Henry Van Statten (short story)

Henry Van Statten was the seventh short story exclusively published on the Who is Doctor Who? website on 30 April 2005 by the BBC webteam to coincide with the broadcast of Dalek. This story, framed as an interview with Henry Van Statten himself, was notable for introducing the GEOCOMTEX tie-in website through an in-universe advertisement for Geocomtex.

Henry Van Statten was also the final story on Who is Doctor Who? to feature the ability for users to submit their own fiction to the site; however, the British Rocket Group tie-in website, released on 18 December 2005, did include one final place on any tie-in website to accept user-submitted fiction.

Plot
On Who is Doctor Who?, instead of writing about aliens like he previously had done, Mickey instead interviews US dotcom giant Henry Van Statten, well known for his interest in aliens. Last week's event is now being dismissed as a hoax, as both the the Government and the world's media are conspiring to cover it up, and so, Mickey asks Van Statten for his thoughts on the event, as he is one of the few "unafraid" to believe.

Van Statten responds, straightforwardly asserting that aliens visited Earth, attempting to destroy humanity, but instead — although in a method that eludes Van Statten's understanding — humanity was able to destroy them; this excites him. Mickey questions why there would be a cover up, and Van Statten feels that it was more a "near-miss", as humanity — as small minded as they are — would've been faced with an "unacceptable situation", so it is easier for forget than to cope with aliens. Mickey brings up the existence of evidence of the event, and Van Statten simply thinks that there will have been a "vast clear-up" to store anything left over away from the public and then to be closely examined.

Mickey asks Van Statten how he can know this for certain and if this was precedented. Van Statten is sure of it, knowing that the planet has been visited since the beginning, and, that like "daytrippers in the park", the leave things behind; sometimes just scraps, sometimes things more interesting, and it when people who find these remains, especially those who know of their significance, is when people like him get lucky. Mickey asks for clarification, and Van Statten explains that these people — like himself and Mickey — are those who want a piece of the stars. For himself, it started with moondust, which he obtained in an ammo fair; as he couldn't not physically travel to an alien world, this was "ultimate", to have alien grit run through his hands. However, to Van Statten, this had been easy, and the actual challenge was acquiring actual alien artefacts.

Mickey, rhetorically, exclaims if Van Statten is kidding, which he denies. He goes on, explaining that in the past few years, his firm — GEOCOMTEX — has properly begun to take off, and that has resulted in the money for him to afford whatever he wants. He divulges the existence of "the Gray Market", an underground trading scene specialising in "leftovers and curios", although he has had to learn to differentiate real artefacts from fakes and loons. He admits that it is addictive. Van Statten hopes to, one day, meet the holidaymakers who left these little hints of their existence behind. Mickey asks Van Statten if this is his ambition, and it is: to him, as fun as configuring mainframes is, he is just a kid who wants to be an astronaut who goes to Mars and befriend an alien. Mickey thanks him for his time.

Mickey then reveals a competition for his readers, where — thanks to Van Statten's generosity — a pile of the latest Geocomtex Hardware will be awarded as a prize to the person who writes the best entry to the prompt...


 * "Why I want to meet an alien".

Entries
The collection of entries is arranged in order, oldest first

Characters
(In order of appearance, oldest first)

Worldbuilding

 * Last week's event is being covered up as a hoax.
 * Mickey asks Van Statten if he knew about the "clear-up" for a fact.
 * Van Statten states that people like himself and Mickey are often called collectors, afficionados, Bug-Huggers, and conspiracy wing-nuts.
 * Van Statten grew up watching Star Wars.
 * Van Statten owns scraps of a material nobody can identify and a curious rock around the size of a Jolly Rancher that takes the combined force of three people to lift.
 * Van Statten refers to alien as "our friends".
 * Mickey tells his readers that he will "catch [them] next week".
 * This is a small disclaimer about the photographs on the site not necessarily being in the webmaster's copyright, although no infringement is intended.
 * There is a small icon for Campaign for Real Aliens and the "website of the month" distinction from Conspiracy GOLD.
 * There is an advertisement for GEOCOMTEX.
 * The advert asks you to switch to them, for "IT solutions out of this world".

Continuity

 * This story is both a sequel to Aliens of London/World War Three and a prequel to Dalek.
 * Object Auction was set at the same time as this story.