Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn

by Sophia Chester

  Before the princess’s ship landed on the Titan, I called everyone that the princess wanted to see at her press conference, from Hati on down to Prometheus. To my surprise, I was able to get hold of Kari; she was in the ship’s infirmary, and thankfully, she had managed to get out of Mr. Hayate’s house unscathed. The doctors were keeping her there as a precaution, but they said if she wanted to go, she could. We all agreed to meet at Kari’s house after the princess’s press conference. The princess’s guards performed a quick security sweep before they let us off her private ship onto the Titan’s parking lot and into the Martian living quarters. There, we were greeted by the members of the press, who were hungry to actually have something to report on. Just making the small trip from the parking lot to the Martian quarters, I thought that I was going to go blind from all of the flashing lights coming from the reporters’ cameras.

  Upon seeing the princess, every Martian reacted in their own way—from the elderly with their frail bones that barely allowed them to bow in reverence, to the young children who were doing cartwheels in the street next to their mothers, who couldn’t stop crying, on down to their husbands who wanted to cry, but their pride wouldn’t allow them to. It was such a beautiful sight, one that I’d never forget, and I was so happy that I was a part of it. As the princess greeted the people and took questions from the press, I quietly walked behind her; this was her moment and I didn’t want to take it away from her. Suddenly, the princess stopped and she turned toward me. “This young lady beside me solved the case of the missing Rings of Saturn. This is Detective Cosmic Callisto Caprica.”

  All of the bright flashing lights instantly turned toward me as the princess kept her hands on my shoulders. A silver-colored microphone appeared from out of the bright flashing lights and underneath my mouth. “Detective Caprica, tell us: how did you solve the case?” Did that reporter just call me Detective Caprica? God knows I’ve been called everything from a little girl to sweetheart to being told that I’m just playing detective; hearing someone call me “detective” sounded absolutely beautiful right now.

  I quickly composed myself before I spoke into the silver microphone. “I did what any detective would do. I just followed the clues, which eventually led me to the culprit.”

  The princess pulled me away from the microphone and whispered in my ear, “I’m ready to go and meet your friends now.” She turned toward the members of the press. “If you’ll excuse us, Detective Caprica and I have some private business to attend to. I know you all have plenty of questions and we will be releasing an official statement soon.”

  The princess’s guards rallied around us as I led the way to Kari’s house. The door to Kari’s house was pushed open just a little bit. Princess Rhea pulled the door back, and standing in the doorway in a pink dress that had lacy white pockets, with her orange hair pulled back into a curly ponytail, was Anthe. Her tiny hands were wrapped around a napkin; a few plastic daffodils were stuffed inside of it. Anthe pinched the corner of her pink dress up as she slowly went into a curtsy.

  “My name is Anthe. I’m pleased to meet your acquaintance, Your Highness.” Anthe presented the flowers to Princess Rhea and then she turned toward Mimas. “Momma, did I do it right?” Mimas kept her hand over her mouth as she shook her head yes.

  Princess Rhea bent down and gave Anthe a small peck on her forehead. “Thank you so much, little one.” The princess made her way toward Mimas. Poor Mimas—she tried to hold her composure, but she completely unraveled into an emotional mess once the princess was in front of her. “Cosmo told me about you and your daughter. I’m so sorry about everything.”

  Mimas looked down at the princess’s hands; you could tell that she wanted to shake them, but she was too nervous to do so. Princess Rhea pulled Mimas in for a hug, and Mimas quickly dissolved into a puddle of emotions. Once Mimas gathered herself, the princess turned her attention toward everyone in the house. “I’m grateful for everything that each of you have done for Cosmo. I want to reward each of you personally for your bravery.” Oh how wonderful! I wondered what the princess had in store for them.

