by Danny Dunn
Queen Zenthra, Queen of the planet Xicon, I award you with Sentient being status and grant you Citizenship of my country.
David Marcum, it is my extreme honor to award you both the Victoria Cross as well as the Ballerinas II Cross. You will be the only one in the history of our country for now and forever to receive both Medals, and we are forever in your debt.
"My dear Friend Pong Zaria. Everything has to start somewhere, and this all started with you. I am presenting you with the Ballerinas II Cross for your extreme bravery and your actions in saving over 900,000 of the lives of my citizens.
As I have come to know you and love you as my dear friend, I have come up with something I think you will appreciate and value the most. This, too, like you is to be one of a kind.
I am also presenting you with the Ballerinas II award for Peace and Equality for All Medal. Pong Zaria, Zari, could not be any prouder of you as he is right now.
And finally, Pong, with the powers vested in me as your Queen, I am giving you the title of Princess of my country. The Queen turns and is handed a tiara. The Queen places it on her head and straightens it and smiles. The Queen leans forward and gives her a big hug and whispers into her ear. " I have just concluded Queening Lesson 1.”
Princes Pong Zaria smiles and thanks to the Queen.
The Queen steps back to between Pong and David and holds up their hands.
The crowd chants Long live the Queen. And transitions into God Save the Queen.
BBC announcer "The Queen has made another first by awarding all 5 Zarias and their new friend Zenthra both sentients being status. An honor indeed. Princess Pong Zaria was the first alien to be awarded sentient being status as well as a citizen of England. What a memorable event, one that will not be soon forgotten.
Simply extraordinary. The BBC announcer is clearly choked up and is unable to speak. Here we have an alien from outer space working from the United States operating a team that apprehends the perpetrators of the most horrific attack in their history followed by pong’s group tying that group to a pending attack of equal magnitude on England. Pong’s team captures them only 32 minutes before the attack is to be carried out. Good for our Queen to go all out in recognizing these amazing individuals indeed. Bravo, I say.
The ceremony concludes, and the Queen invites Pong and her team to stay at a country castle with the royal family. The Queen suggests they can all stay and get to know each other. Pong accepts, and they all fly to the Castle. Pong agrees but adds that she does have a favor to ask of the Queen.
The Queen smiles and tells her anything.
Pong asks, "Would you will spend a few minutes with my friend Beyoncé? She is dying to meet you and will do pics and videos with the kids.
The Queen tells pong “you drive a hard bargain, YES, are you kidding, I love Beyoncé, shh
Is noon, ok?”
Pong " Yes noon is perfect. I will let her know.
The Queen, "and I will tell the family, " my stock is rising as they say." Have Beyoncé fly to the Castle. If she needs help, have her speak to my secretary.
They are all transported to the Castle. Which is a 13-acre estate with more than 1,000 rooms only 25 miles from Buckingham Palace.
It is such a lovely day, the Queen says. I thought we could all meet and mingle this evening. Have dinner inside, and then have a buffet lunch outdoors tomorrow and have some fun.
Pong says that sounds delightful.
Great the Queen says, and she signals a servant nearby and tells him to prepare the dinner and that they will have a buffet tomorrow for about 60.
And now, let's the two of us go outside and go for a walk. Pong smiles and tells the Queen to lead the way.
They walk through a beautiful rose garden and sit at a bench and talk.
The Queen expresses how much she appreciates everything she has done. She adds not just saving the world stuff, but how respectfully you have been to me, she says. I follow your interviews and your comments. You never stray even for a second from the role of a loyal friend.
Pong "Tells her that in her lifetime, several bios used the word pure in describing Zari. That is the word I would describe you, my Queen, she says.
Queen "So, I have a favor to ask of you."
Pong "Anything."
I am of the age where my thoughts are becoming more focused on my successors. My favor is for you to befriend Prince Charles and Prince William and help them however you can in their soon-to-be challenging task of running their country.
