The Galactic Adventures of Hazel: Book 2 - The Rogue Planet

By Starlight

Hazel's thrilling galactic adventures continue in this second book of The Galactic Adventures of Hazel series, as she and her classmates go on a much-awaited school immersion program to the Ptorysium Star System. While planet-hopping, Hazel, Dmitri, and Richie stumble upon a world that is in dire straits. Their adventures take on a whole new league when her impish cousins, Nuke and Nike, get involved, and before they know it, there is too much stuff on their plates - warding off Pepops, making new friends and (also) enemies, negotiating terms, and at the same time juggling with their intergalactic classes.Praise for Book One: The Galactic Adventures of Hazel - Gurecoa Amazon:
* Written by author, Starlight, The Galactic Adventures of Hazel: Gurecoa is a sensational science fiction adventure…My favorite two elements of this book were the world-building and the characters. This book is a fascinating and unique take on what the future may hold.
* A futuristic adventure of universal proportions! Goodreads:
* This is a great read and will appeal to kids and adults alike. I am curious to see what kinds of trouble Hazel is going to get the group into next.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Aug 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645757153

Starlight

Starlight is the author of the series, The Galactic Adventures of Hazel, which is an inspiration from her fascination with space and the "unknown" ever since her childhood. Through these series, she wants to bring imaginative adventures from different corners of the universe to young and inquisitive readers. She is a software engineer and has an MBA degree from Drucker School of Business, Claremont Graduate University. She also took a summer class from Oxford University. With her knowledge of computer science and management skills, Starlight makes these galactic adventures not only a fascinating and entertaining story of future possibilities in artificial intelligence, technology and space travel, but also a tale crafted with problem-solving skills and ideas.

Book preview

Farewell

About the Author

Starlight is the author of the series, The Galactic Adventures of Hazel, which is an inspiration from her fascination with space and the unknown ever since her childhood. Through these series, she wants to bring imaginative adventures from different corners of the universe to young and inquisitive readers.

She is a software engineer and has an MBA degree from Drucker School of Business, Claremont Graduate University. She also took a summer class from Oxford University. With her knowledge of computer science and management skills, Starlight makes these galactic adventures not only a fascinating and entertaining story of future possibilities in artificial intelligence, technology and space travel, but also a tale crafted with problem-solving skills and ideas.

Dedication

To Planet Earth – our home, sweet home.

Copyright Information ©

Starlight (2020)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Starlight

The Galactic Adventures of Hazel

ISBN 9781645757139 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781645757146 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645757153 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020906981

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2020)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

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Acknowledgment

I would like to thank my family and close friends for their constant support and encouragement.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for reading my early drafts and giving me their expert advice.

I would like to show my appreciation and gratitude to Austin Macauley Publishers as they continue to bring "The Galactic Adventures of Hazel" to the public.

My thanks to all my readers, without whom this series wouldn’t be a success.

Chapter 1:

The Storm Riders

Thanks, Grandpa, Hazel said quickly when their Grandpa Pong finished yet another narrative about the developments in Argyre Basin on Mars. Grandpa Pong was a historian and the children absolutely loved to hear stories about the past, because he made sure to make them as suspenseful and as dramatic as possible.

Today though, Hazel, her brother Richie and their best friend Dmitri got up rather abruptly after only a couple of such stories. Grandpa looked quite stunned. After all, it was Hazel’s 13th birthday and they were having a nice late afternoon celebration at Uncle Bridge’s ranch on Mars.

And as if to add more fuel to the fire, Nike, Nuke, and Juli, their cousins, got up from their seats and without a word followed Hazel.

Grandma Jasmin smiled. She turned to her husband and said, Don’t worry ‘Grandpa.’ I know where they are headed. They’ve been talking about renovating the wild garden.

Ah, he said, feeling jealous about the garden. That explains it! He showed his disappointment by bringing down his fist onto the coffee table, a little firmly than intended causing the cookies to summersault on their plates.

