When I went to introduce myself to the captain, I couldn’t for the life of me recall my own name.
“What’s happening? I’ve forgotten my name!”
“Hahaha!
People who come from other worlds forget a lot of stuff. Well, when you
live here for a while, it stops mattering so much.
“My name’s
Star Catcher,” said the captain, pointing at the beautiful stars piled
up on the deck of the ship. He then showed me a large magnet attached to
a rope, with tiny stars stuck to the magnet like glittering sand.
“I
use this special magnet that sticks to stars. It’s fine for ordinary
stars, but some’re so energetic that they’ll pull the ship to the end of
the galaxy! With those, you’re done for. Only thing to do is cut the
rope, and these magnets are pretty pricey. The only person who can make
‘em is Dr. Hoop. See that small moon over there? They’re made of a
special ore that can only be mined on that moon. What was it called
again…? Morgiz? No, that’s not it. My memory’s been terrible lately. Dr.
Hoop’s lab is up on that moon too.”
“What are you going to do with all these stars?”
“There’s
loads of uses for stars on Phantasmagoria. The beautiful ones’ll be
turned into jewels. The sand-like star dust’ll be melted down for
crafts. The big ones’ll be batteries. And those soft ones? They’re
edible. You can even eat ‘em raw. Give it a try.”
“It’s not like bread… The taste is strange and difficult to describe… But it’s incredibly delicious!”
As the steamship continued on, star fish leapt around, scattering magnificent splashes of light to welcome us.
“Hey! Cut that out you star fish! Look. That’s the liquor shop.”
There, on the surface of the ocean, a small building in the shape of a whiskey bottle came into view.
“I wonder if that Yotta Fuller chap’s in,” said the captain, as he began to slow the ship.
