Of Gods & Aliens

Of Gods & Aliens is a roleplay story, within the Mythos Unbound collection, that follows the adventure of Benjamin Gauke, a 14 year-old boy from the town of St. Bernard's, Lancastria, as he encounters beings from beyond the Earth. Set during the Christmas of 3023, Of Gods & Aliens explores themes of family, humanity, and community.

Part One, subtitled "Ex Astris, Scientia" was published on 7 December 2023. The finale, subtitled "The Battle of St. Bernard's Town" was published on Christmas Day, 25 December 2023. Grand_Tarkin has also confirmed that the Christmas Day finale, "The Battle of St. Bernard's Town" sets up major plot points for the roleplay in 2024 and beyond.

Characters

• Benjamin "Ben" Gauke, a 14 year-old resident of St. Bernard's who dreams of the stars after hearing stories of the old Federation.
• Franklin "Frank" Gauke, a 43 year-old resident of St. Bernard's and father of Benjamin. Frank is a cook who works two minimum-wage jobs.
• Nancy Granger, a 14 year-old resident of St. Bernard's and best friend to Ben.
• Solomon Nkusi, the 66 year-old Sheriff of St. Bernard's and former Starfleet officer.
• Janine Granger, a 39 year-old resident of St. Bernard's and mother of Nancy. Janine is the local high school's administrator.
• Odo-nexmanar-syphe-moore, "Odo", a Helix teacher.
• Exfano-mennilu-fob-night, "Night", a Helix infant with strong abilities.
• 'The Master', the apparent leader of the Black Celestia.

Instalments

Of Gods & Aliens is comprised of ten parts which make up one single roleplay story.

No.	Title	Written by	Published	Synopsis
1	"Ex Astris, Scientia"	Grand_Tarkin	7 December 2023	Ben is a young boy who can't stop dreaming of the stars. Too young to remember the old Federation, Ben's been brought up on stories of utopia and of peace. Long forgotten memories in the 31st century. When Ben tries fixing a thirty year-old radio from beyond his world, he discovers a message forgotten to time. Now, his dreams and his curiosity gets the better of him...
2	"This, I Wonder"		9 December 2023	Ben rallies his best friend in the whole world to solve a mystery that has overshadowed his Christmas Eve. Not even Ben with all his dreams could have imagined the adventure that follows. Meet the Helix!
3	"9 Hours"		14 December 2023	The town of St. Bernard's is shaken by the news of Ben and Nancy's disappearance into the mountains. Town Sheriff and former Starfleet officer Solomon Nkusi helps organise search parties to search for the teenagers as Christmas approaches.
4	"Pitchforks"		15 December 2023	The Helix have arrived in St. Bernard's town and now they must decide what to do. With some scared, some excited, and some mindful of a difficult history, the full spectrum of humanity is on display in a town meeting to decide the fate of the Helix race. The Helix reveal who they are.
5	"The Fear of a Mother"		20 December 2023	With the Helix being harboured by the people of St. Bernard's, a worried mother takes matters into her own hands. Convinced of the danger that the Helix present to her daughter, and with humanity refusing to hear her pleas, Janine looks beyond the world of men for help.
6	"Heroes"		21 December 2023	Ben and Frank take time to reflect on the chaos of the past 48 hours. Their rest, however, is not meant to last forever when a new threat to humanity arrives from the edge of the world.
7	"The Black Celestia"		22 December 2023	Aliens now inhabit the town of St. Bernard's... now its time for the arrival of the gods. As the inhabitants of St. Bernard's witness the overwhelming arrival of the Black Celestia, their new friends reveal their secret powers to save the townspeople. With the fate of Christmas (and the world) at stake, Ben, Solomon, and the Helix must decide whether the risk is worth humanity.
8	"Master, My Master"		23 December 2023	The puppet master reveals himself as St. Bernard's town realises the true weight of the Black Celestia and their hunt of the Helix. Janine realises the consequences of her actions.
9	"Earth Space Dock"		24 December 2023	With the Master and the Black Celestia in control of St. Bernard's town, Ben and the team must regroup and make a plan. Their objective? Stop the Black Celestia and save the Helix, all in time for Christmas! The Helix reveal the myth of the Master as they come up with a plan to bring down his empire of shadows.
10	"The Battle of St. Bernard's Town"		25 December 2023	It’s the end but the moment has been prepared for. The Master, the Black Celestial, the end of the world. All being confronted by the spirit of a small town at Christmas. Frank and Solomon must stop a royal convoy from igniting a war across the Doggerlands. Ben suffers the cost of saving the world.

Part One: "Ex Astris, Scientia"

Once, there was a town that was much like any other, so unimportant. But one day, this town sent the world a message. A bell, tolling out across the Doggerlands, ringing across all the dark corners of this snarling planet. Because nobody understood the message, nobody cared… except for one boy.

The boy who dreamed of the stars.

“Merry Christmas, Mr. Boutet!” Ben’s bike stormed down one cobbled street. An old, rusted thing; the bike took on the agility of a sleigh marching through mounds of snow. He swerved in and around the pedestrians gathered in the narrow walkways of St. Bernard’s town with varying degrees of success. As he did, the boy smiled, waved, and wished good will to his neighbours.

