All That Glitters Ch. 22

Central Operations, Liramor-23, Piscium System

Fiona was going over items with Fayad Ouihya at Ops when the sensors began to detect multiple blips in the Navy inbound lane.

"Multiple FTL events in the Navy inbound lane!" Fayad called out. "I am seeing four, now five, now seven ships arriving!"

"Shit! Man the weapons, activate IFF, NOW!" Fiona yelled.

"IFF indicates Navy vessels!" the Comms O advised. "I'm seeing NS Kologn, NS Kindalla, NS Wimple, NS Claridge, NS Betelgeuse, NS Orion, NS Kennedy, and NFT Roger Dancer. I think our fleet has returned home, ma'am!"

"Liramor-23 Central Ops, this is the NS Wimple, Capt. Bouyé Whatt commanding. You tell those lazy scientists of mine their ship is back, and I expect them to be ready for work at Second Shift. Over."

Fiona took the comms.

"Whatt, you son-of-a-bitch! Is that my fleet your bringing in?" Fiona's happy voice rang out.

"Yes, ma'am," Whatt confirmed. "The Fleet is home!"

End of chapter twenty-two.

I am reminded of what a great writer once said: "When a story is read from the heart, and entered into through the mind, when the book is finished - the story itself isn't necessarily completed...it remains in the heart and mind of the reader and the emotions invoked can be revisited by the reader again and again."

Over the years, I have forgotten the name of that writer, but not the words. Now, I am beginning to fully understand what was meant. When I was young, and I finished a good story, it sometimes led to adventure, often whimsical adventure found only in the mind. Sometimes I would be a knight, or a famous detective, or a forest thief.

Sometimes thinking of a story led to particularly strong feelings shared by my heart with the protagonists, as they flittered from one adventure to the next, while I eagerly anticipated what was to come in youth unable to foresee the future of the storyline, a future that I can today most times predict.

It is said that no story today can be written that has not already been. But that is not necessarily true, for we are continuously bombarded by new and interesting concepts, new and interesting plots. It is the heart and mind that make a story: the mind of the writer places words to paper, real or electronic. The writer's mind may create the plot and the storyline, but it is the writer's heart that brings a story to life. For without the love, the fear, the jealousy, the anger, or the frustrations that tug at the readers mind, the story can hold no weight.

It is the combined effort of the heart and mind of the writer that creates a truly good story worthy of being read. But it is the heart and mind of the reader that empowers a story, read from the heart and entered into through the mind...a gift from the writer to the reader.

We are today, getting away from the written word. But stories in video format do not allow our imagination to flourish as broadly as does the written word. The video story is there on the screen, complete. The plot, the storyline, the actors, the imagery of the story itself, is there for us to follow, rather than for us to anticipate.

In the written word, our imaginations are allowed to soar, to anticipate the plot, the storyline, the emotions, and even the very looks of the protagonists, every event given to our imagination, until we have finished reading the book. Then our minds must return to the story to understand what we have read, to make sense of our eager anticipation of what was to come and reconcile it with what did happen, our minds and hearts still working long after the book is read. Unlike a video, where we can put the story to rest with the credits or sometimes simply shut off those boring credits, written works demand our imaginary involvement.

Writing is a skill that is being lost by the young. They seem to think that wordsmithing programs are the end all of a good story. They forget, or simply do not understand, that emotions are an integral part of a story. We must teach our children to read, and to write, and more importantly to use their imagination, for without our youth, who will write those future stories? Indeed, who will read them?

I apologize for the tirade, but I had to let my thoughts out. Thank-you for reading.

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Be well, Be kind to one another, Be safe.

bigtddybr