Scarlet Discovers True Strength

by Ahmet Zappa

  For a moogle, Scarlet was actually tempted to play along and follow her teacher inside. Before, she had thought that the students’ Lightning Lounge had everything a Starling could ever desire. But its cozy fireplaces, pillows, and walls of holo-screens were nothing compared with the faculty’s giant lounge. The only problem was Scarlet knew that as soon as she took her hat off, she would give herself away. Frankly, she was surprised—startled, even—that Professor Nicola Cecelia hadn’t raised a single violet eyebrow at her beard, which was steadily shifting sideways.

  “Ahem.” Scarlet cleared her throat as deeply as she could. “Star salutations,” she said gruffly. She gave the brim of her hat a dapper tap, the way she’d seen her father do. “But, ahem, I’m looking for another, ahem, room. Ahem.”

  “Oh.” The teacher’s grin faded. “I see. And what room is that?”

  “Ahem. Er, holo-records.”

  “You mean the holo-records room right there?” Professor Nicola Cecelia pointed a delicate sparkly purple-polished fingernail at the next door down the hall.

  Scarlet turned and squinted to read the sign. STUDENT HOLO-RECORDS. There it was!

  “Star salutations!” Scarlet said—too quickly, she feared. But then Professor Nicola Cecelia’s head suddenly snapped around. Her Bot-Bot masseuse was summoning her, rather impatiently by then.

  “Starf! Got to go. So there it is. Glad I could help. Oh! And so you know, Lunadays we always play astro-poker in the lounge. I almost always win, but still, keep it in mind.”

  Scarlet let out a long sigh as the door slid shut between them. She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath. She checked to make sure no other teachers were coming. They weren’t. She sighed again.

  It took just a starmin to reach the door of the holo-records room. Then the only question left was, how was she going to get inside?

  Scarlet knew better than to try the hand scanner. That would only give her away. There were other ways to get into a room, though, especially now that Professor Nicola Cecelia had confirmed the strength of her disguise.

  Scarlet checked her reflection in the mirrorlike surface of the polished marble wall. She slid her beard back to the center and gave it a fluff. She tugged her hat down even farther and propped her collar higher. Satisfied, she raised her fist and rapped on the door…once…twice…three times.

  While she waited for the door to open, she went over the story she’d already rehearsed a hydrong times in her mind:

  “Hello, my name is Sir Copernicus, and I am here on behalf of Sir Andromedus and Lady Melodia, the famous musicians, as I’m sure you’re well aware. Apparently, they’ve sent numerous holo-requests for their daughter’s records, none of which has received a reply. You can imagine what an eclipse they’re having. One would think a school like this would have all its stars in a straighter row. But since they’re clearly not, the family has sent me to retrieve Scarlet’s records, as they’re on an extended tour across the Star-Belt region and so could not do it themselves. It’s crystal clear, of course, that you’re very busy, so I wouldn’t dream of taking up your valuable time. Rather, if you’ll just point me in the direction of the third-year holo-files…Star salutations for understanding. I’ll take it from here, if you don’t mind.”

  Scarlet would be free to compare all her scores to Ophelia’s—and anyone else’s she chose. Leona’s, for one…Gemma’s maybe, too…Then she would at least understand why they were all Star Darlings and she suddenly was not.

  It had to work. It just had to. Otherwise, Scarlet didn’t know how she was going to go on. She couldn’t keep avoiding everyone and everything forever. Her grades would suffer, and so would she. But until she had some real answers, she would never, in a hydrong staryears, be able to relax.

  The only problem was the door wasn’t opening. So Scarlet took another breath and knocked again. She tapped the toe of her thick-soled boot. Sparks bounced up from the floor. Did she have to keep knocking? She raised her fist. She guessed she did. That was when she noticed, for the first time, the hand scanner—or not the scanner, but what it said.

  Scarlet groaned.

  She should have looked at it sooner, but she’d been too focused on the door. Instead of displaying a hand outline along with the unnecessary PALM HERE message, the scanner scrolled a series of words: OFFICE HOURS: SUNRISE TO APEX. PLEASE COME BACK. STATUS: CLOSED.

