Diadem S1E4: "Faded Scars"

The low frequency rumble of energy being transported through massive conduits ran along the beams of pure crystillium that supported the ship’s solid angular hull made of the same material. This reverberation underpinned the sound of water hitting the floor in the badly designed shower of one of the several restrooms in the Diadem. 

Pyo turned off the faucet and let the water stream down his red hair as he stared at nothing in particular. His thoughts drifted as he wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped out. He put on his clothes, his shirt sleeves half covering the remains of old tattoos that used to be on each of his shoulders. He had removed them years ago, but the scars remained from his time among the privateers.

Exiting the bathroom, the muscular martian man made his way towards the cargo area. Pyo was usually one of the first people awake. The lights in the ship kept a day-night cycle in order to keep the human crew from experiencing physical fatigue or sickness. Pyo, being used to being on ships that had no such system, had a different sleep schedule. Despite this being beneficial for operation of the ship, it often led to loneliness when he would be awake during times no one else was. The automation of the ship was programmed to awaken the whole crew in an emergency, but so far it had always been Pyo who had sounded the alarm in such situations. Now was one of those times. He was all alone. 

With a sigh, he stretched and made his way to one of the communication terminals, far away from the quarters of the other crew members, and closer to the maintenance area. He pulled out a thumb drive from his pocket and plugged it into a port on the terminal. The screen flickered before a family photo came into focus. It was a picture of Pyo’s family, long ago. His father had elected not to smile, and fear of incurring his ire had driven the rest of the family to do the same. The only person smiling in the photo was a young 10 year old Pyo. A little girl of five was holding his hand, staring towards the camera with the finger of her other hand in her mouth as she gazed with wide eyed wonder at the unseen camera man. Pyo continued cycling through the old photos, a sad smile playing at his usually stoic face. 

An hour later, Pyo was in the cargo bay, double checking the inventory. After the incident with the wrecked ship being destroyed, they had salvaged what was left. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get some scrap money and pay for a quarter tank of fuel. He shook his head as he inventoried the scrap. They needed a big break if they were going to keep living like this.

A tap on his shoulder alerted him to Annaheim’s presence. He looked at her and smiled. “You’re up early.”

The teenager rubbed her eyes with a yawn. It was clear she had been half asleep when getting dressed. “You said we were gonna jam today. I forgot to ask what time.”

Pyo chuckled. “That’s right. I don’t think I meant this early in the morning though.”

“Technically it’s always daytime in space cause you’re always being touched by the light from one star or another.”

“I see. How about after the others wake up and we unload this cargo?”

Annaheim grinned. “You just want me to help unload.”

“It would make things go faster.” Pyo shrugged as he finished double checking the inventory. “But that’s up to you.”

She waved him off and shook her head. “Yeah right, like you don’t have Van the grumpy old man and Chris the college nerd to help you.”

“Let’s not forget the lady of the hover chair.”

“You think she’s going to come out of her room soon? After what happened the day before yesterday?”

“I hope so.”

Before the two could discuss Baphin further, Annaheim’s mother’s voice came over the intercom. “Rise and shine everyone we’re approaching our destination.”

Annaheim wrinkled her nose as she looked at the station they were approaching through a live camera feed. “I don’t like its name.”

Pyo followed her gaze. “Parapette station? Do you know why it’s named that?”

“Oh please, I’m not a tourist. I know it’s a name for a piece of a castle. Any information beyond that is boring if you ask me.”

Pyo laughed and the two exchanged a fist bump. “We’ll jam after I help unload all this cargo.”

“I’m holding you to that.” Annaheim replied as she left to escape her mother roping her into helping unload.

Moments after leaving, her mother Bridget arrived. “Pyo, have you seen Annaheim?”

“She just left.”

Sighing with frustration, the captain walked off to one of the terminals to request permission to dock at the station. She seemed slightly more frustrated than usual, but Pyo assumed it was just from the ordeal with the wreck yesterday. 

