Chapter Thirteen - Princess of Phobos

Mars had two moons, and the planet's history with those moons and their inhabitants hadn't always been ideal.

A couple of hundred years ago, during the earliest phases of the terraforming of Mars, plans were drawn up to drop Phobos into the Martian atmosphere.

The inhabitants of Phobos protested. Violently.

The first and only Martian war lasted nineteen hours and cost four thousand lives and billions of dollars before cooler heads prevailed and a bigger catastrophe was averted. At the time, Mars and its two moons were more or less on equal footing.

Now that was no longer the case. Mars was the second most populous planet in the solar system. Billions lived within its domes, and every year they came a little closer to being able to live without.

The moons hadn't lingered too far behind, of course. Being natural satellites of the richest planet in the solar system afforded both a great deal of access to Martian luxuries and prestige. Deimos was widely considered one of the nicest, richest places to live in the solar system. Better even than Mars, at least for the common person.

Phobos... was a different story.

The moon was never thrust through Mars' orbit on purpose, but its decline was noted and very obvious. It was going to crash into Mars eventually. There was little that could be done about it.

The moon had been mostly evacuated. Only the poor and destitute still lived upon it, and no government wanted anything to do with such a failure of a moon. So Phobos made its own government, run by the Goldworth family, who'd instituted themselves as the planet's nobles and done what they could to keep things running on a failing moon.

Then, near the end of the third inter-system war, Ivil was informed that the Earth Alliance wanted to give Phobos that final shove. It would have been a disaster. Either the moon would crash wholesale into Mars, reenacting the whole dinosaur extinction scenario, or it would break apart, tuning into a ring, but not before covering Mars with enough debris to make entering or escaping the planet impossible.

So Ivil moved Phobos.

The move may have splattered a few locals.

Mars was less than pleased about it, but it was better than the alternative.

And since no one really cared about Phobos or its failing government before, they had a few fleeting moments to expand and grow, knowing that their moon was no longer doomed.

Phobos was now home to seven of the top ten greatest casinos in the solar system. It was the place for Martian vice, red light districts, and nefarious intentions.

Mars didn't like it. Deimos didn't like it, and with everyone displeased, Phobos continued to grow as a den of iniquity right on Mars' doorstep.

"So, what's a princess of Phobos doing here, of all places?" Ivil asked.

Aurora chuckled. "I'm hardly a princess," she said.

Twenty-Six, who was receiving a plate from Hawk, turned to stare. "But you look so pretty!" she said. The motion almost sent the contents of her plate spilling, but Hawk was quick enough to save her.

Aurora smiled slightly. "Why thank you. Unfortunately, being pretty isn't one of the primary requirements to princessdom, or to greater nobility. I am a noble, yes, but only of a branch family, and I'm so low on the totem pole that it's barely worth mentioning. As for why I'm here, the Held Together is the only ship departing to where I want to go in a timely manner."

The captain nodded as she passed Hawk her plate. "You were lucky. I was very much tempted to slip away like all of the others when news about that Martian fleet broke out. But we were in the midst of refuelling and half the fuellers decided to run for it."

"We're stuck, then?" Ivil asked.

"No. The bosses whipped the idiots back in line. We're topped up, and at a discount," the captain said. "And it doesn't look like the Martians want to blow Ceres apart. Not that I'd entirely blame them if that's what they were here for."

"Hey now," Hawk said. "I have family on this rock. And only half the locals are pirates, thieves, or scoundrels."

Ivil raised her plate as Hawk came around, and the chef plucked it from her, filling it with... what looked like some sort of pasta with a meaty sauce. It smelled strongly of spices, in a rather pleasant way.

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"Did you see those ships though?" Twenty-Six said as she leaned forwards. "They're so pretty."

"I always thought they were weird," Donny said. His attention was fixed on Hawk as the chef came around to Aurora.

"I think they're quite nice," Ivil said as she started to pick through her meal. None of it was exactly high class stuff. Everything had come out of a can or a box, but it was put together nicely, and she imagined it was fairly calorie and vitamin dense while being very palatable.

"Martian ships are almost all designed with aesthetics in mind nowadays," Aurora said. "Which is something I can appreciate. The older ships were... utilitarian, but hardly nice to look at. Black flying bricks, my father calls them. The newer vessels are much sleeker."

"Did you see that super dreadnought though?" Twenty-Six asked.

"Hard not to," Donny said through a mouthful of grub. "Damn thing is huge."

"Huge but beautiful," Twenty-Six said. "I wonder how many people are on it."

"The complement numbers should be publicly available, I would think," Ivil said. "Or at least rough estimates of them. I can't imagine a ship with such a large crew won't have a few leaks."

"The Martians are good about plugging those," Aurora said. She poked at her food with the end of her fork, then shrugged and chopped a piece off to eat it. "Mm, this is quite good, Mister Hawk."

"Pleasure to hear it," Hawk said with a little bow. He reached the end of the people that needed serving, then made two plates before plating the tray with the leftover in the centre of the table. "Feel free to serve yourselves seconds. I'm going to bring Missy hers. Donny, touch my plate and you're on dishes duty for a month."

"You're not the captain," Donny said with a grin.

"Donny, touch his plate and you're on dishes duty for a month," the captain said. She wasn't even looking, her attention focused on a small tablet scrolling through lines of text.

"Are you securing our departure window?" Ivil asked. The text had dates and times on it, from what she could tell.

"I am. The exodus has mostly calmed down now. I'm hoping Crevice control won't give us trouble as we leave. It would be very much like them to slow everyone down just to be able to charge for a few more hours in-berth."

"It's going to be really chaotic here once that big Martian fleet leaves," Twenty-Six said. "Lot's of ships rushing back all at once."

"I'm counting on it," the captain said. "No one's going to be trying anything... piratical while that fleet's sitting so close to Ceres."

"The Martians won't respond to non-Martian distress calls," Aurora said.

"They might," Ivil said. Not out of a sense of national pride, but because of sheer practicality. "There are a lot of captains itching to do something in that fleet, I bet. Escorting a star dreadnought is probably boring work. Some of them would jump at the opportunity to hunt down some pirates."

"That would be nice," Twenty-Six said. "I don't like pirates. They're so... urgh. They never pay well."

"We've been able to avoid them so far," the captain said. "It helps that the Held Together isn't a desirable target."

"Why's that?" Aurora asked.

The captain gestured around herself. "She's home, but she's old. Pirates make their money grabbing cargo and stealing ships, sometimes by grabbing hostages. A ship like this? It won't come out of a fight in any condition to be resold, and our cargo capacity's nothing special. None of the crew are worth taking as hostages."

Ivil didn't miss that the passengers might be worth the trouble.

Then again, if a pirate knew that she was onboard, would that increase or decrease the odds that they'd try something? She'd made her share of enemies.

In any case, Ivil decided that she didn't care too much. If pirates came around, they'd be taken care of.

What interested her more were the people in the ship with her now. Who was she supposed to love here? Was her soulmate even here, or was it someone she would meet once they arrived near Callisto?

She eyed the people around the table. The captain was... mysterious. She hadn't even gotten a name from her yet. But Ivil felt like maybe the woman was a little too old.

Donny was immediately dismissed.

If he was her soulmate, then Ivil needed to find a new soul.

Which left... the cook, the mechanic, the princess, and the Warmime.

Interesting.

***