Dedicated to my wife Esu, who has kept me sane during months of illness. Thank you love.

Our short story today is set 500 years in the future. Much has changed, much is the same...

An Alien Moment.

He sat looking at the dull, grey, dingy walls with distain. His eyes scanned the room looking at every detail. Every detail, but one. He could not bring himself to look at her. This was odd, she was after all his partner of some 15 summers. But if he looked at her she would cry, hell, he might cry.

Just then he was saved. The door opened and someone came in, a very large formally dressed someone. He said nothing, just closed the door and moved towards them. Slowly he flopped his large bulk into a chair and wiped his dripping brow. Eventually he spoke.

"So for the duration of this interview you," he pointed at the male, "are subject X, and you, my dear are subject Y. I have a note of your real names. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Agent 716394.2. You may call me 71 if you wish, many do."

71 settled back in his groaning chair. Deftly he flipped a blue data pack out of his top pocket, and plugged it into the similar shaped hole that appeared in the table. He grimaced and spoke, this time more slowly, pronouncing each word as if it were his last.

"Activate. Agent 716394.2. Voice ID. Interview with subject X and Y, a couple. Topic - claimed alien abduction."

The Agent wiped his brow once more, and then glanced at subject X.

"OK, all set, who wants to begin? I just want the facts, no supposition, no emotions," his glowering gaze shifted to subject Y, "just nice, clean facts!"

Subject Y lowered her eyes. The Agent's penetrating gaze shifted back to X. When X finally spoke his voice came out as a thready high pitched whine.

"We had been home for about two hours when..."

Agent 71 stopped him in mid-flow with a simple, but stern look of disapproval.

"Clearly please, this is an official record. Do you need a sedative? There will be a charge, of course. But it might help."

"No, sorry. No more seds, Mart... I mean subject Y and I are pretty strung out already. Nothing illegal, you know all genuine Pharms.

71 wafted his arms across his face dismissively.

"This is more important than the habit. Go on."

"We had been home for about two hours when this odd sort of rumbling started. It really penetrated you, you know, sort of shook up your innards."

"What sort of sound?" asked 71.

"No sort of sound! That was what was so odd. You didn't hear the rumbling, you felt it. Then the smoke, thick, copious smoke, pouring in through the doors and windows. I thought the place was on fire! So I go to move, but I can't. Not one muscle. Not to move, not to talk. At least my eyes still work, I look at M... Subject Y. Just like me she's stuck to the furniture, but her eyes are wide with fear."

71 interrupts.

"Tell me, had it been a hard day at work? Had you taken any seds?"

"Well yeah, you know, work is always hard. We wound down with some Narcolon. But this wasn't the seds. I have been taking Narco for thirty years, I know what a sed trip is like."

"OK, sure X, it wasn't the seds. Oh, and just for the record what stimulants do you use?"

"We both use the same, creatures of habit. So it's Cafuwake in the morning and Narcolon at night. All genuine Pharms."

"Look X, I am not on the habit squad. How you get your meds does not concern me OK? I use Cafuwake too. Are you collecting those discount tokens. The one's for the designer stim?" 71 asked.

"Of course, who isn't! What do you think it will be?"

"No idea. But the tokens only come with the genuine cake. This I know for a fact. So, calm down about the meds."

X smiled, and changed posture. He settled into his seat. 71 was a good guy. This was going to be OK. When he spoke again his voice was more relaxed, even confident.

"Where was I? Smoke, that's right. The room slowly filled with this thick grey smoke. But it was just like the rumble, the rumble had no sound and the smoke, no smell! Try as I might I still couldn't move. But I stopped worrying about that when the light came. Blindingly bright, it flooded the whole room."

"What colour?"

"Huh?"

"The light, what colour?" asked 71.

"Good point I forgot that. Well it was white to start with, but then it changed, and twinkled with every colour in the spectrum. Finally it dulled, but the colours still swam in front of me. With the smoke and everything it was hard to see. I could only just make out Y. Then they came."

"How many?"

