Starflake Hunts the Power Beast

By Nicola Cuti

The POWER BEAST crash lands on Starflake's asteroid and steals the Starflake's dragon, Molly, to make her escape. Starflake is determined to get Molly back and when the intergalactic hunter, Beowolf Gent, tracks the Beast to her asteroid, Starflake decides to joins him in the quest to end the Beast's reign of terror.
Along their trek through the galaxy, Starflake encounters a variety of beings, including, Mother, an intelligent lake which creates creatures for her planet, and Tarsa, a tarsier whose rhymes are able to predict the future.
But when Starflake finally confronts the terrible Beast, will her new friends stand beside her, or will they betray her in order to get the Beast for themselves?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicola Cuti
• Release date: Jan 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781311447470

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/

Book preview

Nicola Cuti

6711 Timbercove Lane

New Port Richey, FL 34653

727 847 5302

[e-mail]

www.nicolaentertainment.com

STARFLAKE hunts the POWER BEAST

By Nicola Cuti

2017

43,244 words

STARFLAKE hunts the POWER BEAST

Other Novels in the Starflake Series:

Starflake on Thrill World: Volume 1

Starflake on Thrill World: Volume 2

Starflake rides with the Galactic Bikers

© 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

Here is the fourth Starflake novel.

In her first adventure, split between two books, Starflake on Thrill World: Volume 1 and Starflake on Thrill World: Volume 2, our intrepid little Starbabe goes from being an almost feral (wild) creature to an educated heroine, who helps to turn a corrupt planet into a haven for children infected with alien diseases.

In the next adventure, Starflake Rides with the Galactic Bikers, she meets a gang of galactic bikers and joins them for a dangerous adventure across the galaxy, to a world run by a mad computer. For the first time she meets Selene and Stella, the twins of evil, even though one is human and the other twin is an alien.

In this novel, while hunting the mysterious creature known as the Power Beast, Starflake and her new friends run across the twins again … but this time we are also introduced to their bizarre Mother and to a new sister, Constellation, who menaces Starflake. She also gets a new pet, Tarsa the poetry-spouting Tarsier whose poems have deep meanings behind them, and can actually predict the future.

If you enjoy wild adventures, whether you’re a boy or girl, then you will enjoy the journeys of Starflake the Starbabe and her friends … and enemies.

DEDICATION

To my wonderful daughter, JAYMEE ROSE CUTI, who was the first Starflake, and to my incredible partner, NIKOMA DeMITRO, who suggested I write something for the young ladies out in the world. Lastly, to my friend and editor, WALT WENTZ, both a fan and contributor to the Starbabe legend.

CHAPTER ONE

CRASH

Iwas riding my dragon, Molly, flying only a few hundred feet above the rocky surface of my asteroid, when we first spied the ship. It was coming directly towards my home world – the biggest asteroid in the rocky belt orbiting the lovely planet of Silver Valley.

The ship was just a glint of light at first, moving across the lavender Horse Head Nebula. I can see several nebulas from my asteroid, especially when I look through my telescope at my little house, but the curtain-shaped nebula with the horse-head shadow on it is one of my favorites, so I’m always looking at it. It’s amazing how beautiful those clouds of gases can look from my airless asteroid.

As the glint turned into a tiny flame, I could feel Molly tremble under me. She seemed to sense that this was a strange ship, heading right toward us. We were used to seeing ships from Silver Valley visiting us, but this ship was coming from deep space, not from the big planet we orbited. It was an unknown, and the unknown is always worrisome.

Below us was a herd of jellies, those living blobs of goo that wander almost everywhere on the asteroid. Goosh, the jelly I like to ride the most when I’m on the ground, was leading the herd. Molly dove down to give a friendly greeting to Goosh, but we weren’t going to land – not yet, anyway. We wanted to see where the strange ship was going to set down. By now the flame had become bright enough for us to see the outlines of a spacecraft. It was bullet-shaped and still tiny, but at the rate it was moving I knew it would be landing really soon.

I didn’t want to be exactly at ground zero when it landed. I wanted to check it out from a safe distance. A little girl – a Starbabe to be exact – living alone on an asteroid, with only jellies and a star dragon for companions, has to be careful. I wanted my ray pistol for protection, but Bonoguro had it. With telepathic commands I directed Molly toward Bonoguro’s cave, and she brought me right there.

Bonoguro is an awesome sight. He’s a jelly, complete with two eyestalks and a huge sphere of a brain clearly visible inside his huge blobby body. But he’s bigger and much more intelligent than any of the other jellies, and I like to call him my guardian. We talk by telepathy, because there’s no air on the asteroid to carry sound.

I mentally called out his name as I entered his cave, and when he answered I went on into his workroom, where he was sitting among all his scientific instruments.

I said, There’s a strange ship heading toward the asteroid. Could I have my ray gun, the one the Galactic Bikers gave me?

Certainly, he answered, but remember, the gun’s highest setting is ‘stun.’ Don’t be foolishly brave. Stay hidden until you are certain the pilot means you no harm. We can’t afford to lose you.

I teased him, Because I’m a Starbabe and you need to do more research on me, like finding out how I can live in a vacuum without life support, and stuff like that?

He answered, Because you are Starflake, and I’ve grown quite fond of you.

