THIS JUNE,2010 EDITION IS THE SECOND EDITION OF ALBANY KIDS CREATE. SCROLL DOWN AND FIND AN EXTRAORDINARY PENCIL DRAWING, POEMS, TWO STORIES, A SCHOLARLY REPORT ON MARK TWAIN, AND GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY. WHEN YOU ARE THROUGH, YOU WILL AGREE THAT ALBANY KIDS CREATE. (NOTE: SOME CHANGES MAY BE MADE TO THIS EDITION IN THE COMING DAYS.)
MY REAPER NY RAINSURA
Pencil Drawing by Nicole, Grade 12
HAVE YOU EVER?
by Kelsey, Grade 6
Have you ever loved like you’ve never loved before?
Have you ever seen someone when they make the winning score?
Have you ever heard someone when they scream and yell?
Have you ever told something you weren’t supposed to tell?
Have you ever ran like you’ve never run before?
Just to make it in that closing door.
REASONS
by Sean Marie, Grade 6
(Willow, Horus and Olive)
(A portion of a novel in progress)
“I’m back, Horus!” I heard Olive’s voice, rousing me from sleep. Pity, I had just drifted off. It was getting harder and harder to sleep these days. My chest ached almost constantly. I suppose Alexandria only bought me time. But I wasn’t going give up and become depressed, no. If there’s one thing this business has taught me, it’s that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of factors that one has to consider. Millions of ever-shifting cogs that could have many different consequences, big or small. Alexandria always told me that was what kept her going in a battle that seemed unwinnable. The possibility, even so small, that the odds could turn in their favor. Nothing was ever absolute. Small, small things can have great effect. I adopted the same frame of mind with my injury.
Olive was at the door of my study. My sharp ears could pick up her breathing. She doubtless wondering if she should wake me or not. Which was pointless, because she already had.
“Come in, Olive,” I called. The door swung open and a black cat stepped in. A mirror of myself, except Olive has green eyes, and I have gold.
“Where’s Willow?” I asked her. She flicked her ears forward.
“Ab-soo-lutely no idea,” Olive said, her tailtip twitching in annoyance. “She ran into the woods as soon as we got here. Your orders?” Her voice hinted that if they were, I should have told her.
“No, but leave her some peace, Olive. She’s just gone to think. She does that a lot,” I replied. Willow was one of my best spies. She was a dainty brown tabby, long-legged and smaller then me or Olive.
“Sometimes I think spying on Militant Eval made her… odd,” Olive said. Her tone was casual, as uninterested as ever. But I sensed concern beneath it.
Which wasn’t unmerited. Being in Militant Eval’s employment for so many years- sixteen to be precise, which I usually am- had changed Willow. She laughed less and thought more. Maybe I was wrong to have assigned her to that job. Maybe I should have assigned someone more prickly, more withdrawn, like Olive.
“It was a hard job,” I replied.
“Remind me why we do this,” Olive said, leaning her head against the wall.
It was a rhetorical question. But it got my thinking. Why do we do this? I wanted freedom as much as the next cat or dog or shapless cave creature, but I wasn’t in the Resistance. Instead I was in control of a network of spies and informants, selling information to the highest bidder. Or, as came more and more these days, giving it to the Resistance.
I wasn’t in the Resistance. I didn’t consider myself foolish enough to try to mess with Militant Eval. Yet, I had messed with him, messed with him in a way even he might never know. And I had gone on missions with the Resistance, once or twice. I gave them free information. Well, mostly free, anyways. We all have to make a living.
Even now I was going on another mission with the Resistance soon, on information one of operatives had gotten. Going to the very heart of Eval’s rule. I had even saved the skin of one of their greatest warriors, Alexandria, and was good friends with her.
But what compelled me to continue this? I could easily step out, and my organization would rapidly crumble to dust.
Simple answer: I liked the risk. I enjoyed the thrill of knowing things I wasn’t supposed to know, the smug satisfaction of giving out one shred of information to the Resistance, and watching another Steelclaw’s house of cards come tumbling down onto him. Or house of boulders. They would hurt more.
I loved the danger, the thrill of the chase, the stress of being undercover. And the control. I could be as reckless as I wanted to be in my own organization, though I usually didn’t risk others lives more than normal.
“Couldn’t possibly imagine,” I replied, yawning.