Lyca, Hazel’s mother, laughed and said, Dad!

Calm down Pong, said Zee, Hazel’s dad. You know how kids are, one minute they are giving you their full attention and the next minute they are completely oblivious to the fact that we are even sitting next to them.

Hazel and her company made their way out through the back door and ran towards the old unused barn which was about less than a quarter-mile away from the house. As kids, Hazel, Richie, and Dmitri used to play there with Nuke and Nike but they hadn’t been to this part of the ranch for several years and when the topic came up to visit the garden during this trip, Nike and Nuke had been putting it off due to some ongoing ‘construction’ and the area was barricaded.

Today, on Hazel’s birthday, they decided to explore the garden to see what state it was in and the areas that needed attention and renovation.

Hazel was the first to reach the gates to the brown barn. It used to be a guest house back in the day. Although a little dilapidated it was now being used as a storehouse to hoard haystacks and odd little things.

Hazel opened the black gate that creaked with a nostalgic and familiar screeching sound. A wide path lay ahead curving itself to the right, away from the barn and leading into the wild garden. She ran down the rugged path and saw her favorite mango tree. Although it seemed to have aged a bit, it still stood majestic and strong, right at the front of the garden. When they were little, they used to climb the tree to pick mangoes and Hazel remembered it as if it were yesterday navigating every branch, turning every leaf looking for a ripe mango or two; the scene still vivid in her mind. The garden looked wild but clean, precisely like it used to be as if someone had recently taken the time to prune and trim it.

Richie and Dmitri stood by the tree admiring it from every angle. Soon, Nike, Nuke, and Juli caught up with them. They were smiling.

Hazel glanced at her cousins and with a wry smile she said, Closed for construction, eh!?

Now, she knew the reason why this area had been closed for ‘construction.’ Nike and Nuke deliberately kept this area off-limits in order to secretly work and make this garden look beautiful just in time for Hazel’s birthday.

Looks exactly the same, wild! Richie exclaimed with delight.

Look, there is the guava tree! said Dmitri. His favorite fruit was the guava. He climbed the tree and began looking for guavas.

Nuke said, Take your time. We will meet you at the Tarian treehouse.

Hazel saw her three favorite eucalyptus trees still standing tall along the wall of the barn. Diagonally across, stood the lime tree, pomegranate tree and some shrubbery along the compound wall of the barn. Opposite the eucalyptus trees, was the green patch of grass where they used to set camp during the night back in those days.

Hazel made her way to the back of the barn and exclaimed, Ha, ha, we have papaya trees! I think our cousins have been doing quite a bit of work on this garden for quite a while to make it look exactly like the old times!

Yeah, but only where it was needed. It still looks wild just to our taste! said Dmitri.

Indeed, the wild garden had retained its characteristics. It had never been overly maintained, trimmed or pruned and was left to be a slightly unkempt so that there was always something new to explore.

The garden was filled with tropical trees but the deeper one traversed into the garden, the thicker and more alien the vegetation became.

The three of them ran across the patch of grass and passed by the second guava tree and stone benches that spattered the area, to reach a strange looking tree. This was the Tarian drumstick shrub known for its famous long stick-like hanging fruit. This marked the beginning of Tarian flora in the garden.

Tarians were an alien species who made Earth their home, a millennium ago. Thanks to Zee’s part Tarian heritage, this garden found itself enriched with some rare Tarian plant species that were difficult to get hold of, in those days.

Let’s go. Nike, Nuke, and Juli are waiting at the treehouse! said Hazel with her mouth full of guava. This Tarian pine is new! she said, looking at a tall tree that had spiky greenish-yellow colored needle-like leaves.

Oh, look, there’s the blooming tree! Richie said as they walked farther into the depths of the garden. A bed of small white flowers covered the ground around a small tree; there was a sweet lingering fragrance in the air.

Nike called from somewhere above, Oi, coming?

