By Rachel Kimberly Hastings
“Recepticore is offline. Starlink power is depleted.”
Eddie Caplan burst into the engine room. “What the blazes is it this time? Reeves, report!”
“Dunno.” His young assistant snapped her gum. “Just like the ship said, couldn’t link up with the star’s recepticore. Psh, dwarf stars, am I right? Betcha we wouldn’t have this kind of trouble with a younger star. Heck, even a red giant would be more reliable.”
Eddie ran a hand through his thinning hair as the automated analyst droned out pointless stats about the silent engines. Their passenger—the Treskipian ambassador—had to be at the peace talks in less than six galactic standard hours. If the conflict didn’t stop soon, the governments involved could collapse, allowing deadly weapons cartels to take over. The fate of hundreds of planets depended on getting there in time.
But without power, there was no way they could hit lightspeed.
“Brightmayne probably spilled coffee on it.” Reeves tapped the error screen with a titanium spanner. Eddie winced as the impact distorted the display. “Just ask her politely to get it back online.”
Eddie huffed. “I don’t need your advice to talk to a star.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell a burning ball of plasma that she’s slacking off.” She saluted him with her spanner. “Godspeed, sir.”
Her words followed him into the corridor off the engine room. He’d never actually had to talk to the ship’s star personally. Other Starlink ships always had a dedicated, trained liaison for that. This ship’s previous liaison had been transferred right before they embarked, so the captain had promoted Eddie to fill the vacant position.
He was no diplomat. Before this mission, he’d been the ship’s engineer. What if he said or did the wrong thing? Stars were notoriously hot-tempered. If he caused an offense, the captain would have his head.
He stopped in front of a closed metal door. The nameplate read:
Dr. Jaunica Brightmayne
Star Class G4V
Recepticore Handler
He knocked.
The door slid open. “Enter, human. Glasses on the shelf by the door.”
He stepped inside, grabbed the dark-tinted glasses, and hooked them over his ears. “Dr. Brightmayne? I’m Eddie Caplan. I’m here about your recepticore—”
“Yes, yes. You must be my new liaison.”
He turned and was greeted by the sight of Dr. Brightmayne in all her glory. She hovered cross-legged in the center of her quarters, wearing heat-resistant leggings and a tank top. As with most stars who chose to travel the galaxy, she appeared completely humanoid in shape, but that was where the resemblance ended. Her entire body glowed like the heart of a flame. Wavy hair floated around her radiant face, akin to sunlight shimmering on the surface of a lake.
Even behind his tinted lenses, her brilliance hurt Eddie’s watering eyes. He stammered, “So you’re aware—”
“Yes, I know my recepticore is offline. It’s missing.”
He nearly choked. “Missing?” The recepticore was the single most important device on a Starlink ship. Without it, they couldn’t channel the star’s energy from her distant physical location into the ship’s engines. “Why the blazes is it—” He stopped with sudden realization. “Saboteurs. They must want to halt the peace talks!”
She bit her lip. “They haven’t gone far yet.”
“How can you tell?” His hands twitched, as if he could fix this by tightening a bolt or adjusting a valve.
“I can sense the tiny piece of my core inside, but if they manage to get off the ship, the separation could cause me to… well, explode.”
Eddie straightened. “We can’t have that.” The star was his responsibility. It was up to him to stop this. “They’ll be heading for the escape pods. I’ll call Reeves.”
Before he could touch his communicator, the star grabbed his forearm, singeing a few hairs. “That’ll take too long! We can cut them off.”
“We—?”
“I need a human point of reference to move around the ship’s physical space. You’re my liaison, right? Come on!”
She flew out the open door, pulling him along. He spluttered but didn’t fight for fear she’d drop him.
Moments later, she deposited him in front of the escape pod bays. She left a red handprint on his arm. Sunburn, he realized wryly. He shook his head. For all he knew, this was business as usual for a star liaison.
“Keep an eye out,” she whispered. “They’re close.”
Before she even finished speaking, a pair of humans in Starlink jumpsuits burst into the corridor. The man carried a gun, and the woman held a cube-shaped cage of copper tubing about the size of her head. Between the twisting tubes pulsed a miniature glowing star. The recepticore.
The man leveled his gun. “Out of the way!”
Dr. Brightmayne didn’t waver. “You think you’re really hot stuff, don’t you?” she said in a smooth tone. “But you can’t hold a candle to me.”
That was all the warning Eddie got. He squeezed his eyes shut and ducked his head behind his arm as his companion turned into a beacon of blinding light. The thieves screamed as the star channeled her power through the recepticore.
Clunk. The screams stopped, and the intense heat faded. A warm hand tapped his shoulder. “Whenever you’re ready, human.”
Right. She needed him in order to move around the ship. He pushed his tinted glasses back into place and looked up.
The two saboteurs writhed and groaned on the floor, rubbing their weeping eyes.
Dr. Brightmayne floated over them and picked up the coppery cage. “I’m reestablishing the Starlink power now. We’ll get to the peace talks with time to spare.” She dropped her formal tone and elbowed him. “No exploding today, thanks to you.”
“Yes, well, this certainly has been… enlightening.” He managed a smile. “I look forward to working with you.”
She grinned back. “Not bad for a yellow dwarf, huh?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fun story! Interesting concept, good characters.
The dynamics of these two are very fun. Unique idea of a star powering a ship and taking human form.
I lost it at “Stars can be hot-tempered” XD I love some good cosmic puns. Great job!
I loved this! The characters were so charming and the world building absolutely fascinating! I hope we get further adventures with these characters 😁
Yes, me too!
I love the mixture of tech and wacky in this story! Cool method of ship propulsion, and great last line!! 😂
This was such a unique story! Humanoid stars powering spaceships—I am here for it!
This was very good, Rachel. I hope you continue and expand it into a book, maybe even a series. What a unique idea of having a human-like start which powers a ship, but needs a human to guide it through the ship. I think this could be a bestselling series. Love the humor too.
Great job, Rachel. I love the unique idea of a human-like star powering a ship, but needing human guidance to get around. I love the humor too. I hope you expand this into a full book, or maybe even a series. It could be a best selling series.
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful comments! I’m so glad you like the characters and world. I’m sure they’ll live on in some form in the future!
This story was so creative! I’ve never read anything like it. I was amazed at how the author built up such a complex fantasy world in so few words. I loved the concept of the ship being powered by a star and that star having a human form. And the characters were really enjoyable too. Overall amazing short story! This could easily be expounded into a novel and I would read it. =)