The Adventures of Zeta Star: The Rescue

By Gayle Millbank

Space travel, dramatic rescues,deepening relationships and the fight to save the universe continue in this sequel to The Inheritance.
Zeta, now fourteen, travels with her friends Cor (from Ceres), and Phillip(Earthling),Thora (android), BB (pet bat), Dafn (Martian and the leader of the Truth Seekers), plus Patri and Di and Sali (Earthlings and the Directors of Fusion Factories Inc)as she builds her support to defeat Cousin BradLi (space slime)who is an ever-present treat.
Is it possible to rescue Sali from deep in Fusion City on the Farside of the Moon?
Can Zeta and Cor hide on cruel and inhospitable Pluto to evade Cousin BradLi?
Will they return to their beloved asteroid Ceres?
Join Zeta and her friends as they cut a swath through the Solar System in their fight for fusion energy for Earth and the colonists.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gayle Millbank
• Release date: Oct 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9780973142143

Gayle Millbank

In recent years with my concerns about global warming I have been thinking about Earth's future. We need a clean source of energy and to expand to space colonies. Hence Zeta Star Mizar White and her life in 6012 evolved.I hope you enjoy it. More down to Earth and the Italian Renaissance: I have studied figurative clay-sculpting for many years. So naturally when I visited Florence in 2000 I concentrated on Michelangelo's sculptures. In his home I viewed his first bas relief, The Battle of the Centaurs, and was so close to it I could see his fine chisel marks. David of course was incredible but Michelangelo's last pieta with Nicodemus was breath-taking. However, The Medici Tomb moved me to tears as I was overwhelmed with emotion in the midst of so many of his bigger-than- life sculptures. On returning to Victoria I decided to write his diary. After thorough research into his life, the popes, and the Medici family; each year on his birthday I imagined what his life was like and who or what was influencing it and wrote in his journal. The Lost Journals of Michelangelo flowed easily and are here for you to read. During my research I discovered Leonardo and Michelangelo were in Florence and creating battle scenes in the same room for three months. Florence 1505: Leonardo battles Michelangelo a stage play evolved.

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THE ADVENTURES OF ZETA STAR:

THE RESCUE

BY GAYLE MILLBANK

Copyright © 2011 by Seapoint Publishing and GG Millbank at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Text and Illustrations by Gayle Millbank

Photo images by Dreamstime.com

ISBN:978-0-9731421-4-3

Seapoint Publishing,

Chapter One: May 12, 6014

My head feels like a chunk of lead sitting on a fragile, slender stalk. It seems like, if I try to move it, it probably will tear off my body and roll away. Yes, this is gravity. I have felt its paralyzing effects before on Earth’s Moon and on Mars. I hated it then and I hate it now. I’m exaggerating as I have some muscle strength and I’m developing even more, very quickly. My body wants to survive.

I forced my eyes open. Fear filled my body with dread as I searched for members of the lethal Stone family waiting to finish me off. Cousin BradLi, his wife and his children hate me. All I could see was Cor, my friend from birth, who lay as flat and thin as the rings of Saturn in his acceleration chair; and BB, my pet bat, who was squashed against my shoulder. My eyes strained to the far right, then the far left. Nothing moved. My fear abated, temporarily.

I was inside Slinky, Cor’s small efficient spaceship. It was like being inside a bubble glowing with diffuse white light; the command touch pad showed the violet-blue of hibernation. I began to feel calmer.

We’re on Earth. Cor and I are safe, at least for now. I remembered that Cor, BB, and Thora, our gender-confused android, and I had landed on Earth one week ago. Today we were to leave Slinky. My heart rate speeded up again in anticipation of exploring this unfamiliar world.

I know it as the birth place of our forefathers. The Blue Planet. Excitement raced through my body like a comet rocketing toward the Sun. Imagine a world where you don’t have to wear a spacesuit to breathe or huddle in a tunnel to avoid radiation. Everything will be new. C’mon Cor, I coaxed. It’s exactly one week since Slinky landed on Earth.

Still with his eyes closed Cor said, Yes, a whole week with not a sign of BradLi Stone and his rotten sons. I hope they’ve gone back to the Moon.

When we last saw them Captain Noah was firing on them and they were scattering, running for their lives. I hoped Cousin BradLi and his ugly sons were limping through space with damaged ships and reconsidering their vendetta against me. They hated me because they thought I was going to take the fusion factories away from them, and they were right. I didn’t know how, but I knew deep in my heart I would fight their plan to control the Solar System and all the humans in it. Not only that, I really think they won’t come near this gravity.

