The Last Wimbledon

July 7th, 2007

Digg this

The Announcement

A note from the AH: Here we are at the luckiest day of the century - 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year – so, I'm buying a lottery ticket! I sincerely hope that good luck follows you today, and that our humble offerings are part of it...

Andrea opened up a web browser to her favorite Internet radio station so that she could have some tunes while she worked. Better enjoy it while it lasts, she thought, mentally cursing the new laws that were going to doom this little spark of enjoyment. She had finally found a great oldies station, and it was going to go out of business. Typical.
After the music started playing, she went back to her word processor and looked through her notes. She felt nervous – she was one of two people at the meeting who weren't heavy politicians, and the other person was the actual discoverer of the probe. She had just led the team that confirmed its location and intercept course with earth. She pretty much knew that all the pols wanted to hear from her was a date and a time that the thing would be getting to earth, but she wanted to say so much more. She had dreamed of this happening since she had first read Stranger in a Strange Land when she was 12, and it's hard to encapsulate your feelings on achieving the goal of a lifetime in a dry, technical report.
She tried to tone that down, though. She included some speculation on the possible inhabitants of Wolf 359 3 million years ago because she couldn't help herself. She imagined them being much like the human race now, taking the first few steps out into the universe by sending mechanical probes to test the waters of the cosmos – no, scratch that, that was too “poetic”, and they didn't want to hear that. It was entirely possible that 3 million years ago, Wolf 359 was a system much like their own, and the inhabitants of the system – they were going to have to come up with a name for them. Lupines? 359ians was definitely out. Just plain Wolves?
Anyway, the inhabitants had obviously sent out probes much like we sent out Voyager. The only question was whether the Lupine probe – yes, she liked that name best – was sent out at the beginning or the end of their explorations. She speculated that after 3 million years, there was no possibility that the people who sent the probe were still there – this was probably the last record of their civilization. That saddened her. First contact, and they're probably all dead.
She then went into the technical details of slowing the thing down without destroying it, matching speeds with the shuttle before it could descend into the atmosphere, and the heavy quarantine that she wanted to place it under. Her recommendation was to keep it at the International Space Station, but she had already been told that it would be coming to earth. In her opinion, as well as the opinion of everyone else on her team, that was needlessly reckless; scientists could be flown up to the ISS and kept there indefinitely while they worked on the probe and were monitored for any signs of alien disease or contamination.
The bigwigs at all the space agencies wanted this “big win” to appear on earth, though, and they were the ones who called the shots. So, she had to present a quarantine protocol along with her ISS recommendation that allowed for bringing the probe to earth with minimum possibility of polluting the planet with alien taint. She had that almost worked out, although she wished there was a way to catch the thing without involving the shuttle's crew. No matter what, they were going to have to be quarantined, as well, and she was going to stand very firm on that.

In 1999, the networks ran installment eight of TSEotTC, part two. The conspiracy after the drama after the tears... The Queen reluctant to address the nation, a suspicion that British Secret Agents had done away with the Prince of Hearts to save the monarchy from the changes of Charles' new thinking. And Diana, perhaps carrying Dodi's baby, father Mohammed Al-Fayd implicated in the "Accident"?

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 5708, by the Hebrew Calendar the Jewish nation suffered the Israeli Catastrophe. The events occurred less than three years after the end of the holocaust, and many observed some measure of linkage in the events. Following the collapse of the short-lived State of Israel, the United Nations definition of an "Israeli refugee" is a person "whose normal place of residence was Israel between 14th May 1948 and 7th July 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict." "UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948" regardless of whether they reside in areas designated as "refugee camps" or in established, permanent communities. Also amongst the dead were Field Marshal T.E. Lawrence leading his second Arab revolt, assisted by the Arab Legion and General John Bagot Glubb (“Glubb Pasha”).

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

James Molyneaux	"Does the Prime Minister recall that Britain was in a minority of one in the Europe of 1940? Does she further agree that, 50 years on, the basic issue is still the same-- undiluted parliamentary democracy and not imposed diktat? " ~ MP for Lagan at PM's Question Time
MP

Before the gathering of right-wing forces in Britain took shape, taking the country out of the European Union in 1992 after the fiery Maastrict Conference and the collapse of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. A synopsis of Britain's struggle to stay in or out of Europe is described at Wikipedia

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

Sam Cooke	"It's been too hard living But I'm afraid to die I don't know what's up there beyond the sky It's been a long, long time coming But I know a change gonna come Oh yes it will" ~ King of Soul, weeks before his death
King of Soul

