Ad Astra 2: Youth and Nostalgia

Chapter 1: Light Bulb!

As promised, I am going to try and focus a bit more on the civilian lives of the next generation of the Flynn family. This story happens 8 years after Encounter at Alpha Centauri, my first story in this Ad Astra series. By now, Christopher is 12 years old and has a little sister named Erica, who is now 7. A small-scale alliance has been made with the Thoroni and Soruna (although the Soruna reptilians were difficult to negotiate with on anything, given their bad tempers), as well as the V'malnons (who were the first non-Centaurian species besides Meap and Species 1), T'larans, and the I'lin. Sorry for this long intro; I need to keep my ideas down on virtual paper so I can keep them straight and consistent! The setting is the early summer vacation of 2038 with Chris and Erica sitting under a tree in the backyard—some things just don't change from one generation to another, do they? :D

"So, Erica, what should we do today?" Chris asked his sister, who, given her unusually-strong reading capabilities, was reading a Stumpleberry Finkbat book—the book series and movies were considered sets of classic works by now. She shrugged in indifference while reading on, much to the frustration of her brother. "Man, is that all you read?" Phineas was looking out the window with Isabella into the backyard. "Are you sure they'll…?" asked Isabella before being interrupted by Phineas with "It's just a matter of time, if I know them—and I do." Phineas smiled at his wife, who went back to cooking lunch. Phineas sat down on the couch and said "Computer, bring up diplomatic progress." As he was checking up on the progress of relations with other species, Isabella was prompted to ask from the kitchen "Hey, Phineas?" "Yes, dear?" "Why did you reject promotion?" "To Admiral? Because I already have all the authority of an Admiral." "But you're still considered a Captain by rank—why don't you want to take the honor of being the first Admiral for TerraFleet? " Phineas thought and said "it's the Captains who get in on all the fun of exploring. Admirals sit around, go to meeting after meeting, run boring affairs, and don't go anywhere else besides up the ranks as a 1-Star through 4-Star. Besides, as a founder, I am also the TerraFleet Commander." "I see…I should've known. There's no way they could get you behind a desk" said Isabella with a smile.

Back outside, Erica was defending herself in her love of reading the old story saga. "And what's wrong if I like to read? Besides, this series is well-planned and well-written in so many ways!" Chris still couldn't believe how sophisticated her speech was compared to his own. "Well why don't you go watch the movies and leave it at that?" "Because they take several liberties in many of them. They're not entirely like the books. But I must admit they gave me a new view of magic and how it would look like if sent from a wand…" Instantly, Chris sat up, saying "that's it! I know what we're gonna do today!" Phineas heard this from inside the house, saying "ah, those were the days…" to his wife. "Yes…yes, they were…" Soon after Chris said this, he said "Computer, bring up outdoor lab!" Instantly, a "lab" built by Chris and his father came up from underground, giving access to all equipment while maintaining an open-air environment.

Chris brought up a contact screen, looked up some material suppliers quickly, and ordered necessary parts that were set to arrive in a half hour. Half an hour later, Chris was busy at work designing high-tech wands for himself, his sister, and his parents. Once complete, he consulted with Erica about spells to put in. "Disarm will disarm an opponent by knocking their wands out of their hands." "Dis…arm…got it" said Chris as he programmed the wands. "Enfogata will…okay, how about I just write a list of them?" "That'd be a bit more convenient…" said Chris rolling his eyes while smiling. In under an hour, the wands were finished and ready for use. They invited their cousin Victoria Fletcher, cousins Xavier and Fred Johnson, and their friends—Jonathan (Irving and Katie's son), Michelle (Buford and Adyson's daughter, a Fireside Girl), Samir (Baljeet and Ginger's son), Lauren Im (Geon and Holly's daughter, a Fireside Girl), and fraternal twins Thomas and Amanda Leyva (Peter and Gretchen's children, Amanda being a Fireside Girl and Thomas being a Patriot Boy).

Yes, you all can see that this story is a massive deviation from what I normally write. I've never really focused on civilian life for a whole story, so this is kind of all new to me. I would appreciate any feedback I can get on the complete story. I also have to make up my own spell names so as not to totally rip off Harry Potter…ugh…Anyways, now it's time to go try them out with their friends, so read on!