Star Child: The Cosmic Birth

By Paul Day

Almost 900 years into the future, the aging Starship Destiny is nearing the end of its long voyage. On board is the only survivor of Earth, a young girl called Tamsin. Raised by Destine, her humanoid companion, she struggles to comprehend a past she was not part of and a future she finds difficult to accept. Surrounded by robots on board a sterile ship, Tamsin will discover that Destiny has many secrets and that Destine is not who she appears. Over three sprawling books, Tamsin unravels the past, piece by piece, while she comes to terms with her own destiny and the fate of all humanity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Day
• Release date: Mar 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310724947

Paul Day

Paul G Day specializes in books aimed at children and young adults. He has a unique narrative style designed to draw the reader's attention to the images of the setting as well as the predicament of the protagonist. Through human and non human characters, his books tell a very human drama and the complicated emotional journey we all sometimes find ourselves taking as we search for meaning and answers to profound and often confronting questions. Every one of his characters reflect a personality which has its beginning in the heart and mind of the writer himself. Paul's stories are about love, loyalty, family and courage. They represent a coming of age, where the central character must learn and grow in order to survive the complex and sometimes unforgiving world about them. Paul believes in strong young characters who stubbornly and sometimes defiantly challenge the troubles that compound their lives, finding a way, even in the darkest, bleakest moments of their otherwise unremarkable existence, to overcome adversity, thereby ultimately becoming extraordinary.

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Star Child

The Cosmic Birth

Copyright 2014 Paul G Day

Published by Paul G Day at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the tremendous support of all my writing friends at www.scribeslice.com. There are some deserving of individual thanks, but I want to single out my dear friend Deborah Boydston who continues to support, encourage and inspire me.

Special thanks to my Editor and friend Janice Spina for her editorial work, encouragement and advice and for taking me on and believing in my work. Her dedication to the work of Indie Authors is tremendous.

PRAISE FOR STAR CHILD

Enjoyable and charmingly told story of a colony ship on a 900 year voyage, populated only by robots, and one young girl

(J Mitchell)

A sci-fi book for YA that will keep them mesmerized with the turn of each page. This is a fascinating read and was enjoyed by this adult (J Spina)

The thing that I'm most impressed about is the relating of the dreams. Very nice work (D Yarber)

A very good story written very well. I was engrossed throughout the read (J Miller)

From beginning to end this book is absolutely captivating…The characters are rich in personality and the plot is alive with wonder. (D Boydston)

This book grabbed my interest the whole entire time. Not many books can do that. (Maddie P)

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Birth of Dreams

Chapter 2: The Celestial Garden

Chapter 3: The Impact of Fate

Chapter 4: The Cosmic Birth

Chapter 5: The Ark of Destiny

Chapter 6: A Girl’s Best Friend

Chapter 7: Creatures of Habit

Chapter 8: The Bright Dawning Star

Chapter 9: The Impossible Dream

Chapter 10: The Children of Destiny

Epilogue

About the Author

Other Books by Paul G Day

Connect with Paul G Day

prologue

It was so very long ago now. In all these years I hadn’t thought to write it down in the form of a book. I guess I had been so busy, well, busier than most people would assume. After all, I did manage to run Destiny almost entirely on my own. Now I find that time is short. I haven’t many days left in me, I’m afraid. As I walk the gardens of our little village, it still amazes me even now that not all that long ago this was an alien world. I had kept a journal, mainly in the form of a video Log, but I had not recorded it with a view to others reading it. As it was it would have been quite uninteresting to all but the most intrigued mind.

Now, let me see, where to begin. Ah yes, it all began with a robot, a humanoid in fact. She was the very first being I ever laid eyes on that resembled anything remotely like myself. Of course I didn’t know it then, I was too young. But as I grew I began to realize that she and I were very different.

I had called her mother, had grown to love her, after a fashion. Wherever I went or was, she was usually not far away. She had raised me from birth, but even before that she knew me as a tiny embryo. When I was old enough, she showed me the cryo chambers and the tank where I was thawed out and then, through the magic of science, was brought into being.