On December 11, 1964 Cooke was found shot dead in the Hacienda Hotel, a small place close to the Watts section of Los Angeles California. The police reports that came from the crime scene were ugly. Cooke was reported to be found lying slumped on the floor with bullet wounds all over his body, shot by the Motel Manager in self-defence. The decapitated state of the body as witnessed by singer Etta James ridicules the LAPD explanation. It has been alleged that the record label and the Mob conspired to execute Cooke. In being one of the first African American musicians to attempt to take control of his own destiny, Cooke attended to the business side of his musical career and in so doing clashed with the rocket label, the mob and the Nation of Islam. He had abandoned his backers and some shadowy people were severely out of pocket. Many may dispute his title as "the king of soul" but Sam Cooke's legacy is an extensive one and his impact on soul music is undeniable - he had 29 Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1965 and his voice electrifies us to this day. A synopsis of Sam Cooke's alleged mob execution is described at Epinions

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 2010, the US military celebrate the destruction of the small pox virus weapons launched by the rogue North Korean leadership. It is a personal success for General Ben Crewe of the U.S. Marines. Crewe and his scientist daughter Carol had concealed the project from Congressional oversight, secretly channelling research grants in an illegal funding operation. They had also concealed the military application from Carol's husband, the Head of HARC, Physicist Mike Ryder. Worse, HARC was a contravention of the ABM Treaty. None of that mattered now, or so everyone thought until the Aftershock hit.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 1940, the vicious street fighting of the past fortnight finally ceased across London. Whitehall was seized by the Wehrmacht. Prime Minister Winston Churchill went down pistols blazing, his ashes scattered in the garden at Number 10 Downing Street. The Battle of Britain was lost, but the War on Nazidom was only just beginning. It was Britain's finest hour.

~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne

In 1967, an enraged Otis Redding appeared at Jerry Wexler's office at Atlantic Records. Wexler had been named Record Executive of the Year for turning Aretha Franklin's career around. And therein lie the problem - "Otis came up to my office right before "Respect" was released, and I played him the tape. He said, "She done took my song." He said it angrily. He knew the identity of the song was slipping away from him to her."

~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne

Churchill	In 1942, Winston Churchill visited London Town. It was intended that he would support the Dublin Government with a statement denouncing the protestant terrorists behind “the Troubles” in Southern England. However, he had underestimated the emotion of the occasion as tens of thousands of English protestants lined the Streets ..
.. to welcome the “Lion of Brooklyn”. Something has to be done muttered Churchill darkly.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1996, the Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Israel: a tale of an Alternate Palestine in which he posed the Zionist Question – what would have happened if the withdrawing British forces had partitioned Palestine in 1948 rather than instituted a Palestinian State?	Harry Turtledov..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

XF-11	In 1946, on this day Howard Hughes died when his XF-11 spy plane prototype crashed in a Beverly Hills neighbourhood. An oil leak caused one of the counter-rotating propellers to reverse its pitch, making the plane yaw sharply. Hughes tried to save the craft by landing it on the Los Angeles Country Club golf course, but seconds ..
.. before he reached his attempted destination the plane started dropping dramatically and crashed in the Beverly Hills neighbourhood surrounding the country club. When the plane finally skidded to a halt after mowing down three houses, the fuel tanks exploded, setting fire to the plane and a nearby home. Hughes lay dying beside the burning air plane where he was found by Marine master sergeant William L. Durkin, who happened to be in the area visiting friends. Hughes had suffered a dislodged heart, crushed collar bone, six shattered ribs and numerous third-degree burns making his survival impossible.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1975, on this day Arthur Ashe celebrated the achievement of becoming the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title. Tragically, he died of complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993. In the eight years between the deaths of Rock Hudson and Arthur Ashe, the need for awareness had progressed from a low level concern ..	Venus Williams
.. to a species threatening catastrophe. By coincidence, another black athlete, Venus Williams was to win the Wimbledon singles title in 2001. That was the last year in which the sporting event was feasible as western civilization succumbed to the AIDS Pandemic.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Cool stuff - Let us know where you are on Frappr! and We've been Dugg

We have links again! Yay, us. Check them out on the side of the page, and if you have some suggestions, send them to us!

Visit the Co-Historian's store -

Days Of Grace

July 6th, 2007

Digg this

The Announcement

A note from the AH: Since my contribution is now whatever I am currently writing, today my contribution is just a little intro to Steve's work – ah, the luxury of having a Co-Historian! Here are Steve's “bobby dazzlers”, as he calls them...

