This is the first of many short stories

mostly lighthearted fun stuff

Visit From Planet X

(The screen flickers, a jarring red and black graphic flashing across the bottom: "EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM – THIS IS NOT A TEST." The calm, authoritative voice of a news anchor, typically reserved for mundane political updates, now carries an unmistakable tremor.)

"Good evening, citizens of Earth. This is a message from the Emergency Broadcast System, overriding all regular programming. We interrupt your scheduled broadcast with an urgent announcement: we are, in fact, being visited. Again. By entities from what our astronomical community has long since dubbed 'Planet X.' For those of you just tuning in, or perhaps those who've forgotten your ancient history, we haven’t heard from them in a while, and frankly, while we appreciate the gesture of intergalactic travel, we're not entirely sure how to 'welcome' their return."

(The camera cuts to a split screen. On one side, the anchor, a stern-faced woman named Brenda Chen, adjusts her earpiece, her usual composure cracking slightly. On the other, a blurry, distant image of what appears to be a colossal, elongated metallic object, trailing a faint, shimmering haze, slowly approaches a blue-green orb. Below it, a smaller, darker mass is faintly visible.)

"Many thousands, potentially millions, of people in the projected landing zones are currently being advised to take shelter, or at the very least, to secure their ventilation systems. This is due to the… unique atmospheric conditions that accompany their arrival. As many of you know, the inhabitants of Planet X, despite being capable of interstellar travel, possess a rather peculiar penchant for the internal combustion engine to power their colossal ships. It's a highly refined version, mind you. Our top engineers, those who haven't yet fainted from sheer disbelief, describe it as a 'beautiful mother of an engine,' something that would undoubtedly get a lot of looks at any car or space vehicle show, if such a thing existed on an interstellar scale."

(Brenda pauses, taking a visible gulp of water from a glass on her desk. Her co-anchor, a younger, perpetually bewildered man named Gary Peterson, leans into his microphone, his eyes wide.)

"Brenda, if I may," Gary interjected, his voice a little too high, "are we talking about, like, gas-powered spaceships? Like my old pickup truck?"

Brenda shot him a look that could curdle milk. "Gary, please. This is a serious situation. Yes, Gary, as refined as they are, they’re still, to put it mildly, gas guzzlers. Enormous, galaxy-spanning gas guzzlers. They tow truly gargantuan fuel tanks with them on any space flight that takes longer than a day or so. You can always tell their coming because you see the tank on deep space radar or through our most powerful telescopes. In fact, the new James Webb Space Telescope, a marvel of human ingenuity, can see and track all their ships in the known universe. They seem to operate under the delusion that they can surprise us and 'have a visit,' but every civilization in the known universe, from the farthest reaches of the Andromeda Galaxy to the smallest outpost on Kepler-186f, knows their coming months, sometimes even years, in advance."

(A graphic flashes on screen: a crude, ancient carving. It depicts a large, cigar-shaped object with a smaller, boxy attachment, hovering over what looks suspiciously like a pyramid. Below it, hieroglyphs are etched into the stone.)

"Even the ancient Egyptians, as far back as four thousand years ago, left detailed carvings of this very current visit getting underway. That’s how we knew to warn you today! Our historical linguistics department, currently barricaded in their offices and muttering about 'pre-cognitive architectural planning,' has been working tirelessly to translate these ancient warnings. They've been overhearing some public discourse, understandably, as to how a ship with an internal combustion engine can possibly travel through the vacuum of space."

(Brenda gestures to a diagram that appears next to her on the screen. It shows a spaceship, surrounded by a hazy aura, with a glowing exhaust port and a massive chunk of lead labeled "GRAVITY GENERATOR.")

"Well, it’s pretty ingenious, in a baffling, environmentally catastrophic sort of way. They have an atmosphere around the ship, a self-contained bubble of oxygen and nitrogen, which is held in place by a large, incredibly dense chunk of lead that creates its own localized gravitational field. The atmosphere actually gets larger and denser on the trip, fueled by the engines' exhaust. Yes, you heard that correctly. Their exhaust creates their breathable atmosphere. This same alien civilization even has a rating system carved into the Egyptian writings as to the density of their toxic atmosphere. We haven’t quite figured out what the rating actually says, but our decipherment teams believe it looks suspiciously like one of the few cuss words that have been definitively deciphered from the hieroglyphics currently known to humanity. So, while we felt you should be concerned about their visit, we also urge you to try and be friendly with them. Perhaps offer them a breath mint."

Gary snorted, then quickly covered it with a cough. "A cuss word, Brenda? Really?"

"Gary, the fate of human-alien relations rests on our ability to remain calm and professional," Brenda hissed, though a faint smirk played on her lips. "Moving on. We believe the absolute worst thing about their visit, and the primary reason for the Egyptian's rather negative attitude towards them, is what happens when the ship finally lands. You see, upon touchdown, the ship dumps its entire, exhaust-laden, toxic atmosphere. All of it. Right onto our pristine planetary surface. And then, almost immediately, it begins to suck up some fresh oxygen and nitrogen from our own atmosphere to replenish its supply for the return journey."

(The split screen now shows a live feed from what appears to be a desolate, dust-blown plain. A massive shadow is falling over it, and a swirling, brownish cloud is beginning to descend.)

"Our atmospheric scientists are predicting localized 'dead zones' in the immediate vicinity of the landing sites, followed by a period of severe atmospheric turbulence and, of course, a rather unpleasant smell. This, we theorize, is precisely why the Egyptians, a civilization known for their meticulous planning and reverence for the Nile, had such a bad attitude about them. Imagine building the pyramids only for some space tourists to dump their cosmic smog on your front lawn."

Gary, seemingly unable to contain himself, blurted out, "But Brenda, we can’t even travel to Mars yet! Mars! It’s in our own solar system! We’ve had internal combustion engines for over one hundred years and we can’t even get to Mars! How do they do it?"

Brenda sighed, a long, exasperated sound. "Gary, according to their own rudimentary, yet apparently effective, physics, it’s pretty simple: the bigger the engine, the faster you go! Their engines are simply… bigger. Much, much bigger. And they don't seem to care about things like 'fuel efficiency' or 'environmental impact.' They just build a bigger engine, tow a bigger tank, and off they go. It's a philosophy that would make any modern environmentalist weep."

(The emergency broadcast graphic flashes again, more insistently this time.)

"Alright, folks," Brenda said, her voice regaining some of its usual authority, "it’s clear that space physics isn't our primary expertise here at Channel 7 News. Our job is to inform, not to explain the inexplicable. So, on that note, we’re signing off from this emergency broadcast. Stay tuned for further updates, and remember: try and be friendly. And maybe hold your breath."

(The screen cuts to static, then to a commercial for air purifiers.)

How this was done with AI

I used Gemini, a product of Google

Gemini, I have another short story I have written and would like you to make into a real grammatically correct story.

The name is "Visit from Planet X". It is science fiction, Lighthearted with some physics and history. Note! The physics will be fictional since much of it would not be possible. The characters are mostly people watching a news broadcast. The setting is current time. It will be one chapter for now. It should be more than 1000 words if possible.

I can definitely expand your story, "Visit from Planet X," into a longer, grammatically correct narrative while keeping its unique lighthearted, science fiction tone, fictional physics, and historical quirks. We'll follow the format of a news broadcast and aim for over 1000 words.

I've expanded your story to over 1000 words, focusing on the news broadcast format and adding more details to the aliens' peculiar technology and their historical interactions with Earth. I hope you enjoy "Visit from Planet X"!