  On the way back to the dorm Scarlet shed her disguise behind a lumilac bush about halfway to the building. Classes had ended and Starlings were wandering about, and if one more student had pleasantly waved and called, “Star greetings! Welcome to Starling Academy!” Scarlet would have exploded into a moonium bitter, red-hot stars right there in front of them. When she wasn’t in disguise, the other students knew better than to try to talk to her or even share a smile. After Scarlet’s more than two staryears at Starling Academy, her reliably antisocial reputation preceded her.

  Thankfully, Scarlet made it back to her room before Mira, so she had time to put everything away. The floppy orange hat went back on the hat rack, and the coat went into Mira’s costume closet, along with the itchy beard. Scarlet had just sat down at her drums and picked up her drumsticks when the door slid open and Mira breezed in.

  “There you are!” Mira pointed one long glittery finger at Scarlet. The other hand perched on her hip. She was dressed as a regular Starling student for a change, even if she had a cobalt blue scarf the size of a bedsheet around her neck. “Starf!” she exclaimed. “So many Starlings have been asking me about you! Especially all those remedial Starlings, like Leona and Adora—and Ophelia now. ‘Where’s Scarlet?’ ‘Have you seen her?’ ‘Could you please give her a holo-message for me?’ I’m like, ‘Send her your own holo-message.’ And they’re like, ‘We do, but she won’t reply.’” Mira cocked her head and frowned. “Did you lose your Star-Zap or something? We could literally find it in a moogle with my Zap-locate app, you know.”

  “I didn’t lose it,” mumbled Scarlet. “I’ve just been busy.”

  “Oh.” Mira’s eyes skimmed Scarlet’s drum kit. “Right. Okay. I see. Well, don’t let me stop you.” She shrugged and tossed a long triangle of scarf over her shoulder. It took three tries before it stayed. “I’m zipping right back out again, anyway. I just popped in to get my holo-script before rehearsal. Now…where did I leave it do you think…?”

  “Why don’t you just memorize your lines overnight?” asked Scarlet. Wasn’t that what sleep and headphones were for, after all? So Starlings could play back and absorb class lectures and textbooks and anything else they needed to learn?

  Mira sighed. “You don’t know anything about acting, do you?” She tossed her head to show that she did.

  Scarlet lowered her own head to hide the smile she couldn’t keep from springing up. Oh, after her day, she knew about acting….Too bad Mira hadn’t seen her. She would have been impressed.

  “A script,” Mira went on, “is just the beginning. Like a supernova!” She held her fists out and flashed open her fingers. “It’s merely the raw matter from which superstars are born. In rehearsal, we’re taking notes constantly and making changes. It’s not just memorizing a hydrong lines,” she said, scoffing. “It’s a process. A journey. You know?”

  Scarlet nodded, hoping to satisfy Mira, though she’d stopped listening at “beginning.”

  “Is that your script?” Scarlet pointed to a holo-book near the edge of Mira’s makeup-crowded table, behind a long sparkly teal wig on a tall silver stand.

  “Is it?” Mira picked up the holo-book and brought it close enough to read. “Star salutations! It is! Okay, I’m off. Again.” She paused then, leaning toward Scarlet. “Are you sure you’re okay? You know, you look a little green….”

  “I do?”

  “Mmm-hmm. Around here.” Mira stroked her cheeks and chin.

  The beard! Scarlet realized. Quickly, she rubbed her face to brush off whatever green glitter was stuck to it. “I’m fine,” she said. “Don’t worry a
bout me. Just go do your script journey…process…whatever you call it.”

  Scarlet had lowered the window shades and blinked off the lights by the time Mira returned. The room had a soft, dreamy violet glow. Dinner was over, as was star-gazing hour, though lights-down had yet to come. Except for the secret Star Caves, of course, no place ever got truly dark on Starland, the way places on Wishworld did. In fact, it actually got brighter as the sun went down and all the wish energy stored in every atom on Starland approached its maximum glow potential.

  Scarlet “acted” again, this time as if she was sleeping, in case Mira had more questions to ask her or, worse, offered unwanted advice. She lay as quiet and still as a moonbeam and waited for Mira to take her nightly sparkle shower and slip into bed herself. Actually falling asleep, however, was impossible. The thoughts whizzing through Scarlet’s mind simply would not let her rest.

