The Naming of Planets: Creative Light, #1

By Justin Jones

When you lose connection to everywhere, every reality and in every present; how do you make frents?

The Naming of Planets is a multi-verse action adventure story with the Higgs Boson, spiders, shape shifting slugs, evil mathematics, insecure squid, annoying tinsel, smallgoods, singing and lists.

Athol is a young lad with synaesthesia. He tastes numbers, he smells feelings and he sees 21 extra primary colours. He loves sausages, outer space and his guitar... in no particular order.

When the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announces a 'Naming of Planets' competition, he reckons he can win.

The inhabitants of a distant alien world decide that they want to help so they pop on over to Earth and then it just gets a bit odd. They also need Athol to name them too, defeat the emptiness and reconnect the multi-verse.

Questions around:

A long ago act of deception.

The utter desolation of connection.

The loss of the most powerful element in the universe.

...will have to wait.

First things first. WASP-41h is a boring name for a star let alone a planet! Athol is sure he can do better. He may need some help though, other worldly help.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Justin Jones
• Release date: Feb 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215291054

Justin Jones

Justin is a new voice in the... Sci Fi humorous mystical genre, the hot new genre of the 21st century. He has also been frustrated by Kindle Formatting so against all conventional wisdom he wrote a book about how he does it.

Book preview

The Naming

of

Planets

by 

Justin Jones

"Our thoughts create time so that we can make some sort of sense of the infinite

cosmos and our all too brief moment in it. The present is all that we have."

An alternate reality 

It was always the sweetness of the harmony that Agelena Naevia enjoyed singing the most. She had others in her nesting that would stick with the melody, some because they cherished her clear crisp upper tonal notes and others because they couldn’t hold a note if they tried, particularly Laxosceles. That one though had a serenity around him that drew out the music, the song, her song.

The family strand from multiple realties of the Invisible all complimented each other when in song. It was something they did almost unceasingly and the awareness of the huge strand to one another was the most precious of all. Because there was a freedom to choose. To choose whether you turned aside and welcomed those from other realities or not. Everyone was powerful enough to make their own choice.

It was cherished and it was protected.

Without animosity or suspicion.

There was only the present, a second before was all the past, a second after the future everything. So it didn’t matter if Agelena turned aside from one and engaged with another. The connectedness of the Invisible meant all were in unity, all were acknowledged even if only the one was. A hive mind albeit one that allowed the difference of voice or thought without recrimination or reproach was the chorus of the whole Invisible.

Laxosceles was pretty cute, a little bristly in the forelegs and a mite cheeky in his approach towards Agelena at times but for all that she found him curiously attractive. In a manner of course, the family strand welcomed new life and new, whatever this might be. He on the other hand was very sure of himself and quick.

Always a good trait in a male, she told him laughingly, teasing him about the old ways of their kind. The ways before the discovery of the Invisible where male morbidity was high and linked with a nesting. 

On this night they sat together, quite close, enjoying each other’s company. His parallel existence fully realized in hers. It felt nice that he from a reality that was so removed from her own, were together.

Laxosceles’ world... universe was, as best as Agelena could describe it, an existence that seemed to move at a faster pace than hers. There was invention and mastery over the natural world that astounded her. Fauna and flora in balance. It was the reason why he could bring a peace to the chorus albeit interlaced with his chirpy high-pitched notes that were slightly off key.

His reality was serene to her, she understood this well because he was quick in hers but to him, her reality made him feel connected in a way his life at home did not. He would tell her that time is funny this way because, Our thoughts create time so that we can make some sort of sense of the infinite cosmos and our all too brief moment in it. The present is all that we have.

...

Really?! What does that even mean? she asked coyly with a smiling click of her mandibles.

It means I’m better at everything than you, except singing, he joked.

Careful you or I’ll eat you, she laughed back in return, the setting sun from Agelena’s world washed out the high cliff bluff they sat on as they gazed upon the West ocean. They were close enough to one another to touch. Hairy legs, she teased.

I wrote something for you, could be a lyric or a poem, he replied softly.

Agelena’s two sets of posterior or far left and right eyes, all four of them welled up with delight, the middle four focused on the setting blue sun laying low in the sky.

"A million, maybe a billion.

All inside my head. All calling my name

All asking for me

At this same moment, at this same time

I only had thoughts for you.

