Sleeping Beauty, By Sandra Urias

Note: Sandra Urias's fascinating, wonderfully imagined entry was the victim of an email accident. Please make a special effort to read this extraordinary entry.

The President and First Lady of the World held a banquet in the World Government Building to celebrate daughter’s first birthday. Delegates from every region and every planet in the Galactic Union were present.

Moord, whose planet was the most recent addition to the Union, surprised them all by videoing in. He went into an envious rage because he was not invited and declared the President’s neglect an act of war. He swore to murder the President’s daughter before her 17th birthday (as it would take him that long to travel to Earth), and then snapped off the video before anyone could reason with him. All of the attendees swore to his little daughter, Aurora, safe. Moord’s delegates were already on their way to Earth, and the President decided that Aurora should be hidden away and raised by her Aunt Ceridwen until a truce could be negotiated.

Aurora and her aunt secretly moved to a little cottage on the Jos Plateau of Nigeria. Ceridwen taught her farming, herb medicine, folk magick, and healing of the soul. Aurora grew in strength, confidence and beauty but in ignorance of who she was and who her parents were. She could not recall their faces and did not want to hurt her aunt’s feelings by inquiring about them overmuch.

The day before her 17th birthday, Aunt Ceridwen announced a surprise: They would be going to the World Capital to celebrate. Aurora was so excited that she could not sleep that night and dozed during the entire blimp ride. At the blimp station, they were met by a security detail that escorted them to a grand hotel. Intimidated, Aurora asked her aunt whether they were in some kind of trouble and her aunt laughed kindly and told her not to worry and that it was all part of the surprise.

After they bathed and dressed in new-found finery, they were quickly brought to the World Government Building. The entry doors burst open and out ran her mother and father. Tears were shed by all and the reunion was joyful. After about an hour of explanation, partygoers from all over the Galactic Union arrived for a great party. Everyone danced.

Then a security detail burst into the room and announced that Moord had come out of hiding and was on his way with skilled warriors to kill Aurora and finally have his revenge. Panicked, the President, First Lady, Aunt Ceridwen, and Aurora fled to the spaceport where a fast and sturdy spaceship was being prepared for an emergency evacuation. Aurora and her aunt would be put into hypersleep so they could endure a quick journey to a well-guarded asteroid at the edge of the solar system while her father’s armed guards battled Moord. The ground crew was hastily fueling the vehicle and putting on the hypersleep fluid, and after a brief and tearful goodbye to her parents, Aurora and her aunt strapped in.

The navigation program was uploaded and the last of the fuel was onloaded. Just then, a pressure surge in the hypersleep fluid tank burst and vaporized the entire supply. The vapor was like a dense fog that filled the inside of the spaceship, the entire spaceport, and spread across the continent. Everyone it touched immediately fell into the deep, dreamless sleep of suspended animation. The autopilot on the spacecraft engaged and sent the unconscious Aurora and Aunt Ceridwen into deep space.

They drifted for ten years.

A settlement vehicle was returning from a deep space mission and grew concerned when they were unable to reach any major spaceport on Earth. Captain Pan listened again to the message at the asteroid outpost that said they had all returned to Earth to investigate the lack of communication, but the message was 9 years old. As they approached the asteroid, the captain noticed a spacecraft adrift. Nobody answered the communication, so, Pan and two of his officers boarded the craft and found the two women in hypersleep. Pan was stunned at Aurora’s beauty, and after the crew programmed the awake commands, he was also taken with her genuine kindness and confidence. Aunt Ceridwen told the Captain about their hasty departure and about the fog. They all decided to return to Earth, and en route, they would develop a way reverse the effects of the fog… unless Moord had destroyed everyone and everything.

From Earth’s orbit, the crew directed a concentrated ray of a hypersleep chemical isotope at the spaceport. The ray acted as a reawakening agent and woke the ground crews. After a couple of hours of confusion and explanation, the Captain instructed them on how to make the reawakening ray. It took only a few days for airships to travel the planet and wake every human, foul, fish, and furred creature.

Finally, it was safe to land, and the Captain, crew, and passengers wandered into the spaceport where Aurora’s parents were waiting. After a happy reunion, they all decided go to the President’s residence. They passed a room of glass with a very sick being inside. Aurora discovered that it was Moord. The hypersleep fog was a poison to his biology and he was suffering greatly. Aurora’s kind heart demanded that she attend him and she grabbed her medicine bag.

She studied his biology and his symptoms, brewed a series of teas, and treated the alien for several days. Captain Pan would not leave her and brought her food and drink and conversation as needed. On the fifth day, the alien improved. Moord, finally conscious, asked her who she was, and when she told him, he thanked her for healing him and begged her forgiveness. He vowed that his people and the people of Earth would forever be allies.

The people of Earth recovered from their sleep. Aurora and Pan married and lived outside the capital in a cottage, and Aunt Ceridwen returned to Nigeria and told the good villagers how their beloved Aurora’s saved them all.