Star Minds Chasing Stardom

  STAR MINDS CHASING STARDOM

  by Barbara G. Tarn

  ***

  Barbara G.Tarn copyright © 2015

  cover art by Maurizio Manzieri

  electronic edition by Unicorn Productions

  July 2015

  ***

  Index:

  Star Minds Next Generation – Kay-low

  King of Music – Zaphadin

  Star Minds Next Generation – Astrid

  About and acknowledgments

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Star Minds Next Generation | Kay-low

  King of Music – Zaphadin | The True Story of the Man Behind the Myth

  1. The Baby Boy

  2. The Professor

  3. Running away from home

  4. Dahumada

  5. Rise to fame

  6. Zaphadin

  7. The dream starts to break

  8. Midway into the nightmare

  9. Over the edge

  10. Zaphadin is dead

  (Star Minds Next Generation) | Astrid

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Further Reading: Star Minds Next Generation

  Also By Barbara G.Tarn

  Star Minds Next Generation

  Kay-low

  1. EARTH 2033

  "Anvedi che robba, oh!" Daniele exclaimed, staring at the main screen giving an aerial view of Rome as they approached the surface of the planet. "Look how it changed!"

  Kay-low could feel Daniele's excitement at finally setting foot back on his home planet. Chantal, Laura and David crowded around, excited – Chantal for the homecoming, their offspring because they saw the home planet for the first time.

  Kay-low snorted impatiently. Here he was on the New Shermac Pride with his father and inseparable Ker-ris, Laura's family and the rest of the band in the lounge, with Dadina and Wim in the pilot seats, headed for Gaia for a couple of shows.

  I know it's your first visit here, but I'm very fond of this planet too, Kol-ian transmitted.

  His father couldn't read Kay-low's shielded mind, but he should have kept the bored physical reaction to himself. He knew his father was as fond of Earth as Daniele and Chantal were. Heck, even Wim and Dadina had already seen it – very short visits some ten years earlier – and they were happy to be back! Why exactly, Kay-low couldn't figure out yet.

  Good for you, he retorted. I came here only because Laura so wanted to do this.

  Kol-ian grinned. I know, playing her parents' home planet was her dream, and you all humored her.

  I wonder how the locals will like our band's name. Kay-low scoffed and met his father's eyes.

  "Italian Ignorance" was the chosen name. Daniele hadn't minded – he still considered himself quite ignorant about the Star Nations – but maybe the Italians wouldn't like that name. True that it was in Intergalactic, but by now the official Humanoid common language was taught in Gaian schools as compulsory second language like in the rest of the Star Nations. Besides, online translators had surely informed the Earthlings of the real meaning of those two words.

  Still, the venue in Rome was fully booked for the show. Probably because it was the first band to grace the planet and they had one song in Italian. And one in French for the Paris show, just to be on the good side of the French as well.

  They might throw rotten tomatoes at you, if that's still the tradition. Kol-ian grinned and Kay-low snorted again, rolling his eyes. Stupid Earthlings. Why must his first shows off planet be on that godforsaken world that was still struggling to fit in the Star Nations?

  "Where is the place where you used to live?" Chantal asked as Daniele zoomed in on the details of the ground.

  "Should be somewhere down here... Hey! What's that awful thing they built in that parking lot? And where is the Ministry of Finances?"

  "Demolished at the beginning of the century," Kol-ian informed Daniele. He'd been toying with his own laptop, with Ker-ris looking over his shoulder. Kay-low could only imagine their telepathic conversation from their dreamy expressions. "And that new obscenity is called Fuksas's Cloud."

  "Yikes." Daniele grimaced in disgust. "What is it for?"

  "New convention center."

  "Why, the Palazzo dei Congressi wasn't good enough? Cazzo... so much history and now this crap!"

  "Doesn't look too bad next to the fascist architecture," Chantal commented.

  "It sucks," Daniele snapped. "I look forward to seeing how they ruined Paris!"

  "The French are more careful with their history," she replied with a smile. "Blame it on the Italian Ignorance!"

  "Ha ha not-very-ha!" Laura said. "Bad joke, Mom."

