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The Quartermaster of the Tango Tek, Cleo, is one whose backstory is well known, having been turned into a song like the story of a few other crew members and some of the people they ran into on their travels.
Cleo was born on a planet that would eventually become nothing but a large spiralling all encompassing city. Before the City took over the ocean there was a girl raised on ships, raised in the water. Their name was Pallas Cleo Atlantic.
Their father, a man they no longer remember as well as they once did, took in the daughter of one of his father’s associates, a man named Zues who wished to expand the city upwards. The girl was named Athena by her father and False by her mother, known as Athena False Symmetry Olympian.
The pair grew to be close friends and sparring partners as the years went on. The only rival in closeness was Joe Hills, a man who was working to delay death as much as he could, thinking and planning a way of immortality. Joe and Cleo bickered as if they had been born siblings.
Not many knew of Joe’s research of death and how to keep it at bay, how to stall or stop it. Cleo however? Cleo knew all of it. Cleo knew every bit of his research. She kept it to themself, didn’t speak of the research to anyone, not even False.
One day before everything spiraled out of control, when it seemed as if their worst fear for death would be old age at best and the pollution at worst Joe asked Cleo what would come to be an important question.
“If you could, would you become immortal?”
Cleo merely chuckled at the thought, leaning back and looking at what was left of the stars.
“You’re going to need someone to keep you in check, aren’t you? Can’t leave you alone for eternity.”
Joe couldn’t help but laugh, watching what was left with the stars with them.
Cleo and False were also quite close, sparring together through their days under the watchful eye of Cleo’s father, a medic always on sight. They weren’t allowed to fight alone, too dangerous, though if they had supervision then they could spar, go at each other as if they were more wild beasts than they were important daughters of important men.
Cleo would have done anything for False and Joe.
She would have done anything.
One day False’s father came to visit.
While Cleo’s father was away he asked for the pair to spar, asked for them to fight.
Cleo refused. Their father wasn’t around and weapons were locked up when he was gone. They could wait until he returned to fight.
It was False who proposed that they fight hand to hand. A better show of skills, a smaller chance of death should they go too hard.
There was no medic on standby.
The only witness to their fight was False’s father, watching the both of them spar.
He told False to make him proud, to show her worth as his daughter and then the fight began.
Cleo couldn’t tell you the details of who started first, of what blows hit and which ones were parried or dodged. They couldn’t tell you who seemed to win and who seemed to be losing. The fight was a blur of motion, of practice.
Then False’s father spoke.
“No skilled fighter takes this long to end an opponent. Finish her, Athena.”
False’s strikes became more focused, trying to make her father proud as Cleo fought to keep up with her.
Then there was a solid kick to their ribs.
They fell to the ground, trying to get back up, trying to breathe. False stood above them with her foot on their chest, breathing heavy, looking not at them but at her father, looking for praise.
He nodded before speaking, Cleo will always remember his words.
“Come, daughter. There is no need for you to be here anymore, not when the sea will soon be ours.”
False looked at Cleo one final time. Their eyes met and she turned away, lifting her foot off of their chest and following her father out.
Cleo’s breaths were heaving, she couldn’t get enough air, they were struggling to breathe. Their chest hurt like hell. They coughed and coughed and blood came out. They turned their head to the side, hoping the blood would do anything but go down their throat. Drowning in their own blood as they ran out of air sounded like a horrific death.
How ironic it was for them to die after getting so close to finding a way to live forever with Joe Hills just recently.
It seemed like they wouldn’t be there to help him after all. That he would spend eternity without her by his side.
As if the thought summoned him, the man she had come to see as a brother ran to her side. He asked her what happened, why she was bloodied.
There was only one wheezed word to leave their lips.
“Athena.”
Cleo barely heard Joe as he begged for her to keep their eyes open.
They mouthed an apology as their eyes slipped closed.
Cleo expected to die.
They didn’t expect to wake up on a bed they knew to be the extra one that Joe kept in his home. Not for them, she had their own room. No, this was for experiments in immortality.
They opened their eyes to see Joe looking back.
He jumped as their eyes met.
“Cleo! You’re alive! It worked! Oh thank the Seas.”
They nodded, not knowing if she trusted their voice or not.
Joe gently helped them sit up and drink a glass of water. The two were silent for a few moments before he spoke.
“Your lungs- do they hurt?”
Cleo took a moment, breathing, feeling. Did their lungs hurt?
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
No pain.
That shouldn’t be right.
They’re sure that False- Athena.
They’re sure that Athena punctured their lung, so why is there no pain?
“No. No pain.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“Joe. Why is there no pain?”
“You told me you’d want immortality.”
“I did. Yeah, that doesn’t explain why a likely punctured lung doesn’t have any residual pain.”
“I took them out, made them metal.”
“Metal?”
“Yup. I was so close with the last test- I wasn’t sure it would work but. I wasn’t gonna lose you, so I tried it. It worked.”
“It did.”
Pallas died that day in her fight with Athena. Portraits were made, statues created. Cleo and Joe left a few days later, leaving Cleo’s family to believe them dead. It’d be kinder than telling them the truth.
They left their home for the stars.