A Tale of Three Sisters Or: How Marlene Humperdink got her Royal Liner
As soon as the shields fell, razor fire tore through the side of the "Gerhard Gustlav' as if the passenger liner was made of cardboard. The only ship that had answered the distress call, the Rheinland Gunboat "Prinz Eugen", watched in horror as the horde of Corsair centurions peppered into the ship filled with refugees. The resulting decompressions left the people aboard with only one alternative: the escape pods, where they would be tractored in by the pirates as fresh-packed meat. Swarming close to the ship, the Corsair pilots were eager to be the first to gain a pod. Having a living refugee in their hold provided them with a human shield against the Prinz Eugen's flak fire, and would keep them fed for at least 2 months. Assuming the water recycling system in their ship didn't fail. It is the year 802. The nomad war had disrupted the sensitive economic infrastructure of the border worlds, forcing hunger-crazed Corsairs, who still had no world suitable for farming, to revert to cannibalism.
Inside the Gustlav, near the bridge, Joe Largo stared in dismay at the panels indicating ship-wide paths to escape pods. The decompressions had already effectively cut the overfilled passenger ship in half. He would not reach his wife and daughters, who were in the cramped rear of the ship. He had told Elsa he would make "special arrangements" for her and the girls with the captain of the Gustlav, in the way he always pretended to be on top of things. Like the way he pretended he had found the perfect job and place in the border worlds, like he pretended he found a safe refugee transport out of Freeport 9. The crew life pods were ample where he was. Not so in the refugee decks. There was nothing he could do but hope for a miracle and help his family in case they survived. He pressed the eject button, sat down in the pod, held his head in his hands, and tried to pray. But all he could think was "She was right. She should have divorced".
In the passenger quarters, hell had broken loose. People where pushing, climbing over each other, beating each others heads in to fight for a place in the life boats. The few existing pods were stacking up with layers of people, the doors blocked by bodies making a launch impossible. Elsa and her girls had waited for Joe before heading for a lifeboat, and were far back in the mass of people that was pushing towards the illusion of possible rescue. As the decks started decompressing and the corridors congesting, Elsa knew Joe wouldn't be coming. Now she was glad she wasnst in front getting crushed by the crowd. She started heading away from the passenger decks towards engineering, carrying her youngest child in one arm, the second youngest on her hand almost breaking the little fingers, and pushing the oldest ahead of her. No way a crew member would even consider trying to get onto one those death trap passenger life pods. They must have had their own exit strategy: her only chance was that they did. She didn't bother stopping to look through doors or ship maps. She headed straight down to the engine deck, and let out a scream of triumpf when she really found a single unused crewman pod in a row of jettisoned ones on the rearmost part of the ship. "Women and children first huh? More like every man for himself", she thought and laughed hysterically as she opened the hatch. Her face froze and eyes dropped in dismay. There was only a small space hardly large enough for one adult inside the pod. Without emotion, she pushed in Marlene, 9, and used her free arm to hurl in Karlotta, 7. Then she stacked Annika, 5, on top of them, closed the door without stopping to look at her children for a last time. Elsa pushed the eject button for her daughters only seconds before the deck she was on decompressed.
Alba awoke with a sharp pain in the neck. The tall and athletic young woman had not gone down without a fight, but there wasn't much she could have done against that stun gun. It had been almost 4 days since the five Corsairs had captured her on a raid in Omicron Eta, but these imbeciles apparently still hadn't made up their mind if they should kill her or not. It had taken 2 days for them to confirm that she was really an Outcast "princess" as she had claimed. Then their inability to contact her father Don Quichote had caused endless discussions about if they really needed ransom money when there was no food to buy, whether cardamine is really still addictive second hand when consumed inside addicted food, and who of the 5 Corsairs would be eaten first in case times grew REALLY desperate. Her own current status was apparently iron reserve, after someone else. The Corsairs kept referring to their hideout as "The canyon of Wolves", although there sure weren't any wolves on this moon or large asteroid or what it was. While she lay shackeled and unable to move inside a cave on a miserable little pebble some where... where ever... awaiting her end, she thought to herself:
"If only I had some cardamine"
Corsair Ernesto, who had previously been in the foulest mood of the five since they had made first acquaintance, entered the cave grinning like and idiot and face beaming.