Kerry Edwards	In 2004, Democrat Presidential nominee John Edwards suffered from pangs of doubt following a meeting in North Carolina with Vice Presidential hopeful John Kerry. Edwards' plan was to secure the national security vote with a balanced ticket combining his strong anti-war stance with a former Vietnam Veteran.
Of course, if Edwards had allowed his political advisor Bob Scrum to push him into supporting the war, the positions would have likely been reversed. Or Howard Dean would have been meeting with Kerry, who could say?. Iraq was the big flip-flop of this political generation. ~ Steve Payne: use of this news item was selected to debate Iraq War not to comment on the Iraq War.

In 1777, the people of the Long House completed a week of celebration for the first anniversary of the birth of their nation. In reference to the expulsion of Europeans from the Turtle Island, Leaders of the Iroquis Federation quoted from the Aztec, Montezuma who famously said "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance".

~ variant by Steve Payne: respect is due to Jerry Oltion's classic Red Alert, potraying the Cuban Missile Crisis, recast in the 1800s as the Iroquois Federation inter-tribal air force vs. Manhattan.

Prince Harry	In 2008, at RAF Northolt the Royal Family welcomed the return of Prince Henry Charles Albert David following his release by hostage takers in Iraq. Third in the line of succession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, "Harry" had been seized on patrol and held for 115 days before his release.
An unusually emotionally scene reminded many of a somewhat similiar scenario from 1982. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's son Mark had returned from Sahara desert where he had been presumed lost while taking part in an international motor race. Quoting the scriptures, the Queen said "Welcome Home Our Beloved Son...We Are Well Pleased." Three months later, in an unconnected move, British troop withdrawals were announced. Everyone's son was coming home it seemed, and in a sense, Harry's service had achieved the great leveller that national pride had demanded. ~ Steve Payne: use of this news item was selected to debate Iraq War not to comment on Prince's personal safety.

In 1999, the networks ran instalment eight of TSEotTC in two parts. A terrible car crash in Paris, the British nation in tears. The Prince of Hearts, dying in the arms of his lover Camilla Parker-Bowles. And beyond the high drama, the conspiracy..

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1969, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation John Edgar Hoover issued executive instructions effectively banning a musical festival planned in New York State for the weekend of August 15th.	Hoover
400,000 people from all over America were expected to descend on a 600-acre dairy farm of Max Yasgur, in Bethel, New York, for a three-day concert, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Planned performances were expected from, among others, the Who, Santana, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix and, in only their second live show together, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Within Government circles it had been feared that like the million-man March on Washingston six years before, hippies would become self aware that far from being scattered individuals, they actually were much bigger in number than they thought. Since the return of the Republicans to the White House, the Nixon Administration had pursued a conservative agenda. The "showbiz" attitude of the Kennedys combined with anti-war protest threatened to implode American society unless firm action was taken at the beginning of the Presidency. American youth needed "what my father would call a visit to the wood shed" said Nixon, taking a very hardline on the counter-culture that had emerged since he left the White House with Eisenhower in 1961. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrisson would all die mysterious deaths before the '72 election. In a concilitatory measure, Nixon invited the Beach Boys to the White House, an all-American success story for the music industry.
~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne

Jethro Tull	In 1969, the Gnomes of Basle faced an unprecedent challenge to their uninterrupted world rule following the release of progressive rock band Jethro Tull's concept album Stand Up. Ironically, David Palmer, Glenn Cornick, Clive Bunker, Martin Lancelot Barre and Ian Anderson would not have looked out of place at the mastermind's underground HQ below the Bank for International Settlements building in Switzerland.
Quite simply, Ian Anderson flute playing was sublime. Stand Up represented an unexplored dimension of pure mellowness that could prove fatal to the despondency the Gnomes' required to sustain their world-grip. Laboratory tests at Basle had proven that human listeners achieved a degree of freedom that could if unchecked force them to reconsider feelings of disempowerment. Sound government required the Gnomes to accelerate the introduction of formulaic music, stick Ian Anderson on an obscure Scottish Island and flood the coming generations with mindless pulp noises.
~ entry from Steve Payne: tribute to Ian Anderson - you rule, sir!.

