Star Fusion Read online

  Contents

  STAR FUSION

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  STAR FUSION

  By Joe Mollick

  Hi, Author here.

  Quick note, I wrote the Prologue and an Epilogue to the book in a different viewpoint because I always liked the idea of setting up and ending with different people. Getting a little info to chew on at the start and ending.

  Prologue: Bis

  They will have to change, having no idea about the rest of the galaxy. Tried telling them about what exists off this dirty planet, but people either don’t want to believe or don’t want to leave. I didn’t want to leave, had a few adventures myself trying to find another place, even a war out there. The planet was mostly quiet, that’s why I chose it. Tired of not being able to change, or that’s what I tell myself. At the end of the day, I didn’t want an adventure.

  The town is changing though, going the way I feared. I’m thinking soon I should leave; I’ve overstayed my welcome here. Nobody listens, not even the boy’s parents. I’ve tried, multiple times, to help them. The community seems different. People are fighting over metal scraps now. I’ve seen it happen before, and I can’t change a whole town, I have tried. I don’t know what to do anymore. They are even selling the metal scrap from outside the village, finding more use for it. There is one thing I do miss—the food. I should get some food after this, take some to the boy, because that kid eats more than I do on a good day. His parents cook together, when they’re there, but he fends for himself most days. I have no idea where they go, and it feels like they’re absent more often now that the boy has grown up.

  The crowds started to gather, people from all around, excited by the launch. I stood there looking up into the evening sky, a mix of brighter stars. Groups were finding places to lay out blankets to watch. The community didn’t understand what was up there. I tried to stop the launches, it seemed unnecessary. Everyone turned the launch into a spectacle—everyone took a break to watch. I told the kid all about what was out there, the different aliens, the potential of it all. Being off-planet, somewhere else other than home just never felt right. We have the tech in the town, they could put it to good use but some refuse to imagine or accept that there is more than out there than what they think.

  The wind was picking up, revealing pieces of metal buried in the sand around the outskirts of the town. People were putting on their covers and protecting their eyes. I checked my head-knot, to ensure it was tied back because it kept getting in the way of scavenging. The metal scraps I always found made the kid’s parents happy. I should take the kid next time; we used to go all the time. He started doing some scavenging on his own, which is good, but he can always learn more. It’s good that he’s becoming independent.

  Most people didn’t want to walk all the way up the hill, they just stayed with their children on the outskirts. It was understandable, some of them have watched previous launches. The children just like the lights, they all do. I hope the kid doesn’t watch the launch. He’s tough, but after a while people get used to it, which no one should. I worry for him staying on this world, not that this place is so bad, but it isn’t called Vastnoth for nothing.

  Oh wait, it is.

  It’s said that the Star Goddess named the planet Vastnoth meaning “a new beginning,” but that’s a lie. There isn’t a Star Goddess, it could have been some women who were lost and started to take over the planet. The Star Goddess taught them how to live and from that people learned to live in this wasteland.

  I want to blame the leader, but I feel that lessens the responsibly of everyone else. He seems to get some joy from the launch. Brume, he was the boss when I came around, and still is. Time has made him look tired recently. His looks have certainly changed over the years.

  I bent over and let out a little huff; I can’t break down just yet. I recovered for a bit. After the event, I should go see the kid, see what he is up to. The kid is always busy, more so than others. He loves thinking, always pondering, keeping himself active. He probably got that from his dad, and his smile from his mother.

  Seeing the stars, almost feeling recharged by them.

  The sky is beautiful, and I miss the stars sometimes. The potential that all the other worlds have, coming together. But I got what I wanted— to being helpful. Helping the boy’s family is always a joy, scavenging and gathering parts.

  It looked like everyone was waiting for the launch to start now. People start to head my way, children running around with tiny rods of metal and little coils, poking and prodding each other.

  Most of the stuff the kids picked up nowadays was junk really. They used replacement parts for things like the water purifier or a food processor. They only get those jobs because they know Brume, or they somehow got lucky enough to actually fix something of importance. The boy’s father, he was a good one. Always waiting to fix things that were broken, make them better than normal.

  I could help out and teach people how to use some of the easier stuff, but then they’ll ask for more. Always more. If by some fluke, someone actually understood how to use the tech here, I bet it would worsen the situation.

  The kid’s parents are good people, actually. They are always interested in my old life, which is something I don’t like talking about anymore. Feels like when they ask, it’s a dissection. Looking for something I’m not sure I have. I’m not sure if people usually aren’t interested or don’t want to know. But they’re nice people, and the boy isn’t that bad.

  I let out one more huff, then get up and start walking down the hill toward the city. I had to go through the east gate—the guards are even more lax now. Everyone is just trying to get scrap to trade their way up the social ladder. Everything seems to be getting worse. Making money on this planet is all about salvage, nothing else.

