Starflake Picks the Junkyard Planet

By Nicola Cuti

Taking off on her rocket-cycle, Starflake is set for a visit with her girlfriend, Tauristar, at the Deep Space Ranger Academy, when the engine quits. Her bike is caught in the grip of the gravitational field of the Junkyard Planet. She crash lands but falls into a stack of tires, saving her life. However, her cycle goes up in flames stranding her on the planet.
The mysterious character called the Junkyard Man gives her a cart and tells her to pick through the junkyard villages for parts for a new bike. But the villages are miles apart. On her shopping trek she encounters human-sized junkyard rats, a wild speed boat race through dangerous swamps, Leonardo the weird artist who creates living statues, and the unseen Big AI who tosses Star into the deadly prison known as the Cube. Only a violent revolt from unruly pirates can save her.
This episode is a life changer for Star because she must decide if she should advance her age to that of a teen and if she should join the Deep Space Rangers. Don’t miss this one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicola Cuti
• Release date: Jan 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370361946

Nicola Cuti

Nicola Cuti worked as editor, artist and writer for such distinguished comic book companies as DC, Marvel, Charlton and Warren(publisher of "Creepy" and "Vampirella" comics). He created numerous characters including superhero "E-Man", still being published today and the underground classic, "Moonie", which has appeared in men's magazines in full color and in fine collections as Mark Estren's scholarly book "A History of the Underground Comics". He is a two-time winner of the Ray Bradbury Award for writing excellence and a 2009 Inkpot Award winner for his work in Comic Art. Later, Nick moved his wife and daughter to California where he began a new career in animation as a background designer. Such studios as Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, Marvel Films, Graz Entertainment, Sunbow and Sony Pictures employed him on the following projects “Conan”, “Gargoyles”, “Jungle Cubs”, “Dilbert”, “Biker Mice From Mars”, “Exo-Squad”, “101 Dalmatians” and “Starship Troopers” and others. For the past decade his interests have turned to live action and screen writing where he has been developing a live action series "Captain Cosmos, the Last STARveyer" a science fiction/science fact adventure program for children. "Cosmos" has won the KIDS FIRST! Seal of Approval for excellence in children's video and has been selected for the Kids First! Film Festival. He worked with an independent movie company, Creature Productions, where he produced and wrote three movies for them, "The Gray Ghosts" "Planet of the Reptiles" and "Grub" and has written several screenplays for their future productions. In 2010 Nick started his own company, Ni-Cola Entertainment LLC, where he wrote and produced a sci-fi movie “Tagged!” and three illustrated novels, “Moonie and the Spider Queen”, “Moonie in the Slave Market of Opuul” and “Moonie in Too Many Moons”. For more information please see his listing in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Cuti or on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193881/

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Nicola Cuti

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STARFLAKE picks the JUNKYARD PLANET

By Nicola Cuti

STARFLAKE picks the JUNKYARD PLANET

Other Novels in the Starflake Series:

Starflake on Thrill World: Volume 1

Starflake on Thrill World: Volume 2

Starflake rides with the Galactic Bikers

Starflake aboard the Doomed Ships

© Nicola Cuti 2017

First printed in North America.

Photography … KAYE TERRELONGE

Cover Design … NICOLA CUTI

Model … ALICIA SAGE

Makeup & Hair: BEAUTIFULLY TWISTED HMUA:

KY GOMEZ & ARAENA GENTRY

Book Design…NIKOMA DeMITRO

The work contained in this book is fiction. All characters are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

INTRODUCTION

I

go to conventions—comic book and science fiction conventions—and when I do my partner NIKOMA Moonie DeMITRO and my model ALICIA Starflake SAGE usually accompany me. Both ladies are real charmers and the fans love them, not only because they dress in costume, but also because they are delightful young women. We usually have a great time at these conventions but a lot has to do with our neighbors. If those who take care of the booths on either side are competitive or unhappy with their business, they may take it out on us. So far, with a few exceptions, we’ve had wonderful neighbors but this time our neighbors to our right were extraordinary. The two ladies who took care of their booth sold some very unusual merchandise, silhouettes.

