Chapter 4: For in the grim darkness of the far future.
"How long are you going to stay here!" Jerry shouted at Kara.
"Until I win," Kara answered groggily.
Walter sat across from her, eyes glued to the Consortium board game between them. Until Kara had moved in, Walter had been the household champion, but now she was beating him by two whole games!
Jerry shook his head and looked at Walter. "I expected this obsession from you, son, but not her. Why can't you just let the girl win? She's our guest, after all."
"She's been here for 310 days, almost a year. She's not a guest anymore," Walter muttered. Her luck must end eventually."
Luck was the deciding factor at this point in the game. Jerry and Joanne got knocked out hours ago, and all that stood on the square board were Kara's gold towers and Walter's white towers. Never looking up from the two six-sided dice, Walter rolled them and got a ten, landing on one of his own spaces and safe for another round, just as he had done for the past 56 turns. Jerry groaned as Walter moved his player piece.
"Okay. Kara, why can't you just let the boy win? I'm telling ya, Walter can go for days without sleep if he really wants to."
"Then I hope he got plenty of sleep before this game," Kara replied before rolling a seven, just missing Walter's spaces.
Jerry scratched his head before throwing his arms up in defeat. "Joanne, help me!"
"No supper until you two check the fences. Either end the game or take a break."
"All right, I cave," Kara told Walter as she left the table.
"So you surrender?"
"No. We'll pick up this game later. There's no way I'm giving up my title without a fight."
Walter smiled. Even though his head ached at the thought of having to endure any more of this game with Kara, he still enjoyed having a challenge for a change. If he was being honest with himself, he was nervous when his parents said they'd take Kara in as a farmhand. It took years for him to adjust to listening to Jerry and Joanne's daily routines, so he feared adding a third person would complicate things, and it did at first. Kara raided the fridge, took frequent and long showers, and often talked in her sleep. He didn't say anything, though. Most people wouldn't hear or notice those things, and Walter knew he had a mountain of his own odd behaviors. He was happy to have someone his age to talk to about his strange past, do farm work with, and challenge him in board games.
Dealing with one newcomer in the family house was much easier than moving to a campus. It didn't help that half his scholarships were revoked after word spread about what happened at the New Year's party. It didn't matter that Walter was a star athlete and at the top of his classes; most universities would be rightfully worried about letting in a young man who had drunk fifty cups of beer back-to-back before speeding off into the night and losing his car. No one had seen it since, and Walter still couldn't remember what he had done with it. All he could remember after the party was being scared, losing his car, and talking with Kara.
Walter couldn't think straight for nine days afterward. Kara told him he mostly laid in bed then and had to be spoon-fed by his parents. Occasionally, he would walk around the house but not talk to anyone. From what Kara told him, police were called, but the monster dog's corpse had disappeared, just like the monster that attacked Walter after his crash. All the officers could find were Jun's remains, which caused one of them to puke at the scene. Everyone in the house was questioned, and even Walter was considered a suspect for a while before Jun's death was ultimately ruled as an animal attack.
"Some neighbors have spotted beluacaris roaming around," Jerry told Walter and Kara as he pulled out a key from his pocket. He walked over to a wooden cabinet and kept talking as he unlocked it. "I need you two to check the fences, make sure there aren't any gaps, and chase off any you come across." Once he opened the door, Walter saw four lever-action repeating rifles hung up on racks with boxes of ammo below them. Jerry pulled out one of the rifles, loaded it, and handed it to Walter.
"You don't have to hit them. Just shooting close will scare them off." Jerry then grabbed and loaded another gun before handing it to Kara.
"And if something strange shows up?" Kara asked as Jerry handed her one of the rifles. "No offense, but you've had two weird monsters appear on your farm."
"Years apart from one another!" Jerry said defensively, "But if you see something strange, run straight home. Don't fight it, don't interact with it, and don't try to take any pictures."
"Just because we've got two monster killers in the family now doesn't mean you get to act careless," Joanne yelled from the other room. "Dinner will be ready when you come back."
After hearing that, Kara raced out of the house, and Walter followed behind. Walter caught up with her in seconds before slowing down to match her pace. The sun had fallen, but the sky was still a dull orange ember. As pretty as it was, it filled Walter with dread, as it meant that a few days from now, the New Year lights would return, and Walter would suffer another attack. He took a deep breath as he listened to the ticking of his watch, focused only on that moment, listening to the sound and thinking about how many people had owned the watch before him.
"Hey, Walter," Kara said, pulling Walter's attention off the watch. "Have you ever heard of something called 'The Great Game'?" Kara asked.
"No. How many times do you have to ask me?"
"I won't ask again. I was just thinking that, with New Years coming up, you would remember something."
Walter tried to think back to that night, but all he got from that was a sore head.
"I can't remember what happens when the lights come out. I'm sorry if it scared you, though."
Kara rolled her eyes and faked a laugh. "A giant dog and a drunk guy attacked me. You rambling some weird shit was nothing. But…before that night. Did you ever speak with a homeless guy?"
"No. Why?"
"He said something about a great game, too."
"There's lots of games out there. I doubt there's anything that important."
"Okay, but have you ever heard of the Carrion Lord? Maybe he's some character you made up."
"Nope."
"Descendant of Ash?"
"Nothing."
