The Star Rider

Bundling up pieces of shattered rock from last night’s shower into ridged hands, Zavr went to work, running through the routine without necessary thought. “Most simple and prideful occupation in the colony,” his employer had advertised to Zavr and the recruits, a haughty grin snug on his face. He had been right of the simplicity; the role of a gash mender included a basic three-step cycle that never ended. This entailed gathering up the remains of meteors that regularly bombarded their home planet, a mindless toss into one of numerous crater holes that needed filling, and a generous packing down with seasoned knuckles (Zavr’s were as hard and heavy as igneous rock). Rinse and repeat until the hole is filled and then move to the next one. As far as the prideful aspect of the job -- well, it needed to be done. Meteor shower damage was a regular occurrence amongst the colonists of ‘planet JJ9.’ A unanimously decided, uncreative name by the colonists, but just as unanimous was their belief that there was no point in becoming sentimental to a planet that was under constant threat. This was, of course, due to the exceptionally fast orbit the planet made around star X97, naturally leading to a dramatic rate at which the planet crossed paths with meteor or comet fields during its rotation. “No place I’d rather be,” Zavr mumbled, hammering a fist into the earth.

When he was young, Zayr had dreamed of becoming a star renderer. Before he was even old enough to fly out of his home orbit, he had witnessed a rendering. Light bringers are what they were called in his colony. The shiny glimmer of the renderer’s skin had initially been blinding through the lens of the telescopic specs strapped over his eyes. “It is said they are made of a million diamonds,” his mother had uttered with a playful grin. His small beady eyes had consumed every movement of the renderer from that moment on. Hovering soundlessly over Zavr and his family, two bouldering hands pressed together in deep concentration. For what was to happen next, they waited a very long while- his excitement eventually dwindled down, feeling all but ready to give up on his hopes of witnessing the creation of a star, when suddenly a blinding white light exploded through the starry sky. Zavr winced at the sight, wrenching the specs off for a moment to rub at his eyes, he blinked furiously at the ground till it regained its structure; refocusing them back over dilatated pupils now, he caught an unmistakable ball of flames in his vision. The renderer’s hands cradled and moved over the bright flaming sphere as if it were a fortune teller’s orb. Slowly he fed more energy into the piercingly bright ball until it grew 100 times its original size. The renderer then cast the massive sphere into the void of space at impossible speed. Zavr tracked it as best he could, but the star had gotten away from him in an instant. It was not until several moments elapsed that he caught his Mom pointing mesmerizingly to the far-off sky. A bright twinkle -- a newly emblazoned star, shining bright for the first time for all to see.

           “You cannot become a renderer, my sweet Zavr...they are made of something entirely foreign from you and I.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Zavr stammered, “I have to be one, ther- there has to be a way…” He trailed off, knowing in his heart that what his mother spoke was true.

She gave a weak grin and lifted him off the floor, bundling him up into her arms. She looked at her son and kissed his forehead lightly. Resting her chin on his forehead now, she let her gaze wash into the night sky, a comet streaked along her vision. “You may not be able to create stars my sweet Zavr, but you can ride them.”

“How? It doesn’t sound possible,” Zavr almost whispered.

“It is very possible, you will see.” He rested his head against her, dozing off into a dream where he hopped from star to star, riding them all.

Comet riding had long been a treasured hobby amongst the colonists residing in the Rippled Nebula Galaxy. It had only been recently, however, that Zavr’s home galaxy of Proximus Astraeus had taken up the craft. When he was of the right age, he crossed the flying barrier for the first time, set by the colonists to keep young flyers from getting lost, or worse. Zavr became giddy as he traveled out into the luminous night sky, it was finally his time to scour the galaxy for the perfect comet to hitch a ride on. “You have to come down on them at an angle to lock in,” Adlyn, an elder colonist, had informed him. It can’t be that hard, he had thought. He found his comet sooner than he expected. Lunging clumsily at it, he somersaulted into open space with nothing to show for. This seemed to happen hundreds of times that night, but when he was finally able to latch on, even for just one moment, he knew he was in love.

He didn’t know what he was doing out there. Work started in less than 4 hours, and there was no guarantee he would make it back in time. He didn’t even know if he wanted to ride comets anymore -- it had been years. Hovering out in space, he sighed deeply and began the search for a comet. Zavr caught sight of a fast-moving ice cluster and shot after it. Slightly overcompensating, he was barely able to latch on with his right arm, the rest of his body left to dangle in space. It has been a long time. A twist of the torso and thrust of hand created another strong grip on the icy boulder, he had created a clean latch-on in his first go. He felt his heart soar a bit and suddenly memories flooded into his mind of what seemed like simpler times, of times when he was happy. Finding foot placements now came easy. He dug in tighter, feeling the cold bite of frost spread through his fingers. With grinning eyes, he snapped his momentum hard to the right and sent the icy boulder spinning in a tight corkscrew across the sky, with balls of flame applauding in the distance. He howled into the endless vat of night, spiraling the comet down, down towards the bright rings that revolved around the exotic planet of Cialea. Zayr decided he would make his own revolution around. He drew brief pleasure at the idea of skipping a comet off other comets in quick succession. It’s possible, he thought. Gearing the comet down over the rings, he skipped along the icy rocks for a whole revolution, then 5 times, then 10. A star rider… you were right mom, that’s what I am.