Fifth Column of Doubt: A Science Fiction Story

When the extraterrestrial spaceship approached planet Earth, it entered into orbit at a distance of five million miles. Ten kilometers long, the gigantic ship had been built from a hollowed-out asteroid. The invading extraterrestrials hoped that it might be mistaken for a passing asteroid.

The strange appearance of the huge object attracted worldwide attention and debate. The President of the US called a team of scientists to the White House to discuss the matter.

“What is this thing?” asked the President. “Could it be some kind of spaceship?”

“No, don't worry about that type of nonsense,” said astronomy professor Ted Kindler. “It must just be some asteroid that accidentally came into a distant orbit around our planet.” The other scientists nodded in agreement. Trusting them, the President took no further action.

The extraterrestrials then began their reconnaissance of planet Earth. Hundreds of small craft were sent from the huge spaceship into the skies of Earth. In cities all over the United States, reliable witnesses reported strange disk-like objects hurtling through the skies at speeds no human craft could reach. The objects often appeared in formations.

The huge wave of UFO sightings attracted discussion and debate all over the world. The President of the US called a team of scientists to the White House to discuss the matter.

“What is going on?” asked the President. “Could this be a prelude to some alien invasion?”

“Of course not,” said physics professor Bob Baker. “We have explanations for these kind of things. They're things like people misidentifying Venus, or people mistaking aircraft for UFOs, or hallucinations caused by drug use, or atmospheric inversions or people faking things so they can get on Youtube.” The other scientists nodded in agreement. Trusting them, the President took no further action.

The extraterrestrials then began to establish their secret bases below the surface of the planet. Over a period of five weeks, twenty meteor-like objects were seen descending all over the world, landing in remote areas. Each of these objects caused a huge mile-long hole to be formed in the ground. A continual stream of gases from these holes prevented further investigations. But numerous photographers made videos of strange UFOs descending into these holes. 

The bizarre situation caused rumors and furious debate all over the world. The President of the US called a team of scientists to the White House to discuss the matter.

“What is going on?” asked the President. “Could these strange holes be some kind of  bases being set up by extraterrestrials?”

“Of course not,” said astronomy professor Will Martin. “These are all just natural meteor falls. I would admit it is quite a coincidence that so many have occurred in such a short time, but let's not jump to some paranormal explanation.” The other scientists nodded in agreement. Trusting them, the President took no further action.

The extraterrestrials then began to establish their bases into a connected network stretching across the globe. Using lasers that could melt through rock effortlessly, the original twenty bases were expanded into a thousand underground bases that were all connected by tunnels. This activity created tremors that people felt all over the world.

The reports of unexplained tremors caused rumors and furious debate all over the world. The President of the US called a team of scientists to the White House to discuss the matter.

“What is going on?” asked the President. “Millions of people are reporting these strange tremors, that only started after those 'meteor holes' appeared. Could extraterrestrials be behind this?”

“Of course not,” said geology professor Al Sawyer. “You can't trust anecdotal evidence like that. We don't trust the reports of ordinary people. Our motto is: only believe it if it was reported in a scientific journal. ” The other scientists nodded in agreement.

“So you scientists don't believe in extraterrestrials?” asked the President.

“No, we do believe in extraterrestrials,” said astronomer Will Martin. “We believe the universe is full of extraterrestrials. But the only extraterrestrials we believe in are those that are far, far away, extraterrestrials on other planets that we we can talk to using our big radio telescopes. But we don't believe there can be any extraterrestrials in our solar system. Our rule is: they probably exist, but they can't exist near us."

Trusting them, the President took no further action.

Three months later, the extraterrestrials used the giant network of connected underground bases as a spearhead to help achieve the conquest of the entire Earth.