We Three Kings - a science flash fiction very short story about scientific discovery, politics and first contact by Rob Hopcott

The President of Earth blinked with surprise when the three men in suits appeared.

He'd been happily looking out of his penthouse office window, feeling content that the world was getting on quite nicely and enjoying a break before leaving from his rooftop helipad for a Presidential lunch.

Then, suddenly, three identical men in grey suits appeared. They could have been twins, except twins are just two and these were three. All identical down to the shape of their faces, hair colour and height.

The President blinked again. His Presidential 'Panic Button' was a little too far away for comfort. Trying to look unconcerned he started edging his portly frame, fuelled by many long Presidential lunches, towards the button.

"Er, um! Who are you?" He said grumpily. "I thought Madeleine, my secretary, said I hadn't anything in my diary for another hour."

The middle man of the grey suits stepped forward. The President of Earth stepped back.

"Please do not be afraid. We come in peace to help your world. Since you are President of the planet Earth, we've come to you. Neither your secretary nor your personal protection armed forces have any idea we are here."

The President of Earth was now feeling very alarmed. Obviously protocols were not being observed and he resolved to make sure those responsible lost their jobs. He tried humour to lessen his nervousness.

"So you've come here bearing gifts. You sound like The Three Kings from the Orient."

"Exactly! We have come to you bearing gifts just as the Three Kings of your Christian mythology!"

"And you just materialised yourselves into my office? I've never heard such a load of cock and bull. I must require you to leave by whatever means you came. See Madeleine on the way out and make a proper appointment. I am a very busy man."

The spokesman of the three suits smiled and his two colleagues smiled identically.

"As you wish!"

Then, in the blink of an eye, the three men in grey suits were gone. They just disappeared. There was no gradual moving out of the room or opening of doors and passing through them, or even seeing Madeleine. Instead, they just weren't there any more.

"Phew," said the President of Earth to himself, shaking his head, "I need a medical, I'm cracking up."

He checked his computer diary. There were no entries for the next hour so he must have imagined the three men.

He blinked, as the three men materialised again. The middle man once more stepped forward, and the President of Earth stepped back, once more.

"We thought you needed proof that we are who we say we are." The lead man said.

"And who are you?"

"We are ambassadors from our world to yours. We have been observing you as we observe many worlds where intelligent life forms have evolved. You are not the most intelligent. However, you are not the most stupid either."

The President of Earth bridled.

"I'll have you know that I have access to some of the best minds in our world - and you are daring to call them stupid?"

"I didn't call them stupid, but your Earth is a very complex organism and sometimes it is better to give a species a hand to help them over a hurdle. We are here to do that."

The President was now almost in reach of his Panic Button.

"There is no point in pressing your alarm button because it has been disabled."

The President pressed it anyway and waited for the room to be filled with paramilitary police - or at very least Madeleine, asking him what was the matter. But the room stayed empty, apart from these three annoying men. The President had just also noticed that they not only smiled together but also blinked together.

Since his school days, the President had always been a pragmatist. He hadn't got to be President of Earth without adopting strategies that worked, quite ruthlessly sometimes. If he wanted something, he did what was necessary. So he reclined into his deep leather chair, framed his hands into a church shape, pursed his lips and decided to go along with this strange situation.

"OK," he said, "Shoot. Tell me why you are here!"

The lead grey suit clone placed a sheet of paper that had suddenly appeared in his hand on the desk in front of the President."

The President at that point realised that there was a perfectly rational explanation for these strange events. He was dreaming and in a minute he would wake up. Perhaps Madeleine would come in and wake him soon.

The lead man in the suit read his mind.

"You do not need to wake up, you are not asleep. You do not even need to read this sheet of paper. All you need to do is to pass it to your scientists and they will understand what to do with it."

"And what will the scientists do with this sheet of paper?" Said the President, tight lipped. He didn't like being told what to do, ever.

"This single sheet of paper will enable your scientists to design a motor that emits no carbon dioxide. It's technology already known to your world but with a few tweaks. We could have given you something better but didn't think you could cope with it. This modification to your existing technology will provide a natural scientific progression so that your scientists will be able to further develop it themselves."

"So what will be the result of this scientific development?"

"The electric cars you will then be able to produce will halt the global warming that is already under way and which will destroy your species and many others besides on Earth unless stopped. The electric technology will also revolutionise third world countries as it provides almost an unlimited and extremely low cost source of power."

The President blinked. The consequences of such a global change were immediately apparent to his astutely political brain.

"Is that it then," said the President. "You've delivered this piece of paper and explained it. Now, are you going?"

"That is exactly how we operate. You will not see us again. We have plenty of other worlds to visit and help. One day, in many centuries, we may come back, but not in your lifetime. There are just too many worlds out there that need our help."

"Well then chaps," the President said, smiling his most cordial smile, to which the three men smiled identically back, "On behalf of planet Earth, I must thank you for your kind help and wish you a good journey to wherever you are heading."

The three men in suits smiled in unison.

The President blinked ... And the grey suited men were gone.

The President did not read what was on the piece of paper. He assumed that he wouldn't understand it anyway. He'd failed all his science examinations at school, just as he had excelled at public speaking and debate.

He gazed out of the window and thought of all the workers who were building cars with petrol and diesel engines and of all the people manning the fuel pumps around the world. He thought of the electric power industry. He thought of the billions of currency that was invested in the companies that produced the vehicles and distributed oil and electricity. He thought of the businesses that provided other services and products that relied on the money flowing from the oil, motor and power industries.

The President of Earth knew global warming was a problem. He would, this very lunchtime, be attending a meeting with representatives of the worldwide business community within which the oil, motor and power industries were very prominent. He felt sure these business magnates wouldn't welcome their empires being disrupted. Proposing that electric vehicles with a revolutionary power supply were the answer to global warming would immediately make them his implacable enemy.

The President of Earth reached over, picked up the sheet of paper and fed it into the shredder on his desk.

Perhaps in a minute he'd wake up and realize this whole incident was just a bad dream.

In the mean time, he had to decide what to wear for lunch.

The End


Rob Hopcott

(On-line author - fiction - news)

Enjoyed the main character of this story? Try God Spoke To The President.

Copyright Rob Hopcott 2007. All characters in this science fiction very short story and other free on-line short stories, flash fictions, micro-fictions or short short stories on this site are fictitious and no reference is intended to any person living or otherwise.