Chapter 6:
The Stranger in the Blue Box
In the LEP, there was one Golden Rule; when Foaly was in charge, obey or get trampled. The usually boastful and joking centaur now navigated his way around the masses of techies and computers, checking readings and barking orders with a seriousness that Artemis had never seen before.
The young man turned his head to marvel at the efficiency. In less then an hour, the entire front of Fowl Manor had been turned into a military camp. Plastic, domed shelters had been set up to protect the computers and sensor equipment from weather, and mini barracks were being put up for the soldiers.
"Coffee?" Artemis turned to see Holly holding out a cup of steaming liquid to him.
"Thank you." He took a sip. Scrunching up his face, he swallowed. "I don't suppose you have any Earl Grey?"
Holly snorted. "Typical genius. Give him a good coffee, he wants fancy tea." She sat down beside her friend. "So tell me, Mud Boy" she said. "Do you really believe all this? Aliens, I mean?"
Artemis shrugged, sipping his coffee. "The Universe is vast, and growing every day. I don't find it inconceivable that other life could exist." He turned to Holly. "Do I think that what Foaly's chasing is a spaceship? That, I find, is a little more far fetched."
"Well, you won't when you see this." The pair turned to see Foaly, Trouble, and Luskar walking up to them. Artemis, once again, had to force him self not to shiver looking at the goblin.
"What d'you have, Foaly? A message from the Millennium Falcon?" Holly gibed. The centaur snorted, and pawed the ground with his fore hoofs.
"Very funny, Captain. I'm laughing inside." Foaly put a laptop in between Artemis and Holly. "But you won't laugh at this. We've been analyzing the object, and we've discovered two things. One," he held up a finger, "it's changed its direction. My boys figure it's coming right for the Manor."
Artemis drew a sharp breath. Heading straight for the Manor? How could that be?
Holly broke the silence. "And the second thing, Foaly?"
This time, Trouble spoke up. "We've discovered it's giving off a huge energy signature. The techies figure it's equal to three nuclear plants, except they don't know what kind of energy it is."
Foaly typed a few keys on his laptop. "But now that we know what that it's creating energy, we can get to work analyzing it." Foaly brought up a program on the computers screen.
"Thanks to my exceptionally large brain, I've tuned this device to register large amounts of energy where there shouldn't…" Foaly stared at the screen.
Luskar tapped the centaurs shoulder. "I know I'll regret asking this, but what is it?"
Foaly pointed at the screen, making every one crowd around in front of the tiny computer. On it where two pulsating bars, one red, one white.
"The red bar is the energy coming from the object," Foaly explained. "But that white bar… that means that there's another object with a different energy signature."
Artemis frowned. "Another? But we've only seen the one object. Where is the other?"
"That's just the thing," Foaly spluttered, hands flying across the keyboard. "According to these readings, the objects got a massive power behind it, yet it's almost like insubstantial, like it hasn't got a good grip on reality…"
But as Foaly finished his words, something happened. A wind kicked up, rustling trees all around the estate. Then came the noise. Softly at first, but growing in volume. It sounded mechanical, yet strangely organic; a groaning heartbeat amidst the grinding of gears.
Holly looked at Foaly. "Okay Foaly, what the hell is going… Oh, D'Arvit!"
Something was appearing before them. It was transparent, ghostly at first. Yet with each of those groans, it grew more and more solid.
Luskar was the first to recover from the shock. "All officers, fall in!" he roared. "Offensive pattern Beta!"
All at once, streams of LEP officers began pouring out of the shelters, like a swarm of ants. They surrounded the rapidly appearing object, pointing their Neutrinos with dead-on accuracy. Holly, Luskar, and Trouble also pulled out the guns strapped to their hips.
The object had finally appeared fully, and Artemis could not help but gawk at the cause of all the alarm.
"A phone box." he said flatly.
Holly cast a sideways glance at her friend. "What?"
"It's a phone box." Artemis explained. "A 1950's police phone box, to be accurate. I remember my grandfather showing me a picture of one when he was still alive."
