Titan Stand

by Max Jager

  Slavek set them down near the peak noting that the scanner revealed the presence of a structure of some kind, as well as indications of human life forms.

  "Looks like we're going to have company," he announced, "Still want to set down?" Tansy, Bria, and even Fergus all voted "yes," so he set them down. It was around two a.m. local time when the cargo ramp went down. Only the green night vision lights glowed as everybody moved down the ramp, Slavek pointing over to their left,

  "The scanner says there are four or five life forms over by that structure, let's see who they are?" Shining a hand held xenon light in the general direction they could see some people standing near what Matt thought looked like a small church. They didn't appear to be threatening, so everyone moved toward a small flat area. The ground was covered with rocks and skree causing Matt to warn the others,

  "Be very careful everyone you can easily trip on this stuff."

  Fergus and Tansy had a harder time than the others negotiating the rocky ground but managed to find a place to their liking. The leprechaun then stepped away from the others and spread his arms mumbling some mantra Matt couldn't make out. Then Tansy moved up to his right and took his right hand with her left, holding her right arm out. This went on for almost ten minutes then they carefully moved towards the church. Matt didn't see the people but figured they were still out there but hiding. Suddenly both fairy folk stiffened as a shimmery light surrounded them, however it was very weak. They kept mumbling some mantra in a language Matt's translator couldn't understand. After another ten minutes the light faded with Fergus and Tansy dropping their arms.

  "I'm positive this is the Aos Si´'s original landing site," announced Fergus, "But there isn't enough magic here to conduct a proper ceremony, the area has been profaned for too long we must find another location." Tansy agreed, and suggested the stone circle at Crocknafarbrague. As they were starting back to the ship Matt noticed the people were now a lot closer to them than he had realized, but they weren't making any threatening gestures, there appeared to be three young women and two men.

  "Who are you people?" He called out, this caused Slavek and the others to stop as they had not spotted the people as Matt had. There was silence, so Matt called out again.

  "Who are you people?"

  "Uhh we are simple pilgrims," came a woman's voice, "We stayed too long up her and now we have to wait until morn to climb back down, we mean you no harm."

  Matt could barely understand her thick Irish brogue but then called out again,

  "How many of you?"

  "Uhh five of us sir," came a man's voice.

  "Step over here where we can see you," called Matt. He held the light up like a street light illuminating the area, then Slavek said,

  "Here, let me take that, I'm a little taller than you, and I know how to tone down the light."

  With the Ruddorian holding up the light now forming a soft circle of light, the strangers stepped into its fringe. All eyes immediately fell on Fergus and Tansy,

  "Oh my god it's a leprechaun," came a woman's voice,

  "And look," gasped another "It's a fairy. As the others tried to get a better look, Matt said,

  "His name is Fergus and her's is Tansy. Fergus, greet the people, you too Tansy.

  Fergus shrugged tipped his hat and greeted them with Tansy curtseying and doing the same. One of the young women dropped to her knees tears streaming from her eyes.

  "They all said you weren't real but ever since I was a little girl I believed, you are real, oh my god! You are real."

  "What's she bleating about?" Asked Fergus,

  "She says she's believed in Leprechaun's, and presumably fairies ever since she was a little girl Fergus," said Kaitlyn, who had now stepped forward announcing.

  "Listen people this is Fergus and Tansy Moon Chaser, they come from the planet Denedra. Bria here comes from the planet Doradus. They are part of the three tribes called the Tuatha De´Danann. The third tribe settled here on earth a very long time ago. They wish to perform a ceremony to re-join the three tribes." No one spoke for a moment or two, then one of the men exclaimed,

  "Who are you, you sound like a yank?"

  "I am," she replied, "Matt over there is too, we are helping these people." Then someone said,

  "Who are they?" Pointing to the Ruddorians.

  "That's Slavek and Tiag Slykhor they are from Ruddoria, this is their ship."

  Slowly the pilgrims started backing away as one of them said,

  "Well thanks ever so much, but we need to be going now; we'll just leave you now, goodbye!"

  "What was that all about?" Asked Tiag Matt shrugged,

  "This is what is termed here on earth, a "close encounter of the third kind," obviously these people aren't dealing with it very well, come one, if we hurry, maybe we can get over to this ring of stones place." Everyone returned to the spacecraft and in a short time were lifting off headed east towards County Tyrone. Both Fergus and Tansy were emotionally touched by the woman's statement of belief finally realizing for themselves just how powerful an image the Aos Si´ had left on this planet. It didn't take more than a couple minutes to hone in on the coordinates to what was locally termed "The Hill of Imaginary men."

