Starbounders
Page 18
“That’s okay, Mom,” Kaylee said. “I understand.”
Kaylee’s mom looked at her, surprised.
“Wait,” she said. “That’s it? You’re not upset?”
“No. In fact, I have a whole new appreciation for what Dad does.”
Zachary’s dad stepped back and got his first good look at the cuts and bruises on Zachary’s face. His mom finally released her grip on him.
“If I had lost you, I don’t know what I would have done,” she said.
“I’m okay,” Zachary said. “Really.”
Zachary’s mom gave him a soft smile that seemed to say she was okay, too.
“You should see what I can do with this glove now. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”
“Just like your brother,” Zachary’s dad said. “A warp-glove whiz.”
“I think I’m finally worthy of the Night name,” said Zachary.
Zachary’s mom looked into his eyes and put her hands on his shoulders.
“Zachary, you didn’t need to do something heroic to be a Night. You just needed to be yourself.”
Suddenly Zachary felt a weight lift off his shoulders. It was as if he were floating in space.
Zachary tugged on the rudder of a solar sailboat, causing it to tilt on its side. Ryic clung to the railing for dear life as the boat zipped across the windless lake. Zachary eyed the enormous translucent sail catching the rays of sunlight that powered the boat forward at breakneck speed.
“Watch out, crossing your bow!” Kaylee called out from another boat.
She and Quee were cutting them off, blocking their light and scraping alongside them as they passed.
“I never should have let you guys talk me into this,” Ryic said.
“Relax,” Zachary said. “Quee hacked the doppelform generator. Anyone looking will find the four of us studying in the Skyterium. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? Madsen sends us all off on custodial duty again?”
Zachary tacked, flipping the sail to the opposite side of the boat and turning the rudder. Now he was charging toward the final buoy, just a length behind Kaylee.
“What do you say we make this extra interesting?” Kaylee shouted back at Zachary. “Not only does the loser do the winner’s Celestial Physics homework for the week, but let’s throw in that Outerverse Languages report, too.”
“You’re on,” Zachary said.
The two solar sailboats raced for the finish line, nose to nose.
“Aw, come on,” Ryic cried. “No more bets!”
“Get used to it, buddy,” Zachary said with a smile. “The year’s just getting started.”
STARBINDER OF TERMS
asteroid prison: a remote location used to house the most dangerous intergalactic felons in the outerverse.
aux-bot: a maintenance robot used for planetary and off-planet repairs.
battle axe: a large IPDL starship named for the sharpened metal blades protruding from its hull.
Battle of Siarnaq: a famed intergalactic battle in which a small Starbounder battalion defeated over a thousand Clipsians under Gerald Night’s (Zachary Night’s grandfather) command.
Binary Colonies: outerverse settlements inhabited by sentient robots.
Black Atom Society: a secret scientific organization with ties to the Callisto Space Station.
buckler: a small, defensive starship used by IPDL security forces.
Callisto Space Station: an IPDL research facility hidden among the moons of Jupiter.
Cerebella: the hyperintelligent mainframe computer that runs all of Indigo 8.
Chameleon: a Capture the Flag–style game played at Indigo 8.
charc: a slang for Clipsians in reference to their charcoal-colored skin.
clairvoyant: a star vessel used for galactic safaris, optimal for sightseeing due to its external glass pods.
Clipsian: an alien species fueled by internal combustion; while most are peaceful, the more aggressive tribes have ravaged hundreds of defenseless populated planets.
com-bot: robots used for battle-training exercises and combat sport.
Cometeer: a third-year trainee at Indigo 8.
Cratonis: a planet beyond the Indigo Divide where Skold resides.
Darkspeeder: a fourth-year trainee at Indigo 8.
debris cannon: a projectile weapon found on pitchforks that fires junk at high speed.
dehydra: a giant Siroccan beast that uses its nine siphon tendrils to absorb water from its victims.
Desultar Prospecting Station: a mining facility located in the path of a gravity sinkhole.
distortion sensor: a device used to identify cloaked or camouflaged ships.
doppleform: a holographic simulation of either an individual or a starcraft.
dreadnought: a large IPDL starship used for transporting heavy loads.
Elite Corps: a classified, top-tier Starbounder subdivision sent on covert missions.
extraction: a banned interrogation technique that uses needles to remove memories directly from the subject’s brain.
Flobian roach brain: a favorite Klenarogian snack.
friction boots: footwear used in zero-gravity situations to enable its user to temporarily stick to surfaces; also known as Armstrongs, in honor of the man who first walked on the moon.