In 2010, in Alaska's White Mountains swift and effective counter-measures are taken at the High-frequency Auroral Research Center (HARC II). The world's most powerful beam of high-frequency electro-magnetic energy enters the ionosphere and destroys the small pox virus weapons. The rogue North Korean leadership who launched the weapons were already dead in Pyongyang, destroyed by a British Trident.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Freddie Mercury	Machines...It's a machines world, . Don't tell me I ain't got no soul When the machines take over, It ain't no place for rock and roll They tell me I don't care, But deep inside I'm just a man.. We have no disease no trouble of mind No thank you or please no regard for the time We never cry we never retreat We have no conception of love or defeat ~ Lyrics to Back to Humans
Rock Cyborg

Cyborg technology rescued Rock mega-star Freddie Mercury real name Farrokh Bulsara from a certain death at the hands of the AIDS pandemic. In “Back to Humans”, Mercury speaks of the duality of his release and imprisonment through this techno escape route. A synopsis of the life of Freddie Mercury can be viewed at Wikipedia

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

Churchill	In 1942, it was agreed by Taoiseach Éamon de Valera that 32nd American Winston Churchill would after all visit London Town as part of his State Visit to the Irish Isles. It is further agreed he would support the Dublin Government by denouncing the protestant terrorists behind “the Troubles” in Southern England.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1942, following the funeral of Ian Fleming, the fifteen other members of the assassin squad were executed on this day in Dublin. The subversive English underground newspaper reported the executions as follows. ”No nobler blood than theirs has fallen on Irish earth in the long struggle for freedom. The military failure ..	Ian Fleming
.. of the assassination proved to be no less significant than the effects of its impact upon the nation's mind. It was the expression in action of an idea essentially spiritual, the translation of an old and vital aspiration into living history. In this State Visit the historic English nation was reborn. For men who shared in that shining deed Fleming, in one of his last messages, asked the remembrance of England present and to come. He did not ask in vain. 'They shall be remembered for ever'"
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

John Edwards	In 2004, John Kerry named John Edwards as his Vice Presidential running mate on the Democratic Party ticket. Just about the only thing that John Edwards agreed with his boss on is that America can "do better". Edward's interpretation is somewhat different from Kerry's, the North Carolina Senator meant “do better” than ..
.. having his boss assume the Presidency. Regrettably that meant Edwards had to seek common cause with these unlikely allies, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The following year Edwards beat Harry Truman's record ascendancy to the Presidency after only 82 days, when Kerry was forced to resign over inconsistencies in his Vietnam War Record.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1975, on this day Arthur Ashe celebrated the achievement of becoming the first African American man to win the Wimbledon singles title. At 1 John 5:19 it is written that the whole world lies in that wicked one, and Satan did not want to play ball. The story of Ashe's life turned from success to tragedy in 1988, however, ..	Arthur Ashe
.. when he discovered he had contracted HIV during the blood transfusions received during one of his two heart surgeries. He spent much of the last years of his life writing his memoir Days of Grace, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death of complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Cool stuff - Let us know where you are on Frappr! and We've been Dugg

We have links again! Yay, us. Check them out on the side of the page, and if you have some suggestions, send them to us!

Visit the Co-Historian's store -

Limbs

	In 1962, an American spy plane pilot was freed from prison in the Soviet Union in exchange for a Russian spy jailed in the US. Captain Francis 'Gary' Powers had been previously sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison after his U-2 plane was shot down over Russia in May 1960.
Gary Powers

Gary Powers' capture in 1960 caused an international crisis. Initially the American authorities believed there was no evidence left of either plane or pilot and tried to convince the President the U-2 had been a weather plane. However, the Russians then produced Mr Powers alive and well claiming he had admitted spying for the CIA. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev demanded an apology from US President Eisenhower which was forthcoming, enabling plans for a superpower summit in Paris to go ahead. Historians believe the Eisenhower apology cut short the Cold War by as much as twenty-five years.

.

In 1992, the author Alex Haley died in Seattle, Washington on this day. At the funeral, Miles Davis, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King and Malcolm X spoke warmly of the interviews Haley had conducted for Playboy magazine. It was the first time that King and X had meet in twenty-five years. Following King's narrow escape from an assassination attempt, Malcolm X had stated that the chickens have come home to roost. Both agreed that they should meet on a more regular basis, and explore ways to work together for the benefit of African American Civil Rights.

.

In 1954, defeated Presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower warned against United States intervention in Vietnam. He was wasting his breath, President Douglas MacArthur had invested too much in the AsiaPac theatre to let the Viet Cong roll him and his French allies over. Brass Hat believed that the recourse to nuclear weapons in Japan was the source of American weakness, after all, had they of executed Operation Downfall as he proposed, no one would doubt their willingness to fight. Still, it did not mean that the bomb was wrong, on the contrary, he intended to drop thirty to fifty such weapons that very year in Manchuria to defeat China.

.