I was being naughty. Of course, Bonoguro was fond of me, and I knew it. And he knew that I cared about him too, but it was embarrassing for me to tell him that right out, so instead I teased him. He knew I was only kidding. He was once human, you know, so since I resembled a human kid, in spite of my white hair and pointed ears, he felt very paternal toward me, as if he was, kind of, my Dad.

He showed me where he kept my holster and pistol, and I strapped it on. Then I remounted Molly and we were off to see where the starship would land.

B

y now the ship looked huge as it streaked past us. Its bullet shape had some extra domes on it, and there was a big, ugly black mark burned into its silver side. There were some sensors and gauges hanging out of the burned hole, and the ship seemed to be badly damaged. It wobbled as it fell, leaving a shaky jet trail. Its pilot tried to pull up as it neared the surface; if it was going to crash, whoever was flying it was trying to keep the damage to a minimum.

Finally, the ship hit and then bounced, then hit and bounced again, tearing off plates of metal from its belly. The debris scattered in all directions, spinning wildly, some striking rocks while other pieces were hurled far from the ship. With no atmosphere and not much gravity to stop them, the pieces might land miles from where they had been torn off the ship.

On the third hit, the ship skidded, digging a long, shallow furrow in the rocky surface before it came to a halt.

I had Molly set down behind a cluster of boulders, just in case of an explosion. There wouldn’t be any fire, because in a vacuum there isn’t any air to keep a fire going, but there could always be an explosion. Sharp bits of metal of all sizes would come zooming through space with enough force to tear Molly and me apart. So, we waited.

When I was sure we were in no danger, I flew Molly up and away from our hiding place and had her land near the ship. Then I dismounted and slowly crept closer.

Goosh slithered by, extending a pod and then crawling into it. That’s the way he moves. I hitched a ride on Goosh’s back to get closer to the ship and when I was just a few feet away I hopped off of Goosh and walked up to the ship.

The ship had lost so much of its metal skin that the girders inside were exposed, and those girders were twisted like pretzels. I was no starship engineer, but it was obvious to me this ship would never return to space again. It would have been easier to melt it down and remold the metal into an entirely new ship than to try and repair this one.

The big question was, did the pilot and passengers – if there were any – survive the horrific crash? My second concern was, if they were alive, were they friendly?

With my ray gun drawn, I crept toward the airlock of the ship. It was shut, but there was a camera beneath a small transparent dome next to the hatch. As I moved from side to side, I could see it following me. It might have been automatic, or there might be someone inside checking me out. I wasn’t sure if I should be alarmed, so I just allowed it to follow me as I zigzagged in front of the entrance.

Carefully, I put my gun into my holster, to show them that I wasn’t hostile – meanwhile hoping they would understand what I was doing, and not come charging out of the ship with their own guns blazing. If Bonoguro had been watching me he would be having a fit, since this was exactly what he didn’t want me to do. But I had to follow my instincts, and my instincts told me that whoever – or whatever –was inside would probably be in no shape to become violent. They would probably be asking for my help … or at least, I hoped so.

The airlock hatch began to shake and then it dropped open, like the lid of a box hinged at the bottom. Inside the opening were stairs. Whatever was going to come out must have legs, or else it wouldn’t have needed stairs. I should have taken some comfort in knowing the pilot had legs, but what if it wasn’t the pilot who was about to exit the ship? Suppose the crash had let loose some hideous beast, and that was the thing I was going to face?

I pulled my gun out again, and moved closer to the entrance. Cautiously, I peered inside and saw a mass of gauges and instruments, none of which I recognized. Though nothing stirred, I wasn’t about to step inside; I wasn’t that reckless.

Then I saw a shadow move. It flowed across the curved walls of the ship, and because the inside of the ship was so irregular, with all of its gauges and such, I could not make out the shape of the shadow. Did a human, a beast or something totally different cast the shadow? I could not tell.

Then a glimmering light inside the ship made the shadow vanish, and I saw the glow moving closer to the entrance.

Nervously, I held tightly to the grip of my ray gun, waiting for the unseen creature to show itself. The radiance became brighter as the thing moved closer to the entrance …

I have been to several worlds, and visited space stations swarming with creatures from all parts of the galaxy. I have seen humanoids and robots and reptile-like aliens and insect-like things, which did not resemble humans at all. But I never saw a creature as terrifying as this!

And now it was standing right before me ...

CHAPTER TWO

MEETING THE POWER BEAST

Abright, flaming glow moved down the metal stairs of the ship, but it wasn’t a shapeless glow. Inside its halo was a humanoid form, but the form was no more than a shadow. It might have been human or a beast or even a robot. The dark form inside the glow was too faint for me to see much of it – a head, a body, two arms and legs – but was there more? I couldn’t make out if it had fingers, and because of the glow, the form seemed to be changing, first getting taller, then shorter. Even its arms and legs kept getting longer and shorter. At first the arms and legs seemed jointed, but then they appeared to curve and flow like tentacles. However, all that might have been some trick of the glow. I couldn’t tell.

I tried to contact it mentally. I shouted my name telepathically and said I was peaceful, but if it heard me it didn’t seem to care.

After it cleared the stairs it lumbered about, swaying from side to side, as if it was dazed. I wasn’t certain if it could see me but it did see Molly, and began to trudge toward her. I was afraid it was going to hurt her