New Mombasa

Astarte didn’t even bother with taking the train back to the space elevator, she just walked to a private landing field in a nicer part of the city and boarded an expensive looking shuttle with Alwen close behind her. The shuttle pilot closed the door and fresh air filled the cabin as the shuttle took off, she watched as the shuttle rose high above the Terran home world before accelerating a couple times the speed of sound once the pesky atmosphere was out of the way.

“What do you think of our home world?” the Captain asked wryly.

“I think I need a new set of lungs.” Alwen grumbled.

She barked a harsh laugh “be glad it didn’t rain on you, then you’d need new skin.”

Alwen scowled “Its not funny, how could you do this to your own world?”

The captains eyes sharpened into fine blades “I know its hard for you to understand on Torwen, living in piece with nature comes easily on your world. Ecological stability is what makes your deathworld rating lower than earths despite having similar gravity, radiation, and powerful predators. But its not so easy on Earth, our world went through several extinction level events before humanity even left the trees, we didn’t know that things like that were uncommon in the galaxy. Earth has been brimming with life for over half a billion years, much, much longer than most Union worlds, there’s a reason it took so long for a sentient species to rise out of the mud. For the longest time we assumed that life out in the greater galaxy would be incredibly rare because of all the factors that had to line up just so for us. The reason we succeeded is because we were adaptable and industrious. We can survive in more biomes than any other Union species, most tend to stick to habitats their best suited for, we changed the habitats to better suite us, and now we are paying for it.” She let out a sigh “But I wont deny that we didn’t have this coming, at least partially.”

Alwen pondered the Captains words. Humans and Torweni were remarkably similar, so similar one might mistake them for being the same species. Not only did they look similar, but they also thought and acted alike, and their senses were pretty evenly mirrored with each other meaning that they shared in their experience of the world. If the Torweni had been born on Earth then they would have done exactly what the humans did, and they too would sit on a dying world, which was a very disparaging thought that also highlighted how blessed they were in their home world. Torwen in comparison to earth was a very young world, in human terms they were only recently emerging out of the primordial era. Their geologic epochs were only mile markers in the rich ancient history present in Earth’s crust. They were blessed with massive continental shelves rich in fish, algae, and offshore oil reserves from their own Carboniferous era. The Torweni had used those fossil fuels just as widely as humanity, but unlike Earth their world had more robust means of taking that added carbon out of the atmosphere in the form of algae blooms, which in turn allowed for a lager population of fish. Maybe given another hundred thousand years those same algae blooms would have cooled their world and have plunged them into an ice age, maybe they still would. But in the short term the Torweni had been able to safely use hydrocarbon fuels until more sustainable sources of energy became cheap enough to make the switch seem obvious.

Earth wasn’t that lucky, it was a world already poised on a knifes edge for total collapse, and the birth of humanity had been enough to tip it over the edge.

“How long does your world have?” Alwen asked.

“Not sure, some say fifty years, others say we’ve got eighty. Still enough time to do something about it.” she said as she leaned back in her sofa.

“Then why haven’t you?”

She chuckled “Oh, we have. The second most popular party in the Martian Parliament built their whole platform on fixing earth and preventing the death of billions, and there have been a lot of terrorist groups who targeted Union factories until they shut down. We won’t go quietly into the night.”

“What about colonizing another world?” Alwen asked cautiously, careful not to tip her hand. She had her suspicions about Pandemonium ever since Astarte mentioned while she was tripping on painkillers. She had researched the origin of the name and found an old epic known as Paradise Lost, and knew from a cursory glance that it was likely something the pirate captain had taken great inspiration from. Pandemonium meant ‘place of all demons’, it was the perfect name for a secret Hellworlder’s base.

Astarte looked thoughtful “That would honestly be ideal, part of the issue is the completely overtaxed resources, we could do a whole lot more if there were less people on earth. But the Union wont let us, part of their charter is the management of habitable worlds, they doll them out as they see fit. And they have elected not to allow humanity out of Sol.” She said bitterly.

