Celestial Capers

by Dan Kelly

  “I must have done something to make Queen Quasar mad at me. The rest of you got a picture of her in your locket, mine is empty.” Pulsar can’t imagine his Aunt Cue doing something like this deliberately and looks over at her to tell her about the empty locket and sees his aunt struggling to keep from laughing.

  Queen Quasar has been watching and listening to Pulsar and Belinda talking and, unable to contain herself any longer, walks over to them and points at Belinda saying. “Gotcha!”

  Belinda, startled and a little confused, haltingly asks, “What are you up to, Your Highness?”

  “A little payback, Belinda, for all the pranks you’ve played on me and the rest of the Pack.” This exchange has gotten the attention of the other kids and they’re taking it all in. “You think I didn’t put my picture in your locket on purpose, but your wrong. Open your locket and hold your thumb where a picture should be.” Belinda follows the Queen’s instructions and, lo and behold, a picture of the Queen appears. “I thought it would be appropriate to give someone who can make herself invisible an invisible picture and even the prank score at the same time. Yours is a thermal picture revealed by the heat of your thumb. As I said, gotcha!”

  Everyone roars with laughter, glad that someone finally managed to pull a prank on Belinda. Even Belinda was doubled over with laughter for having been fooled.

  The Pack spent the remainder of the day playing games and enjoying the balmy weather. The Queen spent the remainder of her day enjoying the Pack enjoying themselves. There were some dark thoughts in the back of her mind though. “Emperor Eclipse may be out of the picture now, but he has a brother who’s no mister nice guy and is likely to pick up where his brother left off. If a way can’t be figured out to defuse the animosity and tension between not only Erebus and Proton, but between Erebus and other planets scattered around the cosmos, a terrible inter-galactic war could erupt.

  One thing’s for sure, I must never let my guard down and must do everything possible to keep Proton powerful and free. Kids like the Power Pack and the other graduates of Stellar will be formidable opponents for anyone trying to bring Proton down and from this day forward will be the cornerstone of any defense program that I put in place.”

  Chapter 36

  The Pack spends the next several months completing course work and training and then preparing for their final exams to qualify for Super Nova Graduation. Super Nova Graduation marks the successful completion of the first stage of their preparation for life time service to the Queen. The second stage will take twice as long to complete and will open many new worlds of discovery.

  As the day for finals approaches, Pulsar’s thinking, “It’s like a mortuary around here. Everyone is talking in whispers so as not to disturb those studying. Mortuary is the perfect word too. The fear of failing has some of them saying things like I’m a ‘dead duck’, I’m ‘dead in the water’ and I’m ‘deathly afraid’ I’m going to flunk.” Pulsar is the only one who’s feeling confident that he’ll pass his finals and has lightened up on his studying, but even he is having deadly thoughts; “I’m going to ‘die of boredom’ if somebody doesn’t come up with something to lighten the mood around here. Everybody is over studying. We all know this stuff, but everybody is afraid if they don’t study until the day of the exams, they’ll bomb them. We’ve been cooped up in here for over a week now and it’s time for a laugh or two.”

  Try as he might, Pulsar can’t come up with anything. “My mind’s a blank.” However, the word ‘blank’ suddenly sets sparks of an idea flashing through his brain. “If the pages of the Pack’s books were blank, they’d have nothing to study. Sally’s always inventing something. Maybe she can dream up a way to make the pages of our books appear blank. He heads for Sally’s room and just as he gets there, she opens her door to leave for lunch in the school cafeteria. “Hi, Sally. Where are you headed?”

  “I’m hungry, so I’m going to the cafeteria to get something to eat. I could use some company. How about joining me? With everyone studying for the finals, it’s been so quiet around here it’s like a mausoleum.”

  Pulsar thinks to himself, “Even Sally is having ‘deadly thoughts.’” To Sally he says, “I know what you mean. I was coming to talk with you about how we might have some fun and put some life back in the Pack at the same time.”

  “Ok, Pulsar, I’m all ears, but wait until we’re settled down in the cafeteria. I do my best conniving with food in my belly.”