Zeta, are you trying to tell me this incessant force dragging me to the center of the Earth is our friend?

Exactly, and today is our first time to set ‘foot’ on the surface.

Cosmic. If you absolutely insist I’ll follow you, whispered Cor opening his pale blue eyes and blinking at me.

Here goes, I said. Someone has to take a risk, I guess that’s me. I painfully wiggled out of my chair and landed, pulled like metal to a magnet, hard on my back. I had been practising this manoeuvre for a week and it was getting easier. Watch out Cor, this gravity hurts. Why did I say that? He had bruises just like mine.

BB squeaked as he scrambled to stay on top of me so he wouldn’t be crushed by my weight. On top. Earth words. How I’m changing.

Thanks Zeta, I’m getting ready to move, said Cor not lifting even a finger. We have to learn to cope. We’re meeting with Phillip White in three more weeks.

I know, I know, I replied breathlessly as I wiggled toward the open portal. I had to get stronger. I had to get ready to meet Phillip. Actually it was exciting meeting a distant cousin, even though he was so distant I could barely call him a relative. Add to that he was an Earthman, through and through, as his ancestors had lived only on Earth while my relatives left Earth forty centuries ago to live on the Moon and then Ceres. I knew we would be very different.

Zeta, I sure hope he turns out to be reasonable.

Phillip doesn’t know it yet but he’s going to help us to adjust to Earth’s gravity. Then Cor, you and I can begin the task of learning about my inheritance. I knew that would be difficult. My plan was to start with Dr. Sali White as I thought she held the key to Fusion Factories Inc.Anger and determination boiled through my blood stream as I slithered across the ‘floor’ on my abdomen like a lowly earth worm, pulling my body with my elbows. When I reached the airlock, I propped myself up against the ‘wall’. I sighed, when we were in free float there was no floor or wall. The effort to cross Slinky and reach the airlock defused my anger and depleted my energy. I closed my eyes willing my energy field to recharge. Very gradually a healing golden light surrounded my body and I settled with my back against metal and peered out the portal.

Light and radiation blurred my vision. The glowing light from the Sun was as brilliant as a supernova burst. My lids clamped shut in a spasm to protect my optic nerve.

Wondrous and strange odors swept over me in waves. Although the portal was open I couldn’t see outside, but I could smell sweet and sour. My heart raced with anticipation, Earth was within reach. I carefully sucked in a small whiff of the foreign atmosphere again. My lungs didn’t burn, or explode. The air was sweet, not poisonous. It was like my first breaths when we landed, but more overwhelming, as if Earth had opened and was pouring scents at me. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Spacesuit air was stale and smelled like me; Ceres’ tunnel air was sweetened with lavender. In Mars Colony the air was slightly metallic and cold, and on the Moon, inside the fusion domes, the air was fresh and smelled like lemon. I took a deep breath trying to sort out its complex components. Scents bombarded my usually under-stimulated olfactory nerve.

BB stuck her tiny black nose in the air and sniffed. Whimpering she crawled back under my hair as if she couldn’t understand what was happening. Then she was very still.

What’s going on Zeta, called Cor.

The air’s okay.

I know that. We’ve been breathing it for a week.

But it’s strange. Suddenly I shivered. Cor I want my spacesuit. I wanted protection from the imploding sensations. I had never been on any surface before without a spacesuit. I was used to being constantly encased in many layers of protection – spacesuits, spaceships, or usually deep beneath the surface of Ceres. The cumbersome space protectors felt safe. Now, not only was I unprotected from the elements, but I had to face the prison of gravity. I much, much preferred spacesuits and free-float. I wanted to slither back to my acceleration chair, close the airlock, and blast back into space.

Zeta, get a grip on yourself. It’s just air. Humans have been breathing it for more than eight thousand years.

I heard Cor but I didn’t respond as I reminded myself who I was, I’m Mizar White. I’m named after the zeta star in Ursa Major. I was born on the asteroid Ceres in The Belt. I have lived on Ceres, Mars and on the Moon. I’m a space child. I have always been a space child.

Zeta what’s happening?

I was so lost in thought I couldn’t respond to him. I so longed to return to Ceres where I could float freely in its tunnels. That would be predictable and safe. ‘Zeta, this is not like you,’ said my mom’s voice deep in my head. ‘You never run away from a challenge. Remember you’re doing this for all Cereseans.’

