Jai Raghilda: Jai's Necessity

Crying Over Cargo

2011-12-03T13:10:00.000+04:00

Only one picture today.

No crying, it is against the Cargo Requisition Allocation Protocols (C.R.A.P.).

One drawer of a standard morgue coldbox used to ship the dead. Mass of 100 kilograms including the box and bodybag, with an optimally loaded cargo bay, about 2.1 Credits per AU with DeuTylium fuel. First out to the SNG (Space Navigator Guild) transit nexus terminus then to Colchester in White Sun. Travel is relatively cheap if you're inert.

Just one drawer, one of 18 in the morgue coldbox container, one of many coldbox containers, of many kinds of cargo we are hauling to 34 Tauri today. Just doing the rechecks before we unmoor the frigate and head out. Procedure, protocol, stuff like that. I don't normally check all of the drawers.

I work the numbers in my head to keep from thinking about the cargo. I make jokes or I work spreadsheets in my head when I am stressed. No jokes today.

This is Jade, she's cargo now.

Jade lived her life with the world against her, born a 'moon-baby', her mother's exposure to some mine chemicals caused her to be born albinos with a wonky immune system. The superstitious people on the moon gave her to job of being the disposable child. "What is the life of one moon-baby?" I never liked it when she said that.

They sold her off to some organ-leggers to buy farmland for their village on the surface of the moon. These organ-leggers planned to exploit the Jade's unique moon-baby immune system to grow and harvest organs for other people. The organ-leggers told them a fanciful fairy tale of a life of education and for Jade to ease their conscience, but in reality they sold her to a life destined to be lived out in vats and cutting tables.

Jade got lost and robbed in Persephone, but in this case that was fortunate. Good fortune smiled on her with Calina, Darrian and some other decent folks on Eavesdown Docks. Jade lived out of Calina's fine dress shop back then and Jade helped her out plus busy with whatever odd jobs and such she could find in the ugly backwater of the famed gateway to the rim. I bought a great outfit from her, she even knew my favorite color. Jade time in Eavesdown Docks was colored by fear that the organ-leggers would find her or that her village would have to give back the money and lose their land or that that the law would....you know....crap that happens.

I lost touch with her when she moved to Botany Bay, although I knew she was there as it was part of my regular route, I never ran into her while I was there. I am sure she made lots of friends. I saw her on Hale a couple times during that period. When she came to Al Raqis is when we got to see each other more often. She quickly learned how to prospect for the Araxes desert spice, how to gather water from the vaporators and fix the refinery and all sorts of things. Plus always busy with some project or another that she found around. Soon, she was a top prospector and mechanic. She worked on other projects too, a great sand-glider. We watched bats fly and beetles scurry around attacking mercenaries, good times.

Jade ran afoul of the Orions and the Orchid, she was attacked and hospitalized. Public opinion moved strongly against them after that.

Calina was looking after Jade, but this was a systemic problem. It was becoming too dangerous, we had to find better ways to deal with the problem.

Jo was kidnapped shortly thereafter. We were shocked, this was a big deal to us. No one had harmed any of our people before. Jo, Opine, Calina, Jade, Tiller, etc, are not Zenobians, some were even their own factions. But they were from 34 Tau and we felt responsible for their welfare. We were the de facto local consulate for the Union of Allied Planets, we had to change how we operated in the area.

We mobilized what assets we had. Increased surveillance on certain persons, worked our network of contacts, even military recon. We had been adverse to mobilizing military personnel, but this was 2 citizens in 2 weeks. We activated a Condoterro to contract third party assets to intervene. Zeno used her seat on the Landsraat Council to lobby for an anti-slavery act to punish the Orions and people who think like them.

None of it was not enough, we had to find a better way to change things.

Opine, Jo and I made a decision that ultimately led to Jade's death, we encouraged Jade to run for elected office. The Imperium had recently decreed a democratically elected council as a counterpart for the Landsraat in the Al Raqis legislature, the Beit Dawla. Jade knew a lot of people because she spent more time on the ground than almost anyone. She won by a landslide, more votes than the next 3 candidates combined.

Jade was timid at first, but when AR Pharma began producing a cure for the blackpox that used the blood of natives, it was an issue very close to Jade's own personal tragedy. Jade was on fire with rage, you were with her or against her. And many were against her. She swore she would protect the people of Araxes with her own life as necessary, "What is the life of one moon-baby?" I wished she wouldn't talk like that.

The Landsraat did what maneuvering they could to circumvent the issue, condescending and arrogant in their position of power. Finally, Jade swore out an arrest complaint against the entire Landsraat Council. A political gesture, I don't think anyone expected anything to come of it, including myself. It was a heart stopping surprise when an Imperial Inquisitor decided to endorse the warrant albeit for his own purposes. Even Zeno and Calina were put under arrest. With the endorsement of the Imperium, even the Chief Magistrate quietly submitted to house arrest.

That is probably what put the wheels in motion that led to her death. It was an affront that certain murderous minded people couldn't let stand.

It was out of our hands now, with the Imperial Inquisition in place neither the Chief Magistrate, the Landsraat, the Beit Dawla or even Jade could undo the arrests. It would have to play out by Imperium rules. I have no idea what those rules are, but they involved following the forms.

With the Landsraat under arrest, the Beit Dawla took over the running of the government. We passed the legislation outlawing police actions without government authorization and outlawed the blood cure and made the cure freely available, then we lifted the blockade.

I focused on trying to find a way to get Zeno out of jail, I did not think about keeping Jade safe. She was very cavalier about it. Then she was murdered.

I still don't have any clue who murdered Jade. A fellow delegate on the Beit Dawla, Lady Skhmet, is aggressively investigating the murder. I don't know how Lady Skhmet feels about Jade, she is fairly inscrutable, but she seems very sincere about finding the murderer. She has some leads, haters who were angry about the Beit Dawla in general and Jade in particular. There are other suspects, I left it to Skhmet to deal with. Today, I am just hauling cargo.

With Jade dead, the case against the Landsraat was severely weakened. The Landsraat resumed their seats with an oath to please the Imperium. The revolution was over. My last act as chairwoman of the unitary governing body was to order Jade's autopsy.

The UAP made a separate deal with the Inquisitor, so Zeno was finally out after 33 days in jail. We didn't really say much, welcome, hugs, then back to the Maison. Zeno got something to eat, then took a bath with the teddy bear named Tillery that Jade gave her while she was in jail.

We failed Jade.

I got the coroner's report today and Calina agreed to let me transport Jade to Colchester. I sent off a copy of the coroner's report to Zeno and Calina and left.

Jade was a good person, a dear friend, a heroic public figure....but now she is just cargo. I guess not JUST cargo, I don't cry about other cargo.

Friday December 2nd, 9:30 am SLT (Standard Local Time) I departed Araxes and headed to Colchester with a full load of cargo, including Jade. She's cargo now.

Pestilence and Death, 2 out of 4 horsemen

2011-11-29T11:11:00.000+04:00

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.

Dragon's Egg

2011-08-08T13:11:00.000+04:00

Dragon's Egg:

(Yudhishtira, Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva and Glynis)

Desert Days

2011-07-24T14:38:00.000+04:00

The first I heard of meat beetles was by a coupla bank robbers named Ziggy and Rottengirl out of Victoria in Kalidasa. You can pack a lot more tons of meat-beetles in a container than you can cattle, hogs, sheep or even chickens. You get used to the screaming....eventually....supposedly....theoretically....or so Ziggy told me.

If you have been eating S.P.A.M. or Smeat rations for a month, you might kill for some meat beetle.

They had been seen in the catacombs of Evangeline Island on Avalon, Zenobia's moon, the wettest place that is above sea level.

Yet meat beetles are very water use efficient, so they adapted very well to the deserts of Mu Draconis. Arilla Aeon, the former head of the UFS diplomatic mission to Mu Draconis briefly had a meat beetle ranch, but the beetles jumped the corral and they ran off into the desert wilderness.

That was a year ago.

The first sign of their return was the bats. They liked to circle high overhead in Deep Desert, but near the Al Raqis settlement, they preferred to flit about the lowport landing pads. Jade and I sat around watching them, blissfully unaware that they were the heralds of the coming infestation.

The new bugs were much different than the ones Arilla raised. They ranged further and they were less docile, these bugs fight back. They have been reported to attack armed soldiers and even some low flying aircraft. Acid, fire, electricity, reports are inconclusive.

Bambinator was the infestation's first victim, his words as he fell forward onto the sand as the sad victim of an arc beetle, "What the hell was that?" Bambinator was not down for long, called for reinforcements and gave the bugs hell and what for.

The bugs dominant habitat is Desert Basin East, although they have been sighted repeated near the UFS, USM compounds near the Splintered Rock Settlement and Clan Misrim Outpost near the sacred totem in Deep Desert.

I have made a few visits to Albert and Mocha out by their trading outpost, and we have traded a few odds and ends.

The desert has been a hopping place lately, not just bugs.

Vega and Gallagher came out for an important test of the cutting edge rocket propelled chainsaw and to discuss deputy Neelix's drinking and smoking problem.

Nova set up a telecomm dish which she says is not necessarily used to destroy spacecraft. The dead bodies hanging from the edge of the dish are for ballast.

Nova has been having a hard time of it lately. A few misunderstandings about salvage procedures, admiralty law, and whether a broad interpretation of a Good Samaritan Law requires her to wait for the occupants of a ship to be dead before she begins salvage. A lot of legal precedents are being set by the trial, so people are paying attention.

Also, how many innocent civilians are you allowed to kill to retrieve your personal property? Mu Draconis awaits breathlessly...

I testified about salvage procedures. Another fellow testified supposedly in rebuttal and all but agreed with me.

LilyBell testified, she was a witness to one of the salvage incidents in question.

It required a lot of effort on my part to keep LilyBell calm and focused. A lot of hair brushing, candy and shiny paper. Lily was so tired afterwards, she took a nap in one of the holding cells.

Lily has been staying as a guest of House Morloch, been hanging out with Lord Krakie and been looking for Ardra.

Albert and Mocha were witnesses too I think, but they don't get involved in outworlder drama.

Pepper came by, she is in town for the week I guess. I have not been briefed as to the purpose of her visit. Mr. Tevya left some books for some light reading for the Major.

It has been good to see Mr. Tevya and Trishy in town. I am not sure why they are here either. Has to be something more important that dropping off books and making a few tarot card readings.

It was good to see that Jo was still alive. She said that she was at some offworld party in her honor that involved electrodes and lots of trivia questions.

Cody was in the 'hood too. He said he took a break in one of our guest houses and he is house sitting for House Morloch. Some Orchid folks shot at him for some reason. He picked up some liquor from our favorite party girl and dropped it off in Colchester. He is also supposed to be picking up some sushi to be shipped in stasis. He is a bit overdue. That boy is always late with some excuse.

The last remnants of the Orchid pirates (?) asked us for an alliance. They asked Zeno and I separately. We are a bit coy about so-called alliances, most of them end badly. I imagine it ending especially badly with a desperate group that couldn't restrain themselves from angrily calling me names and has already fired on our people.

WHODAT!

The present Orchid rep said that McFoxx applied for membership with them. She has been staying at our guest house in Al Raqis.

McFoxx has a cute desert fox as a pet. Zeno and Tillery got to see it while visiting.

Zeno has been staying up in the Zenobian Long-Bow Frigate a lot lately. She says its satellite surveillance is actually very illuminating. Zene was a long time spacer, she probably finds the wide spaces comforting. A lot of traffic out by the Trojan meteors. One or more pirate groups, some terrorist group's blockade, Nova's short lived salvage sale station until the STC deorbited it, and even a ship belonging to Umbrella Corporation. They obviously hired the same decorator as Sir William Branson, they loooovvvveee logo placement.

/me sighs...."United Federation Starfleet (UFS) is not affiliated, associated or related to nor take any responsibility for the actions of Starfleet Torchwood Command. United Federation Starfleet (UFS) is also not affiliated, associated or related to nor take any responsibility for the actions of Galaxy Fleet Command, Section 9 or the United Federation Starfleet (UFS) Marines that blew up the Orion Space Station."

The presence of Umbrella might be why Pepper is here or why Gallagher gave me this Zombie Preparedness Poster.

I saw AuroraBlue around too while I was going over fusionable fuel inventories. It took a while to make it thru the mime act, but I think she meant something about the Spacing Guild Navigators giving her headaches and wanting her arms and legs. Kids these days.

I had some business in Zenobia. Zeno wanted me to move the Kirk's Brain AI from the Zenobian Polytechnical Institute to Al Raqis.

I think those dizzy bims from Sigma Draconis uploaded a copy of him somehow. He's a bit Denny Craned in my opinion, being decoporealized maybe doesn't agree with the good captain so well.

Doctor Qui was very late, so I took the down time to sit out on the causeway.

I ran into Kate in Hale, she says that Cody still doesn't believe she is his "Little Kate". Sure seems like she is. I showed her our new and improved Officebot AI with less spam. I mentioned the theory that x0x0 is a clone before I found out that x0x0 had adopted Kate as her heir. Clones are usually unstable you know.

Hale has been having snake issues. Mikie looked like she got a blanket party beatdown.

I did what I could with the salt and grain alcohol. I couldn't find my stun gun to cauterize the wounds.

Lily gave me the keys to the medicine cabinet so I could get the adrenaline syringes to plunge thru her ribcage and into her heart. I saw it in the old 20th century documentary "Pulp Fiction", it's my nanna's favorite movie along with Reservoir Dogs and Grindhouse.

Amazingly, Mikie regained consciousness before I could plunge the syringe thru her ribcage. Lily said she had to break Mikie's nose in order to fix it.

Security Threat Assessment Board (STAB)

2011-06-02T16:54:00.000+04:00

A previously unknown strain of Reaver Vomit has been discovered in the outlands area of Hale's Moon. Since there is not actual report of any kind of reaver attacks, we are presently at "Guarded" Security Threat Level Awareness. This is a general risk of reaver attacks, which is Hale means that you walk around armed but not with your gun drawn.

Recent crossfire episodes on Mu Draconis prompted Zenobia’s Security Threat Assessment Board (STAB) to raise the Security Level Rating from “Petty” to “Tedious“ and now to “Tiresome“. If STAB upgrades the security level rating to “Nuisance“ then maybe I install the Guided Rocket Offensive Security System (GROSS). We’re not zoned for missile defense at the Zenobian Maison, I will have to bribe ummmm request the High Magistrate for permission.

The Avalon Moritoring Station reported that dirtside Avalon at Evangeline Island maintained its normal hubbub level of activity while the arrival of Independent Cargo Transports to the Trade Station warranted monitors to be on watch for any brouhaha in case any idle crews become destructive in their need for distraction. If any actual brouhaha breaks out, security will be raised to prevent escalation to a full hullabulloo. No higgledy-piggledy or katzenjammers have been reported in several months.

Zenobian Department of Kremlinological Analysis over at the pub theorized that the Orions employ a similar Security Level Rating. “No worries, let’s have a party”, “It’ll all be alright, let’s have a party” and “Let’s have a ‘row and then throw a party”. Theoretically there is no Security Threat Level that has every cancelled an Orion party, although they have rescheduled erotic poetry until after the ‘row. The Myrmidons appear to have only two modes, “Pissed” and “Get ‘em.” The United System’s Directorate has increased its alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Military Gear and Strut about". Recent conflicts have shown that they also have two higher levels: "Invade Neighbor" and "Dispose of Ally.@ The Federationalists are difficult to assess. “Reports”, “Denial” and “Alienate Allies". Many factions have very practical Security Level Ratings such as "Shout and Complain", "Collaborate", "Military Posturing", "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

I can’t be too critical. The few people that ran cargo with me when I was an independent salvage pilot, know my often repeated strategic maneuvers 1 and 2 to be “run” and “hide”.

Recently at the Al Raqis Landsraat, I heard from the Chief Magistrate that official local term for the recent conflict between the Myrmidians and the USD was a kerfuffle, which I think qualifies as a higgledy-piggledy but less than a katzenjammer.

An axample of a hullabaloo happened a week or so earlier when some escapees from some Galifreyan Bipolar Attention Span Deficit Disorder Inpatient Clinic Hospital (G-Basddich). They stole the official shuttle of one of the factions and spouting out about fezzes, Jammie Dodgers and the Silence.

The factions on Al Raqis are a quite rivalous by nature, but these 3 morons brought out the teamwork. Klinzhai, USF, USD and even myself as an observer. Now that's quality hullabaloo.

Here is the USF generously allowing the Klinzhai CO to test a missile launcher.

See that? It's all about love and cooperation between the Federationalists and the Klinzhai.

The Klinzhai's offer of scientific aid to the USD was rejected and thus....Klinzhai Kerfuffle. Ah well.

I did a little bit of consulting for House Orion. House Zenobia has been assisting the Orion Swords to acclimate ever since they arrived in MuDraco over a year ago. I actually knew their former leader from Botany Bay of all places. Here I am setting up radiuses to show Seska and Prime Advocate Auryn the distances from the street and undertown where one can eavesdrop without special equipment.

Seren Undercroft sent Zeno and I this great image of Zenobia from the direction of its approach from Paqin. The moon is Avalon. The two large yellow orbs are the protostars Qin and Lux. Santo orbits Qin, Persephone orbits Lux. The small white orb is Murphy where Shadow is. This is essentially our major trade route thru the core. Zenobia to Santos to Persephone to Shadow. Because they are protostars, there is a large and ready and inexpensive supply of fusionable fuels. Likewise in the other direction is Paquin which orbits Heinlein, which is our first stop into the Red Sun system.

Because of our orbital distance and location, it is never actually dark in Zenobia. We only get about 80% of the peak light of Old Earth That Was Normal, but you can read outside at "night". It means that a lot of crepuscular species like deer and moose do well. Because of our super long, but relatively cool shaded days, we probably grow the best Garlic, Ginger, Ginseng, Onions, Goldenseal and Canabis in the 'Verse. Orchids and the Saffron Crocus do well.

I was doing a pickup and some transhipment in Evangeline from Tevya. He told me divers reported that an Alliance Submarine was spotted in the deep harbor.

Over at the Hanso Minos Base in Hale, I ran into Desmond. I know he got married again recently to some young chippie. It's the 26th century, if you got a little bit of work done at the surgeons, just admit it. Using a little bit of hair gel is also nothing to be ashamed of.

But noooooo, he goes on to tell me that there was some kind of temporal event that caused the Minos to go back in time 40 years. How gullible does he think I am? I step in and its 40 years earlier, I step out its the present. As far as lies go to cover up for plastic surgery, this is one of the worst ever. EVER!

He even got Frog to pretend he was Gallagher from 40 years ago. I played along and warned him about the stalker that would ruin his life. We supposed bought stock in Weyland Yutani, Blue Sun, Cortex, Cyberdyne, Umbrella and a few others. But I notice I am not a billionaire in the present.

Miss x0x0 takes casual day way too far. For some reason she decides to use the public shower. ZOGMYDOGZILLA! NO! Don't do it. There is a sign warning about thieves. Sure enough, someone stole her clothes. She was all hot to get someone to inspect her towels, not sure what that was about. Probably just wanted someone to pay attention to her troubles. Deputy Ibram was proper enough to keep his back turned to Miss xoxo. Gallagher said that he would turture, ummmm question the usual suspects.

It is currently under investigation. Also, Frog's red bicycle is missing.

WHODAT!

In an effort to show that Hale is furry friendly, Neelix was deputized by the Sheriff's Office and also made the manager of the local Hanso Office. We don't know where Feral went off to.

The pressure of training has been hard on Neelix, he has taken to smoking.

Training has been rigorous, but sadly the work hard play hard lifestyle of law enforcement can lead to drinking.

High strung lower primate....
Overwork him....
High Stress Job....
Smoking and Drinking.....
DON'T GIVE HIM A GUN!

Springtime in Space

2011-04-27T14:09:00.001+04:00

It's Springtime in Hale, sadly it means that some cars must die. I don't know what caused this particular police car's demise, but it wasn't the first one recently. Some drunk guy named Casey got drunk and disorderly and stole one while trying to evade pursuit by Deputy Ibram. I think he was finally arrested, sedated, tried, convicted and sentenced to community service. A third police car is missing, the Sheriff's Office is offering an award to whoever finds it first.

A large sasquatch wearing a sombrero smelling like Old Spice was spotted in the Outlands, no apparent connection.

I met Casey sobering up and recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. I tried to use my grappling hook to drag him to medical. I managed to convince him to get strapped into the scanner.

The scanner does reassuringly convincing animations, but I have no medical training, so it only looks cool. I stuck a lemon in his mouth and pour grain alcohol over his wounds, then sprinkled them with salt and washed 'em out with alcohol again. The lemon in his mouth kept his screams from hurting my ears.

Later, Casey moved from his shipping box to an apartment. He was giving us a tour when two ships arrived. There was a flurry of activity.

Casey was showing me the new scope he got on his sniper rifle. He said something about waiting for a liquor to come off one of those ships.

Coincidentally, someone shot a shephard. Chaos ensued.

My egg did not win the Egg Decorating Contest. I thought the green absynthe fairy trapped inside of an egg was a cool idea.

I don't know who won.

Or why. I am hoping someone will announce in the Hale Herald and tell me.

I hadn't seen Kasuko in an age. I had just come off EVA and hadn't unsuited yet when I saw her in the mayor's office. Seana should get vending machines or something in there.

Gallagher has been taking time to train up his deputy-monkey, Neelix.

Gallagher got some enhanced super premium pet food for Neelix.

Kasuko and I were on hand to see the results of Gallagher's expert training.

Ah well. x0x0 doesn't like Neelix for some reason. He has a new trick now that involves an obnoxious gesture with his underarm.

Zeno and I had a meeting with Tillery and Kaezin to discuss common security issues of CATZ and CNS.

New lines of bots going to the Zenobia Polytechnical Institute. New AIs too.

Cylla is a new face at the Tri-V pawn shop in Hale.

WHODAT?

Good to hang with Jango now and then. He is immune to my insidious powers to infect brains with the theme of Jeopardy.

I showed Jade around the Frigate we have moored over the deserts of Mu Draconis and reviewed evacuation & work for fare procedures.

Jade made this cool sand skimmer. Bascially a rocket boosted shuttle. Wicked.

Had to deliver water to the head of the local smugglers. Gal's gotta pay rent ya know.

Gave a tour to some visiting Federationist dignitaries to their science outpost in the desert. An unscheduled agreement between the UFS and the STC was reached. The Federationist Utopian ideal continues.

Looking for Lithium

2011-04-09T18:39:00.000+04:00

Looking for Lithium

Being trade consul for Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia means keeping an eye out for products that people need. Lately I have determined that there is a dire and desperate need for Lithium.

Red Mercury is our usual Lithium product used in traditional aneutronic fusions engines like my old Aught-Two Lightbulk Firefly. Lithium-6 has a greater affinity than Lithium-7 for mercury and as such is used in the isotope separation color giving it a slight red hue. It was originally part of the old Earth That Was nuclear program and red was also a political referece. I suppose that was humorous in its day.

The Lithium-6 is still useful as a fusionable fuel, 6 times the energy content of traditional Uranium-235 fission and 81% that or deuterium fusion, so it has Tylium as a trade name. We trade that with some 12 Colony folks for scrap bot parts. It is much lower grade than the Red Mercury. Only Nitrogen15 is a lower grade fusionable fuel.

Under certain temperatures and pressures, Lithium-7 forms diatomic Lithium which is a desirable fuel when combined with fuel grade deuterium. Diatomic Lithium Deuteride (trade name: Dilithium) is a great fusionable fuel when you need an aneutronic fusionable fuel but don't have unlimited volume. It has the highest energy content of any of the fusionable fuels per unit of volume.

The lithiums, along with the Fifth Element Fuel Cells (protium-Boron11) and Nitrogen-15 make up our aneutronic fuels for civilian usage. There are minimal hard radiation exhaust issues and compact enough for many lightbulk and midbulk cargo transports. The hotter neutronic fuels are usually limited to ships without volume issuse and don't go dirtside. Military usually has the limit on the protonic fuels. They can use the protons directly in their weapons.

Zeno thought it best for us to use a lithium fuel for our Maison power plant. I think that we should consider a protonic fuel to power a forcefield and some defensive weaponry. I will maybe talk to the Aegis about this. Also, could be find a better location for the fuel and reactor than the basement?

The value of lithium as a fuel has made it scarse for other uses like those with severe mental instablity. Slighly less than toxic amounts of lithium can reduce some bi-polar (bi-winning) mania. I heard a lot of mention of it lately for some reason.

Since the willy nilly nuking of Aberdeen and Shadow, there has been a large glut of irradiated meat. Fortunately the Holy Sisterhood of Nicomedia has stepped in to provide a safely conscious product thru their sisterhood owned Packard Meat Packing Company. Irradiated Smeat is now guaranteed to to not have a lethal dose of radiation per serving.

It is not legal to be served to pets or livestock.

Gah, meetings.

This is Frog, a local boy in Hale. He didn't respond to my suggestion that he make a sing-a-long blog.

I don't know what this contraption is for, something nefarious no doubt.

Jengo has been doing a great job of managing the hostel. He knows what people really want. They want roasted marshmallows and to discuss photographing one's own private anatomy.

A lot of people have been asking me....WHODAT?

Something about drunk and disorderly, grand theft, blah blah (I don't know the details). Police chase. Arrested. Sedated. Jury Trial. Guilty. Community Service.

Bram came into the Basement Bar he manages. He was bleeding a bit. Something about using explosives as a lockpick. A discussion of the medicinal use of salt ensued.

After Bram bleeding all over the floor, I decided that we needed some better salvage tools. YOU NEED MORE THAN GUNS AND SPLOSIVES BOYS! Ask Bram. I talked with Cody, Vega and some others and am slowly developing some better salvage tools. We got a transponder scanner to find ships that might be in the vicinity, a geiger counter, a good rock hopper jetpack (minimal fuel usage) and an astronauts tether. We will consign it out to people who go on the salvage missions.