Kara stopped to look at the silo in the distance. From this far away, Walter doubted she could see the dented wall and crooked ladder the dog had left last year, but he could, and he felt his heart rate spike as he tried to picture himself stabbing that thing.
"Do you think all those names are important to your past?" Kara asked. "Before you were adopted."
"I don't know," Walter sighed. "I've had so many doctors tell me I'm making up memories and confusing dreams with reality. Part of me wishes it would stop so I could act like everyone else, not freak out at parties or lights, and move on with my life. At the same time, I wish I could remember what happened before the crash. Even if it was something horrible, that's still most of my life gone. I have to believe all these strange dreams; all these reactions have to mean something, or else I'm just going through all this for nothing."
"Maybe that's a good thing," Kara said before kicking a nearby pebble. "There's a lot of things worth forgetting."
Walter saw her face tighten and her eyes redden. She bit her bottom lip and avoided looking at him. Despite the invasiveness of it, Walter couldn't help but listen as her heart rate went up. It was the same reaction he had sensed from her every time Jerry or Joanne tried to talk with Kara about her family.
"Sorry I brought it up, Walter," she told him.
"Don't me. I'm just as confused as you."
The two walked silently past the cow pasture towards the farthest corner of the farm's wire fence. Already, Walter noticed gaps from where a beluacaris had cut through with their mandibles. He glanced at the ground, looking for footprints, and sniffed the air to pick up its sour pheromones. The farm now needed a hunter, so Walter focused on being a hunter.
Kara wondered if Walter knew how his demeanor changed when he focused on a job. He usually walked around awkwardly, like he was always balancing on ice, and his slim face would have a calm, dreamy look as long as he wasn't overreacting to something. But now, his body had stiffened, and his eyes focused on things Kara couldn't see. One moment, Kara would see him crouched on the ground, sniffing the dirt, but after she blinked, he would be ten meters away looking for another clue. It didn't matter Walter's job; he took everything seriously. At first, it kind of freaked Kara out, but she had come to admire it. He never half-assed anything, wasn't egotistical about being great at everything, and always helped others. If Kara had his speed and senses when she was homeless, she probably would have pickpocketed everyone she'd met.
'You don't have a home,' she thought to herself. 'You're just a dropout who got lucky. What have you done to deserve leaching off a nice family?'
Kara wished she could help Walter. She didn't care what his doctors told him; she saw firsthand what happened during those New Year lights, and his reaction wasn't natural. Kara had a hellish home life before running away, but that didn't make her eyes glow or start shouting doomsday prophecies. She only wanted to repay Walter for saving her, inviting her into his home, and being her first friend. If she could give him some piece of mind, maybe that would be a good start.
Walter was long gone now, leaving Kara alone to keep patrolling the fence line. She kept an ear open for the sound of Walter's rifle going off, but Kara noticed the farm had become unusually quiet after a few minutes. You didn't have to have Walter's ears to hear tiny creatures chirping to each other or buzzing around your head, but everything had gone silent. As Kara looked around, she stared at the sky and noticed a shining light streaking through the clouds. At first, she thought it was a shooting star, but it was coming closer, and she could begin to make it out more. It was some type of plane, but it wasn't flying over the farm-it was coming in for a landing! The aircraft soared over Kara as she watched it descend closer to the ground. She chased after it, crashing through a maize field as she continued following it. She ruled out an emergency landing because it wasn't leaving behind any smoke trails, nothing was leaking, and nothing was on fire. The plane was now twenty meters off the ground and lowering its landing gear, which were like skids to a helicopter. Kara watched as the plane gradually stopped mid-air and gently floated to the ground. Even with her limited knowledge of such matters, Kara knew regular planes couldn't hover in place like that.
Peering through the crops, Kara got her first close look at the mysterious plane, now resting on a patch of flattened grass next to hay bales. It was a strange red jet with the ends of its wings detailed to look like feathers. This thing looked more blocky and angular than the streamlined jets Kara had seen, and it just got stranger the more Kara observed it. A glass dome was nested above the cockpit at the front of the ship. Painted on the wings was a symbol of a black chicken-like creature with two heads. Its engines, despite their size, were only making a slight humming noise that Kara almost mistook for a pest flying by her ear. Kara stepped out of the maize field, hoping to get a better look at the vehicle, but ran back when she heard the clanging of shifting metal as a door opened up at the back of the ship, forming a ramp.
"Walter, I know you can hear this. Get over here," Kara growled as she crawled out of the field and behind one of the hay bales to get a better view of the ramp. She gasped but forced a hand over her mouth as she watched a human skull float out of the vehicle. The skull had strange wires, mechanical claws, and cable-like tendrils. Inside its eye sockets were camera lenses that Kara could hear clicking as the skull drone rotated in place. Its mechanical eyes shone red as it projected a meter-long fan of red light that scanned the area before disappearing as the skull floated away to repeat the process.
"It's fake," Kara told herself. It's probably some weird balloon or toy. There have to be hidden fans keeping it airborne." That explained the skull shape, but Kara was left baffled by all the other strange mechanisms. In a few seconds, her fear only grew.