"We found food!" he declared to Alba who eyed him suspiciously.
"Yippie eye ey, m*th*rf*ckf*r. Did you find any Cardamine?" Alba thought to herself.
He walked over to a bag filled with jagged knives and a small axe, which she had seen him hide there from his fellow Corsairs yesterday. He saw her look at him questioningly, and said:
"Very good food. So I am happy." and walked outside again, still grinning and obviously content with himself.
Alba lifted her head and strained her ears to listen what was being said outside. She could hear whimpering from a child and some whispering, but her Outcast senses were not what they should be.... without her drug.
"They are going to eat the children", she thought and felt a guilty feeling of relief.
"If only I had some cardamine."
The loud booming voice of Corsair Garcia, who seemed to be the leader, could now be heard.
"Cabron! You said you lost those knives! Why you find them now when we got this food and not when it was your turn, hein?"
The sound of slapping could be heard. Ernesto walked back in, holding three small girls under his arms, his cheek reddened but still grinning and full of glee.
"Stay here." he said as he gently put them on the floor. "First we will kill the other two because they are bigger", he explained to them with a friendly smile and raised index finger. He left te cavern again.
The three girls looked at Alba. The oldest was blonde and seemed fairly gathered in comparison to the other 2 black haired girls. The one of intermediate height was crying, and the youngest was staring at Alba without a word and desperate expression.
Alba smiled at her and Annika suddenly cheered up and smiled back.
"Where are we?", asked the oldest sister, Marlene.
"In the canyon of wolves." Replied Alba.
Annikas eyes widened: "Are there wolves here?"
"Erm... no... they are hiding... down in the rift outside...", Alba reassured her.
"Who are you?", asked Marlene.
"I am a princess!", Alba announced proudly.
Annika's jaw droppedin amazement, and Karlotta stopped crying but started scowling instead.
"YOU were born with a silver spoon in your ass!"
Being the middle child, Karlotta had always been trying to gain status and attention by enforcing the strict views about justice that her father taught them.
"Karlotta why do you always have to be like that?" said Marlene, rolling her eyes.
"Even better! I was born with an ORANGE spoon!" Alba replied with a cheeky smile, putting a proud and mysterious look on her face. But inside she felt tormented. She thought: "If only I had some cardamine"
Karlotta glared at her angrily. And then she became angry at her father for leaving her unprepared for such a response.
"Daaaaddd!!!" she shouted and turned her head slightly towards the cave entrance, without moving her eyes away from Alba.
"Yes sweetie, Im talking to these people now, wait please sweetie" a man's voice could be heard from outside.
Karlotta was now furious at Alba:
"I hate you. You think you are so special but you aren't!"
Annika, who had been staring at Alba with her mouth open all this time, turned to Karlotta in surprise at this announcement.
"Do you know a way out of here?" Marlene interjected, obviously experienced in moderating her sister.
"Indeed I do" Alba said. "There is a way out of here in that survival kit over there in that bag. Take one of the knives from that bag, cut my ropes, and help me get to that kit. And don't touch the kit. You might break it."
"Annika! Stop!" Karlotta shouted at Annika who had started moving in the direction of the bag and turned to Alba. "Do you think we are stupid? We cant leave through there! Its much too small for us, and maybe you just want to monopolize the kit and keep it all for you and not let other people have it!". She gasps for air. "My dad told me about people like you! Give the kit to me!"
Annika was now brave enough to lean forward and take a closer look at the colorful tattoos on Alba's face. She pokes a finger in her cheek.
"Why do you have that on your face?"
"Ill tell you later maybe. Well, mainly because Im a princess."
"Do you live in a castle and ride a white pony?"
Not sure what a pony is, Alba replies, "Uh... sure."
"What is its name?"
"Saber", Alba said, forcing herself not to say "Cardamine"
Marlene walked over to the kit and opens it.
"Whats this orange stuff in the glass tubes?"
"Give it. Don't break it."
"How will that help us get out of here?"
"You will see."
Consuelo the Corsaire walked in.
"Weh go outsaideh noweh... Eh! Chicita! These ees not for you!" He takes the kit from Marlene while smacking her in the head. Alba could smell Consuelo's breath at three meters distance. He seemed to think of himself as somewhat of a ladies man, judging by his clothes and hair. Alba didn't want to know the ladies that liked him. Consuello grabed Alba by the collar and draged her behind him through the moondust to join the others outside. The sisters follow without a word.
