4. Too Many Fairy Tales (A UFO Story) by Denise Felt 2011 Chapter 1 “Want to know what I think, Ed?” Straker put the car in gear and headed for the front gate of the studio. “Not really.” Alec grinned at him, unoffended. “I think you’re over-thinking things.” His friend raised a brow, but said nothing, instead rolling down the driver’s window to speak to the security guard at the gate. “Good morning, Lance.” “Good morning, sir.” The guard saluted slightly and waved the car on through the front gate, not finding it all that unusual for his commander to be leaving the complex in the morning. He’d obviously been at HQ all night, and Col. Freeman was seeing him home. There was silence in the car for a few miles as the commander adjusted to a steering wheel and dashboard somewhat different from his own. The repair team had promised him that his car would be fixed by the end of the week, but until then he was left with a loaner. Newer than his own model and packing more state-of-the-art equipment under its hood, it was nonetheless not his car. Col. Freeman could tell by the set of his friend’s lips that even if this car could fly, Straker wouldn’t like it. He was nothing if not loyal. That – and the fact that he was a creature of habit and disliked change as much as the next man. Finally the commander replied to Alec’s comment. “And I think you’re like a hen with one chick. Where does that leave us?” Alec chuckled. “I let you drive, didn’t I?” He got a look that would have seared him if he hadn’t been inured to it. “Seriously, Ed. Why don’t you just bed the girl?” Straker’s lips tightened, but he said evenly enough, “What girl?” “Come on, Ed! I’ve met her, remember? She’s gorgeous, thinks you’re grand, and is ripe for the plucking. The question is: why aren’t you having sex with her?” “What makes you think I’m not?” Freeman shook his head. “Easy. You don’t have the look of a man who’s getting regular sex.” After a moment he frowned. “Actually, you’ve never looked like a man who got regular sex.” Lean hands clenched momentarily on the wheel. “You’re about two seconds from getting thrown out of this car.” Alec hid a grimace in another smile. Even after all these years, Ed refused to say a word against his bitch of an exwife. The colonel shrugged. “I’m just saying. If you weren’t spending all your time worrying the issue, you’d have gone ahead and slept with her by now.” Straker spared him a look. “Why do you care?” Freeman gave the question a moment’s thought. “Because it’d be nice to see you happy for a change. Relaxed.” His commander merely grunted. “You do know what relaxed means, don’t you?” Straker ignored that. “First off, she’s not a girl.” Alec’s mouth fell open. “You can’t seriously refuse to sleep with her because she’s not human? Since when have you become the prejudiced type?” “I’m not. But you’re letting yourself be deceived by appearances, Alec. She’s no girl. She’s ancient. She’s been alive for millennia.” The colonel frowned. “So, you have something against older women?” The commander sighed and shook his head. “I can’t discuss this with you. You wouldn’t understand. There’s a lot more at stake here than you’re considering.” “Sounds simple enough to me. She wants you; you want her. Why go and complicate it?” Straker suddenly pulled to the side of the road and stopped the car. He turned to his friend and said tersely, “I said you wouldn’t understand. Now, I’m done with this subject.” At that, he opened the car door and got out. Alec got out of the car as well, waving the all-clear to the security detail in the car behind them. The two men acknowledged his signal, but got out and leaned against the hood of their car, ready for any problems. Col. Freeman followed his old friend, wondering what the deal was now? He didn’t have long to wonder. As he approached, he could see that the commander stood just at the edge of a large bare spot of land in the clearing of some thick trees. Straker was studying the area carefully, and the colonel found his gaze going to it as well. There was just something – wrong – about the bare patch. No grass grew on it anywhere, the soil itself was dried and cracked, and the demarcation between the patch and the surrounding circle of turf showed signs of withering at the edges. Following his commander’s glance to the trees that bordered the clearing, he could see that some of them displayed branches that looked as though they had been burnt off. In fact, you could almost make a bowl out of the shape left behind in the clearing. “What the hell?” Straker turned to him. “What do you make of it?” Freeman shook his head. “I have no idea. Is this the place where the tear occurred?” “Yes.” The commander pointed to a spot in the sky overhead. “Right about there.” “So . . . is the tear worsening?” “I’m not sure.” “Why not? It looks pretty obvious to me. Surely this bare patch wasn’t here when Ginny took her readings?” “No.” The commander sighed. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the tear is out of control. It may only mean that, even with all the keepers working to heal it, the tear is still able to cause a certain amount of damage. Nyt told me that it takes quite a while to heal such a breach.” Freeman’s eyes tracked the diameter of the bare area. “Jesus,” he said slowly. “Then it could destroy even more land before it’s stopped?” “It’s possible.” Straker looked over to where the road ran past the clearing. “We may even lose the road eventually. That will have to be watched. Perhaps it would be best to cordon off this entire area for the time being. Just until we have a better idea how much damage there will be.” “Right. I’ll take care of it.” Straker’s blue eyes searched the bare ground. “Interesting, isn’t it?” “What? It looks just like desert to me.” The commander turned to him with a nod. “Exactly. Kinda makes you rethink what you thought you knew about geology, doesn’t it?” Alec gaped at him for a moment. Sometimes the things his friend found intriguing made his brain hurt. “Say, Ed. I thought these fairies were all-powerful. Starting ice ages and all that.” “They have a great deal of power, yes. Especially when it deals with anything to do with Gaia itself. But this isn’t from Earth, Alec. This tear was caused by alien technology. And in their own way, I think the keepers have as much trouble with the aliens as we do.” “Oh, that’s just great!” * * * Deep in a glade unknown to any but the sun, in a crystal clear pool fed by a nearby tinkling waterfall, the keepers lounged on waterlily pads and held council. “We cannot keep doing this!” announced Carapolista with a furious gesture. “All our energy and time is already required to undo what harm the humans cause to Gaia each day. How can we be expected to give even more of that energy to this new crisis?” “Would you prefer that the breach not be sealed, Carapolista?” asked the quiet voice of Elisaria. “Have you so soon forgotten Fodden-Marike?” Dismayed murmurs ran throughout the fairies at the mention of this place, for none would ever forget the horror of that disaster and the extreme measures they had been forced to implement in order to stop the destruction. Carapolista drew a deep breath and said more calmly, “Of course, I remember Fodden-Marike, my sister. But tell me how we can handle this drain of our energies from two fronts? It is nigh impossible! And since it takes so long to heal a tear, this strain on all of us shall continue for some time. How are we to bear it?” That question seemed unanswerable. Murmurs broke out once more as the fairies debated the issue among those on neighboring lily pads. Then a soft voice said, “It may be possible to shorten the time needed to heal the breach.” All eyes turned to Arianythra. “How so, sister?” asked Deborneara, often considered one of the wisest of the keepers. Arianythra sat up. “We can create a pond beneath the tear.” “A pond?” Several voices spoke at once; some in wonder, some in doubt. “But that will destroy a great deal of the plantlife in the area,” said one keeper, shaking her head. Many other fairies nodded agreement. Such a plan was counter-productive and therefore unviable. “The plants are already being destroyed,” Arianythra explained patiently. “At least with this method, the necessary water molecules will be there to seal the breach before more damage to the surrounding plants can be done. We will not have to bring the water ourselves any longer. The pond can work through evaporation and do the sealing for us, freeing our energies for those tasks that already burden us, as our sister has pointed out.” There was silence in the pool as the keepers thought on these words. Finally, Deborneara spoke. “This plan has merit, sister. It is not without pain, since we will be forced to lose many plants. But by bringing a pond to the area, a new water source for animals will have been created, and in the future that spot may flourish as never before. In the meantime, having a water source there to take the burden off our shoulders of healing the tear molecule by molecule would be quite welcome. We praise you, Arianythra, for this daring and innovative solution to our problem.” Applause broke out all over the pool as keepers joined in to praise their sister for her solution. Arianythra blushed and held up a slender hand to silence them. “Indeed, it is a wondrous plan,” she agreed. “Bold, too. But the praise is not mine, because the plan was not mine.” “Whose was it then?” asked Plisketania curiously. “Commander Straker’s. The human in charge of protecting Gaia from the invaders.” Abruptly the pool broke out in cries of shock and surprise. “A human? How could a human devise such a plan? Why would they even know about it in the first place?” Arianythra waited them out, and eventually their comments died down. Then Seriptamina spoke. “You told this human about the tear? What could you have been thinking, sister?” “He already knew that some plot of the invaders was at work. Why should I not tell him? That breach was made to get to him, after all! Why should he not be informed of the way in which his enemies were attacking? He nearly died, sister, as you know. And that cannot be allowed. We need him! Gaia needs him! Have you so soon forgotten the council meeting where the decision was made to contact