King of Music: Zaphadin

By Barbara G.Tarn

He loved to entertain his friends with songs and dance moves. And one day at a wedding banquet he met the manager who made him a galactic phenomenon – he can dance, he can sing, he can entertain you like nobody else, he's the king of the music business! During his fifteen years career, the star of Zaphadin kept rising in popularity while at the same time the man's morale plummeted into desperation. That's why at the height of his fame, he walked away from it all.

The true story of the man behind the myth. A Star Minds novella.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unicorn Productions
• Release date: May 10, 2015

Barbara G.Tarn

Barbara G.Tarn had an intense life in the Middle Ages that stuck to her through the centuries. She prefers swords to guns, long gowns to mini-skirts, and even though she buried the warrior woman, she deplores the death of knights in shining chainmail. She likes to think her condo apartment is a medieval castle, unfortunately lacking a dungeon to throw noisy neighbors and naughty colleagues in. Also known as the Lady with the Unicorns, these days she prefers to add a touch of fantasy to all her stories, past and present – when she’s not wandering on her fantasy world of Silvery Earth or in her Star Minds futuristic universe. She’s a writer, sometimes artist, mostly a world-creator and story-teller. Two of her stories received an Honorable Mention at the Writers of the Future contest. She writes, draws, ignores her day job and blogs every other day.

Book preview

King of Music - Zaphadin

(a Star Minds novella)

by Barbara G. Tarn

***

Barbara G.Tarn copyright © 2015

electronic edition by Unicorn Productions

May 2015

***

King of Music – Zaphadin

The True Story of the Man Behind the Myth

He loved to entertain his friends with songs and dance moves. And one day, at a wedding banquet, he met the manager that made him a galactic phenomenon. He can dance, he can sing, he can entertain you like no one else. He's the king of the music business!

During his fifteen-year career, the star of Zaphadin rose in popularity while the man's morale plummeted into desperation. That's why at the height of his fame, he walked away from it all.

The man behind the myth reveals his true self for the first time to the whole galaxy in this candid account of his life – with brief summaries by writer Rashaun Khanna, who met him before he became famous.

DISCLAIMER: This is a mockumentary – a work of fiction. No such persons have walked on this planet at this time (or ever will).

INDEX

1. The baby boy

2. The professor

3. Running away from home

4. Dahumada

5. Rise to fame

6. Zaphadin

7. The dream starts to break

8. Midway into the nightmare

9. Over the edge

10. Zaphadin is dead

1. The Baby Boy

You might know him as Zaphadin, our galaxy's undisputed king of music – at least among Humanoids – but he wasn't born that way. He can thank his talent and Dahumada's flair for what makes a megastar. Nobody in his birth family ever thought he'd be capable of such an interstellar success.

Zafar Nagarkar was born on the planet Ypsilanti, where boys don't count for much. He was the youngest of three children and had to learn early on how to deal with his elder sisters. How did he manage to be doted upon by all his female relatives? By being the cutest baby that had ever graced the planet, always smiling and cooing and purring like a fuzzy pet.

Growing up, the baby boy maintained his happy-go-lucky disposition. He wasn't the brightest child in his class, but he made it a mission to spread happiness and joy around him, by entertaining everyone with songs and dance steps. He loved music from an early age, and could remember a song's refrain after listening to it twice.

His mother humored his passion and allowed him to go to dance classes after school. But she told him that he couldn't make a living out of dancing, and that he should study to find a real job when he grew up.

Unless you find me a rich wife, Mom, little Zafar replied with a sweet grin that melted his mother's heart. Then I could dance for her like I do for you.

Here's the true story told by the darling of the Star Nations, revealing himself for the first time.

*

Childhood! That blessed state of innocence when we don't know that an ugly universe is out there waiting for us... My mother had a job that made her travel around the planet a lot, so we moved from town to town for the first thirteen years of my life.

Our family is originally from Lycoris, where both my sisters were born. This large town is located by a lake and looks very modern. It is known for its fine dining, its winter festival, and one of the secondary spaceports of Ypsilanti. It also has a big university campus and the headquarters of the company my mother worked for.

Renuka Nagarkar, was a manager for a big company that kept sending her to other towns to set up operations or check how other branches were doing. My father, Shihab Sharma, stayed at home to take care of us three. Despite being a retired teacher, he never home-schooled us. Mother thought we needed to socialize, so she sent us to regular schools. We changed towns every three or four years, so we never managed to have lasting friends.

I was born in Moriah, a moderate-sized town located near the coast. It has a futuristic look, but no interstellar spaceport. A cultural mecca, it is considered notable for its fancifully paved streets. Also, there are some unusual ruins nearby where we had nice family picnics when my mother wasn't working and the weather was nice. I loved climbing on those big stones, even if the crumbled buildings weren't totally safe. Playing hide-and-seek in those ruins was heaven for little me.

Jaya still remembers when our parents called her and Shaila into the living room and told her she'd have a little brother. She's six