Re: Cars, 'Taurs, and Heading East Part Deux

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: Dear Friends, : Here's the second half of my somewhat interesting travails across these United States from Oregon to Florida with a nice, Hollywood ending for you all! (But of course!) : Enjoy! : -Mavra : CAL : : ********************************* : Looking down at my hooves and shaking my head, chuckling, I just couldn’t believe it. It was... : "A U.F.O, I can’t believe it. Except in this case, I can pretty much identify you, can’t I?" I said to the apparent vehicle that was hovering soundlessly in the air some hundred feet up or so from the ground. : Thinking to myself, I took a mental inventory of what was going on around me. Alone, at (quick watch glance) three-fifteen in the morning, a largish, rounded, triangle-shaped vehicle was hovering above me, shining a light down at me, and no headlights of any other vehicles, trucks, vans, or automobile in sight. I stood there, my tail flicking at the simultaneous thoughts of being mild annoyed of being so rudely woken as well as what would turn out to be another unexpected ‘encounter’ with something that was thought to be somewhat debunked. : Shielding my eyes from the glare with my hat, I waved up at the visitors. Heh, I momentarily thought, visiTAURS. : I chuckled. "Egad, I’ve been spending too much time around Loqu; his puns are rubbing off on me." Turning my attention back up at the object, I waved again. : "Hello, up there! Since you woke me up, you might as well come down and we can talk for a little bit, but not too long, I’ve got to get my beauty sleep!" : I don’t know what it was, maybe my waving, maybe not, but the vehicle did indeed move aside a ways and settle down, legs appearing, no, growing out of the bottom of the ship as well as what would be a portal/elevator to the ship. : "Polly-alloy," I muttered to myself in a funny ‘Ahnode’ accent, "liquid metal." : Sure enough, some figures popped out of the expected exit and raised a hand(?) in apparent greetings, ala Sol III’s major resident sentient life-form. : "Greetings." It said, in what would be considered to be incredibly well-cultured United States English. : I made the same motion and said, "Privyet." : As the creatures approached, I could swear an oath saying that they looked *exactly* like how ET’s have been portrayed for decades; long, tall, greenish-gray, and whose large, black, almond-shaped eyes blinked at my utterance. : "Privyet?" It said questioningly. "On prafv? Rooskie Yaziyka?" It looked over at the other two and had a quick discussion over things, perhaps road directions, in another language, perhaps their own, for it was nothing I heard of before. : "Wait, wait," I said, making them pause in their dialogue, "I’m sorry, you are indeed speaking the same language, and you *are* in the United States, not the United Soviet Socialist Republic." : I paused myself, rubbing an eye sleepily, "I’m sorry, I feel a little ‘punchy’ when I’m abruptly woken from my sleep. So, what can I help you folks out with tonight?" : "We were scanning your world for the past two planetary rotations as part of our sixteen-revolution cycle. We log our data to be processed for later study. We noted what was Scale-Four dispersion fields emanating from your planet. We know that this is in conflict with current planetary sociological and technological standing. We then detected of the source of the Scale-Four dispersion field and that it was in motion. We tracked the source and waited until it was far from a population center and any other sentient. We noted that it was moving with your land vehicle. We decided to perform an extraction when one sentient was not leaving the proximity of the field. We have scanned your land vehicle and we have scanned you. We now know that the source of the Scale-Four dispersion fields is you. We attempted to use a standard-level immobilizing field on you and it did not function. We ask, why?" : I blinked in mild surprise. "Uh... me? Wait, first tell me what a Scale-Four dispersion field is, and what Scale-One, Two, and Three are for that matter? Then I’ll answer." : "We indicate technological civilizations are by the field that the civilization emits to the universe. We indicate Scale-One dispersion field as being the product of electromagnetic forces. We indicate Scale-Two dispersion field as being the product of nuclear forces. We indicate Scale-Three dispersion field as being the product of chronological forces. We indicate Scale-Four dispersion field as being the product of large-scale quantum forces. We note that you have resultants of all previously stated nuclear forces and are resistant to standard-level immobilizing fields. We note that this is a discontinuity with this fragmented planetary society. We again ask, why?" : I blinked again, but this time in a somewhat knowing dread. "Wait... you’re asking why you’re detecting some ‘odd vibes’ coming off of me?" : The creature made a curt nod, apparently affirming my statement. : "Ooohh.... boooy... " : I coughed and rubbed my face. Ayup, I knew *exactly* why they’re so curious. Oh, I didn’t have to just be saved from para-universal duplicates of myself, oh no! I also had to have had that dalliance back in ’45 and stick my face into the Manhattan Project! : "Oh, boy." I said again, feeling a trail of cold going from the tip of my tail to the top of my now-sweaty forehead. : "I know why," I said, dredging up some intestinal fortitude, "it *is* all because of me. Not me by myself, but others were involved and I was... subjected to the close proximity of the machinery that would produce the fields. The machinery is not on this planet, and it is through their use that I was... ‘taken’ from this world. I don’t know why I am not susceptible to the immobilizing field, but I will guess the fact that it is because I am not the norm for the land-based sentient life on this planet." : "We want you to come with us for further study of this discontinuity." It said flatly. : Egad, first it was the Feds, now it’s the ET’s. "No, I want to stay here. My sudden disappearance would be detrimental to many individuals here." : Like *HECK* if I’m going to be Shanghaied again! : "We offer you a unique chance to visit our world as the first inhabitant of this world." : "No, no, I’m sorry, but no. It would be best if you left quickly, we are not yet ready for visits like this. Maybe in another hundred years after we have matured as a society will your visit be welcomed." I smiled, hoping that they would understand my facial gesture of good will. : I swear, they looked somewhat disappointed, if it was possible for those eyes