Dispatch: Omega -1

  As of late I have noticed that I have become incredibly poor, well not starving or out of a shelter just monetarily starved.  My family and I have no contact with other people.  The Thurgs sometimes pay me a visit but not often, they have learned to make far superior technology.  My truck broke down about two years ago, not that it would matter because they don’t sell gas anymore.  The Thurgs have taken over the automotive industry and only make engines that run off of anything you can put in to it.  I went in town to day to see about buying one.  The sales men (all Thurgs by the way) quoted me a price that seemed pretty low. But seeing as how I don’t make any money, I couldn't secure a loan and had to give up that Idea.  I had hitched a ride in with a Thurg I knew but I had to walk back, about a twenty-mile or so walk.  On the path there were a lot of people, some with real business, some just out wandering around weeding and planting at random, mindless.

Must See

  Over the last few months I have been buying loads of broadcast equipment and satellite components, I think the “big thing” is an earth wide broadcast network.  Microwave boy came to me the other day worried about the military, laid all these horrible scenarios on me, then without even taking a breath It said the broadcast will be the best thing you have ever seen.
There was some pandemonium in the streets but for the most part everybody was glued to their sets.  It was a twelve hour long soap opera with flowers, and they had some how transmitted the all of the senses plus one or two more I didn't know I had.  This all had a very hypnotic effect.  The next day garden stores ran out of stock, people that had never before had an interest in gardening became infatuated with it.  Gardening became the hottest craze the planet had ever seen.  Even I was affected, I couldn't stop my self, and the compulsion to watch the twelve hour-long Thurganite show was unstoppable.  Soon all the human owned broadcasting companies were shut down out lack of advertising or interest, and the only thing left to watch was the 10 hour long Thurgian soap opera.  Yes ten hours, you see I think they were getting better at controlling us by that point and that gave them the ability to reduce the length of the programming.  Eventually they got it down to fifteen minutes, the rest of the time everyone gleefully enjoyed their gardening.

The Contractual Obligation... FROM SPACE.

In twenty years of business I have seen the evolution of the Thurgian spacecraft go from a tin can to a biomechanical structure that while residing in space doesn't travel through it or while traveling on space would not be in it.  You see I'm not even sure.  I've made a mint off the Thurgs and I would like to retire. But they won't hear of it, I told them my boy would take over and their condition of secrecy would be intact.  No way is all the answer I most always get.  After my last call to end the contract, Microwave boy came by to pass on a message.  It said that they are up to something big and I should tone down my retirement rhetoric, and they will soon need some big orders filled.
 Now see this really burns my ass hairs, the Thurgiean claim they need me so they can maintain their condition of secrecy.  But everybody knows they're here on earth. I guess it all happened so gradually that we just got use to it.  Kind of like an invasive weed that comes in a potted plant then all gradual like seems to be everywhere.  Oh if you want to be blind to the fact that the Thurgs live among us, all you have to do is turn on that TV and sit there, sure you won't see a thing.  So I'll stick with it and see what the big deal is anyhow.

 

Trading partners

  The next day, after a night of food, fertilizer, and heavy TV consumption, Microwave boy took me down to the ship, which to my astonishment had some sort of cloaking ability right out of star trek, one of the Thurgonanars favorite shows.  After I made it inside the real tour started.  Microwave boy would path that this such and such device was made with that technology and that thingamabober was made according to this theory, and after a while I got the idea that they had made the entire ship off of the technology I had traded them. Gee I thought, I haven’t done near as much with my Thurgonanar items.  They were really quick; at this pace they will need lots of new technological junk.  This seemed incredible, it had only been a year and they had gone back to their planet, made this ship and come back.  I ask Microwave boy how this could be.  It said that the computer had held the key to faster that light travel.  The original three Thurgians had transmitted the technological ideas to their superiors back on Thurg, and they had built this ship, come out, picked them up, and proceeded to earth to buy more components for their ship.
The other Thurglings around the ship seemed busy working on one thing or the other.  Lots of hi-techish bit of things hanging out of the walls, it gave the general impression that the ship was not finished.  I knew then that I had them in the spot I wanted.  The Thurgs would have to pay dearly for the components they needed and I would be their sole agent.

The Scheme

  I had been trying to roto-till and the soil had been too wet.  This causes it to clump up and clog the blades.  I was clearing the blade housing out when they took me by surprise again.  It was after all a rather foggy morning and the sun had been waging another losing battle, I think it was raining but I couldn't really tell.  Well I nearly had a fit, the Thugoninite I knew as Microwave Boy pathed a gotcha right in to my brain. It started rattling off a list right away, and it became clear after I regained my composure, they had come shopping.  The wheels began to turn in my head and I devised a scheme to become the sole retail outlet for the creatures.  Well actually, I had a little more than a year to come up with it. After they had left I realized that may be they had gotten a better deal than I thought.  I pledged to myself that if the Thurgonards ever came again I wouldn't be such a sucker.  Microwave boy played right into my hands.

Secret communication's

Little did I know what industrious creature they were.  They seemed dull but it was really just a different way of assimilating knowledge.  I later learned they developed very few original Ideas and what technology they had was the result of trial and error of lucky accidents.  Thurgieans were very good at putting existing technologies together in ways that complemented and optimized its uses.  And then there were the physical advantages they had. For one, they were natural hibernators; this meant they could travel immense distances through space.  There was no hibernation technology needed.  The other was the range of visible light available to them.  They could literally see radio waves.  The third and final advantage was their telepathy, through this they could communicate great distances, on the order of light years.  So as they were sitting in my house watching TV they were also communicating with technicians on their home world.