Behind the Scenes of
Kid Stuff
by Denise Felt 2011
One day on the forum we got to talking . . . and this challenge was the result. To write a UFO story where a child or children were in HQ. Each of us took the idea and ran with it. This story is my take on the challenge.
Chapter 1 – Just another morning in HQ, with the commander asleep at his desk after a long night. We know this happens, right? But –wait. Seeing John wasn’t part of his dream. He’s awake – and that’s not John. I didn’t explain why the commander didn’t instantly summon security to deal with the intruder, but I hope it was obvious to the reader why he didn’t. (If it wasn’t, you were probably never a parent.) Instead, Straker scrambles to get a grip on what’s happening and lets the scene play out. He doesn’t know what the game is yet, but he’s definitely not ready to call it quits. This is John, after all. Then Ford contacts him with even bigger news. There are more children in HQ!
Ford asks an interesting question: why would the aliens return their lost loved ones to them? And Straker doesn’t have an answer, because this isn’t the way the aliens work. They don’t really get Earthlings, so how could they know their greatest vulnerability is their children? He checks with Col. Lake, but she also has a lost loved one to handle. And Straker realizes that he won’t get any help from her sorting this out. He leaves and runs into Lt. White and his daughter. Matt White is one of the UFO fanfic writers at the forum, and he graciously let me use him in this story, even though he isn’t divorced and doesn’t have a daughter. However, I did let him help Straker handle the situation, which he enjoyed very much.
The commander lets John go off with the lieutenant, but then misses his presence. It would be very difficult to let a child you once lost out of your sight a second time. But Straker reminds himself that his first duty has to be to SHADO, and he heads to the Control room to be ready if the aliens decide to attack while HQ is otherwise occupied.
Chapter 2 – The reference to John wanting to go sailing had its roots in the model ship his father gave him to build in the series. Straker and Ford handle the crisis with the aliens, but find that the aliens are not taking advantage of having HQ preoccupied to attack there. The situation is well in hand, though, until Security starts asking questions. Straker bluffs them, worried about exposing the children to Jackson’s tender mercies. But he’s quite aware that their time might be limited with the children.
Chapter 3 – Now we have hints that the children are not quite like the ones they resemble. They don’t fight or argue. And we see that he’s not the only one whose heart is warring with their head over the situation. But he realizes that there may be a high price for these stolen hours.
The chess game introduces another hint that all is not as it seems. "Why can’t we both win?" his son asks him, and we get a small light at the end of this tunnel in the hope that they’ll all come through this scenario okay.
Henderson calls, demanding to know what’s going on. Straker bluffs him, but is well aware that time is running out. Straker’s concern for the safety of the children, as well as his staff in HQ, show as he ponders what the true meaning of this situation could be. Later, he tells his concerns to Col. Lake: that the children might be a type of Trojan Horse, a gift that would make them vulnerable to being destroyed.
In the morning, he knows their time is up. He rallies the troops and gets all the kids together. Then he stands guard at his office door, willing to die to keep Security’s hands off them. Other operatives stand with him as he tells the major what has been going on in HQ for the past day: they’ve been infiltrated.
Chapter 4 – Often in my stories, I give the reader a glimpse of what’s going on that the characters themselves don’t have. But in this story, the reader is as much in the dark as the commander. However, even he has a better idea what’s really going on than the rest of his staff.
Enter Alec into the story, and Jackson explains the situation to him as he knows it. HQ is in danger and Straker has done nothing to rectify that? We can relate to his confusion in the matter. But once he sees for himself, he understands why they are acting the way they are. Straker’s words to him are ominous when he tells him he needs to be able to leave things in his hands. Now we see what the commander meant when he mentioned a high price to be paid. He knows this scenario will not end well for him. What the others do is their own choice, but he’d already made his decision yesterday.
As someone who loves words, I have found that sometimes their meanings can be very ambiguous. In this story, I explore the word ‘alien’ and how SHADO perceives it. Through this experience with the children, Straker has realized that there are more than just the aliens they know about who are interested in Earth. But the stigma of aliens being enemies runs very deep through SHADO, and he knows the chances of the rest of them grasping that truth are slim. But he tries anyway. He manages to make a dent – but Jackson is stronger than that. We see the gunmen ready to open fire on the commander and those who stand with him . . . then the office door opens.
