The Way of the Stars

by angerbda 

No star shines alone in the great void...

No planet revolves around emptiness...

A true warrior follows always the way of the stars...

✨✨✨

"Balanced like a star that keeps its relative position to the other stars in the immensity of the Void. A balanced star knows where it stands, knows its worth in the greater picture of the Universe..."
First principle of the Way of the Stars

There would be adventure and action. Risk and spoils. "We don't promise a rose garden," they said...

Samyo Tamashi now understood how the empty promises of the SCREAM recruiters and the lure to easy booty had been meaningless. What few friends he thought he had left him stranded in a wandering rock, in the middle of nowhere... Band of brothers... this was a myth. Sternenteufelhunde... they were dogs, indeed, the star and the devil part was to debate, the young man angrily acknowledge. Dogs! It would be his last thought as the cold depth of death came upon him, pulling him inexorably. No more pain. No more fear. No rose garden...

Roses... Tamashi thought, disoriented as he slowly opened his eyes. Is this the big cloud at the end of the Universe? The man was surely dead, and the promised place of rest smelled like roses... another thing they didn't lie about, the recruiters and the SCREAM. No promise of rose garden... while you're alive, he understood, but once you're off to cloud heaven...

The fog dampening his consciousness was clearing. There was no garden, it seemed, but rather an uncomfortable bed, blinding white-greyish walls and two persons observing him. The smell of Rose came from one of them.

"Welcome among the living, Mr Tamashi."

The tall man looked toward the bed with a frown. Tamashi tried to get his brain in functioning order, but the smell of roses was all he could focus on. With cotton candy between his ears and the floral stimulus, he concentrated on the man at the foot of the bed.

"Who..."

"Dr Jake Hill" a tall man extended his hand, "glad to see you awake, Mr Tamashi.

"This lady is with the Consortium. She wants to ask you questions about what happened on Pallas, but only if you feel like it. I have suggested for her to wait another hour but..."

The events Samyo retold to the lady from the Consortium left him with a nasty taste in the mouth. The feared and renowned Space Consortium Regiment Auxiliary Militia—a pretentious acronym for a bunch of low-grade mercenaries he always thought—had been the one screaming, this time. A revolt on the mining crews had degenerated into a trenched war inside the tunnels. Samyo would have given anything to be out in the subzero frozen hell of Europa rather than inside the rock. As hell goes, looking at the sun when one dies seemed preferable to living in an eternal coffin.

After the debacle, nothing much counted for the soldier. They left him for dead. He felts dead inside. How strange, he thought, how small pieces and bits out of place could change one's life. A small piece of himself was missing as if he had left a part of him inside the maze of dark pits on Pallas...

"... the only one."

The woman had talked to him for a time, but Samyo did not listen, lost in his forlornness.

"The only one?" He asked with a frown. He had to make an effort to stay focused, hard as it was. The clouds of his thought combined with the fog from the trauma did not help a bit.

"Yes," the woman got back to her explanation, "you are the only one of your group that is either still alive or in this quadrant. We found no trace of your comrades. This is why, I told you, we will have you transferred to headquarter for a thorough debriefing."

"Doctor," she turned to the physician who had not left the room, "how long before he is transportable?"

The doctor looked at the bedded man for a moment then nodded.

"We still need to keep him under watch for at least three days. That's for the head injury. The arm... It will take longer for him to get out of it, but I guess he'll still be able to travel. I assume you'll have a medic-ship for him?"

"Three days," the woman sounded annoyed. "No longer! I'll get the transfer organised."

She observed Samyo for a long time, then left. As she walked through the door, she had her phone to her ear. She stopped in the corridor, frowning at the sight of the man in the bed, and gave her instructions to whoever answered.

"... better than anything else, I guess... no other choice..." Her mumbled voice could be heard, and it did not sound engaging.

Concluding the call with a "... useless!", the woman got back into the room to, once again, inform the doctor that no delay would be accepted for Samyo Tamashi's release from the hospital.

With a curt nod, she acknowledged the man from the SCREAM in his bed. "Get better and see you in three days," by reflex she extended her hand then plopped her arm down. "Sorry," she said with a grimace, and just left.

The doctor followed the woman's exit with an amused glare before looking, pensive, at the man lying in the hospital bed.

"You shall rest some, Mr Tamashi. I will send the physical therapist later. He will be able to help you adjust to the situation," the man added looking pointedly at Samyo's right arm.

From his bed, Samyo said nothing as the doctor left the room. He replayed the last words exchanged and frowned. Then, slowly, he took the measure of his injuries. Bandages covered a good portion of his body, except on his right side. There, no bandage was needed. The arm was missing.

