An American Fairytale
This was inspired by a challenge to write a story completely made up of dialogue. I thought this would just be a really difficult challenge but I think I might actually use this as the prologue to my science fiction story.
“The idea is preposterous.”
“The idea of putting a man in space at all was preposterous until only recent decades. The standards of preposterous have changed immensely."
“Such a bold lie . . .”
“Entirely necessary. This is a disaster. It will only take until the end of the day for scientists to be detailing on channel four how they died.”
“And the country will mourn! But to nurture needless rage - .”
“It's been done for years. Wars are waged in anger; anger is fueled to allow the government to continue what would otherwise be considered by the public immoral acts. It's a cycle and has its place in any civilized world. Usually there are economic reasons and sometimes there are cultural reasons; advancement of the American way. The only difference between what great men before me have done and what I will do in the coming hours is that my reasons are entirely more moral. The issue here is a matter of morale and moral consciousness.”
“Tell me, than, the story you mean to tell them. And I don't mean the spiel you just gave me about glory and history and politics. It all makes me sick; working in that mess for twenty years has made it considerably less glamorous.”
“You want a bedtime story.”
“Only in troubled times.”
“Fine, then, gather around children. Three days ago, on July 30th, four men and two women became the first frontiersmen since the times of the wild west. Their goal was to colonize mars in the name of the greatest nation on this planet earth.
The mission was highly successful from the beginning due to the diligence of regulatory government agencies an the efforts of NASA to cooperate. Early conversations between NASA support agents and crew members reveal amazement on their part that even old rivalries and minor bugs seemed to dissolve on their own as the mission progressed.
At approximately 4:50 PM Eastern Time, the crew reported spotting mars. There was a great deal of jubilation at the prospective success of such an epic mission. However, only hours later, crew members reported seeing another craft of unidentifiable origin which to all appearances purposefully ran into our craft. Government officials do believe that this was a desperate attempt by a foreign nation to set back the US attempts to claim and colonize elsewhere in this galaxy. Steps are being taken to identify the nation responsible and respond to such an attack.
Due to the fast thinking and acting of the highly qualified crew members, we are pleased to support that all pout one crew member have survived. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Cindy Prolate's family and friends and commend her for her work to spread the American way. Support crew were able to bring the craft to landing and the structure previously built over the past decade was quickly activated. The government is still highly concerned or the safety of the crew as much of their supplies were lost or destroyed upon impact and landing. We ask that all Americans band together in this time and cooperate with new procedures put in place by federal agencies and attend to rationing guidelines. All donations of food, clothes, and money will be used to help our brave crew.”
“Wow. I just . . . you know that some people won't believe this?”
“Conspiracy theorists in a manner of speaking. Good for the government in the long term; their claims are usually more outrageous than what is actually going on.”
“You're not an expert on space travel. What will you do if broadcast companies can get a hold of experts to point out inconsistencies?”
“I'll find experts to say I'm right.”
“But eventually they'll find out that the crew members aren't alive, that there was no other craft, that it was human error on our part.”
“And by that point, donations and the coming war will have fueled the economy in such a way that my reasons will be well understood.”
“What if they never have enough faith in the story to make the donations and support defensive action?”
“I'll call on a higher power.”
“What could possibly be a higher power than the President of the United States?”
“Hm. God?”
“ . . . an American fairytale.”
“Exactly.”