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July Theme Prompt: Aliens Among Us

Write a sci-fi flash story about aliens living surreptitiously among humans.


Everything I'm about to tell you is completely true.


There are aliens living and working among us right now. They are sentient entities that did not evolve from great apes or any other terrestrial species. They share many of the characteristics of humans, allowing them to blend in easily, but they are immortal and amoral: they live as long as they wish to live, and given a choice between self-harm or harming thousands, even millions of human beings, they must choose the latter. It's in their nature to do so.


First contact with this super-terrestrial race appears to have occurred in the early 17th century. At first, there were only a few. They quickly became powerful, taking advantage of human avarice to garner wealth and influence while hiding in plain sight. Today, there are millions of them. They control our food production, healthcare, energy supplies, financial markets, even our churches and governments.


Almost every human is enslaved to one of these beings. They own our best and brightest writers, artists, and scientists as property. By extension, they own all the literature, art, and ideas produced by their slaves. At least 85% of all patents registered in the U.S. are owned by these creatures, along with almost every valuable trademark in existence.


We know they're here, but they've tricked us into thinking it doesn't matter. Most of us believe that our masters have our best interests at heart. In the biggest case of Stockholm syndrome ever known, we humans will defend the invaders and work tirelessly on their behalf. Despite all our high-minded science fiction stories about encounters with intelligent robots and aliens, there is nothing like Asimov's Laws governing the behavior of these pervasive monsters.


Yes, we know about them already because, like robots, we invented their species.


We call them corporations. And they are made of us.


About this prompt

For this theme prompt, we ask you to write an imaginative and evocative science fiction story using any topic and sub-genre you choose. Your story must feature an alien or synthetic species living and working among humans as if they were us. You can decide how this might be accomplished (disguise, mind control, etc.) and exactly what the aliens' motivations are for doing so.


Rules

The rules for the theme prompt are as follows:


  • Entries should be submitted in the usual way using the Write for Us submissions link.

  • Mention the title of the prompt (Aliens Among Us) in the Notes field of the submissions form.

  • Submissions must be received by August 15, 2025 to qualify.

  • Entries must comply with all the usual SFS Guidelines.

  • Your work can be horror, romance, dystopian, alien, or whatever, as long as it’s Sci-Fi and addresses the prompt's theme.

  • Submit only one story for this prompt.

  • You may continue to submit stories to SFS that are outside the contest, and we encourage you to do so.


If you have more than one story that fits the theme, please submit your best one for the prompt and send us the others as non-theme entries. Also, if the editors feel your theme entry is good enough to publish but does not satisfy the theme requirements, we reserve the right to accept it as a non-theme submission.


After the prompt has ended and all the entries have been processed, we will list and link to the participating stories in a blog post. The editorial staff will choose one story for special mention as the Editors' Choice.


Exemplars

There are plenty of vintage alien invasion stories, like Wells' War of the Worlds. Less common are stories where aliens attempt to integrate with human societies (or vice versa) for good or nefarious reasons. Perhaps this is because it's harder to write a nuanced "fish out of water" tale than a conventional war story where the enemy happens to be giant extra-terrestrial bugs.


In any case, here are some excellent vintage short stories that involve aliens living surreptitiously among us:

  • The Earth Men — Ray Bradbury, Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1948. Bradbury's seminal fix-up novel, The Martian Chronicles, includes many stories like this one that explore the challenges and, sometimes, absurdities that can occur when human visitors attempt to integrate into an existing extra-terrestrial civilization. These stories flip the script on the "aliens among us" theme by imagining Earth men as the aliens.

  • Legwork — Eric Frank Russell, Astounding Science Fiction, April 1956. How does a gumshoe detective catch an alien bank robber who can become whomever he wishes?

  • The Other Celia — Theodore Sturgeon, Galaxy Science Fiction. March 1957 Sturgeon was the author of several Star Trek TOS episodes and a friend of Kurt Vonnegut, who later bastardized his name to create the fictional character Kilgore Trout. Sturgeon certainly had a way with words! Instead of writing, "She had an ordinary voice," he writes:

"To find her voice, divide the sound of a crowd by the number of people in it."

So this month, when you get a break from servitude at that immortal collective alien you might call "the employer," take a moment to study the faces of people nearby. Ask yourself, are they all really human? And if not, what the heck are they doing here among us?


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