As the skull kept looking over the area, five more skulls flew out of the jet, each with different devices attached. One was similar to the first and focused on scanning the area. Another had a scroll attached to the bottom of its top jaw, with a pen in place of one of its teeth. Two others had buzz saws and tubes and went to work cutting and collecting plants. The last one had speakers on its side, ironically where ears should have been. Kara wanted to run away but feared the skulls would find her if she left her hiding space. All she could do for now was keep an eye on the ship and hope Walter wasn't spotted.
The next to emerge from the jet were two men wearing tubed gas masks and bowl helmets with the two-headed creature symbol on them. The men carried strange rifles and stopped marching when they reached the end of the ramp. One of the men wore a mustard yellow greatcoat, a pair of heavy black boots, and thick leather gloves. On his belt were ammo pouches, wrenches, and tools Kara didn't know how to describe. The second man wore a dark blue greatcoat with gold buttons, dirt-stained boots, and black gloves. He had ammo pouches, too, but he carried a shovel instead of tools. Kara began to wonder if this was an invasion, but she didn't recognize their uniforms or symbols belonging to any country on Malcula.
The man in the mustard greatcoat looked around before taking off his gas mask. He was a dark-skinned man with green eyes and short hair who looked to be in his thirties or early forties. He took a deep breath before calling out to someone inside the jet.
"All clear, Lord Romulius."
After the skulls and masked soldiers, Kara expected a giant warlord in decorated armor to emerge. Instead, a pale man who looked like an obese aristocrat from an ancient oil painting came hopping behind the soldiers. He wore white puffy sleeves and trousers, a red vest decorated with emblems, epaulets that bounced with every move he made, and a navy blue coat with a collar that reached his ears. On top of his egg-shaped head was a powdered wig covered partially by an oversized tricorne hat with a white feather plume. Strapped to his side were an antiquated gun holster and a saber in a sheath. He could have passed for wearing a historical costume were it not for his metallic right eye with a red lens. The skulls stopped their probing to turn and face the strange man for what Kara could only guess was to record him.
The man stopped to smile and wave at the skulls before pulling out a cylinder object. With a sudden click, the object extended into a flag pole, displaying a red flag with a golden image of the two-headed creature. Kara could now see one of the heads had an eye while the other did not. The man puffed out his chest and did a few poses for the skulls before stabbing the flag into the ground. Once he had done that, the skull with the speakers began blaring out music that sounded like an amplified organ, and the scroll with the scroll started writing everything the man said next.
"Van Romulius account 42130-56-7," the man announced over the overbearing music. "The star map provided by the Fra'al has proved fruitful. Despite the protests of seneschal Grolsch, I, Lord Belvedere Van Romulius, am the first servant of the Imperium to set foot on this planet. Our orbital scanners indicate that a healthy population of humanity has endured since the Age of Strife, although its technology has declined due to its isolation. However, I have little doubt that I shall successfully integrate this world with the Imperium and the rest of humanity. While I do not yet know what the locals call this planet, I have ordered astropath Phlamel to request the High Lords of Terra to name this new planet Romulius Prime on future star charts."
'Planet?' Kara kept repeating that word in her head. This wasn't a jet she was looking at; it was a spaceship! Nothing made sense now. No one had even made it to Malcula's moon, so why were there people in spaceships now? These people called themselves humans and said they would reintroduce Malcula to the rest. How many more humans were out in space, and why didn't anyone on Malcula know about this? Walter's episode last year was nothing compared to this, as Kara kept asking questions, completely tuning out the man's ongoing speech. What was the Age of Strife? Who were the Fra'al? What was a seneschal and an astropath? What was the Imperium, and who was this asshole to think he could just rename their planet after himself. She became so lost in her wonderings that she missed one of the scanning skulls hovering over her hay bale until it covered her in its scanner's red light.
Sirens blared from the skull, and the music stopped. Kara panicked as she knew these invaders would discover her. However, she could still warn Walter. She aimed her rifle at the skull drone and fired right into its right eye socket. Sparks and bone fragments flew out as the drone fell onto the ground in pieces. If the siren hadn't caught Walter's attention, that gunshot definitely would. She didn't get a chance to run away as the blue-coated soldier wrapped an arm around her and ripped away her gun, tossing it away from them.
"Karl, be gentle," Romulius ordered. "Let me see our first human of Romulius Prime."
Kara kept trying to break free, but the man's grip on her tightened as he brought her in front of his boss. The soldier, Karl, pulled Kara's hands behind her back and held onto them tightly.
"Hello, there, child," Belvedere said, drawing out his words. "Do you speak Low-Gothic?"
"No, but I speak Mainland," Kara answered.
"By the Throne! This is incredible." The man hopped in place before composing himself and bowing. "I am Lord Belvedere Van Romulius, rogue trader and the captain of the Titanborn. Who might I be speaking to?"
"Kara. My name is Kara. Can you let me go now?"
"Yes, yes, Karl, let mistress Kara go. She's no threat to us."
Karl did just that, but morbid curiosity kept Kara from running away. Belvedere wasted no time in continuing.
"Well, Kara, it appears that your language has remained unchanged from Low-Gothic for the last fifteen thousand years. Thank the Emperor."
Kara's eyes blinked as she calculated the math. Three thousand years was considered ancient history for Malcula, and no current country had existed for more than a few hundred.
"What do you mean fifteen thousand years?" Kara asked, hoping this was a misunderstanding.