“You nervous about the mission?” Olive asked, cocking her head to one side. She wasn’t going on this particular mission.
“Not particularly,” I replied. “This new Resistance dog, Tarka, seems capable, and I know that the other members are. I would trust Roxy with my life, and anyways, what’s the fun without danger?”
“There isn’t any,” Olive replied, smiling. She turned and padded out the door.
I closed my eyes. I could already feel adrenaline building in my veins, ready for the mission to come. It lessened the ache in my chest.
Yes, indeed, I did love living on the edge.
TALL BLUE FLOWER
Photo by Ashley, Grade 11
FLAMES DON’T BURN
By Alexandra, Grade 6
Ice,
It isn’t always cold,
It can get so cold,
It’s hot!
Not just flames burn.
You may meet the day,
Where you will have to
Choose.
One or the other.
I choose!
I choose flames.
They do not symbolize
Destruction,
But passion,
For anything and anyone!
Choose with your heart,
What fits you!
Best!
I hope you will join me
In the flames!
FREE POEM!
IMAGINATION!
By Taylor, Grade 6
My mind makes up many things about me.
It makes my personality, my ideas and my poems.
Never stopping, I continue to pour my Ideas on paper. It’s what makes me, me.
Imagination is like a paintbrush, painting lines and giving us life. Words … They are the color that gives painting meaning. They have the feeling of the creator who wrote them. And the paint will never cease to exist, for it is part of me. And yet, I always wish to express myself, for people to see the true me, so I don’t have to live behind this mask.
Imagination is a gift. It gives everyone an idea of what they will become. Without it, what are we?
Most people never think about this. But through this poem … I hope that you know about the value of this gift … That no one can give or take away from you. So now you know my feelings about imagination and what it can do for you … So my work here is done.
Thank you for reading.
YELLING
Photo by Ashley, Grade 11
VOW
by Sean Marie, Grade 6
A flag hanging limp on its spire
A warning, a message, of all that has come to transpire
An empty castle all but ruins
Set by the glow of the rising moon
A starless night so cold and dark
A message there too, telling all to hark
The dangers of fighting against the dark
A lone figure standing far above
Surveying the wreckage and ruin
Of all that he had come to love
And had been taken far too soon
He turns away, he has much to learn
But vows some day, to return,
To return.
Editor's note: This verse was awarded a prize in the 2010 Oregon Poetry Association Student Contest for the 6th through 8th grade category.
Samuel Clemens
by Jacob, Grade 6
Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1837 in a two room cabin.
He was the 6th out of 7 children and only two days after his birth Halley’s Comment passed by Earth. When he was four he and his family moved to a larger town in Hannibal Missouri, he gave his father and mother a hard time when he was younger which inspired him to later in his life to write the adventures of Tom Sawyer. Samuel attended Mrs. Horr’s log schoolhouse. He was the best at reading and writing but he was restless and inexcusable. He often broke rules and played hooky and he also played in the lake next to the Mississippi river and in caves. He smoked corn cob pipes and once he found a murdered slave in a hidden bush.
In March 1847 when Sam was 11 his father died of pneumonia and his three siblings died of starvation and weakness. That same year Sam got a job as a printer’s apprentice. Sam’s duty was to sweep floors, deliver papers, and to set stories. He did not get paid but in reward he got his own room in the shop, a bed of hay, and a tree stump as a desk. Sometimes he would write his own stories and post them in the paper. When he was 17 he was transferred to many different places as a printer’s apprentice, first to New York, then Philadelphia, Iowa, Chicago, and Cincinnati. He was on his way to New Orleans when he discovered his true talent as a steamboat man. He quit his job and learned how to drive a steamboat on the Mississippi river. He would have to memorize every detail on the river and also know all the locations of shallow water, shipwrecks, reefs, and where the boat might run on to ground. In April 1856 he received his pilot’s license and received a wage of $250 a month. Right after his brother died of a ship explosion.
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please”
-Mark Twain
1861 - Abraham Lincoln became president, that’s when the civil war broke out. There were two groups, the Union and the Confederacy. Of course Sam had joined the union (the good side) after studying racism. He and his childhood friends fought the war as irregular soldier a soldier that was not a part of the army he fought in the war for two weeks. After his men got tired and hungry they called it quits.
