Cowboy Eight
Drew Keawe
(Hula)
By Jack
Drew Keawe was a real life first princess of the Star Kingdom of Hawaii. Not that we know she was a princess, you understand. She was just a famous hula dancer, so in probably one of our more uninspired ideas of all time, we nicknamed her Hula. Yeah. We were real smart back then. She accepted the name with good grace. And that really summed her up. Grace. She was graceful in everything, and I would swear that she somehow bottled joy and carried it around with her. She was impossible not to love, and she knew it. And she used that charm to spread joy wherever she could. And yes, she was real good at the hula dance. She was truly amazing, and she made everything better when she was around. And she made people want to be better. That is a true gift right there.
Drew Keawe flew off Jesse’s wing when she served with us. A hula dancer from Hawaii and a farmer from Kansas were from different worlds for all practical matters, but they stuck together like glue from the beginning. It said good things about both of them that I never had a complaint from either about the other. I know there’s a record somewhere, but I can’t tell you how many battles they fought in as we sparred with the Chinese and the Shang around Earth. It was a lot. And it was before we started deploying drone fighters, so it was all her and him, protecting each other’s back. And the rest of us trying to protect them when they needed it. Drew was... I don’t know... I think she might have turned into a group mascot in time. She was the sister I think any of us would have died to protect.
Drew Keawe was a native of Hawaii. She was also blonde-haired and blue-eyed. I kid you not. I can’t tell you if she was born that way or if she had some work done. There’s some things you just don’t ask a lady, doncha know. The point is that she was my kind of pretty and I was a free agent back then. I was totally interested, and I’m pretty certain I totally fanboyed myself all over her. Then our trainers put her under me in the table of organization. I do not know how our original commanders picked our ranks and positions, though I suspect they may have been testing us. I wanted a completely different position with her, you understand, but the military regs were pretty clear on what positions were allowed with subordinates. So we didn’t. I don’t know if we would have, but that ended any question right there. A part of me will always wonder how things could have turned out if we had. But we didn’t, The War progressed, and I pushed those thoughts and ideas out of my mind.
Drew Keawe knew firing gravitic cannons in hyperspace was a Bad Idea. We all did. But they were the most powerful weapons we had when we chased down that Chinese squadron. Most of us were damaged in one way or another when the backlash came for us, but we killed our targets. We didn’t know how bad our damage was until we returned to the fleet. Her cyber had flown their fighter all the way home without telling us what happened to Drew, but it was impossible to miss once we got into visual range. Her cockpit was just gone, torn apart by the unrelenting vengeance of an angry hyperspace. She didn’t even have time to realize she was dead. We had a long time to think about it. She was one of us. She was everything the rest of us were. Faster. Stronger. Able to dodge danger with a single step. Her death shook us all far more than we wanted to admit. Even to ourselves.
Fighter cybers usually shut down when their pilot died back then, but Drew Keawe’s refused to. Drew had made her promise to try to live if she died, and I jumped in to help with bells on. Jasmine became a best friend, an inspired coconspirator, and an amazing troublemaker. Oh, we got into so much trouble. We still do in fact. What she never was, was MY cyber. We never developed the classic fighter-pilot amalgam that I did with Betty, though she has always done an amazing job of mimicking it in combat. I always assumed she never took the final step because she was born to be with Drew, and just didn’t want that kind of relationship again. I was right, and I was wrong. The fact is that Drew was still alive. Or more accurately, she came back, after Jasmine latched onto me. That made all of our lives rather more complicated than any of us expected.
Jasmine and I forged a very good working relationship after Drew Keawe died. We fought two decades of War together, and I would be lying if I did not admit how much she came to mean to me. She and Betty were the two beings in all the worlds who stood with me every day of that conflict. The thing I never fully understood about Jasmine was that she never seemed to... settle down. I found out why in the end. Drew was still alive, and the Jasmine with her and my Jasmine had been sharing notes with each other. Every time I thought I nailed down what made her tick, another update from Drew would arrive and my Jasmine would shift again. And she never told me what was up. I wasn’t cleared for that information, doncha know. Even while dead to the worlds, Drew still managed to complicate my life in ways I never expected.
I did not know that Charles recruited Drew Keawe for his Wolfenheim Project. Yes, I was involved in it, and I helped him recruit other people for it, but he always played his cards close to his chest. And Drew was a very close card. Wolfenheim brought her back with a cloning chamber, she chose a different name, and for two decades she protected Wolfenheim from the Shang and other enemies great and small. She even took part in the final defense of Arnami Prime. She fought more battles out there than I can describe, against and beside more alien races than most people on Earth even realized existed. She saved lives out there, and she helped change the balance of power. She is one of those very brave individuals that helped break Shang power in our corner of the galaxy. It all took place five thousand lightyears from home, and most people don’t think about it. But it happened, and it mattered. Drew mattered out there.
