Beam Me Up: Bedtime Tale

This is a bedtime story about you as a child in a cabin, listening to your granddad begin to tell a story from his youth about the time he encountered aliens. He shares how he was tending to his pumpkins when an alien craft beamed him up. He found himself in a dark room, found a door out of that room into what looked like a normal Earthly landscape, but was a land within a dome.

He found his way to a tunnel and managed to escape the dome and enter the main part of the ship, exploring for a while, before escaping back to Earth with some items he said he keeps in his safe. He finishes telling this story to you. You don't know whether to believe him or not. After you are in bed, he opens the safe, looks at the items in the safe, smiles, closes the safe, and heads outside to the back porch for a while, gazing up at the stars, breathing in the fresh air, before heading to bed where he drifts asleep to Slumberland.

Transcript

So just take a moment to allow your eyes to close and allow yourself to begin to relax.

And as you begin to comfortably fall asleep,

I don't know whether you'll drift asleep faster to the sound of my voice or whether it'll be to the spaces between my words.

And as you comfortably drift asleep,

You have a sense of being a small child sitting cross-legged on the floor of a cabin on the most comfortable thick rug,

Listening to a gently crackling fire.

The light of the fire flickering around the inside of the cabin.

And your granddad sat in the most comfortable seat.

And they're smoking a pipe.

And the smoke gently rises up from that pipe.

And in a slightly gravelly voice,

They watch their smoke rising up,

While beginning to recount a story from their past.

And while the smoke rises up and twists and turns,

It's as if the two of you drift with that story,

Almost like drifting into a dream.

They talk about a time that happened decades earlier.

They're out tending to the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch,

Enjoying the cool nighttime air.

Listening to the nighttime sounds of crickets,

An owl somewhere in the distance.

They're gazing up at the stars overhead,

Watching the way those stars twinkled faintly in the night sky.

And as they watched those stars,

So they noticed that some of the stars were moving slightly faster than the others,

And at a slightly different angle to the other stars.

And as they found their attention drawn to those stars,

So they noticed it was just three stars that seemed to form a triangle in the sky.

And that triangle wasn't visible.

The only way to notice it was by the absence of other stars,

As it slowly and quietly moved across the sky.

And they watched as that continued moving,

And eventually that triangle looked like it was getting larger and larger.

Those three stars were moving further and further apart.

And as nothing could be seen,

It was hard to tell whether the three stars were moving apart,

Or whether something was getting closer and closer.

Until eventually,

Those stars stopped and hovered overhead.

And while hovering overhead,

A light lit up from the center of those three stars,

Right over the grandad's head,

Like a spotlight beaming down upon them.

And that spotlight became brighter and brighter,

Giving off a warmth.

And then there was a fuzziness,

And a slight haziness.

And mist could be seen rising from the ground beneath the grandad.

And then that light seemed to turn off.

And as the light turned off,

So the grandad found they couldn't see anything,

Just pitch black.

But they also couldn't hear anything.

All the nature sounds had gone.

It wasn't just their eyes adjusting to the dark.

Something had shifted and changed.

And they took a step,

And realized that they were now on a solid floor.

And their eyes very,

Very slightly began to adjust to the dark.

They started seeing the faintest outlines of the environment,

As if they were in a metal room.

And with an arm stretched out,

They slowly,

Quietly and carefully walked across this room,

Each footstep barely making a sound.

The wall of this room began to follow the edge of that wall with their hand.

Until eventually,

They found what felt like a door handle.

They opened that door,

And were almost blinded by how bright the outside was.

They walked out of the door,

And held a hand up in front of their face,

Covering their eyes from the light.

Giving themselves time for their eyes to adapt again,

Now to the brightness of daytime.

And as they walked out into this landscape,

They saw a landscape of coarse,

Dry grass,

Small shrubs,

A dense blue sky.

And as they looked around,

They noticed something unusual in the sky.

A little bit like noticing some reflections,

And some glare from light.

And they realized that,

Stretched high overhead,

It looked like there was a glass dome,

Almost as if they were in a fishbowl.

