To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch 81 Pandemonium

Pandemonium

All the familiar sterilized scents of a hospital hit Alwen's nose like along lost friend. She had never noticed how different the med bay on the Astaroth smelled from a normal hospital, there was just an extra quality that it was missing, one that she couldn't identify. The journey back on the Lucifer had been odd, unlike the Astaroth or Asmodeus it felt more like a real warship. It had less crew amenities, felt more utilitarian, and had a raw sort of quality that made Alwen feel like an outsider. She spent most of her time just sleeping and working out with Alice and the rest of Astaroth's marines.

They had been on Mars for a few weeks, and besides visiting Gato as he recovered in the dorm building the Hellworlders owned, she hadn't really done much. The time she had spent resting seemed to crawl by at a glacial pace, each day feeling longer than the last, until one day she woke up and felt like something deep within her had changed. After that she felt like each, and every day was easier than the last. Today she had gone for a nice jog around Noctis when she got a message from Bachir, he had been stabilized on the Lucifer and transferred to the trauma ward in Noctis general, and now he was finally recovered enough to have visitors.

The hospital staff had given her strange looks as she passed by and whispered amongst themselves as she passed. It was a little hard to accept that most Terrans had never seen a Torweni, after spending so much time with the Hellworlders she felt like they were all one and the same species. A nurse guided her to Bachir's room and knocked gently and a minute later a short dark-haired girl opened the door and pushed past Alwen with a shy glance. Alwen stared at the young woman as she walked away before entering Bachir's room.

Her mentor was hooked up to multiple machines, and he had several patches of shaved and bandaged skin from where Alwen had to operate. "Who was that?" she asked as she sat down in the chair next to his bed.

"My daughter, Manar." He answered softly, his jaw had been set and there wasn't any danger of him reinjuring by speaking, but he still had to be careful about how he moved it.

Alwen frowned "But, but she was human?" she asked, wondering if she may have been adopted.

He huffed "Yes, and so was her mother, her brother on the other hand is a bear, as furry and grouchy as I am. A strange quirk of Mammaloid biology."

Alwen raised her eyebrows in shock "How is that even possible?"

He looked at her with a sad distant expression "I wondered the same thing after my son was born. How did a human give birth to a nonhuman? How were the traits selected? How did it differ from an Ursiloid born from an Ursiloid mother? Asking those questions were the biggening of my downfall, like pandoras box." He sighed. "I wrote a few books on the subject if you want to see how the mechanics of it works. They're hard to find nowadays, but I have a few copies I can lend you."

Alwen frowned "I take it that researching how it worked was when you began to suspect something was amiss."

He nodded "I didn't find anything new in other mammaloids, but I did discover some alterations in humans that were very out of place. They had a better understanding of their own genome than we did of ours, it was easier to spot the changes. But that's not why you're here."

"No, but it was interesting. Does this mean you're still married?"

He shook his head, "No, things fell apart after I was exiled, my son hates me now, and I'm lucky Manar came to visit."

Alwen felt a pang of sympathy for her mentor, he stumbled onto the truth and had everything taken away because of it. Alwen wasn't sure how she would cope if that happened to her. Though in all honesty that's likely what awaited her back home.