Scene 7: Failure is Not an Option
Meanwhile, about ten planetary sectors ahead of Planet Geolyte, was the Planet Starrii, home to a powerful goddess of the same name. The planet was made of several layers of rings all made of pure marble with a pinkish hue, and lines made of hollow glass carried a glowing pink energy throughout the whole planet. In the very center stood the official temple where Goddess Starrii resided, complete with marble columns much in the style of Greek architecture, as well as smaller dome-shaped houses where the goddess' official Starriian oracles lived. On the outer edges of this central sphere of the planet was where the training fields were located, and here, 15-year-old Lolly Paluteena worked hard to complete the entire training course for the 100th time that day.
"Just…one more…" she gasped, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. She gripped her trademark lollipop-shaped weapon that was about as big as her body and pulled the lollipop part out of the stick part and wound up a throw, aiming for the targets across the field. She swung it like a disc, and as she expected, the disc hit the bullseye square-on.
But she wasn't finished yet. As soon as the disc came back, boomerang-style, she threw it again, and again, and again. All ten targets, all bull's-eyes. Exactly as she'd been trained to accomplish.
Finally, there was the javelin toss. She ran down the other way on the running track to get a head start. When she reached the trampoline at the end, she bounced on it as hard as she could and at the very apex of her jump, threw the stick. Yes! It landed right at the end of the field.
"Did…it…" She collapsed face-first on the marble ground in exhaustion right as the timer went off.
"Lolly!" shouted her 17-year-old cousin Sophitia, rushing up from the sides to help Lolly to her feet. Her mom and dad went to fetch the lollipop disc, while her aunt and uncle retrieved the stick javelin. They helped her back to the house for a well-deserved rest.
Their house was a multi-storied structure, with multiple domes stacked on top of one another. It was where the entire Paluteena family, which included the myriad of cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, little nephews and nieces, and even a few second-cousins, lived.
"Honestly, Lolly, you're working yourself to death! Literally! Can't you give it a rest?" complained Sophitia. She squeezed a cold wet towel over Lolly's head for relief.
"Can't," replied Lolly, lying on the bed. "Unlike you, Goddess Starrii's tests don't come easily to me at all, so I have to work practically ten times as hard as you guys. I can't afford even one mistake tomorrow!"
"Chill out. It wasn't that bad," reassured Sophitia.
"Not for you," griped Lolly. "But everyone's gonna be watching. Aunt Calypso, Grandma Hecuba, Uncle Theseus, everyone! I dunno, Sophitia…" A terrifying thought came into her head, and she hiccupped in dismay. "What if…what if I fail?"
"You won't fail, Lolly. I know it," asserted Sophitia. "All you have to do is take a deep breath, relax, and let it come to you. Don't think about everyone watching, and don't even think about failing. It's simple!"
Lolly shivered. "E—easy for you to say…"
Sophitia sighed in dismay. What could she do to make her little cousin feel better? Almost all the girls in their family had successfully become oracles for Goddess Starrii, including her, yet none of them seemed to have nearly as much trouble as Lolly was at this moment. Why? She eyed her little cousin's trusty lollipop prop which was her namesake, and thought that it was also quite interesting that no one else in their family carried anything around with them, let alone a giant lollipop that was a discus/javelin combo. Right when she wondered whether the two facts were related at all, she got an idea. She then whispered, "Lolly? Remember when you showed me that
Wind Sailer that you made?"
Lolly's eyes grew wide. "…Yeah? You mean Sigma? What about it?"
"I remember being surprised that you could make your own, when you would need lots of other people to help you out with that. How'd you do that? I mean…why?"
"I dunno…I saw my big brother with one, and thought I'd give it a try…and it was a lot of fun. But with the test being tomorrow, I haven't found the time to—"
"Go."
Lolly looked confused. "Now? It's almost nighttime—"
"If you really like it, maybe you should fly it one last time. You know, before you have to be Goddess Starrii's oracle for life."
Lolly thought hard. Finally, she slipped out of bed and said, "…Well when you put it that way…okay. One last time."