Chapter 5 – Now we learn that Straker had one last trick up his sleeve. He planned to try to get the children out through his escape elevator in the hopes that they wouldn’t disappear once they left HQ. But the aliens were one step ahead of him. The children are gone – as quietly as they came. And the commander knows now that this had all been a test. Well, he’d done his best. I really enjoyed having him shrug off Jackson’s worry that the aliens might still be around. Straker’s no fool. He knows his days of being in charge of SHADO are over. It’ll be someone else’s problem now.
We find the commander in his cell quite resigned to his fate. He’s able to face his death much easier, he tells Alec, because he got to be with John once more. And if there had to be a token death over the business, you know he’d much prefer that it be him than anyone else. After all, he was the one responsible for how HQ handled this test.
When I researched the drugs used for lethal injections, I was shocked and dismayed to find that some of them may not be painless at all, but since they are paralytics, the person injected can’t tell anyone what they’re experiencing. Well, I didn’t want the commander to suffer, so I gave him a newer drug that was known to cause no pain. I wondered how he might feel to have the enormous weight of the world finally lifted off his shoulders – then knew that of course, he’d feel a freedom he hadn’t known for over a decade. That was such a wonderful moment for me as I wrote those words. I was setting him free at last.
Epilogue – It would have been criminal to leave my readers there, so I gave them a chance to see the aftermath of the incident. Alec comes home from a funeral – I don’t tell whose, but it’s a fairly certain guess. Then Ed interrupts his thoughts.
I hope it’s clear how much lighter Straker feels these days by the playful way he deals with Alec, and the fact that he laughs so heartily. This is a Straker we never got to see in HQ. The responsibilities of his position stole that impishness from him for the most part.
I enjoyed leaving the determination of whether Earth will be allowed into the Alliance up to the reader. This story has a few pointed moral lessons to it, but it’s to be hoped that the reader won’t find them too objectionable. After all, who’d be foolish enough to argue about the Golden Rule? *grin*
One day on the forum we got to talking . . . and this challenge was the result. To write a UFO story where a child or children were in HQ. Each of us took the idea and ran with it. This story is my take on the challenge.
Chapter 1 – Just another morning in HQ, with the commander asleep at his desk after a long night. We know this happens, right? But –wait. Seeing John wasn’t part of his dream. He’s awake – and that’s not John. I didn’t explain why the commander didn’t instantly summon security to deal with the intruder, but I hope it was obvious to the reader why he didn’t. (If it wasn’t, you were probably never a parent.) Instead, Straker scrambles to get a grip on what’s happening and lets the scene play out. He doesn’t know what the game is yet, but he’s definitely not ready to call it quits. This is John, after all. Then Ford contacts him with even bigger news. There are more children in HQ!
Ford asks an interesting question: why would the aliens return their lost loved ones to them? And Straker doesn’t have an answer, because this isn’t the way the aliens work. They don’t really get Earthlings, so how could they know their greatest vulnerability is their children? He checks with Col. Lake, but she also has a lost loved one to handle. And Straker realizes that he won’t get any help from her sorting this out. He leaves and runs into Lt. White and his daughter. Matt White is one of the UFO fanfic writers at the forum, and he graciously let me use him in this story, even though he isn’t divorced and doesn’t have a daughter. However, I did let him help Straker handle the situation, which he enjoyed very much.
The commander lets John go off with the lieutenant, but then misses his presence. It would be very difficult to let a child you once lost out of your sight a second time. But Straker reminds himself that his first duty has to be to SHADO, and he heads to the Control room to be ready if the aliens decide to attack while HQ is otherwise occupied.
Chapter 2 – The reference to John wanting to go sailing had its roots in the model ship his father gave him to build in the series. Straker and Ford handle the crisis with the aliens, but find that the aliens are not taking advantage of having HQ preoccupied to attack there. The situation is well in hand, though, until Security starts asking questions. Straker bluffs them, worried about exposing the children to Jackson’s tender mercies. But he’s quite aware that their time might be limited with the children.