  This time there were no indications of any humans around. Landing in full cloaking mode they exited the ship just a few yards from the small pile of stones, nearby were two Hawthorne trees. It was now close to four a.m. so Fergus and Tansy went right to work. This time the light that encircled them was somewhat brighter and before long Fergus and Tansy seemed to be talking to someone. Matt realized something must be working, because Kaitlyn and Bria were summoned to help. The four now formed a ring with the magical light growing somewhat stronger. Something was definitely happening; he swore he could see what looked like ghosts fluttering in the light as Tansy now called out in a tongue his translator wouldn't decipher. This went on for close to half and hour, finally as the dawn was starting to break, the light disappeared leaving the four just standing there.

  "I am so very tired," muttered Tansy, "Let us leave here." Slavek took them into a a high orbit announcing that everyone should get some sleep, especially the fairy folk who were simply exhausted.

  After everyone had managed a few hours of sleep Tansy and Fergus called a meeting to explain what had happened.

  "There is definitely magicka in this place," began Fergus, "Though it seems to be

  on the wane. The spirits of our ancestors were definitely present," added Tansy, "In two days time we are to go to a location revealed to us by the spirits, there we are to perform the ceremony."

  "Just where is this place supposed to be?" Asked Matt.

  "The directions were rather brief," replied Tansy, "A tiny valley on the south side of Knocknarea Mountain west of Sligo town."

  "Well let's get back to that satellite," sighed Matt, "Looks like we've got some more work to do." Kaitlyn kept pulling up a number of Irish related sites, but nothing was giving them what they wanted, finally Sligo's own web page did the trick, even giving GPS coordinates for Knocknarea Mountain, but the Glenn as well.

  There were a number of photos of the glen as well as walking directions as to how to find it.

  "It's hard to tell from the pictures," said Slavek, "But that glen as you call it looks rather narrow I'm not sure I could get the ship down in there."

  "How about you drop Kaitlyn and I off nearby close to dawn, we can walk in there and locate a proper landing site." Then turning to Tansy, he asked,

  'They didn't specify a particular part of this glen did they?"

  "No," she replied, "Just show up at the glen."

  "What's the highest altitude you can be and still get detailed landscape images?" He asked Slavek.

  "Depends on the cloud cover," replied Slavek. "The scanner isn't bothered by it for general data gathering such as locating population centers, thermal images, and temperature readings, but we will need to get under any clouds if you want any sort of detailed terrain images."
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  "Well I guess that's our next step," said Matt.

  Chapter 48

  Titan Stand Chapter 48

  As they moved towards Sligo, Slavek asked Matt,

  "The scanner is picking up a large number of flying craft, mostly below us, but I afraid of hitting one. We're moving so fast, I have no time at all to avoid them."

  "Those are passenger airlines," said Matt, "Generally they fly at around twenty-eight to forty thousand feet, get down below the clouds and you have to worry about the private aircraft." Slavek gave him a worried look,

  "This is not good."

  "I know it isn't he replied, "But whatcha gonna do?" Slavek muttered something Matt didn't catch as they approached the city below just into the clouds. Tiag put the ship into cloak mode as they hovered just below the clouds. It was around noon local time so the scanner was able to record excellent images. Returning to a low orbit they began to study the photos for possible landing sites as well as where this "glen" was located.

  Even though the images were incredibly sharp and detailed, Matt discovered that the eye lens on his translator could highlight even more detail.

  Both Slavek and Tiag wore "detailer's" as they called the lens devices, and all three covered every foot of Knocknerea Mountain finally locating the trail that entered the glen.

  "I see it," exclaimed Matt, "See it? That's the little well the article mentioned, and look over there, that must be the gate but that trail is pretty faint, obviously not a lot of people walk on it."

  "We can fix that," said Tiag, she then entered a few commands on the ship's computer immediately bringing up an enhanced image revealing the trail in sharper detail.

  "Hey that's pretty cool," said Kaitlyn.

  ""Yeah look," added Matt, "It's a whole lot clearer now, yep, that must be the glen see how those rock walls come right up there?"

  Further study revealed a small semi-level area roughly two hundred yards from the glen up the trail further.

  "Do you think you can get the ship in there?" He asked Slavek,

  "Well let's just look and see," came the reply. Slavek then zoomed in on the small open area,

  "Oh "mecca" look at that?" he grumbled, "Those trees." He then entered some more commands and a large red rig appeared in the open area. He than made a couple more adjustments with the ring growing right up to the edge of the trees.

  "I was afraid of that, see there, that ring is the same diameter of this ship, it's going to be a very tight fit." Then Kaitlyn had a thought,

  "Tansy, Fergus take a look at this!" She had Slavek zoom out a little then asked the two.

