I have a recurring dream that I am on old Earth That Was, looking up at the night sky at the constellation of Orion. I trace the belt from his right to left and I find Aldebaran, the brightest star in the Constellation of Taurus. Down a smidge and to the right of Aldebaran is 34 Tauri, the five stars that makes up the ‘verse star system. In my dream I imagine traveling the 40 light-years and 500 some-odd years into the future to 34 Tauri, then I wake up and here I am.
I have been traveling a lot and got a bit disorganized. Once I finally got home, I was able to download my notes and pictures to one computer and organize.
I really hadn’t been back much except for transshipment since Unification Day. Well, orthodox Unification Day, regular Unification Day is in May I think.
The Cortex News Service has a broadcast studio on campus now.
In the previous trip, Zeno and I got to stay at one of Lord Sen’s summer home.
Lord Sen has been our benefactor for years. Zeno deals with him more than I do, but he still treats me very nicely. He always makes sure I have a very nicely furnished room. I told Beaumont that I want our bedroom to look just like this one, I will even take my boots off first.
Frigate entering orbit around Zenobia
Zenobia facing White Sun, Qin Shi Huang and Lux. (Awesome picture courtesy of Serendipity Undercroft. Thank you.)
We make a lot more trips to Paquin nowadays. I think Colonel MacMoragh of UAP Special Projects and Pepper Siamendes of UAP Special Investigations Unit are based here. We have warehouses by the landing bay. (Awesome picture courtesy of Serendipity Undercroft. Thank you.)
On our route back to Araxes, we make a stop off in Talmont. (Awesome picture courtesy of Serendipity Undercroft. Thank you.)
And Araxes with Krelin and Arvon. (Awesome picture courtesy of Serendipity Undercroft. Thank you.)
The Blackpox virus has owned the news lately. The first I heard of it was with Ari and Suzanne. There was talk of a crashed probe, a weaponized vitus and also a version spread from a pair of transplanted eyes. Ari took exception that I would not let her jam a needle in my butt for the cure for one of the viruses. She could give the cure to Manda or Moira or Natirra, then maybe. Lately it seems that there are a whole buncha folks all anxious to poke my butt.
Suzanne had found a barricaded weaponized virus capsule. She competes with Zenobia for selling water in Araxes. For over a year, we controlled the market on refined spice and water trade. Suzanne extracts water from waste, kinda creepy, but she is able to sell water at a discount. She is a champion prospector. She has helped me with a lot of projects and is a good friend.
Doctor Eliza, who had visited Zenobia with Zeno was working on a cure for at least one of the viruses, the one from the transplanted eyes. She worked with Professor Al Bert Starsmith at the Misrim Lab.
There was a quarantine put into place to prevent the spread of the virus, but someone used a diplomatic evacuation shuttle to circumvent the blockade quarantine. I will let Cody remain nameless. I will just refer to Cody by his initials CW for Cody Winterwolf.
CW had made his way to Colchester, Paquin, Hale and Washtown before coming down with symptoms in Dragon’s Egg Moon. The outbreak also spread to Zenobia because of cross contamination.
Fortunately Doctor Natirra was on hand and confirmed the diagnosis. She packed CW up into stasis tube and I hauled him back to Araxes for Quarantine. Natirra started her own search for the cure using local facilities and I think facilities on Ariel or Osiris. I can’t remember. She administered shots in Zenobia.
I was able to get Doctor Eliza to examine CW and to administer what was one of the cures in the experimental stages. CW responded well to the treatment but had to be kept in quarantine with other patients. He was attacked while in quarantine.
Cody says he is not a MuDraco spice addict. I traded some premium fuel cells for some refined spice. He was a little vague about the client. No worries though, right?
I ran into Trooper Gage at the Zenobian Aegis Barracks and let him know about the security issues. He looks a lot like the old Earth That Was Bollywood actor Sharukh Khan, Nanna’s favorite.
The Nicomedian Holy Sisterhood increased their presence locally. The sisterhood reveres the Saints of Nicomedia like Saint George and Saint Adrian, the patron saints of soldiers and Butchers. The Nicomedian Sisterhood also make sure that Alfred G. Packer brand S.P.A.M. and Smeat meet the legal limit for consumption by humans.
Although I am part of the Zenobian trade mission, we have been busy with a lot of sciency things. The Zenobia Institute Polytechnique pays a bounty for captured meat beetles, land lobsters and steak spiders. I get stuck inspecting them.
Saygar and Ito are champion bug hunters. They have each found one or more of each of the 34 varieties
WHODAT?
