From 'Houston, we've got a turtle over here!' by Dr. Nantasan, U.P. Institute of Spaceflight;

If Sir Terry Pratchett had been alive at the moment the world had saw his setting literally come to life, he would have been arrested, detained without a warrant, and interestingly enough by plain clothes officers, and I write that because in the mere few days after our visit to the White House, news broke that some people broke into the author's house, but that headline was soon updated to 'Government Searches Sir Pratchett's House, F.B.I agents spotted.'

I had was able to interview those who have been pulling the strings around that night, and based on those, we could finally paint a picture of what happened on the night of June 12.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Colin Hacker - Conservative Party, who recently had been able to muscle out the old Prime Minister, who had failed to navigate through the process of Brexit, in a dramatic struggle for power to avoid a crash out of - or no agreement with - the European Union, and at six pm, local time, he was at the Cabinet office in Ten Downing Street, reading the piece of paper that began the police operation.

The halls inside the street that was Whitehall, things were spiraling out of control when they received from their official contacts with the United States the transcript of what Captain Jack Dudley had spoken to with the leaders of a local government, as well as that of the discussion within the war room of the White House.

The moment the last word had been read by the Prime Minister was the moment chaos began, he reached for his phone and dialed for his secretary, "Humphrey Wilkins, please get the transcript we received forwarded to the Home Office, and tell the Home Secretary that I want MI5 agents and the Royal Military Police on standby." he then hung up.

He then reached for a special phone which was reserved for calls related to NATO, namely NATO Allies such as the United States, this line was nearly used during the Crimean Annexation Crisis, he then dialed for the President of the United States, forget having to notify his aides, this needed to be a swift and silent discussion.

"Mister President, tell it to me straight, what do we need to do?" asked Colin.

President Cruz was said to have been stunned when he heard the Prime Minister say that through the phone, "Well, we were not expecting a fast response."

"I was planning to launch a surprise search of the author's home for anything we could possibly use." said the Prime Minister.

"Same plans here across the Atlantic, can we turn this into a joint operation? I have F.B.I agents in the United States Embassy there." said President Cruz.

"Of course, I understand, do get them to coordinate with the Home Secretary." said Colin.

President Cruz had used the moment to ask what was needed to be asked for, "Mister Prime Minister, we're going to need the Skylon spacecraft to do a…possible…planet killing operation."

"If this is about saving humanity, then we will demand the company behind Skylon to give us a spacecraft." said Colin.

"We shall make this a joint operation, we plan to arm this Skylon spacecraft with Minuteman III MIRV nuclear missiles as well as modified orbital Tomahawk missiles, and we have plans to nuke the Discworld should it pose a threat." said President Cruz.

"I support the idea, this is a unique, if not, outright societal collapse here on Earth if the worst case scenario happened." said Colin, "We shall mobilize by tonight, in fact, I'll be getting the Military Police involved, we mean business given that what you've discussed with your astronaut as well as your expert could possibly happen."

"Yes, our world is, I would say, under our care for we are the only one who has the capability to do so." said Cruz, "We are the heroes." he added.

Colin nodded and smirked, "Then we shall defend to the death our native soil, as what had once been said in my alternate daily office; 'We shall never surrender'."

"Then it's settled, we shall attack the Discworld if it poses any threat to us." said President Cruz.

The phone call ended, Colin Hacker was not known for long telephone calls full of lip service, he often asked straightforward questions and demanded straightforward answers, should those answers start with the word 'maybe' he would usually reply 'Get your act together and don't be a 'maybe', be certain!'

He was also not known for telephone calls, in fact most of his orders were passed down by paper or by E-mail, depending on severity of his demand, if ever he ended up sending you a paper with red corners as well as an E-mail with the subject 'V.I.' as in 'Very Important', then you'd better respond or else.

It was through a simple E-mail that the sleepy hometown of Sir Terry Pratchett became as militarized as the Korean Demilitarized Zone by nine in the evening, with BBC News being the first to broadcast about the raid both locally and internationally.

I would have ended this recounting of events there and then, that is if only the Prime Minister had not decided to use the raid as his chance for the spotlight by having a Royal Air Force helicopter fly him there.

By eight thirty pm, once all the E-mails and documents have been sent to the related people and departments, Colin had asked for an air force helicopter to pick him up at the nearest flat plot of land nearby Whitehall; Parliament grounds, in a silent but dramatic way for a Prime Minister to go somewhere.