Hazel, Richie, and Dmitri looked up and saw Nike, Nuke, and Juli making their way up the giant Tarian tree. They were in one of the oversized fruit shells that usually held bunches of fruit when raw. When the fruits ripen these thin papery but hard basket-like shells fall away to the ground. Hazel remembered building this elevator using one such fallen shell of the tree. It was their summer holiday project years ago. They had put nanotechnology at its base creating an interface with their personal AIs. They even programmed the interface in such a way that the shell could act like an elevator taking a straight path up and down the massive trunk. Hazel smiled feeling nostalgic. She flicked her AI that was embedded in her bracelet. AI was their modern-day all-in-one personal gadget. A holo-screen popped up in front of her. She placed a request for the tree trunk elevator and waited patiently. The shell came down promptly after dropping off their cousins. Hazel, Richie, and Dmitri were delighted to see that it was in such a great working condition even now.

Where is Stealth and i²=-1? I didn’t see them today, asked Hazel.

Richie shrugged.

Stealth was their pet Peleo creature. They had found this midnight blue colored lionish cub like alien creature during their last adventure at planet Drethna, a few months ago. They got so attached to this adorable and sweet little cub that they decided to adopt him since. i²=-1 was their assistant ball which had an AI mind and personality of its own. This former doorbell program of their home transformed itself into an intelligent ball, a one of its kind; and stood by, or rather hovered beside Hazel, Richie, and Dmitri through thick and thin and as such they had come to depend and rely on it.

You know how annoying i²=-1 sometimes is. I’m actually glad that both of them disappeared from our sight today. I wonder how long that would last, Hazel said with some irritation in her tone remembering how the degree of i²=-1’s nosiness had increased over the past few days.

Dmitri laughed, he was the calmer and more patient of the three. This human-looking Dmitri was actually an alien, a humanoid of MHKZ2 species. He began living on Earth since he was five years old when a handful of his people sought refuge in the Solar System. He had been Hazel’s and Richie’s best friend ever since and very close to their family. He was always curious to know the intricacies of human nature although anyone who passed by, wouldn’t suspect Dmitri to be an alien in any way, except of course, if you happen to tinker with his long hair which feels pain if one were to twist it. He strongly believes that he has a long way to go, to fully know and understand what it means to be a human.

The elevator began shooting upwards putting distance between them and the ground. The giant tree stood a staggering 1000 feet tall. This was the only giant Tarian tree on Uncle Bridge’s Ranch and for that matter a no ordinary giant Tarian tree according to Earthly or Martian standards. It was the black fruit giant Tarian tree whose fruit was a delicacy in the Solar System. Its trunk was so large that it could hold a small bungalow inside it if it were hollow. Its leaves were light green in color and nearly two feet in size. When in bloom, yellow flowers grew in packed bunches within the shells making them look like large baskets filled with flowers. In one week, they would shrivel up revealing clusters of black fruit underneath them.

It seems dad smuggled the tree because of his Tarian heritage to impress mom when they were dating. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have the fruit or the tree here today, said Hazel looking down at the wild garden’s trees that became smaller and smaller as they moved upwards along the trunk.

I never heard that story before, said Richie. Where did you get that information from? He said looking at his sister with curiosity.

That’s why you have an older sister, to give you information, Hazel replied.

Richie scowled.

Hey ya! We’re up here at the treehouse, Juli cried excitedly from high above them. They saw eight-year-old Juli standing outside the treehouse and waving at them as the gap began to close between them and the destination.

The elevator came to a halt and the three stepped onto the platform that led them into the balcony of the house.

Hazel said, It looks neat, don’t tell me…. As she stepped inside, she stopped her sentence midway.

The inside of the treehouse had also been renovated. New olive color drapes hung over the windows and on the wooden floor was some brand-new furniture matching the color of the drapes. The kitchen area was spotless and even had a cake!

Hazel couldn’t contain her surprise when she saw Lumens, and with him, i²=-1 and Stealth. Stealth squeaked.

