Chronicles of Jake 1: My Return to Planet Earth

by Peter Lewis Atkinson

  Question, ‘‘What is your favourite planet?’’

  I replied, ‘‘That is difficult for me to answer, I love both Earth and Alkarr of course, but many planets along with many moons are beautiful, from the blue water world of Molk to the green forested world of Mazar.’’

  Now the interviewer turned to the Lusianians. She asked Yarkeli, ‘‘How did you come to be living with the Humans and Alkarrens?’’

  Yarkeli replied saying, ‘‘By an unfortunate accident. I will not go into it as it still pains me but this is my family now so no further comment on the subject please.’’

  Now the interviewer did not want to stop there and tried to find out what had happened to her, but Alenna was having none of it and said sternly, ‘‘Do not question Yarkeli any further, you do not want to create a diplomatic incident do you?’’ The interviewer was taken aback by her insistence and changed the subject. Her attention now turned to the children, she now tried to find out how they compared to children from earth at the same age.

  I said, ‘‘Why don’t you ask Jett to give you an answer to a multiplication question. Some high number multiplied by another. Jett is equivalent in age to ten year old human girl.’’

  The interviewer was handed a note with the sum twenty seven times three hundred and seven by a colleague of hers, she then asked Jett what the answer was, she did not have to wait long and Jett replied, ‘‘That’s simple eight thousand two hundred and eighty nine.’’ You see Jett is getting very good at navigation and multiplication and division, it is something she does all the time and does it well, I did not expect many earth children at ten years old to be able to do that sum in their head. The interviewer was impressed but tried not to show it. Another question, ‘‘Is it easy to fly your space ship?’’

  Lumi spoke up saying, ‘‘I can fly it as well as Jake can. Believe it or not so can the four oldest children who have been having flying lessons for a number of years. As for easy, no, you have to master it like anything else. There are foot controls hand controls and touch buttons. It takes time to learn, about 5 years to get your pilot’s master certificate.’’

  The questions continued including, ‘‘Why are you here?’’

  To this I answered, ‘‘It will all become clear when I have made my speech at the United Nations in two days’ time.’’

  Also a member of the audience asked, ‘‘What benefits can you bring to earth?’’

  To this Alenna said, ‘‘Trade, clean power generation and cures for many non-viral illnesses. Humans are very similar to us Alkarrens.’’ She now said, ‘‘We have one thing you don’t have and that’s a tail.’’ The shock of the audience at this statement, now they wanted to see Alenna's tail. ‘‘Sorry,’’ she replied, ‘‘it’s regarded as a personal and intimate, only close females and of course our husband would be shown our tail so please understand and don’t ask to see it.’’ She did say our children had inherited their tails but had lost their webbed feet and hands.

  Now the following question would have been the shock of the day if I answered it by telling them the true facts, ‘‘Might you bring a virus to earth that would endanger us all?’’

  I just replied, ‘‘None of us are carrying any harmful viruses.’’ Right if I had told them the following that other races in the Alliance do not have problems with viruses and this is due to a virus that lives in all our family and most Alliance species, in fact it was introduced to Alkarrens deliberately and that it’s a good virus, its protects us from any other virus. In return for giving it a host it will eliminate all other viruses, so you never get ill. The virus in question is benign; you don't know you have it. Had I informed them how would you all like not to ever get a cold or the flu or in fact any life threatening virus, in fact the longer we stay in close proximity to humans there is a slim chance we will could pass this on to you, what do you think would happen? I am sure there would be a backlash from some areas of society. After all there are many a big business who rely on remedies for colds and inoculations. On reflection the virus does not spread easily. It’s not airborne. You need personal contact between people. The only small chance is if Rachael has passed it on to our aunt and uncle or Mandy as she does tend to kiss close family and friends. Best not to worry if it happens it happens; at least humans will no longer will be susceptible to illness from them.

