Dawnstar reached the outer edges of Starhaven’s atmosphere, and stopped. She focused on the metal she was carrying in the pouch tied around her waist and, in her mind, scanned the galaxy around her. She could detect a faint trace that matched the vibration of the piece she carried, not as strong as the metallic pull she’d detected a few moments earlier. It also wasn’t coming from where she’d expected it to come from. Where she floated, the Sastoria system was directly ahead of her, but the trace was from behind her, and growing weaker by the second.
It’s moving away. Dawnstar thought.
She moved her arms to her sides and beat her wings in a strong and regular rhythm to create enough internal kinetic energy to push herself forward through the vacuum of open space. She then turned her back to where she thought she was originally headed and sped through the vast emptiness around her in pursuit of the ever weakening signals.
She reached one of the floating rocks which made up the Starside Asteroid Band within seconds of leaving Starhaven’s atmosphere, and decided to rest for a moment. All around were stars and nothing else. The rock crumbled beneath her feet as she landed, but was solid enough for her to stand. She turned her attention back to Starhaven, which was now no longer visible to her, and then further beyond to the distant Sastoria star.
Still nothing coming from that way. Dawnstar thought as she tried to pick up further traces of the ore. I should be getting something from Sastoria as that’s where this object is from. She opened the pouch and held the metal piece in her right hand. Yet again, it pulsated strongly, but as she was now out in open space the temperature didn’t change. She channelled her thoughts through the object, trying to enhance her tracking ability just in case something was blocking her. Yet again, all she could detect was the trace that was moving away from both her and Sastoria. She returned the metal piece to the pouch and allowed herself to float away from the rock. She beat her wings as before, and then continued to trace the sensations she was picking up, soaring away from the Asteroid Band at speeds far greater than before.
Finally, the strength of what she was tracing began increasing. Dawnstar knew she was getting closer.
Ahead of her, she could see the mass of stars which made up the starting point of one of the arms of the Malakawa spiral galaxy. She sensed that the signal she was following had stopped moving, and was coming from a star at the far side of the arm.
There. Dawnstar thought. I’m detecting four planets orbiting that star, the signal is coming from the second one from it. She continued speeding toward the planetary system, reaching the fourth planet within minutes.
The signal she was following disappeared for a second, and then came back to her stronger than before. It faded out again, and then returned as strong as with the piece of metal in her pouch.
What’s going on? Dawnstar thought as she stopped herself flying though space toward the third planet.
The space in front of her started to shimmer and than a deep blue coloured vessel came into view. The ship turned itself around to face her, and Dawnstar saw two red lights appear from the front of it. She realised this ship had opened fire on her, so she readied herself in what she called her battle stance. Her arms again by her sides and her legs close together, made her narrower. Her wings were raised high, in readiness to manoeuvre out of the way of whatever weapon had been fired at her. She soon realised they were energy blasts, which had been fired in a random formation to cover as much space as possible, although not necessarily aiming for a particular point. With great ease, she moved out of the way of the bursts of energy that got almost close to her, while at the same time moving closer to the ship.
This may have been a trace mission, Dawnstar thought, but that changed as soon as whoever these are opened fire on me. She realised the signal she was tracking was now coming from two places. The strongest signal was this ship, so she knew this was carrying a large amount of Sastoria Ore. The second signal was still at the second planet. She landed on the hull of the ship, looking for a way to get inside. She found a hatch, and an opening latch, but it was locked and she couldn’t force it open. She flew away from the ship again, and quickly looked around it to see if there was another way she could get in. Underneath the ship, she found an open loading bay so flew inside. Looking back out of the ship, she saw the same shimmering that she noticed just before the ship opened fire. It looks as though they wanted me to come aboard. That would explain how a ship this size with that firepower would be such a bad shot! But how would they know I’d be here? And why hide behind an invisibility shield if they wanted me to come on board? The Ore! They must be shielding the Ore. These must be Gralves.
A hatch hissed open at the opposite end of the empty bay to the rectangular shaped opening, where Dawnstar could now see the emptiness of space again. She attuned her thoughts to her immediate surroundings, so she would be ready for any surprise attacks, and walked inside the airlock. The hatch slammed shut behind her, and hissed again as it sealed closed. Dawnstar turned to face the interior hatch, expecting it to open. When it didn’t, she tugged up a latch beside the door, and felt the strong tingling of electrical energy flow through her body.
This is the eleventh instalment of my fan fiction tale based on the DC Comics character Dawnstar.
The first part can be found here.
The second part is here.
The third part here.
Part four is here.
Part five is here.
Part six is here.
The seventh part is here.
Part eight is here.
Part nine is here.
Part ten is here.
Dawnstar was created by Paul Levitz and Mike Grell, with Starhaven being a planet from the DC Universe. All other characters are of my own creation.
