The Field Marshal

Yesterday's premiere of Steven Spielberg's Taken has prompted me to talk about my interest in all things extraterrestial. Little green men, metallic suits, ray guns, are stuff that have captured my imagination at a very young age. I have no idea where this fascination came from. Graphic dscriptions of humans being forcibly taken or convinced to go away with aliens into their blindingly bright spaceships in countless books on UFOs and alien abductions is perhaps the primary reason for my interest in this. Having such an interest ain't good since many have been labelled mad, or looney, for believing in aliens. I believe that most, 99.9%, of the stories or photos are just stories or fakes concocted by pranksters for a good laugh. But I believe that the unexplained phenomenon observed in that 0.01% points to something which we humans currently can't explain, or even begin to find out. Life in outerspace is something which I believe. If the universe is infinite, I find it incomprehensible that planets in other universes cannot go through Earth's mind boggling odds of creating life. Statistically speaking, if it can happen to Earth, why not planet X, Y, or even Z, millions of lightyears away? Not seeing something doesn't mean that the 'something' does not exist. Many a times, the flashing lights or balls of flames in the sky could perhaps be explained by natural phenomenon, but some are still unexplained. So, the verdict is still out on that. At a personal level, I think it is interesting to know that life can exist in other parts of the universe. But being the worrier that I am, my question is, "would the aliens be the nice cuddly ones, or those that we saw in War of the Worlds." I would definitely not want them to be those featured in the Alien movie series. No thing is going to use my body as a host for incubating an alien baby. On hindsight, such things are actually happening now. There are parasites around us who uses a host, be it an animal, human or plant, to keep itself alive or to leech off the host for food etc. BUT we don't have a parasite which explodes from our chest at birth. What would I do if I come face to face with an alien? Fieldmarshal - Welcome to planet Earth my ugly looking friend! (grins widely) Furry Alien - wheeze, hoot, rasp (raises an appendage with a rock like rod) Fieldmarshal - Errr friend, I am not getting to you dude. And what's with that stick? (a present for Fieldmarshal?) Furry Alien - makes strangling sound while pointing the stupid rock-like object at FM. Fieldmarshal - Oh, my first interplantary gift. Cool, dude. (Grabs the stick from the alien) Furry Alien - screeches in high shrilly tones and start making lots of noise. Fieldmarshal - Ah, my very first alien present. Hey there's sort of a cavity for a finger here. What's that. Feels warm inside. (Fiddles with the stick and sticks finger into the cavity) Furry Alien - screeching like a crazed bird and turning more green (if that's possible) Fieldmarshal - (thinking it is an intergalactic way of greeting starts shouting together with the alien) THANKS YOU MY UGLY GREEN FRIEND. I WILL GIVE YOU A SPECIAL SINGAPOREAN 'FINE CITY' T-SHIRT LATER. I AM SURE YOUR BUDS WILL LOVE IT! AND AS A SHOW OF ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP, LET ME USE YOU STICK TO GREET YOU BACK! (points the stick at the alien and puts finger into the cavity, hears a soft 'psssssssfffff' and a sudden gush of warm air, but turns away from the alien after hearing his name being called) Mydaemon - Dear, who are you talking to? Fieldmarshal - Hey, come and meet this cool alien dude who just gave me this wonderful gift. (turns back to ugly green alien). Mydaemon - Hmmm, I don't see anyone here. Just a huge heap of dried green bird pooh. Fieldmarshal - (loss for words) But.. but... it was right where the bird pooh is now. MR ALIEN! MR ALIEN! WHERE ARE YOU? (still thinks that shouting is the best way of communicating with it) Mydaemon - Stop playing with that piece of rock and clean up the place. (takes the stick from FM's hand and dumps it into the trash can) Fieldmarshal - Darn, I could have sworn I spoke to an alien. (takes up a dustpan and broom to clear the huge pile of bird pooh) 'Huge Bird Pooh' (aka alien after being fried by superduper laser beam that kills humans) - f u c ....... (last sound it made) Tsk tsk, what a dirty mouthed alien.