Lying on his hospital bed, the soldier Samyo Tamashi of the SCREAM, the military arm of the Consortium felt empty. The adventure the recruiters promised would be no more, he had reached the end of his journey.

There was a long distance between the dried tunnels of Pallas and the white, sterile hospital room on Ceres. There was a long distance from the feeling of serving a just cause to just feeling down and abandoned... feeling unbalanced.

✨✨✨

"Controlled like a star that knows to always give the same amount of light and warmth to the celestial bodies surrounding it. A controlled star dominates its strength and emotions, always..."
Second principle of the Way of the Stars

Rage... the rage that inhabited Samyo Tamashi was eating him from the inside. Rage was a potent poison, but it was all that get him going.

Aboard a miner, Samyo Tamashi, former SCREAM, future space bum, was contemplating his choices. All he knew was to fight. With a missing limb as it was, he had difficulties just putting on his shirt in the morning. What future was left to him, he asked himself like a mantra.

The ship was heading toward the Green Planet, the teapot-shaped planet orbiting between Mars and Earth. For a long time, it had been an ironic version of overall religious mentality, but for the past century, since the emerald planetoid has been discovered, it was another reality. This planet was covered with a green lush forest and many ancient tea trees. The irony was poignant, from Russel's teapot to the best comptoir for tea and spice trading in the Solar system.

Samyo hoped the planet would hide him from the Consortium. After the episode at the hospital on Ceres, he simply fled. Running away from his problems. Running away also, he thought, from the Consortium that seemed to have a special agenda in mind for his future. The good doctor Hill had all but hide him onboard the miner spaceship. Dr Jake Hill had, in effect, dumped so many allusion and hints about what he heard about the Consortium cleaning operation on Pallas, and then about the rumours of the harsh words of the final journey the lady from the Consortium had thrown to whoever was on the other side of her phone conversation as she left the hospital, that the only choice for Samyo was to pack and scram.

Lucky for him, the vessel was ready to leave and even more ready to welcome him aboard in exchange for some information about the SCREAM patrols and their code. To avoid time-consuming paperwork, as the captain justified. The former soldier just took the offer without looking too much into the warped grin of Captain Redhook, and promising himself he would stay clear from the cargo. He knew a smuggler when he saw one, but this one was his salvation.

"Useless!"

The voice was hushed, probably coming from the gangway on his left. Samyo paused to listen.

"The guy is useless, I tell you, Captain! Since when are we doing good deeds, anyway?"

As he listened attentively, Samyo tried to put a name on the voice. He thought he recognised the second mate, a short bubbly man with a fierce beard. At first glance, the second mate did not instil much respect or fear, for that matter. He seemed to be a jolly ol' fellow, but behind his smiles, he hid a shrewd scheming mind.

"Don't mind the bloke," the captain cut, "it's just something we had to do. The guy was heading straight to interrogation and isolation. You know how the Consortium works when they outgrow their usefulness..."

Samyo could almost see a pensive look in Redhook's eyes. The man seemed to see far and deep in any situation.

"... anyway, no pension was awaiting him. Plus, he gave us some good tips on the patrol route. Not enough to send him to martial court, but still useful for us."

Usefulness... Was everyone judged based on what people could they from them?

Samyo Tamashi could only concur with the concept. There was no value in loyalty and comradeship. The rage fuelled by the snippet of the eavesdropped conversation came back full throttle. He needed to punch something. To shred someone. Even with only one arm...

"Tamashi?" The captain of the miner-slash-smuggler had been harping Samyo for codes and position of the patrols along routes he had never taken. Never even had heard about them. Who would blame him if he was craving the quiet of the rat-hole he found in the third deck?

"Listen, Redhook," Samyo was done with evading the annoying man, "I understand you want to get sure your cargo will remain secure... maybe not thanks to the Consortium patrols if you're so inclined to avoid them. Shall I look at your cargo to know why?"

"Okay, okay... I'll stop hitting you with the questions. Why do you keep with yourself in the 3rd deck, by the way?"

"You need to ask?" Samyo could only shake his head. "You're a damn annoyance, that is why."

"Okay, mate! I said I'll stop with the questions... But I got one more. What about your arm?"

"What about it?" Tamashi wondered why the question was coming now. The journey was nearing its end and there had been many opportunities before now.

"I left it somewhere in the Belt. It's not there. End of conversation."

With these words, the former soldier left a pensive captain.

Between a meddlesome and irritating captain, a creepy and obnoxious second mate, and an overall annoying crew, Samyo's journey to the green paradise had been a test of patience and control. To which, he had to admit, he failed on both accounts.

