Karega knew from the moment Astarte flopped onto his couch that her ‘date’ hadn’t gone well. The fact that he hadn’t been informed about her date, or who she was going with, had made him very upset. The fact that he had to learn from Alwen after spending a good hour searching the ship for its captain had only made him more upset.

She had left without telling anyone besides their doctor. And Alwen only knew because she had been there when Aster had gotten the message.

He wasn’t just upset that she had left without telling, or that she had gone on a date with his cousin. It was the fact that she had decided to go literally hours after being attacked by cyborg assassin who had connections to her past.

Who does that?

Certainly not someone in their right mind.

Which was the real problem. Astarte was a frighteningly smart woman. In less than a decade her plans had taken the diminishing fortunes of his family and turned them into a fleet of powerful war ships, an industrial empire that had major trickle down effects on the Terran economy. And had even established Terra’s first successful extrasolar colony.

Unlike with the Chinese colonies on Trappist, Pandemonium was fully self-sufficient. On top of that they had the smaller portal gates to connect Pandemonium to Mars, meaning that blockading one world was ultimately pointless. Pandemonium alone changed the entire strategic situation of Terrans, and to top it all off they had alleys.

The Torweni might be underdeveloped compared to Earth and Mars, but they weren’t lacking in spirit. Domnall’s full intentions were still somewhat unknown, but Astarte was convinced that he was at least no friend of the Union’s. And on top of those two they also had the Kunan’ai and Gotari. They certainly weren’t as strong as they were, but what they lacked in material and manpower they made up for it in ingenuity and cunning.

And all of that came from the crafty and ruthless mind of one woman. But that didn’t make her infallible. There were many mistakes along the way, some of them were unavoidable, but others… weren’t.

Karega was no psychologist, but years of working with Aster had revealed to him that she wasn’t as strong or smart as she presented herself. When the right conditions were met she was prone to making trouble, and not the kind that worked in their favor.

Developing a relationship with Rachel seemed mostly benign, but Karega had to remind himself that a lot of Astarte’s irrational and impulsive decisions had a tendency of spiraling out of control. A simple confrontation with Ah’ared had spiraled into them getting directly involved in a pirate civil war that nearly killed Astarte. Her impulsive and irrational decision to take the Astaroth out of port before the rest of the fleet was ready had nearly resulted in their total destruction.

The worse part was they always had a way of working out in their favor. Their war with the original Terran pirates had paid off in the form of a whole planet. The Battle for the Confederacy had been the decisive victory they needed to purchase their terraforming equipment and the Obama. And even though they barely survived the Draxori super weapon the Prophets Flame, it had resulted in that ship’s destruction and the galaxy wide weakening of the Draxori.

So even though her behavior was reckless and foolhardy, it always resulted in some sort of great gain. But one day their luck would run out. And Karega feared it would be his fault for not keeping his friend in check.

Over the years he learned that not only was it his job to help with the administering the ship and taking care of the crew, but to also curb Astarte’s more mischievous behavior. An experience that was growing more and more difficult with every year. She hadn’t even listened to him the last time.

He glanced up from the intelligence report on the conditions within the Terran districts of Unity, which had the greatest density of policing on the whole station. “Did you have fun?” he asked dryly.

She groaned “It was great until the end. That cousin of your is really in the closet.” She complained.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Karega eyebrows raised and he set his report down, “So the rumors are true?”

“Rumors?” she asked from her prone position on his couch. He noted that she was still dressed in light summer wear, which meant she hadn’t changed yet. Which was strange. If she could help it she never went around unarmored, and the fact that hadn’t tried to take Tenken with was disturbing.

“Just some nasty rumors of her having an illicit affair with the young miss of some other house. I wasn’t really paying attention. The source in question was trying to discredit the Hearts by implying they had a deviant in their midst.”

She scowled “deviant? Who the hell still thinks of it like that?”

Karega was surprised. “Your kidding right? This is the heart of the Union, any Terran community here tends to be insular. And insular means-”

“That they’re assholes.” Astarte finished for him. “You know, I always wondered what happened to all the hateful assholes on Earth. They just sort of disappeared around the 23rd century, I guess they came here.”

“And others like it. And once a majority of them left Earth things suddenly turned a corner for people like us.”

She frowned “not entirely, there’s always assholes who make life hard for people who are different.” She plastered on a scowl and affected a moronic tone “Well if you like boys and girls, then why can’t you just date boys.”