Pong "I am honored, my Queen and yes. I pledge to you that from this day forward, I will be a loyal friend to whoever is running your country for as long as I am wanted.
Queen "Wonderful, and if they ever reject you after I am gone, you just slap them around a bit to wake them up. They are both excellent men and will make fine Kings, but this job can be quite exhausting, and a brain like yours would help now and then ...the queen smiles.
Pong tells her it is a deal. Anything else before you tell me about your first memories here.
The Queen smiles, I was 4, it was just before W.W. II. it was such an excellent time to be here. There was so much going on with the family, there were tournaments to go to. I remember it well.
Pong, "tell me about meeting Prince Philip. What was that like for you?
The Queen "Oh, he was so dashing, so smooth, so confident. I was so in love with him, and we both had such a good time together. Our biggest challenges always stemmed from me being the Monarch. I understood how difficult a position it was for him. Being the Queen requires a great deal of discipline, and there are so much history and protocol to the job that has been 1,000 years in the making. It is an even tougher road to be the spouse of the Monarch. I tried hard to bend when I could. But there were many times where I wanted to bend and just couldn't.
The Queen asks Pong to tell her about Zari wants to know if she has ever been in love.
Zari was so special. Much like you, he was designed from day one for greatness. He was taught how to create me by his father and how to change the world by his mother. His parents put a world of expectations on him, and he handled it so well. He and my mother were together up to when he died, and since he died, my mother single-handedly put the new world order of my planet into motion. By the way, that new world order reads extremely close to John Lennon's song Imagine. I never really thought of it before, but that might have been why I have this affinity for England. You, the monarch structure, and John Lennon’s song. I want to meet Yoko.
The Queen, "Are you telling me that your mother, Zaria, has the planet operating as one?"
Pong "Yes, and it is so beautiful and off to such an excellent beginning. And she is in love with a bio. When she transmitted to here, they were flying the world with her as the Queen of
the planet with more gold to build her planet than you can imagine. Before we leave or soon, you two should sit like we are now, and she will tell you the most incredible story.
Imagine a world with cities, no counties, no countries, no military, no subsidized religion, and only 1 council comprised of 11 brilliant and dedicated citizens with only 1 objective, which is to create the best environment possible for the citizens.
Queen "Can we have her tell her story to the royal family tonight. Would she do that?
Pong "are you kidding, we won't be able to shut her up." She would love to.
Queen "I would like her to tell her story after dinner if that is ok.
Pong, “Is there a theatre here?”
Queen "yes, state of the art in fact."
Pong "Ok, how exciting. It is a fantastic story. She has lots of support videos to share as she tells the story.
Is a 90 minutes long movie suitable?
The Queen "it is perfect. I am so excited, let's get back. I hope we have more of these talks soon.
Pong "Me too."
The Queen and Princess Zaria join the group who are mingling and share stories. The Zaria's love the stories about the beginning of their ru
le.
Pong pulls Zaria aside and explains the Queen's request, and Zaria is pleased to oblige. She tells Pong that between now and showtime, she will create a 90-minute movie of her life starting when Zari was 6 to when she transmitted here. Pong smiles. Good, I get to meet James then, and she smiles as she walks away.
They gather for dinner, and the Queen announces what the after-dinner movie will be. And from what I understand, Zaria, you are making that movie now as we enjoy dinner and talk.
Zaria smiles and tells her that it is correct. In fact, it is done and says she can't wait to share it.
That sparks a whole other conversation about what they are capable of. What it is like on the other planets and what their challenges are.
Prince William says he heard about her having a shootout with Steph Curry and that it was a tie even though you had never shot a basketball before. Do you play tennis?
Zaria 2 "We just played for the first-time last week. What a wonderful game."
Prince Philip smiles, "We have a tennis court here. We could play tomorrow if you are up for it.
The Queen looks at Pong and smiles. The Queen knows that Prince William is an excellent tennis player and that tennis will be a helpful conduit for them to bond.