And as they looked around themselves,

They could see other animals,

Some cows in a field,

Some wolves in the distance,

An eagle flying in the sky.

It all looked very earth-like,

Apart from that dome overhead.

And so they walked away from that door,

Turned and looked back,

And it looked like a metal door into the side of a cliff.

And as they looked back,

So the door closed,

And they heard it seal.

And so they decided to explore,

And try and work out where they are and what's occurring.

And they headed over towards a patch of woodland,

To try and get out of the sun.

And so they crunched their way through that dry grass,

Walked over to the trees,

And the closer they got to those trees,

The more they could hear them gently rustling in the breeze.

And they entered that woodland and felt the shade of those trees.

And the sun occasionally danced through the leaves,

And they could hear some sounds like monkeys among this woodland.

And so they quietly walked through the woodland.

And as they walked,

They got closer and closer to the sound of the monkeys.

And then they saw among the trees,

Those monkeys swinging from branch to branch.

Some running and jumping off the branches from one tree to another.

Some young monkeys chasing each other around the trees and jumping from tree to tree.

And one large monkey,

Almost treating it like a gym,

Seemingly doing pull-ups on a branch,

And then swinging itself around,

Hooking its legs up over the top of the branch,

And seemingly doing upside down sit-ups.

And so the granddad worked their way around those monkeys,

Still trying to work out where here is,

Occasionally hearing a low rumbling sound.

That seemed to be everywhere all at once.

And the other side of this woodland.

They continued on,

Noticing that the sun here seemed to be beginning to gently set,

Casting the most comfortable golden light that reflected and refracted within the glass dome.

And they decided to try and make it all the way to the dome,

Perhaps finding a way of knowing where here is.

And they headed over towards the side of the dome,

And at the foot of the dome was a tall cliff,

Similar to the cliff they had walked out of.

And they could see a waterfall pouring down the side of that cliff,

Forming the river,

Which meandered its way through the landscape,

Past the woodland,

And off to a lake.

And they headed over towards that river,

Gently splashed their hands down into the water,

Splashed a bit of that cool water on their face,

Had a drink of some of that water,

Before heading over to the waterfall,

Surveying the cliff to see if there's a way up that cliff,

And then trying to climb that cliff a little,

And managing to climb up behind the waterfall.

And finding there's a small cave behind this waterfall,

And they call down that cave to listen for the echoes.

But this cave seems to just absorb sound,

And within just a step or two into the cave,

So much sound is absorbed,

That the waterfall can no longer be heard.

And when shouting down that cave,

Not only are there no echoes,

But the grandad couldn't even hear their own voice,

As if the sound waves were absorbed as soon as they'd left the vocal cords and the mouth,

And each footstep was silent.

And this silence made it very difficult to judge fully how heavy each footstep was,

And what the ground beneath the feet was like.

And so the grandad walked back to the entrance to the cave,

Sat on the entrance to the cave,

Legs dangling down,

That waterfall crashing down in front of them,

Like a waving sheet of cloth.

And they looked down,

And they could see that this water wasn't only splashing into the river below,

But it looked like there was a slightly darker area.

Perhaps this water had carved out some space,

With its strength perhaps over thousands of years.

And so the grandad decided to jump down into the river,

And as soon as they landed in the water,

And they took a deep breath in,

They went under the water,

And they were pushed incredibly fast by the pressure of the water,

And they noticed it looked like there was a cave.

And so they swam down,

Using the pressure of that water to swim even faster into that cave.

And they followed that cave,

And it arced round and headed back in the direction of the cliff.

And they followed that round,

Swam into the darkness,

Noticed a faint glowing from within the water,

And saw some underwater faint glowing mushrooms lining the walls of the cave.

And in that gentle glow,

They could see that there was a surface to this water in this cave,

As they swam up to that surface,

Took a deep breath as the water ran down their face,

And they climbed out of the water into this cave.

And this cave shared the same properties,

That it seemed to absorb sound.

And they gathered up some of those mushrooms from around the edge of the water,

And used those mushrooms as a torch,

As they walked along this cave.

And this cave looked natural,

But at the same time,

Seemed to have a strange element to it,

Like something was slightly off,

Like looking at a face created with AI.

