Why don't you come with us? Friday night is no time to have your nose in a book." I don't know, Tom. I got a big test on Monday." C'mon dude, you got ...all weekend to study. It'll do your mind some good to get out and have some fun before you hit the books."Tom was always asking him to come downtown Friday night, and Wendell sometimes felt guilty that he always had something serious to do, either a test, paper, or project coming up."Okay," Wendell said, "next week is pretty light -- just that one. How do you know that it’s the same one?”“I had a friend trace the payment used to rent that hotel you were just in. All the accounts are associated with the Dirty Hand.”“The Dirty Hand? That’s what they call themselves? I thought you said they were scary.”“God, for once in your life, can you just trust me?”To this day, I’m not sure why him saying that did such a good job of shutting me up. Maybe I just realized that he knew more than me. Maybe I was still a little bit drunk. Maybe one round of. I hope you remember us?". "Sure Steve, I remember you both very well", I said smiling "Look Jim", he said, "we really did have fun the other day and Valerie and I have not stopped talking about it. We'd love to get together with you sometime soon". "I'd like that too, Steve" I replied. "Great", he said, "Well when can you make it? We are free most evenings and weekends". My girlfriend was going to see her parents the next evening and would most likely stay overnight as it's a long-ish drive.. And when the shell of the ovoid alien craft peeled open like a flower, all that emerged was this relatively small, oddly complex and seemingly unthreatening artefact.This wasn't quite the way one would have anticipated humanity's first contact with alien technology.Unsurprisingly, there was considerable speculation on Twenty-Seventh Century Earth as to what this strange thing might be. Human civilisation had by now spread to the furthest reaches of the Solar System and there were permanent.