KATHRYN K. FLOCKEN cuts silhouettes of famous people out of black paper. The incredible thing is she does it rapidly while she is looking at you. Her craft takes her to colleges all over the country and the s

ilhouettes are absolutely right on. She does profiles of BORIS KARLOFF, BELA LUGOSI, BASIL RATHBONE, PETER LORRE and so many others. When she heard it was my birthday she gave me a pair of silhouettes and I thanked her thinking it was s

ome famous movie character actor. Then I began to recognize some of the features. It was me! While I was sitting and chatting with NIKKI, KATHRYN was snipping away with her scissors. I didn’t recognize it right away because we rarely see ourselves in profile. She also did a profile of ALICIA, dressed as Starflake. I repaid her by sharing the cupcakes NIKKI had brought for my birthday. To my credit, they were chocolate cupcakes.

That’s when I discovered it isn’t profits, which make successful shows it’s good neighbors.

DEDICATION

To my wonderful daughter, JAYMEE ROSE CUTI, who was the first Starflake, to my friend and editor, WALT WENTZ, both a fan and contributor to the Starbabe legend and to my friend, NIKOMA DeMITRO, who suggested I write a juvenile sci-fi adventure series for boys and girls.

CHAPTER ONE

CRASHING MY GALACTIC BIKE

The most disastrous accident of my life happened because I was restless and wanted to take a trip through the galaxy. I get notions like that every so often and they usually end in some kind of disaster, but not like this. I can live in space, because I’m a Cosmic Sprite, but that doesn’t stop me from dying in space.

When I was riding through the galaxy with the Galactic Bikers*, Lydia, the tattooed biker, gave me her rocket cycle as a present, because I had helped them defeat ALIEC, the mad computer. I hadn’t ridden my present for months and I thought it might be a good time to take it out for a spin through the stars.

Bonoguro, the Great Jelly, was planning some lessons for me but the sum of the squares of the sides of a right triangle are equal to the square of the hypotenuse was nothing I wanted to tackle today, but I had to see him because he was taking care of my cycle.

From the porch of my house, I could see across my asteroid to the mouth of Bonoguro’s cave and to my left, resting in my rock garden, was Goosh, my favorite Jelly.

*Read Starflake rides with the Galactic Bikers

He was the one I usually used as my ride. I climbed on Goosh’s back and shouted out a mental message to my tarsier, Tarsa, who came trotting out from behind cluster of stones, and scampered up Goosh to my shoulder.

By now you are probably wondering who and what I am. My name is Starflake and, as I said, I’m what is known as a Cosmic Sprite. I am a creature who does not only live in space but I don’t need any life support to do this. That’s right, I don’t need a space suit or space helmet or food or water just star glow, uh…cosmic radiation. I look like a little girl with long white hair and pointed ears but I am really a Cosmic Sprite.

Was Tarsa ready for a romp through the galaxy, I could only guess? Looking at me with her huge dark eyes, she blinked questioningly, ready for some kind of an adventure, but having not the slightest inkling what it might be. She was easy to keep because, like me, she didn’t need air, food or water, so I never had to clean up after her.

The trip to Bonoguro’s cave seemed to take forever, but Goosh crept his way there at his normal pace and he knew the way. When we finally arrived, I glanced at myself in one of Bonoguro’s mirrors; my long white hair was a fright, and because it was such a mess, it covered my pointy ears. I did a quick comb through with my fingers, hoping the combed hair made me more presentable to my teacher.

Bonoguro was busy with his computer, his thin tentacles were swiping frantically across the view screens, so I had to toss a pebble at his computer screen to get his attention. His eyestalks twisted around until he was able to focus on me and then he slowly oozed his whole body around.

It’s not time for your lesson, he informed me. What are you doing here?

I want to go riding on my cycle, just for a week or so. I thought I might visit my friend, Tauristar at the Deep Space Ranger Academy. She told me she’d like to show me around.

Normally, he enjoyed a break from me but instead of being cheerful, he seemed worried. If you’re going to ride your cycle, stop at Howard Space Station and have the mechanic there take a look at it. I started it up a week ago and it was sputtering a bit. I’m not a mechanic, but I think it might cause you a problem.

