Once Upon a Lightyear (standard:science fiction, 1162 words)
Author: Robert G Moons	Added: Aug 11 2011	Views/Reads: 4517/2330	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A Short Alien Bedtime Story (Humorous/Satire). An alien father reads a bedtime story to his little boy about humans.

ONCE UPON A LIGHTYEAR A Short Alien Bedtime Story by Robert G. Moons 

“Notruhk, could you please come up here and read your son a bedtime
story!” his wife shouted. 

Her husband had fallen asleep with his head inside the holosphere
entertainment unit again. “Yes, dear – coming,” he managed to blurt out 
in a groggy daze, not quite sure what was going on. Last he remembered, 
he was watching a sector level gnilruc game. No wonder he fell asleep. 
A gnilruc game is just a little more exciting than watching vegetation 
grow in slow motion. 

He got up; shuffled his four feet up the white stone ramp and into his
son's nest chamber. 

“Read me a story, daddy!” his son shouted gleefully as his antennae made
little circular motions of excitement. 

“OK, OK, calm down and let me think... What story haven't I read you
yet? Have I read you Golden mandibles and the three Xoak grubs?” “Yes.” 


“How about The three tiny crustaceans?” 

“Yes, two times.” 

“What about The swamp-fly who cried arachnid? – that's a good one.” 

“Daaaaad, you read that to me a mega-qua-zillion times!” his son threw
his claws in the air in frustration. 

“Wait a minute... I know a story, but it's not in any reader chip. A
special story my dad used to tell me. I think you're old enough to hear 
it,” Notruhk said slyly as his son started to beam with pride. 

“Tell me dad, pleeeeease.” 

“OK, let me think....” 

“Once upon a time, a long time ago, and many lightyears away, a
spacecraft from a planet called Earth was sent to a nearby star. They 
were the first humans to travel to a neighbouring solar system. When 
they finally reached this new system, they picked up a strange signal 
coming from the fifth planet, so they followed it to investigate.” 

“What was it dad?” his son asked impatiently 

“Just wait, you'll find out, just let me tell the story.” 

“OK.” 

“Now, where was I? Ah yes. So they landed on the fifth planet; the
signal led them to this small object, and they could tell it had been 
made by another intelligent life form. It was purple in colour; shaped 
like a cube with what appeared to be some form of hieroglyphs over its 
entire surface. It was easily picked up with their appendages; the 
object's surface looked like some type of metal, but was remarkably 
light in weight. The humans were very excited about finding this object 
as it was the first proof they were not alone in the universe. They 
explored this planet for a long time looking for more evidence of the 
civilization that made it, but found nothing else. When they brought it 
back to Earth, their world welcomed them back like heroes; their whole 
planet was very excited about this discovery. But what was it; what did 
it do, if anything? It was made of materials they didn't know; it had a 
power source they didn't understand. They studied it for a long time, 
taking it apart piece by piece, and finally they thought they knew what 
it was.” 

“What was it!” interrupted his son 

“Hold on, I'm getting there... They thought it was some sort of new
power generator. The humans were all very excited. They decided to 
recreate this alien device, but to make things easier, they would build 
it on a much larger scale. The planet Earth sought out their greatest 
scientific minds, their greatest engineers, and experts in other 


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