"Thank you, Fowl. That helps a great deal." Trouble growled. "Now, could you also explain why one has suddenly poofed up in front of us?"
Artemis had to smile. "While I highly doubt it 'poofed' up, Commander, I can honestly say; no idea."
It was just then that Artemis heard the sound of a lock clicking. The doors of the blue box swung inward, emitting a bright glow from within.
Everyone held their breath. Thoughts raced through their minds. Who, or what, was inside that thing? Were they friendly? What did they look like? Monstrous creatures ran through Artemis's head, fanatical alien beings with bug eyes and bald heads.
So imagine, if you will, his surprise when a skinny man in a tweed jacket poked his head out the door.
"Okay, let's see. People pointing big guns at me; nothing new there. Big fancy guns. Definitely not human guns. I'm on Earth, and being threatened by non-human guns. Improbable, but not impossible. Perhaps you lot are what I'm looking for. Then again, maybe not. Maybe you could help. Have you seen anything unusual lately? Flying saucers? Odd weather? Have you met anyone with a zipper on their forehead in the past couple days? God, I hope not…"
The strange man seemed to realize that everyone was staring at him.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" he bellowed. "Haven't introduced myself, have I?" He ran up and began shaking Troubles hand. "I'm the Doctor, pleased to meet you. Might I say, and I don't mean to be probing, but there's something about you that…Wait."
The man finally noticed Troubles pointed ears.
"Ears! Pointed ears! That's it! Wait, no, that's not it." The man spun in a circle, absorbing every detail. "Let's see," he continued, "Small, humanoid, pointed ears. Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
The strange man took something from his pocket, and pointed it at Holly. It looked like a skinny flashlight, and glowed green with a whining noise. He ran it over Holly's face, then looked at the reading on its side. A grin spread on his face, almost reaching each his ears.
"Fairies!" he exclaimed. "Oh, my, God, your fairies! That's fantastic! 400-odd years of coming to this planet, and there were fairies here! How's that for a shock-"
WHAM! Everyone flinched as Luskar jumped up and punched the man between the eyes. The stranger collapsed on the ground in a heap.
"Ow." Luskar began sucking on his knuckles. "Crazy bastard's got a hard face."
"Was it really necessary to punch him out, Major?" Foaly asked.
"He was pissing me off, so yes, it was really necessary to punch him out." The goblin turned to a group of officers positioned behind the stranger's box. "Take this man, and put him in the manors cellar!"
Luskar followed as the officers struggled to drag the unconscious man to the manors front. Artemis turned to Foaly.
"Tell me, Foaly. What do you think just happened?" he asked. Foaly was still recovering from the shock of the mans sudden appearance.
"Not sure, Arty. The fact that a Mud man was able to do that box trick alone… I mean, did you see it? Technology like that… that light thing… not even the People have that kind of tech. And what did he say? He was a doctor? What kind of a doctor makes high-tech phone boxes?"
He motioned to the police box in front of them. "Plus, did you see how easily he figured out we're fairies? None of this is normal."
Holly snorted. "Foaly, we haven't had a "normal" day since we met you-know-who right here." She rustled Artemis's hair, to illustrate her point.
Artemis chuckled, and smoothed down his hair. "Same here, Holly." His face grew serious again. "But did any of you catch what he said? 'Four hundred odd years of coming to this planet'?"
Trouble shrugged. "He's nuts; I would be too if I had to travel around in that thing." He turned to another group of officers. "Get that thing inside the lab tent!"
Lowering his voice, he turned back to Foaly. "I have a feeling you want to study it."
Foaly nodded. "Thank you, Commander. Now I have to get back to my duties; tell me when our new friend wakes up." And with that, both he and Trouble walked back to the camp.
Artemis and Holly began walking back as well. Artemis opened his mouth to speak, but Holly cut him off.
"You think there's more, don't you?"
Artemis shrugged. "You know me so well, Captain Short. Yes, I think that this 'event' is connected to everything; and I have a plan to figure out how."
Holly groaned. Everything always started to get more complicated when Artemis got a plan. "I should get some more coffee." she thought. "I have a felling I'm going to need it."