She’s right, I thought. I reached for BB very gently as she, too, was suffering; her eyes were closed, her body limp, and her breathing laboured. I tucked her gently under my hair and hoped she would be alright. BB smell this, I said as I sat in the airlock portal and took another deep breath focussing only on that sensation. This air was dry and soft, and cool, and smelled like a complex mixture of living things from newly turned soil, to crisp green leaves, wild flowers, decaying matter, and other things I couldn’t identify from my ‘sim’ room experiences. My nose itched ; I sneezed as the unfiltered air tickled my nasal passages. Cor, I called into Slinky. I can smell many things. I never even knew they existed. I’m starting to like it. This is so cosmic! I could feel BB moving behind my neck snuffling with her tiny black nose. As I sat inside the airlock entrance I struggled with a pair of ‘shoes’ which would protect my feet from the gravity. I didn’t know why I was putting on shoes, as I would be sliding about on my bum.

We may ‘set foot’ or we may ‘set head’ on the surface, laughed Cor. It all depends on how we leave Slinky.

Cor you won’t think it’s so funny when you get out of that safe chair.

Shhh, Zeta. Listen! called Cor from inside Slinky. Something rattled, a bit like stones in a sample bag of ore.

I can’t hear it. I strained to isolate the sound.

He called again. Listen Zeta, that’s new. It’s a, a musical note. Did you hear it?

No, I didn’t, I said. it all sounds like static to me. I’m hearing everything at once. It’s like a comet collision.

ha, ha, laughed Cor. It’s nothing like a comet collision. Zeta you’re making it seem worse than it is.

You’re the one still lying in your acceleration chair. At least I’m over here at the portal.

Okay, okay. It’s noisy especially after space. I hear everything, too. If I concentrate really hard I can isolate some sounds.

Stop it Cor. Get out of your chair. C’mon over to the airlock.

Not yet. I’m still digesting my space soup.

Cor all you think about is your digestive tract. If you’d stop eating for awhile, you’d feel better.

Thora’s head and then his body appeared from outside. You two are so silly, scolded Thora, flipping his curly long bronze hair over his shoulder. So silly, sill..ee. Why waste time? Time is a wasting. Earth is waiting for you. Thora stepped over me and peered at Cor. Come Master Cor it’s so much nicer than the Moon or Mars. Yes sir..ee much nicer. Plus there is ab-so- lut-lee no sign of Zeta’s Cousin BradLi or his sons. For that matter there is ab-so-lut-lee no sign of any humans or androids. You’d think there would be a welcoming committee. But no, it’s just us. So come missy, come master, you must see what Thora has seen.

Thora, I love funny, reliable, quirky Thora.

I’ll always remember the first time I saw him on the Moon: an android with Moonling light-brown skin and green eyes and unusually thick and curly hair which was red as the surface of Mars and cascaded over his shoulders bouncing as he walked. His human-looking body was concealed by a baggy, maroon, Moon-servant-class suit. The overall effect was very feminine. I thought he was a female. However when he smiled gracefully and welcomed me and said, with a lisp, You are Mizar White and I am Thora - android number 88893B201 I replied, Thora is a very beautiful name. Thora had giggled, Yes, a beautiful name for a beautiful person. Thora smiled broadly and continued, I was created as a male of your species and named Thor. That name was . . . was, please excuse my language, too harsh. I just couldn’t bear it. You can surely understand that. I prefer the feminine name Thora. So please, if you don’t mind, call me Thora. I would be happy to call you Thora, I said. Next he showed great sympathy for me: I do understand how terrible this Moon’s gravity is after you have been in free-float for years. I know I would just love free-float; sadly, very, very sadly I never get the chance to try it. See this shoe, he complained as he bent his knee and lifted his foot, it has magnets in it so I always stick to the metal on spaceships. But never mind about little old me. I am your greeter; you are welcome to Moon Colony Missy Zeta, he said with a lisp and leaning into the car he kissed the air on both sides of my cheeks. I remember I did feel welcome at that moment.

Where’s BB? asked Thora calling me back to the present. She needs to see it too. Thora looked around and then spotted BB; he pointed his finger. Look at BB, she’s such a quiet little bat; she never complains like you two babies. Thora gently lifted BB off my shoulder.

I looked at BB nestled in Thora’s hand and BB looked at me with her huge moist brown eyes as if to say, ‘I love you Zeta, no matter what anyone else says.’ BB’s unconditional love made me feel calm and supported.