  Between slurps, burps, gulps and munches, Pulsar tells Sally what he’s thinking about and Sally responds with a sly smile and much relish, “Oh, Pulsar. I’ve got just the thing. I’ve been fooling around with a spray I’ve developed that will do just what you want. I got the idea after reading a novel where a character in the book used invisible ink to trick someone. My spray works like this. It’s clear so it can’t be detected and is activated after it is exposed to light for a couple of minutes. Once activated, it reflects all frequencies in the visible light spectrum, making the entire page appear blank, and is immediately deactivated when the light source is removed. It only works for a few days and then it loses its potency, so there’s no permanent damage done to anything it’s sprayed on.”

  “That’s terrific, Sally. We can get Belinda to help us get our hands on the books by becoming invisible and sneaking in the rooms to get them and returning the doctored books where she finds them after they are sprayed. Do you have enough spray to do all the books? All told, there are about a hundred of them.”

  “I can make what we’ll need in a couple of hours.”

  “Ok, I’ll talk with Belinda. I’m sure she’ll agree to help us. I can’t imagine her ever turning down a chance to play a prank. Let’s do it tomorrow night, ok? Exams begin four days from tomorrow.

  “That’s fine with me, Pulsar. Boy, the Pack’s going to flip out.”

  About midnight the next evening, Belinda, Sally and Pulsar go into action. An hour later, the task is done. Belinda sneaks in and out of the rooms, Pulsar riffles the pages and Sally sprays. They have a regular assembly line. They are giggling so hard, it’s amazing no one has woken up. They even doctor their own books. Everything’s set for the fun to begin.

  The week before exams there are no classes so the students can bone up for the finals. After breakfast, the Pack hits the books and minutes later dorm room doors begin to open as the members of the Pack seek each other out to talk about what has happened to them. They gradually work their way downstairs to the student lounge where they’re now sitting anguishing over their plight.

  After a half hour or so of this, Pulsar thinks the timing is right for him to assume his role in this little charade, so he starts off with, “You know, I remember reading about something like this happening to a bunch of medical students preparing for their micro-biology finals at some space medicine university on Cygnus.”

  Chester asks, “Do you remember what happened to them?”

  Artie jumps in with, “Yeah, Pulsar, Did they find out what caused it? Did they find a way to treat it? Did they get better?”

  “Well, if I remember correctly, it’s been more than a year since I read the article, it was determined that by sitting for hours in a prolonged state of extremely high concentration, blood flow to the part of the brain responsible for vision became severely restricted, resulting in some strange things occurring with their eyesight.”

  It’s now time for Sally to jump on the band wagon and play along so she asks, “Did they find a way to treat their condition, Pulsar/”

  Pulsar pretends to be trying to remember and then says, “All I can remember is that they were told to stop studying for a while to give their brains a rest and to do some kind of exercises to get the blood flowing properly again. I don’t remember what kind of exercises though or how long they had to do them.”

  Almost instantaneously, the lounge becomes a gym. Some start in with calisthenics, some with eye and scalp massages. Artie is vigorously shaking his head and even intermittently sma
cking his forehead, figuring this to be the best way to get his blood flowing properly.

  Pulsar, Sally and Belinda are almost in a state of hysterics, but are still managing to put on the performance of their lives pretending to be as concerned as their classmates. After an hour of this, they all collapse on the chairs and couches in the lounge completely exhausted, but wondering if the effort expended did any good. Chester spots a couple of magazines over on one of the end tables and walks over to see if he can read anything in them. Sure enough, everything is crystal clear. He yells out, “I can see the words.” and runs to his room to once more hit the books. The rest of the group follows suit except for the masterminds behind this farce. They stay behind to burst out laughing once the room has emptied.

  Of course, when the part of the Pack not in the know gets back to their rooms there are mixed findings. Those who had closed their books before leaving their rooms can see the words on the pages for a few minutes before they disappear. Those who left their books open find that nothing has changed. The pages still look blank to them. Gradually, with faces flooded with disappointment, they all return to the student lounge. Pulsar, Sally and Belinda are struggling to get themselves under control and barely manage to do so before their pack mates return.