“Why?” Alwen asked, so intrigued by Astarte’s opinion of the Union that she forgot to continue prying into the Hellworlder’s secrets.

“Officially there are certain criteria a civilization must meet before they’re allowed to colonize, economic development, population, something they call ‘societal advancement’ which is really about how easy you make it for the Union to rule you. On paper this all sounds pretty reasonable, but in practice the Union set up humanity for failure, and many other deathworlds too. They want to keep us contained and under their thumb because if we’re allowed to flourish we could upset their whole balance of power.”

“Are they really that afraid, I know we have pretty decent physical abilities, but I don’t see how that translates to anything more than winning fist fights.” Alwen challenged, the Union was a mighty behemoth of incomprehensible resources and power, the physical abilities of deathworlders shouldn’t really be a threat.

“Oh, I don’t think you really appreciate what being a deathworlder really means, its not just our physical prowess, its how we think and act. Our brains are very hardwired for survival in extreme conditions, and it is evident throughout everything we do. Our accountants and bureaucrats who are famous for their sluggish pace on Earth can run mental laps around their Union counter parts and exploit every loophole in the book. Our engineers are more inventive and adaptable, and in terms of military we have a huge leg up from years of in-fighting compared to the Union’s stagnant fleets. And you have seen tangible proof of all of these traits on the Astaroth. We classify the Astaroth and her sisters as battle cruisers, but when compared to Union battle cruisers we’re less than a fifth their tonnage and crew. But despite that we can match them blow for blow in a one on one; hell first fleet tangled with a few battleships recently, ships that are several kilometers long, and they tore through them like paper mache. You didn’t think we got this far on luck did you?”

Alwen blinked several times as it slowly dawned on her exactly what being a deathworlder meant. She had seen the Hellworlders excel past the Union in many different ways, on Femeri they had out witted the SS officers and safely hid the fact that they were pirates for years, human lawyers took the Union’s own laws and turned it against them. Astarte and had played the Union stock exchange against itself and had walked out with a fortune, they had snuck past the defenses of a Union world and fired missiles in broad daylight at a sweat shop and had left without anyone the wiser. She had learned from Modius that even despite the Union blockade and their close watch on Torwen, Astarte had formed a secret alliance with her home world. The Asmodeus was a Torweni warship, and the Union had no idea!

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Wow, I-, wow” was all Alwen could say.

Astarte looked incredibly smug “Yup.”

Before she could say anything else Alwen felt her stomach lurch as the shuttle dipped and began a smooth reentry into Earths noxious atmosphere.

It was night on this side of the world, but Alwen saw where New-Mombasa was from the bright glow of the city’s lights. “Why is it called ‘New’ Mombasa?” Alwen asked. She had learned that place like New York and New Jersey were named after old cities, but New Mombasa as best as she could tell wasn’t a colonized city, not like New York at least.

“Old city got flooded out, population fled to the surrounding area until the eastern African sea wall was complete, after that the bay was pumped out and rebuilt to be the city’s new beating heart, most of the old population left for other parts of Africa though so the city got repopulated with lots of immigrants. Chinese, Japanese, Americans, and Indians, plus a lot of people from Indonesia and the surrounding islands. It’s a multicultural hodgepodge, and instead of blending together people doubled down on their own traditions, makes for one hell of an interesting walk. Plus the best cuisines Earth has to offer all at your fingertips. Most of the surrounding area is still predominantly Kenyan, and even though New-Mombasa is in Kenya, most generally consider us as something else and aren’t really welcoming. Even Kenyan’s born in New-Mombasa are ostracized.” She smiled softly.

“You sound fond of it” Alwen pointed out.

Astarte laughed “How can I not, its my hometown. And despite all the crap it’s given me, I still love the city. Don’t you miss home?”