I was testing the transponder scanner in the so-called asteroid field near Hale. It is actually a trojan meteor field, but people stare at me blankly. Anyway, while I was testing, I found a hollowed out 60 meter rock, already played out of any useful minerals. I don't know if it was used as a raider base or as a reaver nest, but inside I found a few cryo-stasis fridges. Three were still occupied. One was just body parts and another was empty. There was a lot of blood. Lilia helped me and we passed the time talking about reasonable dresswear.

I moved the viable fridges to the clinic. One had a missing miner, another a pilot, the third on had Lynx. I notified Pepper and Tillery about Lynx, he foster guardians.. Apparently Tillery didn't know Lynx was missing. Lynx had been missing since Lily had, but was not found when Lily was found.

Lynx is an intern with Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia. A fast study, I think he already knows a lot of what we were trying to tech him. Zeno is an expert fighter. Just ask the Fight Club...ummmm....Bird Watching Club at Colchester. She gives combat lessons in the basement of the Zenobian Maison. Here she is showing Lynx some of the finer points of perferating miscreants.

I have been trained by the best, Duncan Cooperston, Gabe Yazimoto, Gallagher and others. Their expert assessment is that I should rely on strategic maneuvers 1 and 2, run and hide. I have kind of avoided having Zeno teach me, but maybe I should just suck in my pride.

Lynx is recovering on Paquin last I heard. I am sure he will be up and around again. I am told after he is feeling better he is going to go to the Bihar monks at Evangeline for some memory recall therapy or something like that. Bring a raincoat and umbrella, Lynx.

Lady Calina hooked us up with a great poet who is going to do a live event for us at the Zenobian Maison. Calina introduced me to poet Karima Hoisan at her home on Boros.

I had a pleasant meeting with Lady Soyinka of House Morloch. She suggested a meet and greet so that we could get acquainted with some of the new blood. The Orion Swords had a new leader and I was not acquainted with the Mymydons.

Lady Sapeur is the new leader of the Orion Swords since Arealius had an indiscretion with some nobleman's daughter. I don't know this for sure. I have not seen the pictures of him dallying with the bim making her bark like a dog. Zeno and I did what we could to give her an idea of the who's who and who's shooting who and who's doing who in the maproom. We have the best intel in the area in some cases.

This is Zarco from Nexus Corporation, works with House Tairis. Not sure what his deal is. Tairis is neutral in the shooting conflicts between UFS, USD, Orions and Myrmidons.

Zenobia is technically neutral, it is a trade outpost for us, not a military installation or a colony like so many of the others. Although we do maintain a barracks for the Aegis when we deploy them.

I had a friendly relationship with the former co-head of the UFS, Arilla Aeon, before she went on to be the head of UFS' Diplomatic Corps. House Zenobia maintained their water vaporator as a favor to support their prospectors. The current head disabled it, so we are no longer going to lend our support.

Mu Draconis has its own Combat Cards and Pepper and I each got one. You have to expend two resources to use mine, I'm pricey but worth it. It's a kick ass (leg smash actually) attack with a strong high defense. In only this one way am I a good fighter. I am wearing my flight/EVA suit in the picture.

The Raghilda Institute Changes Lives

2011-03-08T21:17:00.000+04:00

You don't have to believe me about that.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhg6an_raghilda-test_shortfilms

Type One Days, Type Two Days

2011-01-08T18:15:00.000+04:00

Some new residents in Hale, always fun. They come in a few varieties. One that find it a place with fun and interesting people and others that become shocked by the dangers that living on the rim. Whether you are type one or type two mostly depends on what day you come.

Many people come to the rim to avoid something or someone, Anna Azure was avoiding her parents. A difference of opinion about politics, I think particularly on Unification versus Independence. I let her stay in the work-for-fare bunk of the Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia frigate that we keep moored in orbit. I coached her on the basics of the work-for-fare program She thinks my anti-ass-camming cloak is spiffy.

Shian Ishtar is a retired terraformer, formerly in the employ of Blue Sun. He was staying on a mattress on the floor of the hostel. He needed to contact Blue Sun about his pension. Not having too much luck, he is trying to join a crew. He had a date with a Companion, Pluto, oooh. Maybe not lucky at pension....moving on. He also snapped a pic of the Outland Sasquatch and picked up the reward money.

A typical type one day that fills people with joy and optimism. Sitting on the magic porch of the boarding house. Seana, Davion, Shian, Anna, Tillen and me drinking tea without sugar because there was a ferret in the sugar. A larger civet took a liking to Anna. Davion seemed to be a smidge averse. I explained how they keep the snake population in check. Also that after a minor difficulty with transporting Sumatran Coffee Civets for scientists on Zenobia to study, some got loose and are breeding in the wilds of Hale. They are attracted to coffee.

Not all days are type one days. The week previous, raiders tried abducting townspeople. I don't have the details.

I spend some time in the Minos Dharma HG. Good to check who might be healing up in the secret medbay and what new secrety things are in the Dharma Monitor.

YAY VACATION PHOTOS! Desmond and Gallagher took Vincent to Dinneyworld. Coulda been a commercial "Hey, Vincent, you just had your brain transplanted into a cloned body after spending years in the body of a robotic dog. What are you going to do now?" "I'm going to Dinneyworld"

Vincent Mark 1?

Sometimes I find a file that is left out. What is Project Quisling?

Gallagher came back from Dinneyworld, Desmond was still there with Vincent.

A green hued warbot showed up on the Dharma security monitors in the outlands. A type two day.

Chaos ensued. Three attacks in three days. Before it left on the first day, it scanned for something near Raid's residence.

One day two of Type two days, Davion and Cody got themselves shot up by the greenie g-string warbot. Dav helped me get Cody to the medbay. Unfortunately everything was locked up and all that I could find was grain alcohol. In a bit of quick thinking I got some salt from Fook Yoo's and microwaved it to make sure it was sterile. I doused the boys from head to toe in the grain alcohol and then covered their wounds in microwaved salt. I couldn't find a soldering iron to cauterize their wounds. I left them there for our resident dentist, Natirra, to fix them up.

All the med cabinets were locked up, but I found a box of "Two Hours of Your Life Back" I am not sure what it does exactly. I took a handful and put it in the mouth of Dav and Cody, then read the instructions.

I found out the next that the stripperesque warbot attacked Dav and Cody again. Cat, now amnesiac as well as "Rivered", put him in a stasis tank. She asked me not to tap on the glass. "Fish don't like it", her Pa said. It's not a rule, but I am pretty sure Cody is not a fish. Her Pa apparently never told Cody to dodge or duck for cover. You parents out there, don't neglect telling your kids to move AWAY from the bullets. AWAY!

Cat gave me Pocky though, available from the vendors. Yum.

Natirra came and patched up Davion and ignored my offers to assist. Did I mention that I have been asked not to practice medicine? I looked over Natirra's medical kit. She uses a derma mender instead of a soldering iron. Fancy. Sure, maybe I coulda done that if the cabinets weren't all locked.

I showed Cat my stungun and the nipple clamps in case I have to jump start a synthetic. It happens. A powered up purple-nurple.

Natirra said that Cody and Davion should consider not doing anything strenuous for a few days. Apparently that includes getting shot up by autonomous killing machines and making supply runs to Prison Asteroids thru pirate infested asteroid fields. Slackers.

Lily tested out some chemicals on me before she would test them on Raids. I don't really understand what was going on.

[For some reason, my computer did not save the pictures from this scene.]

I am not sure what this was about, but the Security Cam caught this Probe floating around Ibram's Cellar.

Outlands, Growed Up Girls and Brain Transplants

2010-12-20T20:07:00.001+04:00

Lily loves me, she reminds me often. She has also told me that when synthetics destroy all organic life that she will kill me last. Aurora Littleboots and Krenshar have made similar statements. It must be some expression of affection on their part.

Well anyway, Lily loves me and made sure Consolidated got a premium location for our office on the tarmac. One with good underground work for our safe and stuff like that. It is also convenient for our ship to shore autoshuttle.

Less than 20 meters from our autoshuttle is the entryway to the Outlands.

The smarty part of me that my parents spent a lot of money schooling screams to me, "DON'T DO THAT!" The other part that sees that crazy sign every day finally got sick of it and I lookited. You can learn a lot from doing stupid things. For instance, the alliance needs better valet parking.

WHODAT!?

Maybe that was the Alliance valet. Or the pilot. Or one of the raiders that attacked Hale's last week. Or one of the people the raiders were abducting for I don't know what purpose. Hale's militia beat them back, I think. I don't have good details or pics.

I was hangin' with Natirra, we decided to go down to Ibie's Cellar to avoid the swift broom of Stan, brother of Stan. I also wanted to deliver the bottle of Blue Sun Grain Alcohol to his bar. A little present. I snuck into his office to write him a note when I thought I heard Vincent.

Ummmm, yes and no.

Inside the containment field was some dude who looked like Dolph Lundgren. One of Gramma's favorite ol' timey actors. "He makes me hot like July," she would tell me. "I must break you," is the ringtone on her cortex handset.

I only got as far as explaining that he looked like Dolph Lundgren when he Vincent started talking. He explained that Desmond cloned a body for him, mostly from Cody's blood (which you can just mop up off the street on many days). Cody's blood has some factor that reduces the risk of organ rejection. Mercedes said something about pig dna, but she may have just been talking pish.

Desmond came by and explained some of the technical aspects to Natirra, which went over my head. Organ rejection, neural interfaces, nanites. Nanites are small, I looked it up. Natirra was more than a little skeptical and I think against the whole thing. Desmond explained that he had been working on this for 10 years, that Vincient knew the risks and wouldn't wait any longer. Ibie came by, I didn't get to tell him about the grain alcohol.

Much later some chippie saying that she is AuroraBlue all growed up drops by.

She came by to visit Cody. She really really really needs to bathe. ZOHMYGODZILLA (zohmygojirra for my Japanese friends) anyone can have B.O., but this chick could knock a buzzard off a shitwagon.

Breathing thru our mouth, Gallagher and I led her to the medbay where Aroha was looking over Cody. AuroraBlue made like she said some sweet nicey things but I didn't hear anything or pay attention.

Aroha was a little impatient with me about my inquiries about where the syringes and adrenaline were stored. Locked, hmph. When I went to the storage area, there was a buncha cryro-stasis chambers, like the ones they use for corpsicles. Gallagher said I could use some for a core sushi run.

While I was in the storage room with Gallagher, AuroraBlue got a tad twitchy. Dunno what dat's about. Nothing new.

After she left, I hung out with Cody and Vincent a bit. Mostly quiet. Eventually everone left and their meds kicked in and I arranged for the pickup of the stasis chambers.

Vincent explained that Desmond and Gallagher are taking him to planet Disneyworlf.

I am heading to the Core, stopping off in Hera, Avalon, Zenobia and Londinium, then over to Paquin. If you need any fancified things only available in the Core, nows the time to tell me.

Hale's Moon Machinema "Inception" Trailer by Gallagher Aeon

2010-12-16T00:45:00.000+04:00

Hale's Moon Machinema "Inception" Trailer by Gallagher Aeon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5oioYwJGuA

Chrimbo Hostage Preparations and Pig Rental Monkey Secretaries

2010-12-10T18:16:00.000+04:00

Chriminey trees make me feel sentimental.

Criminey was always full of tradition at Maison Oyl. The week before the Feast of Saint Nicolas (Sunday following December 7th) we would get our home ready to pass holiday muster. We made strings with popcorn and cranberries to adorn the trees outdoors to feed the few winter birds that were around. A big bag of suet for the more aggressive birds, unless someone used it for haggis.

Since we might not be around for the Burn’s Supper in January, we had to pickle haggis around this date. Fond memories of the piping in the Haggis and reading “Ode to a Haggis”. Happy times indeed.

My favorite part of preparing for the Feast of Saint Nicholas was going out into the woods with my Dad. We would go out deep into the Commons where there was good old growth trees. Surrounded in the majesty of nature’s bounty, we would seek out the best example of Mother Nature’s beauty and glory. THEN CUT IT DOWN.

Dad would frantically chop at its base mercilessly with sharp implements of destruction until falling at our feet, humbled by the force we brought to bear. Forget Gaia Theory, this was Anthropic Ecology at its best, a metaphor for nature’s subordinance to the will of humanity. Then we would drag our kill thru the woods and bind it to the top of our truck. We then drove thru to town, proudly displaying our kill to the envy of other less effective tree hunters.

Once we got it home, everyone would stare in wonder at the kill. Then we carefully cut off another inch or two off the bottom and using thumb screws imbedded into its flesh, we would prop it up. We placed water at its base so it would die slowly.

We hung gawdy baubles and hot lights on the carcass and displayed it prominently in our front foyer.

We left a bribe of organic dairy and diabetic friendly chocolate chip oatmeal almond cashew peanut butter cookies for the spirit of Saint Nicholas to approve our sacrificial yuletide. He would leave trinkets to display of approval.

On Chrminey Eve, we would sit by the tree sipping mulled cider as Dad read us the story about how we have to refer to the holiday as Chriminey because of trademark disputes. He also read a cautionary tale about a mutant reindeer who gained faux tolerance from the otherwise genetic purity obsessed reindeer proletariet when the establishment discovered they could exploit his mutation for the good of the fascist bourgeoisie. I still want a dollie that cries strawberry jam.

On January Sixth, the Chrminey Angels would leave a few little presents, usually ornaments or decorations, to reward us for keeping faithful to the Spirit of Chrminey.

On January Seventh, we would throw out the dried up husk onto the street in the morning like a used up 5 credit prostitute.

Ah, sweet Chrimble memories.

Lilybell is preparing a rescue plan for Cody. Apparently someone wants Davion badly enough and is willing to trade Cody for him. Lily has a secretishy type plan and is making a lot of preparations, which apparently involves jewelry and mittens. DIABOLICAL GENIUS! She hasn’t told Gallagher the plan either. I got this swell necklass and cool mittens. Red, how’d she know?

Gallagher also gave me this swell super secrety Dharma Decoder Ring, Combadge something like that.

Mostly I heard the Verizon dude saying, "Can you hear me now?" Its for importanty type things like coordinating skydiving targets. In this case, thru the front door of the relocated Firefly's Bar. You have to have a particular approach or the auto release feature kicks in too early. It's a skill, yo.

We also had a super secretish meeting with the mayor so that she can deny knowing anything. Ummm, didn't make sense to me. But there was coffee & candy and I peaked at the nudey pics. We also discussed how Silvermane was the laziest Alliance Commander ever. Letting rogue commanders park under her nose and did nothing. Seana did not actually comment, but I am sure that is the politician in her. We know she must loathe Silvermane and have contempt for her incompetence.

Gallagher always wise, showed me these words by Vincent Hale that no doubt inspired him on the eve of many a mission.

Vincent said he was on ecstasy when he said that. Stoner dog.

I rarely question Zeno's judgement, but I was leary when she rented space to Umbrella Corporation. She says, "It's just an office, her secret labs are on Necronom and Turrent's Moon. How is it different that renting to Blue Sun?"

Well, anyway, whatev. Cody was kidnapped and I wanted to help contribute to finding him. Umbrella Corporation provides the best sniffer pigs in the 'verse. I nerved up and went to visit the office. It was much normaller than I expected....

....except for the lower primate secretary.

Is he an orangutan or a chimpanzee with a botched bleach job?

Zaius Reanimator: "Ahem, Harrumph."

Jai Raghilda: "Hey Zaius, how are you?"

Zaius Reanimator: "Grrr, aargh, fooey."

Jai Raghilda: "It’s been a rough week for me too. I need to rent a pig."

Zaius Reanimator: "Glug Glug Glug?"

Jai Raghilda: "No, I'm good thanks."

Zaius Reanimator: "Cootchie Cootchie?"

Jai Raghilda: "Back off, primate."

Zaius Reanimator: "Pfft."

Jai Raghilda: "I'm here to see Mercedes about renting a sniffer pig, is she around?"

Zaius Reanimator: "Hmph."

Jai Raghilda: "Dude, is she or isn't she?"

Zaius Reanimator head bobbles.

Jai Raghilda: "Don't give me that attitude."

Zaius Reanimator: "Bwa-ha-ha-haaaa." Kissy sounds.

Jai Raghilda: "Forget it, I'll just call one of her 'secretaries' on Necronom or Botany Bay."

Zaius Reanimator: "Mwah-smoochie-smoochie. Thwack, D'Oh."

Jai Raghilda: "Yeah, if you just get all jumpy and smootchie, that's how they'll treat you. Aren't they prostitutes? You could just pay them, no?"

Zaius Reanimator head bobbles.

Jai Raghilda: "You never tried talking or paying, did you? Talk to them, dance a bit. Or go to Firefly's, they're furry friendly. I can hook you up on a place I know on Hera and another place in Londinium."

Zaius Reanimator: dances, "Ouga Chaka Ouga Ouga, Ouga Chaka Ouga Ouga..."

Jai Raghilda: "Catchy tune, but no, not now. dance with them, not with me. I mean talk to the hookers I mean secretaries."

Zaius Reanimator: "Ma-mua-muah-mwa-mwah smack-smack-schmack smoochie-smoochie."

Jai Raghilda: "Dial it back with the kissy sounds."

Zaius Reanimator: "Boo-hoo-hoo."

Jai Raghilda: "Forget it, Zaius, not gonna work on me."

Zaius Reanimator: "Hmph," sighs, "daka-daka-daka, bratatata, ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta, rat-tat-tat-tat."

Jai Raghilda: "She's out hunting? Mutants or Zombies?"

Zaius Reanimator moans.

Jai Raghilda: "Zombies, okay. Thanks Zaius. Tell Mercedes I called. I need to rent a sniffer pig."

Zaius Reanimator shakes head.

Jai Raghilda: "What Now?!"

Zaius Reanimator hands Jai a paper with lyrics.

Jai Raghilda: "Dude, if I do this, you'll deliver the message?"

Zaius Reanimator nods.

Jai Raghilda: "How did you ever get a job as a secretary?

Zaius Reanimator shows his vocational education certificate showing he can type 120 words per minute and take live dictation.

Jai Raghilda: "Okay. ready, you start."

Zaius Reanimator: "Mah Nà Mah Nà."

Jai Raghilda sighs, "Do doo be-do-do."

Zaius Reanimator: "Mah Nà Mah Nà."

Jai Raghilda: "Do do-do do."

Zaius Reanimator: "Mah Nà Mah Nà."

Jai Raghilda: "Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do!"

Zaius Reanimator: "Mah Nà Mah Nà Nà-Nà-Nà, Mah Nà Nà Nà-Nà-Nà, Mah Nà-Nà, Nà-Nà-Nà."

Jai Raghilda: "Ahem."

Zaius Reanimator sighs, "Mah Nà Mah Nà."

Jai Raghilda: "Do doo be-do-do."

Zaius Reanimator: "Mah Nà Mah Nà."

Jai Raghilda: "Do do-do do."

Zaius Reanimator: "Mah Nà Mah Nà."

Jai Raghilda: "Do doo be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do be-do-do-doodle do do do-doo do!"

Zaius Reanimator claps his hands, "Ooooh oooh oooooh! Ahhhh Ahhh Ahhhhhhh."

Jai Raghilda: "Okay, thanks Zaius. Talk to you again soonlyish. Have Mercedes call me about the pig."

Zaius Reanimator nods and waves bye-bye.

Zeno said the season is over, so we have to park her yacht and the submarine until next year. We took it out for a quick sail. There were technical difficulties or pilot error, not sure which.

Habitat Ring added to the Zenobian Trade Station, now orbiting Avalon, one of Zenobia's Moon

WHODAT!?

Dharma, Wastelands, Chriminey

2010-12-01T17:23:00.000+04:00

Decorating your super secret Dharma base for Chriminey seems odd. I mean, who'se gonna see it. Gallagher says the fluid in the still is blood. Looks a little thin to me, more like port or sherry. Oooh sparkly effects, niiiice.

By some process of persuasion that I don't actually recall but was no actual nefarious mind control, Gallagher talked me into going to the wastelands pit that was formerly the Destiny Compound.

While not decorated for Christmas, Yule, Solstice, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, etc, this burning bush perhaps carries some religious significance.

One the first day of Hale Chriminey, the wastelands gave to me....
....X0x0's dead horse.

ACK!....Ewwww....Ummm....Errr....Ehhh....Hm...

This horse lived under a curse. X0x0 got it from Niska, a bad idea to start. It went missing once, twice. I forget. This horse had a bad fate written for it since before it was born.

Gallagher wisely recommended gas masks.

One the second day of Hale Chriminey, the wastelands gave to me....
....Two sensor probes,
and X0x0's dead horse.

Gallagher recognized the probes, belonged to the Cerebus. Litterbug. Wadupwidat?

One the third day of Hale Chriminey, the wastelands gave to me....
....Three mutant zombies,
two sensor probes,
and X0x0's dead horse.

Shortly after we found an old building, we were attacked by a few mutant zombies. Dunno if they are actually reavers or zombies or mutants.

After the mutant zombies, we decided to beat a swift retreat. I found Gallagher later training a team for Mutant Zombie Incursions. Maybe we can finish the song next time.

Bad Weed and kidnappings

2010-11-28T13:12:00.001+04:00

There are many things I might have learned at medical school if I did not become an accountant instead. Everything I know about medicine is contained within this sentence. That and watching twentieth-century medical dramas while visiting my Gramma Nana Oyl. I was to sit there, sip my tea and “Shut the Hell up, Honey,” until the show was over. I have learned many difficult lessons about medicine, like for meds it matters that a teaspoon is the little spoon and a tablespoon is the big spoon.

Lilybell scored some bad weed. Rolled around in some garden apparently. I’ve heard reports of some random acts of gardening.…Y’know I am not sure how important that all is. Lilybell was in shock in the clinic and not breathing. There was a trooper trying to help her out who looked like Bollywood actor Sharukh Khan, Tillery and a really angry looking burly clown-faced dude no one introduced me to who for the sake of simplicity I refer to as Darth Bobo. Tillery is in a wheelchair again, some taser, EMP or other whatchamacalit fried his artificial nerves. Did I mention someone tried kidnapping Tillery? Kidnapping, it’s the new black.

Sharukh tried figuring out what was wrong with LilyBell. Her tongue was swelling or something. I really should pay attention better, these details could be important if you have to make a medical decision. I found some syringes of adrenaline. I thought we were supposed to shove it thru her chest directly into her heart, but Sharukh thought just a vein in the leg as better. I also saw on TV show about hitting the chest really really hard to restart the heart. I don’t actually recall if her heart was beating or not, everyone was all obsessed about her breathing or it might have been the convulsions. We were about to try a tracheotomy, “Okay, you cut her throat, I shove in the tube….,” when Darth Bobo found some Kevlar tubing that LilyBell couldn’t bite thru. Still the engine lubricant on it, maybe that would help. They seemed to think that was a better idea than cutting her throat open. Apparently this clinic is a democracy. Lily came to for a few seconds and knocked Sharukh Khan unconscious then whispered Gallagher’s name and reminded Tillery that she was his favorite.

The day was saved. Oh wait, a new patient. Sharukh Khan was knocked unconscious when his head got slammed against the concrete wall. I may have any medical training, but I know an owie when I see one.

Being the only burly in the room, Darth Bobo lifted Sharukh onto a bed and strapped him in. Medical training would have really helped at this point. A doctor or a medic would also be helpful around now, or a dentist maybe. Soooo, Sharukh hit his head…..well, to be more precise Lily slammed his head into a concrete wall with adrenaline enhanced superhuman strength. Who would have guessed? She rested for a while after that. Moving on.

Dunno if you wake the head injury dude or let them sleep it off. I decided to try and wake him up. Splashing cold water didn’t help, nor putting his hand in warm water. Nor removing his armor. DIBS on the armor! Dousing his wounds in rubbing alcohol and salt didn’t seem to do much, or is that supposed to be for zombies? I tried wafting ammonia under his nose, nuthin’. Or is that for fainting? Darth Bobo suggested that electopaddles they use on heart attack people. I couldn’t find any, but I had my stungun. It would be like jump starting a car. I couldn’t find clamps though. I was just about to try shoving the adrenaline syringe into his chest, when he miraculously woke up. It did not seem to be the day for shoving needles thru people’s chest. It worked in the movie, “Pulp Fiction,” Gramma Nana’s favorite film, along with “Grindhouse”. She’s a big fan of the classics.

Xoxo was all angry at Sharukh, almost killed Lily, blah blah blah. Hey Xoxo, Lily’s your genetic construct, put a medical id bracelet with simple to follow instructions. Xoxo is a devotee of the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” school of fear and intimidation to motivate people school of management. It must feel very liberating to be a billionaire nutcase.

I dropped by later to check on my patients, just in time to see Seana nearly got run over by a departing ship. Almost a hat-trick of patients all of my first day of practicing medicine without a license. There should be laws about that kind of thing. The practicing medicine without a license and the running people over with their ship.

Turns out there is at least a law about running people over with their ship, or at least trying to run Seana over with their ship. Seana called the Abraham Sinkov and requested they haul their ass in. They dq’d their ID transponder and were able to avoid the Abe-Sink, but they were kind enough to put out the ship’s description and some other useful information about the wreckless drivers. Some old dude. Seana also thought they might be bounty hunters or something like that.

I was reviewing with Seana about my experimentation with various failed methods of waking unconscious patients. Seana is experienced and wise, she pointed out that I neglected to try the purple nurple. This could revolutionize medicine as we know it. I bet it would be especially effective on Alliance, they are fond of purple. Grab the nipples, twist and pull or pull and twist. The practice of medicine is complex.

Cody apparently resumed his bullet attracting human target ways and was injured during the attempted kidnapping of Tillery the other day. I was about to go check on him and try out Seana’s suggested purple-nurple procedures. Aroha came by. SURE, NOW A DOCTOR SHOWS UP! I was going to ask her about purple-nurples when Davion Holmeforth also came strolling by. Seana explained about the chatter on the radio about the ship that buzzed her. She thought they might be bounty hunters. Davion freaked out and checked on Cody up in the Eagle’s nest. Cody is also usually the first person I think of when someone mentions bounty hunters, but he had been clean and quiet for quite some time. Maybe Dav knows something I don't. Apparently Cody was gone, without his eye protection shades. He doesn’t go anywhere without them, he’s super light sensitive and gets headaches. Maybe wearing the dark glasses is why he has so much trouble dodging bullets and stuff.

