Kalwen
It really was her older brother, he was definitely more muscled, and his hair had grown so long that he had it pulled up behind his head, but it was still her older brother Kalwen. He wore simple navy-blue robes that only covered his right side, leaving his entire left arm and half his chest exposed to the freezing temperature in the hanger. He had two Terran swords hanging from his hip, one was the wakizashi she grown familiar with, and the other was something more like a cutlass. Half covered by his robes his flesh rose up in the scarred pattern of a demonic seal, not the mark of Astaroth, but the mark of another devil.
“H,h, how are you here, they told me you left the navy and disappeared, how did you join up with a group of pirates?” Alwen spluttered. She looked around her brother and a good half of the crew walking off the Asmodeus were Torweni, red skinned islanders, horned southern people, and violet skinned mainlanders like herself. They were all casually intermingled amongst the humans and other uplifted Terrans, chatting and laughing together.
The last time she had seen her brother was when he got into a massive argument with father over something, after that he left the navy and fell off the face of Torwen. Were things so bad for him that he had to join a pirate crew?
Astarte cleared her throat “I understand that you have a lot to catch up on Bones, but it will have to wait until I am done talking with Captain Modius”
“Modius?” was all Alwen could say.
“Us Archdevil captains take the name of our ships” her brother informed her blandly “My name is now Modius, a shortened form of Asmodeus, the prince of lechery”
This was all too much for Alwen to handle, all she could do was stare at them blankly. Alice noticed that Alwen had fallen behind and dashed over to her “Hey Bones, what’s the hold up?”
“I, I just met my brother” she said dumbly.
Alice looked intrigued “really, where?” she said now looking through the other Torweni, completely overlooking Kalwen.
“She means me, Ghost” Kalwen said.
Alice turned to him dumbstruck “Alwen is your sister?” she asked incredulously “I guess that explains why we got along so well.”
“You know Kalwen!” Alwen blurted out as the thought hit her.
“Uh, yeah I met him on Mars, he was aboard the Beelzebub at the time, first time I met a Torweni.” Alice explained simply.
Alwen stared at her friend dumbly “And you never told me?”
“I didn’t think it mattered, isn’t kind of racist to assume all Torweni know each other, how was I supposed to know Bell’s second lieutenant was your brother?”
Astarte sighed “I doubt we’re going to finish our conversation at this rate, we’ll talk later Modius. Say about an hour from now?” she asked openly.
“My ship or yours?” Kalwen asked.
“Mine, I have better rum.” She waved a hand and turned to leave.
Kalwen waved goodbye to the pirate captain, his fellow pirate captain, and turned back to Alwen. “Let’s try to make this quick, I know you have a lot of questions, but I have some things that I need to handle.” and with that he promptly turned to walk back aboard the ship, his ship. Alwen had no choice but to follow behind him.
He led her across the gang way and into the Asmodeus. As Alwen walked behind him she couldn’t help but marvel at the halls around her. They looked just like the halls on the Astaroth, dark teakwood floors, bright fluorescent light, and sliding pneumatic doors. But every so often Alwen saw a distinctly Torweni touch blending in with the Terran made ship. Wherever there was enough blank space on a wall she saw a painted shrine to Fejiu. Over the doors of familiar looking weapon lockers there was the sword and staff of Torwen. And running along the entire length of the walls was a painted imitation of a sailors knot, an old-fashioned way of telling stories through woven cords.
The layout was different enough from the Astaroth that Alwen almost turned the wrong way and had to stop herself short before she ran into a wall.
Kalwen smiled “deceptively tricky, my first month aboard her I kept getting lost on my way to the mess deck because it’s opposite of the training room, rather than a deck below like it is on Beelzebub. They had to move it around to make room for the larger cooling system.”
Alwen just scowled at her older brother “You really did join a pirate crew; this isn’t some twisted dream?” She still had trouble believing the truth before her, the Kalwen she knew was a kind pillar of morality. He had spent most of his life training and studying to join the Navy and hunt the pirates that made the stretch of micro islands between the mainland and southern isles treacherous.