Sophitia smiled. "Enjoy it as much as you can. I'll leave the night light out on the roof for you."
While everyone was asleep, Lolly snuck up to the attic and brought out the Wind Sailer named Sigma that she made a long time ago and tuned up every now and then. She brought it up to the rooftop and made a few adjustments to the board and the protective shell designed to have redirect wind flow away from her face. The glow of the night light was a little dim, but bright enough for her to work by. Finally, she aimed the board so that its hovering mechanism would activate immediately, and hopped on it.
For about two hours, she sailed around the night sky, taking in the marvelous view of the hundreds upon thousands of stars up there. She felt an odd sense of excitement and serenity at the same time. Who knew what wonders were out there?
The next morning was the day of the test. At the appointed time, Lolly marched onward to Goddess Starrii's temple all by herself, with her signature lollipop weapon in tow. As she climbed the wide stairs leading up to the column-supported temple, she narrowed her focus. Everything she ever did in her life was to prepare for this very day. Like her mother, her grandmother, her aunts, and her cousins including Sophitia, she would follow in their footsteps and become a powerful oracle for their goddess. She couldn't afford to blow it now. Not ever.
She stepped through into the temple's only chamber, its ceiling about 10 times her height. Though the wide-open room carried a mood of isolation, she knew that the entire Paluteena family was watching silently from the sides, on the ground beyond the columns and from the crevices in the rooftop above (if they were already oracles). She stopped right where she was supposed to and turned her head up to the dormant form of Goddess Starrii, who was currently posing as a statue to recharge her energy. But now that Lolly was here, the goddess wouldn't remain dormant for long.
A wave of pink energy glowed from the statue, and Goddess Starrii awoke and freed herself. She floated in the air, still glowing with that intense ethereal light. Lolly had to sharply tilt her head up just to keep her in view.
"Lolly Paluteena. Are you ready?" The goddess spoke with a powerful booming voice that nearly shook the whole area.
Lolly kept her composure and responded, "Yes, ma'am."
"Then begin."
Immediately, energy cannons materialized out of the columns surrounding them. They fired a volley of highly concentrated glowing pink mana orbs at the goddess. Lolly was prepared for this, though, and smacked away all of them successfully with her lollipop weapon while covering the whole perimeter around the goddess. Even though Lolly knew that the goddess could simply absorb them (in fact, the goddess was the one controlling these mana orbs and cannons), she knew that at soon as one touched the goddess, she would fail. She couldn't let that happen.
The cannons stopped firing as soon as they were hit with a deflected mana blast. But then they detached themselves from the walls, hovered, charged towards the goddess. Of course, all of them were floating thanks to Goddess Starrii's advanced telekinetic abilities. Lolly pulled the lollipop off the stick and threw the discus at all the flying cannon, hitting them square-on. She didn't miss a single cannon.
Finally, all the cannons which weren't totaled yet crawled together to form a super machine that acted as a living entity. It roared and charged at Lolly. She quickly spied a weak point, which was a glowing red sensor eye, and charged right back. Right when they were about to collide, she thrust the javelin stick right into the weak spot with all her might and shattered it.
But the test wasn't over yet.
Goddess Starrii telekinetically broke the ground from underneath Lolly's feet, sending her into the air. This was the part of the test that would be random for every participant. Lolly realized that the chunk of ground she was standing on was shaped a lot like Sigma; complete with accelerator and brake buttons.
Once she got the hang of the machine (and the telekinesis wore off), she turned her attention to the mass of stalactites that suddenly started raining overhead. She picked up both pieces of her lollipop weapon, clicked them together, and swatted away all the stalactites that were aiming for the goddess.
Finally, Goddess Starrii let her land and hop off the Wind Sailer imitation. She congratulated, "Very good. But the final test will be the most difficult of all. I shall probe into your mind and see your character and your future at the same time. If I see that someday you shall betray or otherwise fail to fulfill your duties, you will fail immediately. Do you understand?"
Lolly took a deep breath. She stood up straight and replied, "…Yes ma'am."
"Very well."