Grumbling and whispering angrily behind her, a very grumpy Vanderson entered the cargo bay. Pyo noticed and couldn’t help but smirk. The old man hated leaving the ship. Being around the pulsing artificial gravity generator and the other countless machinery had become normal to Van, to the point where he often described being too far from it as disorienting. 

Pyo’s dislike for the old man drove him to poke the bear. “Good morning Van, is the ground moving?” “Shut up mars boy.” growled the grumpy engineer as they approached the station’s docking arm.

The starfields glimmered with intertwining streams of gas and nebulae across the inky black expanse. One by one the stars were eclipsed as the large, triangular ship came between them and the star gazers staring out the station windows with their telescopes. As the Diadem came into view, several of the star-watching dreamers muttered in frustration at it blocking some of the constellations they were observing. 

One of the inhabitants of the station, however, stared as the Diadem approached for docking with a different attitude. One of surprise, ambition, and desire. Ivy Lidek’s eyes couldn’t pull away from the smooth edges and sleek design of a ship whose outer hull alone was enough to make her and her business partners rich. A sly grin played across her lips as she made her way to the docking area, in hopes of greeting the crew of the monolithic specimen of Lumio engineering.

When she arrived, so had the Diadem; the docking clamps just now engaging. The ship was too large to dock with the normal sized docking ports, having to connect via the very end of the nearly half a mile long docking arm. It overshadowed the numerous other ships docked on the sides of the arm and even the station seemed much smaller than it. Having to dock so far away from the center, the crew would have to transport any cargo to and from it using the automated cargo tram system that ran up and down the length of the arm, terminating at the loading area. It was here where she waited to greet the crew. As the tram arrived, Ivy noticed four people; a woman in her late 40s with brown hair and eyes standing tall with an aire of authority, a young man with blonde hair and the beginnings of a mustache who seemed incredibly nervous, and an old crusty grandpa with grey hair and the characteristic faint whitish green tint to his skin that identified him as native to the Rodinlan Kindom on Pirel. 

It was the fourth individual, however, who held Ivy’s attention the most. He was tall, with silky ginger hair that hung straight and true, framing his strong face and emerald eyes. His russet skin and his rugged features excited Ivy with wild ideas about what the Mars native man’s history might be. Her eyes drifted to his right shoulder, catching a glimpse of the scars left behind by a tattoo. Her eyes narrowed. Pyo’s eyes cautiously swept the loading area and station interior as Captain Bridget led him and the rest of their small crew off the tram. He had wished Baphin hadn’t stayed behind. Ever since their encounter with the TFU cruiser yesterday, she had been somewhat closed off. He hoped she would come out of her shell soon; he knew how unhealthy brooding could be. His eyes spotted a woman in her mid 20s sporting just enough tattoos and piercings to convey she was a wild card. She was leaning against one of the door frames, eyeing the captain with a look of appraisal that told Pyo she was not to be trusted. Deciding to ignore her, the mars born man helped the captain and their cranky engineer unload what little scrap they were able to pick up from the derelict ship. Vanderson’s grumbles underpinned their work and made Pyo roll his eyes in annoyance. He had never found the old man particularly agreeable, with his rough speech, lack of manners, and what seemed to be an unfavorable disposition towards Pyo specifically. Even now, the old man actively hindered his martian crewmate by taking crates that Pyo was reaching for to unload. It wasn’t until after unloading was complete and Chris sat down on one of the benches, sweating and breathing heavily, that Pyo realized the captain was speaking to the woman he had seen earlier. Concerned, he absent mindedly handed Chris a flask of water as he waited for the captain’s conversation with the possible troublemaker to complete. When Bridget finally turned there was a look of hope on her face. “Guys, let’s talk for a second.”

Pyo glanced back at the woman he had noticed earlier, she waved cattily back at him from the beam she was leaning on, watching them. He followed the captain as she drew all of them into a huddle. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. “Wh-what’s going on?” stuttered Chris. “Did I do something wrong?” “No, not at all. I just came across an option for us.” Bridget kept her eyes low as if thoughts were still crossing her mind.

