Terminus Article 4

Some background information on my sci-fi YA series Terminus…

Alfred Kayma is a man of mystery, a hero to some, and a villain to others.

His past is mostly unknown to the public. He grew up on a Sov Sector world and his parents died in a Ronain attack when he was eight years old. He went into an orphanage and eventually joined the military, but rumors of violent behavior followed him everywhere. He excelled in the Academy, even accomplishing the rare feat of graduating on dual tracks as a Marine and a Naval Officer.

Kayma first met Sarah in the Academy as teenagers. She initially felt drawn to him as a fellow outsider, despite her instant popularity and his complete disinterest in social interaction. While still cadets they both joined a war mission against the Baraki. Kayma volunteered to be captured and tortured in order to locate POWs. There’s something… different about Kayma. He enjoys pain. He can take any abuse. And when he told their injured commanding officer to sacrifice herself so the others could get away, he earned Sarah’s ire. They didn’t speak again for years.

Most of his service record is classified, but he spent several years working behind enemy lines in the Baraki Empire. He was also the hero of the Walker Incident. As XO of a ship on the Ronain border, Kayma stepped up in the middle of a war exercise gone horribly wrong. Captain Stephen Walker, Kayma’s best friend, went mad and stormed across the border to attack the Ronains on a suicide mission. When the enemy counterattacked, Kayma turned the war exercise into a very real defense and destroyed the vastly superior Ronain forces.

Sarah and Kayma both separately faced tragedy and lost loved ones. They both became more measured and mature because of it. When they met again as adults, Sarah forgave him for past sins and they became friends. When Sarah’s husband died in combat, it was Kayma who smuggled Sarah behind enemy lines for her suicide mission.

When Sarah found herself running for Majestrix, she decided to make Kayma her Director of Security Affairs. She did this knowing there was something wrong about him, but also that he could accomplish things no one else could. Her dying mother warned her about him, saying he and his group were going to destroy the Great Alliance in the process of trying to “save” it. Sarah never listened to anything her mother said, but it still gave her pause. Kayma solemnly swore an oath to Sarah; anything he did would be for the greater good of the GA, to survive the Ronains, and never for his own personal gain. She believed him, and chose him to be her off-the-books fixer. But Sarah made a promise to him, as well; if Kayma ever crossed the line, she would take him down herself.

Sarah knows only a fraction of the truth about Alfred Kayma. And when she learns everything, they might not be friends anymore, but enemies…