Telstar Brother Day

J. Jay Waller

“Aurora, come look,” Wildflower called out as she finished painting a peace sign on the front of the swept-wing space ship. She set her brush and can of paint down on a black metal work cart and stepped back, her bellbottoms rustling over her bare feet.

A short woman with dark curly hair wearing a silver halter top and black shorts ran out from behind the wing, the heels of her thigh-length white boots echoed through the space station bay. “Far out.”

Wildflower smiled and pushed a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “This’ll show the um—what did Marcel call the aliens?”

“Our Telstar brothers.”

“They’ll see that we’re a planet of peace and love.” She turned and looked out through the force field glowing at the end of the space station bay. The arm of Earth was just coming into view, covered with blue and white swirls. “Can you dig it?”

“I can dig it.” Aurora put her arm around Wildflower’s shoulders. “It’s been two hundred years since the summer of love, when we changed the entire world. No war. Just peace and love.”

“Peace and love,” Wildflower echoed.

“It’s time to send our message to another race of beings.”

“Hey, foxy ladies,” said a metallic blue robot as it rolled up to the women.

“Hey, Moonbeam,” they answered together.

Sensors shaped like sunglasses sitting in the middle of the robot’s head scanned the ship. “Solid paint job.” His mechanical mouth smiled above a rectangular black soul patch. “Marcel says it’s time to make the scene, know what I mean?” Opening a compartment in his guru-jacket-shaped chest, Moonbeam pulled out a handful of joints and handed them to Wildflower. “Everybody’s supposed to be mellow, with an open mind when the aliens arrive. Everyone’s positive energy will combine into a powerful message of love and peace.”

The two women walked over and crawled into the ship through the underside, closing the hatch behind them. Moonbeam shut off the force field. He watched the ship carefully lift off the deck and slide out into space.

An hour later, every ship from the space station was in orbit, ready to welcome the Telstar Brothers with open minds. Each craft had been adorned with new paint. Bright swirls, peace signs, doves and flowers covered nearly every inch of metal.

Marcel adjusted the side thrusters on his own Volkswagen ship and then looked out over the purple, fur-covered console inside. His long black braids spilled over the shoulders of his leather vest. He took another hit off a fat doobie and then passed it to his girlfriend, Galaxie, a small brunette reclining next to him. Exhaling, he added to the gray cloud of smoke that filled the cockpit.

The aliens hovered in a cluster just beyond the space station. A small, sharp-angled craft separated from the group and moved closer.

Marcel opened a communication channel linking all the Earth vessels to the alien ship. “Welcome to Earth,” Marcel said. “Peace and love, my Telstar brothers.”

“Peace and love,” the rest of the people in the Earth ships added.

A golden-skinned alien with dark eye disks protruding from on the top of its wedge-shaped head appeared on the communication screen. Its mouth, a small beak-like opening at the bottom of its head moved and sharp clicks sounded. “You have brought forth a mighty armada to meet us,” the computer translated. “We see that each ship has been painted for battle.”

“No, no. Peace my brother. We have no weapons, only love.”

“Prove your words. Disengaged all weapons in your war fleet.”

“Make love, not war,” Marcel replied.

The alien’s eyes turned bright orange as it shook its fist. “Disarm your ships.”

“Hang loose, brother,” Marcel said. “These are ships of peace.”

“No one goes into space without weapons.” The alien pointed at flashing lights in the background behind it. “Your refusal to disarm will be taken as a sign of war, demanding an immediate and devastating response.”

“Don’t bring me down with all your heavy words about guns and aggression.” Marcel grabbed his head with his hands and began slowly shaking his head. Stopping, he looked at the alien on the screen. “Come on over to our pad and we can rap about it, you dig?” He lifted a fat joint to his mouth and took a deep toke. “We’ve got some excellent grass, man. It’ll be a happenin’ scene.” He held the joint to the screen. “See man, primo weed. It’s copasetic.”

The alien shook its large hand at the screen. “We have scanned your ships several times. We do not know what kind of weapons you have, but the power levels on your vessels have not been reduced, which means you are still armed.”

Marcel turned toward his girlfriend. “He’s bumming me out.”

Galaxie leaned toward the screen. “Don’t flip your wig, man,” she cooed. “No need to get so up tight.” She held up her index and middle fingers extended in a “V” shape. “Peace.”

“Your words are a trap to lure us closer so you can destroy us.” The alien disappeared from the screen. A bright red laser beam shot out from the front of its ship, ripping through the space station. The structure exploded in a silent flash.

All the people in the Earth ships paused, dumbfounded, the consequences of the blast slowly filtering through the marijuana clouds filling each vessel. The joint floated away from Marcel’s slack fingers in the zero gravity. “Bummer.”

“Let’s split!” Galaxie shouted. She looked over at Marcel who was staring blankly at the controls. “Shag ass!”

The rest of the alien ships shot forward, hundreds of lasers firing. The hippy ships began exploding like a string of firecrackers.

Down on Earth, loudspeakers played music around the globe as billions of people lay on the ground smoking joints to celebrate Telstar Brother Day. Looking up, they oohed and ahhed as they watched the pretty colors exploding in the sky.