Mystical Aria (Vol 2): Starship Diary

By Jean Neff Guthrie

"Instead of gazing at the stars, I'm flying among them where no tween has been. These are the writings of Aria Vanir aboard the Gallion starship, Rama XI,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mountain Arbor Press
• Release date: Sep 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781631834059

Jean Neff Guthrie

Jean Neff Guthrie is the author of the Mystical Aria series and the winner of Literary Classics 2017 Gold Award for Fantasy - Tween. Her poem, "Baler Twine," written in honor of her father's seventy-fifth birthday, won a National Cattlemen's Magazine contest and was published in its March 2001 edition. Jean has a BS in dairy science from Virginia Tech and a MS in mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has earned certifications as a Project Management Professional, ScrumMaster, and SAFe 4 Agilist. Jean works in the Atlanta, Georgia, area as an author and information technology project/program manager. She lives in Smyrna, Georgia.

Book preview

Prologue

Instead of gazing at the stars, I’m flying among them where no tween has been. These are the writings of Aria Vanir aboard the Gallion superspaceship, Rama XI, during my unexpected alien adventure for first contact with Queen Supreme Nashata, Galactic Mother of the Gallions.

Back home in Virginia Beach, I wrote about my psychic impressions, feelings, and fave events in my transmission diary. Unfortunately, my tDiary wasn’t in my beach bag when the Gallions beamed me aboard the Rama XI. The Gallions gave me an option of manifesting another antiquated tDiary or giving me one of their advanced crystal-scroll recorders.

I chose the crystal-scroll recorder. Duh!

First Engineer Peakte programmed my crystal-scroll recorder to autocorrect in English. When I asked him for a pen, he gave me this astro quill laser that etched words with a thin beam of light. It glided across the page like it knew the words before I wrote them.

Now I have a way to write about my secret encounters with the Gallions during my most astro-thrilling summer vacation.

Chapter 1

Beamed Aboard

Tuesday, June 20, 2028

Dear Diary,

I’m possibly the first girl abducted by aliens who’s having a galactically good time. I’m writing in a space-age scroll thingy that I astro love, and I’m sitting on a galnormous purple pillow in the middle of my pretend bedroom in Holospace 7.

I call it my pretend bedroom because it looks exactly like my bedroom at home, only cleaner. There’s no dust on the bookshelves, and my shoes are stacked neatly in my closet. That never happens in my real Virginia Beach bedroom, except when Mom hires a maid to clean before Grandma Hiddleman visits.

Being abducted wasn’t as bad as they show in Outer Space Outlaws. I was minding my own business, walking home from Meredith’s house, when the Gallions beamed me aboard the Rama.

Backpedal. First, I got one of those wuz-comin’-up vibes when I stopped at a street crossing just a few blocks from my home. The sky above my head opened up, and two planets from different galaxies merged as though the rules of time and space didn’t apply. They stayed joined for a few seconds, then poof—the vision ended.

As I was about to cross the street, bubbles surrounded me. At first I thought someone had turned on a Bubble Shoot to full blast. White and gold lights sparkled between the bubbles. Then the small bubbles connected and expanded to form a sphere of white light around me like the Good Witch’s bubble in The Wizard of Oz. This glowing bubble lifted, with me in it, heading toward the clouds. I ran to escape, but just bounced off the side of the bubble. I tried to grab a tree branch, but I was moving too fast. As I flew toward a plane, I yelled at the passengers. They totally ignored me. I rose above the clouds to the stars. Thankfully, I didn’t turn to ice like those characters in sci-fi movies who get thrown out of starship airlocks.

Seconds later, I saw the white lights of Holospace 5 on the Rama.

That’s when Princess LeSom came into my life. She’s the younger sister of Queen Supreme Nashata.

Here’s a selfie question: Would I rather be a princess or a queen? The queen rules and tells other people what to do. She gets most of the attention, as well as the bigger crown. But a princess would be younger and prettier. The princess wouldn’t have to make the tough choices to rule her country. No one blames the princess if the country goes nuclear. I’m only 12, so maybe I’ll stick with wanting to be a princess for now.

Anywho, talk about going nuclear. That was me as soon as I saw Princess LeSom. I should have opened my tDiary message from the queen supreme that the Gallions were going to beam me aboard the Rama. Should-a, should-a, should-a. My bad for being too scared to read their communication. The truth would-a set me free.

When Princess LeSom spoke to me, all I saw was this huge, golden being with fancy tattoos, thick whiskers for hair, and large arms covered with scales. The lights in Holospace 5 were so bright that I couldn’t focus on anything for more than two seconds.

Princess LeSom made the mistake of singing Kum Ba Yah to try to calm me down. I screamed for help.

LeSom didn’t know Kum Ba Yah was at the top of my Never-Play List after Counselor Cathy sang it night after night during church camp. OMG, I thought my ear drums would crack if I heard her sing that song one more time. My fave reason for leaving camp was to get away from Cathy’s high-pitched voice. LeSom def sang better than Counselor Cathy, but that’s not saying much.