“What’s wrong, cap'm?” Van watched her with disgruntled curiosity.

“Nothing yet. I don’t think I have to tell all of you that we’ve been really stretched thin lately. Yesterday I checked our fuel logs and did some predictive calculations.” The displeasure in Bridget’s eyes was plain to see. Like an animal backed in a corner that had no choice. “If we don’t make a big break in the next two weeks, we’re through. We won’t even make enough to cover fuel.” The news weighed heavily as it sank in. Van sighed in frustration while Chris’s shoulders sagged. “Wh-what are you s-s-saying? Are w-w-we going t–to have to g-go back home?”

Pyo nodded at the same time as the captain responded. “Yes Chris. If we don’t make a good score soon, we’ll be forced to return to Earth.” 

Van hissed another sigh, forcing himself not to cuss around Chris or the captain. “Then what the . . . heck, are we gonna do? I don’t wanna to go back to Earth. The water there tastes funny.” Annoyance flared in Pyo’s eyes at the old man. “Then you can go to your home planet and whine there if you want. As for me, I’m not keen on going back to Mars.”

“Knock it off you two. I’m not finished.” The captain collected her thoughts before continuing. “I’ve gotten a tip for a job.” Worry flared in Pyo’s mind. “Please tell me that that vent crawler isn’t the one giving you the tip.”

“Pyo, don’t be rude. Her name is Ivy Lidek and I’m as suspicious as you, but we are running out of options.” Replied Bridget. “The job is a gas run through the Serpent’s Corridor. 10,000 kg of Hydrazine abandoned by Gas-guard 5 years ago.” All three crew member’s eyes widened as they all fixed their gazes on the captain. Pyo’s mind raced as Van’s face turned red with anger. “Hydrazine through the Serpent’s Corridor?!”

Chris was startled by Van’s increase in tone. “N-not so l-loud p-please.”

“Gas-guard abandoned that propellant for a reason, it’s too dang dangerous to carry even one canister of that stuff let alone 10,000 fricken kilograms of it! One little leak as we try to squeeze our monolith of a ship through that maze of gas and lightening and we’re all dead in minutes!”

Pyo agreed with the grumpy old man for once. “This is not a good idea.”

Bridget waved off their looks of horrified surprise. “I don’t think we have a choice. None of the other jobs being offered here are any better. They’re all giving little to no info on the cargo we’d be carrying for them or why.”

“Sounds less like bad jobs and more like a bad station. This whole place makes me suspicious.” Pyo shook his head. “I really don’t like this.” He thought about it. He knew the captain was right, and despite his misgivings, they were indeed running out of options. “But if you are determined to do this job, I’ll continue to follow your lead.”

Bridget nodded and looked towards Van. “What about you Ditch?”

The old man grunted in frustration. “Stoppin ya would be like tryin to hold back an ocean with a broom, and I’ve got nothin better to do. Plus we’ll at least be off this back water station.”

Pyo glared at Van with annoyance. “What’s the matter old man? Station rotation getting to you?”

“Shut up, I know the station ain’t rotating!” Snapped Van with a scowl.

Pyo would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so serious.

Bridget turned her gaze to Chris. “What about you Chris? What are your thoughts?”

“W-w-w-what about p-p-pi-pir-”

“Pirates?” butted in Van with a scowl. “Ain’t no pirates in the Serpent’s Corridor. That would be like a lion hunting for deer in a volcano.”

“Lion’s hunt antelope Van.” corrected Pyo dryly.

Van glared at him. “Shut up dust boy, or I’ll show you what lions hunt.” 

Pyo was about to return with another witty remark, when he realized the woman he had seen earlier had followed Bridget over. “Can we help you?” The captain waved him off. “Relax Pyo, this is Ivy Lidek. She’s going with us to be our guide through the Serpent’s Corridor.”

Chris sighed with relief. “Oh g-good, I thought you were going to have me and Baphin n-navigate it ourselves.”