“Merry Christmas, Benjamin- slow down!” Mr. Boutet shouted but there was little hope. By the time his warm enchant had left his lips, Ben’s rocket had blasted him well beyond the reach of Mr. Boutet’s bakery, down towards the end of Guy Road.

While Ben’s bike gave the appearance of a rustic, dicey contraption, it was actually far more versatile than it appeared. Directly behind the cracked leather seat, a small pouch-bag, newer than the rest of the bike, bobbed along too. Usually the home of Ben’s newspapers for his morning route, today the pouch was home to something far more exciting.

As Guy Road drew to a speedy end, Remy Avenue teetered into view. A row of old tenement houses decorated the side of the road like copy-and-pasted baubles on a tired Christmas tree. Some of the windows, each peeking into a different apartment, were decorated for the festive season. Lights of red and mint and garlands and mistletoe, all flowing from window to window. None of the decorations were fancy - many looking hand-crafted from recycled cardboard and thinning string. Yet, none of that mattered. Remy Avenue wasn’t just any destination: it was Ben’s home.

Ben smirked with his usual cheek to himself as his bike screeched to an untimely stop, his eyes flickering between the Christmas decor and the orange glow reflecting off the mountains surrounding St. Bernard’s town. When the sun set over St. Bernard’s, the mountain range regenerated from a grey waste into a celebration of oranges and purples. This evening, the party of lights was holding nothing back - all beneath the clearest view of stars and starlight.

After a few flights of stairs, Ben found his way into his castle. His home. Sure, the doors were battered and the wallpaper was one-tug away from peeling to the ground. Still, home it was.

“Something smells good,” Ben said as he strode in through the front door, his arms carrying the pouch-bag from his bike.

Ten feet away, Ben’s Dad - Frank - stood with his back to him. The lace of an apron was tied in a figure eight and hastily stamped to his lower back. Frank had dark hair, surprisingly dark for his age. Steam rose around him, making him look like he was producing the gas himself. Slowly, he turned around, revealing the stove hard at work. And a grin.

Frank’s hands were full with utensils and a particularly brown wooden spoon, “tuna madras for supper.”

“I asked for turkey!” Ben kicked off his muddy boots, adding them to a pile of trainers and shoes gathered by the front door.

Frank laughed, turning back round to stir his cooking curry. “It’s Christmas in two days - you can wait for turkey,” said Frank, again with a smile. Always with a smile. He returned to stirring his old, scratched porcelain pot of food.

The apartment was small. No more than three metres separated the kitchen, from the dining room table, from the living room, from the only two doors in the apartment (besides the entrance door). One of the doors was to the bathroom, while the other was towards the only bedroom: Ben’s room. On the couch in the living room, Frank’s bed was neatly arranged. A single pillow and a duvet to combat the winter cold.

Ben marched into his bedroom with prowess, like he’d just conquered something, ripping a radio out from his pouch-bag. The radio itself seemed well enough intact, with the only sign of age being the 30 year-old Starfleet insignia faintly stamped on its side. It was slim, sleek, and a dark grey. It had few buttons - presumably it was controlled by the small screen which also sat on its front. The insignia was faint, however. Not from age, it wasn’t worn or faded through time. No, the Starfleet delta looked as if somebody had tried to scrub the thing from existence.

“That from Solomon?” Frank asked, shouting in from the kitchen. The smell of the madras carried the short distance into Ben’s bedroom.

Ben placed it delicately down onto his desk, stationing it next to his pile of mathematics homework and his AI computer games console. “It’s the radio he promised! I told you he’d still have it.”

“I never said he wouldn’t have it. I said the bloody thing wouldn’t work.”

“Yee of little faith,” Ben laughed as he plugged the device into the wall. The wall-socket was beneath the only bit of wall decoration in Ben’s bedroom. After all, the landlord refused to allow Ben to properly decorate his space. Though, rules were made to be broken. Above the wall-socket, right out of the line of sight of the rest of the apartment, Ben’s collection of wall posters and flags stood tall and proud: 2980s recruitment poster for Starfleet, next to Federation flag, pictures of the Starship Enterprise, and signed autographs from space pilot legends.

’Ex Astris, Scientia’ - the words spoken by cadets across a millenia were stamped across Ben’s bedroom wall. Almost forgotten, besides in the hearts and minds and dreams of the hopeful. Ben was hopeful.

The noise blasted through the apartment, almost shaking Ben’s posters off the wall. He jumped back into his spinny chair, confused. ‘I hadn’t even turned it on,’ Ben thought.

“What was that?” Frank shouted in from the kitchen. The rice was close to boiling at this point so his attention was limited to a simple, half-concerned question. Probably that damned game console, or something.

“Nothing…” Ben responded, picking up the radio. He quickly found his way to the volume switch, turning it down to a more manageable decibel. ‘Nothing,’ he repeated in his head. He didn’t believe himself.

As he spun around in his chair, the radio made another noise. As the spin continued, the beeping stopped. Ben stopped the chair as he looked down at the radio. The thing hadn’t come unplugged, nor had he fiddled with any buttons that could possibly have been an off-switch. So again, he spun. And again, the radio beeped once Ben’s spin reached a certain point, only to stop before he had completed a full 360 degrees.

