The ship hung there like a giant inverted chrome acorn. It had arrived without warning a week before, simply appearing in a rush of displaced air a scant few thousand meters above the ground.

No one was quite sure what to do. Some wanted to simply blast the ship out of the sky. Some denied it even existed and that it was part of a vast conspiracy designed to bring about a world government. Most wanted to communicate

Communication had been difficult, but possible. Scholars from all over the world had flocked to communication centers around the globe in an attempt to speak with it. The vessel itself simply sat, and did nothing, absorbing every signal aimed at it.

On the seventh day, it spoke. A faceless voice came across several frequencies at once, in analog.

“People of ‘earth’. We come from a nearby star.”

A picture of the heavens flashed across with a single star lit.

“We are damaged, and cannot climb your gravity well. We must go. We have done what we can to limit your casualties.”

They vanished.