Author's Notes:
In an effort to keep the good ship #GeneralDanvers sailing, we offer this little science fiction tale. It's based on the short story "Farewell To The Master," written by Harry Bates, which was turned into "The Day The Earth Stood Still." The 50's original, not that inferior POS with Keanu a few years back.Just know that the only one who has powers is Astra, for reasons that will become obvious.I hope to not only keep the spirit alive, but also the message of the original movie.The Day the Earth Stood Still is property of 20th Century Pictures/Walt Disney. Supergirl and related characters are property of DC Comics/Warner Bros/the CW.
August 6, 1950National City, Cal.
The day started quietly. Basically, California as advertised. The sun turning the cloudless sky very light blue. It was going to be another hot one. National City had become a very bustling town, partially because of its proximity south of both Los Angeles and Metropolis. Already there are over a million people living in the city. One of them was Alexandria Danvers, currently an agent for the investigative wing of one of those multi-initialed federal agencies. She made a decent living, and she was doing everything possible to save that money to buy herself a home, possibly somewhere in La Jolla or near Camp Pendleton. She wasn't living alone: to help her save that money she was living with her mother in a boarding house near the center of town. It was also a family affair, Alexandria... who'd rather be called Alex... And her teenage daughter Constance Jeremiah, the middle name honoring Alex's father who died in World War II. The daughter also want to be called a shorter name, her initials C.J. it's not that she dishonored the name at all. It's just that given name was so long it was very unwieldy, and being called Connie made her seem like some of those IQ challenged blondes at her junior high school. She liked the name CJ better simply because she thought of herself as a bit of a female Robert Mitchum. Or at least a bookish one, considering her almost insatiable thirst for knowledge.
And they shared the house with Alex's adiptive sister, Kara, her husband James, and their daughter Alura. Alura and CJ were almost exactly the same age, as a matter of fact CJ was born about one hour before Alura was. Something that CJ took great pains never to let Alura forget.
Mostly the Danvers kept to themselves. They didn't have many friends, outside of the borders that Alex's mom, Eliza Danvers took in. It didn't help neighborhood popularity the fact that the blonde Kara married a very handsome, very successful, and very black man. Even in California, a black man marrying a white woman was not conducive to good health for either.
Even with that, there were a couple of boarders, Winn Schott and his wife Lucy. Winn was heir to the Schott Toy and Game empire, but he didn't see his life making little dolls for girls. He was more of an inventor, she was a tech in the Women's Army Corp. Another boarder was Leslie Willis, who served as an electrical technician in the same division as Lucy. Her nickname was "Livewire" because she was skilled at electrical tech, and skilled at other feats at parties.
Still, Eliza knew that even though her boarders all paid the rent on time, one or two more renters would help to pay the lights and gas.
It was with all this going on that afternoon that the TV was tuned to the local CBS station. They were covering a very unusual phenomenon: a strange craft had landed in a baseball field in the middle of National City Park. It was large, shaped like a disc, and people were wondering whether or not it was some sort of publicity stunt for a new movie, or an actual real live flying saucer. Live TV trucks pointed cameras at this strange...whatever it was. And like many people in National City, the occupants in the Danvers home we're watching the coverage is great anticipation...and rampant speculation.
Winn was the doubting Thomas of the household, trying to figure out which upcoming space opera this thing was promoting. Young CJ was thinking the other way, precocious young lady that she was. "Maybe it's one of those little green men from Mars or someplace." Alex gave her teenage daughter a glare as if a simple what could quell any nonsensical thoughts that would seem to come from either H.G. or Orson Welles. Kara, James, and Allie (Alura"s nickname) just sat there, transfixed but what was going on.
Suddenly, the reporter on the scene, Catherine Grant (one of the country's few female on the spot reporters), starts speaking in very excited terms. Whatever that sauce was, an opening formed, and in moments two figures that looked human and what humans would call female emerged. One looked metallic with a blueish-silver cast. The other had a transparent helmet, showing its wearer was definitely human, with a thin white streak falling down from an otherwise jet-black long mane.
As the pictures were being broadcast to millions around the world, the viewers were definitely transfixed, including at the Danvers boarding house. Everyone watched with mouths agape. The most transfixed, however, was Alex Danvers. And for some reason her attention was focused solely on the alien with the dark hair and the white stripe. She could not explain it, but there was something about this alien woman...she guessed it was a woman... That locked her attention totally.
What Alex Danvers did not know was that the creature from what one could assume would be a distant planet was about to change her life forever, in ways she could never even imagine.
To be continued...
