Choices
Alwen leaned on the railing on the ships left side and stared across the Lucifer at the Asmodeus. The drinks from the night before had helped her forget about that whole mess of a reunion, but now that she was sober all those worries where coming back to her. It had been a fun night from what she could remember, though most of it was a blur. And the pounding headache that followed her throughout the rest of the day made her seriously consider a life of sobriety.
Last night she had received a message from Kalwen that said he wanted to meet with her. She had no idea what he wanted to talk with her about, but her gut told her it wouldn’t be fun. She still had an hour before she needed to leave, but she was currently wondering if arriving late would show Kalwen how upset she really was, or if he would even care.
A massive dark shadow appeared at her side and the dark form of Gato leaned against the rail next to her, his posture an almost exact copy of her own. “What’chyu staring at?” he rumbled softly.
“My brother’s ship, apparently.” She grumbled in response.
He grunted “I heard about that, Modius is your brother, must be hard to find out like you did.”
“Why do you all call him that, his name is Kalwen.”
“It was Kalwen, the captains of Archdevil class ships take on the name of their ships. He is the captain of the Asmodeus now, so we call him Modius.”
“All of them?”
“Yup, Astarte is an old name for the devil Astaroth. Lucile isn’t far off from Lucifer, and Captain Bell is in charge of the Beelzebub.”
“Why?”
His ears twitched “You know, I never thought to ask. I know Bell’s old name was Elizabeth, but I’ve never heard the Captain’s old name, or her mom’s.”
“Her mom, I thought the Captain’s mom was back on Earth?”
“Yeah, Captain Lucile is the Cap’ns biological mother, but everyone knows there’s bad blood between them. According to the rumors, when Astarte saw her mother for the first since in years, she went berserk and jumped her. Broke Lucile’s nose in two places and bashed her face in pretty hard, Lucile’s old crew tried to pull the Captain off but none of them were deathworlders and weren’t a match for the captain.”
Alwen could almost detect a hint of deep-set respect in his voice. “Why would she do that?”
“None of us know for sure, but we think the Captain might have been pissed at her mom for not being there for most of her life.”
“That’s insane!”
“Crazier part is Lucile just sat there and took it. She’s not a passive woman, out of all of the captains she is easily the most ruthless and violent among them. But when it came to the Captian she didn’t do anything, just let her daughter work out her anger. And then after that they made up and left their old pirate crews to form their own crew. Couple years later they come out with the Astaroth and Lucifer, and started the Hellworlder fleet.”
Alwen shook her head “You people are insane”
Gato shrugged “Maybe, or maybe we live in an insane galaxy. Who knows why Lucile chose to forgive the Cap’n, but I think a part of her respected Astarte’s anger and strength. The way Lucile see’s it, there aren’t many things in life you can’t overcome with enough brute force. Astarte punching her way through her mommy issues was likely the only way a women like Lucile would ever respect her. Sometimes I think the only things Humans truly respect is spite and reckless bravado” He also seemed to respect it as well, judging from the reverence in his voice.
Alwen glared at the large man “and do you fall into the same category? Last I checked you weren’t human.”
His smile faded “Human enough, my DNA might be different, and I might be furrier than them, but my brain is human enough to count. That’s how they made us you know? The real genetic alterations weren’t made to our bodies to just make us walk and talk, the real modification was in our brains. Millenia old instincts wiped away and changed, they didn’t just replace our brains with human ones, they warped our natural instincts so horrifically that they were virtually the same. Alice and I are a little more solitary than most humans, and Kavic is very loyal to his mate, but those things are more like social quirks than species defining behavior. And don’t think you’re so different, as far as I’m concerned Torweni are just purple humans.”
“We are nothing like that, we try to solve our problems through communication and debate, we’re past the barbaric need to fight off all our problems. We have progressed to a point where we need to respond to every threat with violence.”
“I’ve seen Modius in a fight, hell I’ve seen you in a fight as well. You didn’t seem willing to sit down and have a chat with those snake fuckers. You saw a threat and you responded with the only language that is truly universal, violence. You can talk and mediate all you want, but at the end of the day life is about who has the biggest stick. Earth got screwed over because they didn’t have the might to fight off the Union, now we’re subject to the whims of a very distant government who only pretends to care about us. And some day that could be you and your people if you don’t pull your heads out your ass. That’s what Modius is fighting for, and that’s why he wants your help. He can’t do this alone, that’s why he got you involved”
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Alwen looked to Gato in surprise “How did you-“
“You talk a lot when you get drunk Vi. You spent a good half the night crying into my shoulder, and the other half was me holding you and Alice back when you decided to give Modius a piece of your mind. I’ve had a day to organize my thoughts on the subject and this is all I came up with”
Alwen stared at him for a bit before she returned to staring at the Asmodeus. “Hey Gato,” she said after a while “You were close with Wraith right?” she noticed that whenever Alice was around, Wraith gave Gato the cold shoulder, but whenever she wasn’t looking the two broody men would chat silently. It wasn’t much, but Alwen had watched both of them enough to know that they were close.
“Yeah, he was like brother to me. He was close with my old captain, back before I took over Sin team. He was always there for me, even when I failed to save her” He said softly.
“Does it hurt to know he’s gone and never coming back?”
“Of course”
“Did you know that there was a chance that you could all die one day”
“Of course”
“Then why would you choose to live a life like this? Why not just stay at home and live a peaceful life?”
“Wraith had a mission, so does most everyone else here. They think that what they’re doing is worth the pain and misery. I don’t really have anything back home I care to protect, but they do, and I want to protect them. So their mission is my mission.”
“But he can’t ever finish his mission now, he was shot in the back and died on some space station far from home.”
