Divine Intervention

On a planet hundreds of light years away, the Guff hordes are massing around Bellaira, the capital city of the Freer. They prepare to make their final strike, to rid their world of these vermin for good...

The Guff troops are massing just outside the fortress walls of Bellaira, capital city and last stronghold of the Freer nation. This horrible sight takes place on a planet hundreds of light years from Earth, yet would be so familiar to us. Mass genocide is top of the Guff agenda. Their weapon-technology is roughly the same as 1950s Earth, but no less daunting. Hundreds of tanks are taxi-ing ready for the final push. The Commander of the Guffs, Ingreck the Impaler, sits above the main gun of the largest tank. His baleful eyes survey the scene.

Suddenly the sky is filled with blinding lights! Without transition a massive squadron of “flying saucers” materialises overhead. All eyes turn skyward, all faces filled with astonishment. The saucers “float” just beneath the clouds. There is a strange humming sound. Orange rays from the saucers play upon the tanks and other vehicles. In seconds those tanks just melt away! Their occupants tumble to the ground, for the most part shaken but unhurt. All the troops suddenly find their rifles and swords all gone! The Guff bomber planes are removed by the same rays. Now, though, green rays are employed: they catch the Guff pilots and lower them to the ground.

Finally yet another ray is “deployed”: a blue ray that renders ALL the Guffs unconscious within about ten seconds. One of the saucers separates itself from the rest, and hovers down to where Ingreck himself lies “asleep”. Three space suited figures emerge from the saucer and stroll over to the tyrannical leader. One of them presses a button on his belt, and Ingreck awakes with a jolt. He sits bolt upright, and faces these “aliens”.

Ingreck: “What the fruck is going on?”

Alien: “Hello Ingreck. Yes, we know you well. We have monitored you for many years. I am Lovan, Chief Coordinator of this intervention.”

Ingreck: “What have you done to us?”

Lovan: “We have prevented you from committing an unacceptable atrocity. This could not be allowed.”

Ingreck: “Why? The Freer are vermin. We have to get rid of them!”

Lovan: “No you don’t. In the past we have allowed such things, but not anymore. Our ‘Prime Directive’ of non-interference has been repealed. Life is too sacred for us to permit mass genocide. You will have to learn to live in peace with these people. All sentient beings must be protected. You now have no military capability.

Ingreck: “Oh!”

Lovan: “You have suffered only minor injuries, which our medical staff are attending to now. When we are satisfied that all is well, we will awaken your colleagues, so that they may make their way home. You will then have to learn to live in peace, as We did on our planet centuries ago.”

Ingreck: “Okay. I have no option but to comply with your orders. We will go straight home, yes. But tell me, who in the name of the Source are you people?”

Lovan: “We are the U.N.E. - The United Nations of Earth.”

Paul Butters