  "Sorry, honey..."

  Kay-low thought it was actually a very appropriate joke. Earth's air had been cleaned and the first spaceports had been built. It was now on the official routes, but it was still quite behind. They were trying to preserve their culture and traditions, but didn't always succeed.

  Kay-low wasn't interested in manuscripts, like Shan-leo, or history or any of that stuff. This world was just another place where he could play his guitar and be on stage with his band. Although for a first show out of Marc'harid, he'd have preferred a more civilized planet. But Laura had cajoled him into it and he had grudgingly agreed. She even wrote the two songs in the local dialects to convince the band they'd be welcomed.

  Laura was his girlfriend and the lead singer, and she was very pretty in her stage clothes. Laura had a crush on him since their teens, and at seventeen they'd become a couple. Not that he was in love – or even in lust – but it was better than being alone.

  And he'd been alone for most of his childhood. As the only child of Bess-lin Meraini, he'd been kept in a gilded cage with no friends until Shan-leo had managed to convince his fiery mother to forgive his father.

  It had taken him a couple of years to adjust to the extended family that lived in the former Imperial palace and get used to non-telepath friends. At fifteen he'd even moved to his father's, but the freedom hadn't lasted, so eventually he'd relented and toned down his rebellion, giving Laura what she wanted.

  Now, at twenty, he wasn't completely happy with himself. Kay-low didn't have his cousin's gifts. He couldn't mind link, so he wasn't interested in a telepathic lover. He'd stopped cutting his hair in his teens and it now reached mid-way down his back. He'd dyed it blond and since he didn't have genetically reinforced skin, he'd had some tattoos done on his arms and shoulders – sort of emulating Wim who now wore shoulder-length hair. His right arm was decorated with a garland of blue stars from the wrist to the shoulder, while his left arm had flames going up from wrist to elbow and from elbow to shoulder with red stars interspersed through the orange fire.

  "You look like a metallaro," Daniele had commented the first time he'd seen Kay-low bare-chested with his brand new tattoos. Kay-low knew Daniele didn't like the hard rock bands that had sort of inspired his looks – the alien Humanoids version, slightly different from what Daniele remembered from his years on Earth – but Laura loved long-haired guys.

  Kay-low's rebellious behavior was the exact opposite of Shan-leo, who even during his wildest years had been much quieter. Yes, his cousin had lost his arm in a flying car accident, but Kay-low had done much worse. Drugs took down all his mental shields, so he'd stopped using them, and since his mother refused him a flying car, he happily drove his friends', racing them when nobody was looking. He was a much more reckless driver than Shan-leo, but had managed to remain whole until now – probably because he wanted to be able to play guitar and become a mega star.

  The relationship with his father was as conflicted as every other relationship in Kay-low's life. He felt inferior to a
ll his Sire relatives and didn't want to deal with them. He hoped going on tour with his band would rid him of them, but his father couldn't pass up the chance to go back to the planet where he'd spent four years of self-exile. And Shan-leo and his family were on the Haiduc, but everybody else was on the bigger ship, including the other two band members, D'oji'mon N'ardi, Astrid's cousin and drummer of the band, and Jay-lee, the Sire keyboard player and composer that Kay-low had known since childhood, although they'd become friends in their teens.

  At least his mother had stayed at home. She hadn't been happy when he'd found a Gaian girlfriend, she hated his rebellious looks and couldn't care less about his band and his music dreams. All she could say was, "Can't you be a little more like Will-son? He's a real Meraini, even if it's not his father's family name!"

  Kay-low had nothing against his eighteen-year-old cousin Will-son Alekos, but he was sick of being compared to him. Therefore he avoided his aunt's family as much as he could – actually he avoided all family meetings on both sides when he could. Although Daniele and Chantal were almost family on Kol-ian's side.

  Not that he'd adopted Laura as a sister like Shan-leo had done with Dadina. He liked being an only child and hated interacting with "siblings". In his teens he'd often been called Little Prince because of his haughtiness – he wasn't really haughty, though, just very guarded. Much like his father had been.

