Pandemonium

All the familiar sterilized scents of a hospital hit Alwen’s nose like along lost friend. She had never noticed how different the med bay on the Astaroth smelled from a normal hospital, there was just an extra quality that it was missing, one that she couldn’t identify. The journey back on the Lucifer had been odd, unlike the Astaroth or Asmodeus it felt more like a real warship. It had less crew amenities, felt more utilitarian, and had a raw sort of quality that made Alwen feel like an outsider. She spent most of her time just sleeping and working out with Alice and the rest of Astaroth’s marines.

They had been on Mars for a few weeks, and besides visiting Gato as he recovered in the dorm building the Hellworlders owned, she hadn’t really done much. The time she had spent resting seemed to crawl by at a glacial pace, each day feeling longer than the last, until one day she woke up and felt like something deep within her had changed. After that she felt like each, and every day was easier than the last. Today she had gone for a nice jog around Noctis when she got a message from Bachir, he had been stabilized on the Lucifer and transferred to the trauma ward in Noctis general, and now he was finally recovered enough to have visitors.

The hospital staff had given her strange looks as she passed by and whispered amongst themselves as she passed. It was a little hard to accept that most Terrans had never seen a Torweni, after spending so much time with the Hellworlders she felt like they were all one and the same species. A nurse guided her to Bachir’s room and knocked gently and a minute later a short dark-haired girl opened the door and pushed past Alwen with a shy glance. Alwen stared at the young woman as she walked away before entering Bachir’s room.

Her mentor was hooked up to multiple machines, and he had several patches of shaved and bandaged skin from where Alwen had to operate. “Who was that?” she asked as she sat down in the chair next to his bed.

“My daughter, Manar.” He answered softly, his jaw had been set and there wasn’t any danger of him reinjuring by speaking, but he still had to be careful about how he moved it.

Alwen frowned “But, but she was human?” she asked, wondering if she may have been adopted.

He huffed “Yes, and so was her mother, her brother on the other hand is a bear, as furry and grouchy as I am. A strange quirk of Mammaloid biology.”

Alwen raised her eyebrows in shock “How is that even possible?”

He looked at her with a sad distant expression “I wondered the same thing after my son was born. How did a human give birth to a nonhuman? How were the traits selected? How did it differ from an Ursiloid born from an Ursiloid mother? Asking those questions were the biggening of my downfall, like pandoras box.” He sighed. “I wrote a few books on the subject if you want to see how the mechanics of it works. They’re hard to find nowadays, but I have a few copies I can lend you.”

Alwen frowned “I take it that researching how it worked was when you began to suspect something was amiss.”

He nodded “I didn’t find anything new in other mammaloids, but I did discover some alterations in humans that were very out of place. They had a better understanding of their own genome than we did of ours, it was easier to spot the changes. But that’s not why you’re here.”

“No, but it was interesting. Does this mean you’re still married?”

He shook his head, “No, things fell apart after I was exiled, my son hates me now, and I’m lucky Manar came to visit.”

Alwen felt a pang of sympathy for her mentor, he stumbled onto the truth and had everything taken away because of it. Alwen wasn’t sure how she would cope if that happened to her. Though in all honesty that’s likely what awaited her back home.

“I heard about how hard you worked when I was unconscious.” He said changing the subject.

“Yeah, I felt lost without you, and I know a made a lot of mistakes.”

“Good thing we don’t have a board of ethics judging everything we do” he said with an open mouthed pant grin that must have hurt. “but that aside, you did well, better than I could have done.”

Alwen felt her chest tighten as she realized why he had called her hear “I got a message from the captain, said that she need to meet with me, said it was important.”

Bachir nodded “Yeah, I guessing you’ve already figured out why.”

Her mouth went dry “Your retiring.” She said quietly, not wanting to believe it.

He nodded again “I’m and old bear, nearly seventy, I can’t keep up with you youngsters, especially now. You’ll still see me around whenever you make port, and we still have our partnership. But I need to settle down and let myself heal, and I can’t do that on the Astaroth.”

“But, when my time comes up, I may never see you again after that” Alwen protested.

He glared at her “That’s the second thing,” he said as he slowly sat up and reached out for a familiar looking journal, her journal. “I might be an old bear, but even I can learn a new trick or two. After a whole year working side by side with you I picked up a thing or two about your language, enough to read what you wrote down” he grumbled. “I’m not fluent, but what I know was enough to get by” he opened the book and read the first item “number one: Structured crew, number two: purpose-built ship, three is my research. Four: code of ethics, five: Alice’s mission, six is Modius’ orders, and seven: Pandemonium. Quite the list you have here, and from what I see here you already have enough to guess the truth of the matter. You know the truth, and you’ve already changed into the warrior you need to be to survive this life, so why are you still hesitating to take the last step?”

“Its not that easy-” she began to protest.