After he fought the civil war his brother Orin had just been named Secretary of the U.S. territory of Nevada. So Sam headed out to explore the west he left a lot of responsibilities behind but he was Anxious to explore the west. Sam and Orion were almost sorry to arrive in Carson City. The trip had been exciting, but Carson City had wonders of its own. Instead of trees it had stubby little bushes but Sam liked the west just fine. He had a job as the secretary for the secretary but he didn’t get any money so he quit and got a job at the Territorial Enterprise. The enterprise liked Sam’s humorous style so the paper offered him a job as the city editor; he wrote funny stories and used his imagination well. Just as other writers, Sam developed a pen name in February 3, 1863 which he would become famous for… Mark Twain.
“The difference between the almost-right word & the right word is really a large matter –it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
-Mark Twain
Not even less than a year and Mark became a famous as a writer. At the enterprise he became so rich that he moved to Hawaii for the year, when he came back all his friends told him that he should be a lecturer. Before people had TV or radio people visited lectures and just like Mark he gave it a try. During his long lecture he created stories and funny jokes. Mark was natural in front of the audience he earned $400 a week, but in 1867 he went to Europe and the Middle East on the Quaker City cruise boat. Three newspapers sponsored his trip and paid him twenty dollars for each postcard or letter he sent back.
He visited lots of places like the Colossus and the Parthenon he wrote back letters like when he visited:
Venice he said “The place looked so like an Overflowed Arkansas town.”
When he visited Mount Vesuvius he said…
“I was glad I visited it, chiefly because I shall never have to do it again.”
And when he visited the Can-Can Dancers he said...
“I placed my hands before my face for very shame. But I looked through my fingers.”
Mark’s letters where very popular back in the United States and when he came home he was treated like a star. He even made a book of his letters. On his way back one of his friends showed a picture of his sister, and Mark automatically fell in love. He met the girl in the picture Olivia or Livy and they eventually started dating .Unlike Mark’s family levy’s family was very rich. Mark had proposed to Livy three times before Livy said yes. And they got married February 2, 1870 (This same year he invented detachable overalls).
“My works are like water. The works of the great masters are like wine. But everybody drinks water.”
-Mark Twain
Mark and Livy were very happy together and they had a child named Langdon, but he died of diphtheria only a few years after he was born. Six months later the second child was born Suzy and in 1874 Clara and Jean were delivered.
Mark did love science but he wondered how he could put that in his writing? So he wrote the book “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court” and he called the genre Science Fiction. His whole life he had a commitment that before he died he would live to see Halley’s Comet for a second time in his life he said…
“I came in with Halley’s comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.”
Marks prediction was true he had a heart attack a day after Halley’s Comet passed.
“When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.”
Mark Twain
TIME LINE
OCEAN
By Quinn, Grade 6
THEY ARE LIKE A HUGE LAKE.
THEY ARE CALM WHEN IT’S SUNNY.
BUT WHEN A STORM COMES, WATCH OUT!!
FOR THEY BECOME VERY ANGRY.
PEOPLE PLAY HERE.
FISHERMEN FISH HERE.
BUT I SOMETIMES SIT AND WONDER WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE?
IS IT TO SUPPORT THE FISH ON THIS PLANET?
IS IT JUST TO GIVE US SOMETHING TO DO?
AND EVEN AFTER THAT, I WONDER HOW DID IT COME TO EXIST?
DID SOMETHING CREATE IT?
WAS IT A GIANT RAINSTORM?
AND IF THAT’S NOT ENOUGH TO THINK ABOUT, I THINK WHAT LIVES AT THE VERY BOTTOM?
COULD IT BE A LAND OF MYTHICAL CREATURES?
COULD IT BE SOMETHING TRULY SO BIG THAT IT STAYS DOWN, THAT WAY IT DOESN’T HURT US?
YET THE ANSWERS MAY NEVER BE FOUND BECAUSE THIS PLACE IS SO MYSTERIOUS.
By Quinn, Grade 6
THEY ARE LIKE A HUGE LAKE.
THEY ARE CALM WHEN IT’S SUNNY.
BUT WHEN A STORM COMES, WATCH OUT!!
FOR THEY BECOME VERY ANGRY.
PEOPLE PLAY HERE.
FISHERMEN FISH HERE.