By eight fifty five, the helicopter was seen landing right next to the military roadblock set outside the home of the author, he disembarked and approached the group of men waiting for him, these group of men were composed of the F.B.I team head, the Brigadier General in charge of the Military Police deployed in the area, and an MI5 intelligence officer.

All of these were caught on cameras by the BBC, and the words that were heard had become headlines for the next few days; "Are we ready to raid the home of Sir Pratchett?" asked the Prime Minister snappily.

"Yes sir." said all of the men surrounding him.

"If anyone resists, tries to burn or destroy any of the papers, you are to begin with pepper spray and escalate to lethal force when necessary, let's go!" Colin clenched his fist in a way that had mirrored Nixon's famous image of him raising his fist in one of his speeches, this had become immortalized in the papers next day with the tabloids calling him 'President-Prime Minister Colin Hacker' and 'President of the United States of Britain, Colin Hacker' and 'Heil to the Furher Colin Hacker', it wouldn't help with the fact that the words 'FBI' was clearly visible on the jacket of the FBI officer present there in front of him when he shook his fist.

For the sleepy home town of the author, this was considered as too much, the images of the officers using an Army jeep to ram the gates and using a battering ram to force their way through the door was something you'd see in a raid against a known drug lord or a murderer, not an author who had passed on and remembered for being humorous and good-willed.

There was no one home, once this was made clear by the raiding officers, the Prime Minister and the officers that he spoke to entered the house together, that's when they began searching for papers, hard drives, anything from the author's house that could provide a solution, or rather what they thought was the solution.

Even now as I recount the events of that night, seeing the images of the raid on the BBC World Service, I always wondered just what would happen if the fictional worlds of authors suddenly became real, would they be summoned to the office of their head of government nicely or would they be treated harshly by government? If the raid on Sir Pratchett's home was proof of anything, I believe we're just a flamethrower away from having big brutes of officers raid homes and secure books.

In the more or less same dramatic way he muscled out the incumbent Prime Minister, he called for a press conference in the nearby churchyard with a table showcasing the collected papers, manuscripts, and hard drives as if they were confiscated drugs.

The first question asked during the press conference was another source of quotes that would make Colin Hacker into an Internet sensation, a journalist from the local papers asked "Why did it have to be this rough? What if the world of Hogwarts became real, would you arrest J.K. Rowling?"

The response of Colin Hacker was swift, "Yes, I have read her books and with respects to the author, if there was a portal to Hogwarts and if it posed a risk to our world, I would have arrested the author, raided her home or homes and have placed tight military security around the portal."

The entire chalke village, the name of the hometown of Sir Pratchett, had been placed under lockdown, we're talking about roadblocks manned by armed soldiers, helicopters circling the skies, and all those things often associated with war zones.

Another journalist asked, "Why was the FBI there?" to which Colin answered, "We're working with the United States since they're in charge of the mission to explore the Discworld, and yes my office understands deeply the rapidly deteriorating situation there."

###

We slept soundly through the night, and then the other night, and then the next, and then until we've sort of lost track of the dates on the ground, however our capsule clocks showed that it's been one Earth week, which more or less corresponds to the one week and four days we've been there.

For the week we've been waiting for the mobilization of BangBangduc in order to act as our ground backup just in case if anything severe happened, or rather because after reading the papers, no one would want to tread into Lancre or Chalk alone, we've spent the time conducting scientific observations.

Interestingly enough, the soil composition, the composition of the atmosphere, and the composition of the waters around the area was exactly like that of Earth with one exception, they were all irradiated by this unknown type of radiation that was picked up by our sensors, scanners, and Geiger Meters but they were not identifiable, I had a gut feeling that it would be Octarine, the very stuff of magic, flowing through everything in this world.

If only we had brought either of our mission specialists, we would have gotten the information quickly, however all we had to do to fix the problem was collect the information and send it back to The Falcon where Bob could analyze it through the laboratory and scientific equipment we have on board.

On the one week and fifth day mark, or rather the morning of that day, we woke up to the sounds of gunfire, or rather loud 'FWOOP' sound from the gunpowder guns they had, and then a church bell sort of chimed in. When I got out of the capsule, I was wearing our civilian clothes we brought from Earth, I saw flags of red being hung from government buildings and public places.

Bill came out of the capsule, his eyes still somewhat half opened, and he asked rather half-sleepily, "What's going on, Captain?"

"I think the invasion has begun, but they would have to sail a good distance to get there." I said.

Bill then saw something emerge from the sky, "Captain, look!"