  The questioning was wound up and we were thanked for our participation. We waved to the audience as we left, before being escorted back to our waiting coach. As soon as we arrived back at the cargo ship the shopping trip for those who did not go the day before seemed to be top priority, so after changing, Alenna, Jenna, Lumi and Yarkeli went off with Rachael to the department store. This left Minty and myself in charge of the children with of course the assistance of Perri, Luka and Lara. As the saying goes: “when the cats away the mice will play”, this was going to be an eventful time.

  I was on the bridge when I could not help but notice a lot of shouting and cheering coming from the crowd. On looking out I was surprised to see that the four oldest children had sneaked out and were entertaining the crowds. Now Alenna would have ordered them back in, then reprimanded them, but I was more relaxed and watched them project holograms of other Alliance races from their personal communication device. They had the Flitten parading up and down along the fence, which was a ploy to get everyone’s attention. The girls then started singing to their audience. I called the other wives to come to the bridge and see. All appeared with the exception of Lara who was on nursery duty. They took one look and left, soon reappearing outside where they had joined in with the girls and were singing along with them. Also, some of the other children had arrived. A couple had musical instruments and were giving it their all at the delight of the crowds. By this time the TV cameras had also turned their attention towards them. I turned on the display on the bridge, the news was showing them singing live; they sounded great to me, perhaps it was not my job to judge as I was biased toward my family.

  All too soon they had finished and returned to the ship. Now I had the task of reprimanding them; however, the trouble was, I was just too soft with my children. I only told the girls not to go outside again without asking first, but also mentioned to them that Alenna would not be pleased when she returned and found out. But I informed them that they had all sung well and that they had been on television.

  I phoned the prime minister to talk about our trip to the seaside. We had devised a diversionary tactic; we were to let on that we were hoping to visit a beach in the north-west when in fact we were going to one in the south-east, at Camber. This might have appeared a little sneaky, but by the time the public found out we would have had enough time at the seaside before anyone going to the north-west just to see us could make their way to where we had in fact gone. Of course the beach would have many day trippers anyway but they would not be there especially to see us and would only be ordinary families out for the day. The prime minster also had some further information for us about our United Nations trip and travel arrangements. We were to be supplied with a flight identity transponder with the code word visitor; this was for entering into United States air space. I was then informed of our landing coordinates, which was to be just outside the building where Lara and I had to make our Alliance speech. I thanked him, finally adding we were all looking forward to the museum trip that he had arrange for us that evening.

  Sometime later Alenna and the others arrived back. Talk about shopping, I thought they must have purchased half the contents of a shop as a van arrived shortly after their return. It was loaded with beach recliners, parasols, plus some buckets and spades for the younger children. They were certainly going to be prepared for our day at the seaside the next day. The older girls were keeping out of sight from Alenna as they were expecting a ticking off, but as far as I knew, not one of the others had said any
thing to her. Anyway, I was not going to bring it up that they went out to meet the crowd alone. After all, it was my responsibility to look after them while she was away and telling her I suspect may have backfired on me.

  It was at this time that Alenna announced the surprise visit to the others and that we were all going to a museum in the evening. A little later the five oldest daughters and Pooky came up to me in the galley as they wanted to ask some questions about the museum trip. Jessica asked, ‘‘What’s is in this museum?’’

  I replied, ‘‘It’s full of old stuff that was once the latest thing in technology on Earth.’’

  Pooky said, ‘‘Do you mean junk?’’

  I smiled and let out a chuckle and said, ‘‘Well to some it may be junk but I want you to see it as history, just like on Alkarr things progress and change and the museum is a reminder of how things used to be.’’ I was left wondering what they were thinking about my answer to them. Not long after I overheard them talking about the visit as going to see the junk house; well, that's children for you! I was sure they would change their minds about the museum when they were there.

