Warin
The world of Bastion was unlike any that Warin had ever seen in his life. He thought that the world of Bloom was large with it’s five billion people living planet side on the old Fabian world.
It had taken their fleet hours once they jumped into the Bastion System to reach the world at sub light speeds. They could have reached the world in a quarter of that time had it not been for the traffic control which had them wait and change course more then a dozen times.
Warin couldn’t fault the traffic control for that. There were hundreds of ships in the system, and that didn’t count those ships which flowed through the System through one of the three Fabian Gateways which linked the great world with much of the Dragon’s Head Nebula and Commonwealth of Drala. It was the largest cross roads of the Fabian Gateway in the Commonwealth. The only one in the Dragon’s Head Nebula in fact, and the world of Bastion had grown rich from the trade that flowed through it.
Even when the fleet had arrived at it’s docking orbit on the world it had taken several more hours just to be granted clearance to disembark with shuttles and dock with the large station of Port Kingsway to undergo standard scans, customs, and make make so no diseases deadly to the people or world itself would be passed on by the new arrivals.
The station of Port Kingsway was larger than that of Skyhold but much less defended, armored, and armed. It was designed for the sole purpose of trade and travel between the world of Bastion and whatever ships those passengers had arrived on.
Port Kingsway was only one of several structures that filled the voids of space. The Hammerhead Station was one of three which guarded the Bastion System, with the Hammerhead the closest to the world itself. None of them impressed Warin much. Skyhold was larger then them all, and much better defended. The three of them combined might have matched the sheer strength of Skyhold, but he doubted it.
Twenty five billion people jammed onto that rock, and all Warin could think of it’s people was that he was glad it was not his life. The world had some natural beauty. He saw the specks of green dotted around the world from his shuttle. Large dark blue oceans filled part of the world but Warin could not tell where ocean met the landmasses of the world. Most the surface of Bastion was covered with cities and large building which rose higher then the mountain of the world.
The quarters they had received had been pleasant and lovely but they did not show the real world. He had had to go out and find that for himself. Where the quarters for the wealthy around the royal palace where clean, filled with gardens and lightly populated, the real Bastion was nothing like that.
The streets were packed. Most too narrow for landcraft or aircraft. Warin’s broad shoulders often brushed against those who called the world home as they went through their day in the busy streets. Some sections even blocked out the sun, and if not for the many lights and neon signs he would have become lost many times.
Warin found that most the people of the Bastion were poor, and some lived their whole lives without seeing the sun. Ozma had panicked and scolded him on his first outing when he had let without telling her. There had been some thugs who had thought he would be an easy prey with his richly decorated clothes and clean face. They had been wrong of course.
Ozma had trained Warin well to defend himself, and learned much from others, but he knew she had a point. There was strength in numbers and those he trusted but he had to get out and about on his own from time to time. To feel like a real person, to see what real people went through day to day in their lives.
Warin knew that even if he did not inform Ozma that she would know and he would be tailed by her or one of her team, he always was. He was convinced at times that she had implanted a tracking device in him as a child. He had never found such a device but he had learned to play a game and find the tail as he grew. Most day he could slip them with ease or Ozma had trained her people better.
Warin never could find spot Ozma. Maybe she never followed him, but again he doubted it. There were few things he could do without her knowledge.
The times he were able to escape the royal quarters and visit a real bar or pub with his people were to few and far between. A steady stream of meetings with lords and ladies from throughout the Commonwealth took up the bulk of his time as new arrivals came daily for the royal wedding of King Oswald and Blair Tusk.