“Curious,” Ben’s Spock-like internal monologue continued to himself before repeating the experiment four or five times. Each time, the beep repeated at exactly the same point. Ben - a member of the local scouts group until his Dad couldn’t afford the fees anymore - whipped out a compass from his desk drawer. Again, he spun in the chair, holding the radio tightly while resting the compass on its metal top. This time, he stopped right when the beeping began.

The compass hand pointed, reaching out - almost like a dare. ‘Due north,’ Ben thought to himself. ‘But there’s nothing there. Mountains. Mountains? Beyond the mountains? What’s beyond the mountains?’ Ben’s mind wandered and wandered and it just couldn’t stop.

Ben stood up - the device still beeping. He walked due north in his bedroom. While he could only make it a few steps before his knees were bumping into his unmade bed, the beeping got slightly louder.

Quickly, Ben returned the radio to the pouch and bolted for the door. He moved so quickly, his shape was probably still visible in the steam of the cooking by the time Frank turned around. He heard the sound of the door slam shut and the faint echo of Ben’s young legs racing down the tenement stairs.

The boy rushed back down the stairs and towards the bike - he couldn’t stop. He held the radio due north, with the help of his compass, of course. He started to walk in that direction - slowly splitting across the road of Remy Avenue. The further north he walked, the louder the beeping became.

Sure, he almost walked out in front of a yellow taxi cab while crossing the road but Ben paid it no mind. He looked out across the stunted skyline of St. Bernard’s town - past the bakery and the town hall and the well in the middle of it all. He looked due north, staring at the mountains which guarded this town on the edge of civilization.

Hypothesis. Test. Conclusion?

“Ex astris, scientia,” said Ben to himself. He smiled. “Ex astris, scientia.”

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Two: "This, I Wonder"

What are dreams made of? Some kind of sticky goo that morphs and moulds into the fantasies of the resting mind? Or something more concrete - something that is treated and condensed into the dreams of our mind - sort of like how jam is made of strawberries? Grown-ups will tell you that dreams aren’t made of anything. ‘Dreams aren’t real,’ they will cry. But if dreams aren’t real, how come they can come crashing down?

Nancy jumped up, her head just an inch away from the metal grid-like mesh that separated her bottom bunk from her sister’s top. Still covered by the warmth of her duvet, she looked around her dark and deadly bedroom. Everything in the universe was surely deadly in the dark - especially that which lives in the cavernous depths of a child’s bedroom.

Of course, Nancy wasn’t a child anymore. While her pleas to her mother for her own bedroom hadn't gone unnoticed, she still shared her ‘grown-up’ space with her seven year-old sister. After all, the pink costumes that were quietly wrestled into her dresser surely were not hers.

Nancy took a sip of water from her bedside table before resting her head back onto her pillow.

Jumping again, Nancy’s curiosity far surpassed the anxious fear of something coming out from under the bed. Quickly and quietly, she dotted to the window. She was a snake wading its way through a long grass, sliding through a small opening in her curtains.

Her window looked right out across her front garden. Usually, she would use this advantage to see if her Mom’s car was coming up the driveway. Tonight, however, long into the daily Lunar reign, she saw the top of a red, stripey hat. And not just any hat, either. That wasn’t a stranger’s hat. No, it was Ben’s hat.

She opened her window. “Pssst!” Nancy shot down a confused glare.

Ben didn’t speak a reply: he couldn’t. The risk of waking Nancy’s parents was too great. No, he simply lifted up Solomon’s radio. His face said the rest.

A few minutes later, after Nancy had found the quietest way to sneak downstairs and out onto the street, the pair sat next to each other on a small, snowy bench. It was past midnight... it was Christmas Eve.

“I don’t know, Ben,” said Nancy as she looked over the radio.

“What’s there not to know? This is an away mission! Okay, we’re not a landing party from the Enterprise but…”Before he could finish, Nancy handed back the radio. He put it back into his bag, before swooping across to take her hand. “This is it…”

“What?”

“One of those moments. One of those leaps you just have to take.”

Nancy returned Ben a half-raised eyebrow. “This isn’t the old Federation - we’re not Starfleet officers. Maybe we should give it to Solomon.”

“Solomon’s been sitting on this for 30-years! He’s given up on the Federation. But what if this is a stranded officer calling for help? Or Starfleet Command looking to make contact with the Earth?!”

“There is no Starfleet, Ben.”

Shaking his head, Ben’s charm cooked up a smile. “That we know of…”

Nancy laughed. Of course she did. She never could resist Ben - not when he smiled. “So, what do we have to do?”

“It’s a modulation on a varying frequency from Lambda-Nine to Epsilon Major.”

“... and what does that mean?”

Ben shrugged. “I don’t know. I read it in one of Solomon’s old logs.” He stood up, reaching out his hand. “It’s basically a honing device. The closer we get to the source, the louder it gets. I think.”

“So, we follow the beeps.”

“We follow the beeps! Come on, the sun’ll be coming up soon.”

Night fell and their away mission began. Their destination? Due north… somewhere.

The sun began to peek in on Ben and Nancy’s adventure. It had been a few hours since they left Nancy’s house - they’d long since left the town boundary, too. Now, it was nothing but the frozen wild ahead; the frozen wild and whatever else lay in the snow.

Every time Ben passed a towering spruce, he would check the radio. Every time, it returned the same repetitive beep. Every time, its volume increased. Walk, check, breathe, repeat. They were nearing the top.

