Starflake Aboard the Doomed Ships

By Nicola Cuti

The luxury passenger starship, Alpha Centuri, accidentally pulls a ship out of an antimatter universe and the ship, called the Beta Centuri, is linked to the Alpha. The two ships, a gravity ship and an anti-gravity ship, are held to each other in perfect balance, but if either ship waivers even a hair from this unholy alliance then they will touch and annihilate each other. Hundreds of lives are at stake.
Along comes Starflake in her Trog, taxi cyborg. She is a Cosmic Sprite, a pixyish creature who lives on radiation making it easy to bath her in either matter or antimatter radiation. As an ambassador between the two ships, she becomes the agent of hope, however, there are serious problems toward a peaceful solution in the guise of mutineers, madmen, doppelgangers, and hit men with the ability to see and travel through walls. All of them want to sabotage her mission or at least... kill her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicola Cuti
• Release date: Jan 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370178223

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 aboard the DOOMED SHIPS

By

Nicola Cuti

2017

43,208 words

STARFLAKE aboard the DOOMED SHIPS

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 Hunts the Power Beast

© Nicola Cuti 2017

First printed in North America.

Photography … KAYE TERRELONGE

Cover Design … NICOLA CUTI

Cover Model … ALICIA SAGE

Make Up & Hair…BEAUTIFULLY TWISTED HUMN:

KY GOMEZ & ARENA GENTRY

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

INTRODUCTION

Here is the fifth Starflake novel. The biggest change is Starflake is no longer called a Starbabe, instead the term has been updated to a Cosmic Sprite. We feel it better describes what she is and we hope you’ll agree.

In her first two novels our intrepid little Sprite went from being an almost ferrule (wild) creature into an educated pupil who helps to turn a corrupt planet into a haven for children infected with alien diseases.

In the third novel, she meets a gang of galactic bikers and joins them for a dangerous mission 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 half human and half slug.

In the novel before this novel, while hunting the mysterious creature known as the Power Beast, Starflake and her new friends, runs across the twins again but this time we are also introduced to their bizarre Mother and to a new sister, Constellation, who menaces Starflake in ways too strange to describe here. But I do describe it in the novel.

She also gets a new pet, Tarsa the poetry spouting Tarsier. Tarsa’s poems have deep meanings behind them and can actually tell the future.

Lastly, Starflake gets a ride from the Trog, short for Taxi Cyborg, a weird creature who is a taxicab and taxicab driver, all wrapped together. In my Starflake comic strips, she used the Trog to get everywhere, but it wasn’t until now that I decided to re-introduce him.

If you enjoy wild adventure, whether you’re a boy or girl, then you will enjoy the stories of Starflake the Cosmic Sprite and her friends and enemies.

DEDICATION

To my wonderful daughter, JAYMEE ROSE CUTI, who was the first Starflake and to my loyal friend, NIKOMA DeMITRO, who suggested I write something for girls and lastly, to my friend and editor, WALT WENTZ, both a fan and contributor to the Starflake legend.

CHAPTER ONE

DISTRESS CALL

I was going home to my asteroid, to my jelly friends, to my star clusters and to my guardian, Bonoguro. I was a happy Cosmic Sprite. I could even see the horse head nebula just ahead of us. If the Trog, my taxi cyborg, would just put on the jets we’d be there in two hours.

Tarsa, my pet Tarsier, was enjoying the sites. She seemed to love the stars almost as much as I did.

Since I was in his cab, I had to wrap on the front window with my tiny knuckles in order to get his attention. I’d have to talk to him, telepathically, because we were in space and the intercom was broken. He looked back at me and lowered the window.

If you gave your rockets a power boost, I told him, We could be home in two hours instead of four.

You ain’t payin’ for the trip, Star, he said, this Bonoguro guy is. So you got no say about how I get you home.

Bonoguro can’t pay either. He’s a blob. He’s just like the jellies, only a lot bigger. Blob’s don’t have pockets for money.

Don’t kid me, kid, he said to me. The jellies got the brains of a carrot. This Bonoguro’s smart. He must have money.

You’re smart, I buttered him up, and I’m smart, so how much money do we have between us?

He thought about what I said and then grumbled, So, this is another freebie?

’Fraid so.

I shouldn’t have told him about the free ride, but we were almost home. It would have cost him more money to take me back then to just keep going. And he wouldn’t just leave me in outer space, even though I’m a Cosmic Sprite and I can live in space without any help. It wouldn’t be descent or even legal. You just can’t leave a person alone in space, even if she was a Cosmic Sprite. Naw, the Trog was tough but he wasn’t cruel.

Sure, Jam was a rough talker. He looked tough too. His body was a cab, but his head, perched at the nose of the cab, was almost human and he sported a flat hat, slightly tilted to the right. There was stubble on his chubby face and claws, instead of wheels, on his underbelly. I wouldn’t ride with anyone else, because I trusted him.

I hate you, kid, he said and raised the window with an angry slam.

He didn’t mean it. He loved me. I was cute, with long white hair, big eyes and pointed elfin ears. On the planet, Silver Valley, I’m very popular, at least with the boys. They say I look like a pixie.

Although, except for his head, Jam wasn’t much of a humanoid, still he must have considered me adorable or he wouldn’t have given me a ride after the way I tricked him on Janus*.

