Welcome Home

For the third time that day, Alwen checked her dark green duffle bag. Making sure she had all her clothes and personal effects. The bag was pretty heavy and she had to set in on the ground while they were waiting, but in comparison to what her new recruits brought she was traveling pretty lightly. They each had several suitcases and bags strung across their shoulders, too much to easily set down and pick up like she could. Alwen had made sure to get several sets of Kimono in the colors of Ashendra’s healers for them, and had also made sure they were wearing them today.

The four of them shifted uncomfortably as they adjusted to their strange new uniform, but otherwise they wore the clothes well. Or, as well as could be expected. Menda and Kana had been the easiest since their body types were pretty similar to Alwen’s. Vira had also received a similar cut but had elected to modify them to be a bit more revealing than Alwen’s, some of the other waiting crewmen snuck glances at Vira whenever they thought she wasn’t looking.

She of course had noticed and leaned in to whisper “I see men are still men, aliens or not” to Kana.

Foru had been a little harder to deal with and had to spend a couple days on Mars so that Madam Ito could personally get his measurements. He was taller and broader than most Torweni, but not so thick as to be comparable to the bigger Humans like Limey or Gabe. Alwen wasn’t able to go with him since she had cargo manifests to look over, equipment to secure for transport, and new patient records to deal with. But his visit to Noctis had apparently been very pleasant, especially since he got to bunk with Gato’s newest recruits. They had apparently bonded enough during their trip that he was standing with them while they waited.

Alwen was feeling very giddy and had to keep herself from bouncing up and down as a distant grey blot appeared on the horizon. Soon she realized that no one would have noticed if she started bouncing like an excited child because the moment the silhouette of the Astaroth came into the view the whole dock burst with excitement and anticipation.

It had been months since their desperate retreat from a Kruhur ambush, a time were everyone’s nerves were pushed to their limits. But as the Astaroth descended into the bowl of Mount Doom’s caldera Alwen felt a little teary eyed.

It wasn’t the same ship she had seen on her first day with lieutenant Karega, she had received extensive repairs and had part of her conning tower had been blasted off during the Venom’s ambush. But a part of Alwen’s heart would always know the Astaroth no matter how much she changed. The ship sank lower through the air and touched the water with spray of water that glittered like diamonds.

Alwen heard a gasp from Vira and Menda as they got their first real look at the ship that would be their home for the foreseeable future. They had taken the mark just like Alwen, but unlike Alwen they’d never even seen the Astaroth, let alone set foot on it. She watched as they subconsciously reached through the folds of their robes to touched the upraised scars of their marks. Even Kana’s hand strayed towards his heart.

The Astaroth slowed down as it pulled into port where her crew, both new and old, waited to come aboard. As it pulled past Alwen she took the chance to finally catalogue all the changes she had received during the repairs. The first thing that stuck out was the new black lettering at the bow. There in big bold letters were the words BC-01 Astaroth the Indomitable. The new epithet had been announced during the ceremony for Alwen’s mark, and she felt pride fill her chest as she saw it. Lucifer had earned the epithet the Undaunted for being fearless in combat, and they had earned this one for facing the worst life could throw at them and coming out alive. Alwen still had flashbacks to those days of endless stress and panic, the only thing that kept her going were all the people she had to help.

The second thing she noticed was the new cannon set into the ships bow, a replica of the very same weapon on the Lucifer that had been their salvation. Alwen wasn’t sure how the shield breaker cannon worked exactly, but she saw the results of its deadly power in a recording distributed after the battle. The power in a weapon like that dwarfed the power of standard pulse cannons,

The third and most significant change was the shorter conning tower. The old one had been twice as tall with antenna and satellite dishes poking out. But that had proven to be a vital weak point in the old design after a well placed shot had knocked out all their communications and sensors. The new conning tower was shorter, with much less exposed equipment. It took away from the ships natural gravitas, but Alwen would take that over an exposed weak point any day.

