Heartland Society of Women Writers

“Observe. Do not interfere. Under no circumstances is it acceptable or necessary to interfere with the happenings on Planet X-7984.”

-Excerpt from the Project Watership Standard Operations Protocol Manual

Personal Observation Log of R.A. 562: Revolution 11,132

This was not so difficult for me when I first began this assignment. Back then I was young and excited to travel to a new planet and explore a fully civilized culture of intelligent life. I thought I would make history when I joined this project. I thought I could accept the terms and conditions outlined.

They were like us. They walked and talked. They worked and loved. They healed. They helped. It was a wonder to see how inventive they’d been to overcome their simplest problems. They didn’t have the intelligence we did, and they certainly weren’t nearly as evolved, but the most beautiful thing about them was the way they overcame their obstacles.

It wasn’t long before that changed. During my first observation cycle, sometime between the fiftieth and sixtieth X-7984 year, the seemingly insignificant fights turned to something more deadly. The beings invented things that were meant only to destroy, turning their creative ingeniousness to matters that led to senseless death. 

At first it was small weapons that could only hurt on a miniscule scale. It was sad to see any of them perish unnecessarily, but the death to life ratio was so low that it was easier to chalk it up to a still-evolving civilization.

They invented weapons that could eliminate hundreds. And then thousands.

Observe. Do not interfere.

I could not allow these creatures I had so dutifully watched to destroy themselves over petty disagreements.

That was the first time I interfered. 

Colonel Leslie R. Groves’s Personal Log: July 16, 1945, Holloman Air Force Base; 11:48PM

The success of the Manhattan Project isn’t the most shocking turn of events today. Of course we’d been preparing for years, and it felt good to see the mission come to fruition this morning, but now none of us can sleep. 

It isn’t the blast or the heat that’s keeping me awake. It’s the lights in the sky. 

All night tonight, unknown flying lights have been circling the entire area. We tried radar, but it couldn’t pick anything up. I don’t doubt what my eyes see. My men, the scientists, the higher-ups, they all see it, too. 

The lights are orange and green, circling continuously over the site, over and over without end. The move unlike any aircraft I’d ever seen–and I’ve seen a lot. They dart and zoom so fast that sometimes the colors blur together. I wonder if it could be fallout from nuclear energy, but the scientists don’t think that’s it. 

The scariest thing about it is that no one can figure it out. It isn’t the Germans or the Italians or even the Japanese. The lights don’t do anything. They just hover, ever-present and ominous, right above the nuclear test site and back to the lab so consistently you could time your watch by it.

Now, I’ve seen things before. You don’t get to this point in your career having never seen a single strange object in the sky. But I have never seen anything like this. The circling, the ceaseless, unending circling. It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before.

Personal observation log of R.A. 562: Revolution 9,243

We felt the blast throughout time. 

It reverberated across planets, planes, and dimensions. No one was left unaffected by the fire. The screams of the creatures that followed. The utter waste of lives. It was not to happen again. Not while I remained to watch.

It was not difficult to find where they kept the weapons. The towers were large enough to be seen at cruising altitude, and it was obvious by scent alone that this was where the energy was stored. We can sense energy. It’s part of what makes us more advanced than they, but the waves that pulsated from the towers were almost unbearable–so much so that our pilot got too sick to fly.

I took over flying only because I was the next most qualified. I did not give my intentions away. As I dipped closer and closer to the site, the sickly groans of my fellow researchers grew louder, but nothing was loud enough to drown out the fury and fear inside me.

Destroyer of Worlds. Breaker of Life. That is what we called it. No more.

Private Edgar Adams’s Personal Log: August 6, 1945, Los Alamos, NM

I don’t normally write about my patrols, but I gotta get this out somewhere. I can’t tell anyone what happened or they’ll make me disappear in some asylum. But this has got to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

I was doing my night patrol around the silo. Normal, quiet desert night. The day was busy because of the bombs in Japan, but the night calmed down a lot. I was looking up at the sky, something I do when I’m on my patrols sometimes, just trying to find all the constellations I know. Then I saw something weird.

There was this big green and orange light. I don’t know how to describe it except it sort of reminded me of a leaf falling. It came real close, falling slow. I never saw anything like it before. It was shaped like a pill almost, and there were no wings that I could tell. It didn’t make any noise, and as it dropped, I thought to myself, “I should be really scared right now” but I wasn’t scared at all. I felt really calm, like I’d taken something for my nerves even though I was as sober as a judge. 

It landed about a hundred feet away, no sound at all. I thought that I should go get somebody. My patrol partner was on the other side of the silo, and because of the size of it, it’d take me a minute to get him. I tried to reach for my radio, but my arm wouldn’t move. I tried to grab my gun, but my shooting hand wouldn’t move, either. I even tried to run, but it was like I was under some anesthetic that paralyzes you.

Then a door opened on the pill-shaped aircraft. It was a tiny sliver of light, but something was standing in the doorway. I didn’t get a great look at what it was, but I saw a clear silhouette. It was tall. The biggest man you’d ever seen. Probably well over seven feet. It was skinny, too, but it’s head was huge. 

I really got scared when it started to come toward me. My mind was going a thousand miles an hour thinking that this might be a joke, or maybe it’s the Japanese or the Germans or the Italians, or I could be dreaming. This didn’t feel like a dream, though. Usually I can wake myself up when I’m having bad dreams, but this time I couldn’t even move.

The thing came closer. It was too dark to make out any of its features, but it moved like it didn’t have to walk. Almost floated. I know none of this makes sense, and if I told anyone about this they’d probably have me committed, but I swear that’s what it looked like.

I still couldn’t move. When it got closer, I felt really tired. My eyes closed, and I must’ve passed out from fear or shock or something, because I didn’t open them again until an hour later when my partner was standing over me trying to get me to wake up.

I didn’t tell him about it. I don’t know why. Maybe because I’m afraid he’d think I was crazy. I don’t know. I feel weird now. Sick and dizzy. I’m gonna get some sleep.

Personal observation log of R.A. 562: Revolution 113,529

I disabled all of the Breakers of Life that night, and for that I was banished from the project.

When I returned, nearly a century later, it was worse. 

These new weapons could devastate the entire planet. Black rain, poison air, devastation. Complete and total annihilation.

The creatures were sick. Not only in their bodies, but in their minds. The aspects that made me love them were now turning them against one another. The disagreements ballooned to such great lengths that I had no choice but to stop them. Again.

NBC Newscast with anchorer Lena Harrison: January 7, 2067

The President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Russia shake hands today at a secret location as they sign a treaty to end the war.

This comes as a result of an apparent extraterrestrial invasion. As you can see from the footage, flying saucers circle the White House in a threatening figure eight, looming over crowds of onlookers. As we cut to footage in Russia, the same can be seen over the Kremlin.

In their  alliance, the United States and Russia have pledged their resources and allies to fight this unknown force.