The Friday Challenge - 5/29/09

Light turnout this week. As of the deadline, we have three entries in contention for the 5/22/09 Friday Challenge. I apologize for the sameness of the titles; I didn't give you a lot of opportunity for variation in that department. The contestants are:

Henry, "Memorial Day"

Passinthrough, "Memorial Day"

Torainfor, "Memorial Day"

As always, even if you didn't submit an entry this week—even if you never submit entries in any week—you're invited to read, comment on, and vote for your favorite. Don't feel shy about leaving feedback on the authors' blogs, either. Writers thrive on knowing that someone out there is actually reading their words. The winner will be announced on Sunday.

And now, this week's Challenge:


Secret Agent of Grzelnorpia

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You are an alien secret agent, sent to Earth by the Grzelnorpian Empire. Thanks to your BioSomatic Transmogrification Unit (BSTU) you can pass for human, provided no one gets a sample of your brain tissue or puts you through a CAT scan, but all the same, you're apprehensive. Your mission is to prepare the Earthlings for assimilation by the Empire, preferably as willing slaves but as compost if necessary, but while your pre-mission briefing was decently thorough, until you'd arrived here, you'd never really appreciated how truly primitive these Earthlings are. None of the usual Grzelnorpian telepathic mind-control techniques are working!

Now, your deadline is fast approaching. You have only a few twelvedays* left before you must transmit your recommendation to the invasion fleet: enslavement or extermination. The first option looks hopeless, and so, somewhat reluctantly—which emotional reaction is also to your own surprise—you're beginning to lean towards the second.

And then you discover these things called "Facebook" and "Twitter"...

You have about a month left in which to convince the Earthlings to embrace the joys of Imperial slavery. What do you do?

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As always, we're playing by the ever-evolving but still not updated Official Rules of the Friday Challenge, and playing for whatever is behind the recently updated Door #3. The deadline for this challenge is midnight Central time, Thursday, 6/4/09.

* P.S. The Grzelnorpians use base 12. And while you appreciate how the BSTU makes your mission easier, you really do miss your lower thumbs and look forward to getting them back and returning to Grzelnorpia when the mission is over.

P.P.S. If you need an additional nudge, consider writing the story as a series of diary entries. Begin on 1B Fleenqorl, which in Grzelnorpian culture is considered a very lucky day on which to begin new ventures.