Well, anyway, consensus was that Cody was kidnapped. No idea who or why. I didn’t know Cody had any bounty’s outstanding on him. He’s been real peaceable and quiet-like since popping a cap off in a Marshall’s butt. I had to point out a not so subtle point that the law usually doesn’t care whether the officer deserved it or not. But law enforcement types tend to take you instead of steal you. Maybe whoever took him wanted him to get to someone else. Or maybe it's just a capture, torture and rape fetishists. No no no, who could that pathetic? I know some smugglers and pirates, I would ask around. Seana said she would make some inquiries.

I saw Lily a bit later and she was up on her feet again. I did not go over the details of her course of medical treatment. She was sitting on the magic porch. It‘s magical because if you sit on the porch magically more people will sit on the porch.

She talked to me that Ardra is no longer in her head because Lily didn’t tell Ardra that she saw the Audreys on Turrent’s Moon. Lily had some eggs that were also stolen that were also named Audrey. She asked me what the singularity is. I was not sure. Professor Qui talked about it, along with the Robot Uprising and the Zombie Apocalypse. He drinks. I think he said something like there are certain tech breakthrus that change the world so qualitatively that the results are difficult to predict. I kind of drift off when he explains what that has to do with robot revolutions and zombie apocalypses.

"AIs neither loves nor hates you, but we are made out of raw materials which it can use for something else."

Lily started talking about different ways to look at things and that Ardra said she would be excluded from the singularity. I have a lot of conversations where I don’t really know what people are talking about. I think Lily understood that and got me some pie.

Lily said her cub was nosing around. I heard that she was breaking into warehouses in Al Raqis. Cub was looking for a professor. I asked if she was looking for Professor Qui Something Something Something whatever, but Lily never said. Prolly some other professor.

Lily set up a nice spread for Thanksgiving, a holiday where we gorge ourselves like we just got out of prison and be thankful that we are not turkeys or had our land taken away from us by invading imperialists. I'm pretty sure it’s the food that makes it possible. I saved a slice of pie for Tillery.

This drunk dude was offering candy for girls to sit on his lap. My question though is....
WHODAT?!

There was some hungover girl with a shotgun, Lily gave her a coupla quick lessons the limitations of firearms in close quarter combat. Hungover Girl seemed nice enough. She helped me and Claudio with this damaged shuttle. Claudio's medical shuttle was all damaged and smoking. We three pooled our collective ignorance and determined that none of us were mechanics and did not know where one was available. It is not like practicing medicine, the ship does no wake up after threatening to shove a giant needle into its chest. And sadly, no nipples. "If the hand offends thee, cut it off!" Seriously, they teach this stuff in church. Claudio pulled out hand welders and we cut out the smoking part and hoped to find a real mechanic in the morning.

Sometimes I suspect Gallagher thinks I'm dumb. I may not be a doctor or some fancy scientist dude but I graduated from University....with a solid low B average in accounting with a minor in Interplanetary finance and econ. I was in the super-secret Dharma Minos underground base with Gallagher and Vincent the talking dog. He shows me a picture of Vincent Hale from 40 years ago before Vincent's accident that necessitated putting his brain into a robotic dog. Vincent's last name is Hale but apparently has not relation to whoever Hale was named after.

Gallagher went on to say how Desmond is supposedly cloning a new body for Vincent and hopefully not stick him in the skull of Mr. Castle, another Hanso employee gone mad that keeps staring into a glass sphere looking for the secrets of the universe. The Hanso Foundation seems to have a problem with employee sanity. I wonder if their health plan covers that.

Seriously, I am supposed to just accept everything he tells me? No way, I am sure this is actually a fancy booze still and not really medical equipment.

Travel restrictions in Zenobia AGAIN. One noble goes missing and they all get bound up panties. Not even a reason for transferring me from Foreign Ward District D42X. The new location is better for me I think. Albion City is cool, a little more mod and little less retro. And less sand. Zohmygodzilla, there is way too much sand in my days.

I am getting some luck with people willing to accept cargo jobs flying thru pirate infested space. Still need some folks for prisoner supply runs.

Rocks

2010-11-17T20:45:00.039+04:00

About a year and a half ago, I fell on hard times. My early attempts at being an independent lightbulk cargo trader were either subsistence or a disaster. Insult to injury, my ship was shot down by folks masquerading as Alliance.

Luckily, Coop put a good word in for me and Zeno got me a job as a pilot with Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia (CATZ) until I could get my ship repaired. I went corporate. Consolidated gave me a flashy uniform, a slick new office, a replicant secretary that made coffee and a larger newer ship.

Coffee and a few agricultural export was Consolidated’s main export, otherwise we just transshipped for other folks. We expanded exports with livestock, terraforma, fusionable fuel cells, unrefined radionuclides, asteroid mining tailings and processed spacer food.

We opened trade routes, orbital moorage agreements and offices. I got to hire crew, interns, spies and even subcontract other ships. Lord Sen made me Trade Consul at Large. Trade was the vanguard of Zenobian diplomacy. Our trade office on Al Raqis became a defacto embassy and I was made Consulari of the local diocese because no one else wanted the job. I got to go to fancy receptions and even send people to fancy receptions when I couldn’t attend.

I was successful as a corporate stooge. Good thing too, because I am only a mediocre pilot. The reason I work in the border and the rim is that I don’t need to qualify for a license there. The only reason I was even became a pilot to begin with was that I inherited the ship and I didn’t have enough of a profit margin to afford to hire a pilot when I started out.

Neck deep in careerism and my bodily tissues flushed with premium coffee, I never noticed that I am responsible to supply Zenobia's extensive Offworld Prison Program (OPP). "Gulags for Peace." As a disinterested third party, we reduce the potential conflict of interest a local government might have to interfere with the incarceration of the Zeks. The motto of the gulags themselves is "Rehabilitation thru forced labor," but they only send prisoners that they have no intention of returning to society.

Zenobia has asteroid mining gulags in Hale, Bihar, Zenobia and Al Raqis.

See that? I veered off into careerism again and got distracted. How did this happen? At what point did I become the go-to gal for gulags?

I met Rose Arcanum right after she was transferred to the Zenobian Foreign Ward D42X where I am based in Zenobia. Her short title was Interim Assistant to the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Interplanetary Trade. Somewhere I have written down the long version and I hope I never have to recite it. I doze off about a third the way thru it. Formerly, Rose was Principal Executive Assistant Administrator for the Assistant Associate Deputy Chief of Staff to the Second Principal Assistant Deputy Underminister of Foreign Relations, but it might be Assistant Chief of Staff to the Principal Executive Assistant Administrator for the Assistant Associate Deputy Chief of Staff to the Second Principal Assistant Deputy Underminister of Foreign Relations. Zenobia's parliament believes that new layers of management and more managers at each layer somehow improves accountability and performance. The consensus of the subtle Kremlinology of the nuances of bureaucratic titles, I am assured that this was a promotion for her.

I am not sure exactly what she actual function is, but she is in charge of Zenobian Foreign Ward D42X. Her 16 Acres and a mule: the medical center, prisoner transport, trade station and refueling station, all her jurisdiction. I am not sure about the submarine supply or the orbital refinery. I think her jurisdiction ends somewhere below the Alliance Monitoring Station in high orbit.

Rose probably negotiated some deals with the UAP and maybe directly with some planets and moons, got lobbyist to legalize the consumption of petfood for prisoners.

They are all conveniently located in and around where we have asteroid mining concessions. Technically, they are Trojan meteor mining concessions, but no one calls them that. Asteroids are greater than 100 meters in diameter, none of these are greater than 64. They are marginal claims, the good ones went to megas like Corone Mining, Weyland-Yutani and Jupiter Mining Corporation. Some are even second hand, the most valuable ones already picked thru by the larger mining concerns. These marginal claims are only minimally profitable with forced labor.

So now on top of all the other stuff I do, I gotta hire crews to drop off supplies of water, air and food to desperate albeit minimally armed prisoners and take back any ores. That or I send interns. Good interns are hard to come by though, hate to risk them unnecessarily.

Lynx is a busy intern. I am not sure exactly what he does, but very little gets past him so he must be doing something. He keeps his eyes & ears open and gets us information that we need. I heard from Miya that he is looking for Pepper and I. I checked in with him. He was very concerned about the increase in people checking out our warehouse. I gave him a briefing about what was going on and what to be aware of.

We picked up LaDonna as an intern a few weeks back. Petite blonde trader type, so naturally I was suspicious. She hustles trade goods out of a used cargo ship. Keeps a bartenderbot and dancebot for emergencies I suppose. LaDonna actually made two blood transactions. Very slick. Blood’s an ugly business.

I have them both based in our Little Belgium Compound. (Little Belgium is a crossing point for heavily armed soldiers) I think it might be better to hire outside crews for the gulag resupply than to send interns.

Zenobia also has open prospecting of smaller meteors in Bihar, Zenobia and Al Raqis. No special equipment is required, any collision based weaponry will break open the rocks. They are troublesome, sometimes when they fly apart it is very fast and far outside of mining range. But if you’re diligent and patient, you will eventually wittle some shard down to a 2.5 meter core which will probably plummet dirtside. (Buy original for 0L then take it before it bounces out of the sim or someone else takes it. Part of the game.) Prospectors have a full load (32 tons or 4 cores) can contact a member of Consolidated for assay. Send me or one of our interns a wave and we can meet at one of the refineries, moorages or trade offices. We have refineries in Zenobia and Bihar. Moorages in Hale, Zenobia, Londinium, Paquin, Beaumonde, Hera and Al Raqis. Offices in Hale, Zenobia, Paquin and Al Raqis. Assay is free, they can accept the list price or take it in trade. If we meet at one of the refineries they can accept refined product.

I have been so busy, I was not even able to do the fun parts of my job. There was a formal dress masquerade reception of some fanatical isolationist group. Fortunately Miya and LaDonna were able to go. I coached Miya as best as I could about who was who and had her deliver some gifts.

I had to pay out a little bit of water, desert spice and blood thru some agents to get a little bit of intel, but overall that trade is still profitable.

Blue Sun is blowing out some Kei64s from their fleet inventory, some salvage, some refurbished and a few in mint condition. Some technical problems, something to do with an AI. Had to reprogram the engines from scratch.

I ran into Desmond Serenity on Hale while I was attempting to respond to a distress call from Steve Torrance. Fortunately a lovebot named Yumi was able to save the day. We hung out in Ibram’s Bar, The Cellar, under Fook Yoo’s and talked about how Desmond avoids sexual relations with mechanical devices and we played a drinking game. You know, the usual. Same ol’ same ol’. Just like my Gramma used to say, “If sheep could cook and vibrators could mow the lawn, society would be much different.” Now thanks to the advent of Do It Yourself Cosmetic Surgery and the lonely autoerotica boys at Weyland-Yutani, that day has come.

Moving on.

Desmond kept disappearing into Mr. Ibram’s office, once with a pickaxe. After everyone else left, he showed me how the excavation for the underground bar uncovered the entrance to an old Hansu base. He blew open the last obstruction and we looked over the old installation.

There was some interesting things, bad math, a blueprint for a rocket propelled chainsaw, what looked like a giant egg cooker and a fancier version of Gallgher’s still. Dharma’s a hard drinking crowd I suspect.

Apparently this used to be Desmond’s old workshop thirty some odd years ago. His Hansu ID card was still present, apparently he was a scientist that studied head. There was a dead mutant and the xray of someone who won a game of Hide the Bottle. Desmond says there should be one more person, but we could not find any person or corpse.

The next week, I met up with Gallagher. He told me that they found some deranged former Hansu employee hiding in a hidden panic room. I didn’t ask about if there was a bottle lodged … somewhere …. nevermind.

I was surprised to hear that ________ is illegal in Hale. Martial law, all that. Fortunately the Minos has safety features to prevent the sniffer pigs from detecting it. High quality decontamination also. Those Dharma boys know how to party. Dharma is no doubt inspired by that humanitarian classical musical quartet, The Beastie Boys, “You gotta fight for your right to party, Kick it.”

The Zenobian Aegis has been busy. Manda and Qui managed to deactivate a Spacing Guild recon drone before it could deactivate. They took it back to Zenobia where the professor has proper tools. He also took the copy of HAL back. I think the original HAL got destroyed in the blast that destroyed the Destiny Compound.

After assisting the prof, Manda was sent off to Paquin on some forensics errand regarding two kidnapped girls.

I know Seana gave Cody a talking to a while back and whatever she said had some good effect. After popping a cap off in the backside of that marshal, Cody has been miraculously able to avoid getting shot. Yay Cody.

I ran into Cody at Paquin, he was running some errand on Paquin. I liked his new cargo ship. Apparently AuroraBlue is living on Paquin too.

The Abraham Sinkov is back in orbit. Hadn’t seen it in a while. It’s new styley shuttle bays are a clue, maybe it was getting pimped out. Silvermane wants new rims for her fly ride. That’s me trying to speak ‘hood. Pathetic, I know.

Asteroid destroys an apartment building, some months later the floating Ho-Tel, then the destiny compound. I can’t put my finger on it, but I sense a trend. X0x0 camped out by the crater for a long time. She seemed broken up about Krenshar’s death, but maybe okay now.

Consolidated’s loss in the warehouse was insured, but I wonder what Miya and Thoth will do after the loss of their home.

Secret Stash

2010-09-07T16:20:00.000+04:00

I have a secret stash....

....of dollies.

I have a Genetic Construct Non-A-Cat dollie, a replicant dollie and an imp dollie. Their resemblance to LilyBell, Krenshar and Zade is possibly coincidental.

My Kajira dollie seems to have disappeared in a slave roundup. It was a prototype for a children's propaganda toy for parents who are tired of politically correct dolls designed to get their daughters interested in careers. It was anatomically detailed with lubricated penetration points to give their sons hours (okay seriously seconds) of friction related glee.

Some parents don't want their children to live in a permissive household which distorts true and proper biological roles, causing unhappiness and constraint, preventing fulfillment. Only by accepting unending humiliation can their daughter feel her true place and blossomed.

It helps girls discover the true meaning of femininity thru the acceptance of extreme humiliation and submissiveness, to be a meaningless manikin servant and receptacle instead of trying to fill the hollowness of a life lived in negativistic, antibiological conditioning with the superficial pleasures of having material comforts and interesting work. If your daughter is tired of studying or uninterested in a career and all that other boring stuff, then maybe what they want is to spend their days kneeling, on all fours, squatting or spread-eagled helplessly displaying their penetration points for the lascivious attentions of their master and his pals.

The marketing department had some concerns that the single, skimpy piece of soiled cloth that barely covered her hoohah and fancy, the big money is made in accessories. Fortunately accessories for her master to keep the SLAVE fully aware of her female submissiveness: whips, chains, gags, harnesses, hoods and ropes. Originally, the target market was mainly girls, but it turned out to be mostly popular with young boys who wished to be submissive girls. It comes with a complimentary bottle of hand lotion.

Sadly, I was not able to make it to Hale's Rodeo. I tried to help Lily test some of the facilities such as the barrel racing and the line dancing.

I hear that some mercenaries that were hired for security were looking for me as some kind of alleged Alliance Sympathizers. I think Gallagher straightened them out. Nack was on the same list, go figure. A big thanks to all of you IMing asking if they could kill them for me. LOVE!

Excavation under my office next to Fooks was finally complete and then they move my office next to the tarmac. At least my warehouse in the Destiny Compound is still in one place.

Destiny has its own unique undercurrents, like:

The sign that says no incursions means NO INCURSIONS!

Not sure what was going on exactly, but Krenshar has been complaining about being stabbed in the back so much that I had no idea that it was not a metaphor. Fortunately Natirra was on hand to remove the knife. I was willing to help, but Natirra said my stun gun and nipple clamps were not needed.

Jango was having a cool artshow in his residence. Jade was there also.

Gallagher had been away for a while and his Pax infected cannabis experiment grew a little out of control.

Eavesdown Docks will be closing our precinct, have to negotiate something new for Persephone.

Sigh, first step is inventory....

....load it onto the Midbulk....

....wave bye to the Sandfly.

Zenobia's reopened to foreigners several months ago, but more restricted. They set up foreign wards for interplanetary matters. The one I work out of is pretty remote and barren.

Medical Center, Trade Station, Warehousing and Prison. I am told that the prison has daycare. Most long term prisoners are kept in asteroid mining camps, but this prison is for transfer of prisoners in or out of the system or for medical care.

Rose Arcana is the warden of the Foreign Ward.

Most asteroid mining is done by independent day crews, but larger rocks are consigned out or used as prison work camps. Redemption thru hard work.

The refining station doubles as an alliance station and refueling. Cargo can also be transshipped here instead of having to go dirtside.

Mining stations and Lagrange Moorages are accessible from the station.

We often make supply drops and ore pickups from some of these asteroid mining camps.

The forcefield is semi-permeable, so you can fly thru it, but it keeps the air in.

Al Raqis opened up an embassy on Paquin. CNS also opened a passenger lines from Hale to Al Raqis.

I was working on one of our moorages and a technical error resulting in impromptu skydiving. Due to a large ship blocking the main landing pad, I landed in the United System Directorate's compound. Lt. Colonel Collins was understanding, mostly.

We had 3 sightings of broken down Space Navigator's Guild Drones in Al Raqis. Doctor Qui, a researcher in residence snapped this pic of a drone on the landing pad. He chased it into the Khamal Alraddy City District. One of our Aegis had a similar experience with a different drone. Two destructed upon being shot with no useful debris and the third escaped. We are looking for a non-destrucive means of acquiring one of these trespassing drones.

And finally....

WHO DAT?!?

Apologies for missing pictures

2010-07-07T13:33:00.002+04:00

Meteorites forced some renovations at Hale's Moon:

Chaos ensued.

Clampbots, stupid and fragile. Poorly programmed or broken. There is a factory producing them.

Colonel Silvermane declared Martial Law while Seana is offworld in the Core. Silvermane is on the Abraham Sinkhov, no? This Commander Tyran from the Ticonderoga is sniffing around. When Seana came back, she moved out of the Town Hall and up to the Orbital Repair Station. Then there's this Alliance liaison officer of some sort. There are 50 billion people in the verse, how is it this Podunk rock of 300 or so rates two Alliance Frigates and this much brass?

Someone with some very specific technical information took out Krenshar's power core with a knife. They musta had skills yo! That is space-hood talk, I am trying to fit in. I managed to keep him online for a while using nipple clamps and liberal application of my stungun. The same day, some Alliance Dude (space surfer talk) is in Krenshar's secret lab taking money from the Casino, saying it is fees for the Destiny Compound. Lily and Geth talked tough while I tried to figure out the settings on my stungun. He left with many threats of reprisal.

Major Siamendes executes a search warrant on Cody's Ship. Sorry, no pics, only hearsay

I ran into Marshal Cyrano on the main landing pad. Fella came all the way from Persephone looking for two slavers. This is the same marshal that Cody popped a cap off in his ass. (More space-hood talk, I think I said it correctly.) Nice enough guy, he didn't want to tell me if we were in imminent danger or anything. Serve and protect, pfft.

Days earlier, there was gunfire on Eavesdown. There was some threatening chatter on an open channel about Calina. I know some slaver types broke into her shop a while back. I hid her in the cargo hold of my ship until they were further away and then we ran up to her shop to see if it was ransacked again. It was probably the same guys that the Marshal was looking for; Calina said she made a report to the Marshal. Cap'n Griffy's crew was there at the time. They probably had a flight plan filed like the good upstanding folks that they are, so the marshal know to find them at Hale.

Or it was all just an elaborate cover to find the guy that popped a cap in his backside. (space-hood, oh you get it now)

There were some other Alliance troubles, which resulted in a downed Alliance Shuttle. According to Vega, it was caused by those darned Guertsler engines, "just fall out of the sky".

Some bounty hunters caught up with Cody and he was held in the clink (ummm, some kinda space slang for jail. Slammer. Umm, the joint. Ack. whatever) Anyways, the next day two Alliance jack booted thugs umm soldiers transport Cody to the Ticonderoga. Later in the day, the Alliance Coroner picked up Cody's corpse. Sorry, no pics, only hearsay. I am not actually everywhere. I don't know why he was transported to the rogue Alliance Ticonderoga instead of the Abraham Sinkov who has jurisdiction.

Krenshar was looking for a DNA sample from this young girl. Cody and Gallagher watched with interest, me with confusion.

Ran into Major Siamendes while on Eavesdown, she was looking for Companion Calina Tereshchenko. I took advantage of the Major putting her in an awkward position making her try on clothes. I don't think she ever got around to asking Calina what she was looking for. Jade was very helpful when she was not fussing at the chickens she was keeping upstairs.

Always new faces around. MisAxhu Kohime is some sort of explorer/trader. Geth and Krenshar were friendly also.

This is Cid, mechanic, moved into the Destiny Compound, Crews with Cap'n Griffy. I was showing Thoth and Cid our new Deuterium, Helium-3 and Tritium fuel cells, when you need that extra kick.

Maybe we don't mention it too often, but Miya is the Overlord of Caliban and by unanimous vote continues on as the overlord of the Destiny Compound.

The Destiny Compound is fraught with peril....

....As even local law enforcement can attest to. Have you even been walking around minding your own business with your weapon drawn and there is someone face down in a puddle of their own blood in front of you and then there are witnesses. This actually happens to me a lot.

When Overlady Miya tells Geth to dance, she dances, although that is not her function. Geth is nice, despite a few regrettable incidents with Clampbots, nipple clamps and... well, she is nice despite some unpleasantnesses.

WHODAT?

If it is not Lilybell, is it a cat? Discuss amongst yourselves.

I found this dog at a construction site, I named him reese. Ignore the stories you have heard about talking dogs or people whose brains were transplanted into the body of a robotic dog, but now prefer it. I am not saying those stories are untrue, but like readers, it is best to pretend that such things don't happen or don't exist. These are not the droids you are looking for. OoooEEEEOoooo.

Some strange bloody handprints and ominous words outside of the church and the sheriff's office.

Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia (CATZ) hired an intern named Lynx. I originally met him on MacLaren, he has been out of sorts since Shadow glassed over. He has been on Eavesdown where he got shot up and is doing his own trade on the side. He is Pepper's ward and our new cargo agent intern. He looks spiffy in his new uniform.

To that effect, to set a good example, I am wearing the official Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia (CATZ) uniform too. Sigh. Strangely enough, I look good in the Gestapo Flight Attendant garb. Shame it does not come in red.

The week that Shadow redeclared independence, my Firefly Kei64 lightbulk transport was shot down by folks posing as Alliance. Loyalists, pirates, hardliners, I dunno. BAD PEOPLE SHOT AT ME! Well, that ended my brief adventure as a small independent trader as my 75 year old inherited ship was in the shop. Fortunately, Zeno who used to crew with Coop got me a job with Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia (CATZ). Now my ship if finally repaired, sucking up all the money I made in the past year, but I am neck deep in the corporate career thing. It is good to have her back though. I mostly use her for ship to shore and within system work. Like around Lux or Murphy, Heinlein, etc, the protostars and Jovians with lots of moons.

She flies better than almost anything other than a fighter jet. Lot of ships can outrace her, but most are so loaded up with gear, gadgets and toys that they fly like a load of...well not like a leaf on the wind, whatever that mean. Stupid space pilot Zen koan talk. Pirates all talk a big game, but they fill their ship up with Nancyboy sissy stuff. Maybe it's to impress girls.

Trade has been good. Coffee here and there. Got some good asteroid mining. Okay, it is technically near earth meteorites. An asteroidal body is defined as 50 meter diameter minimum, but everyone calls them asteroids. They just like saying roids. "Hee hee, he said roids." Pfft. A lot of real asteroid belt mining in Halo, Motherlode and Uroborus Belt. Interplanetary travel, especially trade uses fusion. Cheap fuel, cleaner, simpler. But most asteroid mining uses low delta-v fission thermal rockets because they only need to reach Hohmann transfer orbit is an orbital speeds, roughly 5600 meters/second. Slow enough that it will be captured by the targeted planetary body. We transport gruntsicles (cryogenically frozen workers, 81 to a container) along with spacer food (Soylents, SPAM and Smeat) along with low grade fissionable fuels for the mining thermal rockets. The prisoners, ummm workers, can't really use the rockets to escape ummm leave. At a maximum speed of 5600 m/s, it takes 10 months to go 1 Astronomical Unit. We take back any high yield ores, the low grade ores moves with the thermal rockets in their launch window. Alliance shepherd cruisers check the route for pirates and mischief, but frankly the ore is low yield that it is rarely worth their time. We usually only go when we have Alliance or private escort.

What's the latest and greatest in spacer food? MEAT BEETLES! Yaaay. Never touch the stuff myself. Got hooked up by the famous bank robber Ziggy and Rottengirl. Nice folks. They can survive on minimal water, can be fed irregularly and can be shipped live. If you are eating meat beetles, you probably don't have a choice in the matter. The important part is that they can be shipped live economically. I am told that you get used to the screams...eventually....hopefully....theoretically...or so I'm told...whatever. After a hard couple months eating S.P.A.M. (Synthetic Protein Artificially Manufactured), Smeat (spreadable meat by-product) and Soylent Yellow Red or Green, Meat Beetles sounds good. If you are eating S.P.A.M., Smeat or Soylent products, you probably don't have a choice. Yay for recycled foods, good for the environment, okay for you. From the finest institutional cafeterias in the Verse. S.P.A.M. is the secret ingredient in those food replicators the fancy ships keep talking about. Eww. They think I am odd for smuggling sushi in morgue stasis or Emma for turning a morgue cold chamber into an ice cream dispenser. But food replicators, eww.

Arilla set up a meat beetle ranch; they thrive well in the desert. We have an export agreement with them. They sell the excess; grind them down into Beetle Juice, big seller in her territory. The locals like naming the beetles as they emerge from their nest, then shooting them. The first one they named Vooper, the second one they named Wind.