Karega snorted “Oh I know. Between myself and my sister people are worried our family line ends with us, even though my parents never gave two shits about continuing the family line.”

Astarte sat up and drummed her fingers on the arm rest of his couch “that would explain a thing or two. Poor girl probably thinks there’s something wrong with her.”

By the inflection in her voice Karega could guess her intentions. It wasn’t sympathy, or not purely sympathy. There was a hint of the mischievous delight that he had come to expect from Astarte. It was all well and fine to indoctrinate Alwen into the ways of the Hellworlder fleet, slowly corrupting her with the joys of a pirate life. But Karega drew the line at playing with the poor girls confused feelings. Especially since he knew that after Astarte corrupted his cousin she would leave her behind.

He wanted to tell her no. But Aster was like a cat with a mouse, once she had something to toy with she wouldn’t let it go. So maybe he could shift her intentions. “I would recommend against whatever your planning.”

She gave him an innocent look. “I’m not planning anything.”

He just gave her a flat look.

“Okay, so what if I am. She’ll be happier once I show her the truth.” She said defensively.

“And then what?”

She blinked “Uh-”

“Star, we’re only here to take what’s ours and maybe kill your dad. Who is her boss. You would be toying with her emotions, only to bolt the next day and leave her alone in the middle of a shit storm we started. Is that fair to her?”

She drummed her fingers again. “I wouldn’t do that to her.”

“You wouldn’t leave her behind, or wouldn’t cause a shit storm. Because one of those is a dirty lie and you know it. Whatever Rachel is she’s also a Union enforcer working for one of their most brutal anti-Terran units, whose motto might as well be ‘the only good deathworlder is a dead deathworlder.’ She wouldn’t come with us, and even if she did then you’d have to fully commit to her. You can’t pull a Jason on her.”

“Jason?”

“Jason and Medea. He convinced her to betray her people and run away with him. She helped many times on their return, only to be betrayed by Jason at the end. So, if you convince her to turn against her home, and have her aid in killing your father, then you need to fully commit to her. No fooling around.”

He saw her face go blank as the consequences of her actions sank in.

Astarte, for all her dalliances, had one fatal flaw. Commitment.

In all the time he had known her Astarte had only ever had one-night stands, or casual intimacy with a few friends. He had hoped Modius might change that, but in the end he pushed to hard to fast and she spooked. She had called Karega in the middle of the night when that happened, and he had spent hours telling her that she wasn’t broken. Only for her to pretend that it had never happened the next morning.

For better or worse, Astarte always put the bad stuff behind her to focus on the future.

She looked down. “I didn’t think about it like that.” She said softly.

“That’s why I’m here. We can’t afford to get sidetracked. We have a goal and we need to do whatever is necessary to achieve it. Remember, we have the future of a whole planet on our shoulders.”

She nodded “Yeah, yeah your right.” She looked up, “thank you for setting me straight.”

“Its what I’m here for” he said gently.

They shared a moment of understanding. It was broken by a beep from her watch.

She checked its holographic display and scowled “Well that explains why she had to bail at the end.”

“What?”

“Zera just attacked the CSP in broad daylight. Its all over the news right now.”

That was another thing. “Is this assassin going to get in our way, or should we just consider her another native hazard like the SS?”

She snorted “Honestly I would love to just ignore Zera and be on our merry way, unfortunately I don’t think that’s an option. If nothing else she’s determined to make herself an obstacle.”

“Then we should figure out how she got out of prison, and who gave her those shiny new limbs.”

“And since she’s the one who massacred our insurance investigators I’m betting you she might lead us to the stolen equipment.” She stood up. “I’ll see if the Contact has anything on her.”

He nodded “Are you still planning to go to that second party?”

She paused. And the delay was a little too long for him to think the issue of Rachel was fully settled. “Yes, it can’t hurt.”

“Unless the assassin shows up.” he said pointedly.

“I beat her once, and I’ll do it again.” She said, her hand dipping to wear a sword normally sat. She scowled as her hand found nothing and turned on her heel to leave.

He watched her go, and only let out a weary sigh when he was sure she was in her own cabin. He was able to steer her right this time, but to do so he had to play on her own issues against her. And he hated that.

But if things continued the way they were then he might have to do it more often, and that would only strain their friendship.