The shaman sat quietly across the table from the president, a glass panel dividing them. His eyes did not betray any emotion, not even deference to the president’s station, but simply looked on with a silent strength.

“They gave you message for me,” the president said to him.

The shaman nodded, his faced weathered and lined from a lifetime of sunlight.

“What is it?”

The man pointed at a schematic diagram of the solar system displayed on a monitor. 

“They can stop Old Grandfather,” he said.

An aide whispered something in the president’s ear.

“So, the visitors know about the asteroid coming towards us?”

The shaman nodded.

“And they can stop it from hitting earth?”

Again, he nodded.

“But…?” the president said.

“There is a price,” said the shaman. “It must be paid in full.”

Murmurs rippled among the gathered scientists and generals.

The shaman pointed at the sun's infograph. 

“We must share the fire with them, if we wish to survive. Their world right beside ours.”

There were gasps, and in the commotion, an assistant fainted and was taken away. 

The president felt sick in his stomach but maintained the strength of decorum that his office afforded.

“Mr. President, if what this man says is true...” said a general leaving the sentence hanging in the air. 

“This is blackmail!” another general hissed with barely contained outrage. “An invasion! For all we know, they concocted this crisis to begin with.”

The president looked at the section of mountain wall where the Gateway appeared and disappeared.

“If this species is capable of moving asteroids and whole worlds, then I have a difficult time seeing how we can defend ourselves against it,” said the president. “Perhaps, they’re doing us a favor by giving us the choice.”

He turned to his aide and leaned closer.

“This fellow witch doctor,” he whispered. “Is he alright? I mean…”

The aide nodded. “He’s the only one so far who has come back to relate the message. The others are… well… under observation. Species shock, they call it. This man is the only one who appears unaffected. Scientists think that his experiences with altered states lessens the shock of encountering another species. To him, the strange creatures are just another manifestation of a grand hallucination.”

“Truly bizarre stuff,” the president murmured. “See to it that he’s well rewarded for his service, but please ensure his discretion.”

The president took a deep breath and looked across the cavernous space. The military had set up several structures to try to understand the workings of the Gateway. With little success so far. It was a one way communication channel with this advanced species, visitors from some unknown world. 

Humanity had been dealt a bad hand in this cosmic game. No two ways about it. The president wasn’t shocked in the least. He had already been debriefed on the so-called UFOs and hostile civilizations lurking in the depths of space. It was just a matter of time before humanity had its first encounter. Now here he stood on the threshold of history, about to be remembered as a pariah or a savior.

<center>
![Collision.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/litguru/AKPkvyRMpWBDX5tL4nDsPjn4HL2WShifKVRJnyzymcdY3D9uuBq4i2imRYqNsy4.png)
</center>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;I don&#39;t understand,&quot; said reverend John to the general, who had just landed in front of his church onboard a drone. &quot;I&#39;m just a priest. Does this have anything to do with the visitors? Those abominations. What do they want now? Did they send you for me?&quot;</p>&mdash; litguru (@litguru23) <a href="https://twitter.com/litguru23/status/1567737135947726849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Reverend John walked along the veined tunnels that pulsated and flowed with a variety of liquids. Embryonic shadows floated on the wall. Why had this creature summoned him? A man of the cloth, who knew nothing of interspecies communication.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/flashfiction?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#flashfiction</a><a href="https://t.co/Qpp6eamWSX">https://t.co/Qpp6eamWSX</a></p>&mdash; litguru (@litguru23) <a href="https://twitter.com/litguru23/status/1568108294639857664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 9, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When he exited the gateway, the reverend fell to his knees and retched on the floor. Then clutching a rosary, he mumbled between whimpers and sobs. Behind him, the gateway pulsated then faded, leaving behind only a wall of mountain rock. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/flashfiction?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#flashfiction</a><a href="https://t.co/yw2150qzIG">https://t.co/yw2150qzIG</a></p>&mdash; litguru (@litguru23) <a href="https://twitter.com/litguru23/status/1570122863994191872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 

<center>
![separator.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/litguru/48KaDRn35Z17aePZn7Z2ZedFGc59qDmarqymkjoPrXk3vbt6w6uqrfQAzHPsgjXYoy.png)
*Image generated by @litguru using Stable Diffusion software*
***
[Twitter](https://twitter.com/litguru23)
[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/litguru23/)
[NFT Showroom Gallery](https://nftshowroom.com/litguru/gallery)
</center>