We both saw a group of flying boxes, or to be specific a carriage modified to have broomsticks at the bottom to make it fly, "An airborne infantry, well that would certainly cut travel time down." I remarked, I then turned to Bill and said "Get suited up, we're going to Lancre, but remember what we've discussed, we get out of there at the first hint of something going wrong."

Jeb, who was more prepared looking than Bill, popped his head out and said "We're going now?"

"Yes, we suit up and fly now." I said.

"But how about our supposed back ups?" asked Bill.

"They'll be in Genua, at least we have on friendly city to run to, other than running away and going back to The Falcon." I said.

That's precisely what we did; we suited up, went through the startup sequence, and was up and away in a matter of minutes, we sort of executed a Disc-to-Disc flight, having reached the Disc's Karman Line for a few moments before going straight back down.

I must give it to Jeb, he was able to fly the Dragon Two like it was an actual science fiction spacecraft and not just some spacecraft made by present day humans, we ended up flying the Dragon like a helicopter when we reached the vicinity of the Ramtops, the cold and snowy mountains.

The center of the Discworld, the Hub, was the source of magic, and life is difficult as you get closer to the Hub, mainly because it gets colder - think of it as the polar icecaps on Earth, the Ramtops is the closest area where any human civilization could prosper, of course there are tribes living within the coldness of the area near the Hub, but no big settlement.

Lancre was the biggest settlement within the mountainous Ramtops, in fact it was the only notable settlement around there, and of course it would be memorable for Jeb, mostly after he exclaimed, "Damn this place, I can't see a landing zone, it's all too mountainous!"

I immediately accessed the 3d map which came from the scans by the satellites the space faring nations of the world sent up during December of 2018, and it took me a while until I found Lancre, or something that may look like Lancre, on the map.

When I did find Lancre on the map, I transmitted it to Jeb's visor, "Ah, got it Captain!" he said, quickly punching his fingers on his touchscreen and reaching for the manual override flight stick.

Jeb was able to get the Dragon Two to hover over Lancre for a few moments, just enough for me to have the cameras pointed downwards to have a clear picture of the place, "It seems to have been overrun by elves." I said, my heart was shattered at that point.

Lancre was now a desolate place, it was beginning to snow heavily, giving it that creepy feeling I got when I first imagined the realm of the elves after reading it in the books, I had been expecting for Lancrestians to be looking up and pointing with curiosity at our spacecraft, instead we only received silence and snow.

"Should we land, Captain?" asked Bill.

I then spotted a flicker of light, maybe a candle inside the castle flickering through the window, and then I saw a shadow of someone - a woman - with a crown or tiara on top of her head, "Yes, Jeb, take us to the castle grounds over there."

Jeb stretched his neck and said, "Alright, it's time to land this thing there." he said.

Landing was made difficult with the occasional gusts of wind, in fact this type of weather would have immediately earned a launch postponement or re-entry postponement on Earth, but we have a good pilot - maybe someone who was nearly as good as Valentina - and a good spacecraft with a fitting name.

After thirty minutes and five attempts later, we were finally able to land the Dragon Two within the confines of the walls of Lancre castle, a place that had been invaded way too many times, first the elves on Magrat's wedding day, then the vampires on the week of the birth of their first child, and now the elves again.

I removed my harness and straps and reached for the weapons cache of the Dragon Two, "Gentlemen, these personal defense weapons will be your best friend for the whole time we're on EVA." I said to them as I distributed the pistols and their ammunition, though I used my revolver instead.

The weapons came with specialized holsters that had the same color of our spacesuits, we wore the holsters, slotted the pistols - or for me, my revolver - into them and were ready to open the hatch.

We first checked on the cameras located at the sides to see if our coast was clear, or at least clear of any threats, it was clear, as in clear of any threats, civilians, or anyone.

I opened the hatch, none of us removed our helmets even though the air was safe but the temperature, on the other hand, was getting rough and unfriendly, "Well, gentlemen, here we are, witch country."

Bill nodded, "Alright, the big and scary forest with snow looms ahead, and here we are in a castle surrounded by that scary forest." he said.

I took the first step out of there, that's when I received a shock of my life, the Flight Director suddenly buzzed in, "This is Houston - Flight, sorry for being quiet but we've been a bit too on the edge just watching the way you've been conducting yourselves for the past few hours, however we trust your instincts, Captain."

"Thanks, Flight." I sighed, "Whew, you sort of scared me back there." Houston had been quiet for the past week, mainly buzzing in at least once a day to check in on us.