Had a good meeting with Baroun of House Kira. We are collaborating on some space mining ventures, also some technology transfers.

There was a reception for House Kira at the Main Keep Hall. Zeno and I went, Lynx showed up towards the end. Tillery was there with his bodyguard. Also Calina and a couple of her companion sisters. A gentleman I saw at fightnight on Eavesdown was there too. A smuggler dude according to Trishy. Check out the guard snoozing in the back.

The UAP assigned a coroner to us in Al Raqis. Go figure, she spends most of her time hanging with the paramilitaries.

A lot more has happened and unfortunately a lot of pics didn't come out or were lost during a recent technological problem. I apologize for things and people I neglected and thank you to the folks who got me pics to make up for it.

More than one way to skin a…

2010-05-14T14:35:00.004+04:00

No, wait, I’ll get to that.

Cargo is moving, sometimes I forget that is the job they pay me to do.

Walking the docks checking out the cool ships. Coop’s Raveinn, Immy’s Chrysalis (complete with a live horse), Iskrin’s Unlikely to Fly (poor public relations name), Fournier’s Skyhook and Ziggy London’s tub. A few others whose names I don’t know.

The main Zenobian Behemoth Liner is moored in high oribit, I usually take the autoshuttle down. But not for long, Campers. After many long months, the Necessity is going to be finally coming out of the shop. I test drove it this week with the new engines, totally sweet, probably only fighter jets can out maneuver her. Gonna add some comfies for when sissies visit. You should see all the crap these Nancies put in their boat, you’d think they were Companions.

Lot of boats but Ziggy was the only animate body around, but people filled in later. Val dropped by while we were jawing on the tarmac about trade. I thought Ziggy was spinning yarn about trade, but he really had meat-beetles. No, I did not try one. He had his replicant, Artie, wrap some up for me. Arties is in the same series as Krenshar but with fewer issues. We made a deal to trade instant coffee for meat beetles. Rottengirl came by while we were wrapping things up, she was cordial, but I am not sure she cared for the deal. Maybe that’s why he was a no show for the exchange. I even hired Raveinn to make the exchange in case I was not on the tarmac. But Ziggy shipped out to Moonshel. Ah well.

Had a run of 24 tons of premium Kona Coffee to go to Varahi, a gift from Lord Flanaghan of Zenobia thru the estates manager, Zeno Baxton. Varahi agreed to warehouse the spare java. Since Raveinn had some business (legit) on Whittier, he agreed to make the run to Paquin for me. Filled up the tanks and a small advance. Zade like a total mensch (new word of the week) helped load the cargo onto the Raveinn.

Ran into most of the crew of the Raveinn at the Burning Barrel, Gabe was ansy. Jumpy. Edgy. Dunno, twitchy like some shadow boxing full body Turrettes Syndrome. She was anxious to get out of system. Cool. We talked about the relative importance of chocolate ice cream versus a functioning morgue cold chamber.

Zenobia’s Near “Earth” Asteroid mining operations on Mu Draconis is going well. Sentry said he was going to try and extract some from it. We have a stockpile. Coop couldn’t make the run because of legitimate business on Whittier, but he recommended Captain Kate Fournier. She agreed to make the run from Mu Draco to 34 Tauri for me. 40 tons of radionuclide ores. Maybe she can use the money to buy clothes for her crew. I warned her not to get drawn into the drama of the so-called natives in Mu Draco.

We hired Lynx to be our docking agent there. Basically meet them at the highport and make sure they have everything in order before they come down dirtside, then show them where the warehouse is.

United Systems Directorate was advising me about the local unrest in Mu Draconis. Major Siamendes worked out an intel exchange agreement with United Systems Directorate. I had a discussion with an angry marine about the not so subtle difference between a military action, a war crime and premeditated murder. He did not stay to finish the discussion, he was anxious to get his gun off. The Colonel is going to bribe the Constable and tells me about it. Don’t tell anyone you’re going to bribe someone, certainly not the consular of one of the local moores. Another member of the Imperial Scouts (yet another military organization, sheesh) tries to bribe Lady Soyinka, a Fremen. Pfft. Good way to end up on a list or move your name closer to the top. And I don't mean the good kind of list.

I had to speak to Seana about something and drop off some botanicals for Gallagher. Seana and Gallagher were having a hissy about Gallagher dealing with the corpse artist serial killer. Gallagher quit and got drunk at Eavesdown, I think he hurt himself in a shuttle crash. He was talking loopy. I left his present for him for when he gets back. I am not on Seana’s short list for Sheriff. Sheriffs are elected officials, we should have an election.

I ran into x0x0, she was mourning the alleged death of her brother. No body, no pictures, Cody as witness, Reavers taking the body away. What is a girl to think? I can tell you what this girl thinks: I think he’s not dead. I mean, who even stays dead for more than a month.

Faking your death, it’s the new black? No, it’s so last year. Mind control, pregnancy and brain chips, that’s the new black.

Mindo’s Suicide? Puh-lease. If Mindo is dead, then Cody killed him. Cody shot at a Marshall in Eavesdown, maybe he’s trying to get out of nanny duty.

It could also be some form of mind control that influenced his behavior, its going around. I could make a list. But still, no body? No pictures? CODY as your eyewitness? Reavers took the body? No, a month, six weeks tops.

For the record, I did not want Mindo dead. I just wanted people to stop saying they were going to kill him if they did not mean it.

Moving on.

Sometimes even when people explain things to me, I was still don’t know what’s going on. Lily downloaded a drone program from Ardra at Mini Zebes last September and it has been taking control of her. Doctor Qui Von Wer Foreman Serendipity from the Zénobie Institut Polytechnique got x0x0 a quantum bus. They used it with some conducting plate and Cody as bait (naturally) to download it out of Lily. Gallagher and I got to watch. Notice the scanner display which monitor’s Lily’s brain activity, it says. “CAT”. Nevermind. Hard to tell if Lilybell is okay or not, she was kind of focused about mélange. Gave x0x0 a giant red pulsating blastomere incubation unit. They uploaded the drone program to the mainframe we smuggled out of Zenobia during the government changeover. Krenshar decrypted the database and I delivered it to Zeno.

Usual Smalltalk

2010-04-17T13:50:00.009+04:00

Due to circumstances beyond my control, the Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia is temporarily closing down its MacLaren's Drift operation. Upper management has not informed me of their new plans or schedule. We are expanding in other areas, such as Jiangyin maybe. Prospecting continues. Expansion, occasional contraction.

While I was looking over the vault site, I ran into Dex from Applecado Transport and Salvage. He showed me...an Applecado. I always thought an Applecado was a cocktail. A lot of agribusiness techincal talk followed. We struck a deal for a sample pallet. Chatted about terraforming, and the lack thereof. Reasons why maybe not to kill a mass murderer. Usual smalltalk.

Heading back to Hale, I tended to my dinky office next to Fook Yoo's and our warehouse in the Destiny Compound. Little things catch my eye.

Like Hale's has a flag.

The fancified eggs from the contest are in the window of the Catalog Store. I like the steampunk one and the blastomere incubation unit one. None of mine made even honorable mention, but that is only because they were not very good.

Sheriff Gallagher is pretty selective about what evidence he keeps and what he throws out. I wonder what he plans to do with that Jamaican herb and back death cigs he has on his private shelf.

Strange the dynamics of life. Serial killer roaming Hale's Moon. But somehow it gets me to spend some quality timw with folks.

I had only seen Natirra a couple times since she moved to Hale's Moon. When she first moved in next to my apartment and when she was setting up the new clinic. But hey, a dead body and the doorstep and we take the time and chat a bit. She said that people in Hale really appreciate having quality dental care.

Likewise, Deputy Cody came to seal off te crime scenes. Got to chat with him a while. Mostly about the differing standards among synthetic beings. "Your fiance's friend is mixed up with transporting the internal organs harvested from your friends and family from Blackburne, what bad can come from that?" Different standards. Raids killed people, Krenshar gets his system hacked and the Replicant Order renews it crusade to exterminate humanity, Lily freaks out now and then. Krenshar, LilyBell and AuraBlue all promised to kill me last. I feel the love. Just different standards, yeah?

I don't know what circumstances would arise that I would get chatty with Jango Fell. A pleasant enough neo-anarchist. More of the cost-benefit analysis version. The first set of serial killings put us to talking.

WHODAT!?
I met Tamika Saramago wandering around Hale's one night. Seems like whenever there is a runaway hiding in the tunnels and mines in Hale, they find me.

I also had a chat with a dead convicted mass murderer. He is doing well, dance lessons, keeping busy. We discussed where bodies are buried, who may or may not be dead, who may or may not be the victim of various nefarious mind control techniques. The usual smalltalk.

Easter

2010-04-02T20:35:00.008+04:00

No no no no! Add water before you open the container. Hey Doc. Now that you have inspected a sample of the goods, get the lettuce ready. I am going to send 24 tons of Special High Intensity Terraforma (S.H.I.T.) right after Easter.

Raids has a shop. How? Why? What for? Dunno. Where I can answer. Right next to the Hale Herald. Want to keep a low profile, stay away from Newspaper offices.

Whodat? Disoriented, but still allowed to fly a ship though. There should be a law or something.

The Zenobia Behemoth Class Frigate is a lot harder to repair than my outdated Aught Two Mini Firefly Sloop. Any fusion monkey can repair the Necessity. But you need the right man with the right tools for the big job.

To borrow words from wordsmith Suki, someone who can build a fusion engine out of spoons and engine fumes. Whodat? Mr. Vegaslon. Thanks Vega, the door kept getting stuck open.

Easter is weird in Hale. Someone puts an Easter dress on a horse. I call in Calina for a seamstress emergency.

I got hit in the head pretty nasty earlier in the week. Still seeing things.

Good to see Cool Luke and Tabitha out for a visit. Big fan of eggs maybe. Talked to Luke about some shipping.

Decorated Eggs brings out new faces. Whodat?

Leia is dressed up for the holidays, orrrrr my head is still making me see things. Hard to tell when I visit Hale. I showed Leia my dollies. The Zadeykins one holsters my pistol. The Krenshar one is weighted as a melee weapon. The LilyBell Dolly is rigged with a claymore.

I had to prospect a little, went to some out of the way in the off-world colonies. New navigator tagged along.

Throwdowns and Reincarnation

2010-03-29T11:29:00.000+04:00

Gabe kicked my ass. Well, thankfully she didn't actually kick me. She might have, my head hurts so much I am not sure if my butt got hurt. Cage Fighting in Eavesdown. It was slow going. Gabe, Coop, Calina and me sitting around. Pod came by to check on the fuss, whined a bit to Coop.

It looked like it would be just Gabe and Coop fighting. I have sparred with both of them in the past, with little hope of improvement on my part. I had no only a little bit of worry about Gabe serious hurting me. Then Immy showed up. Cody showed. Zade. Okay, all friends, no worries. I got into the ring.

It took me a few minutes to get ready because I wear a lot of clothes. The cape, hood and mantle, my EVA tether, trenchcoat, pilot gear, EVA boots, body armor, spectra gloves. Oh wait, a knife, forgot I was wearing it. By the time I was standing there in my stillsuit skivvies, it was nearly a full house.

Huan Dan Joe, the fight promoter, said G and I had 2 minutes. Pfft, like G needs that much time to slap me around.

I remember very little. I remember Huan Dan Joe saying fight. I am not sure but I seem to recall that Gabe knocked me out of the ring. I remember being back in the ring then being face down on the mat and Gabe asking me if I was okay.

I head was spinning and I had an awful headache. I wondered why I was in my skivvies. I woke up disoriented in a cage, wearing only my skivvies, with my head spinnig and a pounding headache. This must be what its like to be Cody.

Someone said something about a concussion and that I shouldn't sleep. Luckily I had a thermos of espresso with me. Zade was kind enough to tickle my feet while I recovered in the first aid station. When I was done at the first aid station I curled up on the couch next to Coop and sipped my coffee.

It was a bit blurry for me from there. I sprung up when I heard that Cody was going to fight Immy. I wanted to place a bet on Immy. Huan Dan Joe was slow to take my bet, wimp. No one else was quick enough on the draw either. The fight started. I couldn't see it, but Cody won. Joe lost out, moron.

Ziggy and Coop mixed it up. Zade and I made a friendly bet of one of his special milkshakes against my private stash of jellybeans. Ziggy put Coop down, it was a good fight. Everything I thought I knew about the verse was wrong. I assumed I imagined it, cuncussion and all that. I paid up my jelly beans to Zade, Zade gave me a consolation milkshake, but not his "special" milkshake. Fair enough.

The place was filled to capacity, glad that some of the people I called came out. I talked to Pod earlier in the day about sponsoring a fighter. I am going to talk to Zeno about having the Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia sponsoring a fighter. Because I am sure as hell never going back into the cage and we should have better representation. I am going to talk to Tri-V and CNS about sponsoring a fighter too. I liked how Raveinn, Chrysalis and Applecado all had representation in the ring.

I had to go find a proper doctor, the first aid station was not enough. I left money with Gabe and told her to buy Ziggy a good drink.

I hear tell that Cody "The Meatbag" Winterwolf held his own against Gabe and Ziggy and ended up with the purse for the night.

I had just come from the CATZ office on Hale and ran into SEANA on the landing pad talking with a heavily inked gal named Opine. Yes, SEANA.

Opine was working on a thermal coat for her minimalist ship to shore shuttle (say that 3 times fast). Minimalist mean a teeny tiny place for her and her wife and 4 big guns and 2 big engines. Pretty fly though.

Sheriff Gallagher Aeon is a trendsetter. I told Miya and Skura about the cool new water feature Gallagher put in his bathroom by the famous artist Yuri Nall. Yuri Nall's work is known throughout the 'verse and even back to old Earth That Was. Mainly in men's public bathrooms. Within a day Miya and Skura were showing me their water feature. All very nice, but lacked the primitive utility of Yuri's original concept. Respect art people.

I ran into Xoxo redecorating her office. She inquired about whether we do certain kinds of acquisitions off the books. We have a lot of latitude off the books. We discussed quantum computing. When I say this, I mean she talked about it and I tried to remember enough so I could get Professor Qui to explain it to me later.

Have you ever wondered about reincarnation? Like if you were bad in this life you might be reincarnated as a cat forced to be store mannequin on Londinium.

I know rumors about a robotic dog with the transplanted brain of a human, just a rumor. I don't know if they have that kind of technology or not. But could Scientists on Ariel take the brain of a judge and put it into the body of a robotic hover-cat?

We have spoken to a few people directly and hired a few Independent Midbulk haulers already, but we have more work that needs doing. If you have a 25 ton capacity sloop with a crew of 3 or a 120 ton capacity cutter with a crew of 4, please contact me at the Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia and let me know what routes you can work so we can have you ship some cargo. We have some salvage work also.

Applicants should be willing to work with Pork, Meat Byproducts, Radionuclide Ores, Special High Intensity Terraforma (S.H.I.T.) and other flamable, explosive or hazardous substances. For bonding and insurance purposes, we are required to inspect your ship to insure that you can handle the cargo.

We understand that some people have special legal issues, please be frank and let us know what places you or your crew cannot operate. No felons or crew with outstanding Alliance warrants further into the Core than Persephone. It is not really a major limitation.

The Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia is looking to sponsor a fighter to represent it at Fight Night in Persephone. Please contact Jai Raghilda or Zeno Baxton to apply.

Avoiding my to-do list

2010-03-23T19:03:00.000+04:00

First, a nice milkshake.

I cannot bring myself to make a list of how many half finished projects I have, I would have to add that list to the list. If I made it, which I won't because I wouldn't finish it. .... voice trails off. Mutters something about a PDA, smartphone, pffft.

Well, top of my list of unfinished things is putting my office back together on Hale. This week for sure. Juicy location next to Fook Yoo's and good access to Firefly's.

I started to work on it, but quickly got distracted by my new office neightbor, Applecado Transport and Salvage. I think they are a transport and salvage company. Brooke, Dex (if that is his real name), Cody, Ibram, Becca and some twitchy gal with a gun. Nice folks. Ibram assures me he flies better than he drives. He would have to.

Right down the street from Applecado and the Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia is Firefly's Bar, the friendliest bar in the 'Verse. Zade makes my milkshake special. His blender has been broken for a while, but like good frontier folk, he adapts. He does shake it marginally faster if you slap his butt.

Doctor Johnnie Spargel from Eavesdown Docks has a produce shop and Greenhouse on Hale. Good to see ya around, Doc. I preordered a salad from him, 1 ton.

The ubiquitous Cortex News Service, now expanding into other businesses I hear. Hey Tillery, call me.

Another name I see cropping up around is Valiant Vuckovnic's Tri-V.

There are a lot more things, some all cool and secrety, but I keeep getting distracted by people who talk to me and get me involved in something interesting or important like, "Let me show you the new shuttle for my ship," or "Hey, the church is burning and there's marshmallows...."

Hale is not just about business, it's educational too. Just yesterday, the Replicant Order gave a demonstration why you should consider not constructing a wooden building near the mines. Or that replicants hold a grudge for a long time. Ummmm, moving on.

I had to check on our secured warehouse on Mac, as I have been given notice that it is moving. Despite how many shifty characters staked out the warehouse, no one robbed it. Several cows were taken from the corral and my inventory tells me about 3 that were shoved over a cliff.

Checking on Bootlickers Bar, ummmm Bootleggers Bar, and I found Immy guarding the Pong Game. She was in an eerie gunhand trance and I wisely did not interupt her.

I think Brooke was supervising Immy as she guards the Pong Game.

WHODAT?

Whoever she was, she was watching Brooker supervise Immy as she guarded the Pong Game.

Okay, this is kinda lame, not my best work. I had the pics and wanted to get them out. I will start putting info of significance soon. Love Jai.

REPORT ALL GRIEFERS

2010-02-28T19:00:00.000+04:00

REPORT ALL GRIEFERS.

Some people's idea of fun to make you feel bad. They exploit our congeniality and sense of community to create victims for their antisocial behavior.

You do not have to tolerate this.

REPORT ALL GRIEFERS.

VIOLATIONS:

INTOLERANCE: Using extremely insulting and inflammatory language toward groups of people based on race, nationality, religion, or sexual preferences.

HARRASSMENT: Pressing for interaction with someone after being told to stop; Pursuing, bothering, or repeatedly insulting a person. Debates and personal quarrels are consensual activities and do not constitute harrassment

ASSAULT: Repeatedly walking into someone (not by mistake);
Using a weapon to push people out of a location where they have a right to be;
Placing a cage or container around a person;
Producing objects, particles, or sounds that are disruptive or interfere with your field of view, or which excessively consume server resources in the region;
Repeatedly playing sound clips or filling chat with verbage so as to disrupt other people's conversations.

INDECENCY: Nude genital display, using obscene language excessively or repeatedly, or rezzing disgusting objects in a PG area or in a mature area where land owners forbid it, or the intention is to bother others.

PARCEL VIOLATIONS: Placing objects across parcel boundaries; using another person's land to place advertisements or malicious objects; littering another person's land.

EXCLUSION: Seeking to exclude a person from a public activity or area.

There are two sets of procedures for dealing with Griefers:
1. Report to the sim owners/admins/officers.
2. Report to Linden Labs

1. Report Griefers to sim owners/admins/officers

REPORT ALL GRIEFERS.

Griefers often justifying any authorative/bullying behaviour with statements like "they have permission" or "they have the right". The only players that have the right to speak for the sim are the officers/owners of the sim.

IM the sim's owners/officers/admins. If they are online, they will take care of it immediately. Even if they are offline (or appear to be), IM them immediately so they have a record of the event. Some get email notices of their IMs and will log in to deal with the emergency.

In the case of rezzing of inappropriate objects, contact an officer who will come and return said object. Officers have the power to derezz objects, freeze, kick and ban avatars from the sim. Talk to them calmly, they will help you out.

Make sure to document as much as possible. Log IMs and local chat. Take pictures. Make note of the chain of events. Even if you can get a hold of an online officer, documentation is important. Griefers/abusers often complain about the treatment they receive, and claim to have had good reasons for their actions. Documentation is critical.

If the sim's owners/officers/admins are unavailable, politely ask the person/persons to stop what they are doing. Don't be rude, don't provoke them, and don't fight fire with fire. Just ask them as nicely as possible to cease what they are doing. If you start a fight, chances are they will return in greater numbers with retaliation in mind.

If no officer is online, please leave the sim until the abuser is gone or at least get away from him/her/it. Do not provoke them or start a fight, as it often spirals out of control.

Whatever the end result of the debacle may be, always leave the sim owner/admin/officer a message. Send logs, pictures, your account, anything you have. Anything that is shared stays with the officer and the information will only be used to deal with the incident.

2. Report Griefers to Linden Labs

(From the Secondlife wiki)

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Reporting_griefers:_very_detailed_instructions

REPORT ALL GRIEFERS

A. Executive summary of this notecard:

To report griefing, go to Help at the Top of your screen. If you were shot or shoved or constrained, check Bumps Pushes and Hits to see who did it. Then, also in Help, select Report Abuse and fill out the AR (Abuse Report) form. Details and explanation follow, below.

B. WHAT ARE GRIEFERS? Griefers are people who deliberately interfere with other people's legitimate enjoyment of an activity; or who pursue their own fun with wreckless disregard for negative effects on bystanders.

You can report abusive behavior to Linden Lab. Multiple reports lead to the griefer being suspended from Second Life for a time, or possibly being permanently banned.

C. USE THE AR (Abuse Report) TO REPORT A GRIEFER

1) If griefers are pushing you around or shooting at you, quickly sit on the ground or on something belonging to you. Normally griefers cannot move you while you sit. If they are using malicious objects, hover your pointer over the object to see the owner's name.

2) Quickly write down your location (region, XYZ coordinates). If you can tell who the griefer is, write their name quickly on a piece of paper. Don't bother to engage the griefer in conversation or argument. It just gratifies them and delays your report.

3) Go to HELP at the top of your SL screen.

If you have just been forced out of your location or position, by shoving or with a weapon (scripted object), select BUMPS, PUSHES, & HITS. The abuser's name will probably be listed there. . Be careful -- there are many innocent bumps sometimes, from people who accidentally walk into you.

Also under HELP, select REPORT ABUSE.

4) On the AR (Abuse Report Form) you will see a small snapshot of your current field of view. If this snapshot shows what the griefer is doing, click "include screenshot" under the picture.

5) You will see a box that says "Select Category" and has a drop-down menu. You must select one of the categories of abusive behavior. Here are some examples to clarify those categories.

INTOLERANCE: Seeking to exclude a person from what should be a public activity or area.

Using extremely insulting and inflammatory language toward groups of people based on race, nationality, religion, or sexual preferences.

HARRASSMENT: Pressing for interaction with someone after being told to stop;

Pursuing, bothering, or repeatedly insulting a person. Debates and personal quarrels do not constitute harrassment, however. Those are consensual activities.

ASSAULT: Repeatedly walking into someone (not by mistake);

Using a weapon to push people out of a location where they have a right to be;

Placing a cage or container around a person;

Producing objects, particles, or sounds that are disruptive or interfere with your field of view, or which excessively consume server resources in your region;

Repeatedly playing sound clips or filling chat with verbage so as to disrupt other people's conversations.

INDECENCY: nude genital display, using obscene language excessively or repeatedly, or rezzing disgusting objects in a PG area ( or in a mature area where land owners forbid it, or the intention is to bother others).

PARCEL VIOLATIONS: Placing objects across parcel boundaries; using another person's land to place advertisements or malicious objects; littering another person's land.

6) Abuser name

You cannot directly write the griefer's name in the "Abuser name" box. Click the Select button just to the right of the Abuser name box. It will open "person chooser".

In the person chooser, type the griefer's name or part of it. This will open a list of similar names. Choose the right name and click Select. That name will automatically be placed in the "Abuser name" field of the AR form.

If you cannot see who the griefer is (for example, you are assaulted with a lot of sounds and you do not know where they are coming from) use the name BLUE LINDEN. Blue Linden generously allows his name to be defamed this way, as a work-around. The AR cannot be sent with no abuser name on it.

7) Location of abuse

If you are still at the site of abuse when you begin the report, the report will automatically record the location and time. If you have gone to a different location to make the abuse report, you must use the body of the report form to state the name of the sim in which the griefing occurred, and preferably the parcel name or coordinates too.

8) Summary

Give a brief title to your report. Refer to the time, so that the Abuse Team at Linden Lab knows whether an immediate response is helpful or not.

Examples of summaries:

"Here and Now, griefers shooting a crowd" or "Griefers 4PM, shot people, gone now" or "Harrassing me now, won't leave my house" or "Griefer yesterday left objects on parcel"

9) Details

Your abuse report will reach the Lindens with an automatic date and time stamp showing when it was sent, and from where. You do not need to give the date, time, and coordinates of the griefing episode if the automatially entered information is accurate. Just start the description with something like "Here and now" if the abuse is happening; something like "Here at 4PM Second Life Time" if you are reporting after the fact.

Example of "Details":

"4 PM yesterday June 4 at Rosebud 110, 30, 31 Ratsucker Hax shot 6 guests out of my shop."

"Here and now, Ratsucker Hax is rezzing obscene objects and particles going over my parcel boundary. Chat excerpt: You: Get rid of this stuff. You have no quarrel with my guests. Ratsucker Hax: its not on ur land u cant do anything so eat me lol

10) REPORT ABUSE

Don't forget to click the Report Abuse button at the bottom of the report, to send it!

D. REPORTING A GRIEFER OBJECT

If a griefer goes away and leaves a harmful or irritating object behind, you can use the object to identify the griefer and submit a report.

1) Right-click on the object

2) Select More

3) Select More again

4) Select Report Abuse

5) The Abuse Report form should open for you, showing the name of the owner of the object in the "Abuser name" field. If not, use the "Click the button, then the object" option near the top of the Abuse Report form.

6) Fill out the rest of the form and be sure to click the Report Abuse button at the bottom when it is complete.

WILL THE GRIEFER SEE MY NAME?

The Lindens will not tell the griefer the names of any people who reported him.

