Growing up in the Stars: Nova’s Story

This is a prequel to “Child of the Stars”, featuring Nova’s backstory portrayed through dialogue)

-kindergarten-

“Caelum! Guys!” Little Nova called after her male classmates. “I want to play ‘rocket’ too!” 

“Girls can’t play “rocket’!” Caelum scoffed. “It’s dangerous!”

“you pretend you’re on rockets and missions!” Nova bit back. “Pretending isn’t dangerous!”

“Teacher! Teacher!” The two of them hurried to snitch on each other. She told Caelum to let Nova play before her attention was needed elsewhere. 

“Then you sit here and be mission control.” Caelum claimed as he and his classmates migrated to a play area further away from her. 

 “You’re too far away!” Little Nova was quick to catch up and catch on to what was happening. 

“No we’re not!” Another male classmate argued, “We’re in the furthest outer reaches of space!” 

“Meteors!” A couple of others shouted, having just acquired a variety of game balls to add a dodgeball element to their game.

The next thing anyone knows, Caelum is wailing. Somebody took the physical aspect too far. 

Their teacher intervened again. First to see that Caelum wasn’t seriously injured and then mediate their conflict. 

“Let’s remember what we’ve been learning about getting along.” Teacher encouraged. 

“What?! It was a meteor!” Nova defended. 

“You were angry with Caelum and hurt him with the ball. That was not right. You should have come to me or another teacher if you were still having problems playing with Caelum. Before we leave, you need to apologize for being hurtful.” 

“But girls aren’t on the real rockets, ships, and space missions!” Caelum spoke up. 

“You were playing a game she wanted to play, right?” Teacher corrected him.

“Yes, ma’am...” He sighed. 

“Nova’s feelings were hurt because you didn’t include her, weren’t they?”

Nova nodded as Teacher glanced over to her. Then, Teacher turned to Caelum next who nodded as well, showing he understood. 

“Before we leave, you need to apologize for not letting her play. You two will spend recess in time-out tomorrow too.”

-second grade-

“Today is the day is the day we share our Earth Studies projects, class.” Teacher announced, “You were to either compose a report, develop a visual presentation, or create an artistic interpretation of what you’ve learned about planet Earth. How about we start with Aster?” 

Aster came forward with a diorama creation.

“This is a model of Earth’s solar system. Earth is the blue and green planet.” He explained, “People on earth could see the sun, Mercury, and Venus almost every day....”

“You were very resourceful, Aster!” Teacher encouraged when he finished. “Let’s have Ayla next.”

Ayla had a document in hand. “My report is where my family lived on Earth.” She read, “They lived in a country called the United States. Within the United States, they lived in an area called Virginia...”

“I like how you added a personal touch to your report, Ayla! Next up is Nova.”

Nova made a slideshow presentation. Her first image was of a a fiery asteroid about to land among a scene of dinosaurs. “Over 65 million years ago, an asteroid wiped out Earth’s most primitive creatures.” 

She changed the image to a depiction of Noah’s Ark in a storm. “Over 12000 years ago, a massive flood raged over the whole Earth, wiping out nearly all mankind.”

A handful of her classmates were starting to feel uncomfortable.

But Nova continued. Her next slide was an old, black-and-white factory or city skyline billowing with smoky clouds. “As early as two or three centuries ago, the effects of pollution really took off. Air and water were contaminated. Disease developed and spread with people living and working so close all the time...”

“Nearly every year, Earth’s civilization gets ravaged by catastrophes like hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes.” Nova flicked slides of each disaster she mentioned. To which more of her classmates felt more uncomfortable and scared. 

Nova’s teacher, principal, and parents had a conference about her presentation later that day.

“But I don’t want to live on Earth, much less learn about it!” Nova explained when she was asked about her intentions with her slideshow. “Why can’t we learn more about other aliens and galaxies and stuff?”

“No one here is forcing you to live on Earth anytime soon,” The principal acknowledged. “but it is still important to learn about. We need to know where we came from, and when you’re grown enough to be on your own, knowing some things about Earth may be useful.”

“How about this?” One of Nova’s parents proposed. “We’ll help find you some hobbies to learn about space if you keep a better attitude about Earth studies.”

“What a lovely idea! Sounds like a plan!” The principal and teacher chimed in. 

“Ok...” Nova resigned to this compromise. 

“And I can give you a better grade on the project if you present something less drastic,” Teacher offered, “Detention during recess for the rest of the week should give you the time to start fresh.”

-at sixteen-

“Dad...I need bail...” Nova declared on the phone from the police department.

“What’s happened?” He breathed in.

“Me and my friends were caught trying to steal off of a wrecked satellite that landed on private property.”

“I’ll be there soon...”

“We didn’t know it was private land or equipment, honest!” She defended as they discussed the incident on their way home. 

“Playing with space debris is not only illegal, but potentially dangerous.” Dad lectured,”Why do you do it?”

“ I’m tired of all the head knowledge! I’m burning out on the clubs and extra classes!  I want want some practical, hands-on, maybe even real-time experience!”

“When we’ve nabbed dead equipment, we’ve either studied it or salvaged it the best we can. The way we see it, nobody could still possibly want it if it’s grounded and garbled. It’s hard sometimes but we’ll try to pay more attention for private equipment or private land it’s in.”

“Wait, you’re going right back to this?!”

“There’s actually really good money in space salvaging. So me and my friends have thought about a business venture. The Final Frontier Academy is not cheap, you know.” 

“But your business isn’t right and the Academy will not accept a criminal deviant. You’re grounded for two weeks, after which point, you will find proper employment to repay the bail and to earn your way to the Academy.”