  The crowds were always present; most would arrive just to see our ship and then leave. But then there were the devoted ones who always seemed to be there, often holding up banners and being heard chanting, “When are you coming out to see us?” A number of them had selected a favourite member of my family and were shouting their name. Alenna was a popular choice along with Pooky or Yarkeli. During the afternoon a box arrived for me; on opening it I found a transponder. This was for our visit into USA air space. I took it to the shuttle and was going to leave it there, but I was suspicious. I had to look inside it. So I unscrewed the cover and peered around its contents. Nothing looked out of place, other than there was no on/off switch, which was odd I thought. Now the battery that powered the device had a plug so I removed it. The thing went dead, so I decided to leave it unplugged until our flight the day after tomorrow.

  After our evening meal we waited tentatively for our coach to arrive. It seemed to take forever, but finally it arrived. We then all left the ship, but this time only receiving encouraging cheers from the crowd as we boarded the coach. No sooner had we set off than the children started singing a song that they had made up, a song about going to the junk house. It was not long before Alenna put a stop to that and told them in her very stern voice to be respectful and not show us up, reminding them about the honour of the house. Now the girls were expecting loads of junk but no sooner had we entered the museum, things changed. It was like a great adventure to them from flight simulators to steam engines. Our guide took us around and the children were in awe. Now early flying machines- Ellie said that they looked like a death trap, held to together with string, bits of wood and canvass. Our guide remarked that a lot of early pioneer flyers met their sudden end in early flying machines. The girls were adamant that they were in no way going up in one of these. I assured them that they would not be, besides, these were only exhibits and planes on Earth were a lot safer now. As for the so-called junk, they did refer to some very large early mobile phones that were the size of a brick as junk. In a way they had a point and I had to agree with them. They were all interested in steam engines, which had not been used on Alkarr for well over a thousand years. I informed them that they still used steam engines on Earth, for example, steam turbines for power generation as Earth still used coal, not forgetting locomotives but these were more of a nostalgia thing on private railways where they ran trains on short trips. They all wanted to see them working in person. I replied, ‘‘I doubt if we will get time before we leave, but we can always see them on another visit to earth.’’ As now I can foresee we may be making regular visits to earth, that's of course when or if earth becomes an alliance member, that's still to be determined.

  I asked the girls what they liked most. I received various answers but the majority was for interactive displays as they could get hands-on experience. Finally, the space exploration section, coming from a planet that was much more advanced than Earth they saw the displays as somewhat comical and very primitive. Our guide described the Saturn five rocket and how much fuel it took to get into orbit. The girls looked at each other at such a huge amount of fuel needed to lift even just one tonne into space. Jessica commented, ‘‘Our ship weighed thousands of tonnes and takes just a few buckets of water to get into space.’’

  The guide was a little shocked and said, ‘‘You mean you use just water to power your ship?’’

  Jessica replied, ‘‘Yes water or more of what water is oxygen and hydrogen and it’s this hydrogen that powers the fusion reactors on our ship which in turn powers the anti-gravity pods. The Saturn five may use the same fuel but burns it a very wasteful way.’’ Alenna did remind them that Alkarr would have first started getting into space the very same way almost a thousand years ago. Very soon our trip was over and we were returned to our ship, but it did not stop there as the girls had recorded everything they had seen on their pid’s and were projecting what they had viewed to see it they had missed anything or to discuss it among themselves further. We were all tired after our busy day and were ready for an early night; after all, it was to be an early rise the next day to get ready to go to the beach.

  I awoke the next morning to the sound of the girls’ voices and laughter; the children were up very early, being very excited and eager for us to set off. First of all we had to have breakfast and prepare our packed lunch and load the shuttle Calypso. As usual one of the older girls was to be given the privilege of flying us there and another to fly us back. The four girls all jostled for position as to who I would assign the task. I said, "Rachael you will be piloting us there and Pooky you will then be piloting us on our return. Ellie please now go and hover the shuttle out of its hanger and sit it down next to the ship, while she does this you three will now go and report to Alenna for further tasks she may require." Taking the shuttle out of its hanger and sitting it down would be no different than asking a young teenager who was capable to take a car out of the garage and park it on your private drive. As long as they did not go on the public highway, it was legal, well at least in the UK. As to actual flying under Alkarren law, as long as there is a full licensed pilot on board anybody can learn to fly.

