Remover of Problems

Photo by: Al Forbes

Hieronymus Greenwich stood beside the lighthouse at Wellington Bay. Generals called him, “Remover of Problems.”

A mile away in a specially fortified position, Member of Parliament Roger Cogsworth gazed through binoculars at Greenwich. “That’s it?” he grumbled. “Our defense against nigh indestructible aliens is one man?”

“He’s our best weapon, sir,” said General Perkins.

Out to sea, the alien machines approached. Torpedoes, mines, missiles all had failed to scratch the heavily shielded weapons.

Greenwich’s mind couldn’t see people/anything like anyone else. It’s why he lived alone. When seeing a person he didn’t see flesh, he saw a hyperspace communications node, a nexus of wires connected to thousands of realities. As Greenwich stared at the machines, his began pulling at the wires he perceived. Realities that cared nothing for the machine’s impervious fields, responded.

First one machine blew up, then another. In minutes, 28 machines lay in ruins. The invasion collapsed.

“I did it!” crowed MP Cogsworth. “I stopped the invasion.”

“Seems Greenwich did it, sir,” noted Perkins.

“I coddled him!”

“You’ve never met him.”

“Time for a photo op!”

Cogsworth dashed off. A staffer turned to recover him.

Perkins held him back. “Let him go.”

“But sir! Greenwich might do something without realizing it.”

“I know. With any luck, he’ll remove another problem.”
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Written for Sunday Photo Fiction: https://sundayphotofictioner.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/sunday-photo-fiction-november-26th-2017/