The girls couldn't believe what they were seeing. An alien spaceship---on the real news! It felt like a dream. All three of
them crowded around the large flat screen like it was the size of a smart phone---their noses brushed the scrolling marquee forming lakes of compressed pixels---drowning out the ticker's unessential message that it was true: extra-terrestrials were real. There they were! Well, at least there was their ship. A strange vessel --- it
didn't seem like it was in motion. It looked like a photograph, but more real than any photograph or blue-ray dvd the girls had ever seen. The spaceship's other-worldliness came from its lack of movement.It wasn't hovering --- it was.
The girls drew shallow breaths, their thoughts in sync with the minds of everyone on the globe --- were the visitors invaders? Were they friendly?
The president had prepared a speech and volunteered a ship to sail out to where the alien vessel stood above the ocean. Once there, the speech would play over a loud speaker so the aliens could hear it. The girls had laughed at this. They knew no matter what happened the late-night fake news shows would have a good joke at the president's expense because of this plan.
Still, no matter how absurd it seemed, the plan was in effect. The battleship sailed out to meet the cosmos travelers, as the president was pampered by a top cosmetologist for his televised appearance. The news said they were getting word the military boat
was in position and the president was ready to speak. The girls didn't breathe. The screen cut from the news room
to a screen-in-screen shot. The president sat in the oval office up in the left-hand-corner of the tv. The american leader hovered like a facebook pic while the battleship filmed the space-aliens. The president began speaking, the semi-truck size mega phones causing his voice to boom how the girls imagined
God's voice would---what the hell was that?! No more than two words had left the president's mouth when an inexplicable, deafening sound exploded from the television speakers. The girls all screamed and flew from the box, slamming the couch behind them into the lamp stand behind it, turning over the light and shattering the bulb. The late afternoon sun peaked through the drawn shades as the girls endlessly repeated 'oh my god' in the darkness, each one of their faces buried in the depths of the couch. The few seconds of confusion passed and the three girls turned their attention back to the television. The alien vessel was gone.

The girls grew up and whenever they were together would speak of those moments fondly. For the remainder of their lives
and the lives of their children and grandchildren no other visitors would make an appearance.
Many years passed and the girls were gone, their children now grandparents with their grandchildren crowded around
what could be called a television to hear the results of a lingual study that had been in effect since that deafening noise had sent their great-grandmothers screaming into the sofa cushions.
Top minds from around the world had lived and died attempting to discover the meaning of the sound. Finally, it was deciphered. After decades of work, it was discovered that the sound was indeed a message intended for the human race.
The message, as far as the greatest thinkers could interpret it, read as follows:

"Sorry."