to take on such a look. : "Wait," I said, holding up a hand as they turned around to head back to their ship. "Wait, please. Would you tell me one thing?" : "State your query." : "Why do you look like that? I can’t believe that you’re exactly what everybody on this planet says you look like." : "We do not look like these drones that you see. We look different." : With that said, and me not saying anything further, they boarded their ship and flew off in it. : "Drones?" I scratched my head underneath my hat. "Drones?? All of this time, they’ve been using drones on Earth?" : I chuckled and shook my head, seeing the last sparkle of the UFO as it hit hypersonic velocity, leaving the atmosphere and Earth behind. I blinked briefly at the flash of light, muttering that they should update their maps sometime soon before the next ‘visit’. : I climbed back into the cabin of my truck and shut the doors in an attempt to get just a few more hours rest before hitting the road again. Alas, it was not to be, and my sleep was disturbed by the renewal of interstate commerce for the day as large two-trailer trucks drove by in ever-increasing frequency. Seeing that rest was no longer an option, I got out of the truck once more, stretching my poor four legs and cramped tail, trotting around for a bit to get the circulation flowing once more. : I had a brief ‘breakfast’ of a couple of chocolate-chip cookies that Mom baked for me for my trip as a treat, and started driving again. Little did she know that I’d end up using them as a staple, but only after a few hours drive, I had to stop again for the day at Flagstaff, Arizona out of shear fatigue. I had an interesting conversation with the motel manager over arrangements for renting a room, and only after handing over an extra hundred dollars for ‘insurance’ was I able to lodge there. Ayup, I decided that I would no longer try to ‘hide’ myself from the public at large, and in that spirit, I tracked down a local buffet restaurant and chowed down, eating as much as a horse, only using utensils (pinky raised, of course), glasses, and napkins to show that I was indeed civilized. To further emphasize the good nature of centaurs, considering myself as a bit of an ambassador, I tipped heavily, paying over two and a half times the required amount. While I ate as much as four, and knowing the mark-up in prices, I knew that the owners wouldn’t lose any money over my visit. : I must say that I made a bit of an impression on folks, whether it was for the good or bad I left for them to decide, but I grew tired and I rested for a few hours. After resting, I felt that I had enough energy to make a quick visit to the famous meteor crater there in Arizona and to give my family a call as to letting them know that I was ok (extra-terrestrials notwithstanding). The road to the crater itself was interesting in that there were ‘cattle traps’ set in regular distances along the road. I felt somewhat ill at ease seeing these things, thinking on how my own hooves could become trapped between the parallel bars imbedded in the roads surface. I got some more stares from the other tourists (taurists?) as well as the cashiers, but seeing that my money was as good as the rest, I got my admittance and ‘taured. Erm.. make that toured. After the place closed and I had returned to my motel room, much to the stare of the innkeeper and dozed for the night. : Early next morning found me much more rested (I was wakened once more by visitors during the night, these being the ‘family on vacation’ variety however) and headed out on the road along I-40. This was going to be ‘it’, it felt to me, as being the longest-slog of the entire trip, and it was, for besides pausing to get gas (of both types I must add, so watch out for some of those restaurants!), I drove the entire day and a goodly portion of the night until fatigue was again resting heavily upon both sets of my shoulders as a model of what I should be doing as well; resting. Before I pulled over for the night, I did indeed start hallucinating, imagining seeing multiple ‘me’s’ in various traffic wrecks alongside the highway, no doubt indicating what would happen to me under certain conditions. : Nothing much more could be said that hadn’t happened before, namely me getting rather odd looks from numerous night-shift motel managers and asking for more ‘insurance’ money so that I wouldn’t stain the carpet. Hmmf, indeed! As if I don’t know how to tend to proper matters! I always ended up getting back the money, seeing as to how I never used their beds, but rather stood for the night, sleeping while leaning against a wall. I didn’t want to be seen leaving a trail of broken beds frames as I made my way cross-country. : The one other interesting thing that happened to me was that I was stopped by a Georgian State Trooper because apparently the canopy top to my truck was coming loose. Egad, was he surprised to see me step out of the truck on his command! : "Whoa, there!" He exclaimed in no uncertain terms. : "Hmm?" I inquired, asking, "is there something wrong?" : "Uh, Ma’am, ah’ve not been passed the Mississippi, but... ahre y’all that big in Orygone?" : I grinned and shook my head as I redid the latches on my canopy. "No, not everybody from Portland, Oregon is a centaur, Officer, and rest assured, I’m the only one in my family." : He nodded and tipped his hat, seeing me finish my work. "Thankya, Ma’am, I’ll have to go and visit Oregon sometime for a vacation." : I nodded, tipping my own hat back. "Do come, I’m heading to see a friend from Tennessee and my mom’s from Missouri." I made effort to pronounce the states’ names as the locals due and the patrolman apparently felt the same way by how he corrected himself. Yes, he’d make a nice tourist for Oregon. : We parted ways, him speeding off ahead of me on the freeway, apparently taking the call of some road emergency up ahead. Eventually, I wound my way around Atlanta, down into Florida and in the dark of night, finally reaching Daytona Beach and to the very motel that Argon had pointed out to me to stay at months ago when I first visited him. : All-in-all, it took me four and a half days to cover the distance from Portland, Oregon to Daytona Beach, Florida, with an average land speed of 35.5 mph. Not too bad for a week-old rookie driver who had always got around by galloping there herself! : I was able to call Argon the next day and he rushed over to meet me at the motel, giving me such a hug that he lifted me up off of my front hooves. Apparently he was worried, but now his fears were laid to rest and I would now be starting anew in Florida.

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