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Trentham turned away for a second to pick up his pint and I seized on the chance to get away

&039;Bloody hell,&039; I gasped as I sat down heavily on my hard wooden chair

&039;Christ, was that Ken Trentha to?&039; Siobhan asked incredulously

I nodded

&039;Well, it wasto me,&039; I smiled, &039;but yes, it was Trentham&039;

&039;I didn&039;t know you knew that dirty old bugger,&039; James said &039;I&039;ve lived round here for almost twenty years and I&039;ve only ever seen hi before now&039;

&039;I don&039;t know him,&039; I said defensively

&039;It&039;s not like hihed Rob, &039;heabout?&039; asked Siobhan, confused

&039;The aliens,&039; he grinned &039;Can&039;t you see what they&039;re doing? They&039;ve only been here for a few hours and already they&039;re screwing up themembers of the community! Before you knoe&039;ll all&039;

&039;Bullshit!&039; I snapped

Rob shrugged his shoulders

&039;Of course it is&039;

&039;People are acting differently though,&039; Siobhan whispered

&039;What do you ed her shoulders

&039;Well just look at this place,&039; she said, &039;it&039;s packed It&039;s like a show of unity, isn&039;t it?&039;

&039;Is it?&039;

&039;Yes It&039;s the old Dunkirk spirit rearing its head again&039; A little uncertain, she paused and looked around the table &039;The rules changed today, didn&039;t they?&039;

&039;You&039;re right There&039;s a new player in the gareed &039;None of us knoho they are or what they&039;re going to do and it&039;sus feel nervous I don&039;t suppose anyone here knows they&039;re doing it&039; &039;Doing what?&039; interrupted Jaether,&039; I explained &039;Like with like, can&039;t you see it? This ship has arrived and it&039;s different, and suddenly it doesn&039;t ion you are, we&039;re all the same&039;

&039;The same?&039;

&039;Well, less different than ere thisThe pub had suddenly become silent

The jukebox had been switched off

No-one at the bar was being served

A brief blast of static and white-noise filled the air as Ray struggled to force an aerial lead into the back of the television set

More silence

Thenpicture appeared on the screen, disappeared and then reappeared seconds later

&039;Got it!&039; yelled Ray

A perfect picture (froled for a second or two to focus through the smoky haze The television showedover the ocean The scene was darker, of course, and a hundred dancing spotlights now ran continually along the s seears,&039; Mrs Grayson, the lady orked in the newsagent&039;s said Her voice was so loud and shrill that everyone could hear her We used to joke that when she spoke her squeal was so high-pitched that it s in the street stop and run to her whenever she opened her mouth &039;The whole of the bloody universe to chose from and those daft sods wind up here at the back-end of nowhere!&039;

&039;Bloody hell,&039; Rob whispered, &039;can you i up here ht The chances of the aliens finding our planet h, but to have stuot up and went to fetch more drinks

I shuffled my seat round so that I had a better view of the television screen, taking care to stay close to Siobhan Her hand was resting onthan usual tonight

&039;It&039;s hard to believe that the rest of the world is watching us here,&039; she said under her breath &039;Just think,the same pictures as we are, and we&039;re only a few &039;

&039;Makes you nervous, doesn&039;t it?&039; I said, suddenly feeling brave enough to be honest about my emotions &039;I just want to knohat they&039;re here for&039;

Robert returned to the table and put down another round of drinks He spilled half ofround the beers and watching the television at the sagy beer mat and, as I did so, I becaain I looked up, instantly unnerved

Every face was angled towards the television set, and every last face bore an expression of bewildered fascination and uncertainty I rubbedscreen

The pictures being broadcast were still coe we had seen earlier in the day had been shot The dark and featureless alien ship was silhouetted against the clear, star-filled sky and it&039;s ihts fro ocean below As I watched, a large rectangular section of the vessel&039;sa wide, black hole in the e I sed hard (an to shine out froht and smooth, streamlined object (a missile perhaps?) drifted down into the space between the ship and the surface of the ocean and then stopped It just hung there, co hell is that?&039; Robert croaked, his voice also dry with nerves &039;You don&039;t think that&039; He stopped hi his half-finished sentence

The pictures on the television screen continued although I feared that, if it was some kind of alien weapon which had just appeared, the live transht be cut at any second In the dark haze on the screen I could just aboutto and fro on the decks of the cruisers and battleships that had gathered there in the past few hours Within athe sky had filled with swarms of jets, helicopters and surveillance aircraft Every last weapon on the deck of every last one of the floating war machines was primed and trained skywards, all ai soundless and ht air

A brilliant electric-blue light began to shine out from the back of the second, s with the rest of the planet, it gracefully swooped doards the surface of the water Instinctively I squeezed Siobhan&039;s hand and she pulledback down to land, the second ship soared silently through the night, eventually stopping perfectly still just a few feet above the rolling waves

Every single available spotlight was fixed on the new machine And every face in the room continued to stare at the television set on the bar