Starborn: Origin of the Stars

“Ah, that hurts…” Ang’Tue said with a sad sigh and motioned at the weapons Alena and Landom carried as soon as they stepped out of the elevator.

“What did you expect?” Robin shrugged, “Come on, it’s better if we have this talk inside.”

“How did the UAS react? Did you get in trouble?” Ang’Tue asked after they sat down in the conference room.

“They don’t like it when someone murders one of their own.” Robin said, “But you’ve done even more damage to me and my crew by breaking our trust.”

“I’ve killed someone, I cannot and will not deny that.” Ang’Tue said with a nod and Robin noticed Alena tensing up at his side. “You are talking about trust, and I know I damaged our relationship, but tell me, Robin Tulward, how is the situation between you, me and the UAS?”

Robin pondered for a moment and decided to stick to vague answers and not give too much away.

“They don’t believe the story of an accident. Me and my crew are mostly in the clear, as long as we are not found directly responsible for Trevil’s death – which we aren’t and I would not hold back anything to prove that if necessary.”

“So, you haven’t told them what happened there?” Ang’Tue said and Robin was sure he saw surprise flash in his eyes for a second.

“Gratitude!” The old man fidgeted with his hand a bit before he continued.

“Normally I would not be able to explain much of what happened, as it touches on some of the fundamental problems of the Eltaran. However, you not only helped me get the data that is essential for my people, but also kept most of what you’ve learned about me from the UAS, even after I gave you reason for distrust.”

“I really hope you soon come to the point that justifies the killing of a defeated and defenseless enemy.” Alena couldn’t hold herself back any longer and hissed, one hand still resting at her energy pistol.

“Justify? Young miss, I think we do agree on this: you cannot justify that.” Ang’Tue gave a hollow laugh and Robin noticed Alena let go of some of the accumulated tension. There he was again, the old grandpa from next door.

“The Eltaran have mutations which are different from that of the other races. Robin, you remember your friend’s metaphor, the one with each G-Anomaly being a chapter of your genes? The Eltaran have these chapters too, but over the centuries we’ve managed to change them a bit. However, each change of one’s genes comes at a price. You already know of one: We’ve prolonged our life but lost fertility. Comparable to that, we’ve changed the depth of our ‘mutation-chapters’, giving them more pages and more information, so to say…”

“…and you had to pay a price….” Robin muttered.

“Yes, we had to pay a price. Our mutations are stronger but in turn we lost part of our… mental health.”

“You guys got supermutations and in turn went nuts? Wow, that’s just perfect!” Alena exclaimed in indignation.

“It’s not like that.” Ang’Tue chuckled with a friendly smile, “It’s a type of schizophrenic disorder. We have a voice in our head that whispers sweetly about our darkest urges. The stronger your mutation is modified, the stronger the effect.”

“So… you did go nuts!” Landom said, deadpan.

“Ugh… No, normally we do have this under perfect control. We are trained to withstand it from childhood on and most of us never have problems their whole life until…” He said and got quieter as he spoke, becoming inaudible to the end.

“Until…?” Robin asked when he heard Alena taking a sharp breath.

“Until they reach the end of their lifespan.” She repeated for him, understanding even Ang’Tue’s whispering. “Don’t get me wrong and all, but as far as I heard, your mutation is the real deal and you are so old, you probably know the Starborn personally.” She said and after a short, rare hesitation she added, “You are a ticking bomb, aren’t you?”

Silence fell over the room. While Alena’s words were hurtful, everyone understood that there was some truth to it.

“It was my first blackout since forever. I was under too much stress and didn’t find into my meditation. I became unstable just as they locked me in that room. When Trevil didn’t stop mocking me, making fun of my dying people, I blacked out. When I came back, I… it was already too late. I was only gone for a short moment but…”

“The Suppression-Shackles!” Robin realized.

