Felicity

Chapter 64: The Town Moves

Almost two years after aliens took residence in Felicity a sky show provided by a comet and the moon distracted the planet and downed or damaged all the satellites over Earth.

The last weather satellite image showed a tropical storm forming in the Gulf and the projections had it impacting the coast of Northern Mexico.

Most of the absent family members were back in Felicity. Ben and Janis had died in a car mishap and Leigh and Corey had not found their loved ones but James and Lucy and their daughters were back and staying with Edie and Allen and so were Sally and others but Paloma's husband had not yet made it back.

Reports that the storm had stopped came late since the hurricane hunter planes flew to where it had been expected to be. They did find that the storm had lost most of its size but had gained great intensity to the point is was being called a second Camille. It had become a one hundred fifty mile wide tornado with winds over two hundred miles an hour.

It meandered towards the mid Texas coast for two days then suddenly headed to the coast at an incredible forty miles an hour. Many in Felicity were already gone by then because predictions for the previous three days had targeted the town for the storms landfall.

The coast from Galveston to Corpus Christi received urgent hurricane warnings and ordered to evacuate.

All but three hundred sixty people evacuated the town. Those people met at the resort and the building was enclosed in a bubble.

"Who is First Friend and why is she so important?"

The question was asked by a human to an Akkad.

The human was wearing a frequency altering ear piece so she could hear the Akkad, their voice was at a higher frequency than humans could hear. They were sitting in the resorts veranda.

There were over twenty one other aliens with them in the resort watching the hurricane approach, nine of them Kindred, five of them Devl.

No one seemed worried about the storm so she wasn't either. The young ladies name was Sammie. The Akkad's was Ahn.

They were good friends.

The Akkad answered, "Well, it began many years ago. The future Emperor and the Empress were stranded on Earth when a large solar flare kicked their ship out of a wormhole and fried all of the ships circuits so they could not navigate or communicate. First Friend took them in and saved their life. She also kept their presence a secret.

The three ended up loving each other dearly.The Empress and the woman became lovers. The Emperor dearly loves the woman as a second mother.

That woman set up equipment in her home that allowed the Empress to call for help. When the rescue ship arrived the Empress ordered the technicians to come up with a way to allow her and the woman to communicate.

They were reluctant to do that for her, they were not to be seen by Earthlings much less open lines of communication, but our Empress trusted the woman implicitly and obviously loved her so they did. They managed to communicate before they left the solar system.

The Empress and First Friend communicated that way for years.

Over time everyone in the palace could see that the woman was not getting older and understood the Empress had broken a law. They were not surprised when she nullified the law.

Three other planets of the Federation have since annulled their restrictions too. The others never had such restrictions but followed the rule to keep the peace with the others.

The ideas of not helping others in time of need now seems misguided to all beings.

Less than a month after the Empress left Earth the woman's human lover asked our Empress to be included as a friend too.

When the succession ceremony approached the women were invited to attend.

Both consented to minor surgery so they could hear us speak. Both received a rudimentary neural translator. Both understand Akkad and the Devl and the Kindred languages. The other people's languages are not oral.

The representatives from other systems had imagined humans to still be barbaric apes and were very impressed by the women after they arrived in Akkad a month before the ceremony.

The Empress introduced them to all her friends and First Friend and her Consort just wowed everyone of every race and made love to many.

Everyone knew the Empress loved First Friend.

When our Empress Ohm ceased to be as is the custom at coronations the entire planet saw how emotional the women were.

They knew the Empress would cease to be, but both assumed she would simply loose her title.

The did not know that cease to be meant to die.

All beings were reminded of what it felt to be completely helpless, they saw that in the faces of First Friend and her Consort. All re-learned about tears. They taught the beings of six other planets to mourn.

First Friend lambasted the Emperor about the silliness of the custom and ordered him to end it. She said she would not be able to see him cease to be when his daughter became Empress.

The ambassadors and the court understood just how important she was when he immediately ordered the custom annulled.... after he ceased to be.

The woman understood but still pummeled his chest in tears. The Emperor hugged her.

Hitting the Emperor is an offense that calls for immediate banishment but none of the guards moved, all adored her.

They understood she had also preserved our Empire, there were no direct descendants to the two she had saved.

During the ceremony the Emperor just waited out her emotional outburst then simply took her hand and walked to the Ambassadors and introduced her.

All the women hugged her. The Devl's entire planet gasped when she hugged their ambassador Tal in return. Six planets fell in love with her.

The fire haired and golden haired women are now the two most popular other worldlers on several planets. The little Empress calls First Friend Mah, a term of endearment for female family members.

Your rescue is entirely due to the Emperors and Empress' love for that woman.