There was a nebula ahead of us; a huge cloud glowing with so may colors, green, yellow, blue and purple. The Trog wanted to go around it but I insisted we go through it and since we were so close he must have figured it would be just as easy to follow my directions. It was all misty inside and sparkled when light struck the tiny invisible bits floating around. Then we felt a rumble and I was worried the Trog would shake apart but after a few minutes we were fine.

Eventually, as we passed out of the mist, I saw something escape from the cloud, going in another direction, but it soon vanished and I thought nothing more about it. I should have been concerned because it was a girl on a rocket cycle. I didn’t know it at the time but she looked very much like me.

Just then Tarsa recited one of her strange little poems. They never made sense until the event they were

about, happened. This one went:

*Read Starflake hunts the Power Beast

"Twin ships upon a stormy sea,

If one goes down then the other is free."

Jam heard the telepathic message as well and asked what it was about.

I said, I suppose I’m not clever enough to grasp their meaning. She recites them like a parrot. I don’t think she understands what they’re about either.

I didn’t tell this additional part to Jam because I didn’t want to worry him, but her little poems were warnings of disaster.

Twenty minutes later I spotted a light getting brighter and brighter. Actually there were two bright lights. I wasn’t concerned until I could see that they were headed straight for us!

I rapped on the front windshield to warn Jam but he had seen them.

When they were closer, I saw the lights were the exhaust flame from two ships. One was a huge passenger luxury liner. I had never seen any ship so big or so beautiful, except for the one traveling alongside it.

As big as the first ship was, the second ship, a smaller craft, managed to keep up with the passenger liner. There was no ship like it anywhere in the galaxy and I’ve been all over the galaxy so I would know. It looked like a bunch of seashells glued together.

Tarsa’s poem flashed in my head.

Star, Jam called to me. I just got a distress call from one of those ships.

Which one?

How, the heck should I know? But whether it’s from the one on the right or the one on the left, I got to answer it. It’s the law. I don’t need no Deep Space Rangers hauling me in for ignoring a distress call.

He was right. In outer space nothing is more sacred than a distress call. No fare or mission is more important than the call. He had to answer it. I told him to go ahead and listened in.

Jamal, Taxi Cyborg, License I49-IXH, to unknown star liner. What is the nature of youse problem?

"This is Second Officer Jolly of the Alpha Centauri. We passed through a nebula at 0624 hours Standard Cosmic Time and when we emerged from the cloud there was this alien craft beside us, following our course. We can’t make contact with it. It just stays there, following every move we make."

Funny they should have mentioned the cloud. I’ll bet it was the same one Jam and I had passed through, a little while ago.

You can’t shake it?

We already tried, plenty of times. Can you dock with us? We sent out a general distress signal but, so far, you seem to be the only one close enough to answer it.

Yeah, I can enter your lifeboat bay. I guess I’m just about the size of one of the lifeboats, so I should be able to fit in there okay, Jam figured.

I’ll give you docking coordinates right now.

The tension in Jolly’s voice came through clearly. He was concerned that this ship was in grave danger and, if it was carrying a full load of passengers, and they rarely left port without a full load, there were at least several hundred people whose lives were in peril.

CHAPTER TWO

THE ALPHA CENTAURI

The docking went smoothly. We entered the air lock and when the airlock had been filled with air, the door to the bay opened. In ten minutes, we were inside the lifeboat bay of the Alpha Centauri.

A wealthy passenger had gone through the expense of bringing his own lifeboat aboard, docking his boat with the others, but this lifeboat stood out from the rest. Unlike the other lifeboats, that were nothing more than machines, this one was like the Trog, an intelligent cyborg. To the Trog’s delight, the lifeboat’s personality was female. He made certain to park himself next to her and she didn’t seem to mind at all. I didn’t feel bad about leaving Jam in the quiet bay because I knew Jam would not be bored.

With Tarsa clinging to my shoulder, I followed the trail of neon lights from the bay to an elevator and took it to the main flight deck.

When the door to the elevator slid open, a tall Asian woman in a pilot’s uniform met me. Surprised at seeing I was an eleven-year-old girl, she stepped back a half step, both stunned and disappointed that I wasn’t an adult.

As we walked to the pilot’s cabin, she introduced herself as Janet Chin, the co-pilot and, realizing I could tell how she felt, she said, Forgive the shock, but I’m not used to finding a child your age traveling through space all alone. You don’t travel with your parents?

I don’t have parents, I explained, I’m a Cosmic Sprite. We’re born in tanks and live in space. My name is Starflake but I prefer Star.

Bonoguro told me I came from a tank but, of course, I have no memory of my birth. My earliest memory is, me riding jelly blobs on my home asteroid.

Chin asked, You’re a cyborg?

Nope. I’m totally a living being. I just don’t have any organs, aside from a brain, a nervous system and a skeleton. Most of me is made of a sort of cytoplasm. That’s why I can live in space.

Bonoguro told you this?

Puffing up my chest I said, He knows all there is to know about Cosmic Sprites.

She gave Tarsa a gentle poke with her finger and Tarsa didn’t even flinch. Tarsa is so small, only about four inches tall but she seems very much at ease with us giant beings. I think she can sense how much we love her because she is so cute with those huge round eyes of hers.

Cute monkey.

She’s a Tarsier. Her name is Tarsa.

A security door separated us from the pilot’s cabin but after a retina scan from Chin the door swung open. Inside it was dark so the captain, Captain John