Pyo gently pulled Bridget out of earshot of Ivy, lowering his voice. “I really don’t like this. It has all the markings of a pirate ambush.” 

Bridget nodded. “Pyo, we don’t have any other options. You know I would say no if I knew there was any other way. I need you on board because of your history fighting pirates and so you can keep an eye on our guide. I don’t trust her any more than you do.” “Why are we even taking her with us?” “Because she’s the only one on this station that knows her way through the Serpent’s Corridor.” Replied the captain, getting frustrated. “Pyo I need you with me on this.”

Pyo crossed his arms. “You know how I feel about gambling, let alone gambling our lives.”

Bridget shook her head. “Look, every argument you could tell me I’ve already struggled with in my own head for the past three months. That incident with the comet could have covered fuel for the entire year, but since that didn’t work out, we’re stuck looking through the bottom of the barrel.” He could see the frustration and desperation in her eyes. “If I knew of another way, I’d take it, but no other option is going to get us out of this. Please trust me.”

Pyo narrowed his eyes. It wasn’t like Bridget to be this desperate, but she was the captain. He relaxed and gave a slight nod before walking back to Van and Chris without a word. Ivy had already started chatting with them. Pyo tried not to audibly groan as he passed them. “Come on guys, let’s finish unloading this cargo and then load up the Hydrazine.”

Van glared at him. “Last I checked you were the cave man, not the boss man.”

“And last I checked you were the crew man, not the mutiny man. Come on, Captain’s orders.”

The old man grumbled and mumbled as all three of them finished unloading the containers of scrap and junk. 

An hour after the last of the scrap was hauled away, a mechanical claw, running on a track in the ceiling of the station, gently approached with a brightly painted but standard looking 20ft cargo container secured cautiously in its grasp. The crew watched with mixed emotions as the claw carefully set down the container on the flat bed of the tram.

Chris tilted his head. “It’s s-smaller than I thought it w-would b-be.”

Van shook his head and crossed his arms. “Don’t be fooled kid, there’s enough Hydrazine in there to start a runaway cascade in a black hole drive.”

Pyo gave a comforting pat on Chris’s shoulder when he saw the college kid’s eyes widen. “Good thing ours is disabled then. We’ll be fine.”

Van glared at him. “We lyin to kids now, Martian boy?”

Pyo hopped onto the tram. “As much as I would love to replace you with an automated engineering system, the Captain seems to like you, so unless you want to give me a reason to leave you behind, I suggest you get on the tram. You too Chris.”

He turned and noticed that Bridget had already gotten on before looking back to see Ivy extending her hand for help getting on. 

Her coy grin faded when Pyo didn’t help her up the step that she obviously didn’t need help over. She looked around at Chris and Van. Chris was young and naive. Fooling him would be easy. The old man was too focused on hating Pyo to scrutinize her, and from what the Captain had said, Ivy could deduce that there were two others on the ship. She bit her lip silently as fought her anxiety. This needed to go smoothly so she could get a big payday. 

As they returned to the Diadem, she saw a young girl, roughly 18 years of age waiting for them. No. She was waiting for Pyo. Ivy could see it in the girl’s eyes. Affection, like that from a niece. It was becoming clearer to her that this ship was more like a family than a small business. That was going to make things a bit more tricky. Turning to the big martian man next to her, she couldn’t help but notice his scar on his shoulder again. What privateer group had he belonged to? She hoped he wouldn’t be the wrench in her plans.

“So, you said there was a sixth crew member?” She asked Bridget as they stepped into the Diadem’s massive hangar bay through the small docking door. Above them, the crane from the station came through a larger freight door, extending deep into the ship to deposit the cargo container. Ivy continued her conversation with Bridget as she watched Pyo from the corner of her eye. He seemed too busy securing the cargo container to notice her. “I don’t see them.”

Bridget sighed as she oversaw Pyo secure the container. “Her name is Baphin, and she’s normally our navigator, but right now she’s going through some stuff.”

