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**If you like this story, please visitmindofbryan.comfor more, including TheHidden: Urban Decay, a novel in podcast and blog form. You might also stopbyauthonomy.com, a site HarperCollins uses to spot new talent and give mea good rating. It is part of a collection called “Strangely Familiar”.**First ResponderBy Bryan Lee PetersonIt was evening where I was when they made themselves known. The sun wassetting across the Arizona sky, and the clouds on the horizon were small,purple-blue and broken apart into sparse bunches against the orange-peachbackground of the mountains to the east. I was at the grill, cooking dinner forthe rest of the shift at the fire house. It was my turn, and I didn't mind doingit. The day had been quiet, not even a single call, and in six hours, we'd begoing home from our shift."What is that?" Javier asked.I turned around and saw it, a cloud that was much more regular in shapethan the rest, it was something, I couldn't tell what. Then it dawned on methat it was a spaceship, and not one of this world. I tried to come up with averbal response, an expletive that was adequate, but my mind was blank. Bythe time I came up with one, it was much too late.It looked like a cloud, dark blue, fairly round, but as the wind blew theclouds away, the ship remained, still. You could call it vaguely saucer-ishfrom the right view, but not like in the movies, not like that at all. You couldtell this craft was real, you could see panel lines on its skin, irregularities andflaws, like ships which had just crossed the ocean in a storm, and they hadn'tcaught up on painting over the corrosion."Hey come take a look at this," he yelled into the firehouse. Some of theother members of the crew came out. They stood there for a silent minutebefore any of them even moved.The silence was interrupted by sonic booms. We knew what those were,the Air Force had scrambled F-16's from Luke. They went full throttleoverhead, direct intercept path and the ship was just over the edge of Apache Junction. The thing itself was silent as a cloud, you couldn't hear it, atleast not as far away as we were. Sound carries a long way out here, weheard the F-16's from Luke all over the place, from all directions; it bouncedoff the taller buildings in Phoenix back to us. There wasn't anything in thedesert to absorb sound either. We'd have heard something if it was makingany amount of sound.Some of the others had gone into the station to watch what washappening on the television."Rick, Javier get in here," they called to us. "You can see it better."I never did finish cooking the hamburgers. They turned to solid bricks of carbon on the grill.
 
There were local reporters on TV, broadcasting from the tallest buildingsin Phoenix, they had crews rushing out to get just below the alien ships toreport from the scene, but this view was enough to put on the air for themoment. They were quickly switching to affiliates all over the country,Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tampa. The ships seemed to beeverywhere. They even had shots from Paris, Beunos Aires, Berlin, Tokyo. They weren't all the same ship, it was a fleet, lots of different shapes andsizes. They were all hovering, doing nothing.You forgot everything at times like these. Your life, your job, where youwere, your name. It was just too far out of comprehension to grasp. I stoodthere just watching, not a thought passing through my head. You'd think youcould come up with a thought of absolute wonder, but no, nothing. Years of training, of running into burning buildings, of dealing with life and deathemergencies was just gone. What else could you do? A couple of the guyscalled their wives and kids, their girlfriends, but it was hard to get through,the switchboards were jammed. And when they did get through, there wasn'tmuch to say. “I know, can you believe it?” was about all they could get out. The world was never so silent as right then. The roads were empty and clear,you couldn't hear any traffic noise. Most airliners had been turned around,ordered to the ground, so the skies were clear, except for those ships and theAir Force.For the first half hour, things went just this way, and nobody could sayanything. The news reporters did their job, which was to keep talking. Theyhad nothing that they could say, other than the ships were there, which wecould all observe for ourselves. The only new thing they could report wasanother confirmed ship outside another city. Boston, Madrid, Jakarta, NewDelhi, Moscow.We got bored watching it, so we turned the TV all the way up, left thewindows open, and climbed up on the roof. The surface was still hot, eventhough the sun had long since reached its apex in the sky and crawled backdown into evening. We brought up blankets, whatever we could find thatwould insulate us from the heat. We were so far out from the city that therewas an unobstructed view for us all.My thoughts had collected into something resembling coherence bythen. I thought of being a kid, seeing Star Wars, and all the creatures. Iwondered what they looked like. Were they bigger than us, smaller, did theyhave two arms and two legs? Of all things, I remembered an assignmentwhen I was in fifth grade, when my teacher asked me to invent and describean alien, but I couldn't remember what I had written anymore, not now.At one point, they mentioned that a special session of Congress wasbeing called, the President was meeting with his advisers. The stations triedto tap into C-SPAN, but the feed got cut off. They said the government did it,but that was it, no other reason was given.So far nothing indicated any hostile intent, but nobody was taking anychances. The F-16's circled, everybody else waited. We were afraid, no doubtabout it. We'd seen Independence Day, we'd seen all those movies. They just
 
waited until things were quiet and we let our guard down and they openfired. In the movies we always won, and none of us thought that was reallypossible with something like this, not with what their technology must belike. In the houses of Congress, the representatives who were in town wereamassing in the Capitol building. Some were making their way to WashingtonD.C. by special flights, personal jets and helicopters, cars, anything theycould, if they felt they could make it in time to make a difference.The Speaker of the house and Senate Majority Leader called the jointsession to order, and a roll call was taken, finding them sufficiently abovequorum to proceed."My fellow representatives, we have had a startling development, and wehave the honor of being the leaders who will get to make first contact withan alien civilization. We have had no conversation with the aliens yet, wehave received no transmissions,. They seem to be waiting, and while theywait, we need to make decisions of what actions may be taken in answer towhatever they might say. We have no word on their wants, needs, or reasonsfor being here, peaceful or otherwise. The military is alerted and active incase we need defense, the president is meeting with his advisers. We arehere to set a unified diplomatic response for our country and our world. I nowopen the floor for comments, let's please maintain order, and God be with usall."She sat, along with everyone else. Several remained standing, ready tospeak.A cavernous space like the house of representatives could hardly ever besilent, and it wasn't now. It was filled with the sounds of pages and supportstaff bringing messages to the congressmen. The sounds of chairs creakingand people moving in place, and the sound of breathing, and under thebreath discussion."The gentleman from New Jersey," she called."I would like to say how unifying this event is for all of us in this world,and how we should consider broadcasting a message of peace as we initiatecontact--" he started, but was cut off by the gentleman from Wyoming."Excuse me, if I might interrupt, shouldn't we craft our message of peacefrom the Congressional bunker? I'm not one to believe that--," he said, butthe speaker cut him off."There are no craft near Washington D.C. and so we are not underimmediate threat. Are we going to allow the American public see us coweringin a bunker instead of standing in pride in our traditional chambers?"There was some applause, and some groans of concern."We will be advised if there is a threat," she said, putting the issue to rest.More people were joining us on the roofs of the neighborhood. The chatterover emergency channels was limited strictly to business. It would have beenvery easy to clutter the airwaves with panic and idle talk, but we held back.
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