The Vessel

         The crowd had been gathering for hours now, it had started to rain several hours before but this had no impact whatsoever. Central Park was almost completely filled every person in the entire city was flooding to this one point. People from neighbouring states were driving in and worldwide every single inhabitant of the planet was glued to a television set. Even in North Korea, Kim Jong Il had erected giant screens with fascistic swiftness.

         The eyes of over six billion people worldwide glued to what only a day before had been another unassuming piece of turf. Then it had arrived. The media had dubbed it the vessel, scientists had tracked it's inbound trajectory from out past Saturn. It was about the size of a house, cylindrical in shape and completely jet black almost as if it was a hole in space. Police cordons had gone up almost immediately and the crowds had gathered almost faster than that. For twenty four hours it had sat there and done nothing almost as if it was making sure that it had everyone's attention.

         Suddenly a slit appeared in the vessel travelling from it's base to about halfway up the front of the cylinder. From inside the vessel shone a blinding light it slowly expanded as the slit grew until it was finally nearly as wide as the base of the vessel. All of this had been done without the slightest whisper of noise.

         Three silhouettes appeared in the light and started to walk out on to the grass. As the three shapes moved forward they were met by a storm of camera flashes, as the light behind them began to fade it revealed three tall figures, wearing long white robes. The most surprising part of their appearance was how unsurprising it was, they looked exactly like human beings. The three of them paused in front of the waiting crowd the one in the middle stepped forward and raised his hands above his head. An unnatural hush fell over the entire planet as they waited to hear a message from beyond the stars

         “People of Earth!” The alien announced to the hushed crowd his image being beamed to every corner of the globe. “We have come here to apologise. It seems that about two thousand years ago one of our species came to your planet and caused a bit of trouble”