Welcome

The space flight was long and boring.
Check the instruments then check
them again. The ion engines where
deathly silent, and there was nothing
out the windows but black.

The flight was so devoid of stimulation
some of the crew began to hallucinate.
Little green monsters and hairy furball's
ran rampant through their heads.

Suddenly a screeching alarm went off.
Strangely those ethereal creatures
disappeared. The view of a small rock
planet appeared in the window. It was
an earthlike planet at the far end of
the galaxy.

Sending out a probe; it registered
plenty of oxygen in the water. Orbiting
the planet we found a dry place to land.
Landing on a rocky plain, we
disembarked from our ship there were no
signs of life.

There in the distance was something
strange; we ran into it. It was a sign
of curious workmanship. We scanned it
and sent the strange message to our
universal translator.

The message from the translator came
flashing back. The sign was a picture
of the galaxy with an arrow pointing to
a tiny dot. The sign read: "Welcome.
You are here. The Intergalactic Chamber
of Commerce."

Find more by Mike Berger in the Author Index.

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