Thora, I said, please bring BB back to me. BB, listening to my voice, would have launched off Thora and flown to me if we had been in free-float or even in the Moon’s gravity. But here on Earth, as she would crash on the surface like a piece of space junk, she stayed still.

Missy Zeta you can barely manage yourself. I can’t give you this precious little bat.

Thora, I’ll be very careful. I love BB, too. Please put her in my hair. She can cling to it. My hair which had never been cut hung, in the gravity, to my waist. In space I often tied it back to keep it from floating in my face.

Cor laughed at our little tussle over BB.

Thora snorted, Well I guess she is your bat. But you better not hurt her. As he talked Thora carefully made sure BB was securely fastened to my hair. Now out you go Zeta, out of this spaceship, out, out, out. I don’t care if you have never been to Earth before. Don’t be scared. I’ll assist you. Thora pushed gently against my leg, like a space miner nudging his load of ore, urging me toward the opening and Earth.

Thora was right. I was afraid of gravity, not the same cold fear I had for the Stone family but a reasonable, common-sense type of fear which hopefully would keep me from severe injury. Taking a deep breath once again I sent energy to my body until its energy field was pulsing a clear happy yellow. Then I opened my eyes slowly.

I ignored Cor as I dared to poke my head ‘outside’. The Sun beamed heat and light right on my face. Yikes, it’s blasting radiation, I shouted as I shrank back from the sunlight, cowering in the airlock.

‘Stop it Zeta. Don’t be afraid,’ said mom’s voice from deep inside me.

Zeta you’ll get used to it, soothed Cor. The atmosphere filters out the harmful rays. That’s why there’s life on Earth.

Reassured I edged myself out again, but this time I turned my head so the Sun wasn’t shining directly on my face. That feels better. At this angle my eyes slid along Slinky’s grey metallic surface noticing some battering from space debris. Then my eyes roamed to patches of green hanging off silver-brown extensions. A rattling sound reached my ears, Cor, I hear something. That rattle you heard. It’s the plant extensions; they hit each other. The air is moving them. You have to experience this. Cor, come here.

Coming, came his muffled tones.

Bombarded with sensory data I struggled to differentiate smells and sights and sounds. Between that and the gravity I was fatiguing quickly.

Wait for me Zeta, said Cor.

I could hear Cor as he made a great effort to reach me. I heard a thud as he left his acceleration chair, and then a scraping sound as he dragged himself toward the airlock. At the same time I painfully wiggled further outside of Slinky’s airlock dangling my legs toward the Earth. Cor c’mon. You have to see this. The sky really is blue and . . . and there are puffy white things.

They’re clouds, chimed in Cor as he reached the airlock and bumped into me knocking me out the portal. BB fearing the worst let go of my hair and fell back inside the airlock .. I smashed into the surface and lay there hurting at all the points that hit: forearms and elbows and knees. Gradually the sharp stabs became a steady ache. Cor, be careful. That hurt. I blinked back my tears.

Suddenly, without warning, Cor and BB tumbled out of the airlock to come to rest beside me. Cor cried out and BB squeaked as they hit the surface of Earth like asteroids smashing into Ceres.

Thora looked out of the airlock saying, Looky, looky, look at what happened. Rushie, rushie, hurtie, hurtie. You two sure are in a hurry. Good thing you didn’t harm BB. Wait for me. Yes indeedy, wait for Thora. All will be well. Thora climbed out and stood beside us, picked up BB and held her carefully in his hand.

Cor wiggled off his face but he couldn’t turn on his back.

Thora continued, Cosmic curses this is different for little old me. My magnetic shoes don’t work here. But no matter, gravity is sucking on my feet, so the effect is fairly similar.

Thora that’s just great, but what about us? We’re stuck here on our bellies. My nose was pressed into a clump of thin green strands that tickled it. My chin was in brown dust that I hoped was ‘dirt’ and not decaying organic animal waste. In space BB was trained to go to the vacuum to deposit wastes; on Earth animals just dumped their wastes where ever they wanted. How disgusting, I thought.

You poor wee things. Is that the best you can do? asked Thora. You look pretty silly squashed on the surface like that. Yes indeedy, pretty funny, he giggled.

It’s not so funny from this angle, I said as I pushed as hard as I could and rolled over on my back so I could breathe easier.

Just a minute Master Cor I’ll help you turn over like Missy Zeta. That way you won’t have your face in the surface.