“Do you think Emily Prentis would go on adventures like this?” Nancy asked, her eyes fixed on her boots which were slowly gaining in dampness from the never ending snow.

Ben took a deep breath before checking his compass. “Due north. Must be close now.”

“I mean,” Nancy continued. “Emily’s not the sort of girl who would go hiking in the mountains looking for the Federation. She’s more of a gossip in the local Shuriken kind of girl. Don’t you think so?”

“Why are you asking me about Emily Prentis?”

Nancy shrugged. She was behind Ben so her shrug was for nobody but herself. She didn’t know, did she?

“I was just wondering.”

Ben sighed a muffled response - nothing strong enough to break into the wall of cold air which separated the two.

Nancy stopped in her tracks, resting her back against the naked bark of a great tree. “I’m freezing!”

Paying it little mind, Ben continued, slowly scraping his way higher up the mountain-side.

“I don’t know why I came, Ben. I’m freezing in the bloody cold and it’s not even like you care!”

Ben stopped, about twenty-feet in front of Nancy’s stand.

“And like right now, you never even say nothing. Like, you know why I’m asking about Emily Pren-”

“Nance…” he said, interrupting her train of thought. He didn’t turn around. No, he just stared forward. “Come see.”

Nancy trotted forward, eventually reaching Ben’s position. Out across the sudden drop before them, the open air was painted across their view. A true vista. A small flock of birds danced in between the low clouds like the ink of calligraphy on a virgin page. Everything in the entire rest of the universe ceased for that instant as Ben and Nancy looked out across this vista of everything.

“Emily Prentis wouldn’t understand this,” said Ben.

Nancy shrugged, “she’d be too busy staring at you in Chemistry.”

“Chemistry?-”

Before Ben’s words could travel any distance in the air, the vista began to bend around itself. Land on the ground became vertical walls, which snapped into becoming the sky. Trees dangled from the sky like lights from a ceiling. Everything warped, with solid snow and rock bending into a liquid of matter and space.

“Aah!” Nancy's scream scratched the face of the air, which itself was spiralling in oddly asymmetric circles. The land around her warped the most, pulling her farther and farther away from Ben’s struggling self. She reached down to grab hold of something but couldn’t manage anything more than slipping - cruelling conceding her precious balance.

As Ben was flung far into the sky, he reached out with a whimper. “Nancy!” His cries were doing nothing to assuage the melting reality to cease its insanity for a reprieve. Soon, Ben was caught in a swirl of space - as if he had been caught in a tornado of snow and stone and the mountains themselves.

While Ben’s aerospace pathway kept him from the feeling of gravity, floating aimlessly among the upside-down birds, Nancy had come crashing down. Slipping, she grasped the steep edge of a fixed piece of rock. As she looked down, she saw nothing but the eternity of space. Again, she screamed. But she was slipping, slipping far too easily for friction to stop her now. She slid closer and closer to the edge of reality as her vision of the dead space grew to become her entire vision.

“Ben!” Nancy’s final scream echoed around the arena that seemed to defy the laws of physics themselves.

Before Nancy’s fall could continue for eternity, the ground huffed its last and the mountains snapped back to the ground. Ben and Nancy sat side-by-side, breathing deeply.

“Wha- what was that?” Nancy couldn’t move. Her hands firmly gripped the soil beneath her. Her head was spinning, her eyes too.

“I-”

Jumping up, the sound of a crashing screech acted like some kind of floating agent. They rose to their feet like it was an instinct. Upon looking out across what used to be a beautiful vista, a new shape took the place of the brisk dawn air.

“Stay here,” Ben instructed as he took steps towards the large circular-goliath that had appeared before them. The circumference of the portal was made of sharp rocks; a collage of cliff-fronts all crammed together. In the middle of the circle, a serene blue light glowed from it like heat emitting from a furnace.

The screeching ‘vworp' echoed again as a small figure emerged from the serene blue flames. At a distance, the figure was indistinguishable from the trees and rubble around it - except for the fact that it was moving. See, distance - like destiny - always drew closer. As the figure came into view, its sloping ears and blunted claws began to gain form in Ben’s vision. It was small, it was shivering… it was alive.

“⊑⟒⌰⟟⌖ ⊑⟒⌰⌰⍜,” the creature squeaked. It reached for a small pin on its collar, pressing an invisible button. “Helix Hello!” It smiled.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Three: "9 Hours"

What do you fear? Beneath everything else, beneath the deepest and darkest pits of anguish and horror, what, at your core, terrifies you the most? Go on, look. Don’t stop digging until you reach it. That moment. Well, it might be a moment. It could well be a series of moments, all building towards true horror. Or, it could be a face, or a memory. What do you fear when everything else is cold and gone? Nobody can guess what you uncover when you take a trip that deep into your own mind. Frankly, nobody should want to. However, for one group of people, the answer to the question is frighteningly simple. For one group of intrepid victims, fear in anything else is but humour by comparison. That one group of people? Parents. Nothing burns as brightly as the fear of a parent.

Frank tugged at his duvet - he couldn’t sleep. Something was off. He reached his arm under himself, patting the surface of the couch in hope of finding out that he had been sleeping on something bumping - something that could disrupt his sleep like this. He shifted positions, then shifted again. No hope. He couldn’t sleep.

