Planet Earth is blue 7

I’d heard the stories of course. I remember my grandfather telling me about the nameless things that live in the expanses between the stars, feeding off the dark matter that astrophysicists struggle to explain and occasionally interfering with their observations (always recorded as methodological anomalies). But then my grandfather was full of odd ideas and I’d never really believed him.

They flocked around our rock, a few close to our size but most much larger (one or two a little way off as big as mountains). They mainly came in shades of grey: some so dark as to be barely visible, a few of the smaller ones covered with shimmering ultraviolet bands that ebbed and flowed across their skin. And there were so many of them – the night sky was filled with their assortment of wings, tentacles and staring saucer-like eyes.

The noise they made was beautiful – a little like whale song but sadder and, if it makes any sense, more ‘empty’. Lily seemed to have no difficulty communicating with them and it was clear that they had come to her war-call.

My heart sank when she gave me my orders. But then, I thought, at least I’d be going home.