Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn Read online

  Martha let out a small sigh. “I’m almost certain that the television is taking away some of the ring’s beauty.”

  “So this is what you’re watching? I gave up the TV for this!?!”

  The four of us immediately looked up to see who was talking to us. It was the boy Rick from earlier. Before, I couldn’t get a good look at this boy Rick, but now that he was much closer, I recognized his emerald-green eyes, bright blonde hair, and that nasty sneer he dared to call a smile. It was Rick Mani. His grandfather was the mayor of Moonsville. Of all of the people we had to come in contact with tonight, it just had to be the mayor’s bratty grandson.

  “Look, if you want, you can have the TV back. It’s not that big of a deal,” I said. Hopefully, this jerk would go away if he got the TV back.

  Rick turned his attention toward Martha. “You people think you have the right to take over everything,” he hissed as he climbed over the divider to get closer to our table.

  The four of us jumped up from our seats. Vicki grabbed hold of Martha and pulled her in close. Patty’s hand slowly crept toward the steak knife next to her plate.

  I tugged on the edge of her shirtsleeve. “Stay calm,” I said. The last thing we needed was for Patty to stab someone with a steak knife. I knew her; if push came to shove, she would use that thing.

  Rick slowly crept toward Vicki and Martha. “You people,” he said, his voice filled with a mixture of venom and wild rage. “You invade our planets and, after that, all you do is take and take and take until there’s nothing left.” Rick continued to follow Vicki and Martha until they reached my side of the table.

  “Patty, take Martha and just walk toward the exit.” I placed my hand on her shoulder as she walked past me and pushed her toward the revolving door that was in the middle of the divider. It was at that moment that I realized everyone in the diner had their eyes on us. Instead of trying to help, they would rather watch the show as it unfolded.

  “We don’t want any trouble. Please just let us leave alone. Take the TV; it’s all yours now,” I pleaded.

  There was a madness in Rick’s eyes that sent shivers through my entire body. I could tell it was this madness that was stopping him from listening to logic and reason right now. I kept my eyes on him as the girls walked through the divider and out of the Martians-only section. The tips of Rick’s fingers were resting on top of Patty’s steak knife. I had to act now or else he might actually hurt one of us.

  I picked up my glass plate from off our table, dumped the still-hot food on the floor, and then tossed my arm across my chest and swung my arm forward with all of my might. Half a second before my arm was fully extended, I released the glass plate and struck Rick right below his eyes on the bridge of his nose. Rick instantly bent over, placing his hands over his mostly fractured nose. The glass plate shattered into several small pieces onto the floor, and I finally felt safe enough to turn my back on Rick.

  The girls looked back in my direction after the plate hit the floor.

  “Just keep moving toward the exit!” I hollered. I reached into my skirt pocket and pulled out the keys to my dad’s saucer. I pressed the button on the key ring so that we could get into the saucer as soon as we left the restaurant. Up ahead, to my dismay, two boys from Our Lady of Selene were blocking the entrance to the restaurant. I recognized them; they were a part of Rick’s group that had been hanging around the TV at the milkshake counter. One of the boys was the one with the curly hair that Vicki had been flirting with and the other boy was short and stocky with brown hair.

  “Step aside and let us through,” I said.

  Both boys stood against the door with their arms folded. Patty let go of Martha’s hand. She placed herself between us and the boys in front of the door.

  “You heard her. Step aside,” Patty growled as she clenched her fists. The boy with the curly hair walked up to Patty, grabbed hold of her shoulder, dug his fingernails into it, then shoved her backward. He had no idea what he had just done.

  Patty managed to latch on to the curly-haired boy’s arm before his hand left her shoulder. She pulled the boy forward and threw her knee into his stomach as soon as he was close enough. After Patty let go of the boy, he fell to the floor with his arms wrapped around his midsection. Patty cracked her fingers on her right hand one by one. She looked at the short boy with brown hair, who was still standing next to the door.

  “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that a gentleman is supposed to hold the door open for a lady?”

