Sitting at my computer an alert came in that I had new e-mail. It was from Howard in Dania, Florida. We always have a conversation going, so I thought it was a continuation of our e-chat. But there was something far more disturbing and cryptic in those electrons dancing across my screen.

He wrote that he received a strange message from an unknown source. There was no return address and it didn’t seem like it was junk mail. It simply had a warning that aliens are now among us. There was also a JPG attachment:

Was this a joke? Howard said that he would let me know if anything strange like this came his way again.

About a week passed and I forgot what Howard had sent me. I returned to my routine at the computer. Once again Howard sent me an edgy piece of e-mail that had a tinge of fright in it.

Out of a dead and much needed sleep, Howard was awakened by a banging at his door. Still quite groggy, he inquired who was there. A voice came back, “I am the one who sent you the message and the picture. The aliens are among us. I can prove it.” Curiosity was more powerful than descretion and Howard invited in the person with the tantalizing message:

But before I get into the encounter with this most strange and bazaar person, that same day I received an e-mail from David, a correspondent in Manchester, England. His message was also fraught with confusion and apprehension. It seems that his precious two cats had been missing for a week (It was also a week since Howard first contacted me about these goings on). Then in came an e-mail preporting to have seen his cats. They were now located on the planet Mars and were doing fine! They were photographed by NASA’s Sojourner:

David said in his e-mail that the cats were certainly his and the best he could tell that was also the Martian landscape like he had seen reported on television. How was he going to get his poor cats home? I could not comfort him with any practical suggestions other than Patiently wait until NASA sends rockets to MARS that will also return.

ITMT Howard’s weird looking visitor showed him a top-secret photograph of the first alien space ship to land on Earth with one of the aliens disembarking. “This is the proof I will show to the world that the aliens are here.” :

Howard suspiciously wondered if his visitor was not one of these aliens. After all, his manner of dressing wasn’t exactly standard dress for Dania, Florida or for any where else on Earth.

The visitor also gave as further proof of the existence of aliens, a finger print of the chief dictator who commissioned these aliens to visit our lowly Earth. This leader’s fingerprint is in the form of an aura:

Well, all these communications and pictures were too much for me to comprehend. Perhaps it was an illusion created on my computer screen. Or someone might have put roofies in my drink, and I had been passed out for several days, thus giving rise to these delusions.

However, and against my wishes, an intergalactic e-mail arrived on my computer. It read, "Warning! You will follow the dictates of the intergalactic dictator. We will dominate your puny Earth, you puny Earthling. When I tell you to sit, you will stand. When I tell you to go forth, you will come hither. IOW, you will obey by doing the opposite. Do you understand?”

Recognizing the power and intelligence of this dictator who could snatch cats and deposit them on Mars and keep them in perpetual kitty litter and milk, I acquiesced to the dictator and e-mailed back this response: “ I will not obey you.” He wrote me that he was happy to hear that, because it was exactly the opposite of what I intended and he wanted.

My reward for being the dupe of the dictator was he sent me his very own trading card. In his galaxy they don’t have portraits. Instead, they pass out trading cards. Here’s his in all his splendor before the palace gates:

This story will continue as assignments are given me to further world dominance by His Highness, The almighty Dictator of Many Planets and Various Moons.