  Seeing the degree of funk they’re in, Pulsar is tempted to let them off the hook, but resists the temptation. Instead, he suggests that what they need is some fun and relaxation. “Let’s just goof off and kid around like we normally do. This could be just the thing to get our brains back to normal.” They bought it and it doesn’t take long for the strain they had put themselves under studying to vanish. The old Pack is back, even Chester’s curiosity. He’s more than a little curious about the fact that they can see other reading material, but not the words in their books. Pulsar explains this away with “The brain probably subconsciously knows that the text books are causing all the stress, so it only focuses on them.” This makes sense to Chester and he quickly moves on to something else to wonder about much to Pulsar’s relief.

  On the morning before the day finals are to begin, the effect of Sally’s spray wears off and the kids find out that they can read their texts again as well. By this time, however, their confidence has returned, so they only spend a few hours doing a joint summary review. Everyone passes their finals with flying colors and is looking forward to their Super Nova Graduation. It looks

  like Pulsar, Sally, and Belinda are going to get away scot-free with their prank, but looks can be deceiving.

  It seems that Sally has forgotten that she has submitted her spray as part of her science final and now, as the final results are being given to the class, she remembers. Sally’s hoping that all the teacher will do is announce each student’s grade and then dismiss them, but today’s not Sally’s lucky day. When the teacher comes to her name, she starts praising Sally for her ccomplishment, revealing what the spray can do, and the cat’s out of the bag. Comprehension quickly registers with her pack mates and Sally slowly withers under their angry glares. After class, the Pack pressures her into spilling the beans and now Pulsar and Belinda are in the soup too.

  “All things considered, the gang is taking it quite well.”, thinks Pulsar. “I’m glad we did it. The Pack was so uptight, some of them might actually have failed. It’s even worth the embarrassment of Artie carrying the three of us out here in the yard behind the dorms and Casey dousing us with gallons of water from the swimming pool.”

  Pulsar’s musings are interrupted by Belinda laughing and yelling, “Hey, will somebody bring us some towels. I’m starting to shrivel. PLEASE!”.

  Pulsar turns to his confederates and says, “With their powers, it could have been a lot worse.” The Pack’s laughter can be heard all over the campus well into the evening.

  Chapter 37

  The big day has arrived. Super Nova Graduation Day is here and it’s aptly named. A nova is a star that suddenly increases its light output tremendously, but then fades away to its original state in a few months or years. The intellectual brilliance of the Pack and their fellow students is nova-like in that, under the tutelage of the Stellar School for Special Students faculty, it suddenly has blossomed from a seedling into a full blown beacon of many candle power and it is still growing. Unlike its namesake, however, the intention is for it to never fade. Everything will be done to see that it continues to grow and be passed on for generations to come, hence the word “Super.”

  As graduating classes go, this is not a large one. Because enrollment standards are exceedingly high, only a small fraction of those who are invited to apply are able to qualify. This year’s graduating class totals 157 students and Queen Quasar is extremely proud of every one of them.

  Everyone included, students, their families, faculty, Queen Quasar and her advisors, there will be about 675 attending the graduation ceremony which will begin at four in the afternoon. Pulsar didn’t think his family would be able to make it, so he was really surprised to get a call last night from Phaser saying that he, Mom and Dad had just arrived at Cape Constellation and would see him tomorrow.

  At the moment, the weather is ideal and everyone is hoping that it stays that way, knowing its reputation for unpredictability. Having his family here, as far as Pulsar is concerned, is the perfect final touch to what is turning out to be a perfect day for graduation.

  The ceremony begins exactly at 4:00 p.m. and, although scheduled to last for an hour, it doesn’t end until 5:30 p.m. thanks to some speakers going over their allotted time to brag about their students. No one minds as they’re expressing the feelings of everyone in attendance.

  After the ceremony, there’s music and a huge buffet of every kind of food and drink imaginable, thanks to Queen Quasar. Everyone is thoroughly enjoying themselves, but after about half an hour, the Pack begins to belch uncontrollably. Embarrassed and confused as to why only they are belching, in perfect synchronization they come to the same conclusion at the exact same time. In unison, they let out the now familiar cry, “BELINDA!!!” and Belinda, laughing her head off, heads for the hills.