There was a slight glare coming from the lights on the Christmas tree in the apartment. The tree lights were approaching ten years-old so the winter white was slowly morphing into a warm beige. Frank rubbed his eyes and the lights didn’t become any brighter.

“FRANK!” A desperate voice cried out from outside of the tenement building. “YOU SON OF A BITCH,” the voice continued without catching so much as a breath.

The shouting broke Frank from his failing attempts at sleep and drove him to the window. “Janine?” Frank looked down, seeing the red-dotted face of Janine Granger - Nancy’s mother.

“What do you mean they’re gone?” Solomon said with a huff. Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting to wake up this early on Christmas Eve.

Solomon was a tall man, towering over even Frank’s almost six-feet. His grey beard on the turn towards white, his eyes tired from the lack of sleep and the weight of his years.

“/His/ son must’ve taken her,” Janine replied, her eyes tearing up.

Frank scoffed, shaking his head. “Oh come on. They’re kids. We know they fancy each other. They’re probably out somewhere together and’ll be back before we know it.”

Solomon lent over his desk. The three of them stood in Solomon’s office - the Sheriff’s office - as they shouted their way through to each other. After three clicks of his computer mouse, Solomon rubbed his worn face. “I’m sorry, Frank, but it’s more serious than that. They certainly went together but…”

“But what?”

“They’ve gone into the mountains.” Solomon's bass voice howled, almost to an echo. A sad, tired echo, rattling around the room.

Time froze, at least for Frank. It was Christmas Eve and temperatures were falling. The mountains? How could Ben be so stupid? No, no time for that. Why? No, no time for that, either.

As Frank’s mind ticked over, Janine burst once again. “YOUR SON HAS TAKEN MY DAUGHTER INTO THE MOUNTAINS? YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

Before Janine could pounce onto Frank, Solomon’s sheer size was enough to pull her away. He held her back - her arms and legs flailed around in the air.

“Calm the hell down!” Solomon’s commanding voice both woke Frank from his panic-induced coma and calmed Janine’s volcano. “Now the footage got them leaving town at 5.50 this morning. Which means they managed to miss the brunt of last night’s cold. But as soon as the sun sets…”

“Oh my god…”

“Nine hours,” Solomon said, checking his watch. “We’ve got nine hours to find them and bring them home.”

Frank fell into the office chair, he could hardly respond. His eyes were more tired than ever, well outpacing the fatigue of Solomon’s age. His mind continued. ‘Why?’ The question wouldn’t leave his mind.

As Solomon moved towards the phone - Frank jumped to his feet. “What did you give him?” Frank was more serious than he had ever been.

“Huh?”

“What are /you/ talking about now?” Janine grunted.

Frank moved around to the other side of the desk. His face approached Solomon’s. Now, Solomon was a large man. His breast, like the mast of a ship - stretched farther than Frank’s. Yet, the fire of a father was no idle weapon. That fire burned, straight into Solomon’s eyes from Frank’s. “You gave him a radio.”

“And old Starfleet toy. It was nothing.”

“See, I don’t know. One moment you’re giving my boy a radio and the next he runs off into the mountains. You’re telling me there’s nothing there?”

“What radio?!” Janine’s fire turned to curiosity - her tone, too, petered out.

“It’s nothing, really. It’s just a repeater. It repeats.”

“Repeats what?!”

“Anything. It receives a message and repeats it. The stronger the signal the louder it gets."

“What’s the point of that?”

“It helps…” Solomon’s defensive face drops for a moment. “It helps locate things. It can be used… as a honing device.”

The hour that followed brought the entire town into focus. ‘Nine hours,’ the words kept rattling around the minds of the men and women who were preparing an expedition into the mountains. Could they be found in time? The mountains were vast. Even if they could have mustered the numbers to cover the whole area, those mountains were blanketed with snow and forest and gorges and valleys. ‘Nine hours,’ the words sounded as hollow as poorly-assembled furniture.

Gathering the town together wasn’t too difficult. Yes, it was Christmas Eve but St. Bernard’s was different. It was a town with a smile. A town where neighbours trusted neighbours, friends trusted friends. Two fourteen year olds were missing? This is the town to call to action. Fathers, mothers, school teachers, police officers, factory workers, secretaries, and more. Everybody - the whole town - piling on scarfs and duffle-coats. All preparing to brace an undiscovered country: the mountains at the edge of the world.

“Listen up, everybody,” Solomon shouted from a stump at the edge of the town. He was surrounded by the worried faces of the town's population. All listening, their breath froze before them. “We have nine hours before sunset. These aren’t just any kids we’re looking for. It’s Ben and Nance. We’re going to bring them home. Now please, these mountains are dangerous. Stick to your designated search parties and your designated party leader-”

Solomon’s words stopped - attacked by the sound of snow crunching. The noise was slowly getting louder… the footsteps of dozens. The town’s attention was broken, it turned from its valiant leader and towards the north. There, emerging from the withered trees, Ben and Nancy looked across with concerned faces of apology.

The breath of relief was exhaled as the town noticed more than just the two missing teenagers returning from the mountainscape. Lower than Ben, cuddling behind the pair’s legs, the swooping ears and warm smiles of the Helix greeted them too.