Alwen remembered how proud she was to see Kalwen get a ship of his own, and was even prouder when he was invited to join an admiral’s staff as his second in command. But after first contact he had grown quiet and distracted. Her father was happy to be appointed the ambassador in charge of dealing with the Union, but as excited as her father was to lead the negotiations with a foreign alien power, her brother continued to caution her father to not be too trusting of them. Whenever Alwen had been forced to attend a family dinner to see whichever new suitor her mother had found there was always an argument between Kalwen and her father. Kalwen called her father a fool for being so trusting, he said that Union was hiding behind pleasant masks. He accused father of selling Torwen out for pretty words and false smiles. That was the last she had seen of him, according to her mother Kalwen had officially left the Navy and she should not consider him as family anymore.
Had her mother known that her brother had joined a group of alien pirates?
He looked like he wanted to say something, but a pair of humans passed by him with a salute, and he closed his mouth. Instead he jerked his head as indication for Alwen to follow. She walked behind him and got a look at the pair of scars down his back that must have been new, they looked like claw marks. He led her to a door that required a passcode, he punched it in without even looking at the pad and ushered her in.
Inside she found a comfortably furnished office, shelves jammed with books written in both English and Torweni. She saw classics like Fejiu’s bargain, the Concords of Aldat, and the great journey, shelved next to Paradise lost, The Prince, and the Divine Comedy. All Terran books she only knew by their reputation as classic thought-provoking literature. The large desk in the corner was piled with loose papers and binders. The shelf behind it was jammed with curios and knickknacks, some medals he had earned during his time in the Navy, and a picture of Kalwen, Astarte, and two other woman she didn’t recognize standing in front of the Asmodeus.
Kalwen cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment “Sorry, I’m always so swamped in paperwork that I forget to clean up. Kinda glad Aster said we would meet on her ship, that women keeps her office in immaculate order.”
Alwen just continued to stare at Kalwen.
“Right, I probably owe you an explanation”
“It would be a good start” she said icily.
Kalwen cringed “Have a seat” he gestured to one of the two chairs that wasn’t occupied by a stack of papers. Alwen sat and Kalwen leaned against his desk “You’ve been off Torwen for about half a year now, what’s your impression on the Union?”
Alwen pursed her lips “Controlling, incompetent, but well-meaning in most cases. I’m not entirely sure I would have the best opinion of them considering the company I keep are generally at odds with the Union.
He nodded “That’s fair, have you noticed how they treat deathworlders?”
“They’re skittish around us at best, outright antagonistic at worst, but again I have been traveling with Hellworlder pirates who have a well-earned reputation for violence” Alwen said flatly, she didn’t want to give Kalwen any indication how she felt about either subject.
He looked at her sympathetically “I can understand that, I heard from Aster that you were by her side when she boarded the Coiled Strike. It’s scary to see how good she is with that blade.”
Alwen shuddered as she remembered her short sparring session with the pirate captain, after that day she had new nightmares where she was back on the Coiled Strike at the other end of Astarte’s blade. She got to feel how terrifying it was to be the object of that women’s rage. “Yes it is.”
Kalwen nodded “What I am about to tell you is considered a national secret, equal in importance to the our greatest national secrets, you must promise never to share what you know with anyone.” He stared unflinchingly into Alwen’s eyes until she nodded her head. “Building the wake com array was a very controversial subject, most people didn’t like the idea of broadcasting our location to the whole universe, they thought it was a dangerous gambit. What most people don’t know is that the broadcast was mostly a publicity stunt, most of the people in power didn’t believe it would actually attract any hostile attention. At the time we believed that the frequency we sent out was so specialized that only another purpose-built receiver could pick it up, we of course were wrong.” Kalwen’s face hardened and became very serious and stern
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“Why build a multibillion shell array if you hoped no one would answer the call?” she asked.
“Because that’s not what the array was meant for, it was meant to act as a remote transmitter for warp capable drones. We sent out the drones secretly by piggybacking off the launch of some communication satellites, they were going to be the first step in setting up extraterrestrial mines in the asteroid belt. We called the called the operation ‘haul and drop’, with the idea being that the drones would shift the trajectory of some smaller asteroids towards Torwen, they would hurtle towards a prepared site and special energy fields would grab them out of the air and safely land them on Torwen. The Terrans came up with a similar idea called ‘mass drivers’, they ultimately decided that it would be too easy to weaponize and went with more conventional means of asteroid mining” he explained.
“Why keep it a secret?”