"Four, four of the oddest looking things. Tall, spindly, silver beings with big round reflective heads. It looked like their heads were just one big shiny eye. Two of them took Y. The other two, the biggest ones, got me. Something stung me. When I woke up, I was on their space ship."

"So you didn't see the outside of the craft?"

"Not then, but I did when they left. It was like a saucer, but elongated, cigar-shaped. Big lights at the front. One minute it was hovering there, then, flash gone! Faster than anything I have seen, I couldn't even guess at the speed."

71 scratched his bald forehead, frowned, and lent forward.

"So what did they do to you? They did do something. Yes?"

"Yes, but do we have to go into that?" X gulped.

"Why no! I called you here for a nice gossip. I was feeling a bit down. So I thought why not get X and Y in for a chat. We could talk about the weather, or the rate of inflation."

71 paused, and coughed clearing his throat.

"Of course I want to know what they did!" 71 spat out his words.

"Sorry, naturally. Well, when I came to I could see clearly again. I was strapped down to some sort of platform. Ma... Sorry, Y was next to me, strapped down just the same. We were in a bright room. Quite big, bigger than our lounge. We were alone. But that didn't last long. Soon they joined us, and they undressed. The big globes came off first, then the silver suits. It wasn't skin like I first thought. Underneath they were even weirder. Look 71, could I have a drink or something?" X asked.

"Sure, my turn to apologise. Where are my manners, would you like one too?"

Y nodded back.

71 stood, and turned to face the blank wall. He motioned a waving arm over a spot that was just a lighter shade of grey than the rest. The dispenser emerged from the wall.

"OK guy's and girl's what's your poison?"

"It'll be a A9 for me and a D3 for Y, please"

"Good choice, very healthy. A B6 for me. I'm trying to cut down. Lose a bit of bulk, but it's damn hard."

With practiced ease 71 collected and carried the three drinks to the table. He placed each one carefully, and then he lifted his to his plump lips. He downed the steaming concoction in one long swallow.

"Oh, that hits the spot! Please continue."

X sipped his drink a few times, blinked, and began to talk.

"Underneath they were even weirder, as I said they were bipedal and real skinny. They had two tentacles, inflexible ones, they only bent in the middle. Each tentacle split at the end though. Little wriggly tentacles emerged. They used these to hold things."

"OK, good description - tell me how many of these little tentacles did they have?"

"Huh, well more than four. It was more than four, wasn't it Y?"

"It was five, you forget. I saw one close up. Five!"

71 looked at Y, she was sure jumpy, especially for someone on as many seds as X suggested they had dropped.

"Five, five is good. Carry on X."

"Turns out their heads weren't big, but small with little beady eyes. They ran their beady eyes all over us," X shivered visibly at the memory, "nasty sharp, pointy faces. Sneering at us always sneering. Well the two big one's come over to me. Without a word one of them sticks his tentacles between my legs and pulls them wide apart. Now I realise, I'm naked. Naked in front of these things, and they are examining me."

X picks up his drink and takes a long swig.

"I look over to Y. She's naked too. The smaller things are doing just the same to her. They are bending over her and looking, well, you know, there!"

71 growled his disgust at this revelation. He raised a waving arm, and interjected.

"The big aliens, were they any different from the small ones, other than in size?"

"Well they were scrawnier than the big ones. Except their thorax's! Now you mention it they had bigger thorax's in proportion to the big ones. Weird."

X paused for breath.

"Still, I saw the ones with Y grab a cable from the ceiling. As they pulled it down I noticed the tip of it. It widened out into a sort of blunt probe. Then I realised what they were going to do! The aliens were going to put that thing into Y. I closed my eyes. I didn't want to watch."

X released a long, painful sigh.

"Anyway a minute later my eyes are wide open again. Something is sucking at my organ, milking it. There it stands stiffly protruding from my body. My organ is trapped inside this wide probe-cable thing, and it is slurping away on me. The sensations are incredible. Out of this world I tell you!"

"OK, and ahem, you produced?"

"Yeah, I couldn't stop producing. Nor would you have been able to. I didn't want to, stuck there with those things. But the sensations were too much." X started to sob.