Ivy tilted her head. “How do you fly the ship without a navigator?”

“We use the downloaded maps and automated systems.”

Bridget’s reply caught Ivy off guard. It was quick. Like she was expecting her to ask that question. Like there was something being left unsaid. “So. This Baphin person must be pretty skilled to fly this giant thing.”

“She connects neurologically via her chair.”

Ivy did a double take. “What? I didn’t know flight controls had that capability. Why doesn’t she just use the controls with her hands?”

“Ours have that capability, but she uses her hover chair because she can’t move her hands.” Bridget was starting to seem a bit agitated, so Ivy chose not to continue questioning her. She just nodded, keeping herself from grinning as the captain led her to her quarters. She knew all she needed to know now.

She entered her quarters and thanked Bridget before closing and locking the door. She then headed towards the bed and pulled out her personal datapad. Pulling out a virtual private signal transmitter, she attached it to the datapad and connected to a cloaked signal on an unregistered channel. “Hey Captain, I’ve got a big prize coming your way. I’ll get her safely into the Serpent’s Corridor for you.”  She paused as she listened. Continuing once she got her response. “It’s a civilian type, Herom class Lumio warship. All the advanced stuff is no doubt deactivated. These people are too law-abiding to have anything that could pose a threat.” She listened as her contact replied before speaking again. “No sir, they’re a family of free lancers, no chance at any Trade Mafia connections. Aye aye.” She smiled as she ended the connection, her eyes drifting over to her bed with a standard factory mattress and sheets with no comforter. Next time, she’d bring her own blanket.

She opened her eyes to the fading light of a green star, its energy diminishing like the air being slowly sucked out of a bubble. The swirling green gave way to red and then to yellow as it stretched into a violent accretion disk. The wind continued to swirl and howl as it tore her breath away into the inky black divot in time and space that had formed in the dead star’s wake. She screamed but the very sound was pulled from her voice as anything and everything she ever knew was ripped violently from her and disappeared into the event horizon of oblivion. 

Ivy Lidek’s eyes flew open as she woke up in a cold sweat, her eyes wide and full of the feelings of terror that still lingered from the dream she no longer remembered. She was shivering as she frantically dug through the pocket of her coat hung loosely over the edge of the empty bunk above her, eventually pulling out an unmarked bottle and popping two pills from it into her mouth. She then hugged her knees and waited for relief until the drugs began to take effect 15 minutes later. Her anxiety slowed as her mind regained its logic. She looked at the clock. It was time.

Getting out of bed, she quietly dressed and put the bottle back in her coat pocket. She knew there was no cure for her disease, but she had lived with it long enough not to care anymore. She forced herself to stop thinking about it as she peeked out of her cabin, around the dimly lit corridors of the ship, looking for anyone who might see her. 

Once satisfied that the coast was clear, the young woman left her cabin, closing the door behind her before heading off through the ship. Ivy pulled out her datapad and set waypoints towards the front, back and sides of the ship. She didn’t want to get lost. Using her datapad as a compass, she made her way towards the less visited areas of the ship. 

Discovering the galley, she was about to make a call on her datapad when she noticed Pyo sitting silently at one of the tables in the dark, staring at her. She jumped with a gasp. “Good grief. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

He just stared as he sipped on a now lukewarm cup of coffee. “Why are you here? What’s in this for you?”

Ivy leaned against the door frame, “A cut of the profits you desperate freelancers make when you get the disposal reward from the old AI core at Serpent’s End.”

“That station has been abandoned for over a decade. And the Serpent’s Corridor has undoubtedly shifted since then, so how do you know you can get us there at all?”

Ivy rolled her eyes. “You privateers are always so suspicious. I happen to have all the last security codes.” She taps a finger to her head. “And all the math up here.”

Pyo stood up, causing Ivy’s confidence to falter at his height. He was nearly seven feet tall. “The only reason you’re here is because of the captain.” He then silently left, pausing next to her to whisper into her ear. “Now go back to your quarters or I will make you.”