Lolly squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to cave into the intense psychic pressure that was being forced upon her brain. This was the part of the test that was nearly impossible to prepare for. Success or failure depended entirely on the kind of personality a Starriian had and how strong her sense of duty was. Luckily, Lolly's family had known for almost 15 years that she was a devoted, hard worker who could keep secrets and never betray her friends, so they assured her that this part would be a cinch.
Goddess Starrii saw all these things. She saw that Lolly had an unwavering sense of duty, a strong moral code, and would even die for her if the situation called for it. Good. Then she looked into Lolly's future, of how she would successfully take her place among the oracles…
And she saw a never-ending rain of multicolored meteors that none of them could handle. Not even Lolly. And…was there a ship made of the same meteor ore that passed by the planet just a few seconds before…? The implosion of their world, and a laugh of triumph from an eyeball-shaped planet many, many, light-years away…
No. She couldn't let this future happen. She had to change it somehow. And there was only one way to do so. That one alien, that boy on the ship...
It broke her heart to say this, but it had to be done.
"…You fail."
Lolly's eyes shot open. Her heart skipped a beat. "…What?" she gasped, barely able to breathe.
"In the future, a faraway planet shall attack our world and doom us to extinction, and the one who shall assist it…is you."
Lolly couldn't believe her ears. This had to be a dream. Why would Goddess Starrii say something like that, anyway? Faraway planet? Extinction? What kind of explanation WAS this?
Goddess Starrii shot a beam of mana from her eyes at Lolly, who barely dodged out of the way. The edge beam slightly singed her skin, though. Nope, not a dream, unfortunately.
In dismay, Lolly hopped on the Wind Sailer imitation and zoomed out of there as fast as she could, barely dodging more mana beams. Her head raced. Why? She really would have passed! She should have! She was doing so well, and just had to fail, only at the end, because of some…faraway planet? But it was Goddess Starrii's word, and she was never wrong, so there was no questioning what she said. Lolly then began to panic as to what she should do.
There was no escape yet, though. More mana beams shot from turrets that spontaneously appeared throughout the town. She found that she couldn't maneuver as well as she could've on Sigma, so she quickly flew over to her house, switched the fake one for her real one, and blasted off right as a mana beam hit where she was a second ago, frying the fake one.
She had no choice but to fly high into the sky, away from the range of those beams. But Goddess Starrii would be able to sense her anywhere on the planet. There was only one solution; fly as far away from the planet as possible.
But she remembered the stories from the goddess about how difficult it was for Starriians to breathe all the way up there, so she pulled down Sigma's protective shell to trap in the air. Hopefully, it would enable her to breathe all the way out there.
The scenery changed from the blue sky of day to the black, starry sky that was normally associated with it. But she was too entrenched in misery to notice or care. She thought back to the thousands of cruel and nasty stares drilling their way into the back of her head. Why must so great a punishment be issued for failing that last itty-bitty little part of a test? Simple. Because it was the key to everyone's honor, and failure was a crime punishable by death or banishment. She chose banishment, but she was beginning to wonder whether the former was more desirable. After all, she worked her entire life to pass it, and that was her one and only shot at it. So that must've meant she was a failure and a disgrace to the Paluteena family all this time.
Suddenly, a massive shadow loomed over her, and she looked up. It was the biggest spaceship she had ever seen in her life, looming over her pitifully tiny one by comparison. It was made from millions of molten rocks as far as the eye could see. Lolly was frightened at first, and desperately looked for a way around it, but stopped when she saw the captain of the ship through the only window that was placed almost conveniently for her.
He was a young man with two big blue horns on either side of his head who still looked very much like a boy, but there was something about him that was special and different from all the Starriian guys she was used to seeing. She flew a little closer, almost unconsciously, and when he finally turned his gaze towards her's, there was no more doubt. He was the one who could make everything all right again…perhaps the one who she was destined for her whole life.
"Goddess Starrii!" Sophitia finally recovered enough to speak. "Is Lolly…really going to betray us?"
The goddess looked up at her in the rafters and replied, "…No. I cast the dice. Now, we can only wait and hope that what I did was for the better."
To be continued…