THE GALACTIC GHOST
By MACK REYNOLDS
Gracefully, quietly, it came ... landing on a
deserted New Jersey field. Wonder and fear struck
at the bowels of the Earth-people—not because of
the ship itself, but because of its strange message.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories March 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Despite the widely publicized radar posts encircling our nation and the continuously alerted jet squadrons at its borders, the space ship was about to land before it was detected.
It settled gracefully, quietly, onto an empty field in northern New Jersey. And so unexpected was the event, so unbelievable the fact that man was being visited by aliens from space, that it was a full half hour before the first extra was on the streets in New York, and forty minutes before the news buzzed through the Kremlin.
It might have taken considerably longer for man in earth's more isolated areas to hear of the event had not the alien taken a hand at this point. Approximately an hour after the landing, into the mind of every human on earth, irrespective of nation, language, age, or intellect, came the thought telepathically:
We come in peace. Prepare to receive our message.
It was a month before the message came.