Where it seems to look natural,

But something just isn't quite right about it.

They couldn't quite put their finger on what,

And they followed this cave,

And at the end of the cave,

They found what looked like a circular door,

With a bar stretched across that door.

They pulled hard on that bar,

And the door popped open,

And they walked through that door,

And found themselves,

In what looked like a spaceship.

They could hear the distant sound of voices,

The metal floor felt slightly rubbery to the touch,

The rumbling was louder,

And before them was what looked like a giant glass window,

And through that window,

They could see stars and nebula,

And they could tell that this ship,

Was moving through space,

And as they explored,

They noticed that,

Where they've just come from,

Was one of many different chambers,

Different environments,

And they walked along to one of the other environments,

And they climbed up and looked into that environment,

And in that environment,

They could see unusual creatures they've never seen before,

And they opened the door to that environment,

Closed it behind them,

Walked along this corridor,

Experiencing the same thing again,

And they found that all sound seemed to be fully absorbed,

By this corridor that resembled a cave,

And they found their way,

To a point where the cave dropped down a vertical shaft,

They rested their back against the shaft,

And their legs with their feet up,

On the opposite wall,

And their hands resting against the wall behind them,

And they carefully walked their way down,

Keeping themselves wedged in position,

With their back and hands helping them to move down,

As their feet walk down the opposite wall,

Until they reach the bottom of the opposite wall,

And then drop down,

Into the shaft below,

And they walked along that shaft,

And found that they were right behind a waterfall,

And they recognized that something similar was probably,

At the end of the cave,

That they had initially found,

And they worked their way around from behind the waterfall,

And looked out across this landscape,

Seeing that dome overhead,

Seeing what looked a little bit like,

A white peacock,

Only its head and body,

Looked a little bit more like a rabbit,

And its legs and feet,

Looked a bit more like the swan's legs and feet,

And they saw the most incredible rainbow colors,

Arcing through this environment,

Almost pulsing among the flowers here,

As if it's the flowers pulsing that color,

Into the sky,

And then noticing,

As that peacock creature,

Moves its chest and head as if it's making noise,

But instead of noise coming out,

Circles of rainbow color,

Emanate,

From that peacock,

And then as that emanates out,

So another similar creature,

Flies down and lands,

And waves its tail feathers,

And the two seem to interact,

Both seemingly beaming out,

Pulses of color,

And as the colored light from both of them,

Collides in space,

It seems to intertwine,

Forming bands of white and black,

Enhancing some of the color,

While reducing other color frequencies,

And as each of them changes,

Their movements a little bit like a person,

Changing the pitch of their voice,

The colors shifted and changed,

As if the two of them,

Were trying to get their colors in sync with each other,

And then when they do,

It's like the most incredible,

Pulsing light,

As if the light from both of them,

Is hugging and intertwining,

And spiraling up into the sky,

And then dispersing overhead,

And as they look around,

And they see this going on,

With the plants,

With the trees,

With the grasses,

With everything communicating,

Through pulses of light,

And all that light,

Radiating up into the sky,

Reaching high in the sky,

And seemingly condensing,

And then falling down,

Like rainbow drops of rain,

And the grandad found this,

Almost hypnotic to watch,

And they went over to the trees,

And they grabbed,

One of the vines from the tree,

And broke off a branch,

And tied the vine to the tree,

And climbed up into the branch,

And then climbed their way back up,

Into the tunnel,

Walked all the way to the back of the tunnel,

Threw that branch up as high as they could,

The first time the branch just fell back down,

And met them again,

So they threw the branch up again,

And once again it fell back down,

But the third time they threw that branch up,

And it managed to straighten out above the hole,

Catching across the hole,

And was strong enough for them to hoik themselves up,

Just up into the hole,

So they could rest their back against one side,

And their feet up on the other,

And ascend the way they went down,

And once up out of that hole,

They gathered up the vine,

And that branch,

And they went off to check out what else was here in this spaceship,

And as they walked around the spaceship,

They saw different ornaments,

Like souvenirs from different places these aliens had perhaps visited,

Almost like this area was used as some kind of a museum,

And they could still hear the mumbling of voices off in the distance,

And they saw more domes,

And they saw a ladder,

And so they climbed that ladder to another floor,

And from this floor,

They could look down upon multiple domes,

And just within what they could see,

There was at least a dozen domes,

And each dome had a very different environment,

And from up here,

They could see some small creatures looked unfamiliar,

The different computer consoles seemingly studying what's taking place within the different domes,

