“Let’s rock and roll, gals!” Space Ranger Lass Hilda shouted as she pulled down her space helmet, opened the airlock, and jumped into the vacuum. She died almost instantly. As her frozen body floated into deep space, the rest of the Space Rangers bowed their heads in mourning.

“Another one bites the dust,” Space Ranger Xio Xando said, shaking her head.

The ship collided with the Wandering Planet QC-41309 and exploded into dust.

The Space Rangers were not successful in their attempt to stop the hijacking of the Wandering Planet by the likes of the Space Pirate faction, but neither were the Space Pirates successful in their attempt to hijack an entire planet because, well, that’s sorta the deal here when you are tying to capture a literal planet. What does that even mean...

Anyway, the story isn’t about the Rangers or the Pirates or the Planets... It’s bigger than that. These were all just specks in the larger being--the Great Galaxy that encompassed all life in a billion star systems.

Expand the view out and you’ll see that the Wandering Planet was just a single cell organism in the lifeblood of the Great Galaxy... A galaxy whose name was Baetrix.

You see, all the stars in the night sky aren’t just twinkling little orbs. They’re body parts to Baetrix, a being of such immense size and luster that she is not even faintly aware of the goings on in the tiny planets dotting her body. These stars work in tandem, rotate around to provide all the energy she needs to walk around the Galactic City of Myrrh, also known as Balarand.

And Baetrix loved to walk around the city of Balarand, to explore the sights and sounds of the dark energy all around her. She put her hair (made up of thousands of star systems) up into a bun and browsed Balarand’s famous marketplace--Lightyear Plaza.

You could buy anything here, if you were a galaxy. You aren’t, though, so you can only sit here and wonder about what it must be like there.

She browsed across booths of sellers hawking their supernova sundaes, best in the multiverse they said. She perused black hole earrings--this one in the shape of a heart.

Baetrix considered buying something to take back home to her parents, the galaxies that birthed her so many billions of years ago, but she did not have the credits to spare. She needed to buy a few asteroid belts for an art project over at the Galactic Academy. Just a few more artificial galaxies built, and if she could sustain life in more than 10% of them, she’d finally pass and graduate into full galactic adulthood.

However, none of the sellers were actually displaying any asteroid belts. None to spare, a few of them said. Haven’t had one in thousands of years, said one who clearly wasn’t truthful. It seemed that Baetrix was never going to get what she wanted, never going to graduate from the Galactic Academy and become a star artificer like she always wanted...

But then...

But then.

That’s when she saw her.

On the other side of Lightyear Plaza, far away from the hustle and bustle of shops and shopping, Baetrix saw a dazzling nebula-filled woman she had never encountered before. A gorgeous, sparkling lady of the infinite luster of star systems forming every single moment around her. And a necklace of asteroid belts around her neck.

Baetrix felt called to approach the woman. Her ethereal footsteps took her further and further through the etherflow until she found herself face to face with this tall, luminescent beauty.

All she could say was, “I like your eyes.” A large blush of radiant red appeared across her cheeks.

The woman giggled. “Who are you supposed to be?”

“I’m Baetrix. I’m about to graduate the Galactic Academy and become one of the greatest Great Galaxies in the multiverse.”

“That’s funny. I was sent here to this market to find a woman named Baetrix,” the woman said. “I suppose that’s you?”

“I can’t imagine there’s anyone else out there like me. I’m really unique.”

“Yeah, you are. Well, I ought to introduce myself.” The woman curtsied and then smiled. “My name is L’hoshi, and I’m the headmaster’s daughter.”

“The headmaster of... the whole Galactic Academy?!”

“The very same one.”

“And you came for me?!”

“Indeed,” L’hoshi said. “I’m here to offer you a research position once you graduate, with a full scholarship to continue your studies.”

Baetrix put her hands to her face and nearly fainted from shock.

***

Beatrice flipped to the next page, which was blank. She looked up and cleared her throat so as to suppress a giggle. Readjusted her thick glasses.

On the chair across from her, Emi sat, eyes lit up with eagerness. She snapped her fingers, and the manuscript vanished from Beatrice’s hands, only to appear in her own a moment later.

“So?” Emi asked.

“So?”

“What did you think? Is it going to be a good story? I’m going to add pictures in. It’ll be a children’s book. I’m trying to find an artist who is good at painting the night sky.”

“Uh...” Beatrice blinked several times, trying to process what a polite response might be in this situation. “Emi L’Hime, you’re a genius inventor, and I think with some practice, you just might become a great author too.”

Emi frowned. “That bad, huh?” Beatrice raised her finger to stammer out a response, but before she could, Emi erupted into giggles. “Oh, don’t worry. I know it sucks. I just wanted to see if you’d say so.”

“Well, you can always edit it later.”

Emi shrugged. “The publishers will never pick it up. It’s just something for a fun hobby.”

“And to name the characters after us? Kinda...”

“Is it really okay?”

“Kinda awesome, I was going to say. I really appreciate it.” Beatrice, with some effort, stood up from her chair and walked over to Emi, who of course snapped again and vanished for a second until she reappeared on her feet.

Emi wrapped her arms around Beatrice, a hug so fearsome it could have crushed a rock golem. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”