I only had thou..."

Agelena burst into tears and threw herself into his forelegs, but Laxosceles pushed her away. She embarrassingly fell on her mouth parts, swallowing some bitter alpine grass weed in the process. Wheeling around to tell him that was not funny, all she saw was Laxosceles moving as fast as the wind, faster even. His body blurring at the speed; he was building the most intricate web Agelena had seen.

She tried to speak but her words were like a slow base drum, frightened now she looked out onto the ocean and the sun was blue... . It was blue, it had never been blue and billowing out from it was a rolling storm of smoke that ate away whole parts of the sky. She jumped up to her pads but her head hit the ceiling of the web Laxosceles spun and it soon encased her and him.

Agelena, do not be afraid but something has happened to the Family strands, possibly all strands in the Invisible. I feel a loss of connection. I have encased us in a time dilation web that my world can do.

You can do what with time, how is...? she cried now able to communicate within the web.

Doesn’t matter, he interjected, Agelena, I am part of my reality's Invisible Force, a keeper of the strands if you like, I serve on the Recluse Brown, we have been following an entity for some time which threatens all realities.

What?

Again, it doesn’t matter! I need you to know our connection was real. I feel such a loss, such a desolation, it is unfathomable. I will soon be taken, I don’t know what has happened but remember me, remember our connection, remem...

The web cocoon broke apart and Agelena watched in horror as her, her whatever he was, was sucked out into a blue flame. His appearance stretching as the blueness took him, he held onto to her with one leg, she felt the solidity and the physicality of it and then he was gone. Too her horror part of Laxosceles’ limb was still in her grasp. She had lost him and crippled him all within a moment.

◆◆◆

Sausages, his guitar and Space

Athol had steel strings on his guitar.

He liked his guitar very much. He knew six songs off by heart and played them until his fingers bled, then he played them more still. He enjoyed music a lot. His therapist told him that playing until he hurt himself is not something he should continue to do. 

I don’t understand, I like playing my music, I like it a lot, he would reply.

Athol liked his guitar and the six songs, he also liked space because when he looked up at the stars they played the same six songs and sometimes a seventh but that was rare. His therapist thought that music was the beginning of it, that is not true, at least not for Athol.

I am unlike you and most everybody else, he simply said to anyone who looked at him oddly. People often looked at Athol oddly.

Although the first time he played until his fingers bled he did see things, it did not begin there. When asked by a number of therapists, what did he see? He replied that it was difficult to explain. It was more that he experienced things differently to others and he told those who asked, that when he played his guitar, he would forget who he was and he would see two numbers in a vision: one and zero and they would taste like sausages.

Brendon and Natalie did not understand at first.

Synaesthesia is rare but Athol has the neurological condition that he called the syns.

I have the syns, he would say to anyone who looked at him... again oddly. And I am told by people around me, he would continue, That this is quite witty. I do not understand this. I am told also this is because I have a degree of Asperger syndrome and I do not understand much of what other people mean. I also do not understand the word degree.

Athol’s sight, taste and smell were semi non-functional in the traditional sense and he suspected his hearing would shortly be similarly affected, because sometimes, on rare occasions, when he smelt coffee, he could hear a cow mooing. But that was a seldom event, it was his other senses’ perceptions that were often muddled.

For example, a headache for him was often the stimuli to taste shapes.

I can taste baked ham when I see anything egg shaped while having a migraine, he told one therapist when they met in his office for the third time. This led Athol to avoid some processed meats because of the residual memory of a migraine. But not sausages he liked sausages. He liked sausages, his guitar and space, the order was not important.

I like three things, sausages, my guitar and space, there may be more things I like but those three particularly.

Space though fascinated him.

Especially constellations like Canis Major (Big Dog), the Swan and the Teapot. That one, the Teapot, evoked a sweet toffee smell that became buttery and a little bit burnt the longer he looked at it in a book at the library.

The letters K. V. and the number eleven appeared sometimes too as wispy clouds or flashing lights. The letter V. was his favourite letter which he suspected is why he liked the Teapot so much. V was the colour of tranquil evenings too.