Finally Cor and I lay on our backs, hidden from one another by green vegetationblades which surrounded us and swayed in a gentle air movement. I couldn’t speak, nor could Cor. The sensory experience was total: bright with an explosion of color, and warm with sunlight on our skin, and soft with unidentifiable smells, and loud with sounds of life all round us- buzzing, chirping. I sensed my connectedness to everything. I felt the presence of spirit in myself and in all other beings, even in the plants and rocks. It was as though Earth and the whole universe were an extension of my own being.

I felt a tickle on my skin. Carefully and with great effort I lifted my hand to where I could see – a small black creature with tiny antennae boldly looked at me, totally without fear. If all Earthlings are this fearless, I thought, it’s no wonder they conquered space. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not absence of fear but the presence of love, unquestioning love. I held that thought as I lay in the bliss of Earth.

As my senses reeled I reminded myself who I was and why I had come to Earth. I am Zeta Star Mizar White, daughter of Clare White. I am the heiress of Fusion Factories Inc. I don’t want to be an heiress. I don’t want to be rich beyond belief. I don’t want to be responsible for seeing that fusion factories are used for the benefit of Earth and all its colonies. I am just a kid, well a teenager as I am fourteen, I muttered as I lay pinned by gravity to the soft surface. My mom and dad were killed in a space accident when I was ten years old.Cousin BradLi forced me to go to the Moon and then Mars so he could control me. After our escape from Mars when Jermi and Jimi Stone were firing at us they jeered that their father had caused my parents’ space accident. I believe them, they are that evil.

I opened my eyes. The sky above me seemed soft and welcoming. Blue is such a calming color. I smiled as I thought, saying blue doesn’t do it justice. I should be saying cobalt or turquoise or navy or powder blue. I had looked at the black of space so long I could barely compute this wonderful color. Mom would love it. Mom, why did you and dad die? Mom you would know what to do about Cousin BradLi. He’s your cousin. You know how mean he can be. He wants the fusion factories and the power that goes with them. He wants to control all the humans in the Solar System. No, he’s greedier than that. Probably the whole Milky Way Galaxy is his target. He and his evil sons, Jermi and Jimi, won’t stop until they get rid of me. Mom I wish you were here.

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard Cor’s voice say. Zeta where are you? I can’t see you.

Cor try to turn your head. I’m over here. I knew he was feeling glued to the surface. Cor fight the gravity, we did it on Mars and we can do it here. We have to do it here. A lot of people are counting on us.

Right. Mom and dad and everyone on Ceres need us to help them keep their fusion factory. Your Cousin BradLi doesn’t care if they survive or not. That made Cor so angry he lifted his head and peered at me.

That’s for sure. Remembered our escape from Mars? How BradLi almost caught us. Fortunately my friend Captain Noah intervened and scattered them so that we could dart behind the Near Earth Asteroids. Once we were safe, you very neatly landed on Earth in a field close to Cochin, Saskatchewan. And, here we are. Right where faithful Thora towed us, close to the forest to hide our ship. Since then we’ve been gravitizing, with extra nutrition and nanobots to build our muscles and bones and vascular system, so that we can cope with Earth’s gravity. I knew he knew all that, I think I was talking as a way to make contact.

Cor’s voice was insistent, Zeta, keep talking I can hear you but I can’t see you.

Slowly and painfully I turned toward him waving my hand slightly and saying, I’m here, don’t worry.

Cor edged slowly and painfully toward me wiggling like an Earth snake. His head touched my arm. Zeta, thank the cosmos I found you.

I giggled You can be sure I’m not moving in this gravity.

Cor just grunted. We lay there struggling to breathe and fighting to sort out the sensations.

After about half hour I called out to Thora who was inspecting Slinky for outside-skin damage. Thora please carry me inside. I can’t absorb any more. My eyes closed and my teeth locked together as I struggled against the relentless gravity.

Me next, said Cor who was gasping for air.

Thora carried me and BB carefully into Slinky and placed us in my acceleration, now, gravitizing chair. I felt discouraged as I was so weak I couldn’t even lift my hand. It was as though I was getting weaker. I groaned silently and wondered if I would be ready in a month to meet with Phillip. I had agreed to meet him in Cochin on June sixth, 6014.

As Thora placed Cor in his chair he rolled his head toward me and as though he was reading my mind he said, That was the first time outside and the hardest. We’ll do it every day Zeta. We’ll get stronger. We’ll be ready to travel in the chairs-with-wheels to meet Phillip.

"Cor, I know you’re right but I feel like I’ve been