I didn’t meet Drew again until after War’s End. She showed up with a fleet and totally blew my mind. Blew my mind in a good way, by the way. I was... overjoyed to have her back, and she was happy to collect the winnings on her bets. She correctly wagered what my response would be upon seeing her, you see. Though she would say it was no gamble on her part, because she had some inside knowledge on what made me tick. Jasmine was telling tales about me. So I have sworn to tell tales about Drew. Drew made the difference out there. Well, they all did technically, but I’ll spend my life emphasizing her contribution. Even as I know she wishes I wouldn’t. What can I say? I like watching her blush when I tell the tales of her heroism. Especially since she really did make a great deal of difference out there. Every good tale must have a kernel of truth after all.
Drew Keawe’s father was the king of the Star Kingdom of Hawaii, and he took her death real badly. So when Drew came back, the first place I insisted we go was to visit him. He deserved to know she was back, even if her being alive was still a closely guarded secret. It was a good thing we did, because he knew a lot more about what was going down back home than the rest of us did. I won’t say he was part of the problem, you understand, but he knew the people who were very well. And when I brought his daughter home to him, let’s just say that changed his mind on a great many things. Drew could be most persuasive, and the secrets she brought back were real world changers. She brought an entire Star Kingdom to our side when we needed them, and that changed everything.
Drew Keawe came out of the closet after War’s End. Her death had been widely known, her life a deep secret, and the things she did belonged to another name entirely. But she came home after War’s End and she returned to her old duties as a princess of the Star Kingdom of Hawaii. A genuine war hero, she had come back from the dead and everything. There were parades in her honor. Grown men and women threw themselves at her feet. There were even serious marriage proposals from a dozen Families. She turned them all down. I heartily approved of that. She was way better than any of them deserved. In my totally biased opinion of course. She helped lead Hawaii into a whole new world of possibilities in the decades that followed. Many of which most of us never dreamed of. She has changed the fortunes of entire worlds for the better. She’s pretty amazing like that.
Drew Keawe was the heir to the throne of the Star Kingdom of Hawaii when I first met her. Today she is something far better. She is one of the powers behind the throne. She speaks with the words of the throne on her lips wherever she goes. I’ve escorted her to many events over the years. She rather enjoys showing me off to those who think themselves her peers. And I enjoy acting the crazy Cowboy to them. It really sticks in the craws of those who would rather see us Cowboys dead and our memories buried in the past. She knows something they don’t, you see. There will always be a place for us in the worlds. And Drew wants to make sure her people and her kingdom are on the right side of history when it comes calling. And it will come calling, sooner or later.
History always repeats itself. Drew Keawe knows this with all the deep-seated understanding the heir of any Star Kingdom should have. Her own people were displaced by history for the better part of a century, so it has a personal meaning to her. And now that her people are back in charge of their own destinies, Drew intends to see it help her people the next time it comes around. That is why she has built so many alliances for her people in the decades after War’s End. I am one of them. We share a special friend, you see. Jasmine. She is the very best friend in all the worlds. She keeps us close, no matter how far away we travel. So there is always a Jack hanging around when Drew makes a public appearance. She is way too important to risk without the very best people in all the worlds at her side. I happen to think I’m one of them, and I will deal with anyone who hurts her. Not a threat. A promise.
One thing to remember about Drew Keawe is that she is no princess in need of rescue by a do-gooder hero. I may be absolutely willing to fill the role whenever needed, you understand, but she is fully capable of taking care of herself. Whenever Drew travels on Star Kingdom business, she goes fully armed, and when people with ill intentions towards her act on them, she is always ready and willing to defend herself. That said, her Jasmine is a wrecking ball, and any Cowboy in the area will pretty much teleport into action to support her as well. It’s what we do-gooders do. And in the end, Drew is one of us. She is family, and so whether or not she needs our help, we will always be there to give it. And the fact that she always smiles and proceeds to challenge everyone around her to fight up to her level makes it all the more fun.
By Charles
Drew was one of the best of us in many ways. Some of us volunteered for revenge. Some of us volunteered to promote our plans. Drew joined because she truly believed in making the worlds better. She was an Hawaiian. And she was a real life princess, a first daughter of the Star Kingdom of Hawaii. She never told us, but I knew. My family keeps track of all the worlds’ self-proclaimed noble families, and they considered her to be a helpless optimist. That is why I always liked her. She made the worlds better places simply by being there. I can think of few better words to say of another.
Well done.