Ultimatum

A reporter investigating a strange meteorite report and his oddly behaving relative encounters an elderly alien who claims to be an envoy from Mars and produces a small device that generates a luminous protective bubble. The visitor explains that Martian science long mastered atomic and electromagnetic principles and that observation of Earth's radio traffic revealed rapid human advances. He alleges that outside intelligences have been guiding Earth's scientific and political leaders toward militarization, warns that this trajectory threatens broader interplanetary safety, and issues an urgent ultimatum that forces the reporter to weigh skepticism against a dire cosmic warning.