Fic: The Death of Fraggle Rock

[Slackbot]

This fic may not be what people pave come to expect from me, but sometimes I really feel strongly about something, and I have to express it somehow. And with Earth Day a few weeks away, well, this is the right time for it.

I'll be posting this story one part per day until it's finished. This story's going to be rough enough without long lags to exacerbate the tension.

So...Enjoy. If possible.

*****

The Death of Fraggle Rock​

by Kim McFarland​

*****

Part 1: Things That Go Blomp in The Night

*

Poncle struggled in Red's hands. "No! NO!"

Red had been diving with her daughter all day, and now she decided to balk? She set the little brown-and-blonde Fraggle down on her feet. "What's the matter?"

"You go!" Poncle commanded, pointing at the pool.

The kid was up to something. She usually was. Red jumped in with a satisfactory but not spectacular splash—she wasn't on the clock at the moment—then surfaced and shook the water out of her face.

"Mama! Catch me!" Poncle cried.

Without waiting for confirmation Poncle leapt. Red dodged back so Poncle wouldn't land on her head, and let the water do most of the catching. After the initial splash she grabbed Poncle up and threw her into the air. The Fragling kicked and squealed with glee before smacking face-down into the water.

Mokey was sitting back, doodling in her diary. The picture had begun as a sketch of the swimming hole with a few Fraggles in it, and had expanded to include all of the Great Hall. Wembley was watching, his tail wagging slowly and peacefully. Sometimes it seemed that whole sections of the picture appeared suddenly, as if by magic. When that happened he knew he had dozed off. Which was okay; it was a fine day to be lazy.

Gobo was with Mokey and Wembley, partly watching the rumpus in the swimming hole and partly just sitting back and enjoying his family's company. Wembley's tail stilled, and when Gobo looked at his friend's face his eyes were closed. Mischievously Gobo positioned himself so he was almost nose to nose with Wembley, careful not to touch him and wake him up. Then he waited.

Wembley's eyelids soon fluttered. When he saw Gobo staring at him at point-blank range he squawked with surprise, bumping Gobo's nose. Gobo laughed. "Still having trouble sleeping at night, Wembley?"

"Nah, not any longer," Wembley said.

Mokey paused in her drawing and asked, "Have you been sleeping badly?"

"Well, I was for a little while. I kept hearing weird sounds."

"What kind of sounds?" Mokey asked.

"Well, first something like cracking rocks. SPACK! And then a slurping water noise, blomp blomp blomp blomp. The water sounds go on and on."

Mokey asked Gobo, "Have you heard it too?"

He shook his head. "Not me. Wembley's got the best ears in the rock. He can hear stuff that the rest of us can't. Like water in rocks."

"What do you think it is?" she asked.

Wembley shrugged. "I don't know. It sounds far away, deep down, so I guess it's got nothing to do with us. And it's been going on for days, so I'm used to it. It still wakes me up, but I go right back to sleep again."

*

In his kitchen, Boober was making soup. The water had come to a boil, and he was about to scrape a load of chopped vegetables from the cutting board into the pot when he stopped and sniffed. Something didn't smell right. Was it the wood in the stove? He opened the door, and the smoke seemed to be normal. With the pot lid he fanned the steam toward his face, and, yes, there was a strange quality to it. He didn't like it, and he wouldn't permit it in his food. He put on a pair of mitts and carefully lifted the large pot off the stove. He carried it to a blind tunnel that led to a crack leading both up and down into darkness, and poured the water out.

Then he carried the pot through the Great Hall and to the source of the stream that fed the swimming hole. He set the pot under a ledge and watched the water flow into it.

Was it his imagination, or was it...kind of fizzy?

Nah, he thought, it was just turbulence making the water look bubbly. He let the pot fill, then carried it to the kitchen and set it on the stove. The water looked all right. He stirred it. It still fizzed a little, but it didn't smell like Whoopie Water. He got a little with a wooden spoon, and was about to taste it when a drop fell onto the oven top and splattered the burner below the pot. Orange flame puffed out. Boober yelped and jumped back, shocked.

The flame died out in moments. Unable to believe what he had seen, Boober scooped some more water—gingerly, with the spoon held out at arm's length—and then flicked it onto the stovetop. This time he saw the flame burst from the water itself. When it burned out, the water was left.

*

"Out of the swimming hole! Everybody out of the water! Now!"

Everybody turned to stare at Boober, who had run into the Great Hall in a panic. Red, who was treading water, said, "What's your problem, Boober?"

"Get out of there! Hurry! Hand Poncle to me! How do you feel?" He held out his arms insistently.

He was really freaking out. She lifted Poncle up to him. He was examining the little girl when Red climbed out. "What's the big fuss? We were having a good time!"

