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Alex The Inventor-Chapter 17

End of Book 1

By G.F. BrynnPublished 7 years ago 7 min read
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***Read from Chapter 1 at:  www.deepskystories.com***

Read Chapters 1 - 16 at: Deep Sky Stories

Chapter 17 (Part 1) - The First Hello

Elizabeth Faraway led Alex into the little kitchen where he saw something resting on the table. It was a little square computer screen on a folding stand and, at first glance, it could easily have been mistaken for a tabletop picture frame."Come sit down," Elizabeth said and she pulled up a chair for him. Sitting down beside her son, Mrs. Faraway brought the small silver screen up close and then lightly touched the glass.There was a momentary blink and flicker as the tiny screen reset itself, then a face appeared behind the glass. The person belonging to the face seemed to be in the middle of talking to someone else but then was interrupted by a faint voice that sounded like Miss Vee‘s. She was talking urgently and there were faint explosions in the background.Alex couldn't understand much of what she said but he thought he heard his name mentioned once. Suddenly the man's face changed drastically and a look of deep sadness and guilt showed clearly in his eyes. He looked away for a few moments, perhaps trying to gather the nerve to continue talking, but finally, he got control of himself and looked up again, straight back through the glass and into Alex's eyes.

"Hello, Alexander", the strange man said quietly, "I'm... I'm your father." The meaning of the new word didn't have much effect on Alex for a few moments but as the man went further, the full realization began to sink in and the boy felt a thrill shoot through him!For the first time in his life, the boy gazed upon the face of his own father and he held onto each sound of the man’s voice for each precious second as though it would be the last. He searched back through his young memories and could not think of one day that he hadn't thought about his dad or tried to imagine what he must truly have looked like.All the long, sad nights came back on the boy then; the solitary evenings when he would work the hardest in his workshop in order to push aside the vain wish for the man who wasn't there. Working until exhaustion left him asleep among his inventions."...what I'm trying to tell you, Alex," the man was saying gently, "is that there was never a day that went by when I wasn't thinking of you and your mother.""The loneliness of this planet was made even worse because I wasn't there with you, Alex... watching you grow and helping you with each small problem or challenge that you had to face on your own. You and your mother may not wish to see me again, after all these years...I hope and pray that you still will though, even if I'll need a lifetime to repay you both.""There was a very hard decision I had to make back then when I left for Mars, and it came with an awful burden as well. You probably already know that anything of worth in this life will only ever be achieved by hard work and sacrifice, son. And you are my son, in every way.""I am sure that you have had to work very hard for everything, especially without me being there. That is why I am very proud of you and why I am telling you now that I will be returning to Earth and to you and Elizabeth soon after Teresa and Rainah arrive here." "My work here is done - finished.""I have been able to build this new base with Pre-Programmed Nano-bot Construction methods and prepare it for the arrival of the newly grown Martian plant-life that Professor Vasquez cultivated in the Biosphere on Earth.""The rest is up to her and Rainah now and I have no doubt that when the orbit of Mars changes and returns this planet to a less severe climate, all those new plants will spread and flourish where they can on the planet's surface as they did in the past.""The Others should no longer be a threat here and those on Earth will doubtless be destroyed when Teresa lifts off. They were never made to endure the harshness of this present-day Mars with all the climate extremes each season and the powerful winter storms. Those few that remain are now trapped on their own frozen little moon and, God willing, that is where they will stay."John Faraway appeared to quickly check the time and seemed to be on a time limit that Miss Vee had given him beforehand because he began speaking with more urgency now."I cannot say more, for now, Alex, except that I am so homesick and have missed you and your mother very, very much."

“I'm coming home as quickly as that beautiful ship will carry me once the dome is released from it,” and a wide smile brightened his tired, unshaven face for what had likely been the first time in years."I love you, Alex... Elizabeth... please keep me close in your hearts till I see you both again."

"Goodbye," he said rather too soon and the same little shadow of weary sadness came back to his face.Elizabeth made a small sound like a cry that was cut short and she put a comforting arm around her son's thin shoulders. It suddenly occurred to her how many times she had seen that same expression on Alex's small face; an expression of longing for that one special person who millions of miles could not dim the need for.

"Dad," Alex whispered softly, and he leaned in closer to his mother's embrace and quietly closed his eyes as the silent image vanished from behind the glass.Something broke then and softened the young boy’s heart. He suddenly felt an arduous burden being lifted off of him; a heavy feeling of responsibility that had weighed him down and kept him from being just a little boy. More than a few tears gently flowed and Elizabeth held on to her only boy for a long while that night, talking to him as only a mother can and caressing the hair from his tired, weary little brow.Alex never slept so deeply and peacefully as he did that night, and in his dreams, a strong, gentle, guiding hand reached down from somewhere and took his smaller one in its grasp, and this time, it did not let go.If he had been awake though, the boy would have heard the distant sound of alien wind-chimes again, as though from the thin wind of another world and time.And, on his dresser in the corner of his room, Alex's Luss glowed softly for one moment longer then fell silent.

And out in the darkness, through Alex's bedroom window, in the softly shadowed thicket of the backyard, an odd little flower began to bloom. It grew in a hidden shelter of bushes and vines that lay just off the path leading toward the old apple tree. Despite the biting cold of the approaching winter, the humble flower with its small, wrinkled leaves and pale yellow petals grew vigorously there, where none had grown before. And, lingering in the cold air, like tiny sentinels around the young, struggling flower, as if left there by the caring hands of a very different young gardener, were a few remaining firefly sprites as well.Did they merely mark a brief moment in our normal reality, or did they quietly herald the approach of a reality that was yet to be? Whichever would one day be realized but, for the moment, beyond the thicket of Alex's well-concealed, humble home, inside the quiet darkness of the old airy workshop, Dart the Dragonfly dozed contentedly.And he dreamed as well. He dreamed of a time long ago, on his Homeworld, when he guarded another, very different little boy.Yet, perhaps, not quite so different...

fantasyfuturescience fictionspacetech
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About the Creator

G.F. Brynn

G. F. Brynn is a self-taught writer & illustrator whose sci-fi stories weave a rich blend of youthful adventurism with ancient myth-fantasy. The characters move in a world in which the divide between dream and reality is thinly shaded.

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