  At last, Scarlet had no choice but to get out of bed. She couldn’t lie there for a moogle more. Mira was fast asleep, though restlessly muttering something like “Wait! Where’s my mark? Somebody moved it from stage left!”

  Scarlet slid out from her silky black sheets and scooped her combat boots off the floor. As light as a flutterfocus, she tiptoed past Mira, blinked open the door, and, still wearing her pink-and-black polka-starred pajamas, slipped out into the hall.

  To save energy, the hallway Cosmic Transporter ceased flowing after lights-down, but Scarlet was happy to walk. She left her feet bare on the off chance that some other wakeful Starling might hear the clomp-clomp of her boots through their chamber doors. Starlings slept exceptionally soundly…still, “better safe than lost in space,” as Scarlet’s father sometimes said.

  It wasn’t Scarlet’s first venture out after lights-down. She’d been taking walks on restless nights since the beginning of the year, when she’d literally stumbled upon the entrance to the mysterious Star Caves. That was before Lady Stella had taken the Star Darlings there, via a secret door in her office, to show them the Wish Cavern she’d had built in the deepest chamber for them and them alone. It was there that the headmistress kept their Wish Orbs. Scarlet knew she had looked as awed and surprised by the caves as everyone else at the time. That was yet another example of her acting talents, she supposed, since she had already discovered the caves herself more than a starweek earlier.

  She had arrived at school, as usual, stardays before everyone else. She’d had quite enough of her parents and living out of a suitcase for one Time of Lumiere break. She had checked out her room and was aimlessly riding the Cosmic Transporter around the dorm when she noticed the neon sign on the door in front of her. STARLING ACADEMY STAFF ONLY, it temptingly flashed.

  Naturally, she got off and opened it (after peeking over each of her shoulders to make sure she was alone). But it was just a plain old supply closet full of baskets of star-pong balls, sparkle-shower gel, and stuff like that. Because nothing on Starland ever got truly dirty, there were no cleaning supplies, of course. There were, however, a few dust mops and feather dusters for adding an extra layer of stardust to anything that might need shining up. Scarlet had never actually used one, since Bot-Bot maids were always there to shine her hotel rooms. Curious, she took a step into the closet to pull a duster down and see exactly how it worked. “Freakin’ fireballs!” she exclaimed as the toe of her boot caught on something and sent her stumbling into a wall of shelves. The next thing she knew, glo-pong balls were raining down on her head like the Perseid meteor shower.

  Scarlet looked down as the balls bounced and flashed around her, and that was when she saw the trapdoor. A rogue glo-pong paddle had kept it from closing completely, and that was what had tripped her up. Without thinking twice, she raised the panel and waited as a bunch of glo-pong balls spilled through the hole. She listened to them bounce down a long winding set of metal stairs for several moogles, until they hit a distant floor…then, flipping her Star-Zap to flashlight mode, she climbed in to see for herself exactly what was down there.

  Since then, not counting her trips with the Star Darlings, Scarlet had been down to explore the Star Caves more than a dozen times. She’d covered only a tiny fraction, she knew, but on each visit she tried to delve a little deeper than before. This night, without really thinking, she headed due north, down a wide winding tunnel, roughly in the direction of Halo Hall.

  As ever, the cave air was cool, like at the top of the Crystal Mountains, but also damp and slightly musty, like her boots before they dried out after a day in Starland snow. The air clung to Scarlet as she moved. Without a doubt, the energy was different down there. What Scarlet liked best of all about the caves was the light that came from glowing rocks set in the walls. It gave her the feeling of being in outer space, where the only light came from distant twinkling stars. Every now and then, as Scarlet walked, a big cold drop of water would splash somewhere on her hair or face. One time, she’d caught one on her tongue. She couldn’t say it had much taste.

  Suddenly, she heard a high squeak, followed by the rustling of wings, and sensed a bitbat swooping down. Scarlet lifted her arm and held out her hand. A starsec later, a silvery-white creature the size of a glowfur settled onto her finger and dangled upside down.

  “Star greetings,” said Scarlet.

  The bitbat blinked its wide fluorescent green eyes and squeaked twice more, as if in reply. Why bitbats made the other Star Darlings nervous, Scarlet would never know. They were as gentle as any flutterfocus, she thought, just not as hyperactive and ostentatious. Unlike every creature that lived on the surface of Starland, Star Cave creatures did not show off.