“-Yes it is.” He interrupted forcefully. “You’re a very smart, and courageous girl, but you are a very reactionary person. You act when you are pressed to, you retreat when others retreat, and when it comes to making your own decisions you become paralyzed with fear, too stuck in your own mind to act. But when you let your instincts take over you do what needs to be done, its time you stop deliberating over whether taking the mark is the right thing, make a choice and deal with the consequences later.”

Alwen felt her head droop as she stared at her feet, too ashamed to look him in the eye.

A large claw reached out and gently lifted her up by the chin, Bachir looked deep into her eyes “And whatever choice you make, I’ll stand by you.”

She felt a tear slide down her check, and she jumped onto Bachir and hugged her friend. He was stunned at first, but eventually put his massive paw against her back and rubbed gently.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

~~~*~~~

Alwen gently knocked against the wooden door to Astarte’s office. It was unmarked and had no windows in or out, but when she told the receptionist that she was here to see the Captain of the Astaroth she had just pointed her down this hall.

A muffled “Enter” came through the door and Alwen pushed the door open and stepped through.

The room was very utilitarian, a desk in the center, some rows of steel filing cabinets, and a single chair in front of the captains desk. The only decoration in the whole room was a massive map of the known galaxy with the various sectors, worlds, stations, and trade lanes marked out. Before she had an abstract understanding that Orion was a sparse sector compared to other sectors, but looking at the map she saw that Orion was like a ghost town when compared to the rest. The captain was hunched over a file, her hair was neatly tied back for once as she scanned the file. “Have a seat” she muttered as she signed the bottom of the file.

Alwen pulled out the chair and looked around the office for anything else of note. “Nice, uh, office.” She remarked blandly.

“Pretty boring huh,” Astarte said with grin as she sat up.

“Its not was I was expecting.” Alwen admitted.

“I barely spend any time here, so I haven’t decorated anything. My office on the Astaroth is much nicer, it has rum.” She smirked at that last part.

Alwen laughed. “Of course it does.”

Astarte took of her glasses and Alwen noted that even though she was just doing paperwork in her office, she still wore her maroon armor. In fact Alwen could count the times she had seen Astarte unarmored on one hand. “I think you know why I’ve called you hear, but just in case you don’t. Bachir’s injuries are going to take some time to recover from, and he is electing to retire early. I know you still have a few months before your official contract period is up, but I need you to make a decision right now. I need to know whether I can count on you for another five years, or if I should start looking for a replacement for the both of you.”

“So that’s it, take the mark now or leave?”

“Basically, yes. Again I’m sorry to spring this on you but I need you to make a decision right now.”

Alwen sat there in silence for a moment before she spoke up “I want the truth, all the secrets that you’ve been holding back.”

Her eyes sharpened “That’s not how this works, you take the mark you get the secrets, what’ll I do if you decide to refuse the mark?”

Alwen matched her gaze “I think we both know what’ll happen if I refuse to take the mark after I learn the truth.” She said softly.

Astarte frowned “I wouldn’t kill you”

“With all due respect, bullshit.” Alwen shot back. “Despite how nicely I’ve been treated your all still space pirates, if I threaten to expose your whole operation you’ll take me out to save yourselves. I have learned that you people don’t half-ass anything when it comes to your mission, now I want to know exactly what that mission is before I sign on with a permanent brand.”

Astarte said nothing and tapped her finger on her desk, Alwen was about to press on but Astarte held up a hand. She reached over for a desk phone and pressed a number before picking up “Hey, yes, I need you to call my shuttle, yes on the roof please, okay thanks” she set down the phone and gave Alwen a very mischievous look. “You want to know the whole truth; well we’ll have to take a little trip first.”

She stood up and prowled over to the door, she opened it and stepped out without a backwards glance. Alwen didn’t need to follow her, and the smart thing would have been not to follow the murderous space pirate. But when had doing the smart thing ever gotten her anywhere. Alwen got up and followed Astarte to an elevator and rode it all the way to the roof with her, neither of them said a word the whole time. They had to wait a few minutes before the Captains sleek private shuttle arrived, it gently touched down on the landing pad and they boarded as soon as the door slid open.

“Where to Miss.” The pilot asked.

“The university of Olympus Mons, physics department.” She answered.

The pilot nodded and gently brought the craft to a high cruising altitude as he skirted around the massive bulk of Tharsis. No one said a single word the whole half hour, Astarte only stared blankly out the window as the land quickly passed below them. Soon the Martian capital appeared below them, and unlike Noctis Alwen could tell that Olympus Mons was a very wealthy city. It had all the straight roads and grid like blocks Terrans loved, but all the buildings were several stories tall and were gilded in granite and marble. They were too high up for Alwen to see much, but the streets were packed with people and cars, and the streets were lined with big leafy green trees. They passed by a massive domed building Alwen recognized the capitol building were the Terran government held there meetings.