“Yes, when we lose ourselves to the demon, it always comes with the activation of our mutations. So as soon as I blacked out, the cuffs immediately and quite painfully cleared my head.”

Ang’Tue said and Robin nodded at Alena who quickly hurried out of the room.

“I’m... sorry. I understand that, at least to my knowledge, the Eltaran have done all these gene manipulations themselves, but that was done over the course of many generations. The Eltaran from today, you and your family, your friends, have really pulled the short straw in this.” Robin sighed for the umpteenth time today, “I like you Ang’Tue. You are the perfect representation of everything I’m looking for on my adventures – a member of an alien race, legends and myths all around you, a mission I would love to help you with and a great companion for traveling… but you are overshooting the scale of excitement, I cannot put my whole crew at risk for your sake.”

“You are responsible for your people, I understand. What now?”

“Now we wait for Alena to return with the Suppression-Shackles.” Robin said, “You put them on and can wait in your cabin until I’ve talked with the others. I don’t know how they wanna handle this mess and they will have a say in it. However, I promise you two things: As agreed in our deal, I will make sure the data gets to your people one way or the other and secondly, we will not directly hand you over to the UAS. You get to know our preferred course of action tomorrow morning. Use this night to rest and think about how you want this to continue.” Robin said and stood up.

“And begin to meditate! Lot’s of meditating for you!” Landom said eagerly.

It took a moment before Robin and Ang’Tue both began to laugh. Finally, the tension was dropping a bit. When Alena came back, they put the shackles on and brought him to his room. Robin reactivated the BTW drone and stationed it in front of the door to keep watch. He didn’t want to lock up the old man, but he also couldn’t refrain from monitoring him.

“Notify the others please.” Robin said to Landom, “We’ll have another meeting in half an hour… and Landom, please make sure that Keran sleeps at least until the meeting is over.”

“You can’t keep the man sleeping or knocked out permanently, you know that, right?”

“Just a few more hours, then I’ll deal with him, okay?”

“As you order, captain!” Landom said with a grin.

“Ah, come on.”

“You did handle this well. It’s no easy decision and there is hardly a right or wrong. You’re doing great.” The security officer said earnestly.

“Thanks, much appreciated!”

***

The meeting with the rest of the crew, all except Keran, was done quickly. Robin explained what they had learned and Landom and Alena both added their opinions and observations every now and then.

Robin refrained from elaborating how he liked to deal with this situation and listened to the discussions of the others first. Alena and Sevastian quickly put their heads together, Niu began whispering to Patience and Timothy only looked up once before turning his attention back to one of his datapads.

“What do you think? How would you like to proceed?” Robin asked Landom, who was standing silently next to him.

“I think we both know that already, don’t we? We are on the same page on this, I think.” Walzor said with a small grin on his face.

“You are probably right. What is with the others?”

“They will come to the same conclusion.” Landom said.

Robin just nodded and remained silent for a moment.

“The Eltaran were on the run even back when the Starborn were still around, but today’s generation suffers even more.” He finally said in a low voice.

“I can’t begin to imagine how it must feel to know that you are part of the last generations of your kind, doomed to helplessly watch as your children and grandchildren are dying because of mistakes that were made thousands of years ago…” Landom muttered and Robin saw a deep sadness in his eyes.

“If Ang’Tue is right, there may still be hope. However, even if we believe everything he said by the word and they really are victims themselves, that doesn’t change the fact that he is an unstable and dangerous variable.”

He said and Landom grunted in agreement, just as the others also finished their silent discussions.

To Robin’s surprise it was Patience who began to give voice to her thoughts first. She, like Robin and Landom, was inclined to believe Ang’Tue’s story and gave him some credit for sharing so many secrets with them. She voted for letting him join the Hubble as a temporary member as long as he kept the Suppression-Shackles on. The others all agreed to this and after some back and forth, it was decided that Robin would rework the shackles to something with the same functionality but without all the shackling. They didn’t want him to feel like a prisoner. Also Ang’Tue had to agree on being monitored by the BWT-drone all the time.