Outside the cave, Joe Largo was talking to Garcia, sweating and frantically waving his hands, trying to look smiling and confident. When he saw his daughters, he tried to smile even more and became more agitated. On the floor next to a box of plunder, an approximately 40 year old man in a Liberty Security Forces uniform was lying bound and gagged. When he saw the new arrivals, he started stirring around and tried to shout something to them through the gag, madly rolling his eyes. Consuelo threw the Outcast survival kit into the plunder on the floor. About 50 meters away, in an open space that precedes the downslope of the narrow and winding canyon, a Centurion had just completed planetfall.
"So it is all sorted out! I am so glad we have agreed on this, Mr Garcia!" Joe exclaimed loudly, making sure the girls heard it.
Karlotta's voice changed to a calm and confident one:
"See? I told you Dad would fix it!", she snickerd at Marlene. "But you always have to complain like mom! Why isn't SHE here helping us? SHE stayed on the big ship!"
Garcia answered Joe with a bored expression: "Of course Mr ... er... Blargo... you will tell us where the treasure is, and we will eat only the LSF and let you and your girls go. The LSF agent is no loss. He is crazy. Coo coo. Too much nomad war for him. Even the LSF say nobody will miss his blabberings."
Karlotta pointed her finger at Alba in a defiant manner, eager to talk with the grown ups and assist her father: "You can eat her too."
Two bald Corsairs that look like they could be brothers left the Centurion and joined the group, carrying a food processing unit.
"Welcomeh to thee feasteh of thee wolves, amigos! I see you haveh broat your koooking gear. Ah aH ah!" Consuelo greated them. They forced a smile and tried not to breath through their noses.
Jesus said: "That b*tch was lying. They told us on Crete. Lets eat."
Instinct immediately tells Alba that the slaughter will start now with the arrival of the last two clan members. Everyone here is doomed. They would spare no one. Bloodshed is coming. In a split second, the longing for cardamine overpowers her completely. What would have been an adrenaline rush in a normal person causes the exact opposite for the Outcast: the energy suply to her metabolism shuts down and waits for a caradmine input, in expectance of the dose that would precede every fight.
Annika looks startled and asks the princess: "Do grownups eat people?
"Uhm... eh... yes... I mean...no... they can... wolves can... they are wolves... they can do it" the dazed and confused Alba stammers.
"Can I be a wolf and eat them?"
Marlene looks at her youngest sister in surprise and anxiety. She was always worried that Annika would turn out like Karlotta, looking so much like her.
"Where is the treasure, Mr Blargo?"
Garcia calmly looks Joe in the eyes.
"Oh its... really... its in Freeport 9. Frankly, its really easy to find its... on the hydroponic deck... right there...ha ha... its that easy really, ha..."
Without another word, Consuelo pulls out his pistol and shoots Joe Largo in the head.
The two Corsairs that just arrived grab Marlene and Karlotta, who scream and kick in panic.
Annika stands confused, looking back and forth between her father on the floor, her sisters, and Alba.
With less than half her senses, Alba stammers to her: "Ehr...Anni... uhm... the kit... the survival kit... its over there...uhm.. take it... the orange... go down the canyon... run away... do like the wolves..."
"Ehhh! Estupido! Ernesto!" Consuelo shouts.
"You do not see these little one run way? Whatta you theenk we make this trouble to get them heh? Catch her now, Cohudo!"
While Ernesto darts after the little girl down the canyon wielding a long jagged knife, the other Corsairs succeed in tying up Marlene and Karlotta. They dump them on the floor next to Alba and the LSF agent They get the knives from Ernesto's bag, and do their grizzly work on Joe's body. Alba notices she is close enough to the agent to pull out his gag with her teeth. The LSF agent looks bewildered as Alba starts biting at his mouth, but then understands and cooperates in removing the gag.
"I have to tell you something!!! You may not want to hear it, but these are nomads here! Yes! They are! I know the nomads! I fought with them! They are in the LSF! Everywhere! Everytime something bad happens, there you have a nomad! People say Im mad! But there are nomads everywhere! Don't trust anyone!"
Alba squints her eyes at the agent, trying to see if he is joking.
