Hephaestion Story

Characters:

Ned is an interstellar mailman. He is attached to his sense of routine and independence and considers his ship, The Sunfish, a source of comfort. His dutiful nature does not stem from patriotism, but because he knows others rely on him for food, medicine, and supplies. His eyesight is permanently damaged when, despite being a civilian, he is caught in the crossfire of an ongoing civil war. His agency is stripped away for years until he can afford cheap cybernetics. The war removed funding from programs that would have supported him. During his recovery he is surrounded by propaganda and glorification of soldiers, especially those with cybernetic enhancements, and he grows to loathe them.

Agent Uranus, AKA Beth, is a former agent of the Hephaestion Program, a military organization from the Inner Planets that uses cybernetics to enhance the physical capabilities of its soldiers. Beth’s hands are entirely robotic in order to support her weapon, an ice-pick that releases freezing nitrogen gas. Before joining the Program, Beth had nothing left to lose. She had shipped out right when a large-scale attack ripped through the major cities of her planet and lost communication soon after. During Hephaestion she relearned how to trust and find a sense of family in her team, only for her to lose them too. Her attachment to those she loves drives her, though grief makes her self-righteous.

Agent Pluto is another former agent of the Hephaestion Program. He vanished early on due to a malfunction in his eye cybernetics. The project deemed him a failure and would have killed him had he not managed to escape. He went into hiding for years, trying to find ways to repair his eyes without damaging the faulty wiring attached to his nerves, including his brain. He feels immeasurably guilty for not saving his teammates during their final battle, but revealing himself would have gotten him killed. Once the war is over, he tries moving on until he hears about Beth’s survival. Pluto knows what Hephaestion does to survivors and decides to find her.


Conflict:

Ned wants to return to life before the war. Beth, who is tracking down weapons before Hephaestion destroys them, finds one accidentally smuggled onto Ned’s ship. Ned refuses to help Beth, but Hephaestion finds his ship and, despite his better judgment, does not turn her in. The two are now wanted criminals. Agent Pluto, hearing news of Beth’s survival, finds the two of them at a space outpost. Pluto wants to help Beth disappear, but Ned refuses to leave his ship behind. The three escape, now fugitives conflicted with what to do about the Hephaestion Program’s crimes. Ned wants to be isolated but needs human interaction and a sense of agency. Beth wants justice but needs space to grieve. Pluto wants security but needs to confront what happened to move on.


Themes:

In Hephaestion, grief over lost autonomy drives the protagonists. Ned uses routine, Beth uses a cause, and Pluto hides away, all to cope with the consequence of a dehumanizing war. Only in confronting that grief can they fully reclaim their autonomy.