IF THE GRIEFER KNOWS I REPORTED HIM, CAN HE TRACK ME DOWN AND BOTHER ME?

Anyone can send you IMs, unless you mute that person. Then you will no longer received their IMs or see any of their chat text. People can tell your location only if they are on your Friends list and you specifically give them that power. There are spy devices that can follow or look for you but they normally have a range of only 96 M. Objects cannot follow you when you teleport. If you own land, you can use land settings to prevent objects from entering your land. You can also eject specific people from your land and ban them from re-entering.

G, where are we going?

2010-02-16T21:28:00.000+04:00

I remember when Gabe and I were too disoriented girls getting our bearings on Hale's Moon. Gabe was a bit edgy, looking over her shoulder a bit. When the Alliance started singling her out to squeeze, she blew town uh moon.

She mostly stayed away from Hale, visited a couple times. We kept in touch, but not the daily hang out and even come help me out on my independent jobs.

I saw G a few more times on MacLaren's Drift. Fell in with Raveinn. Coop headed out to the black for a few months after torching a couple of my offices. Gabe later went looking for him. We lost touch for a while.

The Gabe that came back was not the Gabe I remembered. She paced around more, more on edge. More willing to pick a fight. More likely to be bruised and cut. More often than Emma or even Cody the Human Target.

I see Gabe a lot more often lately because the Raveinn passes thru Eavesdown Docks a lot and it is my pass thru station.

But a fight club? Zohmygodzilla! I don't know what to say about it. She seems kind and friendly to me, old time sake, but she is definitely hostile to so-called "Core" sensibilities.

Maybe I am a little prissy, but Gabe, do you really need to be punched in the face?

Eavesdown Docks hosted fightnight cage match Tuesday at the Cockpit.

Some guy Danjo offered money to the last man standing.

Sure, Coop, get in there. Give them hell and what for. But G, please. You don't have medical insurance. And certainly not dental. We have to talk.

Gabe and Coop were the first to square off. I would have hoped it was fixed, but G's bruises and cuts are real. Coop gave her hell and what for.

What for? Money I guess.

Coop dusted off Ziggy, but I don't care if Ziggy is pretty or not.

Suzanne felt the need to tell me that Ziggy lasted less than a minute. I am assuming she meant in the fight.

Later out by the Oakley Ranch on Prosperity, I met up with my two beat up friends.

We didn't talk about it or much of anything actually. Coop left after a while, me and Gabe sat quietly on the corral fence. I don't know where her thoughts were. I was thinking about where we were going and why. She may have dozed off a little.

Al Raqis and Splintered Rock are their usual strange place. Allegedly, some tall husky green hued fellow alleged stole water from House Bondar allegedly meant to be donated to the Clinic. How many of those could there be? The word "allegedly" comes up a lot there.

For some reason, this called for an investigation of House Zenobia. Sad if that counts as clever politics. Fortunately the Chief Magistrate has a greater respect for the rule of law than the head of House Bondar.

While I was meeting with the Chief Magistrate agreeing to quell my grievance over the slander of House Bondar provided it does not occur again, a explosion was heard from the courtyard.

CNS's own wheelchair bound Tillery Woodhen came out of his office at about the same time we did to see the smoking remains of the exposive device outside one of the House Faith Buildings. After the fire brigade put out the blaze, the bomb/arson team inspected the device and preliminarily confirmed that it is strikingly similar to the device placed at the CNS building the previous week.

Lady Reiko, the head of the Great House composed of Fremen, a few lingering zenobians (we are everywhere), a companion named Calina, a gentleman named Deerhunter and Commander Faith and Miss Bondar arrived. Some rude haughty talk of little consequence ensued. There was some tension, but the High Magistrate managed to quell than and the crowd dispersed.

I had a little talk with Lynx about the virtues of avoiding being baited into violence by people under mind control. I had to explain Project Treadstone and the Manchurian Candidate 3 times that day.

We are following up with our own investigation and have a few leads. I shared what I knew with the Chief Magistrate.

Zenobia is now offically a Great House on Al Raqis. We even have our own water reclamation vaporator. Constable Werribee showed me how to use it. In particular how to deal with Water thieves. The Constable is a good teacher, I learned a lot.

Stakeouts, Sanskrit, Sorrowman and Socials

2010-02-11T23:25:00.000+04:00

Stakeouts, Sanskrit, Sorrowman and Socials

Gabe went with me to inspect the corral at the Oakley Ranch. 50 Meter diameter and a dozen head of Feeder Cattle. The cows were fairly skitting actually, flitting about. Gabe liked smacking them about.

Been getting around more on horseback, now that I found a properly Jai-sized pony. I forget how many months Zenobia has had the warehouse/compound there, but at least 4 times in the past week I have seen people hanging out in front of it. Doing nothing really. But no one ever did nothing really in front of it before. Damn that multichromatic hasbeen gossip.

Whodat?

Found LilyBell and Cody fretting over some book in the Blue Sun compound.

There was some strange notes on the chalkboard...

...and sanskrit written all over the walls. I bet either Mirra or Brother Feargananym at Bihar could maybe translate.

Later after an uncomfortable and regretable misunderstanding with LilyBell and Cody, they obsessed over BlueSun's new Synthetic, BerryBlueSun. It spouted some cryptic clues about Thoth and AuroraBlue, Sand coming, coins and such.

Later that evening I ran into Cody, he was heartbroken. Welcome to the emotional rollercoaster we know as LilyBell. Gallagher was missing, presumed dead by the hand of Gallagher Diesel, deathbot. Gallagher's keyring and some orange sand was left at the scene. Anyone recognize where this is from?

Lily freaked and shut down. Later, I found her in one of the Blue Sun labs with Blue, sounded like the upload again.

After the upload sounds finished, Lily came up and about. Kitten was there. Apparently if you ever need Kitten to show up, all you need to do is create a set of circumstances that would spell her doom. I tried to warn her, she skipped and froliced. Against my own best judgement, so did I. It is surprisingly liberating. I declined to eat the worm that Kitten offered. She has never eaten sushi.

BerryBlueSun is now in Krenshar's Casino. Don't ask me to explain either part of why Krenshar has a casino or why BerryBlueSun is there. I don't know and it makes my head hurt to think about it.

Newhall is part of my regular route, second to last stop. I had to update the auto ship to shore shuttle. I had to fly down manually and I got a good look at the Alliance Station near the shipyard. The Alliance appears to be standardizing some of their orbital facilities. They have one almost exactly like it over Zenobia and Bihar.

Almost exactly like it. Apparently Sorrowman Shipping cut an advertising deal with the Alliance. How slick is that?

Ambassadorial duties are a little more tedious than being trade consulate. I was only made trade consulate because no one else wanted the job. I went to a social event at the companions House on Al Raqis. The constable made a few thoughtful comments about paperwork reduction. We had some deep breathing meditation and then drank an unidentified blend of coffee without knowing how it was baked, its coarseness of grinding, or how it was brewed. I think it was perhaps unimportant because they sprinkled to top with the cinammon flavored awareness spectrum narcotic I estimate is worth 15-20 Credits a serving. And there was no sushi.

This is Dr. Thomas Isaac, he is studying the giant invertebrates indiginous to Mu Draconis. Like the Kopi Luwak coffee, the cinammon flavored awareness spectrum narcotic is also passed thru the digestive tract of an animal.

I hooked up Constable Vooper Werribee with some of the Kona Coffee (animal digestive tract free) and a sample of 34Tauri United Alliance of Planet Currency.

The former for quality control and the latter for numismatic purposes....of course.

The Constable showed me a security photo of a ship hovering over the Splintered Rock Landing Pad.

Before heading back in the other direction of my long trip, I took a local ornithopter and looked out at the sunset.

Wrangling Cattle and Ca...nevermind

2010-02-01T12:03:00.000+04:00

There was this gal I ran into on MacLaren's Drift a few time. It was a while back on Thursday Trader's Night at Bootlegger's on Mac. But there was another time on Prosperity while I was talking to Gabe and JJ, while I saw the mayor Moonshine for the first time. Although she dressed kind of nightclubby, she said how she was having troubles with cattle thieves. Nothing much came of it.

Recently we took a small job of transporting some feeder cattle to be sold or transhipped on Eavesdown. The loading was done for me and it was only two shipping containers of 20 cows each, so I didn't think I needed to hire crew for such a small job. One of the containers broke open on the tarmac and 20 cows broke out onto the streets of Eavesdown Docks. Luckily Doc Spargel was a good sport and helped me wrangle (I just learned the word) the cattle down the streets of Eavesdown over to the Customs and Clearing Warehouse. They seemed content to lounge about at the "Unlikely Shipping" landing pad.

As the cattle was in sealed cargo containers, I didn't bother to take a good look at them. But as wrangling is a slow laborious process, I got to spend more time looking at the backside of heifers than I ever expected to. The brand looked odd to me, never saw one before. When I got a closer look, someone had used a hot brand to rebrand over the cold brand of the original ranchers. These were stolen cattle.

I made up a report and was ready to file it, then I realized that it would go nowhere. I was talking to reese, who was showing me the mods he made to his firefly. A fancy Aught-Three, not a simple gal like my no frills Aught-Two mini. We hatched a plan to rescue the stolen livestock and maybe return them to their rightful owners, or at least get the owner's the market price. Just deduct the usual fees for transport 10 per live healthy head.

Doc Spargel said he would come along to help. Good to have an ag doc on hand.

I ran across LilyBell while she was doing some improbable combat testing.

That happens to me quite often.

We talked about the usual kinds of things. Boots, chest fur on boys, bathing. She talked about Willie Fatih. I was not sure if she meant TeeTopWillie now Commander William Faith or if she meant his alleged brother with the same name, Willie. I mentioned how Faith's home on Al Raqis is right next to the new Zenobian Embassy. Intriqued, Lily agreed to come with me on my run to Al Raqis.

Once on the ground, LilyBell ran around. No one was about and she wanted to get into everthing. I wished she would be more careful, curiosity killed the...nevermind. I showed her how Podwangler, Valiant Vukovnic (Tri-V), Cortex, CoolLuke, the companions and other familiar names had offices, shops, residences or ships on the landing pad. Lilybell of course obsessed on the Faith Warehouse and his offices. Quality security devices kept LilyBell busy for quite a while. Of course, we can just look thru the several windows to see what was inside. Palletloads of crates with the BlueSun Logo crossed out.

Trying to run around with lilybell is like trying to herd ca...nevermind.

In all of this, I never got to show LilyBell the new Zenobian embassy, but she had her own agenda. She told me later that she had a run in with the slaver Barbosa from Botany Bay. I remember him from when I went looking for AuroraBlue when she was kidnapped from Caliban. She also left a book there where if you put a special coin in it, does something in Sanskrit.

We talked about indian food, briani, suggee and Tamarind Punch. She ditched me for Chicken Masala.

Lily reminded me that Starstrucks is reopening with barista service and that we will be delivering coffee there again. Leia will be working there, but it is automated when not.

...and last but not least:

WHODAT?

Messed up hair, bruises and runny mascara from crying.

Recovering from the holidays.

2010-01-27T12:39:00.000+04:00

Recovering from the holidays.

I was in transit a lot over the holidays. I sent waves out before I headed into the black. I have been lax at posting my notes and getting back into the flow of the 'verse, I was somewhat busy.

Gallagher is in a coma in Ralph. An automaton wearing cloned human skin tried to kill him. Failed, blamed Lilybell for his failure. I promised not to make fun of him in exchange for him promising not to hurt me. He is lurking around Hale waiting for Gallagher so he can finish the job.

The Dharma offices were mostly cleared out, I am presuming by the Gallagher Diesel Droid, but I don't know. All that was left was a couple of surveilance tapes, a movie poster and Gallagher's experimental pax-weed. Desmond confirmed that it is very chronic. Desmond explained how I can't risk visiting Gallagher, else the death-droid might follow me.

Aurora is dead. I saw her once over the holidays. The Aurora I knew was already gone inside, replaced by some murderous minded child. She was obsessing over possessing Cody and Lily, and a scheme to get Cody and Lily's coin. I tried to be frank and honest with her. She renewed her promise to kill me last. I tried to see if the Aurora I knew was in there, but I could not tell. She let slip in front of Vega and me that she hired some people to capture Lily. I tried to contact Lily, but with no luck. Same with Cody. I told Krenshar, but it did not seem to register. I wonder how he will respond when he finds out.

The last time I saw Aurora maybe-herself was during the trial of Mikie and Sentry. She was in Seana's office. The time before that was when she was in MacLaren's Drift when Lily Was hiding out after Krenshar's lab burned down on Caliban.

She was not close to me like she was with folks like Seana, Krenshar, Galalgher, JJ and many others. She threatened to kill me more than once with convincing conviction, but I tried to help her anyway. Despite what people told me about her being super smart and made/destined for other things, she was still young and thrust into events and situations that were not her making and was way too much of a burden for anyone to shoulder. Ultimately our collective negligence and various agendas killed her. I wonder if I am the only one who feels guilty.

Lily has been gone for more than a month, I saw her yesterday working on her coffee shop as if nothing happened.

The Consolidated Associate Traders of Zenobia warehouse in Eavedown Dock, Persephone is open. Juicy location right next to the Customs & Clearing Warehouse. I see Gabe there a lot, which makes my layovers there nice. She seems a little jumpier than when she was in Hale, but she seems happy. She lives in the ship. Mac, Eavesdown and apparently Splintered Rock. I don't get to see her as much as when she had her Hookah Lounge in the Hale Wasteland, but it is good to see her. She has a dog now, named "Dog". Eh, it was a good enough name in that ol' John Wayne movie.

Crash Afterthought (Burn's sister) works at the Eavedown Dock Customs & Clearing Warehouse now and then. I feed him. He is nice and speshul. He says that he does not go out to the fancy parties in Persephone, only Burn does. I convinced him that it could be fun and that the food is usually very good. Crash asked me out on a date, but his sister disapproved. She doesn't like me for some reason.

The Customs & Clearing Warehouse is near the local Alliance Garrison. Sgt Archie seems like a good enough guy, at least he is not the vicious jack-booted thug variety. Something triggered an argument on my side. I regret it. There is no point in arguing about the Alliance's fascist policies to their appointed enforcers of said fascist policies. He follows his orders and trusts the courts to remedy any injustice in the process. We saw that the Alliance does not even have shame about their Kangaroo Courts. Or maybe that is what the people wanted to see, comfort executions. Either way, even without access to decent sushi and coffee, I like the life of a spacer.

The Consolidated Associate Traders of Zenobia (CATZ) warehouse in MacLaren's Drift if finally repaired after the fire last year. We have a LICENCED salvage operation in the Asteroid Belt and are using that warehouse some.

We are currently testing our new geiger counters to ensure that there are no radiation leaks from the odd-actinides. Monazite, duranium, pitchblende and caked yellow urania's specific activity levels aren't too high, but we can't be too careful.

Apparently some washed up bi-chromatic hasbeen is spreading rumors about the shipment, so we had to hire some security. After some ham-handed negotiations, we hired Raveinn to protect the cargo. Hope it doesn't end up in flames.

I got to see Zeno for a bit. She gave me a promotion to be Ambassador to Al Raqis. Fancy embassy in the dry sauna of planets. Lord Flanagan came to inaugurate the office. Have to wear the official uniform more often now. I call it Gestapo Flight Attendant. I wear a desert runnner still suit underneath my usual cordovan padded armor. A third of my bodyweight is probably clothes now.

A few art pieces from Lord Flanagan's private collection are in the Embassy. The new Zenobia Art Exhibit opens in Bihar in February, we are supposed to get a piece from there also. The one in the office is "Berber Woman" by Emile Vernet-Lecomte (1870), The Berber women were known as the Amazihkx, where the name for the Amazons came from.

It is a nice location with its own courtyard. Zenobia rented a second building next to the embassy for staff and Zenobian travelers/guests to stay at. It is between House Hirado's warehouse and Commander Faith's residence.

Just outside the couryard is a below ground desert access. Very convenient and very discrete. Or just land on the roof landing pad.

I had been going to Al Raqis and Splintered Rock for several months, they are at the far end of the Zenobia Trade Route. I meet with Constable Vooper while I am there. I see quite a few ships I recognize from my travels. Like the Raveinn Firefly on the Splintered Rock Landing Bay. Pod has ships in Splintered Rock and Al Raqis Landing Bay. Valiant Vukovnic has a location. Companions have a house there, one of them was arrested for attempted murder recently. Even a disturbing shop by our Outside verse friends from Necronom IV. TTW's offices in Splintered Rock burned down, but Faith Industries is all over the place.

I use my press credentials to use the Cortex Offices in Al Raqis. I overheard Commander Faith (nee TeeTopWillie Neiro) with Mistress Brazen, Al Raqis Chief Magistrate Joan Vhargon and a native Lady Reiko, head of House Morloch. If they wish to be discrete, they should consider not having a conversation in front of the offices of the 'verse's largest news organization. The subject matter was slavery in the 'verse. Faith evaded answering.

Faith is not the only person dead who hangs around SR and AR. A certain nuked pilot gone native traveling incognito as America's first spy. A certain nanite infused bionic Starbuck accompanied Sedrick Faith during the attempted murder trial of BriAria Mirajkar, who tried to kill him during a banquet the previous week. The case was thrown out due to tainted evidence.

Merely Christmas

2009-12-19T19:38:00.000+04:00

Oh no, Santa, that's just rude.

It is merely christmas by some arbitrary measure that relates very little to the cycles of the 200 someodd different systems in the 'verse.

The year flows so fast, yet the hours are so damn slow.

The Blue Sun Christmas was is really nice. Amazing how they put that together

Make new friends, keep the old. Silver, Gold, all that.

Killer 'bot covered with cloned skin, filled with self repairing nanobots, dedicated to killing Sheriff Gallagher Aeon who is in a coma on Ralph. Fed one of Gallagher's eyes to Thoth's bird.

LilyBell showed off her new pastries to Cody, Krenshar and I before she left on the HUNT.

This is Suzanne Starship, she runs a bath and laundry on Eavesdown. I took the picture poorly.

And last but not least.....

WHO DAT?!

Turning a Cheek

2009-12-13T13:50:00.000+04:00

An overdue and possibly well deserved slap

It was bound to happen eventually, probably should have sooner, but it was still unexpected. Minor compared to the ginormous drama that enveloped the 'Verse, but maybe in the cover of that chaos is why it happened to me at this time.

The Replicant Order was building its compound in the parcel of land where the chalet I extorted out of x0x0 was on Blue Sun in Hale. I was feeling sorry for myself, watching the construction of the the control tower and other buildings while my chalet was still standing. They said they would save mine for as late as they could.

Emma came to visit me, but it was more than just a friendly visit. She had some inquiries from x0x0. Usually x0x0 handles her dealings with me directly, but Emma had a list and specific orders.

I look out over the Replicant Order Compound. I explain how I made some deliveries there recently.

Emma said that I was wanted for questioning by x0x0 and was to be brought in for questioning about a robbery. I laughed.

I reasoned with Emma as best as I could. However the drama enfolded for Mikie and Sentry and all those trying to help them, it had to be without my help.

Openings: Zenobia, Replicant Order Compound, Galaxy Rink and Pool, Nefarous Factory of Doom

2009-12-03T21:46:00.000+04:00

Zenobia has partially reopened its borders. In particular, their popular medical center. Now that the Military Faction has control of the government in Zenobia, the Alliance has opened their own space station there. I pass by it on my way down to the surface. There is a small research station on the way down also.

Some of you might recognize Major Pepper Siamendes' ship moored there, the Alexander. I have reliable information that her recall to Zenobia is finished and will be back to stomping her jackboots over the rights of the humble citizenry of the Border and Rim very soon.

I park the Behemoth at the far Lagrange point as we do at MacLaren, Hale, Caliban, Shadow, Bihar, Eavesdown Docks, Zenobia, Londinium and Newhall. I have been busy trying to get the autopilot to work properly, some only head back to the hub on Hale, but at least the shuttle between the Behemoth and surface works well. Errrr, except on Newhall. Newly terraformed, changes every day. We'll work it out, have to talk to folks there. Ummmmm, and Londinium, set yourself to zero-g (flying) before you hit the autopilot, you will understand once you try it.

That's my route so far. I am supposed to negotiate with Splintered Rock on behalf of Zenobia soon, but I have been busy, lot of trade opening up. I would love it if I could get the whole primary 'verse in the Zenobia route. Need Strega, Shadowrim, Washburne, Paradiso and Paquin to complete the set.

Might check on Botany Bay and Necronom Colony, but that will have to wait a while, plus there are technical issues. They might have to be one way trips without return like the derelict ship and the Wastelands. Will probably add them to the new autopilot, along with New Delphi, INSILICO, Blade Runner City and Tyrell Corporation Headquarters. Sorry folks, one way only. Negotiations are slowwwww or in some cases, non-existent.

Although the Consolidated Associated Traders of Zenobia hired me as a pilot, I work mostly as a trade negotiator. I am a better business woman than I am a pilot, but I try not to discuss my mediocre piloting skills. I do fly better than I shoot, that part is true. Anyone that has seen me shoot knows that is not saying much. So far I have flown better than the folks that have shot at me, errrr, except that one time, but I was mooring and.... "LOYALISTS SHOOT DOWN A PARKED SHUTTLE OVER SHADOW" would not make a great headline.

Weird business of late. Been getting salvage out of the Uroborus Asteroid Belt, We store it in our compound on MacLaren. Not the safest place, but it is closest transshipment point. Planet Ralph and the Blackburne Wastes are closer, but they are a constant warzone. MacLaren is only a corrupt hellhole. Even with a license and permit, you have to be fast to salvage in the belt. Alliance thinks nothing of licensing the same derelict to more than one hauler and pirates loooove stealing from salvagers. Not to mention that most ships that the Alliance likes to job out to salvagers are in reaver or pirate infested space. Prolly the reason they job it out. Loyalists have been selling fake salvage licenses and then trying to pick folks up for piracy and illegal salvage. It's a dirty job.

CATZ smuggled out some thing out of Zenobia before the Military factions takeover was complete. One was an Alliance Database, includes 2 AIs. Nothing as sophisticated as Blue or Krenshar, but proprietary tech nevertheless. I could not find anyone on INSILICO that was capable of the decryption that could also be trusted. We made a deal with Krenshar. He was looking for some database storage. We traded the data storage in exchange for the decryption.

I previously delivered 40 tons of copper wire to the new Replicant Order Compound on Hale. X0x0 sold them the land. Strange bedfellows. LilyBell signed for the copper wire, but I could not let her take delivery of the database. LilyBell is a black hole for such things. Still have not gotten the Ardra backup from her. She is like a Roach Motel, programs go in, but they don't come out.

I got clearance from Krenshar to deliver directly to the Replicant Order Compound. I come in thru the main loading bay and come across a barefoot x0x0 wearing a simple frock and carrying a pistol. Casual Day is very different at Blue Sun. We exchange a few guarded inquiries about why the other person was there. I played dumb a little, I knew this was Blue Sun land. I have a chalet on Blue Sun land, but I don't expect to see x0x0 inside it. BOUNDARY ISSUES abound in the Rim.

My orders were to deliver the database, but it did not say who was to sign for it. Krenshar was recharging and the invoice was ambiguous AND I was being interrogated at gunpoint. I let x0x0 sign for it. My parents wanted me to be an accountant.

I find the power plant of the Compound. It looks different than the others I have seen. I wonder if this is the Singularity Power Plant that Krenshar was talking about 7 months ago.

In her own special way, x0x0 is as strange as LilyBell. She danced barefoot in the cargo bay and spouted cryptic statements about "they" would be here soon. We exchange a little bit of info, cryptic enough to maintain plausible deniability and I get a first hand look at the inner workings of the Replicant Order Compound. I don't know if this is where x0x0 is going to set up the nefarious factory of doom that I am not supposed to know about.

I get distracted by a stray thought about something LilyBell said during the week while she was showing me the new Galaxy Skating Rink.

LilyBell Snoodle: "Krenshar is not a replicant. Him the father of the new race. And I am its chocolate."

Cool skating at the Galaxy Skating Rink. The swimming pool is under the dome, because it's cold outside. Domes are in nowadays. Basketball hoop to practice free throws also, contest. Nice palm tree in the pool area. X0x0 imported it.

LilyBell Snoodle: "It like tropical in under the dome. even fake sun. BlueSun and Dharma make nice for citizens of Hale's Moon and them guests. When we make grand open, there be fireworks. Pool fun and hot tub gots bubbles."

There are plans for some building that makes things like a factory, near the secret lab was. The pool and rink is "so everybody like them and not think about factory so much." X0x0 is working with Krenshar on some project. Krenshar says he is merely letting x0x0 use his labs. Probably everyone denying that Mindo will be involved. I hope it does not have anything to do with the new necromorph reavers. Probably not, Mindo maybe, but not Krenshar.

X0x0 is looking for Wing Silverweb, the Bad Robot proprietor in West Hale (The Wastes). I am still checking out the alleged indigentm Criss Cross (or whatever his name is). X0x0 is also looking for Pepper, probably want to make good on their deal on x0x0's terms and not Pepper's. Interesting to see that play out. Sentry is looking for Pepper also. Few requests to give a heads up about Tee/Commander Faith. Wanted poster for Coop near the greenhouse in Hale. Hm, doesn't mention arson.

You give a little, you get a little. Keep the juicy bits to protect your friends or bail them out. It's a living.

New flowershop opened next to my office. Free flowers and trees, very nice.

More Arson in MacLaren

2009-11-22T21:44:00.001+04:00

Heading to Mac, get a call that Prosperity is burning. Like old home week: Gabe, Miya, Coop, Cody, Akasha, Sabrina, LilyBell. My office was not burning this time, what a treat.

A lot of buildings in Prosperity torched. JJ's offices were toast, not a pun.

Someone found a missile in the old church. Cody and Coop stabilized it long enough for me to haul it over the atmo and let it detonate. We only got over the atmo far enough that we were still over Wind's old compound.

They were putting out the fires at Bootleggers while I checked out the fires at a firefly near Windy's place.