"lol... whut?"
She feels like putting the gag back in his mouth, but cant because she is still tied up.
"Dude they are Corsairs. And they are going to eat us. And you are telling me be careful they might be nomads?"
The agent looks wordlessly at Alba for a while, then looks away as if trying to hide from her. "You are on their side!"
Garcia suddenly realizes Ernesto still hasn't come back. And it has been almost 20 minutes.
"Ehhh... Esteban, Jesus... go after that eediot Ernesto. Maybe he fell down and broke something. If he did he is still good for a snack. Ah ah!"
The two Corsairs grin and head down the slope, expecting to get a chunk of the tender little girl as a reward if they catch her.
The LSF Agent now turns to Karlotta and Marlene. "Listen! Im sure you will understand. These nomads are not single cases. They will kill everyone, you, me, everyone! We must act now! They are the heralds of the apocalypse! If we fail in our duty all huma..."
At close proximity down the canyon, first a cry of surprise is heard, then a screech of absolute horror from one who knows with certainty that he will die.
Then Esteban is heard shouting: "Jesus? Mi hermano! Que pas... NO!!! get awa...AAAAAHHHHHHHHHIIIIIYEEE NNOOO QUIERO MORRIIIIR!"
Garcia and Consuelo stand petrified for a moment. Then they pull out their side arms and perch toward the slope. Consuello peers over the edge, then looks back at Garcia while shaking his head. He sees nothing.
"Do you theenk the Benitez cahm to steal our foood?" Consuelo whispers loudly and grimaces questioningly. The four prisoners can smell a wave of bad breath get to them at 8 meters distance.
Garcia just stands there, not knowing what to say.
"I think those three idiots fell off a cliff. And we will not waste this. If the Benitez are there then all the better. We get them and all the more for us. Vamonos."
Garcia and Consuelo stay standing, both waiting for the other to go first.
"I said vamonos.", Garcia says waving his pistol in the direction of the canyon. They slowly head down the slope, Garcia at about 10 meters behind Consuelo.
One minute after the last words from them are heard, the LSF Agent sits up and perches his head, looking around in all directions. Marlene notices he must have been able to free himself from the ropes some time ago, and was staying down until the air was clear.
"You two! Come with me! I can fly that Centurion and get us out of here!"
"But we can't go without Annika!" Karlotta protests.
While undoing Karlottas and MArlenes shackles, he whispers: "Listen... there is only one explanation for what is happening... there are nomads down there in the canyon. And they took your sister first. She has already been dead for half an hour hour. We, however, are still alive, and we must warn humanity about the nomads. They are the harbingers of death! Have you seen what happened here? That's just the beginning! I didn't believe it at first when they told me either. And now everyone is dead. On your feet, soldiers"
"But we cant be..." Marlenes attempt of a protest is immediately countered with a slap in the face, silencing her.
*cough cough*
The agent whirls around, and his initial panic turns to annoyance as Alba smiles sweetly in his direction.
"Little help here?"
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"I don't help Outcasts. You are probably a nomad as well."
"You're insane. Regardless.... just a little cardamine? Annika droped my kit over there. You don't even have to get the cardi out just move the kit next to my head. At least let me die happy?", Alba begged.
"So Im the one who's insane huh?"
The agent stood up and kicks Alba in the face, knocking her out instantly.
"Lets go. We will take the Centurion to get past the Corsair patrols."
As the agent and Marlene, who is still holding her swollen cheek, head towards the spaceship, Karlotta stays back and looks at the helpless Outcast in front of her. She looks hesitatant.
"Don't tell me that you feel p..." the agent starts, but Karlotta suddenly runs to Alba, kicks her in the stomach with everything she's got, and runs to follow the others.
The way back to liberty through the borderworlds was easy with a Corsair ship and friend or foe recognition. Within three days, they were in orbit around Manhattan. They never returned to the planetoid.