  Kay-low waited impatiently as the New Shermac Pride glided towards the surface of the planet. What was the fuss of observing Rome from the sky when they'd be sleeping there soon? But Daniele's hometown would be a very quick stop, so he wanted an overview before landing.

  The main spaceport was near Berlin, almost at the center of what used to be Europe. National borders had been taken down, since it was the only way to get into the Star Nations, and local conflicts were over. The planet was working hard on cleaning up the mess of past governments and catching up with the rest of the galaxy. They still looked like troglodytes in Kay-low's eyes and he was regretting his decision to do those shows. Even the fact that they'd sold out felt like a hindrance now.

  From Berlin, they all took the short-distance shuttle to Rome.

  "This so reminds me of when you took me away from Paris," Chantal told Kol-ian.

  The shuttle was very similar to the one he'd used way back when and he chuckled at the memory.

  "All those miles eaten up in less than three hours," he said. "Speed of sound, flying over ground..."

  "That's approximately what it will take us to get to Rome," Dadina announced from the cockpit.

  Kay-low stared out the window without actually seeing anything since they went too fast.

  "Why are you brooding again?" Jay-lee asked.

  Since Laura sat next to her brother, Jay-lee had slid into the seat next to Kay-low for the short ground trip. The young Sire had an interesting piercing since he had both his ears and his nose pierced and had a chain that went from his nose-ring to his left ear. A mane of red hair and forest green eyes, he liked to hide in Kay-low's shadow.

  That was why it had taken Kay-low years to realize he actually had a Sire friend who was pretty much like him. Well, Jay-lee wasn't from an aristocratic family like him, but that was one more reason to befriend him – to upset his noble mother.

  Jay-lee had accompanied Kay-low to the tattoo parlor for various sessions, although he only got himself a small neck tattoo, now hidden under his red curls. They'd bonded in their teens and when the band was founded, Jay-lee's keyboard skills were a natural choice to add a non-family member to Italian Ignorance.

  "I don't like this place," Kay-low muttered. "Do we have to do this?"

  "I thought you wanted it as much as your girlfriend," Jay-lee replied. "Will you stop changing your mind every five minutes?"

  "It's not every five minutes!" he snapped, glaring at his friend.

  "It's every month these days." Jay-lee shrugged. "Still a little too often. You're twenty, Kay-low, make up your mind once and for all. What do you really want?"

  Kay-low sighed and looked outside again. "I wish I knew," he grumbled. "I don't have talent – can't write songs, can't mind link, can't do anything special..."

  "You can sing. You should be the lead singer. You have a great voice," Jay-lee said.

  Puzzled, Kay-low looked at him. That was never discussed before. Laura was the singer because she attracted more fans. She had plain features and a willowy build, but when she dressed up for the shows, she became a doll. And she wrote poetry that easily turned into songs. The rest of their songs were written by Jay-lee, and Kay-low thought Jay-lee's lyrics were better than Laura's.

  The fact that he had to use a translator to understand the lyrics in Gaian dialects had only made him feel worse. Even his girlfriend was more talented than him! She might not be a telepath, but she was fluent in four languages (Italian, French, Intergalactic and the Sire language) – a gift she'd got from her mother who was also well-versed in languages.

  He liked singing too – something he inherited from his father – so Laura had written a duet, a love ballad they sang together, but for the rest, the boys were only backing vocals.

  "You should sing more," Jay-lee insisted.

  "Why don't you, since you write the songs?" Kay-low retorted.

  "Because I'm not a singer." Jay-lee smiled. "I'm just the keyboard player. I don't want the limelight either. You do."

  Kay-low sighed. That much was true. He craved some limelight – he wanted to feel appreciated by as many people as possible. Although the ones that really mattered made him feel inferior, but maybe being validated by a crowd of fans would make him feel better.

  Then they reached the hotel and had to prepare for the show. Again, since Laura was traveling with her family, Kay-low roomed with Jay-lee and D'oji'mon who had come alone. Their families would watch the show in remote from Marc'harid.

  "Should we dump Laura?" Kay-low asked his bandmates. "I mean, what does she bring to the band? A stupid name and her voice... aren't we better off without her?"