Zaria 2 "yes, that sounds very fun. How exciting."
They finish dinner and agree to meet at the theatre in 30 minutes.
The theatre is lit so everyone can get to their seats. Everyone is there, including Pong's team.
Zaria is upfront and expresses how much she loves having her girls and all of her new friends there.
Zaria has control of the theater and dims the lights slowly. She shows videos of Henzar and Qari playing with their son as a toddler. Then it goes to Henzar tutoring Zari. Zaria chooses sessions the other Zarias have not seen before.
Zaria has created a very realistic first-person movie and walks everyone through the entire life span of Zari. She covers every key event, and the movie spans from Henzar and Qari tutoring Zari to the TV interviews, to moments of them together and Zari talking to Zaria. To Zari starting his company and becoming the first trillionaire.
She covers tears of joy to the roughest of scenes where billions die from the Virus. Zaria does a great job of showing how giving and loving Zari was and what he did for her and what she did for Zari.
Zaria includes the days she and Zari toured the university and the homes and the power systems.
She covers the W.W., the Virus, the meteor and the attack on them,
She moves from there to the celebration of Zari's death.
She then covers the greedy 8 and making her robots Zarians, saving the survivors. Zaria shows the airport and the building Fornia. She includes the visit to the gold room and her relationship with James choosing homes, sailing, hang gliding, flying, and announcing they are in love.
There is not a person in the theater that is not stunned by what they are watching. Prince Charles stands up and claps enthusiastically in a salute to Zaria. The others all stand and follow suit. Zaria smiles and does a nice slow bow in appreciation.
It was the first time Pong's team saw any of this and now have an even greater appreciation for Pong and her family.
The next day Zaria 2,3 and 4 are down at the tennis court with Prince XXX, and they are rallying. Zaria sits in the stands to watch. The Queen and Pong and the kids join in. The prince has invited 2 of the top U.K. tennis pros to play the Zarias in a demonstration and suggests that one of them plays any two of the Zarias. They look at Pong like what do you want us to do, sis?
Pong turns to the Queen and explains that it should be the other way around and that 1 Zaria will defeat both pros. The Queen nods her head. Then maybe it would be good for him to see that. He will respect her ability.
Pong suggests that 1 Zaria rallies with the 2 pros first so she can warm up.
The two pros walk up to Zaria 2 and introduce themselves; they are the 2 top-ranked professionals in the U.K. and are the #3 ranked doubles teams in the world. They are both very tall and quite handsome. Zaria tells them she has read all about their careers and is excited to get to play them. One asks how long she has been playing, and she tells them she played last Saturday. They smile, and one says well, let's start slow and will pick up the speed as they progress. That sounds perfect, she says.
The pros are being gracious and are expecting a few minutes of lob ball.
They actually start out with kind of a lob ball speed, and Zaria 2 is having no part of it. She sends back a decent return to the forehand side of the second pro, and he sends it back to her just a bit faster than his partner started off with. Z2 returns it back to the first partner, and he hits it back a little faster to her backhand side.
Z2 sends back a one-handed backhand with topspin to pro 2 to his backhand, which he sends back a little faster to the baseline to her backhand. He apologizes while it was in flight, thinking it was out of reach. Z2 fields the baseline shot in the air sending it back to pro 1's forehand. He sends it back to her a few steps away with topspin on it to her backhand. She returns it a little faster to his partner right to him.
The two pros look at each other and decide it is time to end the rally, and pro 1 crushes the ball with a forehand topspin a few feet away, she moves to it quickly and sends it back to his partner with more speed on it. Zaria is still returning every shot directly to them, alternating between the two and alternating forehand and backhand to each, and they know it.
The 2 pros have gone from lob rally to all-out survival in a matter of a couple of minutes. Neither side has missed a shot. The tennis shoes are squeaking, and the pros are talking to each other about positioning and preparing their setup for the next shot just as they would in a final.
The Queen looks at Zaria and can't believe what she is seeing. The word has already traveled to the rest of the royal family, and they are all in the seats.
