Gray Matter: A Dark SF Story in Six Paragraphs

Nobody will let me publish this, so therefore I share this with you freely because I love you.

Really.



Gray Matter
by Alan Loewen
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED



The Gray Hive at Zeta Riticuli reeled from inner turmoil. To find a solution, the Master Mind met to meditate on the reports of aliens abducting individuals during their communal hibernation period.

The reports were all the same: Reticulans would awaken with dim memories of being removed from their hibernation pods and subjected to humiliating physical procedures conducted by tall, fearsome beings.

The reports described the abductors as having various skin colors different from a healthy Reticulan gray. The victims telepathically wailed about small, frightening eyes that consisted of colors different from simple ebony. With horror they mentally transmitted images of five-fingered hands that prodded and poked, and cold metal instruments used to shameful effect.

The abducted experienced such trauma, euthanasia of the individual units served as the only solution to ultimately protect the Hive from being overwhelmed in horror and revulsion.

However, before the Master Mind could derive a final solution to the problem, alien spacecraft attacked with a ferocity so sudden, planetary defenses never had an opportunity to even come online.

With the exception of those that had been selected as breeding stock, for the majority of Grays, their last experience of home was being herded into starships bearing an emblem of two golden arches, starships that sped their living, gray cargo to a terrifying blue world to feed its hungry trillions.