  "She writes some of the songs," D'oji'mon objected. He had dark skin and a very tall, squat build. His long dreadlocks were decorated with silver rings and he had a plethora of earrings all around the ears. He could have been a fearsome bodyguard, if he hadn't preferred beating drums. "We have sold out here thanks to those songs in her parents' dialects."

  "I think Kay-low is a better singer," Jay-lee said. "And singing in Intergalactic is much more widespread – any planet can enjoy our lyrics."

  D'oji'mon raised his eyebrows, skeptical. "So is he going to dump her as his girlfriend as well?"

  Kay-low chewed his lip. "Probably," he said at last. "I'm quite sick of her."

  "I see." D'oji'mon nodded slowly, strongly disapproving of both Sire. "I guess you'll have to find yourselves another drummer, then."

  "You're good, D'oji'mon, we want to keep you!" Kay-low protested.

  "I'm not good enough for two mighty Sire. If Laura isn't, neither am I. Form an all-Sire band and you'll do just fine," the Ulba'wissian retorted, averting his eyes with a frown.

  Kay-low never thought about that. He'd been born after the death of the Emperor, and hadn't met him – unlike Shan-leo. He hadn't been raised as Imperial Prince – like his father and cousin. He knew he had noble blood, coming from two of the most powerful Sire houses, but he never thought about it.

  Kay-low and Jay-lee exchanged a glance and shrugged.

  "Fine," Kay-low muttered. "We do these two shows and then the band is over."

  "Don't tell Laura," Jay-lee warned D'oji'mon. "Or she'll screw it."

  "Of course, she's just an emotional Gaian, not an icy Sire."

  "We're not icy Sire!" Kay-low glared at D'oji'mon.

  "Maybe Jay-lee isn't, but you most certainly are, Kay-low Meraini," the drummer spat out with contempt. "You never loved her, did you?"

  "Of course he did!" Jay-lee protested.

  Kay-low opened his mouth but didn't say anything. D'oji'mon was
right. He'd never loved Laura. Maybe he was an icy Sire, like his mother or Shan-leo's mother, and that was why he couldn't mind link.

  "We can't all be Holy Shermacs," he grumbled averting his eyes. Shan-leo was an empath. Ker-ris Shermac had made an empath out of Kol-ian Vaurabi. But since Kay-low had none of his cousin's skills, he'd never be able to turn into an empath. And he didn't want to. He was a rebel, not a holy man.

  Jay-lee squeezed his shoulder to show support, but he slapped Jay-lee's hand away. He didn't need anyone. He'd prove he was worthy on his own.

  ***

  The venues were bigger than what they'd played so far on Marc'harid, but Laura addressed the audience undaunted. A "Buonasera, Roma" and a "Bonsoir, Paris" both raised enthusiastic cheers, and both audiences sang with her during the song in the local language. To please the crowds, Laura had also chosen two cover songs from her parents' youth. In half a century nobody had heard a live version of La mia banda suona il rock, by Ivano Fossati (1979) or Heureusement que la musique est là by Dave (1977) – both also Kol-ian's favorites.

  Kay-low was a little pissed off that he couldn't understand what she was telling the audience between songs, but since both shows were obviously a success, he shrugged it off. He kept his mind shields on and just played – or sang when the duet came on – barely glancing at the forest of arms swinging with the music, often with lights in them. It was like watching a moving sea of light.

  Since Daniele didn't have any family left, and Chantal wanted to hug her siblings (now close to their seventies, and probably grandparents), they stayed in Paris for a couple of days after the show. Kay-low couldn't be bothered to go up the Eiffel Tower with everybody else, so he sat on a bench in the Champs de Mars, wondering what people found in that stupid metal tower. Okay, it was old, but it wasn't the tallest building he'd ever seen – nor was it the tallest building on the planet anymore either.

  So he stayed down on the ground, pondering his next move. Yes, Italian Ignorance had had success on Gaia, but did he want to stick to that? Or did he want to be a more global, galactic star? Could he steal song lyrics from other people's heads, since he couldn't come up with any on his own? Could he ask Laura and Jay-lee permission to sing the songs they'd written? He knew Jay-lee would say yes, but Laura probably not.