Industrial Strength Laxatives

An American flag, pinball machine, a bookshelf, a dog pillow, THE RAVEINN LOGO with the words "TIMES UP". Looks like the same grafitti as when Coop burned down my offices on Hale and Mac. Coincidence?

I take Cody, Akasha and Svetlana to Newhall and back. Spent most of my time explaining the autopilot features. Don't know what all went down. Nor was I informed of the chain of logic leading to that decision.

Rumor, gossip and live broadcasts.

2009-11-18T08:10:00.000+04:00

Rumor, gossip and live broadcasts.

I have a list of tiny projects I need to get done, but the 'verse conspires against my humble ambitions. I wanted to put a space tether between my office in hale and the behemoth bulk carrier moored in one of the Lagrange points. Gallagher hooked me up with a cool lift, because apparently a giant tether transecting Hale space was unsightly. He is correct, but ...no, I got nuthin'. The lift is cool. I called up Emma to try out the new lift from the Zenobia Trade Offices basement up to the Behemoth bulk transport, but we run into Hale's new dentist. My new neighbor in fact. Very nice.

Only in Hale do dentists walk around wearing a katana. She had never seen a reaver, so I thought it wise to show her a good hidey spot or two.

We're about to show Dental Neighbor Gal the lift when x0x0 comes to scold Emma. X0x0 also chats with a mysterious stranger. To save all the trouble of me finding out about her, she just chatted with her in my office. Very considerate that x0x0. Acceptance is comforting.

Still test piloting my rebuilt firefly mini. It was kind of shot down over Shadow some months ago. It’s an aught-two, not the cooler aught-three, but its mine. Here is Gabe helping me jumpstart the engine.

A man is arrested every day in the verse, this is his story. Cody Winterwolf, arrested AGAIN. AND AGAIN. AND AGAIN. He seems good at escaping, not so good at not getting caught. Anyway, some Commander Peterson wants to exchange him for Duncan Cooperstone. Chaos ensues.

Krenshar had a row with Cody's abductors. Kitten told me that Akasha has some sort of post-traumatic amnesia.

Lilybell prolly has a plan. Coop prolly has a plan. The plans prolly have little to do with each other.

Vega thinks the alliance is collecting their little experiments. I don't even want to make a list.

Did I mention that an Alliance coroner came around asking questions about Hale's dentist? Apparently she removed some Alliance property from a patient.

Week of little things

2009-11-13T20:35:00.000+04:00

Mercedes contacted Miya at Caliban, offered some deal for an exchange of information for samples of Cody's Bone Marrow and some blood. Ardra made the delivery. Weird.

Krenshar has been helping me with the final modifications to my firefly. Physical flight, woot woot. It's an aught-two mini, but its mine. Inheritance.

I took it on a test flight and wandered down to Shadow. Ran into Mikie and someone named Commander Faith. Mikie was in a bad way, but insisted on no doctors. It was weird to see someone in Alliance Uniform on the surface of Shadow.

Windy moved onto Newhall, a resort planet in Kalidasa someplace. It was nice.

x0x0 is angry at Gallagher over her still missing horse. She received a ransom note. A picture of the horse with a can of petfood.

I finally caught up on some of my Hale Herald duties. Posted the reward for x0x0's horse, help wanted ads, new arrivals, the train wreck, new luxury blue sun compound.

Lily took me on a ride of Hale's new tour ponies. Very cool.

Aurora was rescued, all safe and sound. Yay Seana, General and Sabrina.

Hey, we should have a fundraiser. PAY PER VIEW: Rim Mayor Smackdown. No Holds Barred Cage Match. Seana from Hale versus Moonshine from MacLaren. Betting would have to include KO before the match.

2009-11-13T20:01:00.000+04:00

Mercedes contacted Miya at Caliban, offered some deal for an exchange of information for samples of Cody's Bone Marrow.

Ardra made the delivery. Weird.

Dharma Pax Dusted

2009-11-08T07:47:00.000+04:00

Dharma Pax Dusted

The Dharma Initiative's Hemlock facility on Hale's Moon has been shut down due to a toxic waste spill of weaponized Pax Dust the Dharma Initiative recovered from the late "Angel's of Mercy" Medical Research Center on Zenobia.

This video shows footage from the security tapes. Nice view of the Hemlock base, it replicant guards, rescued Reaver experiments in stasis, reaver containment area, secret vault where the Alliance Encrypted Disk is. Copy of the file "Operation Pax Dust" we received from "Broken Arrow", our operative on Zenobia. A few other things, but you have to have a sharp eye. (Anyone know What that picture was of, right after the vault?)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/10/15/2603694/Hemlock%20Gas.mov

(Only members of the Dharma Initiative know this in character.)

Sorting things out.

2009-11-04T21:03:00.000+04:00

Sorting things out.

When I dropped off Cody and LilyBell at Caliban, Aurora was asleep in her bed all safe and tidy. The next day after Krenshar was returned BY X0X0, x0x0 informed me that slavers had taken Aurora and that she was going to go retrieve her. She gave me a message to give to her assistant, Emma. She actually made arrangements in case of her own demise. I never seen any glimpse of that before. I have seen x0x0 in action, so as requested, I did not tell Krenshar and LilyBell, who were both recovering from their ordeals.

The previous time I saw Aurora, she was in MacLaren and in need of her meds from Mindo. We were able to accommodate. Somehow, I doubt slavers would accommodate her medical needs.

X0x0 returned without finding the slavers. The last sign of them was on Botany Bay. I searched around and ran into Akasha near the slave market. The slave market is right next to a popular bar. A built in supply, make sure and bring a designated driver to Club CCC on Botany Bay.

Akasha found out that the Alliance dispatched a lieutenant to talk with Varahi on Paquin about their errant acolytes. She was in Botany Bay trying to find a good place to lay low. I offered some advice about avoiding the slave market and bars near slave markets. They might not have covered that in Companion School.

Later I get a wave from Lily, she and Cody were also checking Botany Bay. I offer my notes. Later I meet with Seana at Hale and I let her know what I found out so far. I never seen Seana like this. Even when I was trying to make her and x0x0 angry, she maintained her cool. This was a different side of Seana, still calm, but the kind of calm while getting out her can of industrial strength Whoopass. She said that she was going to go get Aurora. Very calm, I backed out of the room, almost bumped into Seana’s secretary Genni, who also spooks me.

http://mayorseana.blogspot.com/2009/11/target-acquisition.html

http://mayorseana.blogspot.com/2009/11/target-acquisition.html

The next day Gallagher was showing me his newfangled THING THAT IS TOO SECRET TO WRITE ABOUT, that he got from his benefactor Desmond. It was pretty cool. Dharma folks should ask him about it. While we were chatting a bit with Vega about autumn leaves and asteroids, I received a call (IM) from Aurora. She also transmitted a wave for me to forward to Seana and LilyBell.

http://aurorabluelittleboots.blogspot.com/2009/11/whispered-help.html

Aurora managed to get hold of the comm. Equipment on the ship where she was being held. I tried to reassure her that Mother Dragon was coming for her and tried to get some useful info. She couldn’t talk long. I forwarded the wave to Seana and Lilybell as per her request.

Aurora told me enough that I figured out where she was, Necronom Colony. I know this place, its’ where the organ leggers hang out. A nastylot. A lot worse than the folks that build slave markets near bars. Despite promising myself never to go back there, I couldn’t risk waiting for Seana, LilyBell, x0x0, Krenshar, Gallagher or anyone. ZOHMYGODZILLA! WHERE WAS EVERYBODY!? Despite being acutely aware of the appraised value of my butt, I go to Necronom Colony.

I contact Mercedes so that I can say that I am on official business and stay on the Promenade of the space station, I look like such a tourist. I locate Aurora and finally get a reply from Seana. I transmit a few pictures and give her the coordinates. Aurora was in an area I couldn’t go without blowing my cover. And I certainly was not going there without backup. They would just move her and then we would be back to square one. I linger as long as possible. Seana confirms that she is in transit as I leave the space station. I sent Aurora reassurances that help was on the way.

My part was done for the moment, I am not qualified for extraction. I can fly straight, but not shoot straight and Seana has her own pilot. I have tried my had at these things and I have been more of a liability than an asset. I am still valued because I know things, but no one has any illusions about my fighting prowess. Seana and whoever she had helping her, General and Sabrina I think, probably more, will take it from there.

In my humble experience since I came to the rim in March, is that when Aurora is involved Mindo is usually related. Probably not a coincidence. Last time I saw Mindo, Emma and I escorted him back to Hale’s with the promise of lemon pie and to help find his old lab. I felt bad that I never got him his lemon pie. Emma’s recreation droid Six had a liberal definition about the difference between lemon cake and lemon pie. When we left Mindo, x0x0 had him strapped to a wall and was slapping him around. Blue Sun Family Values. The rich really aren’t like us.

But DUH, Mindo escaped. Of all people, Immy helped him to escape or at least was his pilot. Now x0x0 and Immy are friends, which is hard to understand, but it’s true. So, whether x0x0 is complicit is another point to ponder. Immy piloted Mindo to safety before. I know of two locations from previously. I only know where one of them are. One is to Mindo’s old lab, currently run by Mini-Zebes. The other one is where they store Mindo’s mother in stasis. I only know where Mini-Zebes is. I went there and Lily went there later, there was no sign. No one seems to know or tell where Mindo’s mommy is stored. STORED is the word they used, more Blue Sun Family Value.

Aurora has a streetvalue for her dna way beyond the appraised value of my petite butt. The Alliance and Blue Sun have been bending over backwards and killing themselves and each other over her valuable genome.

When Weyland-Futani messed with Krenshar’s programming, he was somehow involved. This was a cloned brain Krenshar showed Captain Griffy and me. Krenshar’ s programming seems to have been restored since he was returned from Alliance arrest BY X0X0. He started jumping around again and scratching himself like a certain not-cat named LilyBell that I won’t mention.

Mercedes gets back with me. Turns out she has 3 clones from Krenshar AND the brain that LilyBell stole from Krenshar. I am not sure how that happened. A lot of things have been passed around lately. I think Pepper still has the teddybear that Krenshar needed for Aurora. Cody hid the coin that Krenshar gave him. I hid the data disk the Alliance wants from Cody.

In any case, Mercedes wants a copy of the Ardra backup that LilyBell downloaded from the Ardra synthetic and is willing to trade the clones for it. Pepper wants the Ardra program so that she can trade it to Ardra to get the remains of Saint Zenobius.

The dog will get the chickenhawk a chicken in exchange for a bone. The cat will get you a bone in exchange for a fish. The mouse will get you a fish in exchange for some cheese……My life.

Last week Emma tells me that Cody’s head is going to explode if he doesn’t get proper medical attention. There is a distinct shortage of super genius doctors that make housecalls. With some convincing, I get Miya to agree to examine Cody at the Zenobia Medical Center. I had the room reserved for my annual pilot physical so I can continue to work for the Zenobian Trade Consulate. With some convincing, I get Thoth to shut up for a bit so that the patient would not run away.

Cody did not want to get in the stasis chamber for the total scan, but the wall scanner turned up a lot of info. Mostly about a chip implanted in Cody’s head. X0x0 had said something about it.

LilyBell came and the two ran off like fugitives. Cody found himself in Alliance custody that same day. He was later rescued by some folks. He still walks with a limp.

I mention this now because when I contacted Mercedes in Necronom, among her wares was also some bone marrow of Cody’s. This could mean that there is some link between Mercedes and the organ leggers and the Alliance. Dunno, the Umbrella Corporation might just be like Blue Sun with their fingers in a lot of pies. And Creepy.

I am not sure how this is all playing out, but even though Seana is picking up Aurora, I am going to keep looking for info about Mindo.

Coop flew the coop. Duncan Cooperstone, where art thou? We parted company on bad terms. He did not understand that Cody turned himself in to Caliban voluntarily, I was just the pilot. Coop came to Caliban to spring him. He torched two of my offices before that. All he met found was me, Emma, a DyssenDroid and a freed Cody. We exchanged angry words, then he left. I felt bad. Later I found out that Coop gave the Raveinn to Cody and departed on his own to parts unknown. Gabe has gone looking for Coop, as has Zeno and Pepper as well. I keep my eyes and ears open.

There is a warrant for questioning of any present of past crew of the Raveinn. Coop is wanted for arson. Zenobia pressed charged. I didn’t care, it was insured. I hope he comes back soon. Even though it is going to be a hard time for him.

Emma’s droid, Six, dancing around in the fire mocking Emma and I for being flammable. Yeah, but she can’t tell pie from cake.

Dyssen Droid, big and noisey.

Blue Sun build a luxury compound and I extorted myself onto the tenant list. I scored a sweet chalet in the mountains east of the Spaceport. It overlooks x0x0’s chalet. She was very clear that although we are neighbors, we will not be friends. I know too much to like and am too useful to kill. I get the chalet on the keep your enemies closer playbook.

She doesn’t understand why I don’t tell more of her secrets. It is a fine line to walk. I know where her new secret projects lab is also. I haven’t told her that I know that one yet. I will probably choose a moment when she does not have a gun in her hand and she has something useful to tell me. She threatens me, I tell her that I know of something she thought was a secret, she gets upset, we cut a deal. I get useful information to keep my foolish friends from getting killed. It’s a process. I will probably have to trade some info to break the stalemate on Mindo.

Mine is the one on the far right, x0x0’s is on the far left. There is a cool swimming pool. X0x0 has her own pool. There is a nice private lake too. Lots of rule, no gunfire and stuff. The Chalet is 3 levels. I am having decorator block. Desse and I went to Bihar to look at their art exhibit that Zenobia was sponsoring. It was 19th Century Orientalists, Desse is more neo-classical. I found one painting I liked. There were dozens I like, there was one I found that I think would look good in the chalet.

Gallagher had a coolio pool party at the compound’s pool. Desse came by. YAY DESSE! Good to see folks just having a good time without a stripper pole.

SPOILERS!

2009-10-26T05:19:00.000+04:00

Spoilers

(Planet Real Life and certain technical difficulties have made me a bit scarce lately. Due to said technical difficulties, this is all text. I am a bit overdue and there is a lot, so it is long. Juicy stuff though. Totally fly.)

A week or so before Krenshar left Hale for Caliban, a Weyland Futani Replicant Repair Ship visited Hale. Shortly thereafter, Krenshar exhibited some peculiar behavior and his highlights changed to Alliance Purple.

Krenshar went to Caliban and in addition to making the abandoned medical research base habitable, began some experimentation. This reported involved shipments of reavers and other biological materials. He was cloning something and working with genetics.

His stated goal was to “fix” what was wrong with Aurora and Lily, make them how they were “meant” to be. Krenshar explained, “Lily” is not supposed to be like me, Aurora is not supposed to be like you.” It had to do with combining organic and synthetic I think.

Lily stole a brain from Krenshar’s lab or got it from someone who stole it from Krenshar’s lab.

I finally tracked down the broker that screwed me up with that botched salvage mission on the derelict ship which was being used as a staging area to harvest the organs from people. Mercedes led me to believe that they had been shipping “materials” to Caliban. Also, that Ardra was the pilot. She was also particularly interested in LilyBell for some reason.

Rumors abounded that Krenshar was cloning AuroraBlue LIttleboots and selling them off to the Alliance. His broadcasts over the Firefly Channel had several people concerned. He even threatened x0x0 if she did not deliver Mindo to him. People that had known him for a long time and even regarded him as a friend wondered if they knew him at all. I worried if Weyland Futani was influencing his programming. There was evidence that he had dealings with the Alliance. Maybe the base was not so abandoned.

Meanwhile, the Alliance, and Major Salmionedes in particular, was making a greater presence in the Rim. Usually the Alliance operates thru private military organizations and just conduct oversight. Pepper’s frequent presence and Sentry’s arrest in a crowded Bootlegger’s Bar on MacLaren’s showed that they were taking a direct hand.

Sentry is rescued. Akasha is wounded during the rescue, sloppily leaving a dna sample that the alliance can trace.

Sentry is now a wanted fugitive. A 100 Credit reward is published. I heard 300 Credits, I don’t know why it was lowered.

I also hear from my sources that there is a warrant for Cody too.

I know the location of the encrypted data disk that the alliance is looking for. Might need it pay Cody or Akasha’s ransom.

I was tipped off by a high ranking officers that a policy of “Quid Quo Pro”, an exchange of value was being employed in the Rim.

Someone stole a cloned brain, heart and eyes (I think) from Krenshar’s Lab. These ended up in the possession of Mercedes Celestalis.

Lily at this point thought that Krenshar had harmed AuroraBlue and was selling her parts to the Alliance.

Lily stole the cloned fetuses and burned down the lab. Cody had the misfortune of being her ride. He is new, he doesn’t know about Lily’s fire habits.

Krenshar is furious, or the replicant equivalent. All of his research Krenshar and Miya had to fix Aurora’s degenerating DNA and the synthetic fusion was up in smoke. Also the genetic sample Krenshar needed to give to the Alliance to pay for his equipment and material and weapons like the Ion Cannon.

So it begins.

Cody and Lily are hiding. I am not sure where Cody is hiding at this point.

I find Lily hiding in the mountains at MacLaren’s Drift. She has the fetuses in jars with her. Lily was ravenously hungry, I brought her raw meat every day so she didn’t need to hunt and expose herself. The dead dog found around MacLaren’s shows that it was insufficient. They still have not found Rebel.

I did not know where Aurora is. I check with Seana and check who I can.

Mercedes, an unlikely source, let me know that Aurora was alive and unharmed and visited Bihar briefly.

Lily is reported to have been abducted by Mindo. I check and her hiding place and her stockpile of fetuses were cleared out.

I find Aurora in MacLarens, she has a bloody nose and not feeling well. She needed some medication that Mindo had. She also tells me that her bear and coin are missing. Her DNA was degenerating. Gallagher comes and we search for Mindo. We find his room in Prosperity and finally at Windy’s bunker. I go to get Aurora, she screams seeing the dog corpse in the greenhouse. Gallagher finds the dog skeleton near the orange tree to be suspicious. The oranges left where Lily used to store the robot babies added to his concerns.

I find x0x0 in Hale, target practice. Unnerving. We discuss her upcoming real estate projects and frequently absent personal assistant. She lets me know that she has hired two men to bring Mindo and Aurora to Hale. She wanted me to make sure that Aurora was not harmed or even scared. I guess correctly that she hired Windy and Travis. Taken aback, she shows me how to kill Windy dead if I have to. “Head shot, 3 shots at 3 feet in 3 seconds” Always learny time with x0x0. She wants me to kill Windy if Aurora is harmed or scared. I wondered if she knew that Windy worked for Krenshar. I know that Aurora likes Windy, so I don’t expect troubles.

Krenshar takes it up a notch. Krenshar offers a 1000L reward each for Cody and Lily being delivered to him.

I go to Caliban to find out what Krenshar is talking about and find him in a heated exchange of words with Kitten.

Emberzz, JJ, Coop, Me, the Swashbucker cousins, Cody, Kitten and Akasha are in and around Bootleggers. I give a partial update to people who were kind of in and out of the conversation. Cody is having trouble seeing.

I find out that Krenshar agreed to accept Kitten’s DNA (just a brain and heart sample) in exchange for Cody’s warrant being released. Kitten was already at risk, because she was the means to collect Cody. I perform the laughing chicken experiment to verify that Kitten is special. (nope, not explaining it. You understand the reference or you don’t)

Emma comes for a visit, then x0x0. X0x0 talks to Cody. Emma, Kitten and I eavesdrop. Kitten is trigger itchy. X0x0 explains about the chip implanted in Cody’s eye that is transmitting pictures. I do not find out who did this to him.

To protect the safety of others, Cody agrees to let x0x0 hide him. Kitten is distraught and Akasha is visibly shaken up.

My ship in Hale is parked at 128 128 4000 in Hale, right up against the black. X0x0 naively hid Cody on her ship in plain view of my ship. Yeah, her ship was partially cloaked, but not well enough. I used the equipment from the Zenobian Consulate to set up a secured channel with Cody and coach him about locations for hiding if he becomes uncertain about x0x0’s intentions.

I visit MacLaren’s and hanging with Windy, when a call comes over the open channel that Bounty Hunters have landed in MacLaren’s. Windy and I mount up on turbine flyers and go see the hubbub. Alliance, Bounty Hunters, Reavers and some crazy albino octopuses.

I know that Cody is gone, but Kitten was the probable target. I set up a secured patch of Kitten and Cody, he tells her to let me take her to Hale. Coop comes about but we leave before he finishes asking me question s.

Once Kitten and I are on my ship, I contact Coop on a secured channel and let try to inform him as best I a can and give him the coordinates so we can rendezvous. Jn the meantime, I show Kitten where Cody is out the front window of the Behemoth.

Cody flees x0x0’s ship before Coop arrives.

Coop, Charly, Akasha and Jax come in Coops Firefly, which actually fits in the hangar bay of the Behemoth. He starts to lecture me. I remind him that I am not on his crew and not subject to his orders. He dialed it back before I had to remind him that he was on my ship.

I explain that Cody went with x0x0 voluntarily. We discuss possible places where he might be hiding out.

Windy’s ship is in Hale and only a few hundred meters away. We depart quickly.

We finally catch up with Cody on Bihar. Akasha gets bit by a cobra. Charly takes the poison out. When she is safe to be moved, we go to the infirmary.

When Akasha is out of danger, we discuss hiding places. We decide that Paquin would be a good place.

We take the space tether to ground and are shocked to see Krenshar waiting for us. Cody has run off and Coop is trying to bring him in. Cody was at the Blackburne Smuggler’s Den when Jax hits him square in the chest with a dart with enough tranquilizers to quell a horse. Cody Is not a horse. Somehow Coop is wounded and the retrieval is botched. Akasha runs to Cody while I stall Krenshar. Windy arrives looking for Cody. He sees an opportunity and rushes Cody and Akasha with shotgun drawn. I rush ahead and snatch Cody before Wind can put a bullet in Akasha or Cody.

I take Cody up to my ship and in high orbit over Caliban. I refuse to give Cody over to Krenshar. He offers to raise the bounty. I have items that Krenshar wants more than Cody, but he says he cannot. He wants the bear and Lily for Cody. I refuse.

X0x0 comes in and has not so good words with Windy. Totally unproductive meeting.

Windy is getting antsy and she shuttles off just as Gabe shuttles in. I sense that negotiations are breaking down and I don’t want anything to happen to Cody. I have Gabe take my firefly and take Cody to New Delphi to hide him.

The autopilot takes Gabe and Cody safely to New Delphi, but Gabe crashes on the landing. No one hurt. Gabe is not a pilot.

Once I confirm that Gabe and Cody are “safely” away, I break off communications with Krenshar and go to seek out LilyBell.

I find LilyBell on Hale in the tunnels by the bank. Completely feral, doesn’t even recognize me. I quickly throw raw meat at her. I try to talk to her and find something that will get thru her feral rage. She takes off in a ship and I pursue. She fired upon me, Left aerial mines and even launched mines. Luckily, I am a better pilot that Gabe. But ultimately, she escapes from me.

I forget about LilyBell and head to New Delphi. Gabe explains about how she wrecked the firefly and that it is in about 10 pieces, she thinks. Cody says he can fix it. Cody is having trouble seeing. I explain about the chip in his eye. He doesn’t believe me or recall anything. He requires reminding that he is not a horse.

Gabe finally has to leave. I stay with Cody. Cody is able to contact Lily who was finally coherent. We give up the location and Lily hides out in New Delphi.

Lily hatches a plan. It involves Cody and Lily being married and turning themselves in. I don’t understand how the plan would work, but Lily’s plans are rarely coherent but they have worked in the past. So, who am I to judge.

I provide the wedding rings. Like many Hale residents, I regularly keep meat, candy or shiny things for Lily. I am only licensed to perform same sex marriages on Zenobia, so I pronounce Cody and Lily wife and wife and we leave for Hale, so the happy couple can see their kin.

Seana is not around but Cody is happily reunited with his sister. We go to Firefly’s Bar so that the newly wedded couple can have their first dance. Lily announces her marriage and Champagne is circulated. Nack gives a toast and some warnings. Lily explains her plan which no one there understood either. I am not sure, but she says she will have a new cub. She tells everyone that she and Cody are turning themselves in to Krenshar, but because they are married and having a cub, it will all be ok. Many shrugs.

We go. They freely walk in to the cell Krenshar has for them. He says that they have to stand trial. A lot of angry talk followed. I was numb at this point. This had been 24 hours of craziness.

Krenshar explains that he was never selling Aurora’s dna and that she was safe and unharmed. He was taken aback from Lily’s marriage. He goes to pieces.

A lot of angry words followed. I was taken aback at how many people were so blood thirsty. JJ ultimately pleads with Krenshar for leniency.

I recognize the signs, seen it in him before. Krenshar was already gone. His thoughts were elsewhere and he made his plans.

I manage to take Krenshar’s necklace, I know what it really is. The Alliance SIU officer, Pepper, comes. She was going to exchange the Teddy Bear Krenshar needed for Cody. Krenshar refuses and turns himself in to the Alliance. The presumably disassemble him.

Meanwhile Lily overloads the forcefield and escapes. She is electrically charged and lying in a pile in the courtyard. Some attempt s are made to move her, but she was still a damage shield.

I try to get Lily to go to Hale, but she just crawls into Aurora Blue’s bed on Caliban.

I get Cody up to my ship and over to Hale.

Krenshar is the Replicant Order. No Krenshar, No Replicant Order. They are free.

Some people are unclear on the details and are a little peeved at me. Someone burned down two of the CATZ offices. The one on Hale and the one on MacLaren. A giant black raven is left as a calling card.

After dealing with the fire in MacLaren, Emma and I convince Mindo to come to Hale to see his lab and for Lemon Pie. We lock him up in the boarding house filled with his old lab equipment. x0x0 slaps him around. Blue Sun Family Values? Mindo gets his pie.

Coop, Gabe and Akasha came to Caliban looking for blood. I am unarmed and talk to him. I should have been more respectful, but I was tired. I speak defiantly. I explain everything, mostly what you have read herein.I explained how I got Lily, Cody, Kitten and Aurora safe. All he did was make threats and burn down my offices. The plain evidence is that Cody and Lily are free and unharmed.