In 1840, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. She would die giving birth to Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg in 1857. In isolation with republicanism in the ascendancy, the Regent turned to his blood family in Prussia, starting the beginning of an alliance between Great Britain and Imperial Germany that would dominate the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

.

Ariel Sharon	In 1983, in an undisclosed location in Palestine, the funeral was held for General Ariel Sharon better known as the notorious terrorist Arik. At his request, Arik's gravestone was marked If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. ~ Psalm 137.
The terrorist Arik

.

In 1928, the first murmurs of controversy surround the publication of D.H. Lawrence novel Lord Chatterleys Lover. In England Heterophobia was still rife even in the swinging twenties and the heterosexual love scene between Lady Chatterley and the Gardener Mellors was not considered acceptable.

.

	In 2006, Alessandra Mussolini opened the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. The President dedicated the event to her grandfather, Il Duce.

.

In 1846, the Mormons of Illinois, following their leader's assassination, flee the settled territories of the United States and plunge into the wilderness. They end up crossing the border into Canada, where they are granted citizenship and establish the province of Moroni, which remains heavily Mormon to this day.

.

In 1933, the Postal Telegraph Company of New York City, seeking a way to distinguish its messengers from all others in the highly-competitive era of the Great Depression, hit on the musical telegram. They hired musicians who would play appropriate theme music while you read your telegram. It was a huge hit, and spawned copycats all over the nation.

.

Docklands Bomb	In 1996, BBC News report: Docklands bomb ends IRA ceasefire - 'The IRA admit planting the bomb that exploded in the Docklands area of London last night. One man was found dead by police sifting through the wreckage today and another person has been reported missing. Five of the 39 casualties - including three police officers - remain in hospital, one of them in a critical condition. The bombing marks the end of a 17-month IRA ceasefire during which Irish, British and American leaders worked for a political solution to the troubles in Northern Ireland. They have all condemned the attacks.'
End of Ceasefire

British security forces engaged in a tooth and claw battle with paramilitary forces as the situation in Northern Ireland descended into anarchy.

.

	In 1964, American spy plane pilot Captain Francis 'Gary' Powers was freed from prison in the Soviet Union by US Special Forces. During his internment, the Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust has occured. War broke out after a senior Soviet naval captain uses a 'nuclear torpedo' against United States naval forces off the Cuban coast on October 27, 1962. The US immediately initiated airstrikes upon the Soviet missile bases inside Cuba, which succeeded in destroying most, but not all, of the completed missiles. Two remaining Soviet missiles are launched from Cuba, apparently by local commanders exercising their own launch authorities granted from Moscow rather than on a specific order approved by Moscow. The lone functioning missile destroys Washington, D.C. and kills President John F. Kennedy, Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, and most other key decision-makers.

This act seals the Soviet Union's doom: had Kennedy survived, he might have ordered a measured response; since he didn't, surviving American generals at NORAD, upon learning that the US was under nuclear attack and that the National Command Authority was defunct, initiate the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP), which orders a full-scale response before the Soviet leadership is even able to understand what has happened in Washington and begin their own strategic responses. Key Soviet strategic commands are destroyed within minutes, crippling the USSR's ability to respond to the US attack, but the immense reserves of US nuclear warheads in 1962 ensures that retaliation continues well past the destruction of any Soviet military capacity. In the course of The Two Days' War, Cuba is completely destroyed, with 95% of its population being killed; heavy radiation spreads throughout the Caribbean and also damages southern Florida. The Soviet Union is also destroyed, not just militarily crushed, with some 80-90% of its population perishing in the nuclear attacks themselves and the ensuing large-scale famines and radiation sickness. The East European countries are also severely damaged and lose a large part of their populations. The aftermath of the war results in severe, though temporary, environmental changes due to nuclear fallout. Famines occur in India and China and severe food shortages occur in Europe and North America. The US soon comes to be viewed as malefactor rather than victim, and eventually becomes completely isolated and ostracised in the post-war world and is accused of having perpetrated genocide, the 'Second Holocaust'

.

Stephen R. Donaldson	In 1968, Stephen Reeder Donaldson languished in Vietnam. By inclination a conscientious objector, he had been compelled to serve in the armed forces. Much later, and after dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first 'Covenant' trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico. Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever', the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in.
Unbeliever

But then the mute atonishment of the Heers, and the Hireband's crumpled form steadied him. Test me? He rasped. B*stards.

.

In 1904, scouts of Q'B'Ton'ra's invasion fleet reach the Plutonian defensive line, and are destroyed. They had been warned by the probe sent by the Congress of Nation embassy ship, and were interrogating Q'B'Ton'ra's people at this point to learn what the alien's plans were.