Upon their return to Liberty, Marlene, together with her sister Karlotta, stayed with the LSF Agent whose name was Elijah Engelbrecher. After some months however, disagreements between Elijah and Marlene led to her departure to live with her mother Elsa's parents in Rheinalnd. Marlene had always felt closer to her mother than her father, while the opposite was true for Karlotta. Elsa's parents, Anna and Wilhelm Humperdink, were impoverished farmers that could hardly keep up with the work to sustain themselves due to their old age. Although both libertonian and rheinland officials at first oposed any exchanges of residence between the two wartorn houses, the provisional civilian government that was breifly in place before being overthrown by the new Gottkanzler granted Rheinland citizenship to any refugee or displaced person from the Nomad war. Marlene helped as good as she could for many years, but at 16 she saw that a solution had to be found before her grandparents work themselves to death. She started political work in the Landwirtsrecht Bewegeung, organising fair trade rallies, writing appeals to the Gottkanzler, and starting petitions for more protectionism in Rheinland. When the LWB was outlawed, she gave up the struggle on the surface but kept supporting the movement underground. It was in this "underground" work that she made the acquaintance of a Junker called Tinkerbell. He was a dynamic and hard working man who fought for the conservation of the free Junker lifestyle, giving a voice to those that no one would listen to. He taught her the secrets of Junker success. At 17, she had won the wreck of a Bretonian Royal liner, which was ready for scrapping, in a game of poker that was rigged by Tinkerbell. Pulling all strings available to her, she had the wreck renovated by friends she had met since her stay in Rheinland. They overclocked the drives of a Rheinland gunboat with the help of her friend Dimitri and built it into the liner. Dimitri always used to refer to the home of his ancestors saying "Rrrrrussssia was a nAation of overclOckerrs". The first voyage took place from New Berlin to New York, with forged papers and a little help from her sister Karlotta. None of the passengers that complained about the aweful noise guessed what danger they were in from the overclocked drives. The first voyage bought stable engines, the second bought shields, the third a navigation computer, the fourth a pilots license for Marlene. On the fifth voyage, the freelance enterprise 'Humerdink Inc.' was formed. Marlene specialized in high profile passengers as well as shipping covert diplomats on secret missions between houses, or re-uniting war-torn famillies, if they could afford it. While Karlotta and Elijah were still active in the LSF, they provided her with secret contracts and helped with clearance codes for almost all factions the LSF had encountered. Soon, Marlene's Royal Liner was one of the best upkept, unexpectedly powerful, and most luxurious ships in Sirius. The completely overhawled and renovated Royal Bretonian Luxury liner, which she christened the 'RCS Citizen Ship', could be seen in the oddest places throughout Sirius. Shipping food rations to both Crete and Malta, taking captured pilots to unknown locations, offering luxurious trips from London to Manhattan, and using sneak-tactics to taking passengers and refugees betweem Kusari and Bretonia, or Rheinland and Liberty. The only consant throughout all the voyages was one thing: the price was right. Never should Anna and Wilhelm Humperdink go hungry again.
Karlotta
Karlotta was raised by Elijah until he died. He reminded her of her father in many ways, and she admired the clarity in spirit and determination in both of them. Never hesitant, always showing the way, and both fiercely loyal in their ideals. Elijah told Karlotta that the Corsaires who killed her father were possessed by nomads, the Corsaires being key allies in the artefact trade in his war against the nomads. His deep knowledge of the workings inside the LSF, and the fact that he was one of the few surviving non-infected LSF members made him climb up the career ladder steeply. He was one of the architects of the new command structure of Order and LSF, organising the hierarchy in a way that would make infiltration of superior officers pointless. This however brought him many enemies inside the LSF. Eight years after the Corsair incident, he was declared insane and incarcerated. He died while being in prison under mysterious circumstances. Karlotta had advanced within the ranks of the Order, not without help of her foster parent. When he died, re-arrangement inside the LSF were swift to follow. The command structure in both LSF and Order became re-centralized, Not only did both organizations not know what the other was doing anymore, but also the hierarchical structure allowed focal points of power to become attractive targets for infiltration. Order and LSF began to squabble over the research on -and use of- nomad technology, which led to increased secrecy and ultimately a power struggle. It soon became known that nomads were again infiltrating human populations and institutions. Karlotta formed and independent cell within the Order, much like the Order had been formed out of the LSF in the first Nomad war. The targeted assassinations of suspected infested individuals, like the Order started out with in the first war, in addition to widespread propaganda operations were successful in mitigating open abuse of power by the LSF, but did not mobilise the masses like it was hoped. Following the rigging of elections in Liberty and the systematic harassment of the opposition, Karlotta went back to covert operations instead of open interference in the political process. She had uncovered a vast network of interactions linked to the slow overtaking of Sirius by the nomads, from LSF to Liberty forces, from the police to rogues, from Rogues to Outcasts, from Outcasts to Bretonia, from Bretonia to IMG and Kusari, from the Tau war to the Cardamine smuggle, from Cardamine to Nomad spirits. She did not yet know where to strike first. But she knew that it would get bloody.