“Because public outcry would have killed the whole operation, and we didn’t have nearly enough experience in sending people into space to set up conventional mining. It was decided that when all the infrastructure was in place then we would release it to the public. The wake com array was needed to relay the precise real time data that the drones needed to not cause an extinction level event. We set up the broadcast to cover our tracks, imagine our surprise when the array started tracking impossibly fast ships arriving in our system before the drones mysteriously went offline. We had assumed that something malevolent had answered our call, troops were readied, naval groups were put at full alert, and we were beginning to draft plans for evacuating civilians into the metro tunnels. Our deep space tracking stations then tracked the launch of multiple unidentified objects orbiting just beyond the moon. Days passed and then something huge appeared in language point Fula and sent out a message requesting a meeting.”
The last part of the story was familiar to Alwen, when the Union fist arrived there was a great amount of panic and confusion. “Right, I remember. Illuth, father, eldest brother Erawan, Admiral Kedi, and you, went up to make first contact.”
He nodded solemnly “Right, we went up fearing the worst, but were met with only pleasant handshakes and polite introductions. The others relaxed and began to get friendly with the Union representatives, but Admiral Kedi and I remained suspicious. There was a tightness with the way they interacted with our diplomats that rubbed us the wrong way. They were cagey whenever we tried to ask about the lost drones, and there were certain subjects they wouldn’t discuss. Things like their military capabilities, what other threats existed in the void, warp technology, and energy tech. We weren’t expecting them to spill their national secrets, but they wouldn’t even tell us how fast their ships could go. Eventually the Union began giving us military officials the cold shoulder and began to alienate us” he chuckled at the unintentional joke at the end. “We pressured the diplomats to be more cautious around the Union, to take everything they said with a pinch of salt. They tried to entice us into entering a more formal relationship as an associated world of the Union, the first step in full membership. We resisted, we kept pointing out that the Union didn’t really have much to offer us besides warp tech, and they didn’t want to share warp tech with us because it could contaminate our ‘native culture’. Things ground to a standstill until someone brought a delegation from the nearest inhabited world, Mars. We were shocked by how similar they were to us; we were practically identical despite being a little larger and the difference in skin color. They made overtures to mend the rift between the military and the Union and even offered us a chance to see what the Union had to offer our society. Sol was an integrated system, and their world and people were similar to ours, we wanted to see firsthand who the Union were behind the fake politeness. A wealthy Martian family offered one of their private pleasure yachts to bring us to their estate on Mars. Aboard that ship I met with a man named Karega who befriended me by asking about Torweni history, when we arrived on Mars Karega offered to introduce me to a good friend of his and show us the real Union.”
Alwen’s eyes widened as she realized that the Karega in Kalwen’s story was none other than the lieutenant of the Astaroth.
He saw the realization in her eyes and nodded “We disguised the excursion as a visit to Martian Drive Yards to view the Terrans ship building facilities, there Karega snuck me and Erawan onto the Astaroth.” He said, now introducing her eldest brother into this little conspiracy, her elder brother who was now an Assembly man in her world’s parliament “There we met Her in the bridge, Astarte Maidens-daughter. Armored and armed with her two swords, she held herself entirely differently from the rest of the people we had met so far, even the air around Karega changed around her presence. She said ‘Hello, my name is Astarte, I am a space pirate, and I am now kidnapping you.”
Alwen let out a nervous laugh “Did she really say that?”
“Yup, crazy human didn’t even bother giving us a chance to understand our situation when the ship rose out of its berth and flew us to Earth.” Kalwen smiled fondly at the memory.
Alwen laughed in sympathy “On our first mission she brought me to the bridge a said there had been a misunderstanding, she showed me firsthand that I was on a pirate ship and then sent me back to my workstation”
Kalwen laughed harder “Of course she did, didn’t you see the part in the contract were it said acts of piracy?”
“I hadn’t read it yet”
Kalwen smiled and the tense air between them disappeared at their shared misery from Astarte’s blatant antics. His smile faded “She brought us to Earth and showed us the real face of the Union, she told us about ‘deathworlds’ and how poorly the Union treated her people because of the fact that they were deathworlders, and that we were also Deathworlders in the Unions eyes. She told us how the Union feared deathworlders because thousands of years ago the Union once clashed with marauding empires of deathworlds. Those old empires are now destroyed, their worlds gone, and their people shunted into the void. The Kruhur are just a scrap of what escaped the genocide, and now cling to the edge of civilized space. The Union fears another such empire arising and told us how the Union seeks to control and subjugate all deathworlds for that reason. One way or another Torwen will be made to join the Union, and until we do they will continue to blockade our world and prevent us from seeing the true state of the galaxy. Humanity had a space fleet before the Union made first contact, that fleet was destroyed and captured, and they prevented any other ships from being launched until Earth had fully joined the Union. Its why they took out our drones before opening negotiations.”
