Petunia's Wishing-Star

Presently all were assembled on the stolen battle-cruiser’s bridge, which had slipped quietly and inconspicuously back into the ranks of the gathering Alliance fleet. With pirated security-mechanisms cheerfully informing the other craft there was no-one on board but Grindoes and a cargo of combat-robots, the real crew made up of Prince Agaric’s army manned the engines below while captains Phoenix Prime, Big Grin, Moltron, Magnolia, Schiss-Zazz, Technus reverted to customary man-size and Spookan in his three-eyed mask looked out through the viewscreen on a mission accomplished. At the very forefront stood their unexpected and largely unlooked-for new mascot, her perky presence and peachy perfumes suffusing the entire ship.

“I’d never have guessed for the very rottlebottles of me there were so many others out in the quadrant who supported Joe and not that horrid Dylan or the Alliance!” Petunia enthused. “You should have come to our meetings long before now and got to know the rest of us. Once there were even hamburgers! As for you, Mr. Spookan, I had heard of you, but who was to know you and your militia all along were fighting for Joe’s interpretation of The Four Heroes’ cause?”

“That’s Spookan for you, Petunia,” said Phoenix Prime. “Man of many secrets, aren’t you, Spookan?”

The almost imperceptible emphasis she placed on this repetition of Prince Agaric’s nom de guerre served as a tacit reminder for everyone present but the latest recruit. Phoenix Prime had given her cronies a concise briefing on their changed circumstances while Petunia was settling into her cabin, and though they were less than thrilled about the arrangement, all admitted that the prospect of Four Heroes powers on their side was worth the inconvenience of an unlikely subterfuge. From now on there was to be no mention of Spookan the Sinister’s true identity, nor that the fugitive Scientooth was stashed in a storage-locker on the lower decks. A general pretence that this mismatched collection of mercenaries and rogues was indeed the altruistic superteam Petunia believed them to be was henceforth required of all. The truth, Phoenix Prime went on, was something they could reveal to her when the time was right. Play that one by ear. For if Petunia learned it now she’d only run from them in horror and alert the whole Alliance fleet, which would come as a jolt to everyone.

Those battleships before the monitor were sparking up their boosters for deep space ahead. “Time we were underway,” declared Phoenix Prime. “And I think it’s only proper that our newest member should do the honours.”

Petunia beamed at her and Phoenix Prime returned a small smile of her own, satisfied. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen Carmilla’s point, or Blaster-Track Commander’s. You didn’t last out there on your own as long as Phoenix Prime had by being as naïve as that. She knew full well what she’d sided with. Scientooth’s imprisonment had had to be addressed, but he himself was a ruthless arms-merchant with a history of atrocities behind him. Agaric and The Back Garden wanted nothing short of open war, while the likes of Big Grin boasted no more noble motive than a desire for power and pay. You couldn’t always pick and choose once you’d made up your mind to follow The Four Heroes’ cause. Joe, she seemed to remember, had faced a world of unbelievers with just one man and two other children behind him.

Phoenix Prime hoped she couldn’t be blamed for wanting somebody else on this jaunt whose faith in the cause was genuine. But there was more to it besides. Joe saw that teaching the ways of The Four Heroes was crucial to his work, and Phoenix Prime had herself been taught. So who knew? A little make-believe her associates were pursuing that path might work a difference, perhaps even until some of them found they weren’t make-believing anymore. Scientist that she was, Phoenix Prime was more than willing to give the experiment a go.

At any rate, the one thing she was sure of was that this was the best she’d felt since setting foot in this galaxy. The cause had turned her life around and now at last she was serving it, promulgating it, in her own way. No more compromises, no more sophistry, no more self-justifying excuses. Here at last, amid cheerful chaos, was the peace she’d sought.

Petunia petticoat-flittered prettily for the launch-controls, oblivious to Magnolia rolling her eyes, and her tight sweater heaved with a deep euphoric breath. One push of the button and they were away, streaking with the squadron on trails of hyperdrive glow, gone from the familiar sector and forging through unkenned depths to a place where waited adventure and maybe even love. There it twinkled far-off, almost at the galactic vanishing-point, enshrined in the gleaming gaze of one blissful girl. A distant solar-system with a twin-planet glint.

Unless, of course, it was the light of Petunia’s wishing-star.

THE END