He was not sure why K was present because that letter was his 19th favourite. It is the eleventh letter of the alphabet though but he was not sure if that was important either. His current therapist, Doctor Kirkwood, told Athol that all this was slightly peculiar, Athol was again not sure what peculiar meant but he guessed it may mean odd. He was also told by Doctor Kirkwood that his condition was arbitrary and in his mind.

Athol thought he had used a wrong word. 

Despite or probably because of this, when he saw Dr. Kirkwood, he saw the colour yutyl. Athol told him this and the Doctor asked him what did he mean? He explained that he liked the colour especially when it tickled his nose. The Doctor did not understand the colour yutyl.

It is another primary colour that is different to blue, red and yellow. It is the colour of good intentions and sometimes misguided good intentions, Athol advised albeit that last bit to himself in his head. Brendon and Natalie had bought him up right.

Doctor Kirkwood asked Athol to describe yutyl, Was it a reddish blue or a dark brown?

No, Athol replied slowly and thought he should not tell the Doctor of the other twenty primary colours he sees.

He was prescribed some medication to help but he had trouble swallowing the pills because they tasted like bark from a Silver Birch tree. 

They are trees in our backyard at home where Brendon and Natalie raised me. I like them, he told Kirkwood. 

You like Silver Birch trees?

No I mean I like Brendon and Natalie; when I think of them I can taste the warmth I feel when I take a sip of a cup of hot chocolate.

Doctor Kirkwood eyebrows raised at that, they raised often when speaking with Athol.

Brendon and Natalie also have a colour around them. It’s the colour of  numbers, he continued.

Hmmm, said Doctor Kirkwood and wrote some notes.

I call that colour singu, it is another primary colour.  I like numbers especially Pi (π), it is calming.

More note writing.

When I say Pi, I don’t mean apple pie. I also like hot chocolate, especially with pink marshmallows, not the white ones they taste of chalk and confusion.

Dr Kirkwood went over the page.

People often accused Athol of lying, pictures of fractions like 3 and 3/8ths or 1 and 2/3rds appeared over their eyes when they did and they had a smell about them that made his eyes water. Athol didn’t lie often because it felt like glue in his hair and smelt like sulphur, which could be why his eyes watered.

I do not like sulphur, I do not like it a lot. It is the smell of uncertainties like fear of the unknown. 

But there were times he did lie and it felt necessary. For example, he has a friend called Riley. Athol described him as short and fat because he ate too much. This would upset Riley and so he would tell him this in a different way because he was told by Natalie that she did not raise her son to say rude things. 

So even though it was true, Riley was short and fat, Athol described him as stout. Natalie and Brendon were Athol’s parents. He felt that now he was getting close to being an adult, 15 years old, he could no longer call them mother or father. 

He knew this saddened them sometimes because Athol tasted cucumber, cucumber made him sad for reasons he did not understand. They said they loved him no matter what he called them, but he also didn’t understand love. Dr. Kirkwood said that was because he was on the spectrum.

That was a third thing he did not understand. 

When he and Riley hung out, he often smelt bacon. Riley was his best friend and perhaps his only friend and everyone likes bacon. When he now said that Riley was stout, his 3rd best number, forty-one, glowed purple above him. This meant Riley was not mad anymore because he had called him stout. 

He was not sure what the colour purple meant. Natalie told Athol; bacon was a sometimes food. He disagreed with her even though it was a processed small good, it was close to being as good as sausages.

Riley could be difficult sometimes though, like now. He had invited Athol to his home for a party when his parents went on a vacation. Athol went because Riley smelt like bacon and Brendon and Natalie trusted Riley. He introduced Athol to some other people who also came, Athol said hello and asked where the food was. 

Riley showed him the kitchen, it had sausages. Riley invited Athol back into the other room but he said he couldn’t because he was eating sausages and you ate sausages in the kitchen. Riley frowned and waited for Athol to finish his sausages and then both walked to where everyone had cards and loud music played. There was also money and the Poker.

Athol does not enjoy money. It feels like vinegar, not the balsamic kind that is thick and he enjoys with ice cream. Ice cream is an occasional food too. His favourite kind is Gingerbread Crunch.

Money is like vinegar splashing onto my wounded fingers. Money stings, he would tell himself when he thought too much about the cash in his pocket.

Riley had often said he would look after the cash for Athol. But the young man suspected this was not good for his friend because when Riley talked about money, his face was fire.

Like it is now at the Poker, Athol pondered out loud as he observed his friend. 