  It was a couple streets to reach the main crowd. The crowd was still excited as I pushed through, people saying, “excuse me” and “pardon you.” I hated doing this, but I needed to get there. I could have gone around, but that would have taken too much time. I needed to check the kid for my peace of mind.

  I looked around, seeing the fountain in the middle of the market square with walkways underneath. The floors had metal plating and arrows pointing to wherever you wanted to go. The launch pad was on the roof of the capitol building. There were flags flying for all the different companies, some of them gone now. They had moved the launch from its original place so everyone could have a better view. They found tech underneath, I guess they wanted it more secured and easily accessible.

  I was trying to get into an alley. Despite it being in an alleyway, it was one of the nicer housing areas, since it was mostly intact. Other houses would be classified as shacks.

  It was easier to spot which house was the kid’s, because he always had a pile of scrap in front of it. By the time I got out of the crowd I was able to see the dark passage. The lights from the square were still easily visible with the neon signs. The towns weren’t that big, only a few blocks in diameter. Most of the population lived within the rings on the inside. They decided to name town Star Fall, since this was the first city where the Star Goddess landed, and she had shown the people of Vastnoth how to live. I followed the alleyway to a large door.

  I opened it and saw floating lights all over the house. I figure the kid must be working on his projects—tinkering again. There was no noise other than the humming light droids. The house was pretty clean. A radio was on a table in the middle of a room. I walked past t
o the kitchen to find no one there. The kitchen was clean too. It was possible they had gone to the launch. I climbed the stairs to the second floor. A picture of the kid and his parents, Zoe and Arden, was there. It had been a while since I’d seen it. The picture is of them all smiling, and makes me hopeful. I pondered there for a moment, looking at the photo, then I moved on to the master room at the end of the hall. I stood in front of the door, pushed it open, and ran in. I was immediately tackled to the wall and found myself face-to-face with the boy.

  The kid had his hair in a bun too. Hair was dirty brown and there’s a lot of it, growing like a weed.

  “I got you, Bis,” the kid snapped, a metal bar against my neck.

  “Mmm, well,” I said with a cough, trying to think of something clever to distract him, but had already figured how to get out of his hold. I’d knock his feet out from under him. I went for his legs, but he pulled back and I lost my balance. A couple seconds later I was standing, blinking a few times to gather what had just happened. I’d head-butted the poor boy. “Ow.” It was a good jump, though. The kid was learning.

  “Okay, Bis, that’s fair.”

  The kid looked at me. I always forget how people get into our lives. Someone’s eyes are the first thing I always notice. His eyes had the uneasy light grey to them. They were his mother’s eyes, and he got his rough look from her too. He was a tall boy, wearing a long, dark-brown jacket down to his knees. He’s around eighteen or nineteen now. I’d met the family about three years earlier, saving them from some creatures outside the city border. I’d been on Vastnoth for a year. Ever since then, I helped them out when I could. They often invited me over for dinner, and I always accepted.

  “Are you going to the launch today?” I asked. He turned around and started working on one of his devices.

  “No, I didn’t want to watch today. I wanted to go scavenging.” I couldn’t see anything with his back turned.

  “Well, I just wanted to see if you wanted to go or not.” He had to get out sometimes—I worried about that.

  He turned around and said, “After the launch, do you want to come scavenging with me?”

  That sounded like a good plan. You always need to watch each other’s backs venturing out.

  “Yeah, I’ll come back after the launch and we can head out when everyone goes to bed.” He was working again. He always needed something to focus on.

  The kid said, “There is, ah ... a new cave showed up. I think a sandstorm unearthed it recently or something. It’s right outside the city border.”

  “That sounds good.” I scratched my head and pretended to look around the room. Then I started moving towards the door.

  “Okay, see you soon, then.”

  Outside, I looked up and saw that it was definitely past the beginning ceremony and so I started to walk toward the launch site. I moved through the alleyways without trouble and got back to the crowd. Brume was addressing them. I was near the back and I couldn’t see him, but I could clearly hear his voice.

  “…that is why this is always a marvelous occasion!” he roared. “Anyone that gets launched up into Her Starry Grace should always feel privileged.”

  Everyone began clapping. It made me think that I might leave this planet sooner rather than later. Looking around at the people, I realized they weren’t the same ones who were here years ago.

  “For the grace of the Space Goddess, we launch another pilgrim into the shining void!”

  I let out a huff, causing a woman turned to me. I just looked at her and smiled. The countdown started over a floating speaker.

  “Five…” Everyone was silent now. I moved forward to get a closer view of the shuttle. It wasn’t in the best shape, rough, with parts poking out of it. “Four…” I pushed past some more people hypnotized by the shuttle. I was at the foot of the building and looked up, seeing the landing pad and the shuttle clearly. A guy next to me had binoculars. “Three...” I held my hand out for the binoculars.

  “I want them back after the countdown,” he said. I grabbed them and focused on the shuttle. I’d missed the beginning announcements and had no clue who was being launched.