"Right, you wouldn't know. Ok, mmm. An Imperial year is 365 Terran days, which is, oh, never mind that for now."
Belvedere paused to pull a handkerchief from his coat and wiped his head and neck. "It's best if I start at the beginning. You see, a very long time ago, humanity created warp drives, allowing us to travel through the Warp dimension. What used to take generations to travel between star systems was now possible in a matter of days! By using the Warp, humanity was able to spread across the galaxy. However, over fifteen thousand years ago, the Warp became too dangerous to travel through. Humanity was left disconnected from one another, and xenos and daemons ravaged thousands of worlds. This era became known as the Age of Strife, and it was not for another five thousand years until the God-Emperor of Mankind revealed himself, made the Warp safe to travel again, and began a grand crusade to reunite humanity under the Imperium. Your planet was one of these planets that became lost during the Age of Strife."
Once Belvedere had finished, one of the skull probes floated over to Kara and projected a spiral image with an arrow pointing towards a northern region. Kara squinted and recoiled when she realized the spiral comprised millions of dots, which she assumed were meant to resemble stars. Her entire world, everything that had ever been recorded on Malcula, was but a grain of sand in a desert. If this was a stunt, it was very well put together.
"Is this your first time seeing a map of the galaxy?" Belvedere asked.
"Yeah," Kara was barely able to answer.
"Oh, I'm so sorry you saw it by one of my servo-skulls. It's of dreadful quality. I have much better displays on board my ship. Do you think your planet would appreciate the Imperium more if I started with that first?"
Kara looked at the skull again and tapped it. "Is that a real skull?"
"Indeed it is."
"WHY?" Kara shrieked.
"Now, young madam, I can assure you servo-skulls are quite common in the Imperi-"
"WHY?"
"Well, they're easy to produce, and the biological matter prevents them from developing abominable intelligence, I think. I'm not quite sure myself. You can ask our tech-priest, Talos, more about it."
"Um, Lord Romulius, maybe you should avoid using servo-skulls on this planet for a while," the green-eyed soldier said.
Kara was glad Walter hadn't shown up yet. Every answer Belvedere gave just sounded more insane, but he talked as if it were common knowledge. She didn't want to see how Walter would respond if she could barely keep herself standing up from learning all this. Suddenly, Kara recalled Walter's origin story. He told her he crashed into the farm in a strange vehicle, and a monster chased him. A monster unlike anything seen on Malcula. Maybe that monster was an alien predator, and these were his people here to rescue him. Yesterday, Kara believed aliens only existed in corny books and cheap films, but here was a spaceship and robotic skulls.
When Walter heard Kara's gunshot, it felt like someone had dumped cold water over him. At first, he believed she had found the beluacaris before him, but once he started looking for her, he sensed a new presence at the farm. He could smell a thick cloud of oil and metal so strong he felt like he could taste it. As he ran closer to where he heard Kara's gunshot, he could hear other voices. Thankfully, Kara sounded more annoyed than scared.
It didn't take him long to find her footprints and follow the trail of bent maize stalks from where she had run through the field. With his height, Walter could barely look over the wall of stems to see Kara talking to several strangers in front of an unusual jet. Planted into the ground was a flag with a two-headed creature Walter felt like he had seen before. It was…an eagle! They had feathers and two legs like Malcula chickens, but they were great flyers and hunters. Walter couldn't remember where he had first learned about eagles, as they didn't exist on Malcula, but a part of him was telling him that's what it was, and if he tuned everything around him out, he could almost imagine one soaring amongst the clouds. Was he just delusional, or was it a memory of before the Alfredsons adopted him? Walter kept walking, listening to the conversation between Kara and a man in a powdered wig.
"Belvedere—I mean—Mr. Romulius, I know this might sound random, but would you happen to be looking for a young man who crashed here almost five years ago?" Kara asked the well-dressed man.
"No. As far as I know, my crew and I were the first of the Imperium to rediscover this planet. Perhaps this friend of yours was part of another rogue trader group that crashed here without our knowledge? Countless ships have gone missing in the Warp, reappearing at random parts of the universe years later."
"What's a rogue trader? You've mentioned that several times now. Do you trade with aliens, which I'm guessing are real?"
"Oh, it's so much more than that. Thousands of xenos are dangerous beings that plot to destroy humanity. Interaction with them is forbidden in the Imperium, but not to us rogue traders. The High Lords of Terra have permitted us to travel the unexplored reaches of space and use whatever means we see fit to bring reaches to the Imperium."
A sharp pain sprouted in Walter's mind as he listened to Kara talk with this Belvedere man, but it wasn't unpleasant. Like pulling a splinter out from your foot or putting ice on a bruise, something was soothing about what Belvedere was saying. Xenos, an Imperium, rogue traders, there was something familiar about these words. For years, he assumed he was in a car crash, or less likely a plane crash, but if Belvedere's theory was true, maybe Walter came in a spaceship much like Belvedere's. That could explain the strange creature that hunted him; it was a xeno, and that's why nothing like it lived on Malcula. Next, Walter recalled his dreams of ivory fortresses and seeing stars and planets. Perhaps they weren't just dreams but were a part of his past. Was he once a rogue trader, traveling the galaxy and discovering new worlds? The idea excited Walter as he felt he was finally about to find meaning behind his oddities. He stepped out of the crop field and waved to the group.
