Story #39 - Trip of a Lifetime
For the first time in this whole project--my story is a day late!
When I started this project 78 weeks ago (!), the goal I set was to deliver a sci fi email a week, every Sunday without fail. For 77 weeks, I did just that. Now, literally this week (we hope he’s not late in arriving), I am going to become a father, and let me tell you, it’s a little hard to concentrate!
Still, one day late once in 78 weeks is a record I will happily stand on. :) Enjoy this story, I’ll be back next week with a fun sci fi culture post, and hopefully by then I’ll be a father to Jacaranda James Russell Wiseman!
Trip of a Lifetime
The aliens had been around for years
They were old hat by now to earthly folk
Their landing way back when outside Algiers
In humankind some major fears awoke
But as the seasons turned and turned again
With no forthcoming alien attack
The fear within our hearts began to drain
And our attention other things to track
The aliens did not much leave their craft
Our atmosphere not suited to their kind
Instead through a door built into the aft
They sent messages while they stayed confined
At first each Martian word was on the news
And families at kitchen tables awed
But now most found it all rather a snooze
And some said the aliens were a fraud
Also their messages were quite mundane
They did not threaten nor offer presents
And seeing naught to lose nor much to gain
The news found other things for their segments
The Martians were not pleased to be ignored
We humans did not much care what they thought
Until they said they’d let one human board
To be an interstellar cosmonaut
And return with them to their distant star
One thousand light years and more from our sun
Take in the sights there surely most bizarre
Then come back and report when they were done
The aliens had demands of their own
They did not want some dashing, brilliant kid
No secret agent would do for the loan
An average Joe or Jill would win the bid
Applications poured in from every land
The Martians set up an email address
Using standards we did not understand
They set about to make sense of the mess
Inside their ship unknown computers whirred
Adding the statistics on everyone
Then once they and their strange machines concurred
They left their craft to announce who had won
“It’s Sheila,” read the message, “Sheila Brown”
“Of New South Wales, age of thirty-four
“You are the average human—hang around
“We’ll fly our spacecraft right up to your door
“Then rip a hole through space and time to leap
“From your house to Antares and beyond
“You will feel only one good night of sleep
“As from this solar system you abscond!”
*****
Sheila Brown was a dental assistant
Who quilted and birdwatched with her Aunt Flo
T’was only on a lark that she had sent
Application to be the one to go
But Aunt Flo pressed upon her to attend
The visitors who on her lawn appeared
And so Miss Brown to her front yard did wend
Her anxious tummy feeling now quite weird
The aft door opened, as Sheila drew near
Her neighbors on their lawns did stand agog
A set of stairs slid from the spacecraft’s rear
Sheila ascended to her travelogue
A four-eyed alien wearing a smock
Was waiting just inside the cabin door
It said “I speak English, I learned to talk
“By watching TV Shows on Home Decor
“Welcome to Nexus! That’s our ship,” it said
“When will we leave?” Sheila wanted to know
“Come with me and I’ll show you to your bed
“And as you dream the stars will swirl below
She then followed the Martian deep inside
It’s spacecraft as if already in dream
Through chambers and hallways a bit too wide
And venting some kind of purplish steam
She did not later remember her room
Or how she went inside and fell asleep
But she slept like a pharaoh in his tomb
The stars beneath her consciousness did creep
She woke as they slowed out of hyperspace
In orbit around two binary stars
Three four-eyed aliens stared in her face
And chewed on what looked like quite large cigars
“We’re here!” one said, the one who’d spoke before
And offered her a cigar of her own
“Have a snack, then let’s hurry out the door”
“There’s so many fun things you must be shown!”
*****
Sheila Brown then achieved celebrity
Just by arriving on this distant sphere
Where she went, one could all but guarantee
A pack of four-eyed Martians would appear
She saw their homes, like caves in semi-dark
Their four eyes more easily took in light
The planet’s landscape was rocky and stark
It’s soil was a silty, mottled white
Sheila saw their churches and stores and schools
And rituals whose aim she could not guess
She saw their restaurants, their games, their tools
And thought that there were questions she should press
In truth, though, Sheila was too much in shock
To think clear about what people back home
Would want to know when she returned to dock
And ceased with four-eyed aliens to roam
“Why did you choose me?” She asked of her guides
“Of all the human beings who volunteered”
“I’m just an Aussie, and a Sook besides”
They said “Among us, average is revered!”
“You are the most human human alive
“Because there’s nothing special about you!”
“Your genes did evolution long contrive
“Now let us take you touring at our zoo!