"Have you heard the good news?" asked the Flight Director, "Jerry did it, he was able to turn the Buran into a working space station, the madman has done it."

"Really!?" I exclaimed, we kept the intercom chatter volume down and only kept Houston's line on a high volume, which I should lowered when we opened the hatch, those elves could be anywhere and the last thing I need is to be spooked by Mission Control, "Well, good for us and a feather in his cap, we're proceeding to meet another local figure, a queen actually."

"Good luck with that." said the Flight Director, "Houston out."

We then saw a door open in the side of the castle, a guard came out wielding a old looking spear, I guess he was Shawn Ogg. "Wh-…who are you, are you elves?" he shouted at us as he slowly inched closer to us with that spear.

We raised our hands, "No, we're inventors actually, trying to make sense of this…uh problem."

The man lowered his spear, "Oh…um…the Queen did order for us to take in survivors and refugees." he said with much uncertainty

"But?" I prompted.

"They fled somewhere else." said the man, "My name is Shawn Ogg by the way."

"Jack Dudley." I said, shaking hands with Lancre's one man postman, guard, and standing Army (unless if he's lying down of course).

"Well, come on, follow me, allow me to introduce you to the Queen and the King…well…if the King could make it through." Shawn sighed.

"What happened to King Verence?" I asked.

"He was hit by an arrow form an elf who had somehow been able to scale the wall without getting noticed, luckily the King was hit only on the arm, it did not leave a deep wound." said Shawn, "Anyhow, come on now."

We were led through Lancre castle, I mean come on, it was Lancre Castle! I have only been able to imagine the place but here I was walking through its hallways and seeing the artworks of the past Kings and the one (mythical) past Queen of Lancre.

We reached the throne room, or what I would guess was the throne room where the King and Queen can hold audience with anyone from the public, we saw a gloomy Queen Magrat who looked way more beautiful - though aging but still - than any illustration of her.

"Your majesty, I have found survivors." announced Shawn.

Magrat looked at us and then looked down again before suddenly looking back at us, "Survivors? Shawn, they look like Knights." said Magrat, to be fair though, these spacesuits looked more like Knight armor than the bulky fishbowl and boxes of the Apollo program.

I did a theatric bow, "Your majesty, Queen Magrat of Lancre, and of the Lancre Coven, I come here - along with a bunch of bureaucrats - to save the Kingdom of Lancre and the adjacent areas." I said.

Magrat, who was the stupid - or at least naive one - of the Lancre coven, fell to her knees and wept, but I don't want to make it sound that dramatic, but that's what she did, somewhat.

"Your majesty?" asked Shawn.

Magrat stood up and sniffed, "I'm sorry, it's just that this had been such a long night to be honest." she said, "I mean for the past two years our people have began to experience hatred and anger flowing through the community, some of them have actually killed Nanny-…I'm sorry, Shawn."

Shawn sniffed, "My mum…"

Magrat continued, "And my children…at least they've been evacuated to Ankh Morpork…and-…my husband…"

"Is sick, right?" said Shawn, though it was more of as a plead that Magrat would say that.

Thankfully she did, "He's resting, but I don't think he would be the same man again," in the midst of her sadness, she was able to rally a bit of anger, "those fiendish elves!"

"Your majesty, we can get out out of here." I said.

"What, on the Dragon?" Bill hissed.

"Where else?" I asked.

"Dra-…dragon!?" exclaimed Magrat, "Wait a minute, I thought knights slay dragons and not ride them around?"

I smirked, "Your majesty, our dragon is a flying machine and not a dragon from Wyrmberg, I am an inventor and a Knight as well, but not like those old Knights."

Magrat fell to her throne, "I'm sorry, gentlemen, I am just…"

"We know and we understand." said Bill, "However we can offer you a safe ride out of here."

"Your majesty, how were you able to survive the witch hunts?" I asked.

Magrat shuddered, I swore that it was only an innocent question and I had not meant to rouse any bad memories, "By staying behind these walls, but then these walls are not safe anymore, not with an arrow somehow nearly missing my husband's heart!"

I shook my head, "Alright, we should get you out of here." I said firmly.

"But to where?" asked Magrat.

"Ankh Morpork, or Genua." I answered, I had plans to visit Ankh Morpork in order to meet the wizards, and Vetinari hopefully, and see how we could manage this.

"I think we can hide in the Lancre embassy over there." said Magrat.

"Then Ankh-Morpork it is." I said.