Sparky's Arc

Chapter 1 of 10

Sparky drifted through the open void, his small glow flickering against the dark. He wanted every creature in the galaxy at his festival — even the ones no one had ever named. His bottled notes had floated too slow. His own light reached too short. He needed something bigger. He carried the pulsing meteor fragment to the crystal observatory, where Melody Starling waited at the lens. She turned the fragment in her hand. "This will speak," she said. "Loud enough to cross the dark." Melody set the fragment inside the observatory's beam. A small star moth landed on her finger, wings shimmering. She whispered Sparky's invitation into its wings, then let it fly into the fragment's light. The beam carried the moth's song outward in a great rolling pulse. Sparky watched the wave roll past planets and stars. For a long moment, nothing answered. Then, from somewhere very far, a sound came back — soft, colored, alive. A ribbon of light and music bloomed in the void, answering his call. Melody lowered the lens. "Something heard you," she said. Sparky's glow brightened. The festival was no longer only his idea. Someone, somewhere, was already on their way.