Guadalupe
For the second time that day, Alba awoke with a sharp pain. Only this time it was in her forehead, not her neck. Her belly gave her nausea and she wanted to puke, but couldnt because she hadn't eaten in days.
Someone was shaking her and fiddling with the shackles on her hands. Before opening here eyes, Alba felt that she had not ingested any cardamine for a long time, and really didn't want to regain consciousness and be eaten by smelly Corsaires. Why did they have to wake her up before they kill her?
"Wtf is wrong with these people?" she thought.
Then she thought: "Oh well, what the hell" and opened her eyes. At the same time her shackles fell off.
The girl she had met as Annika was kneeling in front of her. A long cut that reached from her forehead through her left eyebrow to her cheekbone was on her face. Blood was trickling from her chin. Annika had cut Alba's ropes with Ernesto's long and bloody knife. Alba felt a hand gently stroking her forehead, and her mind began to clear and the muscles in her body that had been tense for the last week began to relax.
"They told me to give this to you" Alba heard her say and saw she was now holding the survival kit. Although she was the same person than earlier that day, her voice was not that of a child and her face did not bear any questions anymore... only answers.
"They promised never to leave me", Alba heard her say.
"They promised me they would never leave me alone"
Alba wished she would leave her alone so she could sleep in peace. What was she talking about? Who they? That would hardly be the Corsairs. She couldn't mean the spirits. This planetoid was light-years away from Malta. And she couldn't hear them anyway because she was a mere human. And no human may know about the spirits. Or had they begun speaking to her through the cardamine, like they would sometimes do with the Outcasts?
Alba looked at the Outcast survival kit that was handed to her. All 3 doses of cardamine were gone. If an adult had ingested these highly concentrated emergeny doses, the euphoria would be enough to make the heart explode and shoot blood out of the veins with enough pressure to cut through paper. Maybe Annika survived because her little body was completely undernourished and de-hydrated and couldn't build up the force to destroy itself.
"They say that you must take me home. To Malta.", Alba heard as she could feel someone shaking her again.
The survival kit was being pushed into her hand now.
Alba opened her eyes. Then she pressed the "activate" button of the distress beacon that was hidden at the bottom of the kit. She let her forehead sink into the moondust and fell into a deep sleep.
On Malta, the story of what happened on the planetoid was brought before the Dons. Annika was given the old Maltesian name "Guadalupe", which roughly translated means "river of wolves". She soon forgot her previous name and life, and grew up among the Outcasts on Malta. She never talked about what happened in the valley, and she stopped hearing the spirits more clearly than the other outcasts as the cardamine overdose wore off. She was raised by Alba, who was living the life of an ordinary pilot because her father "Don Quichote" had been murdered by the other Dons years before her capture by the Corsairs. The events of the canyon gave Guadalupe a certain status in her surroundings, having the highest 'kill' number for someone her age for a long time. This built up her bloodlust in battle above average Outcast levels. She took great pride in every adversary she took down, and tattooed a mark on her face or body for every person she killed. Her devotion to Malta and the spirits rose to fanatic levels, something she may have in common with her forgotten sister Karlotta. At 18, she was admitted into the 'Knights of the Order of Malta' sect at the youngest possible age, due to her undoubtable devotion to the spirits. She looked down on the Dons, who murdered Alba's father in their petty power struggles, and felt they failed to understand the truth, beauty and kindness that she had seen from the spirits. She knew that with every enemy she killed she pleased the spirits who saved her, and almost every time this filled her with a bliss and happiness so strong and deep that it brought tears to her eyes. She knew that the spirits had given her a new life when her old one ended, and she lived to serve them. At 20, Guadalupe had become one of the most feared Outcast pilots in the Omicrons and Taus. When the time would come, she wanted to accept and embrace death with the same gratitude that she felt for everything that the spirits had given her. Because she knew that in death she would be with them at last.