Happy birthday, Hazel! said Lumens.

Everyone pitched in to sing the happy birthday song that varied dreadfully when it came to pitch and tune.

Lumens, I thought you said you had plans! said Hazel as she hugged him.

Lumens began laughing. He had a child-like smile and laughter about him. This sixty-some year-old looking man was, in fact, an eleven-year-old in his dimension. Last year when they met him for the first time, he was in a terrible state almost on the brink of dying. But with Hazel’s, Richie’s, and Dmitri’s help he was miraculously saved and was able to return to his light dimension which was his home. Ever since Lumens had been their close friend and confidant.

i²=-1, the yellow AI ball said, Yes, miss, we have been planning it for so long! I was worried many a time if you had got any wind or whiff of this plan!

Hazel narrowed her eyes, No wonder you were so annoying these past few days.

i²=-1 gave a nervous smile.

They stood around the kitchen counter eating and relishing the mouth-watering Tarian black fruit cake.

Hey Dmitri, whatever happened to your homecoming celebration? asked Nike.

He said he didn’t want it until he would meet his family, said Hazel exasperated, rolling her eyes. So, guess what, last year we celebrated just a so-so birthday at our home, The Feather.

What’s homecoming? asked Lumens.

Oh, in my MHKZ2ian culture, we go to learning institutes at the age of five and return home on our 12th birthday. It is considered a big achievement and the family celebrates that special birthday as a homecoming celebration. Since I got separated from my family at a very young age, I told Hazel that I didn’t want to have the homecoming celebration until I find my parents someday, said Dmitri shrugging.

Tut, tut, said Nuke. Dmitri! Dmitri! It’s noble and all to wait until you meet your parents. But, let me give you some advice because you so very much want to emulate a human being. Never turn away from any celebrations done on your name. Period! You got that boy? That is the very basic human nature you have to master.

Hazel waved it off while Dmitri was in deep thought.

Make a note to yourself! said Nike. Let’s do it this year! he added raising his arm pointing his index finger to the skies as if he’d had a brainwave.

By the way, Dmitri, if you regret your decision for not having done last year, that’s fine. Regret is also a human quality, said Hazel cheekily.

Dmitri scowled.

They sat in the all-purpose-kitchen-living-room treehouse having fun and discussing stories of their trip to Drethna yet again as Juli wanted to know about it one more time.

Although Hazel shared many stories about what happened earlier that year on Drethna and the adventures they had been in, she did not really share the secret about Gurecoa, her bracelet. With Gurecoa’s help, she was able to defeat the evil dictator, Fear, and that was when she came to understand, that the bracelet can only be wielded by someone who is brave thus enabling its wielder to do good deeds. Only those who were closely involved in saving their Grandma Jasmin, knew about the bracelet. Hazel and those who knew the secret, decided to keep that information low key in order to avoid attracting unwanted attention to Hazel since news travels fast.

But how did you actually defeat Fear? said Nike bringing up his question again. It seemed to him that Hazel, Richie, and Dmitri hadn’t shared everything with him.

Lumens decided to jump in. Fear was my brother did you know that Nike? he said changing the subject.

Yes, how did that happen? I mean, look at you, you are so good. I guess, he’s gone bonkers, said Nike.

Nuke who was listening until that point said, Did he say why he turned that way?

Lumens sighed. He mingled with some shady folks long ago on Drethna and I think that turned him into a brutal ruler. The strange thing was after we had captured him and took him back to our dimension, he remembered none of that. I hope his memory could return and that he would eventually remember his actions and the sequence of events that led him to choose such a path. He doesn’t have any clue as yet although he is back to his pre-Drethna self. We have kept him in prison, and he is under heavy surveillance. I hope it would all come back to him one day so that he could repent for his atrocity.

There was a silence for some time when everyone was in their own deep thought.

They jumped when their AIs beeped dangerously, announcing, "Tornado warning. A level five tornado is