And they snuck along to get a closer look,

They climbed down a ladder nearer to those aliens,

And then they walked their way out to confront the aliens,

And one of the aliens was startled by their presence,

And as they jumped back with their startle,

Their gasp sounded like stepping on bubble wrap,

Just the faint sound of multiple pops,

And they started to talk,

And their talking sounded like patterns of popping bubbles on bubble wrap,

And then the alien went over and picked up a machine,

And began talking into the machine,

And then the machine began talking in a language they could understand,

And asked where they came from,

They were supposed to be in their environment,

And the granddad explained they'd found a way out,

And wanted to know what was going on,

And they said that they visit different alien worlds,

They beam aboard different creatures into an environment they've created to resemble the environment those creatures have come from,

They watch how those creatures interact,

How they explore,

What they do when they have to just survive,

And then once they've gained some knowledge,

They beam all the creatures back to where they found them,

And as they beam them back,

They scramble the memories as best they can of their experience here,

But because the neurology of every creature is different,

They can't guarantee totally deleting the memories,

So they just do their best to scramble them,

And the alien isn't worried about saying any of this,

Because they're assuming they're going to do the same with the granddad,

And they say that they're the machine elves from the planet they come from,

There are many different races of elves,

That all chose different lives,

Some are tall and slender,

And athletic,

And enjoy nature,

And live within the trees and the mountainous regions,

Others are shorter and more squat,

They like working hard,

Working up a sweat,

They work in mines,

Others enjoy being underground,

And then there are those who are driven by knowledge,

And invention,

And exploration,

And they're the machine elves,

And thousands of years earlier,

In earth years,

They left their planet to go and explore,

And they have these enormous ships,

With habitats built into them,

And they have technology,

For being able to recreate different habitats,

And so they head to different worlds,

They scan the environments of those worlds,

They then beam up different creatures,

Study them for a while,

And then beam those creatures back,

And then nanotechnology dismantles the world within the dome,

Ready for it to reform,

For the next creatures they beam up,

And they have some emergency ways of getting into the dome,

If they need to check on something,

Or if a creature has a problem within a dome,

And they need to intervene,

But generally they try not to make themselves known,

And obviously an enormous spaceship can be very noisy,

And so the domes are built on their advanced soundproofing,

That wraps around under the dome,

And part way up the side of the domes,

On the inside and the outside,

To minimize the sound of the ships rumble,

And they do their best to try to minimize anything that could give away that this environment isn't natural,

But obviously if there's an intellectual species,

They may figure it out,

But they're unlikely normally to figure out a way out of the dome,

Before such time as they've been beamed back to where they were found,

But the grandad had found their way out of the dome,

And now here they were,

And the grandad asked what happens next,

How do they find their way home,

And they said they don't want their mind wiped,

And this machine elf said that you can't avoid having your mind wiped,

It has to happen,

And then they started punching in things on the computer,

And what looked like eyeballs formed almost like holograms,

And the elf began talking,

Looking up at those eyes,

And a voice could be heard talking back from the floating eyes,

And the grandad realised they were talking about what had happened and what should be done,

And so they decided to take off,

Before any action was taken by the elf,

And so they ran back to that ladder,

And ascended back up to the top floor where they'd get a better view,

They saw the eyeballs fizzle out,

Saw other elves dash into the area below,

All those elves suddenly ascending and chasing the grandad,

As he ran along and slid down the ladder at the other side,

And ran around all of the different enclosures,

And ran past an enclosure that seemed to be full of giant snails,

With slime up the glass domes,

And snails even hanging from the top,

And then found a way down to a lower level,

And using the branch and the vine,

Managed to quickly descend down that level,

And then attached the vine to the bottom of the door they'd just descended through,