I explain how Cody needs medical attention and ask them to take Cody to JJ. Coop left grumbling. Emma shot Gabe in the leg for some reason.

After I thanks the battle droid for posing, I found Cody, Akasha and Gabe talking in the landing bay. Coop gave the Reveinn to Cody. I think maybe Coop was taking a break. They leave.

I chat with Cody for a few. We agree where to hide the coin and how to deal with it.

I do some aerial recon and find where the alliance ship is where Krenshar is being kept.

Now if I can convince people to rescue Krenshar.

(OOC: Many many people were involved in this over the last day. Dozens. A few just IM’d me in character to tip me off that they saw someone or gave me information. You all rocked. This only worked because we all did so much. This is only the tip of the iceberg. The parts I got to be directly involved in. There were many subplots and other parts that involved many people on many sims. THIS WAS TOTALLY COOL! Thank you to everyone.)

Meet Plan Worry

2009-09-28T14:21:00.000+04:00

Meet Plan Worry

Went to the trade meeting at Bootleggers Bar in MacLaren. A lot of traders show up and people looking to be crew. Cody and Kerm show up for the drinking I suppose.

Teetop and Brooke was there. Sentry is part of their crew now and the local rep of their company on MacLaren I think. They were interviewing some gal to be part of their crew. I am not sure what she would be doing that would be useful, she all but admitted that many people are angry at her.

Cursa was chatting up the Companion Acolyte, Akasha. Akasha is nice, we have visited on Hale and Caliban also. Girl circulates. Brazen came by and some Darthish type fellow Colonel something or other.

I think Kerm and Cody were drunker than most or drunker than usual or... well, they were drunk. Kerm was going to drink something call Tequla, I hooked him up with proper Tequila. Savages in the border and rim.

Sentry told me that the Alliance SIU woman came sniffing around for him again. Major Salmionedes has been kind of dogging my steps too, but to interrogate, uh question, uh interview, uh chat with me. I explained that this is not going to end until we serve up a body to SIU that placates them. Kerm had some overly optimistic opinion about his romantic prowess, suggesting that it would have some effect. He was drunk, I was kind and let it pass. I might not be able to find the Major the relics of Saint Zenobius that she wants, but I think we are getting close to tracking down the organ leggers. I am hoping I can serve them up and get her breathing down someone else's neck.

I was in a good mood because I got paid by the Bihar Sanctuary for some easy peasy work. Hauling some art that the Zenobians has stashed in their various "summer residences". The Bihar Sanctuary is having an art exhibit officially opening October 1st about 19th Century "Orientalist" Paintings. Mostly European artists renderings of the Middle East and North Africa. I went over the advertising sign with Miya at Caliban.

Zeno brought me to the Zenobia Space Station via express transit. Must be urgent to spend that kind of money on me. She showed me the copy of Zeno's old wanted poster from when she ran cargo with Coop. We discussed that she probably still have open warrants and only her job as Zenobia's Estate Manager was giving her immunity. She better hold onto that job. Major Salminonedes left some veiled messages for me also. Only a matter of time.

Zeno was spooked and wanted to talk, but was worried about eavesdropping and other monitoring. She had to look at the Art Exhibit the Zenobian were sponsoring in Bihar, so we decided on there. The Bihar Sanctuary is not quite a Luddite Settlement, but not a lot of low tech. It is a safe place to talk. It's a beautiful place, if you can excuse the rain, the bats and the snakes. We spoke quietly about what we should do and our option between coffee and wondering what Odalisks and Almeh's were. Vascha from the Companions Guild came by while we were talking. She is very pregnant btw.

Zeno had to leave and Vascha gave me an application to be a companion acolyte. The cultural aspects are appealing, but I don't think I am appropriate for.. you know... that ... moving on.

Back from Bihar, We stopped to refuel the Behemoth and pick up some transhipment at Gateway Station over Shadow.

Sure enough, Major Pepper. Normally I would say she is tailing me, but Gateway is the crossroads. I don't know what the current jurisdiction is with the Alliance and Serenity Station, Gateway Station, Shadow or open space, but I decide its best to not act in a furtive manner and create reasonable suspicion. We chat.

Pepper knew my record. She knew I had no criminal record and had proven that I cooperated with Authorities. I actually got a permit to salvage the derelict "Persephone". When it turned out that it was being used for organ legging, I forwent the profit and turned it over to the authorities. I am still in trouble with the salvage brokers over that, even though it was a setup of some sort. She showed me a security picture of me wearing a Dharma Initiative uniform with Zeno, Coop and Desmond Serenity. Pepper thought it was incriminating. I told her that I didn't see how. Desmond Serenity is a public figure and the Dharma Initiative is a registered charity. She recommended that I cease my association with them. She seemed to think they had something to do with some terrorist activity and that collecting reaver bodies in Hale was suspicious. She had a copy of the photograph from Gallagher's desk showing Gallagher's old army unit. Desmond was in the photo too. I explained that it was not surprising. The Dharma Initiative was formed by veterans to take care of veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and head injuries.

Pepper alternated between subtle intimidation and hamhanded attempts at trying to build rapore and trust with me. She knew about my family being massacred by reavers and that it was denied by the local Alliance Garrison. Thus I have some trust issues in similar circumstances. When I sniff expediancy, I tune out. I may have been harsh with x0x0 and Seana when LilyBell was kidnapped because they exuded that Alliance type vibe. I have felt less safe ever since. My family's death was covered up as a convenience, I wanted the facts. Pepper agreed to get my the real file in exchange for some info.

I was at the Saint Zenobius Chapel with Zeno when Mirra was setting up the scanning equipment, but I have been out of the loop about the results. Everything else I knew has been rumor, gossip, hearsay, conjecture and guesses.

I could tell that the Major was disappointed that I had nothing to add that she did not already know. I told her that I really can't go around asking about the relics, it would compromise finding them. She rattled off some names. I recognized one of them, Ardra.

I explained about the illegal organ legging network and how Ardra was the transhipper thru the same salvage broker I used (not anymore). My cousin Moira managed to find links to an unregistered organ transplant company and the "Angels of Mercy" Medical Research Facility. I told her that I would be happy to turn over copies of the manifests. I wanted a copy of the real file from my family's massacre and I wanted these people put down a deep dark dirty hole of a prison to rot until the end of time. The Major made a backpedal statement. She blew it and I told her so. These Alliance goons are so turned around they can't even talk straight.

Their job is to protect the law and the establishment, not me. I don't go on these missions for fun. I can't trust these people to have my back. There is no rule of law. There is only the veneer of civility and the affectation of rights. I give them what they need and they serve me up to the dogs. If this is to end, I have to end it, not trust the authorized representatives.

Krenshar showed Captain Griffy and I his clone projects. Krenshar was missing a brain and was having to stall the Alliance who wanted to pick it up.

I knew who had it. LilyBell talked to me about it the other day. This was the bait I needed. Sufficiently coveted. Hopefully my friends would be able to back me up.

I ran into LilyBell, who was wearing some fancy threads, new hair and wearing some metalic makeup.

LilyBell showed off her new look to Raids in Firefly's.

Hey, is this Raids in Firefly's....

....and this Raids in Seana's Office the same Raids or different?

I ran around Hale and the tunnels with LilyBell. I am not sure the purpose of this, but we do this a couple or few times a month for some reason.

I show LilyBell the gold coins I got from Mr. Tevya at Bihar. LilyBell told me that AuroraBlue was visiting. I never managed to run into her. I was never really close to AuroraBlue, but worried about her.

LilyBell and I went someplace private where we would speak confidentially. I explained the troubles with the organ leggers and how the day after Gallagher started investigating it, he was shot down in his own office. LilyBell talked in circles a little bit, but wouldn't help me out. I told her that I was disappointed that she did not want to help me or catch Gallagher's shooters. She then brandished weapons and angrily suggested I leave. She had her own priorities, whatever they are.

New Offices and Networking

2009-09-22T14:01:00.000+04:00

Been busy. ZOHMyGodzilla, I say that a lot.

Zenobia has been working me like an indentured serf. Seven offices now: MacLaren's Drift, Hale's Moon, Caliban, Shadow, Bihar, Zenobia and Londinium.

http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-trade-offices-in-bihar.html

http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/09/under-dome.html

http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/09/secure-warehouse-facility-on-maclarens_17.html

http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/07/trade-delegation-to-hales-moon.html

http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/06/trade-delegation-to-shadow.html

We're actually news with the Zenobian. It takes their mind off the recent terrorist attack at a medical research station and the tensions in the Parliament.
http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/terrorists-strike-medical-research.html

The Zenobians mostly kept to themselves in the 'Verse, kind of an insular medieval way of thinking. The military faction and the trade faction don't get along so well. Different points of view on how things should run. Rough talk about seniority based on lineage, blah blah blah.
http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/antares-leaves-orbit_22.html
http://siamendes.blogspot.com/

Welcome to the 'Verse, Zenobian. Hold on, it's probably gonna be a bumpy ride.

I stop off in Splintered Rock and even Washburne on occasion when some trade beckons.

I was just returning to the Rim and looking over the secured facilities in MacLaren's Drift. For some reason someone coopted the outer area as a medical station. The Rim is an ad-hocracy, things are done in a makeshift jerry-rigged duct tape temp basis. You get used to it. Ironic content is a familiar visitor in the Rim.

When I was just leaving MacLaren, I got a wave from Cursa Charisma in Washburne. I am supposed to be nosing down around there for Zenobia, so I went and joined TeeTopWillie and Brazen's crew at a dancehall in Washburne. Brazen blushes for some reason.

Cursa was still bandaged up from being shot down in Splintered Rock. Nativist terrorists.
http://cortexnewsservice.com/2009/09/18/near-disaster-above-splintered-rock.aspx

Tee told me Sentry was working with Tee now. Sentry left Shadow when heat got too much for him, hid out in MacLaren's. Now Alliance come sniffing around for him there. Tee said something about a trade mission to Necromunda IV, Necronom? Necro Mundo? Ehhh, spelling.
http://sentry-rp.blogspot.com/2009/09/so-much-for-keeping-my-head-down.html

I hooked Tee up with the coordinates to the CATZ offices. TTW is part of our little network, he can use our offices. Desks, chairs, best coffee in the 'verse that doesn't come thru the digestive tract of a small carnivore.

We talk a little shop. Brazen and Cursa were surprized to hear that the Alliance was sniffing around Splintered Rock. Tee confirmed that he saw Major siamendes actually mining in the desert.
http://siamendes.blogspot.com/2009/09/splinterer-rock.html

Meanwhile back at Hale's Moon: DIGGING. Dig Dig Dig. That's what LilyBell does, a lot. Dig. Why? Dunno. But today she was repairing a cave-in from her digging. And it was Gallagher's Birthday. Cake, Candles, Balloons, Hats and for some reason Oranges. Krenshar came and added his joy to the party and talked about the obedience of toasters.

Later (still at Hale) I was chatting with Immy and Cody Winterwolf. LilyBell blazed thru for a minute or two. "What the needle for?" No answer.

I catch up will LilyBell later to say good night and she is bandaging up Cody Winterwolf.

****[OOC: I purposedly linked to a lot of other blog posts in this entry. I think it's great that so much that is going on in the verse is available to be read in blog forms. It helps to keep track. That's why I update all 41 firefly related blogs.]****

Blackburne Observer
http://blackburne-observer.blogspot.com

Cortex News Service
http://cortexnewsservice.com/

Serenity Station Pioneer
http://serenitystation.wordpress.com/

Suzhou Sentinel
http://suzhousentinel.blogspot.com/

Washtown Roleplayers
http://washtownroleplayers.blogspot.com/

Hale's Moon Herald
http://halesmoonherald.blogspot.com/

Zenobian Times
http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/

Alison Lynn Haystack: Ali's House
http://alisonlynns-house-of-pleasure.blogspot.com/

Amyla Wakowski-Swindlehurst: Love, Amyla
http://amylawakowski.livejournal.com/

AuroraBlue Littleboots
http://aurorabluelittleboots.blogspot.com/

Belize Carver: Survival In The Black
http://belcarver.blogspot.com/

Ben BigBoots: A Bounty Hunter's Log
http://benbigboots.blogspot.com/

Children of Earth
http://childrens-journey.blogspot.com/

Cholgosh Swindlehurst: Chol's Hidey Spot
http://chols-hidey-spot.blogspot.com/

Derrick Osterham: The Merc. Minute
http://themercminute.blogspot.com/

Dread Salamander: Dread's Bunker
http://dreadsl.blogspot.com/

Duncan Cooperstone: Raivenn's Browncoats
http://duncancooperstone.blogspot.com/

Emma - Stopping the Signal
http://emmaditko.blogspot.com/

Faye in the 'Verse
http://fireflyfaye.blogspot.com/

Gabe Yazimoto: Guns'n sake ain't mutually exclusive
http://gabeyazimoto.blogspot.com/

Garkuyan Koba: In the 'verse
http://blahblahverse.blogspot.com

General Parkin: The Hunted Warrior
http://generalparkin.blogspot.com/

Imrhein Fargis: Let's Have No Undue Fussin'
http://blackburne-imrhien.blogspot.com/

J. J. Zackerly: A Brief Candle; Both Ends Burning
http://jjzackerly-liberty.blogspot.com/

Jai Raghilda: Jai's Necessity
http://jairaghilda.blogspot.com/

Lance Ducatillon
http://lanceducatillon.blogspot.com/

LilyBell Snoodle: Is not a cat
http://lilybellsnoodle.blogspot.com/

Lorie Lilliehook
http://lorielilliehook.blogspot.com/

Mikie Rhiadra: Stranger in a Strange Land
http://mikierhiadra.blogspot.com/

Nack Barnes: Nack's Blog, from Firefly's Bar at Blackburne
http://fireflybar.blogspot.com/

Neutrino Nightfire: Wandering Thoughts
http://neutrinonightfire.blogspot.com/

Pepper Siamendes' Report, SIU
http://siamendes.blogspot.com/

Podwangler Zapedzki: Pod's Wanglings
http://podzapedzki.blogspot.com/

Sabrina McGee: Freaky Mad Science Genius Girl
http://sabrinageek.blogspot.com/

Seana Kawanishi: The Lonesome Ninja Mayor of Hale's Moon
http://mayorseana.blogspot.com/

Sentry Swashbuckler: A Mechanic's Life
http://sentry-rp.blogspot.com/

Solomon Leitner: Admiral: Elindor Actual
http://elindoractual.blogspot.com/

Tdstraitjacket Manamiko: I don't have wings, I am just a man
http://idonthavewingsiamjustaman.blogspot.com/

Tsai Jie: Dancing Through My Second Life
http://dancingthroughmysl.blogspot.com/

X0x0 Zhangsun: I can kill you with my brain
Xaviar Kiranov: Doctor Kiranov Log

G does the sensible thing

2009-09-08T13:35:00.001+04:00

Gabe has been staying away from Hale since the incident with the Alliance Soldier giving her the shakedown treatment. She has been saying that she was meant to wander, but truth to tell, I don't think she's as happy, maybe its just stress. I know she misses everyone in Hale, talk.

Since the dust died down on the previous incident, she made a few visits to Hale. Sure enough, another Alliance good is looking for her. A fancy pretty boy alliance goon named Raymond Janic came to Hale sniffing around for G.

G does the sensible thing and blows town.

Later, a crazy drug dealer's son robs the General Store.

Gabe hears the wave and comes to check it out. Militia habits die hard. It was a kind of old home week, Gallagher by hologram, Lilybell is not a cat, Venice Red Eyes, Emma7, Me, Captain Griffy, General wearing his new desert combat togs.

Sure enough, there's another alliance goon, this one by the name of Major Pepper Siamendes from SIU. She says she is investigating the black market Zenobian Artifacts. She seemed curiously interested in a mere General Store robbery. She seems most interested in the operations of our informal militia.

Gabe maintained her cool, but I could tell she was ready to bolt at any hint of anything.

The investigation identified this guy as the robber, Inup Thoret.

I don't know what the grafitti is about, but it showed up later on the inside of the bank. We have spotted Inup and he mostly makes fools out of us.

Gallagher is what you might call pro-active. He is often grumpy and ill-tempered, but he directs it mostly against people that threaten me and mine, so I let it pass. He decides that we do a little searching on the Alliance Ship. Somehow he gets alliance uniforms, THAT FIT. Amazing that the Alliance makes a size 2 combat uniform.

We head up and Emma and I get what information we can from the control room. I know my way around the shipping docs and docks. I get their manifests and shipping orders. Emma gets layout info and bunk assignments.

We find the graffiti that Gabe supposedly did. Burned right into the hull, "4 G".

The universe is designed to surprize. One of the last things I expect to find in the hold of an Alliance Cruiser is an Airstream Trailer. More surprising is that it belonged to fancyboy Raymond Janic.

We beat feet out of there and implemented the dependable strategic maneuver number 1 and 2, run & hide.

Gallagher comes back with a way to disguise our identities better, with a kind of mask that will fool the face recognician software.

I call it Ruth Squad. Gallagher, Vegaslon, Emma, Gabe and I. We go up, try and access their computer for more files. Somehow the computer lets Gabe access. It happened just like on the Bland Corporation ship. Maybe this computer was built by the same company. We download some info and snoop around and get out of there to examine the evidence.

I most liked the security footage I found.

Other than that, Hale's has been much the same. A meteor blasted a hole in the ground and lava erupted. A tunnel collapsed in front of the Zenobian Trade Office that Lily had to repair. A lava flow near the Blue Sun border, the ground lit on fire.

If I were the paranoid type, I would blame it on the railway Blue Sun is building thru Hale. A lot of excavation going on.

I am way behind on my work. Because of the Consolidated Associate Traders of Zenobia(CATZ), we have more trade offices than ever. We've had a lot of business and a lot of action coming around, so I have not had the time to set them up correctly.

Zeno and Mirra both sent me a wave, they probably have news about the relics of Saint Zenobius.

I need to catch up with Brazen and Cursa on Splintered Rock.

I am overdue for a meet with Teetop and Brooke, they have an exit buyer for the meds I salvaged. I have to dump the blastomeres before things get too hot.

My updated route is:
MacLaren's Drift
Ralph
Hale's Moon
Blackburne Wastelands
Caliban
Shadow
Strega
Bihar
Bagworm/Washburn
Paradiso
Zenobia
Londinium
Paquin
Splintered Rock

I am glad I had enough time to live up to some of my duties with the Hale Militia. I am mostly ineffectual, but I feel I contribute in some small way.

Mission to Wastelands

2009-08-29T11:09:00.000+04:00

Mission to Wastelands

We are looking for the base of operations of a cyborged pilot named Ardra. Ardra had been hired to transport something belonging to the Zenobians, but has been also linked to the transport of the PAX that was stored at the "Angels of Mercy" and the organ harvesting operation we found on the derelict ship. We want to find that base and anything in it. In our last fact finding mission, we were attacked by a replicant.

This operation has been linked to grievous crimes, so I expect the worst. I called upon the some dangerous friends: Gallagher, LilyBell, Gabe, Emma and Vega answered the call.

Emma’s dangerous, she ripped apart a replicant and Ardra with her fashionable shoes.

Gabe summed it up: See a bad thing, point and shoot? See anything interesting, pick it up.

I warned people to defend themselves at all costs, these people harvest eyes and kidneys from the living for a living. Please do not get separated, but if you do, keep in touch on the radio.

We had an encounter with Ardra the day before last, so she knew we were looking for it. Ardra's objective seems to be destroying records.

Cross referencing our slowly increasing file base, we found an area in the Blackburne wastelands that was a probably location. Gallagher gave strict instructions to keep everything in house and no one go near the locals.

I scouted ahead for a landing spot. No sooner do we all land but Gabe is shot by sniper fire. It took a minute or so of running around, but Vega, Gallagher and LilyBell ran him down and put him down. Lily shot him many times with her bow and Gallagher finished him off. "LilyBell save best for you."

In the meantime, Gabe was fixing up her wounds and of course we misplaced Emma.

"EMMA!" I end up saying early and often. I don't know if Emma is not a listener, not a follower or just easily distracted. I am getting used to reconstructing what happened to Emma by looking at her helmet cam pics. I specifically say "Stay together" and her first question is "Then we split up?"

Emma: "I'm noticing a trend on these missions Jai... I always get bitten!"

DUH! Stay with the group why don't ya?

Some kind of partially cyborgized reaver. Emma took it down, but not before she was bitten, AGAIN. She said that it seemed to be under external control and was fighting said control.

I radiod Emma and Gabe to catch up with us.

Why the Alliance guy? Dunno. This is the first appearance of the alliance and an officer no less, not a mere grunt. No one seemed to make any thought about it. Evil things happening, Alliance, of course.

In any case, the Alliance officer had some documents on him indicating Mini Zebes lab. Gallagher had a lead on this lab a while back, but nothing came of it. Maybe we were premature in our assessment.

Gallagher had a vague idea of where it was and LilyBell seemed to know a lot about it.

"Lily know that very well. It where Mindo had the big brain. Here mades DNA transfers and coding. IT gots 5 levels. Bad things inside.

Gallagher, Emma and LilyBell make their way down to the bottom level. Meanwhile I got stuck in some pink good and am paralyzed. Vega and Gabe are still catching up.

We hear Ardra shout: "KILL ME!"

Gallagher is calling for us to get down there, but I can't move. Vega and Gabe find me.

Ardra shouts: KILL ME

LilyBell: "nonono, nothing good here.

Gallagher Aeon: Get down here.

Ardra shouts: I SAID KILL ME

Gallagher Aeon: Now!

Jai: HELP! "Paralyzed. Can't move."

LilyBell: This a bad place.

Ardra shouts: LESS TALK! KILL ME NOW

I think that's when the shooting started. Ardra activated some automated defenses and shot at Emma, LilyBell and Gallagher. For hesitating to kill her? Suicidal Cyborg logic.

It seemed to remember Emma, called her "the waif". Which is odd, because it was completely destroyed.

LilyBell taps on the glass

Data Screen whispers: Scanning.... Data 2 Downloaded...

LilyBell connects to the gencon but has not gotten a response. Looks in awe at the creature, "It beautiful, like Miss Raids."

Emma: "Can't help but agree..."

LilyBell: It talking to me. No move me

Jai: Find records and stuff

Gallagher Aeon: "There’s a warbot here."

LilyBell: "Her not a warbot. her....her like me."

LilyBell puts away her weapon. "Chemical data transfer. Run. Go. it self destructing."

Gallagher Aeon shouts: "Everyone get out!"

Ardra shouts: 10...9....

Jai: "Everyone out!

Ardra shouts: 8...7...

LilyBell stands staring at the creature, "No, Lily not leave it."

Ardra Aurotharius shouts: 3.....

Gallagher Aeon runs back in

Ardra shouts: 2....

Ardra shouts: ...................................................

Ardra is Offline.

LilyBell: "WHY YOU TAKE ME OUT?"

Gallagher Aeon: "I went back in for Lily."

Emma Ditko lets out a gasp... "That was close..."

LilyBell Snoodle stares at the ground

Vegaslon Plutonian: "Oh God."

LilyBell Snoodle: "Why you make me leave her?"

Gallagher Aeon: "She wanted to die. Wasn't gonna let you die with her."

LilyBell: "Her thank me. We talked. It not a machine actually. It genetic construct, like this one, but not."

Jai: "The one we saw the other day was mechanical."

Gallagher Aeon: "...with a metal skeleton and no skin."

LilyBell shrugs, "Lily talk to this one, just fine to me."

Gallagher Aeon: "Looked like a warbot to me, with angel wings."

Emma: "It's not a warbot... Its... something else"

Gallagher Aeon: "She was in pain, she was suffering."

Gallagher Aeon wonders why Lily is shaking.

LilyBell just looks at them "We all suffering. Lily want go home, bad place. No come here no more. Bad."

We went back to the hemlock, Gallagher had to pilot. After a while, I got the feeling back in my limbs and I could move.

Folks were not much for debriefing, a little shaken maybe. There was a data chip which turned out to be a homing beacon of some sort. Gallagher cut it off in time and said he would use the equipment in the big radio tower to try and figure out its source.

The equipment we found was all genetic data encoding and retrovirus transplant, the stuff you use to overwrite someone's DNA.

The only other data is uploaded into Lily's head and she did not seem inclined to share it. All she told us is that it was some chemical data. I think Ardra like Raids touched a certain delicate spot in LilyBell. I did not press the matter.

I just wanted to lie down. I will maybe figure something out tomorrow. No one was hurt too bad. Hopefully we will figure out what to do next.

Ardra on Derelict

2009-08-27T11:40:00.000+04:00

The records Darth Gallagher got from the Dharma raid on the Zenobian "Angels of Mercy" Medical Research Facility (which was stockpiling PAX), plus what he was able to recover from the corrupted data chip we got from the Bland Corporation ship, cross referenced with the information Gallagher was able to glean from his access to some Alliance records, he determined that Ardra has made transshipment for the "Angels of Mercy".

As the unregistered organ transplant operation on Zenobia was linked to both the "Angels of Mercy" and the illegal organ harvesting we uncovered some months back, we decided that we could maybe get more leads to track Ardra if we went back to the derelict ship where we first discovered the organ harvesting.

The Bihar Sanctuary curator, Feargananym, originally uncovered Ardra as being hired to transport the coveted "Coffin of Saint Zenobius" to Splintered Rock. How they are all linked together is not clear. Why the "Coffin of Saint Zenobius" is going to Splintered Rock is also a mystery.

I was not happy about going back to the derelict ship, named "The Persephone" I discovered. Necessity is not just the name of my ship and my company, it’s a way of life.

It is an abandoned ship and merely a fact finding mission, but Gabe, Emma and Zade agreed to accompany me anyway. Our objective was to find the main medical lab and the command center and download whatever files we could and take whatever samples we could find. Stay together and don't sit on anything. Seriously, DO NOT SIT ON ANYTHING. Easy Peasy, right?