  I was on the bridge with Lumi and Perri when we became aware that the crowd was again cheering and being amused by something. On looking out I observed that Ellie was spinning the shuttle one way than the other to the amusement of the crowd. I quickly contacted her on the pid, Ellie stop playing about and sit the shuttle down then report to me immediately! A few minutes later she appeared; now I had no choice but to reprimand and punish her. I screamed at her, "What are you playing what you just did was very dangerous you could have lost control and spun into the crowd! As punishment, you will be required to clean all the toilets on board on our return from the beach! I will then consider if this punishment concluded or whether further duties would be required! Now go and report to Alenna and be thankful that neither Alenna nor your mother inflicted punishment on you! she went on her way. Lumi and Perri applauded me on my actions, stating they had never seen me administer punishment to the children. I just replied that the consequences could have been serious and the situation demanded it. Being a pilot herself, Lumi understood.

  Alenna had the girls load the shuttle with beach recliners and parasols; sister had purchased some sun screen and I was going to make them all use it as Earth’s sun had a lot more UV than Alkarr’s. Alkarrens have a greater sense of smell than humans. I was certain they wouldn’t like the smell of it, but I would force them to use it for their own good. I watched as the hamper for our beach picnic was loaded. I then asked Alenna if they had all tried on their swim costumes and that she was satisfied that they hid their tails; she just nodded, so that was good enough for me.

  The time came for us to board the shuttle, so we
all took our seats. I made sure that everyone had their sunglasses ready as they would definitely need them, then young Rachael spun up the pods and we lifted off. Jett was navigator; she then instructed her which way to go. We could see the crowds below waving as we left. We headed to the south-east and were soon over open countryside. It was a hot day without a cloud in the sky and to make matters worse hardly any breeze. As we approached Camber the road into the village was packed. It was bumper to bumper for everyone in their cars. It seemed like everyone was going to the beach today. We passed over a large car park that looked about full already; it was only mid-morning, as we passed over the dunes we could see the cordoned off area for us to land. Rachael circled the area then lowered the landing struts before making a text book landing right in the centre. We had been assigned three police officers for our protection and they were waiting for us to arrive. Their duty was to guard the perimeter which was only length of tape between stakes in an oblong shape; however, the scary thing was that they were armed with automatic weapons strung across the front of them.

  As we opened the door a wave of heat hit us. Talk about hot but at least there was some breeze on the beach. Lara, Lumi and I stacked the recliners and parasols outside, they then helped me set them up, and while we did this all the others were changing into their costumes in the shuttle. We had just finished when they came out. All the adults taking possession of a recliner, Lara and Lumi then went to change into their costumes before taking to their recliners. I had the sun screen ready, after applying it to the children first, I then started on the adults. ‘‘What are you doing?’’ squealed Perri, as I applied some to her arms. She then smelt it before proclaiming, ‘‘It stinks!’’

  I replied ‘‘You have to have it on and that goes for all of you, if you don't you will burn and look like lobsters.’’ My sister Rachael backed me up, while the wives reluctantly accepted it. The Lusianians on the other hand did not require it as their skin had adapted to a high UV environment on their home world. Finally, I made all the children wear some large brimmed hats for extra protection, before I set about helping the youngest to build sand castles. After a short time I was alerted to the fact that the four oldest girls were talking to two girls; they looked about the same age as they were, over the boundary tape, though I had no problem with this. That was until three teenage boys muscled their way in, and so it was time for me to intervene. I was joined by Minty who also had noticed. I intended that the two girls join ours on our side of the tape and allow the boys just to talk to the girls from their side. I tried to set up a rapport with the boys who wanted to know why they could not join the girls on their side. I asked them where their chaperones were. I meant this as a joke, but all I got in reply was some swearing and abuse. I was not standing for that so I asked one of the officers to remove the boys from our area. They should have been polite, but I was not having my girls associating with such obnoxious boys. It reminded me of that awful care home.