Eight Stories Aliens Will Believe

On other planets, humans are the aliens.

These eight quirky, offbeat stories have aliens and humans discovering they are more the same than different. From alien romance to joyful adventures to coming of age, these stories are happy rather than dramatic.

• After moving to Atlanta, Gillian uses dating apps to find love. Except, the dating apps don't work for her. She designs her own and links the app to outer space where she hopes to meet non-Earthians (aka aliens). If she finds love, what type of alien will they be?

• The Earth-like planet humans visit is so much like Earth that the inhabitants are so much like humans. Except, they look as if they could be breakfast food. In orbit above the planet Buffet, Denise writes her report on a specific family she studied who enjoy their breakfast life. When finished with her report, she must decide whether to return to Earth or stay with the breakfast family who she has grown to love.

• The Director works for a conglomerate company and he blames his staff on the failure of his projects. One morning, the company's Resource Committee, who controls all the money, wants a budget briefing from him. If successful, he would be more important than the other directors. Although the odd looking committee members scare him a little.

• Ten-year-old Pauline wants a best friend to get her through puberty and middle school. Her adoptive parents are aliens and want to know what a best friend is. They also think puberty is yucky. But they want to help Pauline and introduce her to their robot Jordan. He will go with her to a school dance to find a best friend. Unless Jordan's antennae scare everyone away.

• At the Fun Fun Water Park where she works, Jane spies a bunch of short aliens hand George a bright yellow stone. She realizes her nightmare that morning was real and she had pooped out the yellow stone. Overhead, the geese try to take the stone from George. Everyone needs it as fuel to leave Earth and go home.

• Barney and his fellow space travelers arrive on a planet covered in romantically beautiful flowers. On the trip there, they had so many diverse opinions that Barney was surprised they didn't kill each other. He hopes the flowers could help them on their return to Earth, if they leave.

• Getting on a commuter train, Lucy struggles to remember what happened to her. She feels compelled to sit with Henry who eventually tells her the truth about which one of them is an alien.

• Harley is tied down in the most comfortable chair he ever sat in. On a ledge above him is a monster and before him an open book. Harley tries to remember how he got there. Too afraid to look at the monster, he reluctantly reads the book. When done, an alien frees him from the chair and talks to him about the afterlife.

In case there have been too many aliens, here are two bonus stories about time travel.

• Matthew takes a time drug as a retirement gift to himself. He relives the trip seventy years ago when he escaped his family for academia. Enjoying the experience, he does not believe in time travel until he realizes he must escape again.

• Susan's teenage son dies from a disease. Her husband had already died of the same disease. An author of dystopian novels, she meets the scientist she collaborated with on her most popular novel about time travel. Praveen's pregnant wife had recently died from the disease and he shows Susan his time travel machine. Like all these stories, this has a good ending.