  "See that open area, down here is this glen area do you think if we landed there we might be landing on some sort of fairy meeting area, maybe that's where we are supposed to go?" Slavek zoomed in and out giving the two fairy folk a better idea of how things laid out. Finally Fergus said,

  "Honestly, who can say what these fairies do here, however if there were a lot of them that open area appears to have several Hawthorne trees surrounding it. Ney! I would not suggest landing there." Tansy concurred,

  "The distance from that glen to that tiny field is one hundred and fifteen "arcma's" not a short distance to be sure, but that field offers a better chance of escape should danger appear. Were we to meet in the glen proper there are only two ways out, one being potentially block by the threat. I'm going to concur with Fergus; I have a strong feeling that open area is where we will meet."

  "Well as Matt likes to say," sighed Slavek, "its back to square one."

  "What's over this way," said Matt, "Not along the trail but look at this area, it's farther away but maybe you could land there?" Slavek studied the place Matt indicated, then measured it.

  "I don't know," he announced, "It's possible but looks tighter than the other place we'd be sitting right on that trail." The area in question was roughly at the mouth of the glen basically a wide spot in the trail.

  "How about you drop Kaitlyn and I off back down here, then we can hike in there and physically check the area ourselves, I think you have something I can do that with." Slavek shrugged,

  "I certainly do, and I'll download the ship's basic diameter including safety zone, yes, that might work. But since it will be daylight, I won't be able to pick you up."

  "That's all right," said Matt, "I'll take my backpack and pack snacks and water, when we're done we'll head for the glen and that open area."

  "I'll be going with you as well boyo," announced Fergus. Matt looked down at him with surprise.

  "Are you sure?" he asked, "Looks like a lot of walking involved." The leprechaun glared at him,

  "Do you doubt my abilities lad?"

  "Uhh no, sorry Fergus, just let me know what you might need, we're going to be out a long time." Fergus just gave him a wink, and said no more. Since they had time to kill as Slavek wasn't going to drop them off until closer to dawn they located the communication satellite they had been hacking, tapping into it once more. Checking on a few more Irish web sites for any information they might have missed Kaitlyn tried calling her mother again but got the same message about the phone being disconnected.

  "Weird" she exclaimed. "Well Matt do you want to call your folks?" He frowned,

  "Not really, but I've got to talk to them sooner or later, gimmie the phone."

  Since it was close to three a.m. in Ireland it was around eight in the evening back in Durango on the previous day.

  He dialed the number and waited.

  "It's around eight, maybe they are out?" he wondered, then his father's voice came on.

  "Hello?" Matt hesitated, wondering if he should have attempted this.

  "Hello, who is this?"

  "Umm dad?"

  "Matt? Is that you?"

  "Umm yeah dad, it's me."

  "MATT! Where are you son? Are you all right?"

  "Yeah dad, I'm fine, I really am." He then heard his father call to his mother,

  "Sandy! It's Matt." He heard his mother scream and the sounds of her rushing to the phone. From her voice, he knew she was crying.

  "Oh my god Matt, where are you, are you hurt?"

  "No mom, I'm not hurt, I'm just fine, listen up, just listen to me for once will you?" There was a moment of pause ant the other end of the line.

  "Now listen, I'm fine Kaitlyn is fine…"

  "Kaitlyn? Is she with you?" interrupted his mother.

  "Yeah mom, I told you all this in my letter, what's the matter, didn't you believe me, damnit mom, I thought real hard about calling you two, don't make me regret my decision."

  "Oh please, don't hang up," she pleaded, we're here son oh please where are you?"

  "Well put dad back on, I'd rather talk to him." The sounds of fumbling could be heard,

  "Where are you son?" came his father's voice,

  "Well dad, right now we're over what looks like the Atlantic we're tapping into a communication satellite, we've got a few things to take care of first, but I'm coming home…For strictly a visit, I'll explain more when I see you guys."

  "Who are you with and what are you doing over the Atlantic?" Matt chuckled,

  "Dad, it's a long story, and I don't really want to say a lot over the phone other than this. Do you know where that cell tower is just south of town on 550?"

  "Yes I do son."

  "That's where we'll meet, now listen dad, are you still friends with the mayor?"

  Yes, why?"

  "Well bring him, do whatever you have to but bring him. Also no cops, I mean it no cops, if the mayor thinks he has to have a bodyguard they can't be armed, just listen dad, I know what I'm talking about."

  "Is there anything else?" Asked his father,

  "Yeah, call Liam, tell him to round up as many kids from our class as he can, even Patricia. I'm depending on you dad, also bring my iPhone and a bunch of my clothes. I know all this sounds crazy but believe me it will all make sense when we arrive."

  "When will that be?" Replied his father.

  "Umm let
's say in two days, say around seven in the evening your mayor friend should be done for the day by then."

  "Is Kaitlyn with you son?"

  "Yeah, why?"

  "You don't know do you?"

  "Know what dad?"

  "We'll explain when we see you. Two days from now, at the cell tower site, around seven."