Ok, I've teased before about an all new and all original custom science fiction verse I'm working on. Since many of my interests overlap, you will find that many themes are shared between EXCAL and the new verse. I just wanted one that was all original, and a touch less of an all-star roster.
Anyway, I will admit to being pretentious in hoping to have a lot of my pieces all done at once before getting into much. But that won't stop me from continuing to tease the occasional secondary level characters. Such is the case here...
The Telina Rose
She couldn't believe it. She was making a difference. Two colony planets hit, two corrupt governors overthrown, in a matter of a mere two weeks. And that's not counting the raids on the penal colonies of Jasper's many moons, or the raids on the Royal Colonial Reserve Banks on the geoformed planet of Ancora. Make no mistake, she was no revolutionary. Then again, her new man wasn't supposed to be either. The Pirate de Braun was turning out to be full of surprises. There were no treasures to be found working for this pirate, which meant he was either really bad at what he did, or as Rose expected, it wasn't what he really did at all.
She wouldn't live long enough to know the truth of the matter, that de Braun really was both. He had wreaked havoc on civilian shipping lanes in the commercial sectors, and on the rim for years. It had been only recently before meeting her that de Braun's mission had taken on a new purpose.
As the sounds and smells of battle raged on around her, Rose was surprised by the wave of thoughts and memories that engulfed her, as if a levy of suppressed memories had been suddenly breached. Subconsciously her trigger finger repeated its predestined motion, as if mechanically programmed to kill. Yet her mind was elsewhere, soaking in her own life's story, which ironically now for the first time ever seemed to her to be a story both rich and vibrant. She traced the memories in her mind as though she were watching a digifilm, finding a joy in the story of her own life, which was never before felt while actually living it. Mentally immersed in the emotional pool of her own memories, she failed to recognize that her life was indeed passing before her eyes, and similarly missed the ominous undertones of what that in fact meant...
As a child, Rose longed to follow in the footsteps of her mother, who had been an artist, but who died when Rose was but 8 years old. Raised by her loving but rigid father, she rebelled early, running away from home even before puberty. That was when the slavers of the outer rim captured her the first time...
Flash forward... By the time Rose was 21, she had earned enough in private tips to buy her way out of the biggest brothel on the entire frontier planet of Luto II. She had developed immense skills (surpassed only by the skills she had developed in her bed chamber) in dealing with and manipulating men which might have made her a psionic agent for one of the Kingdoms, had she been born to a higher lot. And she had become famous in a way, as her beauty and talent made her the main attraction of all the brothels of the planet's western hemisphere, as spacers, shippers, pirates, explorers, lawmen, and any other sort with business on the rim, would call (often months in advance) to the owner of the brothel, the 'Lady' Telina, to book a time with Rose in advance. It was thus that she became known as the Telina Rose.
Flash forward... So many potential loves lost or left, but not one of them strong enough for her...
Flash forward... and that was the second time she was captured by a clan of slavers. But this capture would turn out to be her shining glory. For after merely two days aboard ship (her new collar and chain had only just been fitted), the frigate Utopia was boarded and overtaken by pirates. Not just any pirates, but her pirate, The Pirate de Braun. It was a life of poverty, not nearly the glory she had thought the life of a pirate or pirate's wife might be, when she played those dress up games as a child in her mother's closet. There was no gold, and few credits to be had. And those credits they did have went for small amounts of food and large amounts of guns. More guns than de Braun's crew should ever need, and many of them impractical for a boarding party in deep space anyway. Everyone knew that hand to hand combat ruled in those frigid depths - what gain to win a ship only to do so by blowing out its hull....
Flash forward to the present battle, as planetary security grenades start erupting in the air above and around her. It had hit her all at once, just now as she first realized what her lover was really fighting for. She wasn't quite sure how she had taken the leap from slave and whore to pirate to rebel and revolutionary without taking pause to consider what she had become. But the realization that she had contributed to the overthrow of several despots already, and that her man was clearly setting his sites on even bigger targets made her smile. As if to confirm her belated realization, her eyes focused for the first time at the holographic face staring at her from the window of the building she had sought cover behind. The face was her own, and was accompanied by the words: "WANTED for Treason and Crimes Against the Kingdoms of Terra, the Telina Rose"
She was making a difference.
She snapped out of her reverie just in time to hear the clang of metal on metal at her feet, as she watched a live razor grenade stop squarely between her boots, and then it was all over.
