Kallos and I were waiting by the promenade deck overhanging the main space docks. We were waiting for the arrival of the Grand Traveler from Earth. It had been several weeks since it first departed and made the jump towards the lunar moon. I thumbed through an old novella written by some unnamed person who lived right before the launch of the thousand ships. It detailed a dystopian world before our time.
Kallos considered it a trashy novel and had thrown away his copy. It was required reading in our history lessons, but he found little of interest. He considers it a mockery and blasphemous account of the great founder Karl Knutmudsen.
I often debated with him as I found no ill intent and they painted a fairly consistent image of the Knut. Even after three centuries since his death in the great uprising, people still wonder who he really was.
A tiny light on the horizon, fast moving excited us as the Grand Traveler prepared its space brakes and position itself to dock. A million tons of metal moving from near light speed and in a few moments halting and drifting. It's onboard computer did all the work and effortlessly maneuvered the ship around every complex turn.
We then ran to the nearest transport tube and made our way to the crew's exit. One of the dock robots a red Omni-5 greeted us and opened the main gangway doors as Kallos father disembarked with a dozen other crewmen. We welcomed them as they brought back fresh delicacies from Earth.
Since the creation of the string of space stations and colonies, Earth was transformed into a giant garden and became the breadbasket for the multitudes of mankind living in the inner and outer rims of the solar system. Very few people live there as most of the robots and machines maintain themselves and grow all of our food.
Our station rotates around the the planet Jupiter and in close orbit with its moon Io. There are several other Jupiter stations, hovering around each of its major moons including Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. Of the four major stations, ours on Io is the oldest and was built atop an ancient derelict man-made installation dating before the end times over 2,800 years ago.
When the first of the thousand ships that the Neo-Artesians launched, they found that many of the planets and moons already had sizable stations and installations that had built, but were never completed or had eventually ceased to operate after so many centuries of neglect. On a few station like ours on Io, there were signs and markings left by its previous inhabitants who must have clung onto life for a few more centuries and attempted to make the stations livable, but with a lack of sufficient food, air and water, they were doomed.
Some rumored that a few descendants of the original inhabitants hid within the deepest reaches of the old station, buried under miles of rock and steel and eventually mingled with the newcomers. Even after three centuries, there are still many miles of unexplored tunnels and every so often a new cavern or room is discovered. The most recent included living quarters that predated our recent ancestors arrival by only a few decades, but it was dismissed as there was a small statue of Karl Knutmudsen along with considerable artifacts that originated from Earth. Most thought it an elaborate prank or someone found a dumping ground for some old trash.
Kallos, however took it as a sign of the divine creator and the Knut must have existed in previous lifetimes and would reappear every few centuries or thousands of years to help guide mankind to its destiny amongst the stars. As ridiculous a notion, there are quite a few within the Neo-Artesian faction who believe in this origin theory and have splintered off into the Proto-Artesians.
We asked Kallos father and he scoffed at the idea of a divine and god-like Karl Knutmudsen. He was just a man, a prominent politician in his time like any other. He died like any other. To consider him more than human would be blasphemous. His ideas captured in his writings and teachings however could be considered divine and have gained a life of their own. He lamented that many great wars were fought on this very belief on the Knut being a god and he feared it would happen again with the creation of the separatist faction of the Proto-Artesians.
The Captain of the Grand Traveler is an ardent follower of the Proto-Artesians as well as most of the crew. While he still holds more conservative views as a Neo-Artesian, they mostly leave him alone as he is an experienced navigator and one of the best. But there are times the tension can be cut with a knife as the 2nd Mate Gregor Illum another Neo-Artesian gets into heated religious debates with the other Proto-Artesian sympathetic crew. A few have ended in fists. Kallos dad sometimes has to intervene and calm Gregor and the others.
As we walked towards the central atrium, we passed by a pair of slender women dressed in ocean blue uniforms. They were members of the sisters who ruled most of the solar system. One towered over all of us at near 8 feet in height. Her arms were as long as we were tall. The sisters purposefully exposed some of their members to lower gravity as they find it helps make them seem more intimidating. Their reputation and history was more than enough.
My mother is a member of the sisters as will be soon my younger sister Enya. She has been training since she was 3 and now reaching puberty would soon leave us and move to the main training academies on Earth near Onion City. She would probably not return for several years, except for short visits during holidays as after graduation she will be assigned to one of the outer rim stations. Her future is all but assured as long as she remains obedient and loyal.
I was found to be too rebellious to make a suitable candidate and was rejected from the training regimen at the age of 7. My teacher was dismayed as she found I had considerable potential and continued to teach me on occasion, which was generally frowned upon, but quietly permitted by the more senior sisters as my great-grandmother was once the grand madam of Io Station.
The taller of the two sisters recognized me as she was on of my teacher's former pupils. She smiled and nodded towards me as we walked past. Kallos shuddered as she heard stories of those who crossed paths with full fledged sisters. They are unmatched in combat and known to throw themselves along with their victims out of airlocks. It was known as the 'kiss of death' and their training allowed them to survive for several minutes in the harshness of deep space. They would toy with their victims as they succumbed and then walked calmly back through the airlock.
I couldn't confirm nor deny Kallos story as I was only given a basic education and knew little of the true history of the sisters. We followed in the steps of the first sister Anna and her heir madam Olivia who helped bring about the launch of the thousand ships. They were aided by an unknown man who was by most accounts a minor figure in history, but was pivotal as he provided the key to the foundries and control over the weapons preventing the Neo-Artesians from achieving their destiny.
The historical texts are quite vague as this unknown man would have had to been at least a hundred fifty or more in age as he is also connected to the creator Karl Knutmudsen, Anna and Olivia. Some believed it must have been two separate people. Things were murky back then as they are sometimes now.
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