To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch26 Training

Training

The service had been strange, completely different than the silent pyres and night long vigils Alwen was used too, but it was beautiful in its own way. Karega had opened the service with the gospel of Coolio, Alwen didn't quite know what a 'gangsta' was, but the words of the song 'gangster paradise' spoke to Alwen on a visceral level. She was now a killer, no longer someone who was blindly complacent in their work, she wasn't just the doctor who worked her craft on whoever needed it, pirate or otherwise. She had killed, once in self-defense, once to save a friend, and many more times in the name of vengeance. Vengeance for Wraith, for Sean, and for her former innocence. Not once during their attack on the Coiled Strike did Alwen feel the terror and panic she knew she should have felt, she didn't recoil from her rage and satisfaction at each dead alien. In fact she was shocked to see just how easy it was, easy to kill them, easy to pull the trigger and keep rushing forward, easy to watch them fall and move on.

What wasn't easy, was getting over everything she had done. Over the last few days the twisted and terrified faces of her victims lurked in the back of her mind, coming to ambush her with anxiety and self-loathing whenever she let her guard down. She was strangely thankful for the never-ending work of treating the wounded, soothing the bereaved, and caring for the incapacitated sailors who had defended the ship. The endless bloody work allowed her to take her mind off of what she had done. But now she understood something. These people were all killers, and so was she, she had become a killer long ago when she had actually chosen to join the ship. This was never not going to happen, whether it was this or something else it was all bound to happen eventually. She had already broken her vows long ago; it was just more official now. But did that make it any better?

The service ended with everyone bowing their heads and offering prayer for the departed souls of those who had left, and then they all dispersed, and Alwen rushed back to her patients. Some were barely holding on to life and she hadn't wanted to leave them, but Doctor Bachir had insisted she go and mourn with everyone. She was jogging back when a group of Station Security shoved her to the side and burst through the med bay door ahead of her. She pushed herself off the wall and stared in utter bewilderment as ten SS tore through drawers throwing gauze and IV tubes on the ground while others pawed through the medical beds as her patients groaned in pain from their brash search.

"HEY!" she snapped as she entered the room, her temper boiling over. She lifted her hand and pointed the seven largest SS who were currently stooped over in the low Terran ceiling "You, you, you, and you four, out, now" she snapped.

The largest of them turned and glared at her "We are here to carry out a search warrant, do not interfere."

Alwen shot him a glare of venom and rage "You are in my way, according to Union code #87-29 any search that inhibits the work of life saving treatment must be done in consent of the primary caregivers directives. You seven are too large for me to properly do my job and will have to harass someone else. Secondly you will not find illegal substances by prodding and jabbing at my patients bandages. Thirdly you are comprising stile medical equipment and are actively creating tripping hazards that will impede our work!" she growled. The night before Bachir had received word from the captain that a search warrant had been issued, so she had been briefed on any relevant laws that would cow the aggressive officers.

The seven she had pointed at left after a silent pause as they confirmed the legitimacy of her claim, the three remaining Icutoo officers were much more respectful in their search. Though they did attempt to seize their morphine and claim it as an illegal narcotic, but a ruff paw on the shoulder from Bachir stopped the female officer before she ran off with the whole ships supply of painkillers. One gawked at the chemical analysis of the bottle labeled 'tic tacs', which was in fact acetaminophen, and apparently a commonly used poison by assassins. They of course had hundreds of release forms that permitted them to use these common Terra medicines, that were terrifyingly toxic to the rest of the galaxy.