  The boy turned around and pushed the door open. I’m sure the last thing he wanted was to end up like his friend, who was still rolling around on the floor with his hands pressed to his stomach. The four of us safely made it into my dad’s saucer and off of Uncle Sal’s parking lot.

  Chapter 3

  I continued to coast down the street away from Uncle Sal’s. For the moment, I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go, and no one said anything. For a long time, the only sound from inside the saucer was coming from Martha, quietly crying in Vicki’s arms. “There, there, Martha,” Vicki whispered as she rubbed Martha’s back.

  I looked over at Patty, who was in the passenger’s side seat. She was busy chewing on the top of her knuckles. Her nostrils were flared open and the bottom of her eyes were slightly red. She slapped her palm on the side of the car door. “Those stupid little punks. I’m gonna find them and…”

  “You’re going to stay away from them.”

  Patty turned to me. “Yah, but those punks were after Martha.”

  I turned the corner and headed toward one of the colony’s existing ports. “That boy Rick; he’s Mayor Mani’s grandson.”

  Patty dug her fist into the palm of her hand. “So you might as well drop it and just leave that little snot-nose punk alone.”

  It was unfortunate, but Mayor Mani had a way of making scandals just disappear into thin air. I remember when he was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with one of his interns. As soon as the residents of Moonsville caught whiff of what was happening, the young lady had not only been fired, but her entire family was moved to a different colony on another planet. Word had it that the young woman and her family were relocated to a stinky little swamp colony on Pluto. So, needless to say, going after Rick wouldn’t do any good. It was really in our best interest to let him be. However, if he tried to come at us, I was ready for him. Rick might have been the mayor’s grandson, but I was the daughter of a senator from the Lunar Federation and my mother was a warship captain. If he so much as tried to come near me or the girls again, I’d just remind him how Daddy allowed Mayor Mani to come into his inner circle this past year—causing any harm to me or my friends might jeopardize that. I was sure Daddy would have no problem ending Mayor Mani’s career as mayor with a simple letter typed up by one of his assistants.

  I could still hear Martha crying in the backseat. “You guys; it’s okay. Cosmo, you…you...can just take me home,” Martha blurted out.

  I shook my head. “Absolutely not! We’re going to Betty’s Burgers for a make-up call. I know I have to be home by ten, but I’m sure Wendy will understand after I tell her about everything that happened tonight at Uncle Sal’s.”

  “Oh no, Cosmo, you don’t have to…” Martha interjected.

  I waved my hand in the air. “I refuse to end this night on a sour note. We’re supposed to have some fun!”

  Patty snapped her fingers. “Hey, I think the drive-thru theater is showing a late-night movie tonight.”

  “Oh, you guys,” Martha whispered.

  Vicki used her thumb to wipe away Martha’s tears. “No more crying, okay?” she said.

  Betty’s Burger’s was a lovely little drive-thru fast-food joint that was about thirty minutes away from the Moon. After we picked up a few burgers, we managed to get to the drive-thru theater in time to watch The Girl and Her Rocket. In the movie, a sad, brokenhearted girl gave up on a one-sided relationship she was in and dedicated the rest of her days to building a rock
et. Once the movie was over, I started the short trip back to the colony and dropped the girls off one by one.

  I pulled my dad’s saucer into our driveway. For a minute, I wondered if Mom or Dad were at the house. I doubted it, though. But there were two family members I could count on being here, ready to welcome me home after the graduation ceremony. One, I was sure, would give me a great big hug and the other would probably ignore me until I start scratching him underneath his furry little chin. One was my nanny Wendy and the other was my fussy old tomcat, Felis.

  If it weren’t’ for Wendy, I would have grown up to be an incredibly bitter person. Mom was always away, flying off to some distant planet on her warship and, as for Dad, “the people” needed him. I’ll never forget the day one of Dad’s many personal assistants introduced me to Wendy. At first, I was shocked when I found out that she was a Martian and, to be honest, I was a little scared. I hadn’t spent much time with any Martians until then and all of the information I had gathered about Martians and what they were like came from tiny bits of nasty comments that I had heard from the adults around me. But the moment that Wendy took me into her big green arms and told me she had a pie in the oven for me back home, I fell in love with her.

