up. Cut the carbon usage down to nothing.”

“We are trying.”

“Yes, we have noted that but there is more to it. Factories need to have better ways to control

what they put in the air. We have studied this planet for millenniums. We have watch the

beauty of this earth of yours disappear.”

Jeffers mulled that question over before he answered:

“We have grown, we have more technology that we have ever had. Those are things that

have made the United States strong.”

The alien pondered that:

“What about other countries, like China and Russia?”

Jeffers was totally amazed the alien even knew the names of different countries:

I cannot answer for them just the United States. We will continue to try to clean up

the planet for the sake of our children and many generations to come.”

The alien, seemed satisfied with Jeffers answers:

“We will be watching.”

Jeffers, did not miss a beat:

“Would you mind answering a question for me? Is this what you actually look like or did

you change to greet me.”

The alien chuckled as he turned his face mask into a sea green face, he then returned to the face that had greeted the President:

“I hope you will visit us again. We will do our best to clean up earth.”

The alien departed that day, his message and warning given, the question was would earth finally listen.