He never got a chance to say a word.
"Eldar!" Belvedere shouted. Walter stood blankly as the word bounced around in his head. It resonated with him unlike anything else. Belvedere was reaching for something in his holster, and his face twisted into a frightening scowl. Every part of him was screaming fear. Immediately, Walter wondered if another strange monster had arrived and looked behind him. He was relieved he didn't find anything, but when Walter looked back at Belvedere, he could see the man was now aiming a pistol at him! Walter looked around again, trying to see what else there could have been, but to his horror, the two men who joined Belvedere were also aiming their rifles at him. Had he come out of the crop field too fast or made a threatening gesture? What did eldar mean? Belvedere pulled the trigger of his gun, and a bright light shot out of the muzzle and straight into Walter's chest. For a brief moment, Walter felt nothing but stillness. He heard Kara scream as his vision became blurry. Feeling returned to Walter when a burning sensation formed in his chest, digging deeper with each nanosecond. Walter fell on his back, and everything became silent, dark, and still.
"Eldar!" Belvedere shouted suddenly before pulling out a pistol and firing it at the maize field. It didn't make a sound but fired a beam of red light. Kara looked over to what he fired at, only to see Walter lying on the ground with a burning wound in the middle of his chest.
"What have you done?" Kara cried out. "That's my friend!" She picked up her rifle that Karl had thrown aside and ran over to Walter. She knelt over him, pointing her rifle unsteadily at Belvedere. Walter was still breathing, but he made a horrible wheezing sound. The rogue trader and his men stayed where they were, merely looking at Kara in confusion.
"Your friends with this eldar?" Belvedere asked.
"Stop calling him that!"
"But mistress Kara, that's what he is. Eldar are a type of xeno. I've dealt with them, and they are very dangerous."
"Not this one, you idiot!" Kara cried and shook so much that she struggled to form a plan. As much as she wanted to fire her gun at Belvedere's head, he had two guards and his servo-skulls around him. Besides, if they had spaceships, they likely had medicine to help Walter.
"You're going to have a hard time getting anyone to join your empire if he dies," Kara warned them. "He's saved my life, is great at everything, and hasn't harmed anyone. He cries over stepping on bugs, for gods' sake. Who would want to join a bunch of space freaks who shot a defenseless farm boy?"
"Mistress Kara, how long have you known your…friend?"
"Years," Kara said. Granted, she had only been his friend for close to a year, but she needed Belvedere to feel guilty if she had any hope of saving Walter.
"Does anyone else know about him?"
"He has a family! Everyone at our school loved him."
Belvedere hummed and muttered to himself as he rubbed his multiple chins in thought. All the while, Kara started pressing down on Walter's wound and praying to whoever would listen to keep him alive.
"Addam, Karl," Belvedere finally said. "Bring this eldar inside the aquila lander. See to it no more harm befalls him."
"Well, at least it's not another ork," said the green-eyed soldier, who Kara gathered was Addam.
"A xeno iss schtill a xeno. May ze Emperor protect us," Karl replied in a thick accent.
When the two soldiers reached them, Kara reluctantly lowered her gun and stood back from Walter. Karl grabbed Walter by the legs while Addam picked him up by the shoulders, and the two rushed him into the ship. Once the two were onboard, Belvedere looked back towards Kara. Up until this point, he had looked at Kara like she was a child throwing a random tantrum, but now his face turned grim and stern.
"Young lady, you have not encountered much of his kind before, so you do not know the depravity they are capable of. Even the tamer ones would gladly burn an entire world of humans if it benefited just one of them. While I will graciously heal him, the two of you will have to follow the rules of my ship if you wish to avoid future conflicts."
Kara growled and thought about trying to shoot Belvedere again. "Fine, whatever, but we've got to hurry!"
Belvedere nodded as he led her inside the ship. "First, you two are to do whatever I say on my ship, especially for the eldar when he recovers. Secondly, you are to stop using the word 'empire.' It's called the Imperium of Man, or simply the Imperium, and I will not allow improper terminology on my ship. Lastly, you said, 'For gods' sake' earlier, gods' as in plural. This will not do. The only divine being in the galaxy is the God-Emperor of Mankind. If you need to pray, you will do so to him and him alone."
'Okay, so you're part of a cult, which you want my planet to join. Totally not insane,' Kara thought to herself as Belvedere guided her into the spaceship. She gagged instantly from the thick aroma that was like a mixture of incense and rotten eggs. Her disgust melted away when she saw Walter lying out on the floor with a bloody rag stuffed in his wound. Addam sat on a bench next to him with his gas mask back on. He was still holding his rifle tightly.
"Ve are ready to depart, Master Rogue Trader!" Karl shouted from the pilot's seat.
"Very good, Karl. Bring us back to the Titanborn."
The ramp they walked up rose, and the doors closed. Kara felt the whole ship sway and shake as it supposedly took off the ground. It made Kara think back to her first and only time on a plane. It was scary and loud, but even as a seven-year-old, she felt safer on that ship than on this supposedly advanced spaceship, crazy cultists aside. Then again, she had her dad with her, too. Walter was lucky to have Jerry and Joanne. Were they starting to worry about them? How long had they been gone? How would Kara explain that their son got shot by an alien-human cultist?"