“Yeah, but his body blocked the shot from hitting you, and you then went on the save many lives, and those lives you saved will continue his mission.” He replied firmly.
“But I don’t share his mission, I won’t be a part of this crew forever.”
“Doesn’t matter, if he had known what was going to happen, and he had a chance to move himself to safety at your expense, then he would have chosen to plant his feet there and take the shot. That’s the kind of guy he was.” Gato’s eyes looked a little shinier, she couldn’t see any tears, but she had feeling they were there.
Alwen went back to staring “He kissed me before he died.” She said softly.
“Yeah, I heard.”
“When did he start to like me? We didn’t talk much before that night.”
“I don’t know when, but he admired how kind you were with your patients. We all heard how upset you were after that attack on the mining station, when you had just joined the ship. You were distraught but the moment someone came in with severe injuries you had pushed your problems to the side and focused on helping whoever was before you. He liked that, and the strength you showed in everyday life aboard the Astaroth, how you tried to understand us. He was going to try and ask you out before that little engineer asked, after that he had decided to wait. We all knew how he felt about you, Alice in particular was pretty blunt about it. That’s why we wanted you to have Makaze.”
Alwen nodded “I see” she turned to Gato “Thank you for what you said, I think it helped” she then stood on her tip toes and kissed the big man on his cheeks and left for her brother’s ship.
~~~*~~~
Alwen arrived early but lost fifteen minutes after getting lost on the disconcertingly familiar ship. Eventually an amused and shirtless Torweni women, who had watched her make the wrong turn three times, decided to guide her directly to the Captains quarters.
She walked up to Kalwen’s door and was about to knock when it opened before she had the chance. Standing in front of her and looking somewhat flushed and out of sorts was Captain Astarte, unarmored and her hair a tangled mess that had been hastily straitened with her fingers rather than a comb.
“Uh, Captain, what are you doing here?” Alwen said in confusion.
Astarte cleared her throat, “I was, uh, organizing Modius’s office, it was very dirty. In fact I would recommend you wait a couple of minutes before you go in, he is still tidying up.”
Alwen tilted her head in confusion “You were cleaning my brother’s office?”
“Among other things” the Captain said quickly.
Alwen was about say something else when she got a whiff of something that reminded her of her stay in the Med-school dormitory’s. Terrans had a slightly different scent after a night of passions, but it was close enough for Alwen to put two and two together to realize what ‘other’ things Captain Astarte was talking about. Alwen smirked “I see, well have a nice day Captain.”
Astarte stared at her for a few seconds before turning on her heels and briskly walking out of the ship. Alwen noted that the Captain did not make the same wrong turn like she had just moments before. And knowing the captain, she likely wouldn’t make any wrong turn on her way back to her ship.
Alwen waited five or so minutes before she knocked on her brother’s door.
“Come in” was the muffled reply.
Astarte at least hadn’t been lying about organizing Kalwen’s room, the mess she had seen only days ago had been cleaned so thoroughly that there wasn’t any sign left. Alwen was personally curious how the Captain had found space for all the papers, but she was more intrigue by the dark purple flush to her brothers face.
“You’re early” he said quickly. His long white hair wasn’t in its typical braid, and was a mess much like the Captains hair.
“I would have been here sooner, but Captain Astarte said it would be best for me to wait a couple minutes.”
Her brother cleared his throat “I see” he said crestfallenly. “Well have a seat” he gestured to one of the now clean chairs.
“So, how long have you and the captain-“
“Only recently” he interjected “And it’s not romantic, just… just us having fun”
She caught a hitch in his words, and deduced that there was more to it than he let on. But bringing it up might not be the best idea right now.
“Anyway, that’s not why I asked you to come.” He said moving. “In three weeks’ time our case will be brought to the courts attention. When that time comes I want you to stay on in this hanger. I can’t tell you much, but we expect things to get heated, I want you nowhere near any of that” he said firmly. His embarrassment had faded and was replaced by a fierce determination.
“I refuse” Alwen said determinedly.
“That’s not an option” he growled.
“Yes it is. You’re my brother, not my captain.”
“Then I will ask Aster. She’ll have you thrown into the brig if she has to” he shot back.
“You can ask her all you want, but I doubt she will listen. I want to be there and see justice done. She will tell you that I have right to be there. Besides they might need to have a medic handy.”
“Alwen” he pleaded “You don’t understand, this trial will end in blood shed, there’s no other alternative. That’s no place for you to be”
“Kalwen, you set me on this path. I will see justice done; and I am going to that trial no matter what you say” she had come too far not to see the conclusion of this blood debt. She didn’t want to see people killed, and she wouldn’t revel in having to fight again. But she owed it to Wraith and Sean, and somewhere deep inside herself she knew that she owed it to herself as well. Even if it meant going back into the flames of battle she would see this out to the end.
Kalwen stared at her and slowly worked his jaw “Will you be going alone?”
“No, I’ll be there with Gato and his marines, and I’ll bring Makaze as well.”
He took in a single deep breath before slowly letting it out “I don’t want you there, but I can see that I wont be able to change you mind. I just want you to stay safe.”
She smiled a little “If I wanted safety then I would have stayed on Torwen, its about time I finally confront being apart of a pirate crew head on. But you don’t need to worry about me, I’ve been training with Captain Gato. I can handle myself.”
“I’m your brother, it my duty to worry about you. Even if I unfairly dragged you into all of this.”
Alwen nodded “Thank you, and take care” she said as she walked to the door. “And Kalwen, try to keep your room clean for Astarte’s sake” she said over her shoulder. Quietly endorsing the pairing. Kalwen had a good heart, and the Captain was an extraordinary women, together they might be able to help comfort each other.