My Hypothetical Friend
ShortStory 7,075 words Recommended by 2 award/anthology sources
"They could have conquered Earth without breaking a sweat (if they’d sweated, which they didn’t). Instead, they were happy to trade. It hardly seemed fair to Dave, not that he was inclined to grumble. Everything people got from the Brot taught them new things about how the Universe worked."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Analog, where the author gets the click.