"Van Romulius account 42130-56-8." As Belvedere spoke, the servo-skull with the scroll began writing and continued from where it had left off from Belvedere's earlier monologue.
"Upon contacting the lost colony planet, I was greeted by an adolescent female who informed me that the planet's name was Macula. I still hope Holy Terra will consider renaming the planet Romulius Prime in honor of my family's service to the Imperium. Judging by the primitive weapon she had, the planet has technology equivalent to the late 1st to early 2nd millennium-aged Terra. Accompanying her was a male eldar. Fearing he was about to ambush us, I shot him nonlethally with my laspistol, a testament to my reflexes. However, the eldar appears to have integrated himself into the colony world's populace and convinced them he is a human. Given the local girl's protectiveness and insistence on his innocence, this eldar has been manipulating the population for a while. I have ruled out the use of psyker powers for now, given that the eldar could not foresee my attack and that even though he is unconscious, the girl still worries for him."
The only thing keeping Kara from trying to punch Belvedere, apart from his armed guards, was that she was learning more about Belvedere and Walter in between all the nonsense. At least, she hoped there was some truth to all this, or else she just got her and her friend on a spaceship with a lunatic making stuff up as he went along.
"For what it's worth," Addam said, catching Kara's attention, "I'm sorry about what happened to the eldar."
"Thanks, but you're not the one who shot him!" Kara glared at Belvedere, who sneered as if he was being insulted. "His name is Walter, too!"
"Oh…that's not an eldar name…" Addam stopped when he noticed Kara glaring at him, and she still had her rifle. "R-right, sorry. Walter is his name. It's a very good name. Glad to have you onboard, Kara."
Addam extended a hand, but Kara didn't take it. "Walter better not die."
Somewhere beside them, Kara could still hear Belvedere talking to his skulls. Something about "handshakes do not seem to be a typical gesture on the soon-to-be-renamed planet Malcula."
"Where are you taking us?" Kara asked Addam.
"We are going to our main ship, the Titanborn." As soon as he finished, Kara looked at the front of the ship, trying to peer around Karl so she could see the window. Her body ran cold, and her insides froze when she saw the blue sphere of her home planet vanishing and a massive vessel floating in the dark atmosphere. The Titanborn was nothing like the ones shown in movies or the rockets used to launch satellites into space. This ship, this Titanborn, was like a horrifying fusion of an aircraft carrier and multiple cathedrals. Sixteen silo-like structures were built along the port and starboard of the Titanborn. Near the back of the Titanborn was a large structure resembling a winged hooded woman. An enormous crimson plate with a golden two-headed bird symbol was on the bow. Right below the bow was a cannon greater than any skyscraper Kara had ever seen on Malcula.
"How-how many people are on that ship?" Kara asked.
"Over 560,000 loyal humans and a few sanctioned xenos, happy to travel the stars in the name of the Imperium!" Belvedere answered, having finished his dialogue with the skull.
Kara was speechless as she waited for the ship to land inside the Titanborn. Compared to the Titanborn, their aquila seemed like a speck of dust. They flew in through an opening on the Titanborn that sealed off once they had entered and began landing on a metal platform. Over an intercom outside, Kara heard a dull voice announce, "Aquila-1 has landed. Repeat: Aquila-1 has landed. Dock 15 is now safe for maintenance. Welcome back, Lord Romulius."
As the doors to the aquila started to open, Belvedere smiled to himself and began straightening his coat and wig. His fingers danced on his knees as he bounced in his seat, waiting for the ramp to lower. Addam, meanwhile, tightened his grip around his rifle and kept staring at Walter, which only made Kara more anxious.
"Um, Lord Romulius, may I ask a question?" Addam asked.
"You may," Belvedere answered as he checked his boots for dirt.
"What do we do if she catches wind about this?"
"I'm a rogue trader. I'm allowed to do whatever I want to xenos on my ship. If I say healing this eldar will lead to incorporating this planet into the Imperium faster, the inquisitor will have to accept it."
"Okay, but what will she do to the eldar's friend?" Addam asked, pointing to Kara.
Belvedere's pale face became even paler. His body froze up, except for his eyes, which kept darting around the ship like a serial killer was going to jump out of the shadows. All Kara had done was get on this stupid spaceship, so what would anyone have against her, and why was Belvedere so terrified?
"Who are you guys talking about? What would this other person do to me?" she asked.
Belvedere stood up and shouted, "Karl, close the door! Tell them we're experiencing technical difficulties!"
Once he had given his command and the doors slammed shut, Belvedere recomposed himself and looked down at Kara. "Now, mistress Kara, another thing you should know about the Imperium of Mankind is that it has a lot of enemies."
'No, but you're all so charming and welcoming,' Kara thought about saying sarcastically but could gather now wasn't the time.
"Many of these enemies are xenos, but others are humans who have gone astray, and then there are dangers within the warp that threaten the material world. To root out hidden threats, the Imperium relies on the Inquisition to snuff out the sparks before they become a flame."
"I don't like where this is going," Kara muttered.
"Now, it's not all bad—not bad at all!" Belvedere corrected himself midsentence. "It's just that I currently have an inquisitor on board my ship who…let's just say doesn't get along with other people very well."
"What does this have to do with me and Walter?"