Kalwen’s story was compelling, but there was an aspect of it that didn’t quite match up with what she knew “And somehow this knowledge convinced you to leave the navy and join a pirate fleet?”
“No, Astarte only wanted to show us the true face of the Union to try and sell us weapons that could possibly fend off a blockade, she even offered to provide us some warp drives. I think she wanted us to have a fighting chance, or at least cause enough chaos to help further her own goals. She brought us back to MDY, and gave us both magnets, those magnets” he pointed to a magnet on a filing cabinet that said ‘I got kidnapped by space pirates, and all I got was a lousy magnet’ in English.
Alwen laughed at the sheer absurdity of it. “Why?”
He frowned “I’ve been working with the women for years and I still have no idea. I think she likes to do things that are completely unpredictable just to see how people react.” He shook his head. “I keep mine here as a reminder to never underestimate her, and I think Erawan keeps his in a lock box under 10 centimeters of titanium. Anyway, Karega brought us back to the main group and Erawan and I had to somehow explain the whole ordeal to Kedi. The three of us debated whether or not to trust the pirate for hours, and ultimately decided to test her claims about the Union when we got home. We secretly sent out a drone to travel to the far reaches of our system to test what she said about the blockade. Union warships hiding outside of our sensor range took it out after passing Kaptris.”
Kaptris was a nitrogen rich gas giant on the edge of their star system, a world they had only glimpsed once with the deep space satellite Traveler on its way out of their home system. “What did you do after that?”
“After that we collectively lost our shit for a week” he said bluntly “Then after that we argued amongst ourselves on what to do next. Admiral Kedi wanted to buy Astarte’s weapons, but father and his allies blocked that decision. He said it would only promote hostility. Father stonewalled our attempts to defend ourselves at every chance he could, Admiral Kedi ordered me to discreetly feel out father and see if he made any under the table deals with the Union. Its why I came over for dinner so often. In the end I didn’t find any illicit deals, just father trying to use the Union negotiations to advance his influence.”
“You call arguing with father discreet?” Alwen asked crossly. She had been caught in the middle of those arguments to often for her to let the matter go.
“Only way to get father to drop his guard is to make him angry” Kalwen said bluntly. “Remember that last dinner?”
“Yes” she said hesitantly. She only really remembered the brazen Islander man her mother had tried to match her up with.
“Remember what he said before I left?”
Alwen frowned, “You said that he was a fool for trusting the Union, and then father called you a lovestruck idiot for trusting some women you hardly knew” Alwen’s jaw dropped as she realized what women father had been talking about.
Kalwen smiled “Exactly, what he said got me thinking. I didn’t know Astarte or the Union, if we wanted to better understand the powers at play then we needed to get out there and start seeing things for ourselves. I came up with a plan to do just that and told Admiral Kedi, we got in contact with Astarte and told her my plan. She agreed, set me up as Bell’s second lieutenant for a time so I could get a feel for the galaxy and how to run a pirate ship. During that time Kedi transferred money to Astarte and began construction of a Destroyer for me to captain, the Moloch. When it was done I transferred over to Moloch with some of Bell’s crew and a crew of Torweni submariners and pilots handpicked by Kedi for this mission.”
“What mission?”
“Privateering,” he said with a devilish grin on his face, he turned and rustled through his drawers until he found a file he was looking for and passed it to her. Within the file Alwen found signed orders from Admiral Kedi, a seal from the Chancellor, and detailed reports of all their actions as a ship. “We are under orders to commit acts of piracy in the name and interests of the Pact of Torwen. Those ships hiding out past Kaptris were drawn away to combat the rising piracy within the area, we captured those ships and disabled their transponders before turning them over to a secure facility to reverse engineer. Our profits have all been set away in a private account for subtly acquiring technology and the materials needed to advance our understanding of Union tech. We were even in a place to help enslaved Torweni when the Kruhur situation came to light.”