him?” Deborneara said quietly, “Nonetheless, Arianythra. It is not wisdom to inform the humans too much on things beyond their capacity. They have great difficulty grasping concepts beyond what their minds can fathom. You know how fragile they are.” Arianythra drew herself up straighter on the lily pad. “His mind is not weak. He has proven this to us over and over. First by accepting our presence without crumbling. Then by listening to our words and heeding them. By trusting those words over those of his own men. And finally, by allowing us to save him when he was nearly killed by the invaders.” She threw out her hands to them. “You just gave praise to the one who came up with a workable solution to a major problem for Gaia! How can we not trust this man?” Many keepers remained frowning, but it was obvious that she had given them much food for thought. She knew that several of the keepers thought of humanity as an unwelcome nuisance on Gaia, especially in the past few hundred years once communications had broken down between them. But it had not always been so. If nothing else, Commander Straker was a reminder to them of why they had accepted the humans from the first. Seriptamina spoke. “Still, sister. It was not wisdom to bring him to a sacred meadow.” Arianythra pressed her lips tightly together to keep from making a sharp comment. Trust Seriptamina to bring that up when opinions were still unsettled about the commander! Fresh gasps were heard around the pool as other keepers became aware of the what Arianythra had done. But before she could say anything in her defense, Elisaria said, “Shame on you, Seriptamina! You saw the shape he was in when Arianythra brought him to the meadow! He would have died without our intervention, and you know it!” “I do not deny it,” replied the fairy. “But I still see no purpose in Arianythra revealing one of our secret places to a human! It is unheard of! And I cannot think it right.” “He would have died,” Arianythra said softly. “Would you have preferred me to let him die, Seriptamina?” Deborneara lifted a hand for silence. When all eyes were on her, she sighed and said, “Seriptamina is correct, Arianythra. It was not wise for you to bring a human into a sacred meadow.” As Seriptamina tossed her dark hair in a gesture of victory, the wise keeper continued. “However, as we discussed in council before – and I urge you all to bring the words we said back to your remembrance! – Commander Straker is unique in the human world because of his role as protector of Gaia. In a life-or-death case, therefore, it was just and right for Arianythra to bring him to a place of safety that he not die – no matter how sacred a place that may be!” Gasps were heard around the pool, but no one challenged the keeper’s words. Too many of them remembered the prior discussion about this unusual human, who took the weight of the entire planet on his own shoulders. His valor had given even those keepers who wished to rid Gaia of all humans pause, because they could not help but remember a time when keepers had first witnessed this wonderful trait in the alien race that had been dropped into their midst. It had stayed their hand then, and it stayed their hand now. Courage was a trait for which there was no price. No one was aware of this more than the keepers, who daily gave their energy, and indeed, their very existence, for the good of Gaia. Floraminda spoke. “I am a witness that the commander was next to death when Arianythra brought him to the meadow. I helped her tend to him and brought him food.” Elisaria added, “I am a witness that the commander was nearly dead when Arianythra brought him to the meadow. I helped her heal him.” The few other keepers who had been there at the time and had seen also added their testimonies. None of them had felt the trespass worthy of report, because it had been obvious to all that the commander was near death. Certainly Arianythra had acted in the best interests of Gaia by saving his life? When the testimonies ceased, all eyes turned to Seriptamina. She pouted, but said, “I was there when Arianythra brought the commander to the sacred meadow. I spoke to her about it and admonished her for not thinking of the possible consequences of her rash actions.” “Did you offer to assist me in healing him?” asked Arianythra quietly. The keeper’s pout deepened. “No.” As gasps went up around the pool, she added with a shrug, “I had my own work to do. We all did.” There was silence momentarily as the other fairies were forced to acknowledge that they had been too busy to offer to help as well. Finally, Arianythra said, “We all do that which we must to keep Gaia safe. It was not necessary for every keeper to assist me in healing the commander. He is strong and healed quickly. In gratitude for our help, he has provided us with a plan that may enable us to seal the breach quickly and efficiently. In response, we should be grateful to him instead of treating him as a troublemaker.” Deborneara said, “It is time to vote on the plan. All in favor, express it. All opposed, express it.” There were no dissenters.
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