I am, on this very day, 112 years old as years would be counted on Earth from the time of my actual birth. But if you add the time I was in a frozen state, awaiting the day I was meant to be, I am actually 1011. At least that’s what I had calculated, once I learned when Destiny had left Earth to take me to the stars. But I’m getting ahead of myself a little.

My name is Tamsin. I have no last name, as this is the only name I was given and the only name I would know. But my children still call me Mother and my grandchildren Grand Mamma. I have no idea who my biological parents were. In the years I have been alone, I have learned not to try to figure out things I will never have the answer to, like why they sent me across space on my own? I can only assume that a great catastrophe happened back on Earth.

Today is a great day of celebration, marking not only my birthday, but the very day 96 years ago at the tender age of 16 that I landed, along with my humanoid companion on this planet. I remember how strange it was stepping from the capsule onto ground no human had set foot on. On board the ship, which was the only home I had known, I had felt so alone, so many times. But here, on this huge planet, I never felt more insignificant. If not for my ever-present companions, I would surely have become lost in this world.

Fortunately for me and for humanity, the ones who had sent me here had shown great foresight and I wasn’t as alone as one might imagine. You see, by some unimaginable miracle, I was pregnant.

And so I must tell this incredible tale, but to do so, I must go right back to the very beginning and relate to you the whole story, filling in the bits I did not know, or could not have known, from the memory of my dear companion Destine.

CHAPTER 1: the birth of dreams

I have, as Destine has said many times, the gift of perfect recall. I recall the very first steps I took and the time I uttered my first word. Destine tells me my special gifts are the result of very carefully chosen and arranged genetic encoding, from a process of genetic profiling and specific gene selection.

No! I blurted out stubbornly. I must have been only a few days short of a year old. I remember the reaction of Destine, the humanoid who raised me.

She had asked me to finish my food and I flipped it off of the high chair and sent it smashing to the floor. I remember the cool, calm way she spoke to me as she carried me off to my room, where I spent the rest of the day sulking and bawling until I finally fell asleep. It was also the first time I remember dreaming. It had given me such a fright that I woke up crying, though I did not remember what the dream was about.

Taking me off to my room to stay and think about my actions, must have been an effective punishment because I didn’t do it again for quite some time. According to Destine, I wasn’t a difficult child, but I did have a strong will and a strong sense of personal injustice. It’s hard to tell whether Destine showed any emotional attachment to me. She often spoke as I imagined a mother might about my growing up and not so much like a recording she played back in her mind.

I have often wondered what sort of impressive technology was used to make such a perfect representation of the human mind and form. Destine had similar needs to me. She bathed, she dressed, she felt heat and cold, she even drank fluids, though she never actually ate anything. The only exception to this was to show me how to eat when I was still very young. She only needed the most basic of minerals and liquids to keep her going. She had hair that grew, teeth that needed brushing and skin that needed washing. I saw her once in the shower and I remember thinking how beautiful she was. I had seen pictures and videos of real people many times on board Destiny and to the uninitiated, she would have looked no different.

But there was, underneath it all, a sort of mechanics to her. The way she spoke so deliberately, with a certain detached coolness, she could not completely disguise, no matter how she tried.

Do you sleep? I remember asking once.

Yes, I do. Came the cool response.

Do you dream? I persisted.

Sometimes, she said, becoming impatient with my prattling.

What do you dream about? I insisted.

I think it’s time you were in bed.

But I want to know. I dream. I dream all the time. Please tell me.

When she took me to my room and put me to bed, she sat on the end of the bed and looked strangely thoughtful, then she turned to me and I will never forget what she said.

I dream sometimes, but not very often, that I am like you.

You mean human?

Yes.

It was a revelation. I wondered whether her programing included the ability to dream and decided it wouldn’t, because such programing would serve no useful purpose for something whose primary objective was