She shuddered as she waited for him to be gone, eventually leaving the galley and heading towards the maintenance area. There had to be a place out of the way where that meat head wouldn’t be able to discover her. She thought about the scars on his shoulders, wondering what privateer crew he used to run with. It was then that she found one of the maintenance doors. With effort, she was able to open it. Stepping into the inky catacombs of struts and wiring, Ivy closed the door behind her, plunging herself into darkness only penetrated by the faint glow of her datapad.

She made her way a distance from the door, before sending an encrypted voice message. “Captain, we’re on our way now. You better give me a bigger cut of the bounty this time. This prize is so big, you’ll have no excuse not to share. We should reach the entrance in another six hours.”

Having finished, Ivy sent her message before exiting the maintenance area, only to be met with a young woman in a hover chair, staring at her. Her electronic voice came through the chair’s built-in speakers. “Who the heck are you?”

“I’m Ivy Lidek. Your captain hired me as a guide through the Serpent’s Corridor.”

Baphin’s eyes widened. “. . . what? What are we hauling?”

Ivy nonchalantly examined the tattoos on her own arm. “Hydrazine.”

“We’re going to the disposal station to trick the abandoned AI into paying us a disposal reward, and the captain didn’t even consult me?!”

“You must be Baphin right? Captain Bridget told me about you. You’re the girl with a computer wired to her brain right? What happened? Spinal injury?”

Baphin narrowed her eyes. “Oxygen deprivation.”

Ivy sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Nasty piece of work. Why didn’t you get the surgery? You could have had full mobility restored.”

“None of your business.” Retorted Baphin as she turned and headed in the direction of the captain’s quarters. “And I did get full mobility restored, just not the kind everyone expected.” She said before disappearing around a corner. 

Ivy breathed a sigh of relief. That was close. Had she heard her message? If she was found out, she’d know soon enough. For now, she needed to sleep before the big day tomorrow, when she and her business associates would have their way with the Diadem.

Pyo watched their suspicious passenger as she returned to her room, not noticing him in the corner. As soon as her door closed, he got up and shook his head. He knew what they were heading into. But the captain was right; they were desperate. He sighed as he thought back to the day he had first met Bridget. He had just defected from a toxic family, who had only valued his physical strength, seeing him as another expendable piece of meat. The first time he served as a crew member under Bridget, she was different. Even on day one of seeing her in action told him she was a woman of principle and standards who wouldn’t bend to money. It was these qualities that told him that he had found his captain. Since then he had served as her second on many trade ships in her career, until the night it all changed.

He remembered it like he was witnessing it that moment; Bridget’s frantic pleas. Annaheim in tears. He remembered seeing the cuts in the teenager’s back from a belt. Bridget’s husband had always been bad news, but convincing Bridget of that before the wedding had proved impossible. Riven Rend had proved to be a snake the night he beat Annaheim for no reason. On that night, Pyo had felt a strange calm. A sense of the need to protect and defend had overcome him. Had it not been for the Captain’s hand on his arm, he would have killed her husband that night.

With the help of Baphin and Van, Bridget had managed to divorce her husband, but Rend retaliated by black listing her as a captain. So they struck out on their own, a ragtag group of amateurs with a couple experts sprinkled in for flavor. It reminded Pyo of one of those sappy family life TV shows he had seen on Earth. This was his family now, and he was going to protect them, but at the same time Bridget was his captain. It was a strange dynamic, but one that Pyo was beginning to understand. 

By now he had wandered back to the console in the wall, his fingers fiddling with the thumb drive in his pocket. Eventually he plugged in the drive and sat contemplatively in front of a terminal, his eyes fixed on the family photo on the screen. He thought back to a time when the torches burned bright, and the only light came from the glow worms in the cavern ceiling. A time when he felt like a slave to a family heritage he wanted no part of. Humanity on Mars was just as flawed and misunderstood as every other race of humans in the multiverse. Just as full of prejudice and faded scars.