The shuttle glided over to a very large campus area, with large ornate ivy-covered buildings. The shuttle picked one of the larger building and gently landed on a rooftop landing pad. They stepped off the shuttle and walked over to a set of stairs where a young human boy was waiting.

“Hello miss Astarte, how can I help you today?” he asked politely.

Astarte smiled “We need to make an unscheduled transit.”

The boys eyes widened “Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t come here if I wasn’t.” she said coolly.

He looked like he wanted to protest, but one pointed look from the captain shut him up. he led them down the stairs to an elevator which took them to the basement levels of the building. He led them down a hallway where an older human women was standing, she looked very well dressed and had the air of knowledge around her.

“Director, good to see you.” Astarte said with a smile.

“I wish I could say the same,” the older woman’s gaze slid over to Alwen with a hint of surprise before returning to Astarte. “The device is not your personal short cut, you can’t simply use it as you please, especially for frivolous journeys.”

Astarte frowned “Remind me Director Brown, who is funding the device?”

She glared “You.” She said icily.

“Ah, and who provided the original relic, the one you based its design off of.”

“You.”

“And who owns everything on the other side of the device?”

The director gritted her teeth “You.”

“Then tell me, why can’t I use it as I see fit?”

The woman’s face went red, but with her hands forced she had no choice but to lead them down the hall to a thick metal door that required and pass code. The door slid open and Astarte led Alwen into another elevator, the doors slid closed and with a press of a single down arrow the elevator began to move.

“What was that about?” Alwen asked.

Astarte scowled “I’ve got a few deals worked out with the deans of OMU, but director Brown questions my ethics, and likes to challenge me on every point.”

“And where are we going, and what’s the device?”

“We’re going about a kilometer or two below the planets surface, we had to get creative when it came to engineering a cooling system for the gate since we’re technically not supposed to have it. Ultimately we decided to just run miles cooling pipes.”

“Gate?”

The captain nodded “Yeah, I fund a number of philanthropic projects, one of them is a couple of exploration ships to map out the unknown regions of space. A while ago a team stumbled across a relic of immense importance and brought it back, we’ve been studying it ever since and made a basic, much smaller replica. The original was large enough to encircle this whole city, with room for a second.”

The elevator stopped and they both stepped off into a cavernous stone room, humans in white lab coats rushed around as humans in hard hats called out to each other. In the center of the room was a ring-shaped device with several HV superconductor cables attached to it at four spots. The room hummed with power and machinery. “What is that thing?” she asked over the noise.

Astarte smiled “That is a gate way, much like the ones outside of Femeri. When powered it connects two different points in space, no matter the distance. This one is only big enough for small train cars to transit, and we can only run it for a few minutes before it needs a week or two to cool down. Now come, we’re here to see what’s on the other side of it.”

“Where’s the original?” Alwen asked.

“Out in space near our destination, its too big to land on a planet without mass devastation.”

Alwen’s eyebrows shot up in alarm “How did they move it then?”

Astarte shook her head “They didn’t need to, they just turned it on, and it brought itself through leaving several supernovas worth of heat behind. That’s the thing about these gates, going to another point is easy, but making sure the place you left isn’t a melted waste land is hard. It took literally everything we knew about physics, engineering, quantum mechanics, and biology just to make this tiny version. And we’re about a hundred years from ever making one the size of the Union gates.”

Alwen frowned “Biology?”

“Yup, crazy bacterial reaction that somehow aid in stabilization, I don’t understand the science, but I know that its hard to recreate.” She stepped up to the gate and turned to a technician behind her and gave him the thumbs up.

The technician nodded and pulled a lever, the humming around Alwen got a lot louder, and without any warning the empty space within the gate became a blue sky. She stepped back as a fresh damp breeze hit her face, the Captain put a hand on her back and urged her to step through. At first she took small steps, but when she saw the captain pass through with only a little stumble Alwen found her confidence and strode through as well.

She stepped onto the stone floor on the other side of the gate and near stumble face first as her balance was thrown off. The captain caught her and helped her back to her feet. Alwen tried to steady herself as the world around her felt too fast for a second.

“Careful, the landing’s always a little disorienting.” Astarte said reassuringly.

“Why?” Alwen groaned.

“Different planets move at different speeds. We don’t normally notice, but when step off one spinning rock and on to another in only few seconds there’s a disconnect in your brain as you readjust.”

“Different planet?”

Astarte laughed, and Alwen lifted her head and gasped. They were at the top of a massive stone step pyramid, in the center of a massive city of other pyramids. The space in between them was flooded with greenish water and boats darted from place to place. Around them beyond the horizon of the water Alwen saw the edges of a massive crater reach up out of nowhere all around them.

“Welcome to Pandemonium. Home base for the Hellworlder fleet, and first successful Terran Colony world. And most importantly it’s a total secret from the Union”