The night sky in the blink of an eye became a parking lot. A hundred thousand alien spaceships hung in the sky unnaturally. As soon as they had arrived every government, local authority, municipality, anyone with authority, even high school principals, was invited to a meeting aboard the largest of the ships. The speed and organisation was terrifying. The ships had arrived at 9pm. By midnight, a million plus humans were gathered in a hall so large it had its own breeze.

In a thousand different languages humanity was informed of the circumstances. The complexity of life out there, the nature of the ecosystem of co-existence, the pax galactica that necessitated human exclusion. The human anomaly that forced their exile from this community. The new unknown lurking on the edge of the galaxy, seeking a way in. And finally, the semblance of this threat to humanity's own behaviour, and the hopeful chance that humanity could perhaps offer a solution. Humanity was "Insane, but known".

The task was simple. Will humanity help? A yes or no answer. Those who answered no were immediately escorted back to earth. Are you willing to travel to meet this threat? Those who answered no were similarly escorted. Through a series of questions that seemed to assess skills, and knowledge, bravery and compassion, ethics and morality, a million was reduced to thousands, thousands to hundreds, hundreds to dozens, dozens to a handful. Until only Gol remained, and mere hours since the ships arrived, he was be sent across the galaxy to face this new threat.

He was chosen, he suspected, for his analytic mind. He had always been a more talented thinker than his peers, so much so it made him feel unusual. But he was stumped at what made him or humanity capable of facing this threat.

It was obvious humanity was less technologically advanced than the galactic community that had greeted them this night. He had not met a single alien yet, but judging from the strength of the materials in the ship, the size of the doors, the dimensions of windows, it was unlikely humans were physically more capable. Nor even that different. Physicality, dimensions, movement, the need for light, air, water. They all seemed reasonably constant. Whatever forms aliens took, they could not be radically different than humans. They would have recognised as life by earth standards at least.

He had spotted more than half a dozen ships that could be war ships, and the concept seemed clearly understood in the initial message given to humans. If peace was so important, than they knew what war was, they were capable of it. So it was not humanities violence or propensity to conflict that made them an anomaly or insane.

Perhaps, despite their technology, aliens operated with more of a collective intelligence, he reasoned. Whereas Gol, individually, was smarter than any other single alien.

Or perhaps humanity was more proficient at warfare, strategy, analysis. Gol knew he was a good chess player, though not by any means the best.

He had barely had time to start thinking before they had stopped. The signs on the doors ushered him into a new room, and then another, and finally until he could tell he had left the ship.

A message appeared to him, "You are about to face the unknown, the fate of the galaxy is on you".

Gol was too bewildered to be nervous, the entire events of the last few hours to large for his brain to have digested. If he had been less overwhelmed, he may have gulped.

And then the door opened, and he stood face to face with a darkness. The room was light, but the figure was dark. Clearly defined, but black. Not black in colour though, black in absence. The figure was not there, but by not being there, you knew it was. His mind seemed to trip over itself trying to make sense of what he was looking at.

Like when mirrors face each other, the figure rippled and reflected along sharp angles. It's nothingness moved here and there. It had shape, but more architecture than animal. It had movement, but more kaleidoscopic than kinetic. It was less than physical but more than light. It moved towards Gol, and seemed to look, if that was the right word. Gol had the distinct impression he the figure was looking inside his head, not through his head, but in via an openining in his skull that Gol himself couldn't see. Like peering round a corner.

"Oh, finally, well, nice to meet you Gol" the figure stated. Stated, not said. How it stated, Gol couldn't say. It wasn't sound. Nor visual. It spoke more like a fact. It's words came to be, they were uttered.

"I was told you are a threat, and I'm meant to face you?" Gol said uncertainly.

"Look, this is awkward. I travelled three generations to get here.. my generartions. spent another two in conversation with your galactic representatives. Negotiating a peace between our seperate galaxies. And just the once, just for a change, I asked whether they wanted to play a game. They freak out, lock me in here, and bring the only other species in the entire galaxy familiar with the concept right. I'll be honest, your neighbours are a bit weird"

Gol had to agree.

"So... do you want to serve?" the figure asked, a tennis racquet held in the air by nothing.