She also noticed some new turret mounts that she didn’t have the technical knowledge to recognize, though she had heard from Chief Heizer that they were working on some new chaff and flare systems to help support their anti-missile systems. Whatever that meant. Alwen was not an expert in weapon systems, spaceship or otherwise. She was a doctor and the newest addition she was most antsy to see was within the ship.

As the Astaroth pulled into port a rope was tossed over the side to be received by dock workers who then expertly tied the rope to large metal mooring ties. A ramp was then extended over the port side and gently laid against the stone pier. The crowd cheered as the ship came to a full stop and Alwen doubted that an armed battalion could have kept them from rushing to examine their newly rebuilt home.

Alwen and her new recruits were closer to the end of the line that quickly formed, but they didn’t have to wait long. Lieutenant Karega was standing at the top of the boarding ramp passing out file folders to each of the division chiefs boarding. He gave Alwen a dazzling smile as he passed her a folder and said “Chief Djani, glad to see you chose to stay with us.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She returned his smile “Who else would patch your dumbasses back together? You’d be doomed without me.” She said smugly.

He laughed merrily at her retort, “Indeed, get settled in, there’s an officers meeting 1400. Don’t be late.”

Alwen nodded, confirming that she would be there on time, and passed the lieutenant. She led her new division through the port side hatch and deep within the ship.

Vira jogged up besides Alwen “Who was that?”

“Lieutenant Karega, he’s second only to the captain.”

“You weren’t lying about some humans looking like Olken, but you didn’t tell me they would be so pretty.”

Alwen saw the dreamy look in Vira’s eyes and laughed “Don’t get any ideas, A, he’s your superior officer.”

“That makes it all the more alluring” she protested, interrupting Alwen in the proscess.

“And B, your fishing in the wrong hole. He wont take your bait” Alwen said with a glance towards the ample bait Vira had to offer. It also occurred to her that almost all Torweni dating euphemisms were fishing based.

Vira sighed “I take the Terrans don’t have any wiggle room on that front.”

Alwen frowned “Not in this case, but others do.”

Vira nodded and then jerked her head up as she had a realization, “Hey, um weird this never came up. But are there limits to intimacy among crew?”

Alwen chuckled “I’m surprised it took you this long to ask, but no. As long as you keep it from affecting your duties then what you do behind closed doors is no ones business. In fact half our job is dealing with new STD’s spreading through the ship.”

“It’ll be just like collage then” Vira said with a cheeky grin.

“I’ll have to take your word on that.” Alwen said as she turned a corner and stepped in front of the new med-bay.

The old med bay had been very different to this one. Previously it had been two of the ship’s standard supply rooms with the connecting wall knocked out. But after the failed boarding and the slew of wounded sailors it became apparent that they needed a real dedicated facility. The Astaroth had been lucky enough to never suffer such a critical blow to its crew, but now the weakness had been highlighted they would never be caught in the same position. This new med-bay had been built from the ground up with its purpose in mind and looked more like a small hospital ward than a small clinic.

The new room had more space for recovery beds, along with two surgery theaters, a small area for private examinations, and a much more comprehensive lab set up. Along with the larger room there was a doorway that led to a hall where their new rooms were held. Previously Alwen and Bachir had been slowed down by how far their rooms were from the Med-bay. Bachir had been resting in his room when the ship was attacked and had been caught up in the fighting, and Alwen had to make a cot out of blankets to get some rest when she needed to remain on hand. Now that wouldn’t be a problem.

“Wow” Kana said as he walked through. While Vira had been chatting with Alwen the other three were busy taking in their surroundings. “I swear the ship didn’t seem this large from the outside. And it looked pretty damn big.”

Alwen smirked “Wait until you see the gym.”

Menda looked around, the fluorescent lights giving her skin a radiant look, like a clear blue sky. “It, it seems too big. This is a spaceship, why is it so big?”