"The water's contaminated!" he shouted. "Dry yourself off! And don't go in the kitchen!"

Gobo joined them. "Contaminated? Are you sure? It seems fine to me."

Boober stared at him. Then he looked at Red. He didn't have time to debate the issue with them. "Wait here."

He went back to the kitchen. When he returned he had a coal from the oven in a pair of tongs. He said, "Stand back!" Then, with all the Fraggles watching, he tossed the coal into the swimming hole. Instead of disappearing beneath the surface with a hiss and a wisp of steam, it ignited the water.

Fraggles screamed as the surface of the water erupted into flame. The fire lasted for only a few seconds, but that was enough to terrify them. Boober said, "Now do you believe me?"

Gobo, the first to recover, asked, "How long has it been contaminated?"

"I don't know! I just found out myself! Does anyone feel sick? Throat tickly? Eyes itchy? Stomach ache?" He looked at Red and Poncle, who were dripping wet and horrified.

"I'm fine. How about you?" Red asked Poncle anxiously.

Poncle said, "I'm fine!"

"It must have just happened. Otherwise Boober would have noticed it sooner," Wembley said.

Mokey spoke. "We can't live without water!"

Gobo said, "Maybe there's clean water somewhere else. There are streams and springs all over the Rock. Boober, get some empty jars. We'll get samples."

"Yes!" Boober said, relieved that Gobo was taking charge.

*

Boober gathered an armload of empty jars from the kitchen and pantry. Gobo gave them out to the Fraggles he sent to take water samples from sources they had trusted in the past. Meanwhile, Red was toweling herself off as fast as she could, and Wembley was drying Poncle.

Sage, who had only caught the end of the panic, asked Boober, "What happened to the water?"

The others were listening for his answer too. He said, "Something has gotten into the water and fouled it."

"How?" Poncle wanted to know.

Boober shook his head. "I don't know. This has only happened once before."

Gobo, Boober, Red, Wembley, and Mokey exchanged glances. This was a frightening tale, one they had never told in full to their children because it was too terrifying. But now they needed to know, so they would understand the danger they were in and stay out of the water. Gobo said, "You know the story best, Boober."

Mokey patted her lap. "Come here, Sage."

Sage sat on her mother's lap. Mokey put her arms around her as if to protect her. Gobo held Poncle. Boober began, "Many many many days ago, when we were young and you hadn't been born yet, the water became contaminated. The Silly Creatures in Outer space, who didn't know we lived down here, began putting poisons in the earth. Those poisons got into the water and made us very sick. As sick as the worst flu you've ever had. If we swam or drank water, we drank more of the poison and got sicker."

"No swimming?" Poncle asked, wide-eyed.

Boober said, "There was no clean water for swimming or even to drink for a while. I didn't get sick because I didn't swim in the water, and I could smell it so I didn't drink it. It even hurt the Gorgs. And the radishes they watered with it turned yellow and died."

Sage asked, "How did the water get clean again?"

Boober said, "I went up to where the Silly Creature lived and begged him to stop poisoning us. I gave him back Gobo's postcards because I thought he was angry that we'd been taking them. And he made them wash the poison away with clean water."

Wembley put in, "This was before we met Doc. He wasn't the one who poisoned us, but he did make them stop it. Doc would never hurt us!"

Now Sage was glad she was in her mother's lap, enfolded by her mother's arms. Poncle looked frightened. She said, "I don't want the water to poison me!"

Red told her, "Don't worry. We won't let anything happen to you." Words alone could not reassure a little Fraggle, so she and Gobo hugged their daughter between themselves.

Boober said, "That's right. We'll all keep you safe." He glanced over to Mokey. She beckoned to him. He joined her and Sage in a comforting three-way embrace.

Nobody was holding Wembley. He sat alone, feeling very small and worried, and wondered if the thing he had heard in the night was poisoning the water.

*****

Tomorrow: Watership Fraggles

 

[The Count]

Here's hoping your Watership Fraggles makes more sense than what Robot Chicken attempted. Ooon the other hand... The whole water with flames bit was cool!
Can I get some of that for my next act?
You don't want any of our fire-water, you lunatic.
Yeah, we have enough to deal with in the theater.

Please post more tomorrow.

 

[Slackbot]

Heh, the chapter title is "Watership Fraggles" but it's nothing like the Robot Chicken episode (which I like), I promise.

The burning water happens in the real world. If you're a National Geographic reader you've probably already guessed what's up with the water. If not, Google "burning water" for some scary news stories.

Yes, the next chapter will go up tomorrow.