"Well, you see…this inquisitor has been trying to get me in trouble since I became captain of the Titanborn. She's already executed four crew mates and passengers for suspected heresy and treason. As you might remember, most humans are not allowed to interact with xenos, which your friend Walter is. So, as long as the inquisitor is on my ship, it's best if you act like you don't know Walter. On second thought, it's best to avoid her completely."
"But you're a rogue trader. You said you could do anything you wanted as long as it benefitted the Imperium!"
"Yes, but the Inquisition has the authority to do whatever they deem necessary to protect the Imperium, so it's…complicated."
Kara screamed, "WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS NOW!" which caused Addam to jump out of his seat and cover her mouth.
"My apologies, but I wasn't expecting to take anyone up here in these circumstances. And I was so caught up with finding a lost human colony so far away from Holy Terra that I didn't account for the Inquisition being a problem."
Kara stopped listening to Belvedere's excuses, especially after all the madness he had subjected her to in just an hour. Kara kicked, punched, and bit Addam's fingers, trying to get him to let her go. All the while, Belvedere kept trying to justify every stupid thing he had said and done.
"Enough!" Addam yelled to Kara and Belvedere. "Look, this is a bad situation, but it's happening. We can't just take you back without drawing more attention from the inquisitor, and the longer we stand around, the more Walter bleeds out." Kara felt his grip on her loosen. "Now, Kara, if I let you go, will you promise to keep your voice down and refrain from attacking Lord Belvedere?"
Kara needed only to look back at the motionless Walter to nod in agreement. Once she did, Addam dropped her and backed away. In Kara's mind, Addam was the only person in this Imperium with any brains.
"Alright, Lord Belvedere. What do we do once the doors open?" he asked.
And there went any respect Kara was starting to develop for Addam.
"Right. You and Karl should immediately take Walter to the xeno doctor in the lower decks. Take the express elevators. I've just sent a code to allow you to enter. If our inquisitor guest or anyone in her entourage tries to stop you, tell them you are following my orders and let me handle it. Kara, you stay close to me and let me do the talking. However, considering my ship's size, you will likely never see the Inquisitor."
"Got it, but who is she in case we cross paths?" Kara asked.
The doors to the aquila opened again as the ramp lowered. Kara was expecting to see guards or engineers; instead, there was just one woman with a strange red cat-like creature rubbing against her leg. The woman had bone-white skin cracked with scars and wispy bleached hair. Kara thought she resembled an overgrown doll left out in the weather for decades, which made it hard to estimate her age. The doll woman wore a stiff black coat over her dark leather armor and a tall, narrow-brimmed hat sitting perfectly on her head. Images of skulls were on her belt, pauldrons, boots, and her hat. On her chest was some kind of metal badge or emblem. It was shaped like a capital 'I' and had a skull in the center of it. It didn't matter that she was dressed ridiculously like everyone else; Kara felt a sense of dread looking at this woman.
"Oh, Inquisitor Abigail Hathorne!" Lord Belvedere stammered. "I thought you were interviewing our sanctioned psykers?"
"Oh, but when I heard you were returning early, I was afraid something had gone terribly wrong and had to see for myself." The woman lifted her head to face them. Like Belvedere, she had a robotic red eye, but hers glowed brighter. The longer Kara looked at it, the more she felt like something was burning her. Addam and Karl picked up Walter and started to walk down the ramp, which caused the woman to turn her gaze off of Kara and onto them.
"Stop," she ordered, and Addam and Karl did so. Even Kara felt herself freeze up as Abigail's command echoed inside her head.
"Belvedere Van Romulius," the woman said, forcing her black-painted lips into a smile. "Do you plan on dissecting that xeno?"
"Umm…hopefully not yet. He's a corsair we picked up. He's been exploring this planet for years, so if we can heal him, he could be a vital associate and asset to the Imperium."
"Why is he wearing human clothes?"
"Why do the eldar do anything? They have such peculiar tastes."
Abigail looked back at Addam and Karl and let out a powerful "Go."
The two men wasted no time, almost dropping Walter as they ran down a flight of metal stairs. Abigail's pet chased them, but she didn't seem to notice or care. Kara meanwhile felt petrified as Abigail walked towards them.
"What's your name?" Abigail asked once she was towering over Kara.
"Her name is Ka-"
"I'm asking her," Abigail interrupted Belvedere. "Tell me your name," Abigail ordered Kara. Even though she spoke quietly, her voice echoed as it had when she had commanded the two soldiers.
"Kara," she answered, hoping this freaking woman would leave her alone.
"Tell me your full name."
"Kara Alfredson."
Abigail's mechanical eye shined brighter. "I know you're lying. I could have you tortured or killed for that. Tell me your full name, now."
Kara tried to think of another last name, as she had done whenever she got in trouble living on the streets. However, the longer she delayed, and the more she thought, the more it felt like her head and mouth were boiling. "Kara…Hume." The words escaped Kara's mouth.
"Hm. You resisted more than most do, and for one so young. Just where did you come from?" Abigail asked.
"Oh, well…that's a good question," Belvedere said, "one we can ask the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, but it has been a long and eventful day. Why don't I show you my family dining hall, Inquisitor Hathorne?"
"Belvedere, you may enjoy stuffing your face with Birri truffles, but I have important matters to attend to. Now run along and make sure that your new xeno pet is taken care of, or I might have to put it out of its misery."
