Today's post was written by my son, telling the tale of the Traveller I described in this post.
Diluc was born in the slums of his home planet in the Talaveran Empire. Growing up hating the nobles and upper class, he began using has last name, Mack, as an alias for petty thievery, stealing silverware and pinching other valuables. When Mack was 12, he was caught trying to break into the house of a Marquis.
He was sentenced to 5 years in juvenile prison, where Mack would pick up skills that soon get him aboard ship. Having served his sentence, Mack was left listless at the starport, until a certain ship came by. That ship was crewed by pirates and was called the Swinging Hammer. Mack immediately signed on with the pirates as a deck hand and started his life among the stars. Across is 20 years as a pirate, Mack would rise to the captain and command his own ship the High Victorian. He had an interesting way of handling boarding actions, insisting that his men do not, in any way harm the passenger unless it was necessary.
When Mack was about 38, his crew was about to board a ship when he suddenly felt the urge to join them, despite usually handing off command to his lieutenants. Once aboard the star liner, he heard is name being called, though no one else did. Mack soon found himself wandering through the halls of the ship, until he came across a small chapel, where a priest was praying the akathist to Saint Lawrence the Wonderworker (of Dekalb) known for his protection against cabin pressure loss. When Mack tried to enter the chapel though, he was thrown back against the far wall. The priest then stood up, walked over to the doorway of the chapel and explained that Christ would not allowed Mack to enter as he was. The two of them proceeded to speak for over forty minutes, wherein Mack was convinced of Christianity and pledged to renounced his piratical ways. He returned to his crew and they moved on to their home base.
Once there, Mack prepared to take his ship and leave, but was surprised when one of his lieutenants decided to join him. Together, they stole the High Victorian as their last act of piracy, and got out as quick as the could. After a year of somewhat listless sailing, helping little pockets of Christians where they could, the two of them were picked up by a certain baron who decided to be a sponsor of sorts for them. Mack was brought to a church, where a bishop gave him a four year penance to the church, meaning that he would run supplies, missionaries, monks, and settlers to wherever they needed to go. After a year in the Baron's service, Mack left to focus solely on his penance.
When he was finished, he was brought into the Church by baptism as Brendan. He continued his work for the Church, but only a year after his baptism, his old pirate crew found him. In order to defend his passengers, Brendan, who still went by Mack most of the time, offered up his life in exchange for his passengers safety. He was martyred on the spot, with one of his old lieutenants putting a bullet right between his eyes. But, true to their promise, the pirates left the ship alone and went their way. Then, something incredible happened: the High Victorian, despite having no captain, piloted itself home to port, through hyperspace, and docked at Holtzmann. Brendan was buried on Holtzmann with the highest honor possible, and the question of whether or not the ship's miraculous return was due to him or not is still debated by the fathers of the Church years later.
image credit: Pixabay
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