"Fiddler's Green" (story)

"Fiddler's Green" is a short story set in the second year of Pegasus's journey through the Perseus Quadrant, and takes place after the events of Book 03: Bodicea
==Plot==
The Aves Quentin crash-lands on the planet Fiddler's Green in a dismal swamp and rapidly sinks into it, giving its crew (led by Commander Redfire) only moments to escape. As they drag themselves from the murky swamp, they meet a group of the planet’s inhabitants, standing on the shore, holding a banner reading “WELCOM SPACE PEEPLE.” 
The landing party discover they have lost contact with Pegasus. They inquire how the villagers knew of their arrival, and are told that ‘The Mayor’ informed them. The Mayor turns out to be a small pig. One man, seeing their dilemma, offers to sell them a “Spaceship Deswampificator” to get their ship out of the swamp. It looks suspiciously like a waffle iron tied to an air pump. 
Having difficulty with the bizarre behavior of the planet’s inhabitants, they latch onto one of the saner ones, an elderly man who runs the General Store and Feed. He tells them he thinks a couple on the outskirts of town, the Clarence Thomas Joneses, may have a communication device.
The Joneses turn out to be a distinguished man and a rather scatterbrained wife with a weird accent. She explains that the planet is inhabited by “invisible little green men” who disable electronic devices. 
A loud boom interrupts, and Redfire looks up to see a fireball burning high in the cloud tops. He zooms in and sees that it is Pegasus entering that atmosphere.
With no other alternative, Redfire decides to beg the Little Green Men to release Pegasus. He pleads that the ship’s crew would not be entertaining for them and possibly dangerous. Pegasus skips out of the atmosphere and back into space. 
Later, he engages the Spaceship Deswampificator to extract Quentin from the swamp.
They return to the ship, where Queequeg finds evidence that the invisible little green men were real. 
==Characters==
*Queequeg - (Narrator)
*
Tactical TyroCommander Philip John Miller Redfire 
*Flight Lieutenant Zenith Lawless
*Prime Commander William Keeler 
*Executive TyroCommander Goneril Lear 
*Lieutenant David Alkema
*Specialist Roland Diaz
*Specialist Jared Buck
*Hoyt Clagwell
*Khan Limbalk
*Clarence Thomas Wilson
*Eva Wilson
*Zeb Riffle -
*Harold
*Tybalt
==Ships==
*Pathfinder Ship Pegasus 
*Aves Quentin
*Aves Victor
==Background==
*"Fiddler's Green" was originally going to be a full-length novel titled "Green," but the story didn't lend itself to a longer narrative. The central idea was the idea of a planet where normal rules of logic did not apply.
*"Fiddler's Green" was intended as the first of a trilogy of stories themes on 1960's television. "Fiddler's Green" is a parody of Green Acres. The second story, "Independence," was a parody of Twilight Zone. A third story, "Seven" was intended as a Gilligan's Island parody, but was never completed.
*Fiddler's Green was the name of a mythological Afterlife, possibly related to the Elysian Fields of the Ancient Greeks.
*
"Fiddler's Green" markes the first mention by name of an "Old Line" Commonwealthcolony; Atlas.
Category:Stories