Part Four: "Pitchforks"

Humanity conquered the stars. Most people forgot that. The species which stormed the food chain on one tiny, insignificant planet became the predators of space. The ‘New World’ became the entire milky way and the minds of humanity opened. Then war came. A war of men, absolutely. A war against greed, entirely. Yet, at its core, it was a war against nature. The great and bountiful Human Empire collapsed like Rome - in fire and in blood. What followed was no phoenix and no salvation. What remained was the barbarism of humanity: her sensibilities stripped back to uncover the venal core of man. Humankind died that day and the Terrans that succeeded them lost their trust in everything beyond their small blue orb. But, not all humanity was extinguished from the world. Not all, indeed.

One might've thought it impossible to fit an entire town worth of people into a single room on Christmas Eve. One was wrong on the day that the Helix visited the town. The room stood packed. All the foldable chairs filled, the room around them stuffed. The air itself shared by hundreds: all of them watched a teenage boy and a teenage girl walk in alongside creatures from beyond the stars.

“Explain it again…” Solomon commanded. He sat hunched forward on his chair, unsure if this was reality or just another Christmas nightmare.

“They’re called the Helix,” Ben explained. His hands were glued behind his back, like they were on the day he spoke at the St. Bernard’s High School commemoration. He didn’t believe in hand waving during a speech - he found it distracting. “They’re a race of beings from the planet Helix Major. They need our help.”

“Aliens! Monsters!” Janine shouted from the front row of gathered residents. It had been a long morning for Nancy’s mother - the redness of her face hadn’t shrunk at all.

Nancy shot an angry glare. “Mom,” she said, shaking her head.

“Janine, please. That’s not helping nobody,” said Solomon, calmly.

“Miss Granger, they’re not monsters…” Ben walked into the lioness’s den.

“Then what are they, my boy?” Solomon had spent the last few minutes analysing the mouse-like appearance of the Helix. From their whiskers, to their shining orb-like eyes, to their blunted claws. Solomon wanted to understand everything.

Ben stepped forward, tapping one of the Helix on the shoulder. “They’re refugees.”

The room broke out into a commotion. Chatter turned to a stampede of shouts and sighs. The Helix standing next to Ben patted their paws together, looking up at the boy’s anxious complexion.

“It’s true!”

The Helix coughed a little. “The boy speaks the truth…” He jumped off the stage and towards an opening in the middle of the room. His eyes blinked vertically - he smiled. “My name is Odo-nexmanar-syphe-moore. The boy has designated me Odo. You may also do the same.”

“Odo,” Solomon patted his knee. “Where do the Helix come from? Where in space?”

“Far beyond the Badlands. Beneath the dark solstice moon, beyond even the heaven-space.”

“What quadrant coordinates?!” Solomon’s shout caused the Helix to flinch. He shook his head profusely.

Odo’s head tilted slightly, before his eyes blinked back and forth between Ben and Solomon. “I know nothing about these quadrants. I know only the maps of the Untempered Schism…”

“It seems that the Helix use a system of time tunnels to travel the universe. This group travelled and seemed to land here by mistake,” Ben explained so confidently, it almost came across as if he understood it himself.

“How many are there?!” One citizen shouted from in the crowd.

“Thirty-one.”

“Thirty-one ALIENS in St. Bernards?!” Again, the room erupted. The clammer of whispers burst into screams and shouts. Janine rose to her feet.

“Anybody who doesn’t sit down and shut up in the next ten-seconds can get the hell out!” Solomon rose and, as he did, the fire of the residents calmed to a stop. “Time tunnels… so they’re from the past?”

“Or the future… we’re not quite sure,” Ben confessed.

“Which is it, Odo?”

Odo’s paws patted each other. “I know nothing of the mechanics. I am a watcher - a guardian to the thirty Helix minors in my care.”

“It's a babysitter?”

Ben shook his head. “/He’s/ a teacher… I think.”

Solomon approached Odo, kneeling down to come eye-to-eye with his warm smile. “I’ve never encountered a species like you. It’s remarkable.” He smiled at the Helix, who returned with a grin. “You said you were refugees. What are you fleeing from?”

“Monsters…” Odo shuddered, his hands flexed in on themselves as if he were cowering from his own words. “Will we be safe?”

Solomon returned to his dominant stature, resuming his tower over the residents. “I’m open to suggestions,” he said to the gathered townspeople.

One rose to his feet, “we should send them back!”

“Yeah!” Another shouted.

“Send them back?! Are you mad?!” Ben’s face soured like nothing he’d ever heard before. “They need our help!”

“Then let’s hand them to the government!”

“THEY’RE THE REAL MONSTERS!”

The scared shouts continued, causing a tremor deep within Solomon. His following shout rivalled the volume of the entire town’s protest. He brought them to their knees and extinguished their torches and pitchforks. “My God, people. Listen to yourselves! You won’t even hear them out before you banish them somewhere?!” Solomon resumed his kneel, looking directly into the eyes of Helix Odo. “Is it possible for you to go home?”

Odo’s head shook immediately. “The Black Celestia now ravage Helix Major. There is no safety for the children.”

“But your time portals remain open? Couldn’t they follow you through?”

“Only the Helix have domain over the vortexes of time. The Black Celestia would be lost between the aeons if they were to follow.”

“Okay, that’s one less thing to worry about,” Solomon said with a relieved sigh. He scratched his old head, where a powerful hairline used to be. “So sending them back isn’t an option. We should contact the Lancastrian government. They’ll have protocols for this stuff.”

