Return (ePub)

Return is a sequel and homage to Steven Spielberg's mini-series Taken. It does not pretend to achieve the level of a Spielberg approved script, but it attempts to embrace his portrayal of aliens as a non-aggressive and perhaps a bit of a bumbling entity. It would be helpful for the reader to have watched the ten-part mini-series, first aired in 2002. It would be good to get familiar with E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to get a feel for Spielberg's portrayal of star visitors.
You will not find invading space monsters here.
Some of the character names from Taken and general references to events from the series appear here to give continuity.
This is not an official sequel, and no one connected with the television series has sanctioned it. The promised sequel did not appear, and after 18 years of waiting, I wrote my version.
Charlie Keys, father of Ellie Keys, fled into obscure exile to the small Canadian town of Goderich, Ontario. He wanted to escape the notoriety surrounding the aliens taking his daughter, Ellie, up in a star-ship. Twenty years later, Ellie returns with a daughter, RoH, as part of an alien project to absorb the positive human traits of empathy and conviviality.
Ellie, mostly human and RoH half-human, both want to save life on Earth from a certain ecocide by humans. Circumstance thwarts their plan for a gradual introduction of their existence. Canadian journalists expose the alien presence and the American government's attempt to exploit them. A rogue visitor to the inner solar system threatens the Mars settlement and forces an earlier and more spectacular alien appearance. It also requires them to interfere more deeply in human affairs than they wanted to.
The undeniable existence of aliens forces humans to re-think our place in the cosmos against a backdrop of political and economic chaos and religious hate.