Now he was in the UFO. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, all was made of the same strange metal. He started walking down the narrow passage way, his foot-steps resonating with a metallic sound in the whole spacecraft. All of a sudden the alley ended in a pitch black room with an enormous dome. As soon as he stepped in, the whole ship started shaking, all the metal around him rattled and he thought his head was going to implode. At last, the ship took off and all was silent again. But suddenly, a light went on, just like a police officer interrogating a suspect. Four boys were standing in the centre of the room. Their heads were egg like -- completely hairless. But it was not baldness,there was no shine; they were pale grey shaved domes, with the bright white snail tracks of scars tagged over them. It was the size of their heads he found alarming. A head without any hair is a small thing. It can look like a knob with eyes and ears. A human being is changed remarkably by hairlessness : the appearance is hardened and the person looks insectile and dangerous. They had tattoos on their heads, small symbols and words, and tattoos on their earlobes and earrings. They were dressed identically in short leather bomber jackets, with a white T-shirt underneath. The backs of their heads were tattooed, The Union Jack was the commonest tattoo among them. They wore very tight dungarees that were a bit too short, the cuffs reaching the tops of vicious, high-laced boots. The boots were shiny; these boys were oddly clean, their faces were very white.
The tallest of the four pressed a button on his cuff and, in a split second, Pr. Hawes was in front of them. They eyed him suspiciously so he shifted his gaze to his surroundings. A huge window giving out on to the exterior and a big screen near the window were the main objects in the room. Other then that there was nothing. For the first time in his life, Pr. Hawes could contemplate space in all its immensity. A million stars dotted the sky. Then he looked at the enormous screen. A hundred parameters were shown. The professor had never seen such technology ever before, his hosts could not be human...
- “Good day Mr. Hawes,” said the tallest stranger.
- “Who are you and how do you know my name?!”
- “We know all about you professor and all about Earth, its history, people, culture...”
- “You answered only one of the questions, who are you?” said Hawes with hidden unassurance.
- “We are the little green men from outer-space.” said the smallest one and they all laughed in a very peculiar way.
- “I see...”
- “No you don't!” snapped the tallest “We come from a very far away planet, in another galaxy, and we've come to send a message to the human race.”
- “And you want me to spread that message right?” Hawes answered.
- “Yes, otherwise you wouldn't even be here.”
- “But why me out of the millions of humans out there.”
- “Because you are a teacher, which gives you much more persuasive power.”
- “There are other teachers than me and...”
- “Stop interrupting me!” roared the stranger “Have you ever thought about Nazi ideology?”
- “Yes, they had the most cruel ideas any one has ever had!”
- “Really? and how about the A-bomb?”
- “...”
- “No, we know things about their ideology that would interest you”
- “Go on.”
- “The Nazis didn't want war, they were totally against it!”
Pr. Hawes looked at him with wide eyes of disbelief.
- “Yes, but they'd studied the history of the human race and decided that difference is what causes conflict; one culture, one religion... was the only way to end conflict! That's why they exterminated the Jews. Many had these ideas and thought they were killing for the sake of humanity. Yes some of them were total psychopaths, but what about the people who dropped the A-bomb on the Japanese! ”
- “And you believe in that!”
- “Yes,” they responded in unison “We believe in it because we've been watching you since the supposed defeat of the Nazis. Hatred was never defeated and now look at what humanity is rocketing towards!”
- “We're counting on you, Mr. Hawes, to spread this message, you, and I, know you believe in it.”
At once the ship started plummeting down towards earth at an unimaginable speed and the lights went off. Finally, after a few seconds of descent, the ship screeched to a stop in the same deafening, clanging sound. Then the hatch slowly opened up and Hawes was able to scramble out of the tiny opening. After watching the spacecraft shooting up towards the stars, he slowly walked towards his house thinking about what the strangers had said. Deep inside him he knew they were right but he also was convinced that violence wasn't necessary to put an end to war. He also thought that since they came from outer-space, they had a very objective point of view on Earth's history and that for them “our” side wasn't any better then the Nazis! He open the old wooden back-door, slowly entered his kitchen and sat down. The brilliant sun was slowly rising over the horizon. He looked up and saw one of his favourite pictures : three children, one African, one Asian and one European, their arms linked in a circle and that told him that the solution was obvious, the human culture and gene-pool was going to blend and result in a single immensely rich culture; and that would be the end of war.