Alwen frowned “That’s a hard one to answer, I’m not sure”

Astarte’s face softened “Well don’t feel obligated to tell me. I wasn’t lying about the crap though, after the labor market clashed, and a tower collapsed on half the city, things went to shit really fast. Stay by my side the whole way, and don’t take your hand off Makaze.”

“What was that about a tower?” Alwen asked in distress.

“They tried to add a second space elevator to the city, but my mom sort of blew it up.”

Alwen’s jaw dropped. “I’m going to need some context.”

“Not much to say really, New Mombasa is the center of all African industry, and they needed a new space elevator to accommodate that. At the time my mom was running with some terrorists called the Terran Terrors, they wanted the Union off Earth, so they targeted that tower. They didn’t want to collapse the building, just stop construction, but one faulty bomb and a corrupt contractor who skimped out on proper structural support, and half the city was buried in rubble. Lucile was just the mule who put the bomb there and the Union didn’t actually have any evidence on her, so she was released from the Parox correctional facility after only ten years.” She said nonchalantly.

Alwen blinked several times as she tried to process everything the captain had just said. She tried to make sense of it all, but gave up after a minute “Terrans are fucking insane”

Astarte barked a harsh laugh “got that right!”

The shuttle passed through the clouds and Alwen’s view was obscured by water vapor, and then all at once a vibrant and bustling city filled Alwen’s view. Dark monolithic tower rose above the rabble below like stoic sentinels, brightly festooned in so much neon and holographic advertisements Alwen’s eyes began to throb a little. Down below Alwen could make out a few highways and train tracks, but other than that the city was so densely packed with buildings that Alwen couldn’t see the ground level. Other shuttles craft buzzed around the city and Alwen absently wondered how they didn’t crash into each other as their own shuttle glided over to an arched shuttle terminal suspended off the side of one of the buildings.

The moment they stepped off Alwen noticed that while the air was rank with the sweat and filth generally associated with cities, she wasn’t choking on poisonous fumes.

Astarte also took in a deep breath of air “Smells like home.” She said with a smile.

“Why isn’t it poisonous?” Alwen asked.

“Depends on your definition of poison, some Indian curry gets classified as military grade poison” she joked “but in all seriousness, unlike the American east coast, Africa is mostly free of Union industry. Terrors made a point of only targeting Union business’s and left native industry alone since those ones actually tried to regulate their pollution. As a result the air is a lot cleaner here, or at least it doesn’t hurt to breath, lead levels are pretty high globally.”

“You make terrorism sound like a good thing.” Alwen said pointedly.

Astarte shrugged “Depends on the result, don’t get me wrong they did a lot of bad things. But it was always in the name of expelling the Union from Earth and putting Terrans back in charge of their own destiny. They left the common citizens alone, including Union species and sympathizers, and sent warnings to the factories they were targeting. They didn’t create an atmosphere of fear and terror for the common citizen, just made it very clear to their enemies what the consequences were if they didn’t heed their demands. They did a bad thing, but for good reasons.”

Bad things done for good reasons, and good results. There was more to that statement than what Astarte was letting on. That notion of doing bad with good intentions was Astarte’s, and by extension the Hellworlder fleet’s whole founding principle. They were a band of pirates, highly organized and morally conscious pirates, but still pirates. However the net ‘good’ they achieved at the end of the day seemed to justify whatever wicked means they employed. Alice and the other marines were killers and thieves, that they often targeted objectively worse people didn’t change that. But through their violent crimes and aggressive actions they were able to send money and aid back home to their communities. Their piracy helped the Vet clans better maintain order in their home country. Astarte aggressively targeted slaver and drug cartels along with the hapless merchant here and there, her actions had powerful ripple effects across the Femeri sector, or Orion as the Terrans insisted. The rate of people taken into slavery had dropped dramatically over the years, and local police forces were reporting record drops in drug overdoses. And she had heard from Metallika what first fleet had been doing in the Bedona conflict, they were smuggling medicine and weapons to the beleaguered Bedona so that they could resist Union advances. And when it all spiraled into a genocidal civil war, they had done what they could to help evacuate and protect the refugees, even if they ended up shelling the capital to clear an orbital escape route.