  “Two…”

  I saw the two people inside. It was the kid’s parents, my friends, and they were moving around pounding on the windows. Why them? My mind hurt with the very idea. I shoved the binoculars back to the guy and started running up the stairs. There was a security checkpoint, and I punched one of the guards as I ran past into the building. There were more guards inside and only one staircase that went all the way up. “One…” The guards were yelling something at me, but I wasn’t paying attention as I was pushing people out of the way. I burst through the roof door. Brume and others were there looking at me. “Launch…”

  No, they were good to me. Not them. Please not them. Brume stepped in the way. I punched him and rushed to the shuttle, trying to open the door, but couldn’t. I looked around for the control console.

  “This is a new type of shuttle, Bis,” Brume said, wiping blood from his mouth. “You’re wasting your time.”

  No, not them. There are worse people. I don’t get it.

  The launch blast knocked me over and off the launch pad. Flailing my arms as I fell, I felt something and grabbed it. It was one of the flags hanging on the capitol building. I hung there, looking at the crowd below. I dropped down safely and looked back, seeing the shuttle rising up toward the sky.

  There was a jolt of electricity through the shuttle and pieces peeled away. The shuttle exploded into a blue ball of crackling energy as parts broke away, floating down to the town. The spectators burst into cheering and applause.

  Need to get out of there. The guards were closing in behind me.

  Chapter 1

  Zan

  Zan was surrounded by mechanical scraps that he’d gathered over the years, but he was happy having them just in case he needed them. He felt like a king among the scraps. Zan was still sitting at his desk, lit by the night sky now. It was always a little bit brighter during a launch, the lights around the city all pointed up so everyone could see clearly. His parents told him not worry. His father worked underground in the tech catacombs but they never angered the “Space Goddess,” so it was never anyone he knew, who were sacrificed. But the people that were sacrificed were using forbidden tech and that was on the top of the list.

  Zan was working on a piece of large fabric. He fiddled with it, tightening and pinning pieces to it. He flipped it over, which revealed a flat disk with cords going into it. Zan always thought about the times he spent with Bis, going scavenging. Bis taught him how to survive and look for proper parts. He wanted to be able to impress his parents, he knew they cared. They just seemed better than him at everything, he felt pity when they were infatuated with his inventions.

  He made the devices that floated around, and Brume bought them. He only made them so the city wouldn’t seem so gloomy. Just have the town be a little better—people were always happier with more lights. He ran his hand over the large device. It was a glove, but a glove that would be the best tool yet, making him stronger and able to move things without even touching them. With the floating lights, he’d gotten the idea of making floating gravity plates from scraps outside of the town. These were always unique, and his father enjoyed the things he brought home. It was like a competition between them. This glove was important not just because no one else would have it, though Zan did like that idea, but also because it was something that no one had even heard of.

  Zan smiled and sat back. He could see the shuttle launching through the sky toward the empty void that everyone seemed to be afraid to even call space. It meant something else to everyone, like a divine being staring down. Zan had been told stories that women had come from the outer reaches of space when the planet was formed. A group of powerful women who taught people how to live. Their leader was called Solina, after a bright star. Eventually the Goddess left in a bright light in the sky, and no one saw her ever again.

 
Since that day the people of this planet praised her and her Goddess powers.

  Zan wanted to get off the planet, but he had not been able to find a way. He thought he could build a shuttle like they used for punishments, but it would have to be stable and not explode. The other option would be to steal one and repair it, but that needed better parts than what he could get.

  Living here though wasn’t too bad. Follow their rules and everything was fine. People being returned to the void was what happened when you went against the teachings of the Space Goddess—killing people, not helping, stuff like that. He’d never broken the rules once, and was proud of that. His parents were always there for him, advising him what to do.

  Zan finished tinkering with the glove and put it on. The glove started to hum a little, and he stood up and stared at the wires and tiny metal plates on the back of his hand. Wires went from the fingers to the forearm in an untidy setup. He turned the glove over and looked at the palm. He felt his face being pushed backwards, and lost his balance. He slipped, hitting the floor with his back. A loud ringing filled his head.

  “That counts! It works!” Zan shouted to no one. He looked around to see if anyone had seen what happened. He stood up, beaming with excitement that he’d built something that kind of worked. Then he thought, What if I built another one? He would need more scrap. He could probably get more when he went out with Bis. Two gloves? That felt like an adventure.

  He looked out the window in time to see the shuttle hit with what looked like a bolt of lightning, then it exploded in a bright blue ball of light. Zan averted his eyes, dismayed by the sight.

  “That’s different,” Zan said, out loud again. He often spoke to himself.

  It helped him to think about different ways the explosion could be triggered. Maybe they’d found some new technology in the outer catacombs. They were sending out more people recently, trying to clear out the remaining tech, but the areas around the town were always revealing more. He enjoyed having a new problem to think about, it gave his mind something to work on. He needed to learn, and already felt it chewing on his brain, like a tapping in his head. He would come back to it later. He wanted to finish up his glove first.