“No!” Ben shouted, stopping Solomon as he approached a phone in the middle of the town meeting hall. “We can’t - they won’t be safe.”

“Ben, the Lancastrians are as Tarkinist as they come. They’ll help, trust me.”

Ben shook his head, moving in front of Odo, who sat quietly. “The Eastern Federal Republic was safe. Until it wasn’t. Look what they did to the Taurans. We can’t let it happen to them too. Please, Solomon. They'll be in danger...”

Solomon sighed, “he’s right.”

“Solomon, you can’t be serious!” Janine burst with a huff. “He’s just a boy. He doesn’t understand this stuff! We need to hand them over to the government!”

“Even if we could trust the government not to experiment on these beings for their time travelling abilities, another NCR could easily take its place. These people deserve more security than that.” Solomon headed towards the exit - his signal that a decision was made.

“They’re NOT PEOPLE!”

Solomon stopped in his tracks. His slow turning around helped soften even Janine’s anger. He smiled briefly at Ben and Nancy, before approaching Janine, who’s stature shrank by the second. “Janine," he said with a smile. "The universe shows its true face when it asks for our help; we show ours by how we respond.”

He continued towards the exit.

“The Helix will be safe... /here/, in St. Bernard’s town!”

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Five: "The Fear of a Mother"

The mother cried. And that was the worst part. Not the bombs falling or the bullets filling the air. The mother cried with the tears of all her children. Only then did the cost of war become real.

“Come on! Pick up!” Janine shuddered in the winter cold. The short daylight was soon to surrender and the elements battled a freezing war.

A static voice reached her through the other end of the phone. A voice with no emotion, no feeling - a voice as cold as the air she shrieked to breathe. “Thank you for contacting the Mirkwood Police Department. All our operators are busy at the moment. Please stay on the line.”

“Please, there’s these aliens and they’ve got my daughter. Please… she’s not safe. Help me. Oh my god, help me-”

“Thank you for contacting the Mirkwood Police Department. All our operators are busy at the moment. Please stay on the line.”

Her hands shook.

“Please,” she pleaded. As a tear rushed down her contracting cheek, she slowly put down the phone.

She didn’t know what to do. She was a school administrator - fancy term for a secretary. She spent her days filing cabinets and fielding phone calls… ‘How did I ever end up like this? Trying to protect my daughter from monsters,’ she thought as her panic continued to consume every corner of her brain. The panic of a mother.

The walk back into town from the outskirts where she found the payphone was a slow and gruelling one. Goosebumps grew into mountains across her arms and neck. The mechanism that pushed one foot in front of the other seemed to be working on autopilot. Simply, she wandered... her mind was somewhere else.

As she approached the town square, the bass-like voice of Solomon howled at her from a short distance. He waved, jogging lightly towards her. “Jan,” he started to say, catching up with her.

“Not now, Solomon.”

“Listen, I know. Jan, stop! Come on, hear me out!”

Janine’s legs paused. Releasing her gripped hands from her coat pocket, she turned. “What?”

“I couldn’t cancel the Princess’s visit.”

Janine scoffed. “Monsters have invaded this town and you’re worried about a royal visit?”

"I know you don’t want them here. I know you don’t trust them but-”

Before Solomon could finish, Janine snipped the words from his mouth.

“But what? That boy and those creatures have my daughter and you want me to be calm?”

“They don’t /have/ her, don’t be ridiculous. She’s fine. But do you think she’ll ever forgive you if you sell the Helix out to the feds?”

Janine shrugged insincerely. The implication that she didn’t know the answer to Solomon’s question was a lie. She knew - of course she knew.

Solomon continued, “the Princess will visit. She’ll cut her ribbon and give her little speech. And nobody in her convoy will find out about the Helix. They can’t.”

“And what do you want me to do about that?” Janine said with contempt.

“Absolutely nothing. We’re sorting it - finding them a safe place to hide out tomorrow. But I need you to keep your cool. You can’t say anything.”

She scoffed, shaking her head quietly. Could she contain herself? Did Solomon believe that was even possible? The fire of a mother is difficult to extinguish at the best of times.

“Fine, I’ll stay out of your way. But I want Nancy to come home with me. She’s not staying ‘round those monsters no more.”

Solomon smiled gratefully, “of course. I’ll send her home now.”

Janine continued her march, before Solomon continued with a final remark… “Thank you.”

She didn’t acknowledge it. She couldn’t - her façade would only cover so much. Her respect for Solomon? Her trust? Everything was on pause. She raced back to the town hall. It was now empty of life. Soulless chairs scattered across a worn wooden floor, the light of Christmas Eve burning to its end - everything was too calm.

She reached for Ben’s radio. Picking it up, she didn’t truly understand what it was she was holding. It was sleek, that’s for sure. She recognized the scraped-off Starfleet insignia on its side. ‘Honing device,’ she thought. ‘I just have to turn it on…’

With the town distracted by the arrival of the Helix, nobody noticed a hooded figure rush from the town hall, through the square, and towards the edge of the world. They were all gossiping. Some speculated on the ‘true intent’ of the Helix, others were excited at the prospect of aliens in Lancastria. Some scared, some paranoid, some hopeful, all distracted.

