And the winner is...

This has turned out to be a really busy weekend, so busy I'm only just starting to write this two hours before it's supposed to be posted! Good stuff all around, as usual, folks. So let's take a look at this week's entries.

torainfor - "Aliens" was an interesting story, more for the details of military postings than for any aliens. I'm not entirely sure there ever were aliens; unless this was the first chapter of an "I dreamed of an alien invasion except it wasn't a dream" sort of story. As others have noted, the point of view was hard to zero in on. Other than that, it was very entertaining, captivating and well written.

Practical Mystic - Your story was an interesting take on the somewhat traditional idea that aliens contacting mankind will spell the beginning of the end for religious belief. While the story didn't seem rushed, this idea seems too large to be handled in such as short story. We don't learn exactly how God told the aliens about earth. I think some sort of information concerning the aliens' beliefs and what formed them is needed to make this one work. We don't know what drives the deep faith of the aliens are nor how widespread that faith is among their people. From the bit at the end concerning atheists among the aliens, I get the idea that the aliens are more faithful than humans. But there must still be some leap of faith required or our oh-so-logical main character should at least consider the existence of God. For me, the story doesn't work quite as intended because we learn too little of the aliens' faith and nothing concerning why the main character utterly rejected the aliens' faith.

miko - I don't read nearly as many short stories as I used to, but I have never run across a story even remotely like yours. You develop the story well and present the material to us in a good and believable manner. The story is almost entirely dialogue, but it works quite well. I have only one quibble and that's the sentence that began, "As you know..." There's just something about those three words that just get my hackles up. The readers don't know it, so just scrap those three words and go with the rest of the sentence as is. The last line is a bit jarring as it suddenly gives the reader insight into the motives of the aliens. I'm not quite sure how to fix that. It may also just be my opinion. And, from the comments, I see that my assumption that we got the aliens' point of view may not be correct. Hm...

Al - "Technology, Advanced" was more of a vignette than a short story. It was well written, but the important part of the story -- that Fred would ignore the "Prime Directive" and help out of the humans -- was obvious from the point Fred first saw a crime being committed. There was a bit of a surprise right at the end concerning the alien race and the bit about seeing everyone dressed as cops was a neat touch, but the "alien with powers beyond our mortal ken" has been used a lot.

Lady Quill - From one of your comments, I see that this is supposed to be the beginning of a children's story. I think you've done a great job of getting inside a child's head and presenting the story in the way a child would see things. That's not so easy to do, especially with a child as young as Sammy. I'd say you're off to a good start with the story and would be interested in reading what comes next. I definitely hope you can find the time to finish it!

The voting in the comments shows a strong preference for miko's story. He garnered three votes to one each for Al and Practical Mystic. While it's not against the Friday Challenge rules, in the two years I've been entering challenges I don't ever recall the same person winning two challenges in a row. Since miko won last week, I'm strongly tempted to give the win to someone else this week. The thing is, I agree with the majority of the voters. So, regardless of tradition, I'm declaring miko the winner for this week. Miko, come on down and collect your prize from behind Door #3!