Avoiding Redhook was not an option. He had to suffer his seemingly bottomless optimism. Only once did he see the captain with a serious face. Make it twice. The man had cornered him one more time. And this was the second time he wore a serious face.

"Any problem, Captain? Did the patrol pick your trail?"

"Nothing to this extent, no. Follow me."

Something was amiss, Samyo felt a weight building in the pit of his stomach. Following the man in command, he wondered if it would be the gangplank waiting for him at the end of the walk.

Not the plank. Not this time. Samyo left out a deep breath. The medic bay didn't seem as gloomy a perspective as the proverbial plank, or rather the airlock, one way to void-hell and beyond, no return ticket...

Inside the bay, Samyo felt almost no surprise seeing the doctor who treated him on Ceres. How doctor Jake Hill could be onboard did not raise the questions the strange situation should have.

"Ah, Mr Tamashi," the man in white welcomed him with a grin. "I was expecting you sooner. We don't have much time now."

Following his words, the man grabbed Samyo's arm and pulled him toward an examination table.

"Look at this babe," he said producing a weird contraption in front of Samyo's eyes. "The best you could find in the whole galaxy!"

"What do you want me to do with..." Was that a prosthetic?

"Just accept it," Captain Redhook said, "no string attached. Just accept the thing and stop moping around like a deflated whale," he added with his habitual goofy grin.

"It's high time he gets to be useful onboard..." This came from the walkway and the voice sounded like the second mate's.

"It's high time I shut your mouth," Samyo replied to the pesky voice, "and I don't need to gear up with a bunch of wires and tubes to get the job done!"

✨✨✨

"Centred like a star that draws and give stability to its surrounding planets. A centred star knows that without others it would only be a roaming aster in the darkness of the Void."
Third principle of the Way of the Stars

The green lush of Cha T'sin Tao, the Emerald planet orbiting between Earth and Mars was a feast for the eyes.

Samyo Tamashi had landed on the planet a fortnight ago, leaving behind him a dejected Captain Redhook and a smug Doctor Hill. In the short time of their acquaintance, the former soldier had reach the conclusion that he was not a patient man, he rather was prompt to ire and frustration. The spaceship that had sent him to this green paradise was a smuggler, despite all they could have said. Even more, it was a pirate. And Samyo finally understood what all their effort toward his recovery had been all about. They thought he would be happy to join their crew and help them in their trenched war against the Consortium.

Redhook did not promise him a garden of roses, either. Adventure and risk, for sure, no roses, though. The captain understood however that what kept Samyo to join his crew was not a lack of interest in the adventure or the loot. Samyo Tamashi was a dead man inside, the pirate had seen it since day one, but even a dead man could be brought back to life. No. What got the man so opposed to the idea of pirating was just his last remnant of humanity, his honour. Fickle thing, life is. One can wander around without a defined path or a destination for his journey, but without honour, one has forfeited life.

Ditching Captain Redhook and his dubious crew had not been too difficult. Settling on the Emerald planet hadn't been a problem either.

Samyo's peace was no more a vague vision of his future, it was becoming a defined possibility. One that he would work his backside off to ensure.

His prosthetics was slowly becoming an extension of himself, the replacement part felt almost natural. The former soldier had been reticent at first, as this type of artificial limb was one of those new symbiotic ones. There is something fundamentally intimate in becoming whole again this way, Samyo had pondered the concept for a time.

Peace. At last. Looking at his surroundings, the infinity of the green sea of trees and bushes, Samyo Tamashi felt reborn. The neighbours kept way.

"What...?"

A noise. Unexpected. Two men on the path toward his isolated cabin.

Remaining still, Samyo observed the incoming pair, his past SCREAM training alive in his reflexes. Had he carried his rifle, he would be in a position to welcome the newcomers with fireworks.

One of the two men was quite old, with parchment-like skin and eyes seeing deep within. The other one looked more like a young pup curious and overly friendly. Would he ever be left alone, Samyo thought, especially by those to whom life seemed a perpetual enjoyment.

"What do you want?" He asked the pair with a neutral tone.

"Mr Tamashi," the old man started, "heard your name through the radio," he added, as Samyo frowned.

"We are just going through... This path leads to our place," the old man continued, with a brief stop in front of his reluctant neighbour.

Strange pair, Samyo, pensive, observed the two going their way without exchanging more. Quiet. At last...