When they get to the next big city to contact the Eltaran, Robin will try to question one of them without Ang’Tue nearby, to verify the story about the side effects of their mutations. If they confirm Ang’Tue’s version, they will let the old man fully join the team, if he wants that - if it turns out to be some made up bullshit he tried to sell them… Well, they would handle it when it comes to that.

As for Keran? Everyone unanimously agreed on not sharing any more than what the UAS knew already anyways. That’s why Robin was now on the way to visit the researcher.

“You look better!” He said after entering the man’s cabin. Keran was sitting on the edge of his bed and was still a bit drowsy. He probably just woke up after Landom gave him another dose of the medicine they used to extend his sleep.

“I’m still a bit tired, even after being knocked out and sleeping for so long.” He said and had to suppress a yawn, “It must have been quite serious, normally I’m back up pretty fast.”

“The robot rammed his sword through your stomach and we were on an island without enough nutrients to support your mutation’s workings. So, yes, it really was serious. We nearly lost you, even after the fight was won. It was a close call.” Robin explained.

“So we won. What happened after I was gone? Is everyone else okay?”

Robin gave a lengthy summary of the rest of the fight, the laboratory they found and the visit of the Discovery. Also he mentioned that the ship was attacked last night and the Eltaran had fled in the chaos.

“You are angry.” Keran noted after Robin was done.

“You sold us out to Ramones. Of course I’m angry.”

“I reported to the UAS. That is my job.”

“The price for this was high, someone died. The UAS is on its way to do an investigation and take over the laboratory. The damage you did is quite severe.”

“Who killed the man? Did you really have to attack another UAS crew and what’s with the Eltaran, where is he now?” Keran asked, visibly displeased.

“I just have given you a full report, the same the UAS also got. We have nothing to do with the escape of Ang’Tue and no one of this crew killed anyone.”

“You don’t expect me to believe this story, do you?” Keran laughed, even so the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Keran, you can discuss what you want to believe or should believe with the UAS. I’ll open a channel for you in the conference room in half an hour.” Robin said sternly.

“Huh, you’ve grown in your role as captain quite a bit while I was out, haven’t you?”

“I have to protect my crew, all of them. You endangered us when you ran back to Ramones. What did you think would happen?”

“You don’t understand the relevance of the capturing of a living Eltaran. I had no choice, mankind’s interests will always be my priority!”

“‘The capturing’? Wow… Talk to Eston and reorder your priorities, then we can continue this talk.” Robin said and turned to leave. He needed to get out of Keran’s cabin before he completely lost his cool.

“Eston? Wait, Thomas Eston? Fuck, Tulward, what the hell did you do?” Keran yelped in surprise but Robin didn’t answer and just left the room.

Patience waited outside and looked concerned.

“How did it go?”

“As bad as expected.” Robin answered, “Make sure he goes nowhere other than the conference room. I don’t want him find Ang’Tue before Eston explained to him how the UAS has positioned itself in this mess.”

“You think that will work?” Patience asked with a frown.

“Yeah, it seems like Eston is quite the bigshot. Keran will listen to him, he practically lives for the UAS and is blind to anything else.”

“Ugh, the rest of the trip will be awkward as hell.” She sighed.

“We will see, I think Keran will manage somehow. But yeah, much of the trust is gone.”

“First Ang’Tue, now Keran. Feels more like I’ve joined a self-help group than a crew of a spaceship.” Patience complained.

Robin laughed and patted her shoulders.

“We are just at the beginning of our journey. With everything that has already happened, it is a wonder that this ragtag crew hasn’t fallen apart since long.” He said, “We are on a mission for the UAS with a mix of many new people. Wait until we’ve finished this mission and are on our own, then it will be more like what you probably had in mind. We do need this phase however, it is good training - none of us had any idea what to do before.”