Legacy of the Fallen Stars
by J. J. Roth
As Stonehenge developed over many generations, its builders and their evolving society faced personal and environmental hardships. But did their reasons for building the stone monument truly explain its origins?
Chapter 5: The Taurids — 3000 CE
conclusion
Seen from low Earth orbit, without interference from the atmosphere’s thicker layers, the comet Encke shone with uncanny brightness as it streaked through the Earth’s solar system. The comet’s cast-off fragments formed the Taurid stream, a spectacular torrent of cascading light. The Blue One sensed the inhabitants of Earth would see a deluge of meteors brightening the sky as the planet passed through the densest part of the Taurid belt for the first time in three thousand years.
“Did the builders ever know?” The Red One communicated this to the Blue One in a language humans would hear in atmosphere as wordless, high-pitched sounds, much like whale songs — though whales were long extinct on the planet below. In space, their communication was silent.
“No. They sensed that the stone circle aggregated and concentrated solar and cosmic energy, energy that contained great power, but they had no idea of the power’s extent. They had their own needs and uses for Stonehenge. We did not help them. They dreamed it up themselves, a temple to their gods built of stones they believed healed them.”
“The circle is below now,” the Yellow One said. “The Earth’s sun is above.”
The Ones did not have or need eyes. Hundreds of miles separated their orbiting ship from the Earth. Still they perceived, through the aperture in the ship’s floor, the rebuilt, intact circles of Sarsen and Bluestone surrounding horseshoes of trilithons. They sensed the circles as clearly as would humans in a hovercraft fifty feet above it.
“They restored it nicely,” the Red One said. “No sign of the gift shops and car parks or the long abandonment after the last great Earth war. The stones look as they did when the call first came, five thousand of their years ago.”
The Ones did not need a ship. They used theirs only to avoid the detection mechanisms in Earth’s weak defense systems. The Blue One liked the corporeality the ship provided, almost like having One’s own body. The Blue One did not want or need a body, but found it pleasurable to have the sensation of one from time to time.
“Their science has almost caught up with their intuition over the past several of their millennia,” the Blue One said to the Red One. “They do not fully understand why, but they now know the stone circle is powerful only when intact.”
“Alignment achieved,” the Yellow One said.
“We leave the ship when the meteor hits,” the Blue One said. “While they are too distracted to notice the energy spike.”
“May we not block the meteor, prevent any harm to them?”
“You know we cannot interfere. And this is not an extinction-level event. A calamity, but one that many will survive.”
“Now,” the Yellow One said.
The Ones absorbed the ship’s matter and revealed themselves to space. The magic circle was below them, the Earth’s sun above them, the Taurids a fountain of sparkling starlight around them as the comet Encke passed between the Earth and its sun.
At that exact moment, a meteor hit the South Pacific, and a seismic surge of energy radiated into the Ones along the axis of their alignment. They absorbed the clean new energy into their cores until they were fully restored, radiating healthy, vibrant light — Blue, Red and Yellow.
“I hate to leave them after that collision. They’ve done so much for us,” the Red One said. “Even if they didn’t know they were doing it.” The Red One pulsed and twinkled.
The Blue One glowed a cool, deep azure. “Ironic that they believed we were the ones who sustained them.”
“’A circle of welcome for the fallen stars.’” The Red One made a sound much like a human sigh. “I remember her voice.”
“We must go.” The Yellow One shifted between plasma and pure energy, the way an impatient human would fidget. “Before they notice.”
“They are a resourceful and resilient life form,” the Blue One said to the Red One. “We will come again, in time.”
Then together, the Ones shot away toward the edges of the universe, to witness the birth of the newest stars.
Copyright © 2014 by J. J. Roth