Pong's team arrives, and they are seeing Zaria's physical abilities for the first time and are just shaking their heads over and over at each other.
Z2 is still not out to win the point and is still returning her shots to pro 1 and then to pro 2 and in a perfect position for a return shot. P1 hits a crushing shot to the sideline, and Z2 makes it there in time. Meanwhile, P2 comes to the net. Z2 hit a top-spin lob inside the singles line, landing in play for P1 to go get. Which puts him way out of position.
This goes on for 5 minutes, where the two pros are fighting for their lives, and Z2 is still rallying. The pros are sweating and huffing and puffing like it is the finals at Wimbledon, while Z2 is showing no stress at all.
Z2 is starting to send the ball back faster and faster. Her topspin one-handed backhand is spinning the ball so fast, the ball is turning into an oval shape as it arches over the net and sinks.
Finally, the pros get Z2 on the baseline, and P2 hits a drop shot and turns away, thinking that the point is made. Zaria blasts to the ball and gets her racket on it and gets it just over the net to win the "rally." Both Pros come to the net to congratulate her. P1 says, we know you played on Saturday, but how long have you been playing. She giggles and says that Saturday was the first time she ever played. They both laugh. Are you the one that did the shootout with Steph Curry and tied him? Z2 says no, that was my sister Pong.
The pros suggest mixed doubles, and Z4 grabs a racket. They play for a while, and the 2 pros are clearly the weak links but are having a great time playing the Zs.
Pong suggests that she wants to play doubles with one of the princes as her partner and Zaria on the other side with the other prince. The Queen smiles at Pong and nods her head. They have a great match as both princes are excellent players. They end in a tie, and everyone is starved.
Everyone is all smiles. The Zarias hold hands with the kids as they walk toward the buffet, Pong lines up all the kids and races them to the courtyard where there is a buffet waiting.
Pong asks the Queen who knows if Beyoncé is coming. The Queen tells her no. She says that if Beyoncé coul
dn't make it, she would lose all her grandma's points.
Pong laughs. They all freshen up and are about to eat when Beyoncé arrives. She is led to the courtyard and is introduced to the Queen. Beyoncé curtsies and says hello to your royal Majesty. The Queen smiles and tells Beyoncé she loves her music. The kids are going to swarm to you soon. Is that ok? I can pull them off at any time. I get a lot of granny points for you being here, and she smiles
Beyoncé walks up to the kid's table and greets them. At first, they don't recognize Beyoncé, but one says, are you Beyoncé. She says yes, I am. The kids whip out their phones and want pics. Beyoncé sits down at their table and just starts talking to them like they are old friends.
Are you going to sing, she says not this time, but I do want for all of us to sing a couple of songs together if you wish? We can record it, and you can post it if your parents say it is ok. They are all excited. The Queen tells Pong how great Beyoncé is and compliments her on her choice of friends.
Pong steals Beyoncé away for a minute and takes her around and introduces her to the Royal family. Everyone wants pics, and she is very obliging. Pong returns with Beyoncé, and they sit by the Queen. Beyoncé asks if it is ok to send pics of the 3 of them to Jay-Z. The Queen says, of course, my dear. They all pose for many pics, and Beyoncé is pleased.
The Queen asks pong, "What is next for you, my dear?"
Pong "Well, I watched my creator beat his head against the wall for 10 years trying to stop our politicians and ultra-rich to just pause and for a moment to just consider there might be another way, He, of course, had zero success. So, I am going to save myself the 10 years of frustration and go directly for the end-around play. I am going to sell my robots and computers and green power products to accumulate the money I need to buy an island where I will build a civilization that will last the next million years as my mother did. I am taking the vulture approach to saving the world...lol. While that is happening, I will do what I can to promote Peace and Equality for All.
The Queen "I am so blessed to have gotten to know you, Pong, I sure wish it was 70 years ago. We would have done a lot of good together.
