The Pie Minister rubbed his temples. He would never admit this to those sneaky press punks, but spending the past month assuring every living voter in the Pie Alliance that their families weren’t about to get gobbled up by a space alien was taking its toll. The news hadn’t caused any major catastrophes, yet. But it had added a persistent, underlying tension to the rest of the country’s considerable problems. In a way, that was even more stressful for the pie who had promised to put country above all else. He could catch a criminal. He could win a war. But he couldn’t make pies less delicious.