The days and weeks following the strange encounter, a flow almost uninterrupted of visitors climbed along the path to his cabin. At first, he worried about losing his peace of mind. Rapidly, though, he got used to them, quite adept at ignoring the incessant va-et-vient. It helped that those passersby ignored him quite thoroughly, also.

The inhabitants of the green planet were an interesting mix. Few natives wandered his corner of paradise. Rather, he had identified a variety of humanoid species. There were some Terrans and Lunarians, those last were easy to pick, with their long limbs. They also had the distinct walk of a baby giraffe. The stocky ones probably came from the mine shafts of the Asteroid belt. There were a couple of regular visitors, however, he could not pinpoint their origin or allegiance. One thing was sure, no one from the Consortium had appeared on that path.

Keeping his distance was not as problematic as Samyo had thought initially. Observing the ballet of people coming and going provided an addition to his routine.

The former soldier was exercising, as he usually did on sunny days, sparing with tree trunks and low branches full of leaves and life.

"You'll lose your balance."

The voice surprised him. The fact that he did not hear or feel any movement, however, surprised him even more.

The old man so popular was observing his form. No trace of what he thought could be seen in his eyes or the lines of his face.

"You shall focus on your balance first. Keep balanced. First rule. If you're not, you'll never reach your target."

Advancing toward the old man, Samyo thought of telling him to scram. He used to see people retreating in front of him. The man, though, was routed on the ground, showing no indication that he was frightened, or even just uncomfortable.

Standing, impervious to the younger man's growing anger, he remained. Observing.

"Go back to your opponent and stop moving around. Your balance first, keep your arms near your centre. Then spare the tree. One hit, one kill."

Hesitating, Samyo turned his head, looking at the target he had practised with for the past weeks. Slowly he went back to it and took his stance. Concentrating, he waited. As no critic answered his action, he took aim and attacked. One movement. One hit.

He then took again positioning himself, ready to attack and waited for the comments to come.

Silence.

Turning, he saw that the old man had disappeared.

More training came as each day passed and transformed into weeks, then months. The change of seasons was subtle on Cha T'sin Tao. The Emerald planet had a clement climate.

With each new day, the voice of the old man interrupted Samyo's training. Whether it was a critic on his form, his balance, his centering, or a comment about the handling of the lance, the sword or the knife, the old man's teaching slowly took root in the soldier's mind.

Strange as it appeared, no presentation had been done between the two men. He was The Old Man for Samyo who never tried to communicate more with him than necessary.

On a night lighted by a high moon, Samyo Tamashi was contemplating the journey he had done since the debacle on Pallas. His radio-com sputtered noise in the silence of the spartan cabin. He realised with surprise that it was the first time he heard the communication device coming to life since he arrived.

"Redhook to Tamashi. Do you copy?"

What did the captain want?

"Tamashi! Answer!"

"What do you want, Redhook? I finally found a place where people leave me alone."

"The Consortium got your trace. They're are sending an evacuation team to retrieve you," the captain explained to Samyo how he had monitored the Consortium movements just in case.

"What do you want me to do? Hide?"

"It's up to you, mate. I just wanted to let you know..." the pirate made a pause in his words. "You know that my offer is still up if you want to take it."

"Your offer of adventure and risk, some share loot. But no promise of a rose garden? I got the same offer from the SCREAM. See where it got me?" Samyo answered while his mind started to picture what it could be to be part of the smuggler crew.

"Yep! No roses," Redhook laughed. "But I can guarantee that your lifespan will most likely be longer if you come aboard than if you stay you pretty backside on the tea bushes. It's your choice."

Samyo thought some more about the proposal. His life had been quiet, almost healing, on the green planet. But, somewhere in the back of his mind, he was lacking a purpose. Training in the morning, observing the stars in the evening, his life was simple but somehow meaningless.

Picturing more of the possibilities of going back on duty, Samyo hold his breath and listened to the silence. The radio-com was giving some static.

"Redhook? Still there?" He inquired.

A sharp "positive" answered him.

"When? And Where?"

Samyo's envisioned his future. There would be adventure and action. Risk and spoils. But no garden of roses...

✨✨✨

"Immovable like a star in a Universe in Constant move. An immovable stars knows that only if it remains stable and maintain its position it will find its purpose in the greater picture."
Fourth principle of the Way of the Stars

✨✨✨

The Way of the Stars

I can see far away

The edge of the Galaxy,

There is no gateway

For my enemy.

I stand by my rules,

Follow my destiny,

Cut through the fools

Who try to challenge me.

I roam the planets,

Fight wicked and traitors,

My sword here to collect

The prize of my honour.

T'is the way of the stars,

A combat, a quarrel,

There is no pride in wars

When there is no battle.