The Assassination at Magnumtown

In the year 2166, Fialkov was assassinated in Magnumtown, a small village on Danab that was home to a settlement of Tuska.  It was bad timing, only eight years after the failed peace talks at Tawny Station between the Galactic Alliance and the Danab, at near-constant war since the Danab attacked Earth in 2045, despite the efforts of Benjamin Josiah and Unarn, despite the heroic efforts of Jacques Mendez and the Space Corps to avert one crisis after another for twenty years.

Fialkov was a minor politician among the Danab, and his accused assassination had no significant connection to the Alliance, and was by all accounts an internal affair, and yet such small ripples can have outsize effects, especially in unstable times.  Admiral Kiernan advocated caution, and as usual Senator Duquesne preached the opposite, and that was only within the Alliance.  Who knew what whispers echoed within the halls of Danab chambers?

For twelve months Fialkov was believed to have been murdered by Carrie Arosen, and yet it was eventually discovered that his true assassin was her adopted brother Magnum, the fanatic who founded the very town in which these events unfolded.  It was Magnum’s brother Stringfellow, by all accounts a man of honor, who brought the truth to light, but it was too late for Magnumtown, and for the Tuska in general.  The Danab were brutal in their retaliation, and in fact finally concluded the efforts begun by the late governor, evicting the Tuska and obliterating Magnumtown.  In very short order, the Tuska were dispersed and their national existence, such as it might ever have been considered, became a matter of history.  Although justice had prevailed for Carrie Arosen, no more bitter homecoming could have been possible.  It was a rallying point for the Danab, and led directly to one of the fiercest conflicts in a war that would not truly end for decades.

Arosen elected to use the opportunity to begin a new life for herself.  Since there was in fact no home for her to return to, she left Danab for the first time in her life, enlisting in the Space Corps as a pilot, learning all the necessary skills on her journey to the academy.  She was never able to explain how she’d developed the instincts that made any of it possible, but it wasn’t hard to determine her motivation.  She was by all accounts an angry young woman, but she kept to herself, could hardly have been said to have friends, but her sense of camaraderie with fellow pilots on training missions was said to be impeccable.  She was said to be the best friend anyone could have when it mattered most.

As for her past, she very rarely talked about it.  Only those who followed the news knew anything about her time in captivity, or that she was once actively considered to be an assassin.  There was not an inconsiderable amount of people who would have considered her a hero, had they known the exact circumstances, but such were the times.

In the none too distance future, she would have her shot at glorious redemption.

TO BE CONTINUED IN SEVEN THUNDERS…