But even though Athol doesn’t enjoy money and because Riley is his friend, he did not allow him to suffer.

My allowance is my burden despite how it makes me feel, he told Riley. Brendon has told me many times that you must be nice to everyone but especially friends.

Athol once told Riley what he looks like when he talks about his own allowance, despite this, Riley still offers to do this for him. He says that this is what a real friend would do. But Athol cannot do this to his only friend.

He has a lot of money because he counts zeroes and ones for people. Even though he is still not a grownup. 

I like zeroes and ones; I like them a lot.

Natalie saw he was good with numbers and she helped her son learn something called code that he wrote to help people with computers.

Zero is my favourite number ever, closely followed by one. I have a pet guinea pig. He is black and white; he's called Binary. Natalie told me I love Binary, I am unsure because I am on the spectrum, he told Riley when he once asked where the allowance came from. 

Riley laughed at that.

When I see zeroes and ones together, I see colourful moving pictures. I can tell when the numbers are in the wrong order. I am given money for this; Natalie calls it allowance.

He had overheard Natalie and Brendon discussing this before he ever began coding. ◆◆◆

I’m thinkin’ of his future Bren, put his earnings in a trust, he can have an allowance. I want him to have a normal life, be a normal teenager.

Nat, we both want what’s best for him but our son has autism.

Asperger’s and remember loving Athol is... Natalie interjected sympathetically.

... the best job in the world, Brendon finished off their family mantra with a smile.

He doesn’t grasp that yet but family he does and family is love.

He's got great parents, he laughed. Ok despite that, he has issues and he’ll never live a normal teenage life, we have to protect him.

I know but with what the Start Up is wanting to pay him, he'll be a very well-off teenager, Natalie added.

True, ok we’ll say yes to them and a set up the Trust, but frankly I think he’d do the work for free; you know how he’s with money.

◆◆◆

Athol took a trio of things out of the conversation and made a mental list.

Whatever a Start Up was they were being told yes.

He was getting an allowance.

Brendon and Natalie are their names not Bren and Nat.

An allowance still meant too much money for Athol and thus Riley offered to assist him. But Athol also noticed Riley did not appear to be particularly good with his own money let alone his. 

Currently he is angry at Athol, maybe, Athol is not sure. But his friend points to cards he's holding, grabs his arm and takes him to the table where others are with cards telling him for a second time his parents are on holiday.

Do not tell them about the poker game.

Riley is not smelling like bacon now, he has this face of fire erupting over him. All his money is on the table and he's asking to look after Athol’s allowance once more but when he asks, Athol feels there is glue in his hair.

I do not like it; I do not like it a lot, he says to himself about the glue. I miss my sausages and I do not like ambulances either, he adds and he runs back into the kitchen.

Riley follows him back to the sausages. Athol looks at him quickly and looks away very scared. He has... has become a Catherine Wheel firework. He is squealing and sparking furiously and is very dangerous. Brendon has always told Athol he must stand back from fireworks.

Binary and I are scared of fireworks. Riley do not come closer, do not come closer! I must run! I must! I must! Athol mutters inconsolably.

Riley knew better than to push his friend in this state but he has a straight flush so he pleads with him for his allowance.

But I am eating sausages. I like sausages, they are like sunshine on my face.

Athol buddy I just need your help. I’ve got a good hand, he whispers quickly.

I am in the kitchen; you eat sausages in the kitchen.

A straight flush Athol, I can’t lose.

Riley leads Athol back to the Poker and he sits back down with three others who are holding cards and when he looks at each one, except for the girl, as they ask for two cards he feels the glue.

Buddy, Athol, this here is David, Calum and Reece, says Riley in a soothing fashion. They are friends of mine like you. Say hi guys.

Sup? said the two boys and Reece smiled abruptly.

You are a girl, Athol replied.

Oh, um yeah, Reece smiled again. And you’re the sausage kid, Riles talks about you often, is it true you code?

Hey, David interrupted. We playing cards or what? and he turned up the music on his cell playing through the bluetooth speaker behind him. Athol’s hands went immediately to his ears, Riley jumped up pushed David away and tried to grab his phone.

David, I told you Athol was coming so keep the music low, his hearing is messed up.

And I realised this freak could count cards for you.

"Too much noise,