Sheila Brown was really by now quite pleased
Where before she had been a bit nonplussed
The Martian’s words had put her at her ease
Who doesn’t wish their virtues be discussed?
The virtue of averageness is real
To those who possess not the other kinds
For Sheila, well, that was her whole deal
Her thoughts were much the same as other minds
And so she let them lead her to their zoo
An intergalactic menagerie
A collection they’d managed to accrue
While sailing through that universal sea
*****
The Guzz-Guzzahs from desert sands of Trome
The Amelines from rocky caves of Sark
The flying Festrens in their floating home
All had a lair within this nature park
The guides droned on reciting all the names
As Sheila followed them along the row
The Jyn-Valance from Ur-Batan-Ulames
From nameless forest planet came the Drow
The milk-skinned Twen and golden-eyed Zeraugh
Their colors and their forms went past her eyes
But as they walked and named all that she saw
Sheila could not remember nor surmise
The total list of creatures that she’d seen
And she felt sure that this was only part
For all the places these Martians had been
The lot she’d seen had only been the start
“Ah here we are!” said one guide to the next
They reached a kennel t’was unoccupied
Beside the door was written English text
It read “A human soon will live inside!”
A light came on just then behind the doors
Sheila then saw a copy of a home
A nice apartment with multiple floors
Enough space for a pet human to roam
A whole apartment wall was clear as glass
And into every room they then could see
Sheila styled herself not a dumbass
And thought about the quickest way to flee
For she knew what the aliens had meant
And if she did not make their plans abort
In that apartment she would soon be pent
And not be going home to make report
But as she turned to run she caught a look
At her guides, each with four eyes trained on her
They did not seem to think she should be shook
But seemed more like they thought they’d hear her purr
*****
“You’re kidnappers!” she yelled and backed away
So many eyes that all went wide with shock
“You’ve brought me here so you could make me stay!”
“Bring your zoo patrons here, at me to gawk!”
“Kidnap?!” one cried, “We’d never hold you here!”
“Against your will? Not in our DNA!”
“You applied to come home with us, my dear!”
“We’re offering you just the chance to stay!”
“What about my report?” Sheila replied
“You said I’d go home with stories to tell!”
“I want to leave, is my request denied?”
“Am I trapped in this glass-walled zoo, this hell?”
“I want to go home and see my Aunt Flo”
Said Sheila and she wound up to say more
But the guides said “Of course we’ll let you go!”
“Retrace your steps back to the spaceship’s door”
“And we’ll return you to your home the Earth”
“But in your right mind is that what you want?”
“Our zoo could give you a form of rebirth
“From average to a life of fame and vaunt”
“Aunt Flo is fine, we’re sure, but here you are”
“The only human for a million million miles”
“You’re Queen! You’re Empress, Dutchess, and you’re Czar!”
“You set the trends and define all the styles”
“Our kind will come from planets far and near"
“To catch a glimpse of your beatific face”
“Are you so sure you don’t want that, my dear?”
“Why by the Jack when you could be the Ace?”
“Your life on earth was drudgery and toil”
“Your average job was cleaning dirty teeth”
“Here you are a delight for us to spoil”
“The human legacy you can bequeath!”
Sheila was feeling punched inside her gut
The alien was making too much sense
She did not often like to complain but
Her job had offered little recompense
Aunt Flo was lovely but was getting old
Before too many years she would be dead
Besides Flo there was not much left to hold
Her to the spinning rock that she had fled
She wondered what she would give up for fame
For safety, and to feel she had a place
Become a pawn in someone else’s game?
An avatar of the whole human race?
She thought of those on earth who’d sacrificed
Their health, their safety, and their dignity
For fifteen short minutes in the zeitgeist
So scared were they of anonymity
The Martians stared and waited for her word
But Sheila still could not make up her mind
The whole dilemma seemed to her absurd
And to refuse to choose she was inclined
I will not tell you what she chose or why
The choice is left to each of us who goes
What will you say when Martians from the sky
Your greatest wish and greatest fear expose
Then offer to resolve them for a price
And Martians can be any power you name
How much of your life would you sacrifice
For guarantees of safety and acclaim?
END
I hope you enjoyed that poem! If you did, please help me out by liking, commenting, or sharing with others. Have a great week, and I’ll be back next Sunday on my regular schedule.
The fact that the Martians gave Sheila the choice to leave instead of forcing her to stay really heightened the impact of this poem. I want to believe that most people in her position would choose to go home, but I’m not sure if that’s true.
This poem left me wondering. I also loved the cadence and clever rhymes.