And tied it off to a step at the bottom,

And they knew that would only slow them down a little,

And then they ran over to a console,

Picked up one of those voice changing machines,

And started talking into the machine,

And the sound of bubble wrap came out the other side,

And they talked to a computer asking where the transporters are to beam back down to different planets,

And a map fizzled into view before them,

And it seemed to be fizzling into view in line with the device they held,

Almost like the device was somehow beaming it,

Like augmented reality before them,

And it was marked on the map where they had to get to,

And so they ran around the ship,

Found their way where they could beam back to a planet,

They asked for it to program in to beam back to Earth,

And back to their location,

And they saw it whirring to life,

Like a giant purple pearl forming before them,

That began vibrating on its outside,

And then within that purple pearl a pink formed,

Stretching out to the size of that giant purple pearl,

And then the center,

A white formed and stretched out to fill that giant pearl,

And then the sound changed,

And the grandad jumped into that light,

And then there was darkness,

And then there was the light of a beam surrounding them,

And then the beam faded,

And as the beam faded,

They could hear the sounds of nature,

They could feel the mud of the pumpkin patch beneath their feet,

They could see the moon gently rising above the trees,

And they dashed away from the pumpkin patch,

Dashed into the trees,

Stopped and hid and looked up,

And they could see that absence of stars very slowly moving around above them,

As if searching,

Then they could see beams of light pulse beneath the ship onto the ground and out of the beams of light,

They saw machine elves nosing around in search of them,

And very quietly and carefully the grandad weaved his way among the trees,

Before finding a large tree,

Climbing up into that tree,

Hiding on a high up branch among the canopy,

Blanketed by those leaves,

And resting up here in this tree,

Feeling the breeze blow through these leaves,

Tickling his cheeks,

Wafting his hair around,

He could see the lights of those machine elves as they scan around the environment below and he waits up here so patiently so calmly,

So relaxed as the night ticked on slowly minute by minute hour after hour to the point he could feel himself fighting the grumbling of his stomach he could feel himself pushing away thoughts of snacks he could feel that he was fighting the approaching sleep but knew that once he gets a chance he'll probably just fall asleep deeply and quickly and easily and after many many hours,

As he listens to the first sounds of the morning birds and sees the slightest tinge of red of morning light glisten through the treetops he sees those machine elves heading back beneath that ship which is now beginning to become visible under the lightening sky as beams of light zap them back up to the ship and he watches as that ship silently rises up into the sky higher and higher and then in a blink vanishes off into the distance as if launched into space and the Grandad waited for many hours longer before climbing down from that tree his body feeling so tired he found his way home and he still had that machine and he locked that small handheld device away in his safe and with it he placed some of those glowing mushrooms and he never spoke of it again or so he said until now when regaling you with that story smoking his pipe gazing off into the ether as if in a reverie while the fire gently crackles down to embers holding your attention with curiosity about the idea of aliens and alien worlds and a curiosity about what happened next whether the story is even true and the Grandad just smiled and took you to bed tucked you in,

Kissed you goodnight turned off the light and went back down and sat by the fire for a while until it was their turn to go to bed as tiredness began pulling at their eyelids and sleep began yawning from their mouth and they headed over to the picture above the fireplace they pushed on the frame and with a slight click the picture separated from the wall they pulled the picture open they dialed in a code on the safe opened the safe door looked at that device in the safe and the glowing mushrooms still the same as they were the day they were placed here and gave a brief smile closed it all up again stood out on the back porch for a moment gazing up at the sky wondering if they'll ever see those aliens again wishing to talk to them but not to have their mind wiped but to learn with curiosity about the universe and what they may well know that humanity doesn't and with a few lungfuls of fresh air they head back in they head to bed they rest down in bed they begin to drift asleep and in the back of their mind they can hear that low gentle rumble of the spaceship lulling them deeply and peacefully asleep as the cabin gently glows and they drift and float so peacefully,

So calmly asleep into slumberland

Reviews

Very soothing and relaxing soo got me to sleep thank you x