Fringg Galaxy Void Market: an illegal black-market trading hub.
galactic fold: a wormhole that connects distant points in the galaxy, allowing starships to travel through the infinite outerverse.
greebock: common space cattle.
hopper ship: a small spacecraft used to travel short distances and not equipped to travel through interdimensional folds.
human carapace: a robotic outer shell used to house non–human beings.
Indigo 8: Earth’s IPDL training facility, hidden in the Adirondack Mountains.
Indigo Divide: the boundary where IPDL-protected space ends.
Inter-Planetary Defense League (IPDL): a coalition formed to keep peace throughout the outerverse that is made up of disparate but peaceful intergalactic races.
Kepler cartograph: a map of every known galactic fold in the outerverse; named after Johannes Kepler, the famed mathematician and astronomer.
Kibarat: a domed farming planetoid that travels between galaxies like a comet.
Klenarogian: a humanoid, super-elastic species from the planet Klenarog.
lang-link: the outerverse equivalent of radio communication.
lensicon: a contact lens with instant image recognition, allowing users to identify whatever they are looking at.
Lightwing: a first-year trainee at Indigo 8.
magnetic grappling hook: a device used to traverse the outside of a spaceship during an untethered space walk. magnetic tweezers: an all-purpose device with a tendency to accidentally emit neutron bursts.
off-planet bio regulator: the outer space equivalent of an oxygen tank.
outerverse: the entirety of the cosmos.
particle blasters: a starship weapon that fires super-charged atoms at its intended target.
Pele 9: a lava planet located in the Desultar Nebula.
perpetual energy generator: a device with near-infinite power used to run the Callisto Space Station.
photon bow: a weapon similar to a regular bow, except instead of arrows, it fires superheated light.
pitchfork: a Starbounder’s standard-issue fighter ship, shaped like a trident, the ancient three-pronged spear wielded by Poseidon.
Qube: Indigo 8’s zero-gravity practice chamber.
serendibite: clear cubes of black sand—the standard outerverse currency.
shockles: electrically charged handcuffs.
Sirocco: a salt planet, entirely barren and lacking any water, in the Desultar Nebula.
skyterium: the top floor of the Ulam, whose entire roof acts as an enormous telescope.
sleeping quarters (SQ): the name given to the cabins where Starbounders sleep.
slicer: a Clipsian combat ship named for its razor sharp edg
es.
sonic crossbow: a handheld weapon that fires beams of sound.
Sputnik: Kaylee’s pet vreek, named after the first Russian satellite sent into space.
spaste: flavored space food; roughly the size of a tube of toothpaste, spaste contains enough sustenance to keep an individual alive for days.
starbox: the brain of a starship, roughly the size of a deck of playing cards.
starchery: the art and technique of shooting a photon bow.
stun ball: an electrically charged device that can immobilize an individual for hours.
sweat mite: a moisture-hungry space parasite.
Tenretni: a tiered city located beyond the Indigo Divide, on the broken planet of Irafas.
Tranquil Galaxies: a region of the outerverse ravaged by Nibiru’s Clipsian army.
Ulam: Indigo 8’s main building, home to everything from the skyterium, at its very top, to the space hangar, on its lowest underground level.
urchin: a Clipsian battleship with large spikes and a magnetic hull.
voltage slingshot: a handheld weapon that fires electrically charged ammunition.
vreek: a sluglike organism native to the tundra planets that seeks out heat to reproduce.
warp glove: an IPDL tool that opens folds in space and allows its user to extend his or her reach over vast distances from a stationary position.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Adam Jay Epstein (left) and Andrew Jacobson (right):
Photographs by Elizabeth Yarwood
ADAM JAY EPSTEIN spent his childhood in Great Neck, New York, while ANDREW JACOBSON grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the two met in Los Angeles. They have been writing together for film and television ever since.
Their interest in space dates back to their early years, when Adam attended Space Academy in Huntsville, Alabama (and won the Right Stuff Award!), and Andrew went to a movie theater (for the first time) to see a rerelease of Star Wars.
Adam Jay Epstein lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jane, and their daughters, Penny and Olive. Andrew Jacobson, his wife, Ashley, their son, Ryder, and their dog, Elvis, live close by.
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CREDITS
Cover art © 2013 by Owen Richardson.
Cover design by Megan Stitt
COPYRIGHT
STARBOUNDERS. Text copyright © 2013 by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Illustrations copyright © 2013 by David McClellan
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ISBN 978-0-06-212022-9
EPub Edition April 2013 ISBN 9780062120236
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