BUT I SOMETIMES SIT AND WONDER WHAT IS ITS PURPOSE?
IS IT TO SUPPORT THE FISH ON THIS PLANET?
IS IT JUST TO GIVE US SOMETHING TO DO?
AND EVEN AFTER THAT, I WONDER HOW DID IT COME TO EXIST?
DID SOMETHING CREATE IT?
WAS IT A GIANT RAINSTORM?
AND IF THAT’S NOT ENOUGH TO THINK ABOUT, I THINK WHAT LIVES AT THE VERY BOTTOM?
COULD IT BE A LAND OF MYTHICAL CREATURES?
COULD IT BE SOMETHING TRULY SO BIG THAT IT STAYS DOWN, THAT WAY IT DOESN’T HURT US?
YET THE ANSWERS MAY NEVER BE FOUND BECAUSE THIS PLACE IS SO MYSTERIOUS.
JUST ANOTHER DAY
by Sean Marie, Grade 6
“Return to Fidele, immediately!” Mission Control, or in other words, Coyott, yelled. Aster glanced at Coyott’s image in the screen. He looked distraught. But Aster was trying to save an ally’s planet from an eco-disaster…
“What is it?” Aster snapped, glancing back at the planet through her window screen. A herd of animals raced away from the ship, but none of them bore the distinctive yellow traces that marked an infected specimen. She fought the urge to raze the whole herd, just in case she had missed something, knowing that the repercussions could be ENORMOUS. She might make the species extinct, and then the spider-people might un-ally the Starlen Empire. The Starlens needed all the help they could get, what with the Maskies declaring war. The Maskies had a vast and powerful Empire…
She looked back at Coyott. He looked at her. She bit her lip. “Well… We need these people to be able to back us up against the Maskies…”
“Aster, if we don’t chase these attackers off, none of that will matter! We’ll lose the Home Planet, and our Empire will be reduced to the Four-ducks system and a few bare colonies!” Coyott argued.
Aster bowed her head. Loosing Fidele was unthinkable. As she looked up, Coyott’s image flickered, and an explosion boomed in the background. Coyott stumbled, and yelled something at a Starlen not visible in Aster’s screen. The reply was to quiet for Aster to hear, but Coyott looked even more alarmed.
“Okay, I’ll come,” Aster called. She flicked several switches with her claws, and the Star Hawk began rising, breaking away from the planet’s gravity. When she turned back to the screen Coyott looked at her gratefully.
“Thank you…” the rest of Coyott’s sentence was swallowed by an enormous explosion that vibrated through the speakers. Coyott and the room behind him disappeared in a blaze of flames, before her connection fizzled out entirely.
“Coyott!” Aster yelled, trying desperately to reboot the connection. It was no use.
She sped out of the star system, urging to ship to go faster and faster.
@@@
She entered the Starlen’s star system. The incoming transmission icon flickered on one of the spaceship’s screens. Hope jumped inside her when she saw it was from Fidele. Maybe Coyott was okay…
She opened the communication screen, and her hopes plummeted. An unfamiliar Starlen was displayed in her screen.
“Hurry, Commodore!” the Starlen hissed. “Nearly all of our ships are destroyed!”
Gadzooks! Aster thought, then said “What happened to the other transmission tower?” The one with Coyott in it, she added silently.
“It was destroyed,” the Starlen said tersely. “I have to get back to the fighters. No time for small talk.” The transmission ended.
Aster’s spaceship was now entering Fidele’s orbit. She plummeted through the gravity, pulling her ship up just before hitting the ground.
Her planet map was dotted with yellow enemy icons. The Maskies! She cursed, and sped toward the nearest city that was being attacked.
A Masky transmission icon pulsed on her screen. She opened it. An image of one of the yellow and green aliens appeared, hissing in their foreign language. The translation was “You will all perish, unbelievers of Spode!”
Aster cocked her head cheekily and said “Hmmmm? Did you just say something? I do believe your transmitters are faulty- I couldn’t hear anything but a strange buzzing…”
The Masky hissed at her, and she closed the transmission. The Masky ships closed in on her. They had little droid fighters, smaller then her ship, and big bulky manned spacecrafts. The Space Hawk was not equipped with very good guns.