  I looked up at my house, which was the only house on the block that used the plus-sign model. It had long oblong-shaped windows on each side that allowed you to see everything that went on inside.

  Wendy was standing in front of the window adjacent to our family room with Felis in her arms. I smiled and waved at both of them before boarding the elevator at the base of our house. When I reached the family room, Felis jumped from out of Wendy’s arms and rubbed his fuzzy body across my feet. I scooped Felis up from my feet and fell into Wendy’s arms. She lovingly stroked the side of my face with her fingers while she kept her arm wrapped around my waist.

  “My precious little baby has graduated.” She sniffled a bit. “How did things go with your speech?”

  “It went really well. Everyone liked it.”

  Wendy hugged me even tighter. “Oh, baby, that’s wonderful!” She released me from her warm, loving grasp. “Your father left something special for you.” I thought Dad had said Wendy had something for me. Wendy reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a small white envelope. Knowing Dad, there was probably just a card inside that one of his assistants picked out with some space credits stuffed in it. Wendy couldn’t stop fidgeting. “Go on; open it! Open it!” She clapped her hands together. I didn’t know what she was so excited about.

  I ripped the top of the envelope open. A sparkling piece of gold piece paper peeked through it. I pulled the gold paper from out of the envelope. I carefully reread the words that were on the thin golden slip of paper. After rereading the words for the fourth time, I pressed the paper to my chest, threw my head back, and screamed. Inside the envelope was an official invitation to Princess Rhea’s showing of The Rings of Saturn. “How…how did Dad get hold of this!?!” I was so excited I felt like I might stop breathing.

  Wendy guided me over to the plush aqua-colored couch that was in the middle of our family room. “Your father said that the princess extended an invitation to all of the senate members. He said he really wasn’t interested in going, but he knew how much you love Princess Rhea, so he wanted you to have the ticket.”

  Once again, I was at a loss for words and I was not sure what to think of my father. As much as I appreciated such a lovely gift, I knew this was just another case of him trying to buy my love, to make up for the fact that neither he nor Mom were really present in my life. I’d rather have had the both of them in my life than some really expensive gift. This was all so bittersweet for me.

  “Now I already packed your bags and mine. Your father said we could use his saucer for the weekend and that”—a look of pure disgust washed over her face for a brief second before she finished the rest of her sentence—“Mia made reservations for us to stay at The Grand Bestla Hotel on the Titan.” I pressed my hands against my cheeks. I couldn’t believe we were going to stay on the Titan. The Titan was a luxury spaceship that traveled all across space, making various stops on each planet. They had a little bit of everything, from casinos to living quarters for those who could afford it. Regardless of how I felt, I needed to call Dad later and thank him for this.

  Wendy took my hand into hers. “I know what you’re thinking. Trust me; they’ll come around some day. Just watch.” I smiled and fought back the tears that wanted to fall from my eyes. I had stopped believing that my parents would change their ways or, as Wendy put it, “They’ll come around someday.” I’d been waiting since I was little for them to change and I didn’t think they ever would.

  “If we leave now, we won’t have to deal with any heavy traffic and we’ll get to the Titan faster.”

  I looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s going on eleven o’clock. Do you think they will let us check in this late?”

  Wendy’s lips transformed into a mischievous smile. “I’m sure they would for the daughter of a senator and a warship captain.”

  Thankfully, Wendy did all of the driving. I was in no condition to do so. By the time we left Moonsville, my eyes were already closed and, for the first time in several weeks, I was actually able to get some rest. The stress of having to deal with graduation and attempting to put this speech together had drained the life from my body. A slight nudge on my shoulder woke me up from my sleepy state. After picking my head up and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I turned to face Wendy.