"But, but...this is my ship. The girl has been through a lot. This is-"
"This is my investigation. Now leave."
Belvedere's face scrunched up, and he tried to step forward.
"Leave!"
Belvedere began sweating and panting until he caved and walked away. "Kara. Everything will be okay," he shouted before leaving her alone with Abigail.
For the first time, Kara felt sorry for Belvedere. Whatever Abigail was doing to control people, Belvedere had somehow fought off its effect even though it looked like he was in pain doing so. Kara wondered if it had something to do with the robot eye, but something told her it wasn't so simple. Still, considering that he shot Walter and thus put both of them in this position, Kara felt like she would have enjoyed Abigail if she had not wanted to dissect Walter.
With Belvedere gone, Abigail began walking around Kara, examining her like a trophy. "You seem troubled. You must have so many questions," Abigail said over Kara's shoulder.
"I'm just…mad at that Belvedere clown," Kara said. She watched as a smile crept on Abigail's face after hearing Belvedere called a clown. Kara still didn't know what was going on here or what Abigail was capable of, but if she could control people, Kara needed to make sure she didn't give the Inquisitor any more reasons to use it. That would would require a little lying. Kara remembered when she got caught stealing from a grocery store. Back then, she convinced the owner to let her go with just a slap on the wrist after making up a sob story about how a landlord had kicked her family out without notice, and they needed the food. Nobody likes greedy landlords; people are more likely to believe you if you share a common enemy.
"You have good judgment on character," Abigail said warmly. "I'm sorry he was your first introduction to the Imperium."
"It wasn't all bad. He showed me the power and wisdom of the God-Emperor of Mankind. But there is still so much to learn!" Kara felt like laughing when she said that, but she knew mentioning someone Abigail also liked might warm her up and put her in a more forgiving mood.
"All in due time, although your enthusiasm is commendable," Abigail said. "Why don't I give you an important lesson?"
Suddenly, Kara felt a sense of dread. She didn't know if Abigail was leading her into a trap or if she already knew that Kara was friends with Walter. So what if he had pointy ears? Why did that make him an eldar, a xeno, or anything else? Would Kara be shot, too? If she lied, would Abigail sense it? Kara never got to respond as Abigail called out to someone.
"Oh, Corwin. Please meet my new friend, Kara Hume."
The landing platform shook, which caused the hairs on Kara's neck to stand up. In the distance, she saw a pair of glowing red eyes before a towering figure appeared. A behemoth, at least eight feet tall and taking up most of the space on the railed bridge he walked on, came running towards them. His armor was pitch black and decorated with more skulls than Abigail's, but Kara still couldn't get over how fast he moved. At first, she thought he must have been a robot, but how he moved seemed too organic. However, that didn't make sense because nothing that big in such cumbersome armor could move like that. Her hands tighten on her rifle, even though she doubted it would even dent this walking tank.
"Kara, this is Corwin. He is a proud brother of the Adeptus Astartes, better known throughout the Imperium as the Space Marines. They are the Emperor of Mankind's angels of death." Abigail looked at Corwin and asked, "Corwin, what are xenos?"
"A blight to be purged!" he answered, his helmet heavily modifying his voice. Every word was deep and loud like he was speaking through a megaphone.
"What are mutants?"
"A cancer to be excised!"
"And heretics?"
"A shame to be expunged!"
Abigail then looked back to Kara. "You see, Kara, it is my job to find any of those three, and my good friend Corwin must destroy them." Her organic eye then narrowed, but her smile never left. "I wonder which of the three you are?"
"None!" Kara stammered. "I-I-I was just patrolling the farm for predators when that idiot shot my friend!"
"Goodness. A rogue trader shooting a defenseless human. I never held Belvedere in high regard, but to think he would do such a thing and not offer any aid. Perhaps if we leave now, we can still save your friend."
Abigail finished, but nobody moved. Corwin was the first to break the stillness by pacing around Kara, never looking away. Kara had had close encounters with thugs, drug dealers, drunks, her monster of a stepdad, demon dog monsters, cultists, and questionable spaceships, but she had never been more afraid than she was now. Her vision was becoming hazy, and she felt all the air in the room leave her.
"Kara, I think we've already seen your friend. He's being treated by the best xeno doctor on the ship, isn't he?" Abigail grabbed Kara's left hand, still covered in Walter's blood. "Tell me."
Kara nodded and felt like she had just signed her and Walter's death warrant. Everything she had seen, experienced, and learned came crashing down. There was some kind of God-Emperor of Mankind, and he had giants and psychic witches serving him. If all this was real, could what they say about Walter be true? Was he some evil alien? Why would he keep the act up for so long? Why would he live as a farmer? Why didn't he run away from Belvedere? Why did he ever save her? Perhaps the eldar were kind aliens, and the Imperium were the dangerous ones in the galaxy. In a moment of confusion and fear, Kara lifted her rifle an inch out of defensiveness, but Corwin snatched the weapon from her and crushed it with one hand. The last thing she remembered before passing out was feeling Corwin gripping her shoulder so hard she felt like he was about to rip her arm off.
-Author's note: Sorry this took a little longer than a week, as I originally promised. I really redid some sections numerous times until it felt right. To make it up, this is the first of longer chapters.