I will, I promised and walked toward the alcove where he kept it for me. There was a plastic dome over my beautiful, red, rocket-cycle. I pressed a button on the wall and the cover rose up, uncovering it. I climbed into the saddle and started her up. It seemed to be working perfectly.

Remember to stop at Howard Station, he shouted mentally. I nodded; made sure Tarsa had a good grip on my shoulder, and gunned the cycle out of the cave.

Unless you are a Cosmic Sprite, like me, you can never appreciate the absolute freedom and beauty of roaming through the galaxy of stars clusters, other galaxies and nebula. There are bright spots, star bundles, swirls of color, and glowing neon clouds. I could even see the icy Oort cloud, where comets were formed, and the triple Pillars of Creation ascending from the Eagle Nebula. I saw old stars, exploding into expanding supernova, while young stars were forming into spiral galaxies.

And then there were the planets, some with rings around them while others were free from rings. Young planets were covered with volcanoes, with steaming rivers of glowing lava pouring from the volcanic mouths. There were also planets, so far from their suns their atmospheres were frozen solid. My favorites were those beautiful worlds in the Goldilocks zones, with rivers running through them, teaming with all forms of life.

Because I was so enjoying my weaving and warping trip through the stars and planets, I didn’t noticed that my rocket engine had turned off and I was moving forward without any control over my cycle.

A lonely little world had me in its gravitational hook and was pulling me toward it. As soon as I snapped out of my euphoria, I fired my retro rockets to yank myself away, but my cycle was too firmly snagged. The planet was reeling me in.

Very soon I would be striking its atmosphere and the friction would burn me to a cinder. Wasting no time, I hit the switch for the protective bubble and was relieved when it clicked on, encasing me in an invisible shield. I watched a wall of flame blaze all around me but I could not see through the bright light.

I tried the retros again, but they still wouldn’t fire.

As my descent slowed down, the flame went off and I could see once more. I was zooming above the surface of the planet, expecting to see trees, mountains, seas, and rivers, but mostly I saw piles of rusting junk. I finally did see trees, hills and streams, but nearly all of the landscape was covered with the twisted metallic remains of ships, planes, cars, and building girders. A coating of red dust covered most of the land areas.

My cycle struck the ground with several bounces before hitting a small auto, embedded in the earth, sending Tarsa and me flying through the air into a pile of rubber tires. We were saved, with only a few bruises, but my cycle exploded into blossom of flame.

I ran to the burning cycle, hoping I could put out the fire but there was nothing I could use to douse the flames and all I was able to do was watch, as my beautiful cycle was slowly transformed into curled melted lumps. The metal gave off a shrill whistle as it heated, a wail of death. My communicator, attached to the handlebars, was also consumed.

Tarsa licked my face to comfort me, but my only thoughts were that I would be trapped on this world of junk, forever.

CHAPTER TWO

I NEARLY KILL THE JUNKYARD MAN

I must have been watching the smoldering embers of my bike for nearly ten minutes. I saw the lumps, some of them still recognizable as boosters, tanks and flow controls, as they turned from red to white hot to black. A pillar of smoke rose into the air. Little Tarsa warmed her hands in the radiant glow and said:

"Creamers, jewels, pots and pans,

Toasters, bikes and lamppost stands,

Tires, crab nets, fishing boots,

Ferris wheels and flannel suits,

Treasures of the Junkyard Man."

Tarsa was usually pretty far in advance with her little warning poems, giving me lots of time to figure them out, but this one was just a slight bit ahead of the event it predicted. A man was standing right behind me. I saw his shadow before I saw him.

Picking up a metal gear wheel, I spun around and tossed it at him as if it was a discus. I didn’t mean to hit him with it. I just wanted him to move away, but my aim was too good and it struck his shin with the teeth of the gear, cutting though his ragged pants, into his dirt-covered flesh. The gear had sliced a good-sized chunk of skin out of his leg.

He screamed, grabbed his leg and dropped to the ground. Spewing terrible curses, he held onto his wounded leg and just rolled in the red dirt.

He was a big man, dressed in bib dungaree overalls and a torn flannel shirt with a red, plaid pattern. His face was greasy and his chin was covered with stubble.

I picked up another gear just in case he decided to attack me. My blaster went up in smoke along with my