  “Mimas, Hati, and Kari, I know that you risked losing your jobs by helping Cosmo and I would love to have you come aboard my ship and be one of my ladies in waiting. If that position doesn’t suit you, I will give you whatever position you would like to have.” All three women, including rough-and-tough Hati, burst into tears. “And, Mimas, if you decide to take me up on my offer, I’ll make sure that Anthe receives the best of everything. Several of my ladies have their children with them on the ship and I’m sure that Anthe would make a wonderful addition to the group.”

  How generous and thoughtful! I could only imagine what kind of a positive impact this would have on Anthe’s life. The princess turned toward Prometheus. “How would you like to be a part of my royal guard?”

  Prometheus bowed before the princess. “It would be an honor to work for you, my lady.”

  “Cole and Phoebe, I know that your wedding plans were ruined because of what has transpired these past few days. I would like to host your wedding on my sister ship, the Enceladus. You needn’t worry about anything at all.” Phoebe buried her face in Cole’s chest, her shoulders shook uncontrollably, and tears fell from her eyes. “I hope I’m not overstepping my boundaries by asking this, but how did you two become a couple?”

  Cole blinked back the tears in his eyes. “It’s funny, really. Phoebe would come to clean my office and our small office talk turned into serious discussions about human and Martian relations.” He chuckled. “My Phoebe is actually pretty cute when she’s in the middle of a debate. Her cheeks get all fluffy and red!” Phoebe playfully jabbed Cole in the chest. “I grew up on Pluto and everything that I knew about Martians and Martian life I learned from the people around me. Deep down, I never really believed those things to be true. I’ve learned so much from my Phoebe. If she hadn’t shared the things she had with me, I would probably still be the same wishy-washy guy who went along with the Divided, Yet One Law because everyone else was doing it.”

  “That’s beautiful. I’m so happy for you both!” The princess turned toward Wendy; she was standing beside me and I was afraid that she was going to faint at any moment. “As Cosmic Callisto’s guardian, tell me: is there anything that I can do for you? I don’t know what we would have done without her quick thinking and wits.”

  Wendy pressed her clasped hands against her chest. “Just keep advocating for Martian rights. That’s what you can do for me.”

  Pallene gently tugged the princess’s sleeve. The princess bent down and Pallene quietly whispered into her ear. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to return to the press, who are waiting for me outside. My officers will escort you all to my ship when you’re ready.”

  Pallene pulled me aside as the princess headed out the door. “I’m going to need you to come with me to the princess’s ship so we can put our report together on what happened and so she can present her gift to you.” I instantly became dizzy with excitement. I wondered what the princess had in store for me!

  It took me about an hour and a half to summarize everything for Pallene. She wanted to know every single detail, even small things like the name of the shop that Anthe and I stopped at before we went back to my hotel room. “Is the princess going to continue with her jewelry showcase at the other locations?”

  Pallene looked up from her keyboard. “Oh, most definitely yes! We’re heading to Jupiter after this and we’re going to give a refund to everyone who didn’t get a chance to see the jewelry showcase at this location.” That was good.

  “Do you know what’s going to happen to Josuke and Mr. Hayate?” I knew the princess wasn’t going to press any charges against Josuke, but I couldn’t see things ending well for Mr. Hayate after everything that had happened.

  “He quit his job, actually. He said he’s going to leave the Titan as soon as possible.” I guess he didn’t really have much of a choice: either quit or wait to be fired. I wondered if
he was going to take Josuke with him.

  The video phone next to Pallene’s keyboard started to ring; she balanced the phone receiver between her cheek and elbow as she continued to type. After she hung up the phone, she said with a smile on her face, “The princess is ready to see us. She will be here any second.”

  I nervously started to rub my hands together. Should I accept whatever gift she might have for me? I mean, the publicity alone that I received by standing next to her was enough. I should have told her that was enough for me. I shouldn’t accept anything else from her. While I was still thinking about how I was going to graciously decline anything the princess was going to give me, she walked through the door with two golden wristlet bags in her hands.

