Aliens Land at Manchester Airport

By Daniel Newton and Lester Barr

This is a story about an alien who stumbles on planet Earth and gets lost at Manchester Airport. Then there is a twist at the end. It has an optional extra chapterThe Science Behind the Story. This asks questions like, Could intelligent life forms evolve on planets other than our own? Could they travel through time? Do the discoveries of science mean that there cant possibly be a God? This book can be enjoyed at two levels: as a childrens story and as a thoughtful but light-hearted contribution to the debate around science, atheism, and faith. We hope you enjoy them both.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: May 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468504958

Daniel Newton

Lester Barr and Daniel Newton both live near Manchester Airport in England. Lester is a surgeon and cancer specialist at the University Hospital of South Manchester and Christie Hospital, Manchester. His research interest is breast cancer prevention and cancer genetics. He has a particular interest in the relationship between science, atheism, and faith and hopes that this book will be a thoughtful but light-hearted contribution to that debate. The story is original, but the science, philosophy, and theological thinking contained in the optional extra chapter at the end are influenced by the following scientists, whose works the author would recommend to anyone who wishes to study the issues in more depth: Denis Alexander, John Avise, Sam Berry, Francis Collins, Simon Conway-Morris, Darrell Falk, Keith Fox, Stephen Meyer, and John Polkinghorne. The author’s ideas also were influenced by the following theologians: John Haught, Alastair McGrath, and Keith Ward. Royalties from the sale of this book will go to the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal.

Book preview

Aliens Land

at

Manchester

Airport’

Cover_aliens%20front%20cover_20120411062210.jpg

Lester Barr

with illustrations by

Daniel Newton

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2012 by Lester Barr. All rights reserved.

Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Daniel Newton

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/15/2013

First edition published by AuthorHouse in 2005.

ISBN: 978-1-4685-0494-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-0495-8 (e)

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

If you have enjoyed this book you may wish to read the sequel ‘Robots Land at Manchester Airport’ also available from AuthorHouse.

Contents

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

The OPTIONAL EXTRA Chapter!

Owner’s Guideto the Cocker Spaniel

About the Author

ONE

Have you ever met someone who believes that aliens have visited planet Earth? Well, if you’re a bit sceptical about things like that, you need to know this story of something that happened at Manchester Airport.

It all began one April evening after dark.

Dobber had sneaked out of his house after supper into his backyard. There was an old garden shed in the corner propped up against the back fence. It was made of wood, rotting in places along the bottom edge where years of damp had seeped up from the ground into its simple construction. Dobber quietly walked across the grass and climbed up onto its roof. If you had been there watching him, you might have thought he looked a bit like King Kong climbing to the top of a skyscraper to check out his surroundings, or the Lion King scrambling up to a favourite rock to survey his territory.

There was nowhere in the whole wide world that Dobber loved more than the top of that garden shed. Now, before you get the idea that there was something strange about Dobber, let me tell you this. He lived in a place called Moss Nook right beside Manchester Airport, where his father was an electrician looking after the runway lights. That garden shed was smack bang below the flight path for Runway 2. This was the best time to watch planes: after dark. As each jet approached, a strong headlight would light up his garden shed, and he would then watch the flashing lights on the wing tips and tail fin slowly disappear over his garden fence and down onto the runway.

Dobber could hear a plane coming in to land. It looked like a Boeing 787. He stood up as tall as he could on that shed roof, and from there he could just make out the faces of the pilots as they came in to land. There was a faint smell of exhaust fumes as it passed overhead, and he could actually feel in his body the vibrations and the deep roar of its two Rolls Royce engines. At this time of day, there was a flight every five minutes. The next plane came into view right on time. Yes! thought Dobber. It’s a Turbo-prop. This smaller aircraft came in lower and slower than the big ones, so he could play his favourite game. He stared in through the aircraft windows as it drew near and pulled a strange face at one of the passengers who happened to be looking out at the time, a sort of, Agghh! I can’t breathe! Help me! I’m choking, kind of a face. He didn’t often get any reaction, but today someone waved back.

Dobber’s real name was Robin Robinson. He’d always been a bit embarrassed by his name, ever since junior school when so-called friends had taunted him that this was the name for a girl. He much preferred Dobber, so even his dad and his sister called him by his nickname.

The night sky was unusually clear that evening, and Dobber shivered slightly as the air temperature began to drop. As he stared upwards, his thoughts began to wander around the universe above him. Dreamily, he stared at one particularly bright cluster of stars. I wonder if there’s life up there somewhere. He had a feeling that there must be something else beyond his own planet. Somehow, he knew that the universe must contain much more than the familiar things around him on Earth. There must be life somewhere among all those stars and planets above. Hello… hello… Come in, planet Zog. Can you hear me? There was