Torwen had some rockets before first contact, even had a few Astronauts. For ships like that there was no margin of error for space travel, but things were different for the Union. They had been traveling the stars for so long that it was mundane. Escaping atmosphere was trivial for a ship of the Astaroth’s size. Only multi kilometer super freighters avoided planets, that was only because normal gravity would crack them in half.

She thought about explaining all that, but seeing Lieutenant Karega had stirred up some old memories “Space madness. We’re going to be in a confined space for months at a time, the extra breathing room helps the crew deal with any potential claustrophobia.”

Kana frowned “Phobia means fear, so what was that first word?”

Alwen cringed, they had been using English more and more, and sometimes Alwen forgot that it wasn’t their first language, or her own for that matter “I don’t know what claustro means exactly, but claustrophobia is a fear of tight spaces, and it’s related to space madness.”

Kana looked contemplative “never even thought about that last part, do people freak out on long journeys?”

“Not in my experience, they mostly fall into a viscous cycle of stupid stunts and recovery time. The bed rest makes them antsy so when they get out they do something dumber and need more bed rest. Might be better or worse this time since half of the crew are new.” Alwen said as she poked her head into the lab.

She had ordered all the equipment herself, so everything was to her liking. Now they just had to properly set everything up and assign workstations. That would have to wait though, she walked to the adjoined hallway and checked each of the new rooms. The one at the end was a little larger than the others and had a small private office for meetings attached to it like Astarte’s cabin.

She dropped her duffle onto her bed and went back into the med-bay. She had to get things squared away before she had to attend the officers meeting and didn’t have time to get settled in.

Rank was a funny thing in the Hellworlder navy, it wasn’t the extremely formal affair she knew the Torweni navy to be. They had loosely based their officer hierarchy off the old American naval tradition, but they played fast and loose with it. Alwen was officially the Chief of Medicine, which made her equal in authority to the Highland and Heizer, who were above everyone in their divisions. But despite being the Chief of Medicine her rank on paper was Lieutenant junior grade, which was on paper above the Bosun Chief Warrant Officer and just below the Lieutenant. Giving her a limited amount of authority over crewman and ensign in other divisions. But that didn’t give the authority to order Butch around in her kitchen, despite Butch being a petty officer 1st class. Because within her own division Butch was the highest ranking member and had total authority over her domain, or so long as Alwen didn’t decide her authority would supersede hers.

Things were even more confusing when you also factored in the Marines. The Marines and Navy were always two separate services on Earth and they had their own command structure to follow, and the Hellworlder navy wasn’t very different in that regard. Gato and Alice were Marine captains, which was equivalent to the ships lieutenant. But so long as Alice and Gato were attached to the Astaroth they were subordinate to Karega, making them equal in standing with Alwen despite outranking her on paper.

It was all very confusing, and apparently the issue was worse amongst the Captains of the Hellworlder fleet. The Captain of a Cruiser was the same rank as a captain of a Destroyer on paper, but everyone knew that the Cruiser Captains like Astarte and Lucile were in charge. But when it came to the Cruiser captains it seemed to be a game of personalities rathe than rank. Alwen’s brother, Modius, would always suborn himself to Astarte and Bell, but he would treat Lucile as an equal. While Bell would follow Astarte and Lucille’s lead. And the Mother/Daughter pair would always approach each other as equals.

And the issue would only get worse as the new Strike fighter divisions came online. They would get their own ranking system based off old aviator tradition, which would complicate things further.

Gato had spent several days teaching Alwen all the nuance to how the Hellworlders approached rank, and she could tell from a casual glance that something really needed to be done about it. Apparently the first ships hadn’t had much of a hierarchy besides Captain and Ex-o, but it became evident that a more formal system was needed. But with the Hellworlders being a pirate fleet they chafed at the idea of a rigid rank system, despite it being entirely necessary. Which was how the current fustercluk came about.

Alwen had been staring at a wall and shook her head. The issue of rank was for someone above her station to figure out, maybe? For now all she had to do was be the best Chief/lieutenant junior grade she could be.