Chapter 3 – Now we have hints that the children are not quite like the ones they resemble. They don’t fight or argue. And we see that he’s not the only one whose heart is warring with their head over the situation. But he realizes that there may be a high price for these stolen hours.
The chess game introduces another hint that all is not as it seems. "Why can’t we both win?" his son asks him, and we get a small light at the end of this tunnel in the hope that they’ll all come through this scenario okay.
Henderson calls, demanding to know what’s going on. Straker bluffs him, but is well aware that time is running out. Straker’s concern for the safety of the children, as well as his staff in HQ, show as he ponders what the true meaning of this situation could be. Later, he tells his concerns to Col. Lake: that the children might be a type of Trojan Horse, a gift that would make them vulnerable to being destroyed.
In the morning, he knows their time is up. He rallies the troops and gets all the kids together. Then he stands guard at his office door, willing to die to keep Security’s hands off them. Other operatives stand with him as he tells the major what has been going on in HQ for the past day: they’ve been infiltrated.
Chapter 4 – Often in my stories, I give the reader a glimpse of what’s going on that the characters themselves don’t have. But in this story, the reader is as much in the dark as the commander. However, even he has a better idea what’s really going on than the rest of his staff.
Enter Alec into the story, and Jackson explains the situation to him as he knows it. HQ is in danger and Straker has done nothing to rectify that? We can relate to his confusion in the matter. But once he sees for himself, he understands why they are acting the way they are. Straker’s words to him are ominous when he tells him he needs to be able to leave things in his hands. Now we see what the commander meant when he mentioned a high price to be paid. He knows this scenario will not end well for him. What the others do is their own choice, but he’d already made his decision yesterday.
As someone who loves words, I have found that sometimes their meanings can be very ambiguous. In this story, I explore the word ‘alien’ and how SHADO perceives it. Through this experience with the children, Straker has realized that there are more than just the aliens they know about who are interested in Earth. But the stigma of aliens being enemies runs very deep through SHADO, and he knows the chances of the rest of them grasping that truth are slim. But he tries anyway. He manages to make a dent – but Jackson is stronger than that. We see the gunmen ready to open fire on the commander and those who stand with him . . . then the office door opens.
Chapter 5 – Now we learn that Straker had one last trick up his sleeve. He planned to try to get the children out through his escape elevator in the hopes that they wouldn’t disappear once they left HQ. But the aliens were one step ahead of him. The children are gone – as quietly as they came. And the commander knows now that this had all been a test. Well, he’d done his best. I really enjoyed having him shrug off Jackson’s worry that the aliens might still be around. Straker’s no fool. He knows his days of being in charge of SHADO are over. It’ll be someone else’s problem now.
We find the commander in his cell quite resigned to his fate. He’s able to face his death much easier, he tells Alec, because he got to be with John once more. And if there had to be a token death over the business, you know he’d much prefer that it be him than anyone else. After all, he was the one responsible for how HQ handled this test.
When I researched the drugs used for lethal injections, I was shocked and dismayed to find that some of them may not be painless at all, but since they are paralytics, the person injected can’t tell anyone what they’re experiencing. Well, I didn’t want the commander to suffer, so I gave him a newer drug that was known to cause no pain. I wondered how he might feel to have the enormous weight of the world finally lifted off his shoulders – then knew that of course, he’d feel a freedom he hadn’t known for over a decade. That was such a wonderful moment for me as I wrote those words. I was setting him free at last.
Epilogue – It would have been criminal to leave my readers there, so I gave them a chance to see the aftermath of the incident. Alec comes home from a funeral – I don’t tell whose, but it’s a fairly certain guess. Then Ed interrupts his thoughts.
I hope it’s clear how much lighter Straker feels these days by the playful way he deals with Alec, and the fact that he laughs so heartily. This is a Straker we never got to see in HQ. The responsibilities of his position stole that impishness from him for the most part.
I enjoyed leaving the determination of whether Earth will be allowed into the Alliance up to the reader. This story has a few pointed moral lessons to it, but it’s to be hoped that the reader won’t find them too objectionable. After all, who’d be foolish enough to argue about the Golden Rule? *grin*