Andrea ad Astra
Andrea’s father never came home from the war, the Civil War.
Her mother did the best she could but a widow with young children trying to run a farm in 1866 Kansas was a hard row to hoe. Here it was July and they were starving to death. The harvest wouldn’t be ready until the end of August. Her mother sobbed herself to sleep each night dreading the morning and the cries of her hungry children.
Then the sun came up in the middle of the night.
Andrea awoke to a kind of hum in the air. The hum grew into a roar and the sky grew brighter and brighter until it was blinding. Then suddenly all of it stopped. She peeped outside to see the fields on fire.
At dawn she saw a strange sight in the middle of what had been a field of wheat. It looked like some weird shiny building. A few people moved busily about it. Andrea started toward them as her mother called to her to stop. Her curiosity overcame all else. As she neared them she could see they were all strangely dressed women. They noticed her and a tall woman clad in leather with what looked like a weird pistol at her hip broke away and approached.
“You’re on our land!” bold as brass Andrea accosted her.
The tall woman’s face broke into an amused smile at the fearlessness of this scruffy, dirty little ten year old girl. “I’m sorry. We need something in the ground here.”
“You burnt up our crops!”
“I’m sorry for that too. Is there something we can give you in trade? My name is Margaret Hamilton.”
“I’m Andrea. You got anything to eat?”
Margaret held out her hand and led the little girl into her ship, the Harpy. At the galley replicator she asked Andrea what she wanted to eat.
“Stew please.” Andrea’s eyes were wide with wonder at the strangeness of this place.
In no time Margaret handed her a steaming bowl of delicious stew. After three mouthfuls Andrea looked thoughtful, “I’m gonna need a lot more of this please.”
Beneath the farm was a deposit of unobtanium. Over the next two months the crew of the Harpy extracted it and made friends with Andrea’s family. Mother was still skeptical that they were from “space” but Margaret had paid her a sum of gold so great that they would never fear hunger again.
During that time Andrea had made a decision. As the spacers were doing final preparations for departure, Andrea told her mother that Margaret had invited her to join her crew. The look in Andrea’s eyes told her mother there would be no dissuading her. After all, what was there here in Kansas for an adventurous young girl? With tears and sobs she gave Andrea her blessing and watched as she ran to the Harpy with a pathetic little bundle of belongings.
The next years were full of wonder and adventure. As Andrea had suspected the Harpy’s crew were Space Pirates! Instead of one mother she now had twelve, each one doting on her and teaching her their special skills. Most of all she enjoyed skill at arms with Margaret. The Captain beamed as she became ever more proficient and accurate with the laser rifle.
The occasion was Andrea’s 21st birthday and the end of her apprenticeship. They had landed on Risa for the celebration. They ate and drank and made fools of themselves over the good looking Risan waiters and dancers who learned very quickly to dodge them or get a wicked pinch on the fanny. All was forgiven considering Margaret’s generosity. They concluded the day’s debaucheries with the granting of a boon for Andrea.
Andrea rose to ask the boon and the rowdy women quieted. “I have loved my apprenticeship aboard the Harpy. I have loved all of you also.” This said with a knowing look to Margaret. “But I miss my old home and family. I need to know what’s become of them. Before I continue with you as an equal I want to visit my home on Earth.” The boon was met with stony silence from the crew. Margaret’s face became hard. The party broke up quickly and they returned to the ship.
A few days later they were in Earth orbit. No one had said as many as three words to her in the interim. They set down in her family’s field. Margaret led her to the hatch. Just as she turned to leave the steely captain turned her around and embraced her with tears streaming down her cheeks. She then turned her back and closed the hatch.
For the life of her Andrea could not figure out what had just happened. Why the cold shoulder from the crew? Why the horrible rejection then tearful goodbye from Margaret?
She wandered through the cornfield toward where she remembered the house was. She began to hear droning sounds coming from that direction as she continued walking, half not paying attention, disturbed by the behavior of her crew mates. As she stepped out of the field before her was a six lane highway, interstate 70 as it turned out.
Then it struck her like a meteorite! During the ten years she’d been in space one hundred fifty years had passed on Earth! Dammit! She should have paid more attention when Emily was teaching her astrogation! God Damn time dilation!
Now she knew why the crew and her dear Margaret had behaved so. After a couple weeks on the Harpy at relativistic speeds she would be moldering in her grave on Earth. Damn!
What was she to do, stuck here on Earth while the only family she knew became ever more unreachable in time and space? Well, she had her trusty laser rifle and her considerable skills in other areas. If science has got me into this then science can get me out she reasoned. So she set off to find the most scientifically advanced place on Earth. That just happened to be Paragon City.
Meanwhile a woman’s gotta earn a living. Andrea ad Astra, have laser, will travel.