The path north was easier for Janine than it was for Ben and Nancy. Older, wiser, and wearing more appropriate shoes, she ventured - following the footsteps through the hills and valleys of the mountains north of St. Bernard’s town. She saw the same trees, braved the same gorges, crossed the same frontier.

As she climbed the last hill, the stone arches of the portal came into view. The sloping rocks, kind of like the sloping ears of the Helix, dominated the sky as the roaring blue continued to beam the vortex into the world. As she approached, Janine tapped the screen on the front of the radio. It buzzed slightly, then again, then again. The buzzing became repetitive.

“Okay…” Janine whispered to herself. “Okay…"

Raising both arms above her head, Janine became a catapult. She threw the radio forward, straight into the heart of the portal. A small vworp echoed throughout the valley of the portal - loud enough to cause a flock of birds to launch into flight.

She looked down at her hands - they were shaking. Then, she turned around and began the climb home, only this time her jittering hands were empty.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Part Six: "Heroes"

“An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all his wisdom. From his own father, he said, he first learned that fatherhood must be at the core of the universe.” - C.S. Lewis

Frank’s table was never tidy. Sure, papers and folders and calculators and receipts were shuffled around on a daily basis in order to make space for dinner. But out of sight was never out of mind. The table was never tidy and neither was his mind.

This Christmas Eve, Frank returned to his table, in his apartment, and sat quietly as the whistle of a songbird serenaded him to the edge of his fortitude.

“Dad?” Ben’s voice surprised him. It was quieter than Ben’s normal excited entrance. Usually, when Ben strutted through the door, he would monologue about the new facts that he’d learned at school, or the games of roleplay that he’d triumphed in with his friends, or his naïve take on modern politics across the Doggerlands. Even though Frank seldom knew precisely how to reply, he always listened. This time, however, Ben simply shied his way in through the front door.

Frank turned to see his son standing - in the middle of Christmas Eve - exhausted. Ben’s boots were still muddied from his mountain expedition and his eyes heavy with all he’d done since meeting the Helix. Ben sighed and Frank sighed back. They smiled.

“Long day,” said Frank, lightly kicking out a kitchen chair for Ben to sit on. He quietly closed shut his folder, in which Ben sometimes caught glimpses of spreadsheets and rough sums too shaky to add up neatly.

Ben planted his head into his arms, resting on the table. “I’m sorry.”

“For what, now?”

“For running away… for getting into trouble.”

Frank’s face dropped. It was like anger in its effect but softer - something overcame him.

“Hey,” he said, knocking Ben’s arm. “What you did today was…”

Ben braced himself for the scolding. His body tensed, his mind flinched in anticipation. ‘... was stupid!’ or ‘... was reckless!’ or ‘... was juvenile!’

“... was so brave.”

He looked at his father, he looked at his greying beard and his working hands. He looked at his father’s chequered flannel and his light blue eyes. He looked with that puzzled face he more often shot towards difficult algebra or chemistry. He saw pride.

“I don’t know where you get it from, kid. You just- you scare the death out of me. But that big brain of yours and that heart. You stood in front of a mob and defended somebody so different from you. I was so proud.”

“Mum always said be ‘kind because…’”

And, at the same time, both Ben and his father whispered the same quote at exactly the same time.

“‘... you never know when a touch of kindness will save your butt.’”

Their voices became one, even down to the minutiae of tone and pitch. They laughed and Frank patted Ben on the shoulder.

“She’d’ve been proud too.”

Ben yawned with his whole body, opening his mouth before chuckling again. “Odo told me that Helix have three parents… ‘genetic radix’ he called them.”

“Well, that’s lucky. Maybe teenage Helix have more than these crappy apartments. Three can actually provide, ya know.”

Ben shrugged, nonchalantly rising to his feet. “I thought it was weird. Three's messy. You only need one? They are aliens, I guess.”

He began to walk towards his bedroom, when Frank jumped to his feet too. His eyes were redder than normal - his cheeks more blush. “You’re my hero, Ben.”

Ben turned around. He extended his arms and embraced his father in a hug. Father and son, united in one.

“You’re mine too, Dad.”

Eventually, Ben’s exhaustion overcame him. After Frank prescribed the intrepid teenager a lengthy Christmas Eve nap, he retired to his sofa bed. He rubbed his face. ‘What a kid,’ he thought to himself.

As the afternoon resigned to the evening, Frank found himself indulging in a nap on the sofa as well. Leaning back, his arms folded and his snores echoed, and Frank rested for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. It, however, was never meant to last.

A rumble shook the building. The half-battered Christmas lights vibrated and the sofa bed creaked. A pile of papers that was stacked on the kitchen table fell over, jolting Frank awake. He yawned, not thinking much of the shake he had mostly missed. As he stood up and moved towards the kitchenette, the building shook again. This time, it was enough to rock the walls and the doors and the windows and the dangling ceiling light. Even the hinges on the kitchen cabinets rattled with purpose.

Ben emerged from his bedroom, his face red from the interrupted sleep.

“What’s going on?” He stretched a little, moving towards Frank who stood silently staring out of the kitchen window. “What is it?”

As Ben’s sight shot out of the window, he witnessed the tsunami of black smoke flooding down the mountains of the north. It hadn’t reached the village yet but it was ravaged like an avalanche of dread.

“They’ve found them…”

TO BE CONTINUED.