When I was back at Dragon’s Egg, I ran into Harry Potter….I mean Venice. I hadn’t seen him about since he, Coop, Gabe and Emma crashed on Hale’s after a reaver attack. He got a job with x0x0, he is the lapdog of Satan now. Good to see him around.
I got an encoded message from a salvage broker, x0x0 wasn’t overly helpful or enthusiastic. Something about project Day Dream. The salvage broker tried to entice me saying something about Unit 481
I might have considered following up with it, but x0x0 got herself blown up.
Now I don’t know what has to do with what. But Professor Al Bert Starsmith hired Dave Gaffer to deliver some of the Misrim Labs Cure to the Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia in Dragons’ Egg. I was off planet and Zeno was in jail, so Gaffy delivers it to x0x0 our biggest competitor. This guy runs a business? The Serenity Trade & Freight Union (STFU) stays open. Seren Undercroft and Gaffy must be doing something right. Misrim later got me some more of the Misrim Labs Cure. A little bit of spice goes a long way. Professor Starsmith says the amount of spice in the Misrim Labs Cure is not enough to be addictive. We went about collecting all of the various cures that were floating about, 5 or 6 at last count.
It was suspicious that Blue Sun ends up with its own watered down cure. I might have followed thru with it, but then I got a misdelivery meant for x0x0….from Niska.
Doctor Natirra’s research had been stolen, then Niska comes up with a cure meant to for Blue Sun. It gets misdelivered. X0x0 gets blown up. Coincidence I am sure. Why call her x0x0, why not just x0. It’s like Mahi Mahi, can’t the waiter tell after the first Mahi?
Lily got married, I think, maybe, possibly, sorta …. you get the idea. There was dancing I am told. I am not sure it matters. Well, LilyBell and KrakenAres produced a kid who is very very needy. Lily is a great mother except unwilling to bathe the kid. Nice name, Kraken Two - Destroyer of Worlds. Cody did not seem interested in being the nanny to another one of Lily’s cubs. Lily is covered in blood a lot, but wouldn’t say whose.
Despite that, she seems to take more interest in this cub than the previous one.
The situation with the epidemic and the blockade degenerated into Jade swearing out arrest warrants on the legislative council that Zeno served on. Calina was also arrested. It was madness I helped Zeno pick out what dress she would wear to turn herself in and we have been incommunicato since.
The Inquisitor allowed Zeno to have her food prepared by her chef, Rose, one of the Nicomedian Sisters. We sneak messages back and forth, but it is not the same. I lean of Zeno a lot for advise, she has been a mentor to me since I went to work with the Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia. I feel bad that I couldn’t see her, protocols. Jade got to visit her, gave Zeno her favorite Teddy Bear named Mister Tillery to keep her company.
We spent time, effort and resources trying to find something that the Inquisitor would accept to get Zeno released. It is still in process. The UAP Special Investigations Unit, Special Projects and the Zenobian Aegis Initiative really took over that project. I got some info from paying tribute to the Space Nav Guild, but nothing that got the job done.
With the Landsraat arrested, the Beit Dawla Council took control of the government to maintain lawfulness. I was the chairwoman of the Beit Dawla Council, little more than the advisory position like Miss Calina’s in the Landsraat except I keep the order of speaking, make sure the forms are obeyed and I get to vote when there is a tie. We outlawed vigilantism and the blood based cure, lifted the blockade, made the cure freely available and told the Myrmidon Order that they could not have roving death bands meting out bloody justice as they saw fit. All good things I guess. The warrants were out of my hands, I couldn’t do anything to help Zeno, Calina or Ms Deren.
Apparently, I couldn’t even help Jade. Things went from bad to worse. Jade got murdered.
Doctor Westminster performed the autopsy, she is the only medical examiner of record in the area. She specializes in identifying faked deaths, clones and other death related mischief. The results are not official yet, either her face exploded when she fell or she was shot in the face several times at close range.
A lot of people were angry with Jade over swearing out the complaints and the subsequent arrests. LilyBell even said that she threatened to kill Jade and is not sad that she is dead.
I have been avoiding getting emotional about it until I get the coroner’s report, but I am not really prepared for someone I know to be dead. There were others, but I did not believe it. I am trying not to believe this one, but I am not doing a very good job.
I’ve known Jade since she worked in Miss Calina’s dress shop on Eavesdown Docks.
I am dealing with it by working. Arranging for Calina to take Jade’s body back to 34 Tau, looking for a will, tidying up. Winding down the revolution Jade started, preparing for the election. Picking out a nice dress for Zeno for when she gets released from jail.
I will miss her a lot. We’re all sorry to see you go, Jade.
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