  The creatures were her second favorite thing about the caves. She envied their solitude, their privacy, their freedom to be themselves and to be alone.

  As quickly as it had appeared, the bitbat took off again. Scarlet watched it fly deeper into the cave.

  “What’s down there?” she called out, following it.

  She tried to keep up, but the bitbat was too fast. By the time she rounded a tight corner, Scarlet had lost it in the darkness.

  But she had found something else….

  Scarlet was dressed and out of her room the next morning before Mira was even awake. Scarlet hadn’t slept a wink. She’d spent most of the night in the room at the top of the stairs she’d discovered in the Star Caves, after losing sight of the bitbat. Was it luck that those stairs had led to a trapdoor into the Office of Student Holo-Records? Or was it somehow fate?

  Halo Hall would not open officially for another hour but she couldn’t see waiting around. She raced across campus to the entrance and begged the Bot-Bot guard to let her in.

  “I have to see Lady Stella!” she said. “It’s urgent! It can’t wait!”

  “Star apologies, Scarlet,” the Bot-Bot guard replied mechanically. “Halo Hall is not open, nor is Lady Stella in. Would you like to make an appointment? I can help you with that, if you wish. Lady Stella’s office hours are eleven to thirteen starhours. She has another meeting scheduled from twelve to twelve-eighty. What time do you request?”

  Scarlet’s energy sizzled. That was exactly the problem with thickheaded Bot-Bots. They didn’t understand. She didn’t need an appointment. She needed to see the headmistress right then!

  “Sc-sc-scarlet! Er, st-st-star greetings.”

  Scarlet turned to see the head of admissions, Lady Cordial, walking briskly toward the door with a stack of files and a mug of Zing.

  “Star greetings, Lady Cordial,” said Scarlet, bowing.

  “You’re up early. Feeling better?” She stood before Scarlet, smiling in an awkward but sweet way. Scarlet realized she hadn’t seen the head of admissions since learning that her being a Star Darling was a mistake.

  “I know what happened…” Lady Cordial paused and cut her eyes to the Bot-Bot guard, who, like everyone else, knew nothing about the top secret group. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to turn off your hearing for a starsec,” she told it.

  “Yes, Lady Cordial. As you wish.”


  Lady Cordial fixed her eyes on its head and narrowed them. “Can you hear me now?” she asked.

  She waited.

  “Very good. So, er, I was s-saying…” She turned back to Scarlet. “I know this mix-up with Ophelia was, well, quite a…quite a blow, I’m s-s-sure. Of course, I take full responsibility for everything.” She lowered her head and shook it. “How it happened, I’ll never know.”

  “But that’s why I’m here! I don’t think it did happen!”

  Lady Cordial’s head rose slowly, as Starland’s sun was doing just then. “St-st-star excuse me? You don’t think what happened?”

  “I don’t think there’s been a mix-up!” blurted Scarlet. “I mean, yes, there’s been a mix-up—but it’s the mix-up that’s a mistake! I looked at my holo-records and there’s no way in the Milky Way that the scores recorded in them are mine! On the other hand, Ophelia, whose records I also checked, has exactly the scores that I should have. And that’s why I’m here—to tell Lady Stella that our scores were switched somehow!”

  “What?” Lady Cordial gasped. Her cup of Zing slipped out of her hand. Scarlet jumped back and used her energy to catch the cup in midair, but not without hot liquid splashing over her tights and boots. Of course, it all disappeared in a starsec, as spills on Starland always did.

  “St-st-star apologies,” said Lady Cordial. She blinked her cup back into her hand and clutched both it and her folders to her chest. “Clearly, you’ve taken me by starprise here. Moon and st-st-stars…” She took a breath. “If this is true, why…er…we have more problems than we thought….I must look into this immediately. And inform Lady St-st-stella, of course.”

  “I’ll go with you!” Scarlet told her.

  “No, no. St-st-star s-s-salutations, but you’ve done your part—and more.” Lady Cordial’s smile slowly returned. “Please, Sc-sc-scarlet, let me take this from here. It’s, er, the least I can do.”