The First Friend to the Akkad and Devl is your Aunt Clara.

That's why we await a hurricane in the beach resort.

That's why we are now lifting into space."

"Aunt Clara is First Friend?"

"Yes."

"Wow. Thanks for the lesson Ahn. If you will excuse me I need to go kiss Aunt Clara now."

As the outer bands of the storm began to batter the town the resort lifted into the air and took them to an island in the Pacific in forty five minutes.

It took ten minutes for the electricity, the water and sewer lines and the communication cables to be connected then the resort settled down on a beach exactly like the one they had just left and like the old location the veranda pointed south.

Most residents had been on the balconies and decks during the trip and wanted to talk about their near space experience. Many had been waiting the reconnection of the sewer lines so they could go to the bathroom.

Many decided to eat breakfast there.

Eventually all went to the parking area, found a vehicle the looked like their car and drove home.

It wasn't their car of course, it was smaller and electric but they knew the only roads in their new world were in Felicity, an island with no bridges.

The first thing all noted on the way home was the subway station entrances on both sides of Felicity Boulevard, one next to the gallery the other next to the Tiki bar.

They saw subway stations stairs downtown on both sides of city hall and in the mid circle of each of the now thirty Cloverleaf subdivisions.

The residents that had left a townhome now had real houses as did those that lived in apartments. None of the apartment buildings had been rebuilt and neither had many houses, mostly the older smaller ones.

The streets did not need to be as wide so the sidewalks were.

Eventually all forced themselves to look up, they knew that the enormous mountain where a Texas prairie had been would disorient them. Nearly all had to drive to that end of the island and just stare at it. That was what really brought home to all that they were not in Kansas...err... Texas anymore.

Soon all noted they had new neighbors. Where the shuttered and bankrupt bay restaurants had been there was one large restaurant that served Asian and American food, it was called Singapore.

It was open for business.

Many went in and had a snack as they introduced themselves to the staff. They found Mr. Wu, the owner, to be a magical personality and all loved him immediately. Some of the older ladies noted that he was a widower.

From the restaurants deck they saw that their new bay had islands in it beside theirs. They noted excitedly that the island to their left had animals from an African prairie.

They were intrigued to see the island to their right had six large and one enormous round building. They could see the sign that said it was the Cel Spaceport.

The rest of that island was planted with corn, rye, and sunflowers. It was also a wildlife habitat for birds and seed eating smaller creatures. There were wide sidewalks throughout that island.

Each island was only about two hundred meters from them but there were no bridges to either. There did seem to be a subway to the Space Port.

Soon enough everyone went home and spent the rest of the day unpacking. They were fascinated by their new visualizer, a three dimensional TV.

Their old TV's were there and could now pick up their favorite channels as well as the three most popular stations in thirty countries.

They now had nudity on regular TV.

The next morning all went to work.

For some like the bank, the spotlight factory, the business building, had the stuff to resume working on what they had left two days before. Inga's gym was open and so was the resort and each of the bed and breakfasts.

Wendy and Marie simply had to put out their merchandise but they took their time doing so and did not open until the next day.

The playhouse was ready as was the town library. City Hall would be ready to go in two days.

Felicity music had all it's artists in town briefly but all resumed their tours within two weeks.

However, although all restaurant owners found up to date new kitchen equipment they had no tables and no chairs and no food. They had been encouraged to think about how they wanted everything to be set-up.

Each had more room, an outdoor sitting area on the sidewalk in front and large decks in the back.

The kitchens were open for all to see.

The exterior of the buildings looked pretty much like it had before but the interiors were larger and empty. The owners and staff had been gifted with a blank slate.

For Julian and Pedro and Sally, and Larry and Molly and Jerry and Janie it was like Christmas.

It did occur to them that the town was much smaller and expected their places to be deserted most of the time but they had nice business within a week and great business in five weeks which included alien races.

Within two weeks Felicity was back to as normal as it was going to get.

Six weeks after their arrival Clara invited all to accompany her to Capital City and meet their new King and Queen.

Everyone liked their leaders that now included a Duke overseeing their town. Everyone was happy to see theirs was Jim, Felice's son. Felicity was his hometown.

At the port opposite the island from Felicity cargo ships docked constantly but so did passenger vessels. Their island of Cel began to fill up but Felicity was expecting only returning citizens, people who were away when the transfer was made. Those waiting for them met them at the train station beneath downtown.

As time passed parents, lovers and friends began to worry about people that had not found their way home. Several learned their children and friends had missed their boat and were frantically making travel arrangements.

One last boat with over four hundred passengers did not arrive until the disasters had begun. Felicity gained twenty-one citizens that day, two fewer than had been expected.