  “Here, these are for you, my dear.” I placed both bags in my lap. I pulled on the braided drawstring to the first bag, and it was filled to the brim with sovereign silver, which was official currency for Planet X. My lips started to tremble. I looked up at the princess. “No, not a single word. It would be wrong for me to not pay you for your services.”

  The second bag was lying flat on its side on my lap. Just what could be in there? I tugged on the braided drawstring; low and behold, resting inside of the bag was one of The Rings of Saturn. “No, I can’t accept this!” I placed the bag back into the princess’s hand.

  “Yes, you can! And you will because I want you to have it!” The princess took the ring out of the gold bag; she slipped it over my hand and onto my wrist. “This is one of the smaller rings; it’s referred to as an inner ring. It’s not as large as the outer rings. Some of the outer rings are so huge that you can wear them as a necklace.”

  I hung my head down. “I don’t deserve something like this. It’s far too precious.”

  “If it weren’t for you, I would have lost all of The Rings of Saturn. I want you to have it as a special reminder of what you did not only for me, but the entire royal family, and as a symbol of our friendship.”

  I felt a lump forming in my throat. I pushed it back down. “Your Highness. For you to consider me a friend, I feel so honored.”

  The princess pulled me in for a hug. “Who wouldn’t want to be friends with an intelligent young lady such as yourself? You have a very bright future ahead of you, Cosmic Callisto Caprica. I can feel it in my bones.”

  The lump in my throat came back at full force and brought with it all of the emotions that I had been trying to hold back. I pressed the ring up against my chest as tears ran down my cheeks.

  After my meeting with the princess, I went back to my hotel room and helped Wendy pack up our belongings. Wendy and I said our goodbyes to Mimas and everyone else before we boarded my dad’s flying saucer. As Wendy drove away from the Titan, I looked down at the ring that the princess had given me. Even out here in the darkness of space, with only the light from the inside of the saucer casting down on it, the ring’s rainbow crystals shone beautifully. I wondered to myself if my future was going to be as bright as the jewels on this ring.

  The End

  Acknowledgments

  Before I thank anyone else, I want to thank God for making all of this possible. What I do with you and where would I be without you in my life. I’d probably be an even bigger mess then what I already am. I seriously can’t believe that I’m typing up my acknowledgments that are going to be placed in the back of my first book. This sci-fi mystery novel has been two years in the making. In July of 2014, I tried to kickstart Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn. Unfortunately I didn’t reach my goal. After 30 days I was only able to raise a little over 600 dollars. I can’t even put into words how disappointed I felt. Not with the people around me but in myself. I put everything that I had into making my kickstarter a success. But I failed, not miserable though, but I still failed nonetheless. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself or my manuscript. For the longest time I thought that maybe this was a sign that I wasn’t meant to be a writer or that I should just give up on Cosmic Callisto Caprica. For a few months, I left my manuscript alone. I allowed cobwebs to grow around all of my social media pages and I tried to forget about my book. I didn’t have the money to do any of the things that I wanted to do for my project. So I might as well just forget about it. That’s how I felt until March 6 of 2014. On that day a selfie that I posted on Tumblr for “Blackout Day” went viral. My selfie gained over 60,000 likes and reblogs over the course of four days. Suddenly, I was bombarded with all of these messages from people asking me not only about myself but my abandoned book project that was in limbo. All of the messages and inquires helped to breathe new life into my project and I felt like I should try again. So on September 22, 2015, a little over a year since I tried to kickstart Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn, I launched my Indiegogo campaign. I had no idea what was going to happen. But I knew that if I sat around thinking about the possibility of failure and allowing that to hold me back I would never get anything done. My Indiegogo campaign surpassed all of my expectations. I managed to raise 108% of what I asked for. In 2014 when I launched my kickstarter, at the end I managed to raise 30% of what I asked for and a year later I raised 108%!! Sometimes I still can’t believe that I achieved my goal! I’m so blessed because I’ve had the opportunity to do everything that I wanted for Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn. I have a gorgeous book cover, in book illustrations, I had two professional editors look over my work and a book trailer! What more could I ask for. Well it would be cool if my book was made into a movie and directed by Ava DuVernay with Amanda Sternberg starting as Cosmic Callisto Caprica. Look at me putting my dream cast together. There are so many people that I have to thank for helping to make all of this possible.