  “We’re here,” she said with glee. Up ahead, hovering just beyond the yellowish-brown planet Saturn, with its large rings filled with meteor rocks and large chunks of icy debris, was the luxury space station Titan. “My goodness, I knew this ship was huge, but the commercials for it on TV are nothing compared to the real thing,” Wendy commented. Just like Wendy, I was taken aback by the ship and its immense size. The body of the ship was like that of a single teardrop and it became smaller as you reached the point at the end. The ship was a lovely shade of blue and on both sides were massively long wings that curled up slightly at the end. When Wendy pulled the saucer closer to Titan, the gigantic-sized ship swallowed up our little saucer. We looked like a tiny dwarf moon that was circling around a much bigger planet. I unbuckled my seat belt and climbed into the backseat to get a better look at the ship as we coasted by it. Once we were closer, I could see more of the intricate details. Several rows of windows sat in the middle part of the ship and there were some on the wings to the ship as well. A few passengers waved at Wendy and me as we drove by. Wendy drove the saucer under the ship’s belly. A hatch at the bottom opened up and she pulled into it. She finally brought the saucer to a halt in an empty parking spot next to another saucer. Before the legs to our saucer hit the ground, a man dressed in white pants and a blue vest was standing directly behind us. After the top of the saucer opened up, the man cheerfully said, “Good evening, ladies. Welcome to the Titan. My name is Mike. Can I take your bags for you?”

  Wendy popped the trunk open and Mike reached in and grabbed all of our luggage. He turned to me and said, “Where are you headed to?”

  I pointed my finger in Wendy’s direction. “We are headed to The Grand Bestla Hotel.”

  An extremely nervous smile swept across Mike’s face. “Oh, uhmm, she would have to check in elsewhere, ma’am. We only serve humans at The Grand Bestla.” Mike pointed the luggage in his hands toward Wendy. “Actually, the place she can check into is not that far from here.”

  I jumped down from the inside of the saucer and I stood face to face with Mike. “When we get to The Grand Bestla, I would love to speak with the hotel manager about your policy,” I snapped.

  Mike pulled his head back, then he slowly turned around. “Right this way, ladies. I’ll be sure to get the manager for you when we arrive.” We followed Mike to the end of the parking lot and onto an elevator.

  There, a young Martian who looked like he was sixteen years old and had on white pants and a
long blue coat with white gloves turned to Mike and asked, “Which floor?”

  “Floor B,” Mike said. Moments later, the elevator door flew open with a ding.

  Wendy brought her fingers to her lips. “Oh my, the commercials on TV said this place was beautiful and I can see why.” The first thing that caught my eyes were tiny pools of water that were surrounded by makeshift palm trees. They looked like they were carved from blue ice crystals. Some of the pools were designed like mini-waterfalls; the same blue ice crystals were carved to look like rocks and clear water flowed from them. These tiny oases were scattered among the various shops, restaurants, and hotels on the floor.

  A slender young man with black hair was waiting for us at the edge of the sidewalk on a small hover taxi. He had on the same uniform as Mike. The young man took a quick glance at Wendy, then he looked over at Mike. “Just go with it. It’s late and no one will see you anyway,” he said while placing our luggage behind the driver’s seat of the hover taxi. The Grand Bestla was nestled in the middle of Floor B. The tall hotel building was surrounded by several large blue crystal palm trees. When we reached the entrance, Mike ushered us to the front desk. There, a lady with curly blonde hair was slumped over her keyboard in the lobby at the check-in desk, trying to fight sleep. Mike tapped his fingers on the service bell at the front desk. The young woman jumped up from out of her slumber and turned toward us.

  “Welcome to The Grand Bestla Hotel. How can I help you?” she said in between letting out a small yawn.

  “We’re here to check in. The reservations should be under the name Cedric Caprica.”

  The young woman checked for my father’s name in her computer. “I found it and I see there’s a note here that Mr. Caprica reserved a room for his daughter.”

  “That would be me,” I said.

  “Okay, then, here’s your room key. You’re going to be on the top floor and Mike can show you to your room.”