“And this ship? The other ship would have been much smaller and cheaper than this” she gestured to the room around her.
“I have no idea, the Asmodeus was meant to be Karega’s ship, but after Astarte saw what we were able to do with just one destroyer they had decided to make me its captain. I think it might have been a show of good faith to deepen our uncanny alliance, I’m not going to complain though. Ultimately we would like to build our own spaceships, but for now you are standing on one of Torwen’s only two warships ready to defend our home at a moment’s notice, soon to be three once Grehur is done being refitted.”
Alwen looked around her in shock, she had seen firsthand how powerful the Astaroth was, to have something like this on her peoples side was a huge boon. And the crew aboard Asmodeus was half Torweni and half Terran, that implied that the Hellworlders would come to her worlds aid if the need ever arose.
A thought niggled at Alwen’s mind, and when she turned her attention to it she made a startling discovery and grew angry “You did it” she said as the horrible thought forced its way out of her.
“Did what?”
“You put me on the Astaroth, I had wondered if it was Ashendra that drawn me to that ship, but it was you. You talked to Astarte and made her hire me, why? Am I another show of good faith on your part?” her voice rose several octaves at the end at her distress.
“No, you’re not a pawn in this.” he said quickly “I just saw how bad our sister was treating you and thought to offer you a chance to be something more. I know that Aster is a good person, and I thought that maybe joining the Astaroth would be good thing for you. Doc Brown wanted to retire, and I thought you would make a good replacement, that’s all”
“Doctor Bachir wants to retire?” she asked distractedly.
Kalwen’s face fell “Aw shit, they didn’t tell yet?”
Alwen shook her head. Everything she just heard was really starting to overwhelm her and tears were beginning to well up at the edge of her vision. “Why? Why did you think I needed to join a pirate ship? Why are you telling me all of this?”
“Because what we’re doing right now is the biggest thing to happen in the history of Torwen, bigger than the creation of fire, bigger than the first voyages across the sea. This is a challenge to see if we as a people have a right to determine our own fates and to think for ourselves. Because you are brilliant, and kind, and so much stronger than you think you are. You deserve to more than the least of our fathers children.” He said softly.
The tears were really falling now “I’ve killed people Kalwen, I held a man as he died.” She sniffled.
“I know” was his grim reply.
“It hurts.” She said. “It hurts me every night. And you’re telling me that this is the path you want me to walk”
“I am not making you do anything Alwen; you were given a choice on whether to join the Astaroth and the Hellworlders. You made that choice to stay not me. And soon you will need to make another choice.”
Icy dread filled her veins “The mark?”
He nodded and pulled back his robes to show off his “It doesn’t hurt, they have some magical medicine that makes it harmless, they can even change its shape if you join a different ship.”
She was quiet for a long time “I don’t know Kalwen, I can see how this life is changing me and I’m not sure if I like it. You were made to do great things like this, I was made to be some rich suitors arm candy”
“And I saw you resist that choice being thrust upon you every day, do you remember how much you cried when father wouldn’t let you practice martial arts like me and Erawan? They wouldn’t let you grow into the person you were meant to be, but out here you can become whoever you want to be. The world can try to shape you, but its ultimately your choice who you become.”
This was all too much, he was putting too much on her and she felt a creeping fear climb up her chest. She needed to get out of here. “Alice is waiting for me.” She said quietly, trying not to let her voice quiver.
He blinked in surprise, and for a second she saw Kalwen get frustrated with her for not deciding to take the mark here and now. But then he took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, he saw the signs of her distress and let the matter go for now. That’s was something she had always admired about Kalwen before, even when he got frustrated and upset he always took a second to consider the other persons feelings and calm down. It was a trait she was glad to see he held onto despite his new career as a pirate. “Alright, I shouldn’t have tried to force your hand. Your welcome to come by any time you want to chat, just send me a heads up first.”
“I will” she sniffled once more to clear her nose, and stood up “Well it’s been good talking with you brother.” She said softly before she turned to leave.
Kalwen didn’t stop her as she strode out of his offices.
She found her way out of the Asmodeus by retracing her earlier path and stepped out into the still freezing hanger where Alice and the rest of their group were waiting. Alwen accepted Alice’s hug and cried into her fuzzy shoulder before her friend led her off to some much-needed alcohol.