 

[charlietheowl]

Poor Fraggles! Still, I am glad that Boober was able to see the signs of danger quickly enough to make sure everyone stays out of the water. It shows that he can be as brave as anyone else when he sees danger afoot.

 

[Slackbot]

If bravery means doing what must be done even when you're widdling yourself with terror, then, yes, by the end of this story Boober will be a paragon of courage.

 

[Slackbot]

The Death of Fraggle Rock​

by Kim McFarland​

*****

Part 2: Watership Fraggles

*****

Soon Fraggles were returning with jars full of water. Boober looked them over carefully, one at a time. He would open one and sniff it. Then he would taste a tiny bit, and finally he would try to set fire to it. Some passed the test and were declared clean. But others were judged foul.

Gobo watched the tests, and marked the results on his map of Fraggle Rock. Bad water was marked with a slash; clean water with a circle. When it was all done he said to Boober and all the other anxious Fraggles gathered around, "We still have clean water. But it's all from higher sources. The water on our level and lower is contaminated. The lowest streams are the worst."

"The sounds I heard deep down," Wembley murmured. "I should have said something. I'm sorry!"

Mokey patted his back. "You couldn't have known."

Red looked over the map. "Those circles are all little springs and drinking holes. There's nowhere to swim!"

"Nowhere to swim?" Poncle echoed, eyes wide.

Gobo told her, "It'll be okay. Look, lots of these drinking holes are sweetwater."

"Can we get some?" Poncle asked.

"Yeah! Let's go," Red said, and went off, hand-in-hand with Poncle.

When they were out of earshot Gobo said grimly to Boober, "No swimming, and just enough drinking water. This doesn't look good."

Boober murmured, "Not even enough water for laundry."

Sage nodded unhappily.

Wembley asked, "Isn't there anything we can do?"

Boober looked around at Gobo, Wembley, Sage, and Mokey. Then he said, "I hope so," and left.

*

Boober trudged alone up the tunnel that led to Outer Space. The closer to the end he got the more he shrank into himself. He did not want to be up here all alone! Outer Space was no place for Fraggles!

But, he told himself, neither was a poisoned cave. He had to do this. The Fraggles couldn't save themselves. There was only one person who might be able to avert disaster.

He was cringing by the time he saw the light at the tunnel's end. It was a strange, unnatural color, cold and slightly bluish, unlike the warm gold of the sun in the Gorgs' garden. He gulped and inched forward until his nose was almost sticking out. "Hello?" he whined.

He heard a loud barking, and screamed and flung himself back. Sprocket stuck his head into the hole and panted excitedly. Boober whimpered, "Can I come out?"

Sprocket nodded and backed out of the hole. Boober, a tight ball of nervousness, forced himself to leave the safety of the tunnels and brave the Hairy Monster, which smeared him with an affectionate lick. Boober wiped frantically at his face with his scarf to scrape the germs away.

Doc appeared in a doorway. "Boober Fraggle?"

Boober looked up at the giant towering over him. "Yes," he whimpered.

Boober was the one Fraggle who had never really warmed to Doc. Doc understood that he wasn't unfriendly, just skittish. If he had come here alone, it must be for an important reason. He sat on the floor—Sprocket lay down beside him and rested his head on Doc's leg—and said, "What brings you here, Boober?"

Boober took his hat off his head and fiddled nervously with it. "It's...it's our water. It's not clean any more. We need clean water to live." He looked up and pleaded, "Please help us."

Doc looked grave. "I think I know what's happened, Boober. And this time it's not as simple as it was before, when I could simply tell them to flush away the waste with water."

"You know what's happening?"

"I think so. It's been in the news lately. Boober, we need fuel—oil—for our homes, our cars, our lights, almost everything. We get that fuel from various places. Sometimes they drill deep down into the earth to get it."

The noises Wembley heard! "But what could they want down there? There's only rock."

"Just a minute." Doc got up again and searched through a pile of magazines, then sat back down again and opened one on the floor so Boober could see. There was a diagram showing rock strata, with colored lines leading from the surface down, and horizontal lines across the bottom. Doc traced the lines with his finger as he explained. "They want the oil inside the rock. To get it, they drill a long tunnel through the rock, then force water into it. That cracks the rock and lets the oil out. It's called hydraulic fracturing, 'fracking' for short. It extracts oil that we otherwise couldn't get to...but oil, gases, and chemicals can leak through the cracks into the surrounding areas, and even into the ground water."

"Is that's what's happening to us?"

"I'm afraid so," Doc said.

"Why do they do it?"

Gravely Doc said, "Because that's where the oil is. Sometimes they don't realize the damage they do."