The people of Felicity were cognizant of the boats circling the island although they could not see them, they circled the outer reef which was forty kilometers out to sea.

All felt sorry for them but the news explained the requirement for Cel citizenship began with being the kind of person you would love as a neighbor.

Most of those on boats were pushy, self centered, arrogant people. The kind that just knew they had to be allowed in just because of who they were.

In time after many boats gave up and as new ones approached the quality of the people increased. Several hundred were taken off ships in the middle of the night and all in Cel felt better.

Many in town congratulated the two in charge of that effort.

Sehel, Ashel, Rah and Ahn had remained in Felicity although all now did most of their work in Capital City. It was just a ten minute subway ride from Felicity.

They lived next door to Clara and Fiona's house. Clara's former neighbors now lived in Nashville.

Ten weeks after the people of Felicity arrived on Cel an Interstellar ship landed at the spaceport and all of Felicity and many in Cel gathered to watch the landing and get a first look at two new alien species, a Saurian and a Cephalon.

The spaceship also brought the parents of Sehel, and Ashel. All decided to stay in Felicity. Sehel's Mom Tal was immediately abducted by Clara and Fiona and was not seen again for two days.

A cousin of Ahn also arrived but her assignment put her in Capital City. She was an envoy from the Emperor to the King and Queen and the Lords.

It became obvious to all that in their new hierarchy that Clara outranked all, even the King and Queen.

Capital City was renamed Clara.

A statue of Clara and Ohm holding hands was placed in Clara's main plaza. The Queen had to request that all who kissed the statues to please wipe their lipsticks off before proceeding.

First Friend was a title that carried utmost importance.

In Felicity she was kissed often and by everyone but that was mostly as usual. What was not usual were the bows and thanks she received everywhere else on Cel. The Lords and Ladies adored her.

About twenty of the three hundred aliens that had come as tourists with the representatives of the Empire stayed on Earth, half in Felicity.

All had skills that could be of use although Rah's Dad just set up group tours for the subsequent visitors which arrived once every ten days. Some in each of those groups stayed on Earth, many in Felicity.

All four island shelters on Earth had seen at least three alien species in person. Felicity had seen all of them and had four alien species as residents.

The people of Felicity took pride in that and treated all as if they had been residents of the town all their lives.

When someone got around to counting them many were surprised to learn there were forty two alien residents if Felicity, ten percent of the town's population. Thirty two were female.

The aliens had been so completely absorbed into the community that most saw them as just slightly funny looking fellow members of their clan but even that did not last long. They were soon just friends an neighbors.

The Devl had never shifted and the Akkad never cloaked. The Sprites hovered just off the ground as the walked with friends. The Kindred decided they liked earrings and necklaces but discarded their wigs. They were cute. The Dorans fussed about the color of their clothes but soon opted for pastel diaphanous robes.

All of the aliens loved the town but the Devl had pretty much decided they were never leaving. Half of the new residents were Devl.

Many were a bit apprehensive when the Ambassadors took Clara and Fiona with them when they left Earth. Clara had been appointed as Ambassador to Akkad so they were happy about that but all knew she was the only one on Earth the Emperor would grieve if any of the safety devises failed. They wondered how much confidence he had in them.

After the biggest of the extraterrestrial impacts four years later and as the planet settled and recovered it became somewhat boring in Felicity. Eating and sex reigned supreme.

Thanks to the chicken soup potion no one was getting fat and no one was getting much older.

Clara's Aunt Wendy still looked and felt like she was in her late forties but she was soon to be eighty years old. Clara's Mom Mo looked and felt even younger than the eleven months between her and her sister. Her partner Marie was aging a bit faster but not by much.

Helen and James' mom Amanda still looked like she was still in her late thirties. Her youngest daughter Charlie still looked like she was in her twenties. So did Helen who was in late thirties when she drank the potion and like Clara and Fiona was now in her early fifties.

The dome cleared and the sky cleared and it began to rain. Everyone celebrated.

Ten years after the Gulf event Clara and Fiona returned home. Sehel's mother Tal had come with them and now lived next door with her sister Alai. Their back yard gates remained open.

Twenty years after the Gulf Impact the Emperor visited and landed at the Felicity Space Port. The alien Ambassadors and The Emperor spent their first night in Felicity. The Emperor spent the night in Clara's home, as did his daughter, the future Empress.

The resident alien girls had been named ambassadors to Earth and now lived in what had been the Royal Palace. The former monarchs were now the Ambassadors to Akkad.

.

The years went by smoothly for all. Earth, Cel, and Felicity had become major vacation destinations for all aliens and there were many on Earth at all times.

Everyone in Felicity was happy.

Except the Mur.