I finally chilled when Princess LeSom made a peace sign with two of her eight tentacle tips. The gesture was so retro, it made me laugh. I thought about ’60s dress-up day at school. We’d pass each other in the hallway making peace signs to our friends. I wanted to wear a shirt that said Make Love, Not War, but Mom didn’t let me.

Anywho, Princess LeSom manifested astro sunglasses so I could see in the bright room. Turns out the Gallions need tons of light in their starship because they have two suns. I guess that’s like being the opposite of nocturnal. Maybe, like, dayturnal.

I wonder why the Gallions use the term superspaceship. I prefer starship. Easier to say and write. More importantly, fewer characters for tweeting. Starship, superspaceship, yada yada. It’s all the same Rama.

Then the alien queen’s son, Mitushi, and his wife, Orakakima, visited me in Holospace 5. Mitushi moved like a samurai warrior, even though he had tentacles like LeSom. His self-confidence reminded me of Dad’s SEAL bosses. I guess that’s why he’s commander supreme of the Gallion Fleet.

I wonder why the Gallions use supreme in their titles. LeSom isn’t a Princess Supreme, though. Guess she hasn’t been promoted.

I like LeSom, even if she’s not a Princess Supreme. Her eyes sparkle more than the others. All the Gallions have these astro lavender eyes. They should be on commercials for contact lenses that change the color of your eyes.

Something about LeSom’s eyes captured my attention when she was trying to calm me during my meltdown. When she said I would be safe, it wasn’t what she said or how she said it that got through to me. It was the way she looked into me. Like, she touched my soul with a sparkle from her eyes. I don’t think she even tried, it just happened naturally.

I believe the Gallions are our friends. If our worlds merge, could we live in peace? Like, #GalacticPeace. Dad might be out of a job if he doesn’t have any more SEAL missions because there’s no more fighting. But Mom would worry less about him.

Looking back now, I understand my wuz-comin’-up impression of two worlds—Earth and the Gallion planet, Vitchera—merging as one.

Tomorrow is a new day in my quest for first tween contact with Queen Supreme Nashata. After what happened in Holospace 5 this afternoon, I wonder what wild adventures await!

Chapter 2

Gallion Dating

Wednesday, June 21, 2028

Dear Diary,

Princess LeSom gave me the 411 about boys on Vitchera, called younguys. I learned more from her today than Mom has mentioned about boys since I started wearing a bra.

The Gallion tribal elders match youngones for dating based on black, tattoo-like markings on their chests and backs. Everyone in a tribe has similar combinations of stripes, ellipses, or circles on their backs. Tribal elders want youngones in tribes with curve markings, like ellipses or circles, to date each other. LeSom calls them curvies. The youngones with straight-line markings, raighters, date other raighters.

Sometimes the markings reveal a close match between a few youngones. Those make the easy-peasy couples. Most often, markings on their backs indicate that they have possible matches to five or seven other youngones for dating. When that happens, the Gallion tribal elders look at the symbols on the youngones’ chests to narrow the selection.

Spheres, spirals, and stars on the Gallions’ chests tell their positions in their tribes. The tribal elders like for youngones with similar chest tats to date each other.

When the tribal elders figure out the possible matches, there’s a ceremony for the Gallion youngirl to choose a younguy from the group of dudes.

How odd. How not romantic. Does this mean the Gallions discriminate based on birth tats?

Like, my freckles would set up a pattern that somehow would match similar freckles on an Earth boy. That’s how we would know who we could date.

I’m glad I’m a tween on Earth and not Vitchera!

Well, to be fair, human kids discriminate based on skin color, popularity, clothes, height, weight, or how much money their parents make.

Maybe the Gallions are on to something with tat matching, since they don’t have wars on Vitchera. Maybe I should be more open to their customs. Like, maybe I’ll find someone in high school who matches my freckles. Hope Dad will like him.

Jackie doesn’t have freckles. She has scars from sports injuries. Even though she’s 15 years old, she looks 18 and competes on varsity teams.

Dad tells Jackie to focus on AP math more than the boys she surfs with. Tommy thinks boys who want to date my big sister are crazy.

Tommy Manger and his older brother, Drake, have freckles. Hey, maybe Drake and I have date-matching freckles! That would be so rockin’ astro! Drake likes sci-fi and has a spicy dashing face, but he hardly notices me. My stomach does a back flip whenever I see his big, brown eyes. I’m scared to tell Tommy or anyone else that I like Drake. I prefer to keep my heart fantasy a secret in my diary.

Enough about Drake, back to Gallion dating.

Once the Gallion tribal elders match the youngones according to the symbols on their bodies, the youngones go on their Reception Dates. A Gallion younguy has to be quiet on the first date and speak only when the Gallion youngirl asks him something. On the second date, the Gallion youngirl is quiet and lets the younguy speak. If their markings align and they make it through their Reception Dates, then the youngones go out together in the meadow of the communicorns and ask for a blessing.

LeSom reminds me over and over that a communicorn on Vitchera really is an astro-sensitive unicorn. They are unique in the Jenegu Galaxy because their golden horns send and receive intergalactic messages from planets like Earth. And farther.

Anywho, a communicorn approaches the Gallion couple when they reach the center of the meadow. The