Nightmare

A night of little interest turns out to be the most momentous and threatening of peoples' lives, when they wake to a world without progeny.

With no chance of ever conceiving women wonder about making themselves attractive or taking any interest in fashion or beauty. Would they still do all that just for themselves? And, if offspring are no longer a viable option, is there a need for men in the aging world that awaits?

A mysterious meteor-like object hits the sea off Ireland, quickly followed globally by hundreds more, creating vast amounts of vapour, but little damage. The mists soon clear and people start to relax.

But within weeks comes a shocking realisation. Men are suddenly and inexplicably impotent and infertile, with doctors as baffled as they are. No more babies? The devasting news dominates the media - and markets across the globe begin to collapse as the horrific economic implications of an ageing and terminally reducing world sink in.

Scientific and military and space experts find evidence that now convinces sceptical world leaders that an alien force intends to take over a weakened world by the patient and devious means of destroying human reproduction.

One brave woman puts forward a radical idea as the only possible and secret solution. But will it work?