Alwen had been taught all her life that the ends don’t justify the means, but the person who had really taught her right from wrong had been Kalwen, who was now the pirate Captain Modius. So now she didn’t know what to think.

She followed Astarte into the depths of New Mombasa and pushed those plaguing thoughts far out of her mind as the exotic city filled and confused all her senses. It felt a lot like the Great Hollow market on the pirate Capital with its many levels of business and clamor, both overhead and on city levels below her. Everyone was a little cagey as they walked, but it didn’t feel like she was being constantly sized up by unseen eyes. There was still the odd prickle down the back of her neck, but not as often, and not as long. She noticed with a little surprise and pride that she was walking differently than everyone else around her. People saw them and got out of their way, part of that was do to Astarte’s menacing aura, but another part was for the dangerous aura Alwen also gave off.

She had spent close to a year with pirates, gone to some of the most dangerous urban environments in the galaxy, and had fought through several life-or-death battles. All of that had slowly changed her in ways she hadn’t noticed. There was something about the way she held herself, something about the way she walked, and how her own eyes sized up everyone around her. It was a lot like how Astarte held herself, but different, different in a way that marked it as uniquely her own.

“You finally noticed?” Astarte said softly as the turned down a street.

“Yeah, people are avoiding me, like they know I’m dangerous.” Alwen replied.

“Why shouldn’t they, you’re Bones the Godslayer, you killed an Aunviry pirate lord by hacking into its skull and then unloaded a whole mag into its brain.”

“That was all instinct, it wasn’t actually me.” Alwen protested. She felt uncomfortable and unworthy of all the praise the other Marines showered her with, she had just been in the right place at the right time.

“Instinct is far more telling of a person’s character than you think. Its action unhindered by guile or thought.”

“But is it really, a year ago I would have shrieked and curled into a ball or something?” Alwen challenged.

Astarte frowned “Have you heard the Terran parable about the frog and the scorpion?”

Alwen thought for a second “the one where the scorpion stings the frog because that was its nature?”

“That’s the one. The parable teaches that you can’t trust an untrustworthy person, because its not in their nature. But what that story gets wrong is that people aren’t like the scorpion, our nature is not set in stone. We have the ability to think about our actions and their consequences, and through our actions our own inner nature changes. A person can be like a scorpion, or change and become something else, like a…shit. What’s the opposite of a scorpion.” She said in frustration.

“A frog?” Alwen offered.

“Why would a frog ride another frog’s back to get across a stream?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen either in person.” Alwen protested

“Whatever, you get the point though right? People change, and we can choose how we change. ‘Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is’” she quoted.

“Which saint said that” Alwen asked?

“Philosopher named Camus, he thought that one should simply accept that they live in an indifferent universe with no purpose or meaning and just go about their day. I like what he had to say about all of it, I even have one of his more famous quotes posted in my quarters.” She explained.

“What quote?” Alwen asked, her curiosity peaked by the strange Terran obsession with Nihilism. The Torweni had a similar concept, but not in the same way. Human religion was always concerned with a persons ultimate purpose and destiny, while Torweni temples simply taught a core set of values and principles for living a moral life. As scientific advancement drew back the curtain on the workings of the universe, all of which had previously been ascribed to divine figure, humans had grappled with the moral turmoil of a ‘godless’ universe. While the Torweni gods only ever taught a set of principles, and their worship wasn’t tied to mythical explanations for the universe.

“Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee.” Astarte said with absolute seriousness.

Alwen was stunned for a second by its morbid nature, before she laughed at the sheer absurdity. Astarte joined in as they turned down another corner and delved deeper into the city’s dark heart.