Aster swerved the Space Hawk out of the line of fire of a Masky ship, and blasted several bombs at three tiny fighters that were tailing her. The fighters disappeared in a cloud of smoke and metal bits. Aster grinned, showing her needle-sharp teeth… This was what all Starlens were borne to do. From the beginning of time, Starlens were always the hunters, the feared, the predators.
The battle was fierce. She was one of the only Starlen ships. But they were winning. The Maskies were not used to Fidele’s plantation, and the idiots kept ramming into trees. However, Aster’s ship was taking severe damage. A warning light blinked in the corner of her viewscreen. She couldn’t do anything about it, not in the middle of a battle…
Another tiny fighter rammed into her, exploded but left cracks in her ship. She shot a bomb at another space craft trying to sneak up behind her, and rolled her ship to one side, trying to escape the battle to get her ship fixed. But the huge craft spotted her and fired a laser bolt. It was the final straw for her ailing ship The Star Hawk exploded. Aster felt extreme heat, and she was falling….
@@@
Aster blinked her eyes open. She was lying in a hospital bed. Voices buzzed in her ears, but she couldn’t quite make them out. She wished the voices would just be quiet.
“Shut up!” she yelled, rolling over. A sharp stab of pain flashed through her back and wings, clearing her head somewhat.
“Looks like her brain wasn’t damaged at all,” a voice said dryly. Aster opened her eyes. The light was blinding for a second, then receded. She saw an unusually light blue Starlen, who she recognized immediately.
“Mirdvan?” Aster said. The Starlen doctor cast an appraising look at Aster.
“Commodore Aster. Not the first time I patched you up, eh?” Mirdvan smiled. “The Masky planet last, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Aster murmured, closing her eyes briefly to remember that conflict. It was on the spider-monkey’s request that she had traveled to the Masky’s planet, trying to destroy all its cities. Another outrageous request she had not had the sense to refuse…
That time, all but her consciousness had perished… Technology was amazing.
She glanced down at her claws. “How much of me is new now?”
Mirdvan raised an eyebrow. “Not enough that you won’t be showing scars. I only replace what I absolutely have to. In this case, your back legs and right wing. That means no more strenuous missions until the rest of your wounds are gone.”
Aster sighed, and stretched to look at herself, flinching as burned skin was exposed. Her right wing looked good as new, but her left was burned and tattered, bearing signs of the recent battle. “Why didn’t you just replace it all? I’m no use to Starlen Empire like this.”
Mirdvan flicked her tail. “You need to allow your body to heal naturally. Rest. The Starlen Empire can survive without you for a while.”
Aster opened her mouth to protest, but she suddenly felt very sleepy. She curled up in her bed, and fell fast asleep.
@@@
When Aster woke, the first thing that jumped into her mind was Coyott. She still didn’t know if he was okay, or if he had been killed. She raised her head and looked around. She was in the same room she fell asleep in, but outside the window she saw the sun was setting. She could not see any other cities in the distance, just forest stretching beyond the city’s walls. That meant she was in Starlen City, the capitol of Fidele.
Aster craned her neck to see the transmission towers. The one that had been destroyed was already mostly rebuilt- how long had she been sleeping? Technology made repairs fast, but not THAT fast. She watched the people walking on the streets for a few minutes. A light rain was falling, and the city was closing down for the night. A few straggling pedestrians headed toward houses. Life as usual.
Aster turned when the door to the room clicked open. Mirdvan stepped in.
“Ah, good to see you’re awake,” Mirdvan said.
“How long have I been sleeping?” Aster asked.
“Three and a half days,” Mirdvan said.
“Three and a half DAYS?!” Aster exclaimed. “How? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“As I said before, you needed the rest. What did you expect? You fell 100 feet from the sky in a burning wreck. You’re lucky to be alive.” Mirdvan scolded her. “You space pilots are endless trouble for us doctors,” Mirdvan added teasingly. “Can’t get through a battle without crash-landing.”
“You should have seen those idiot Maskies, they were crashing in trees,” Aster said.
“Oh, yes, and not having the sense to come in for repairs is so much smarter,” Mirdvan said.
“You know I couldn’t right in the middle of a battle,” Aster replied.
Mirdvan sighed, gazing out the window. “You’d think the Empire would take better care of their military force, or we’ll end up extinct. More and more of you reckless pilots die in these sorts of battles.”