  I want to thank my mom for supporting me and donating money towards BOTH of my campaigns. For listening to me as I talk about how nervous I was about launching both of my crowdfunding campaigns. For just always being there for me no matter what. I want to thank my dad, the late Lemuel Darnell Chester III. I clearly and obviously inherited your unique ability to write endlessly and if you hadn’t passed that gene on to me there’s no way I would be the writer that I am today. I love you and I miss you and I wish you were here to see all of this. My brothers, thank you for putting up with me muttering over my laptop and having an existential crisis nearly every week about my book project. My sweet little nephew, my little Lem, thank you for putting up with my grouchy attitude every time you walked through my bedroom door while I was trying to write. Auntie love you very much.

  For my girlfriends, Christina, Jackie, and Audra. You guys have always been there for me. Thank you for putting up with every panicky phone call, every stressed out text message, every message I ever sent you through Facebook frantically telling you how I wasn’t sure I was going to meet my deadline. Richard, thank you for opening up your home to me and turning your living room into a recording studio. Thank you for putting my pitch video together for my kickstarter project. To all of my friends and family both on and off of the Eastern Shore, thank you for supporting me.

  To my editors Beth of BZHercules.com and Lourdes, thank you for every red mark, every crossed line, and plot suggestion. I’m not going to lie those lovely little suggestions bubbles that appeared on the side of my manuscript stressed me out but my manuscript makes a lot more sense because of those little bubbles. I’ve received a lot of gorgeous art over the past two years for Cosmic Callisto Caprica and I want to say thank you to all of the artists who participated in both my Kickstarter campaign and my Indiegogo campaign. But there are three artists I want to thank personally. Thank you Maya for the beautiful book cover. After I read the first few chapters of Monster Pop, I remember thinking to myself how I had to have you as my cover artists. Catia, you’ve done so much for me. You were there for both of my crowdfunding campaigns and you’ve made so much art for my in between those campaigns. Thank you so much for every beautiful rendition of Cosmo that you’ve put together for me. Last but not least, Benji. Benji, Benji, Benji Cam
pbell! There aren’t enough words to express my gratitude. Really, what haven’t you done for me? You put together my beautiful business cards, several illustrations, and most of all, my book trailer! You’re such an awesome guy and I appreciate all of your hard work.

  Of course I saved the best for last. My Indiegogo supporters. Thank you all for your generous donations towards Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn. Other than the overwhelming amount of anxiety I felt about actually writing my story and presenting it to the public. My extreme lack of funds prevented me from being able to produce my book. The indie self-published book market is flooded with so many books. I knew that in order to gain any kind of recognition, I would need money to produce a well-polished and nice looking book. Which I was able to do so thanks to the $2,245 dollars that you all donated towards Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn. There’s only one thing that I want to say to you, my Indiegogo backers for helping my dream to come true.

  About the Author

  Sophia Chester lives in Cambridge, MD with her mom, stepdad, four siblings, her rowdy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-watching little nephew Lem, and her cranky cat, Neko. If she’s not watching Sailor Moon and wondering why the bad guys can’t attack the sailor scouts while they’re transforming, she’s probably hunched over her laptop typing up another sci-fi story and asking herself why she decided to become a writer in the first place. Sophia currently works for the Maryland State Senate as a clerk. Sophia loves photography, going to church, spending way too much money in Wal-Mart (it’s literally the only place to shop at in town), sleeping, reading YA novels, and overanalyzing children’s cartoons to see if they have some sort of deeper meaning. Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn is her first novel.