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Plastic hopes and glued dreams

AragmarApr 10, 2019, 6:20:39 PM
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Little Awesome scurried up the large bed frame and snuggled under his blanket. It was wonderful this big human home, where all of them were living now, a real palace and his Patrons were, as always generous and smart. Nobody had to tell him that, Awesome got this on his own just by observing how they lived and what they were doing for each other. Both his parents were working on a project off world therefore little Awesome had to join a class full of little kids, whose parents were temporarily away. They quickly formed a cuddly swarm of hamsters and little bunnies who roamed around the old human house and made a huge mess of things. Their adopted Patrons had to resort to giving cleaning duties and many other chores to his classmates. His responsibilities were simple; daily, he had to crawl under the furniture, collect all the toys and other stuff which his classmates had lost, then clean said furniture. It was literally chalk full of fur everywhere! The human family owned two golden retrievers who, after just one week of constant petting and playing with a dozen of rowdy, furry kids, had to be sent on vacation. Awesome chuckled under the blanket and in his curious mind, the young hamster let his imagination loose. What was that he wanted to do with his life? Become a trade representative like his mom and work for a company, perhaps? Sure it was a cushy job, yet ultimately boring and joke-less. His dad worked for a engineering company which managed upgrades for small starships and for sure he could find a lot of interesting stuff to do there. Most of his family were working in engineering or construction since by nature hamsters were drawn to these types of jobs. Well, just like his wise Patrons always said – Morning was wiser than evening – and little Awesome, snuggled and warm under his blanket, quickly fell into dreamland.


Winning a free spaceship ride is always awesome!


Awesome pulled a box of broken plastic toys and after loading his favorite holo-anime “Freedom Star” on his PDA, carefully arrayed before him all the pieces that could be salvaged. It was only after he saw the advertisement on G-net that the Patrons who maintained the “Tri Ship monument” were organizing a contest he decided to start collecting them. After all they'd be recycled and used for something else, therefore him sneakily lifting the bent, discarded toys from the recycle bin wasn't that huge of a crime. That contest was for kids only, littles like him and his classmates, who could win free travel arrangements for one entire week, visit all the historical battle sites from 1969, when them big pirate baddies’ did their invasion and stuff. The only rule was each kid had to make something on their own, a starship or a mecha plastic model and it had to be really real. It, of course, had to be like ultra properly made, with original paint job, correct numbers – everything. While listening to the main character of his favorite show, Awesome got his idea. The man, Star Sheriff Lawson, was piloting a highly modified F6 Star Phantom fighter and the ship was really cool! Not to mention that the old Patron from Japan, the one who created the “Freedom Star” holo-anime, was a pilot himself and took part in that last line battle around Earth. What more could little Awesome want? Bad-ass holo-anime character piloting cool as a chest of assorted nuts starfighter, and on top of all that, everything was drawn by a Patron hero.


Sometimes you gotta hold the line no matter the cost!


Took him a month but Awesome finally crafted his model. He had to run around the neighborhood and ask other kids if he can use their nanoprinters but in the end everything came out fine. His F6 was blue in color, adorned with both the old Imperial Navy crest and since his original pilot was Japanese, the red sun. The ship's hull was a elongated, inverted V, with its bulky, powerful maneuvering engines located mid wing. The Star Phantom carried two weapon pods which were placed on its ventral and dorsal hull mounts, with missile pylons conveniently placed on the ship's wings. Awesome had to make his own glue and yes, even paint if he wanted stuff to be proper. The more he worked on this model, the more he dreamed of flying one and shooting big baddies full of railgun pellets. That or maybe laser fire? Missiles they said in that holo-anime worked perfectly well too, but Star Sheriff Lawson always aimed for their engines or the “tailpipes” as he repeatedly said during each episode.


In space, they will find what is left of you... someday.


Finally the day came when their class was ferried up in space and in Earth's orbit, where “Tri Ship monument” was safely anchored. The cheering and laughing stopped for they were there to honor the fallen and each of them had seen plenty of combat footage from those days. Awesome was really annoyed by the fact that those big baddies were so mean and nasty. Spoke they did of subjugation, enslavement and all sorts of bad stuff! Things which to him were profoundly uncool and unfunny. Because why would you go to some other person's place, blow it up, take their stuff and then sell the owner of said place to someone else? Little Awesome clearly understood that there were some of those big baddies in need of a good lesson on how to live together with others, not treat them like merchandise. His class moved along the historical route and the guides, who were all survivors of that same battle, who piloted the ships and fought as spacesuit wearing soldiers on the Line, told them each their story. One was a starfighter pilot who got shot down sixteen times and each time he switched ships, had to be transferred to another wing because his old one was wiped out. The other, a gunner on a escort ship, who, after his vessel got bombed to hell, fought for eight hours without rest, entrenched in its derelict hull.


You can't always have the starfighter you always wanted.


Distracted by somebody’s face poking out of the cockpit of one F6, Awesome left his class and wandered away, intrigued to find who was there. What he found was a elderly female Patron, who sat in the starfighter's cockpit and drank from a closed cup, while she held a holo-picture of a young pilot in her other hand. The man was photographed standing beside this very ship she was sitting in and little Awesome floated in the low G environment, his little feet missing the canopy by a tiny bit. Panicked, he squeaked and waved all of his limbs in an attempt to latch onto something, while the plastic model floated off right before the Patron's face. With one hand she reached, grabbed one of little Awesome's feet and with the other, snatched his plastic model. Her voice told him that the woman was a little bit drunk and... sad. The Patron tried to ask him something, yet she was either very tired or too far gone into her war dreams to speak and choked on her words. After a couple of silent minutes of her looking at him and examining his plastic model with teary eyes, little Awesome decided to say something. He sighed and with his squeaky voice, dropped the best line he could think of in the moment:

“If you promise not to cry anymore, I'll give you my ship. It is the bestest, awesomest ship you have ever seen! Trust me, I should know because I crafted it myself, it can't be anything but awesome! Do we have a deal or what?” 

"What is... your name, kid?"

"Pleasure to meet you Patron, my name is Awesome!"

Did you like this alternative history universe? You can read more in my self-published books on Amazon:

Starshatter book 1

Twin Suns Of Carrola - Starshatter book 2

Treads Of Vengeance - Starshatter book 3

Von Braun's Gambit - Starshatter book 4

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