It was an ancient language that was no longer in use but there was a fondness for it, a strange clinging to old things so indicative of humans on Earth who venerated ruins and read texts divorced from their current reality. When I was born on Starship X90876 Old Aunt took me to a parlor where they tattooed me in the ancient language of Korean. 전쟁. The tattoo was between my breasts and snaking up near my throat.
“Old Aunt, what does it mean?” I asked in between slurping noodles doused with protein sauce. Earth animal meat was rare on the starship. Most meals were mounds of carbohydrates, easily cultivated in labs and growing centers, but the sugars were mitigated with chemicals to ensure balanced nutrition.
“It means war.” She traced the tattoo sprouting from my blouse. 전쟁. “You are a special girl from a long line of Earth Koreans. Master Mother died in the Vailor War, the war between humans and Kirillians in the Draco Galaxy. You were left with me.” She drank tea from a large mug. “Master Mother said you had power in your heart to save humans.”
“What is this power?” I asked as I adjusted the red bow in my black hair.
“I do not know.”
In the morning, I saw enemy ships approaching the starship. They were Glaxo ships. Raiders and the most hated of species in this universe. They fired upon us. We launched no weapons. The Glaxans probably froze our system. I watched the only home I knew burst and shudder. Old Aunt screamed and tried to pull me to her but I felt a blinding rage and something lifting in my chest. The tattoo was hot and sizzling. War. I rose, improbably, into the air, flew and then a laser erupted from the outline of Korean letters. There were ten Glaxo ships and I aimed at all of them, severing hulls, destroying onboard systems, defeating their missiles. My people cheered and were safe as the remnants of the enemy ships glowed and disintegrated. I flew back down to Old Aunt and clasped her to me. She was crying.
“There is power in words,” she muttered. “You’ve brought respect to every generation of Jeons. Master Mother would have wept.”
I smiled. “Will you make me soup with rice and a chicken egg?” I asked sweetly. War was depleting and destroying Glaxo ships made me famished.
THE END
More About the Korean Language
Korean Language
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