Boober turned pages. Text, photos—then he turned a page and saw water coming from a faucet. The water was burning. "That's it! Our water burned too!" Boober cried. "Please, please help us! I know it's not your fault, you'd never do this to us!"

Regretfully Doc said, "I'm sorry, Boober, but it's not on my land. I have no control over it. The people who do this, they have legal permits—permission—from the government and the people who own the land."

"But...Fraggle Rock is our home! Couldn't you tell them we're here and they're poisoning our water? They would stop if they knew, wouldn't they?"

Doc paused, looking at Boober. He didn't think there was much hope, but he couldn't bear to tell him that. And it would be wrong to do nothing when his friends needed him most. "I'll try, Boober. I'll try."

"Thank you! Thank you!" Boober exclaimed.

"I'll need your help. Just a minute."

Boober waited while Doc rummaged around in this workshop. He found a clear container with a metal lid and handed it to Boober. "Bring me a sample of contaminated water. We'll need it to prove to them that the water's polluted."

Boober scampered for the safety of the caves. Doc thought for a moment, then got out a phone book.

*

Boober hurried back down the tunnels to his home, hugging the jar to his chest. When he reached the Great Hall he found the rest of his family there. He told them, "Doc is going to help us. He gave me this."

Wembley exclaimed, "Wow, that's great!"

Red looked skeptically at the jar. "What's that gonna do?"

"I'm going fill it with contaminated water so he can show it to the people who are fracking the water. Then they'll stop."

Sage said, "Papa, look at these."

She had three jars of water. He sniffed each one. He didn't need to taste them, the odor was enough. "These are contaminated."

"They were clean this morning," she said grimly.

"It's getting worse," Mokey murmured.

"Are people still drinking from these?"

"No," Gobo said. "We've put up warnings everywhere it's not safe. And they're marked on my map."

Boober looked at the map. There weren't many safe spots left. He poured one of the samples into Doc's jar and hurried off again, saying "I've got to get this to Doc!"

Wembley said, "The Gorgs need the water too. We've gotta warn them."

Red said, "What good'll that do? They'll just get mad at us like it's our fault."

"I'm sure they'll listen to reason," Mokey said.

"Well, I guess it's only fair to warn them," Gobo said.

*

Mokey and Wembley went up the tunnel to the Gorgs' garden. Wembley started to lose his nerve halfway there. The Gorgs were their friends, more or less—Junior more and his Ma and Pa less—and how could they fail to warn them that the water from the well was poisoned? But doing so would make them the obvious target for the Gorgs' ire. He took Mokey's hand. As long as she was going to warn them, he could come along with her, and if he was following her lead he wouldn't wemble.

They came to the surface and found Junior hanging a bucket under the pump spout. As he began working the pump Wembley and Mokey both ran toward him, shouting at him to stop. Startled, he looked down at them. "What's wrong, Fwaggles?"

Wembley cried, "The water is poisoned! It just happened. Don't drink it or you'll get sick."

"Weally?" He scooped out a handful from the bucket and sampled it, then spat it out. "Yuck!"

Mokey told him, "It's the Silly Creatures again. They didn't know we live here when they did whatever they did. We're going to tell them we are so they'll stop."

"What'll I do without water, though? I need to water my wadishes now!" He paused. "Wait, the wiver! Maybe that'll be clean!" He turned and tromped off.

Mokey said, "I hope it is," softly.

"Boober said that last time this happened even the water in the river up here went bad. It hurt their skin."

She pointed out, "But they're up higher than the highest clean drinking pools. It can't have reached this far yet."

"Yet," Wembley echoed worriedly.

*****

Next: "Down in Frackle Rock"

 

[The Count]

That was good. And yeah, now we know what the whole mess is about. At least all parties have been made aware of the situation, let's see what happens next.

*Sympathizes with Doc for knowing the hassle going through red tape can bring.

 

[Twisted Tails]

Oh those poor Fraggles! It's great to point out the backstories from the FR episode, "The River of Life." That was one of my FR episodes plus it's about the environment underground and above. Reading this fanfic makes me a happy FR fan.

 

[Slackbot]

Thanks, guys. If anyone wants to read the article Doc showed Boober, it's in the December 2012 issue of National Geographic, and it's also online. It's titled Methane: Good Gas, Bad Gas (which has seeped into the Fraggles' water, hence the flammability). The photo of the burning tap water is in that article's slideshow. While I was writing this I got the March 2012 issue, and the cover story is America Strikes Oil: The Promise and Risk of FRACKING. I got additional info there.

 

[charlietheowl]

I'm glad that Boober was able to tell Doc about the problems, and it's great that Doc is willing to help them out. I wonder who he was going to call at the end of the chapter, but I'm sure that will be clear later on. Thanks for sharing!