“Our race is relatively new to space travel,” Aster reminded her. “Accidents are bound to happen.”
“It’s not an accident if you provoke a more powerful alien race to attack you,” Mirdvan looked thoughtful. “Really, what was the Empire thinking? Getting us into a war like this…”
“It would have been impossible to prevent a conflict,” Aster said. “I managed to keep them at claw’s length just because they wanted our money. They were blackmailing us into giving them money more and more frequently. And I truly thought I could take them on when the spider-monkys asked…”
Mirdvan gave Aster a long look. “So, you had a hand in all of this, Commodore?”
Aster shrugged. “In a way. Officially, yes. In truth, I had to try to fulfill the spider-monkys’ requests. We need them as allies.”
“Those groveling cowards,” snorted Mirdvan. “What help can they give us?”
Aster shrugged. She was stung by Mirdvan’s criticism.
Mirdvan seemed to sense this. “No, I wasn’t being fair. This isn’t your fault Aster, you’re not involved in bloody politics any more then I am.” She turned toward the door. “Now, I forgot. There is someone who wants to see you.” Without another word, Mirdvan walked out.
Aster stared at the door. Finally, after what seemed like ages, it clicked open to reveal Coyott standing in the doorway, grinning at Aster. Aster smiled.
“Coyott!” she exclaimed, struggling to raise herself to her feet.
“Stay there Aster,” Coyott said. “You don’t want to injure yourself any more then you have already have, being reckless.” She could have taken it as an insult, but she couldn’t miss the teasing note in his voice that always made her laugh.
“I wasn’t reckless!” Aster insisted. “But- you- how are you alive?”
“Don’t look so surprised! You’ll make people think you wanted me dead!” Coyott teased.
“No, but I was worried when that explosion broke the connection…” Aster said, looking up at Coyott.
“Oh, that caused quite a problem with communications,” Coyott said. “But Most of us weren’t severely hurt, only burned. We evacuated.”
Aster looked Coyote over. For the first time, she noticed places where his fur was thinner, just growing back. Beneath the fuzz, shiny scar tissue showed.
Coyott noticed her gaze. “It’s nothing, Aster. As usual, I wasn’t in the battle. You were the one shot down. So stop looking at me like that.”
Aster looked away quickly. Night had fallen outside in the streets of Aster city. She smiled to herself. All was well.
@@@
A week later, Aster had finally been released from the hospital, with strict instructions not to overexert herself. She was now sitting in the cockpit of the newly repaired Space Hawk, enjoying the feeling of the midday sun shining through the window. She a while she just sat there, drowsing.
Then she straightened, and pressed a button with her claws. The transmission screen came up, with Coyott on the screen.
“Mission Control,” he said.
“I’d like to know if you have any missions available,” Aster said.
“Shouldn’t you still be recovering, Commodore Aster?” Coyott said, raising an eyebrow at her.
“I’m tired of recovering,” Aster said, tossing her head. “The galaxy is waiting.”
Coyott gave her a skeptical look. “And it can’t wait for a week longer?”
“Nope,” Aster said, grinning. “Come on, Coyott, I know I’m not ready to take on a fleet of Maskies or anything, but just give me a nice easy mission- such as making a planet life-habitable.”
Coyott snorted. “Fine,” He stood there staring at her for a minute.
“What?” Aster said.
“Nothing, just waiting for you to take back the part about a ‘less dangerous’ mission, and say you’re ready for anything, and readying my argument for why you aren’t ready for anything.”
“And who would win that argument?” Aster said, tipping her head to one side.
“Me,” Coyott replied, looking smug. “But it just so happens that I DO have what you’re looking for. We need seven more colonies in uninhabited solar systems. You have to buy the insta-colonies, though. Our treasury is not looking particularly full after that attack.”
Aster nodded. “No requirements on the planets?”
Coyott shook his head. “Oh- and Aster?”
Aster’s ship was already beginning to break Fidele’s gravity field. “What?”
“Do try to avoid danger.”
Aster gazed at the galaxy stretching before her in her window screen. She felt wild, untamed. She loved the freedom of space.
“Don’t worry- I won’t avoid danger. I just won’t get my ship blown up again.” Aster closed the transmission before Coyott could reply, and started to steer her ship toward the nearest star system.
Danger indeed was waiting. And she would meet it head on.