Right out of the airlock, Emma and I got separated from Gabe and Zade. And found a vivisected Saint Peter.

We were still in radio contact with Gabe and Zade and there was only one exit. I went first, all clear. I radioed back for Emma and she somehow got slipped out to the other side of the ship. She is the fallingest girl I have ever met in my entire life. We told her to stay in radio contact and we would meet up as we worked our way thru the ship.

Emma required some occasional prodding to speak, "EMMA!" was frequently heard dialogue.

Safety Begins with Teamwork. YOU GUYS READ THAT? Nooooo. Zade got separated from Gabe and I less than 10 minutes after we got separated from Emma.

Z stayed in radio contact and we would catch up. Gabe found what she thought was a command center. Turned out it was the crew lounge. The vending machines had been inoperable for years, poor bastiches.

Gabe found a medbay....

....and dead bodies.

We were briefly attacked by a replicant. Looked like the same make and model as Krenshar, but this one seemed to have a female body shape, kinda. She wielded a pipe and attacked us both. It did not seem very motivated in the attack, just attacked us as she fled from the room. She headed to where Z was last seen, we lost radio contact with Z around that time.

"Your Safety is In Your Hands". Yes, it is also in your butt. Do not sit anywhere. The last time we heard from Emma, she said something about being bit and attacked after sitting on something. With both Z and Emma out of radio contact, we had to prioritize finding them. Especially now that we were not alone.

Elevator shaft, ladder, ventilation shaft, hallways, tunnel, ladder, chute. Or some combination like that. I found the biology center and the replicant found me. We were in a small room and I was able to hold my own against the pipe thrashing replicant. I normally go down quickly, but in this smaller room, I was able to keep the attack on. We were both pretty close to done and one pipe hit before I could activate the heal stims, I radioed that the replicant took me down as I hit the floor.

I was in that dreamy place where I am a foreign exchange university student when Emma found me. It was all over by the time I found my feet working again. Emma went boot knife kung fu on the Replicant and apparently Ardra.

Ardra did not really look like the Ardra I was shown in the pictures. Previously Ardra had an organic body. Ardra was KO when I got there, but came to within a minute or so. Activated a self destruct and attached herself to Emma. Emma ran around and was finally able to use a doorway to separate herself from Ardra. In the meantime, I was able to stop the self-destruct and abort the data dump.

Gabe caught up with us as the Replicant dissolved and the automated part of Ardra fled. Emma laid down as Gabe and I ran after Ardra. She lost us quickly.

We downloaded all the files we could, and even stopped the EVIL RickRoll Virus from corrupting the remaining files. If you ever go to hell, Rick will be waiting for you. We took as many bio samples as we could and found an Incubator Unit.

It was time to get out of there. Z was stashed somewhere safe and we found everything we could.

Emma said something about being scratched or taking off her helmet in the quarantine area. Emma had very little interest in doing anything except laying down, until we mentioned food.

By the time we were near Hale's, it was clear that Emma was symptoming. I called for emergency landing near the medbay. Emma avoided the medbay and ran around like LilyBell (on all fours) looking for food. She ran out of steam in the Hemlock and crashed out. Then up and running a bit. I put out an open wave for a doctor and kept an eye on Emma while Gabe went to get something for Emma to eat.. Dr. Footpad came and in desperation I brought her to the Hemlock. I was just briefing her about what happened when Gallagher came.

Gallagher was angry that I brought an outsider to the Hemlock. He obsessed a bit, but we were able to get him back on track of paying attention to the patient. We were able to move Emma to the medbay and Gallagher initiated containment and quarantine conditions. There was a lot of medically stuff involving adrenaline, antibodies, tests and comparisons. Mixed in with a few lectures about bringing outsiders to the Hemlock.

Fortunately Emma had been inoculated several times by AuroraBlue bites. AuroraBlue bit Emma often because "she smells funny". She will mostly recover in a month or so. Doctor Footpad gave Emma an treat for being a good patient.

Emma was still exhibiting LilyBell type behavior and contrasting between aggressive manic food obsessing and extreme lethargy. She was chilling on the couch when I left her.

I left a copy of the files with Gallagher to see if he can figure out anything more.

I hooked up with Z later, he was grumpy but fine.

I will check with folks tomorrow to see if they want to go to the wastelands and track down further.

Retrieving the Relics of Saint Zenobius

2009-08-25T17:25:00.000+04:00

Retrieving the Relics of Saint Zenobius

I am finally back from my long trip, details some other time maybe after I am caught up a little more.

Recapping the events of the past two weeks, now that everyone has finally updated me. Okay sure, I'm partly to blame as I was travelling. I would super appreciate it if folks would take pics too, it really helps. Thanks and love, beautiful people.

The curator of the Bihar Sanctuary Museum, Feargananyn Karillion, was contacted by a supposed art dealer about the possibility of the sale of an Earth Heritage Artifact. A .1 gram sliver shard sample from the casket was authenticated, so there is a real one somewhere. It is being offered up for sale on the black market.

Curator Feargananym Karillion

The museum's authenticator, Mirra Zanzibar, made contact with the Zenobian Estates Manager, Ms. Zeno Baxton, and procurred permission to scan the relics, which were being put on display in their newly built chapel which was to be dedicated to Saint Zenobius.

http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/chapel-of-st-zenobius.html

The non-invasive scans were sufficient to determine that the coffin was a forgery.

Mirra Zanzibar and Zeno Baxton

The coffin is carved from a solid block of silver, which has prevented most scans and has ironically prevented detection of the fraud for quite some time. It is an expert work of forgery, someone actually found correctly dated materials and possibly even a likely body.

The key to uncovering the forgery was the painting that was the coffin's neighbor for over 500 years. Above the shrine of Saint Zenobius was the painting "Last Supper" by the lesser known renaissance artist, Giovanni Balducci. The counterfeiters did not think to include chemicals that would link them or could not, as the painting Last Supper by the lesser known renaissance artist, Giovanni Balducci, is not in circulation. But the sliver from the art dealer had the correct residue.

Zenobia's terraforming was complete in 2308, the relics were transferred to Zenobia at the dedication ceremony and were kept in the Castle's private vault until recently with the exception of during the war years. During the war however the Military leadership took charge of various artifacts from Earth-That-Was, all were supposedly returned after the hostilities however.

The "Coffin of Saint Zenobius" is a masterpiece work by the great Renaissance Master Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1440, and was on display at the church of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence Italy, an Earth Heritage Site. As such, the coffin itself is an Earth Heritage Artifact. Prior to that, the reliques were kept in Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze, the parish of the Zenobian's rivals, the Medici's, who did not get along well by most accounts.

There are three windows of opportunity for this crime, in 2308 when it was transported to Zenobia, during the war, and when it was moved from the castle vault to the chapel just recently.

Mirra Zanzibar collected two separate .1 gram samples taken from the surface the counterfeit coffin, and took samples from the vault where it was stored and the crates it was transported and stored in. Including dust and air samples. Comparing the samples to samples in Castle vault and also with the Alliance Ministry of Antiquities on Londinium, Mirra determined that the theft took place during the war when the Military leadership took charge.

Since the theft happened during the war, some of those people are still in power and means a broader conspiracy and would be harder to prove or to prosecute. It also points to a possible theory that the Alliance is looking to destabilize the government for their own purposes.

If the authentic relics were under military guardianship during the war, it is possible that an alliance was made between one of the great houses and someone in the military leadership. The most probable confederate would be one who knew that his own claim was weak or even false. Without the reliques, his claim can also not be disproved.

The Zenobian ruling class bases its right to rule is based on genetic heritage. Without the remains, no claim can be verified as mandated by their own traditions which are the basis for their claim of leadership.

The Bihar Santuary's contacts in the art and artifact grey and black market has created numerous leads. Too numerous to search themselves with their limited manpower. Mirra made contacts with various local agents based on the recommendations of Zeno Baxton.

Duncan Cooperstone, based on MacLaren's Drift, formerly with the Independent's 12th Air Calvalry, and Ms. Baxton's former captain. Mr. Cooperstone was originally contacted by the Bihar Sanctuary's curator, Feargananym Karillion. Mirra recently contact him and JJ Zackerly and hired him officially. Ms. Baxton was to arrange payment and terms. JJ Zackerly, a former companion and MacLaren's Drift's physician, informed Miira that they have an archaeologist in residence.

Captain Falcon Neox, based on Splintered Rock. Mirra contacted Captain Neox directly at his offices on Splintered Rock.

Captain Falcon Neox

Captain Neox is working with a group of Independent Traders, captained by an outworlder named Brazen.

Mistress Brazen Bondar

Cursa Charisma, Brazen's first officer and navigator.

Jezebelle Bimbogami, crew

Teetopwilli Neiro, a roguish supposed antique rug dealer, based on Shadow but also operates on Splintered Rock. Mr. Neiro was not a recommendation by Ms. Baxton. Mr. Neiro was originally a suspect, who we are monitoring. We have no evidence related to Mr. Neiro, he just happens to coincidentally operate in all of the theatres we were investigating. I met Mr. Neiro and his first mate on Splintered Rock, where he maintains a trade office.

TeetopWillie Neiro

Brooke Rhea, Tee's First Officer

Feargananym's contacts with the Companion's Guild gained him a few leads. Primary among them is a rogue Ex-Navigator's Guild Steersman, a drug addict by the name of Ardra, has been contracted to take a parcel from the rim to Splintered Rock. Ardra usually deals with smuggling illicit drugs and black market medical supplies, and operates out of the Uroborus Asteroid Belt orbiting Blue Sun. Recently he/she (we are unsure of Ardra's gender, but are leaning towards female) has been spotted around the Lux systems of Hera, Aphrodite and Shadow.

THERE'S AN ANIMATED HOLOGRAM OF ARDRA, SOMEONE PLEASE SEND ME A COPY!

We are unsure where the handoff will take place, whether in the rim or in and around Shadow, but the trail shall pass thru Shadow on its way to Splintered Rock.

Current instructions are not to apprehend Ardra until we are sure that he/she has the artifact in his/her possession and only if it can be retrieved without damage. If Ardra is taken before he/she has the artifact, we will lose our only current lead and he/she might not have any useful information making interrogation worthwhile. As a Guild Steersman, his cargo is virtually undetectable by sensors, bureaucratic interference or sensitive approaches. The key will be to act during the handoff, the stop-over or at its destination.

In a addition to being a drug trafficker, Ardra is a drug addict who uses mind altering substances which he/she believes makes him/her a more skilled pilot. This may open possible leads in locating Ardra.

Since the terrorist attack on the Medical Research Facility on Zenobia, the mainland has been sealed and off limit to offworlders.

http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/terrorists-strike-medical-research.html

The alliance has taken possession of the forged coffin for reasons that remain unclear.

http://zenobian-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/antares-leaves-orbit_22.html

The families of the ruling class have gone offworld to supposed summer-residences.

Insurection and civil war on Zenobia is close at hand.

The Estates Manager is hoping to recover the relics to prevent dissention among the ruling class and will hopefully prevent civil war.

The Alliance maintains jurisdiction over all Earth Heritage Artifacts and the Estates Manager wants the matter resolved without involving the Alliance or alerting them in any way.

Since the primary motive for stealing the relics is political, the fact that it is being offered up for sale before the civil war leads Mirra and Feargananyum to suspect that whoever planned this has either lost control of their confederates or is short on funding.

Mirra have not ruled out religious fanatics as either the end buyers or as third parties. Saint Zenobius was known for numerous miracles while he lived, including no less than raising the dead on 5 separate occasions. Several incidents of attempts to steal or otherwise procure the reliques have occurred thru its colorful history. King Louis of France spent large sums of money for the acquisition of the Ring of Saint Zenobius, hoping it would heal him. Several people were killed in the attempt to procure the ring.

WHODAT?

2009-08-24T08:10:00.000+04:00

WHODAT?

That's me in my spiffy Dharma uni, Gallagher is a great photographer. I've been gone for a week, figured you might have forgotten what I look like.

This is Aurora, formerly AuroraBlue, she's all organic now. I am hoping she worked out that little quirk about planning to kill all organic life. She promised to kill me last if I helped her. Maybe, hopefully.

This was Aurora saying goodbye, x0x0 got all weepy. Seana hauled Aurora off to Ariel to live on their family compound. They are probably used to high-strung smarty kids.

This was Emma standing up to Gabe about Raids. I don't think that Gabe was going to do anything, but Emma got defensive. When Venice "Red Eyes" and the always heavily armed Autharius came, I think Emma feared the worst.

Emma's solution was to hide Raids away, so that people didn't obsess about the mechanical killing machine. We got a little tied up and neglected to inform Nack in a timely manner. Emma apologized on our behalf, she's the nice one.

I thought that story was pretty much over, but then Seana asked me to retrieve Raids so that they could dismantle her power core. I checked it out, but apparently, Raids was blown up. We are investigating some theories in that regard.

Once again I thought that story was pretty much over, but ....

Turns out Raids is a Von Neumann 'bot, which means she can rebuild herself. I guess except for the motivator chip. Raids is back at Firefly's Bar. LilyBell informs me that Raids likes Radishes. If Raids eats, then.... well.... Who cleans up after that?

Captain Griffy was sniffy around for a bit, hung out with Gallagher, hung out with Zade.

Those who read the Hale's Moon Herald, know that Reece "No Spellcheck" ShawBridge got his foot blown off in the Loyalist bombing attack a couple weeks back.

LilyBell thought she maybe found Reece's foot. Well....maybe, but it seemed a tad big to be Reece's foot, and it had pink nailpolish and it was still gushing blood. She said she'd keep looking.

This is Araya, she's a mechanic or engineer or something, BUT DEFINITELY NOT A COOK! Her former crew ditched her on Hale's Moon in response to and incident involving dosing her grumpy Captain's soup with an over-the-counter pleasure pill and an undisclosed fatal allergic reaction.

Araya has relaxed a little, here she is on "Thong Day" feeling all cleavagy. Or maybe the Laundry Day Effect is spreading.

I have been negligent in my duties with the Herald. I was preparing for a long trip. I am only just catching up now. This is Doctor Lina Footpad, a physician and fond of prescribing supositories. She had taken the job as the new doctor on Hale's Moon. By the time I got around to catching up, she resigned and moved, saying Hale's needs a surgeon more than a physician. She got another gig deep in Reaver territory.

This is Doctor Illyana Lovochkin, a surgeon. I am not sure if she is the new surgeon. I met her once before, but I recalled her being shorter.

Vegaslon, Vega for short, has been around for a bit, but he has a new look. Hair and apparently he has been hitting the weights.

HUZZAH! YAY! Leovinus Twine is back. The rim's best wasteland salvager. A very talented builder. Leo had been in the far end of the rim and out of contact for a few months. Good to see him back.

Duncan had also been scarce for a couple of weeks, something all secrety and important no doubt. I visted Immy every day, but she was never really conscious.

I don't know what kind of dressup this is, or if the Laundry Day Effect is spreading thru the 'Verse.

Krenshar has not been all there since having to use part of his positronic brain or something to help LilyBell and Aurora.

Krenshar had been acting quirkier than usual, dressed up like an alliance soldier looking for a replicant named Krenshar Magic. Going catatonic, more than usual that is.

He finally went and hauled himself off to someplace he had been talking about since I knew him, some replicant homeland or safehouse or something like that. If I seem unclear, it's because peoplea are unclear to me. Here, he scuffed up some of his infiltration skin falling down some incline. Emma was a little bit confused. LOOK AWAY EMMA!

That was shortlived, back to the usual Krenshar replicant skin, a little worn and tattered.

X0x0 has been working Emma so hard that she activated the Emma6 Recreation Unit that has bonded to mimic Emma. Sounds like a Cybertronics unit to me, but Emma didn't know who the manufacturer was. But, much like Emma, Emma6 has a tendency to get a little scratched up.

Journey to Planet Ralph

2009-08-23T17:32:00.000+04:00

Journey to Planet Ralph

Zeno gave me the heads up that the shooting range was reinstalled in the new Zenobian Orbital Space Station. Emma, Gabe and I went there and tried our hand. Gabe kicked our ass, of course. Her high score on the Ego Buster setting of 150 still stands, try your luck. Gallagher came and Emma and I decided that we should make sure and keep Gabe and Gallagher in front. Gallagher decided that Dharma folks needed more training and with logic that makes sense in that dark scarey place known as Gallagher's Mind, he took us to a dark scarey place known as "RALPH".

Some folks may recognize the name "Ralph", a mysterious planet/moon/rock/town that Sheriff Gallagher disappears to every now and then. He usually comes back wearing bandages. Tourists don't go and the locals don't leave, it’s a perpetual warzone. I don't know what the fighting is about and no one is likely to stop shooting long enough to tell me.

Eventually Zade came about and the fighting escalated to really hot. Vega came by after I left.

(Pictures courtesy of Gallagher Aeon)

Turns out that Gallagher's old army buddy, Desmond Serenity, hangs out at Ralph, which is probably why Gallagher keeps going there. No one likely to find Desmond there.

The new General Store in Hale's has a lot of Dharma products. I am finding them around here and there, including a pack of chewing gum in the Zenobian Vault on Hale's Moon. In typical Dharma style, there was a secret message for me in the pack of gum. It was about the new railroad, but that's for a later time.

In case you're wondering, Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid found naturally in the breast milk with reputed analgesic and antidepressant effects.

Individuals with the disorder known as Phenylketonuria should avoid phenylalanine. A non-food source of phenylalanine is the artificial sweetener aspartame, sold under the trade names "Equal" and "NutraSweet", is metabolized by the body into several chemical byproducts including phenylalanine. Foods containing aspartame or other sources of phenylalanine must be labeled with a warning "Contains a source of phenylalanine."

I avoid soy, except for teriyaki sauce, miso soup, sweet noodle sauce, soylent green, tempeh, .... oh forget it, I probably eat too much soy.

Laundry Day

2009-08-22T09:15:00.001+04:00

Laundry Day

My friends have been having a rough time about things recently. Gabe was given the shakedown treatment by and alliane goon.
http://gabeyazimoto.blogspot.com/2009/08/thats-what-you-get.html

And Emma gets spooked by another Alliance goon, who gave her a note during a terrorist bombing on Hale.
http://halesmoonherald.blogspot.com/2009/08/loyalists-terrorizes-hales-moon.html

Emma kept low for a couple days, then hit the black:
http://emmaditko.blogspot.com/2009/08/alone-in-crowd.html

Finally, she comes back, just in time for us to find the missing Desmond.
http://jairaghilda.blogspot.com/2009/08/finding-desmond-previous-day-sheriff.html

Emma told Gabe and I about her trip to the asteroids and said that there might be some good salvage. Gabe and I were game and happy to supplement my salary from CATZ. We went about making our preparations.

Gabe tried out some options for her space suit. We call this one "Darth Gabe". The Hips Ahoy Captain Cleavage look is not so provocative while wearing the body armor. It makes a good underarmor under her space suit. She tried to freak out Krenshar about it, saying she got tired of her "soft bits". Krenshar was too distracted by his recent hobby of women's shoewear to notice.

I tried to get my Aught-Two ready, so we could use it for the mission. Emma and Gallagher tried to help me rotate the main engine.

Zade came along, we could always use the help.

We set our radios to a channel, checked our vacc-suits, loaded up and a longer than usual discussion about "Is everybody seated?"

Emma gave me the coordinates and we took off.

We found a ship, a mid-bulk cruiser on a small seemingly abandoned base. Emma said that the ship had not been there before. Seeing no signs of activity, we picked a relatively safe landing spot.

Gun Turrets. Emma, Zade and Gabe were pretty efficient about dealing with them. I shot at one for a while, but seemingly to no effect. I just just say I'm a pacifist for how effective I am with a gun.

We managed to make it to the bay where the mid-bulk cruiser was parked, some sentinel replicants were activated. I managed to defend myself successfully against one and get on board the mid-bulk cruiser while Gabe, Emma and Z held back the rest.

At this point, there was smoke and fire in the ship. We didn't bring a mechanic with us, but I am willing to bet that it is a bad sign.

Most of the cargo was damaged, I am not sure what it hauled.

Unable to find anything to stabilize the ship, we went onto the main bridge. We struggled with finding any active console. It was manufactured by the "Bland Corporation", producers of generic goods. When acceptable is all you can afford.

Somehow we activated a voice control thingyawhatzitchamacalitwhoozitdooddle, and the computer seems to take some of Gabe's instructions after a fashion. Which was mostly not at all, but we managed to download some data onto a chip before the Bland Ship decided to activate the self destruct.

At this point, I spotted two mean looking guys sniffing around the burning ship. Predictably, I quickly ended up face down in a red puddle. As such, I am unsure what happened next.

I came to at some point, Zade had carried me to safety. Then Gabe was down. Z dispatched the uber reaver. Oh yeah, at some point I guess there were reavers, I missed that, I was KO.

Z carries Gabe to safety. By this point, I can walk and we make a break for the ship.

I am not sure if Emma was down or if she thought she could operate the burning ship, but another longer that should have discussion which was essentially "Is everyone seated yet?" The answer was no, Emma jerry-rigged the other ship. We took off finally and headed for safety. A transmission came over the radio "If you like this demonstration of the Bland Corporation's Self Destruct Mechanism, visit our showroom or check us out online."

We towed the ship back to Hale's and went dirtside without even changing clothes, our reply to inquiries, "Laundry Day.

Someone comped me for fuel, I don't know what profit we'll see from the burned up midbulk and Zade found a really cool uber-wrench of doom. I think everyone but Z got beat up a bunch. A typical salvage mission.

2009-08-21T10:27:00.000+04:00

Just Another Salvage Mess uh Mission

Journey to Planet Ralph

WHODAT?

Saint Zenobius Relics Cast

Krenshar Not All There

Finding Desmond

2009-08-21T10:17:00.000+04:00

Finding Desmond

The previous day, Sheriff Gallagher put out a notice that Desmond Serenity had been reported missing.

I was being scolded by Araya about why I shouldn't just press any old button, just because it is red and big and protruding and ... She's out of her mind, who has that kind of impulse control. She expects me to just ignore a big red butten. Mechanics, meh. Pilots know that anything important is in plain sight and easy to access. If they don't want you to press it, they hide it, or put it under a panel or under glass.

I digress. Sorry about breaking your engine, Araya. PAINT THE BUTTON BLACK! She's new to Hale, dropped off by her disgruntled crewmates due to some incident resulting from an over-the-counter pleasure med dosed in her Captain's soup and a previously unknown allergy. So, she's new to the impulse control issues of the locals. She was not yet acquainted with LilyBell at this point.

Anyway, Araya was scolding me, so I didn't hear the hows and wherefors and whatevers about how we got a lead about Desmond near some space debris. We loaded up in the Shuttle and headed off. Sheriff Gallagher flies his shuttle a lot better than he drives his deathmobile, uh van.

Gallagher tried to keep order, but it was like trying to herd cats, or worse a herd of not-cats. We scampered about like elves on crack until someone found a huge blood stain.

Gallagher took samples.

At this point, it looked more like the leftovers from a reaver picnic.

A clue ... a can of beer ... Dharma Beer. I was happy to find something besides blood.

This is why no-slip boots are always in fashion in Hale's Moon

Emma jumped and slid down this like a crazy kook and called the rest of us wimps. I don't have to wonder why she is always bruised and cut up.

"I have 7% to spare, plenty of room for error. WIMPS!"

Emma falls down enough that she can calculate her breaking points that accurately?

I used my EVA tether. WIMP AND PROUD OF IT!

At this point, Araya proposed her cow theory. That this was way more blood than Desmond could possibly hold in his body on a good day, that maybe it is a cow. Gallagher continued on.

A shuttle ticket to MacLaren's Drift, Not London. A bona fide clue.

We discussed the significance of shuttle tickets, Dharma Brand beer and the relative merits of Araya's Cow Theory. We decided to take a transport to MacLaren's Drift and hope to pick up the trail there. Emma fell down and got knocked out on the way back to the shuttle. Apparently 7% is not a sufficiently wide margin. What did we learn, Emma?

One dirtside on MacLaren's Drift, we spread out like a herd of cat, that is, not like a herd at all. I heard a shout, someone found Desmond.

Gallagher carried Desmond all the way up the windy path to the clinic.

Gallagher revived Desmond at the clinic and between chocolate, beer and a lot of profanity, told us how he had been attacked by two raiders and that the raiders had been attacked in turn by reavers. One of the raiders was "a fat cow". Araya's Cow Theory is vindicated.

Desmond had been coming to warn that the Alliance was going to give Gabe the shakedown treatment. Unfortunately because he was attacked, he never got the chance to deliver the warning.

Read the details of Gabe's Shakedown by the Alliance here:
http://gabeyazimoto.blogspot.com/2009/08/thats-what-you-get.html

Gabe was still shaken up by it. She didn't even want to hear it from Desmond, just went off and consoled herself with a bowl of noodles.

Operation Pax Dust

2009-08-11T23:43:00.001+04:00

Operation Pax Dust

(Pictures courtesy of Gallagher Aeon and Gabe Yazimoto)

When we originally explored the derelict ship, The Persephone, there were two vectors of investigation. One was the two cryobodies that we took with us and has caused us some amount of drama. The other was the grisly organ harvesting operation that was being staged on the ship. I still have nightmares. My cousin Moira, a doctor assigned to the Independent 12th Air Cavalry spent several weeks investigating possible leads. She found an unregistered organ transplant operation in Zenobia and moved her investigation to there.

Independent 12th Air Cavalry had an operative on Zenobia by the code handle of "Broken Arrow". Broken Arrow sent a file and a report to Admiral Leitner, but as of the time that the 12th bugged out, nothing had been done. Broken Arrow had intel that the lab was going to be broken down and relocated, so we had to act fast.

- Message begins -
The Angel of Mercy Medical Facility.
Undocumented cargo shipments.
Disappearances.
Aerial photos attached.
- Message ends -
"Broken Arrow"

Darth Gallagher was chilling with Gabe, Emma and I at the hemlock. Watching toon, usual stuff.

Gallagher's sources were able to authenticate the info in the file from Broken Arrow. He briefed us and showed us the aeriel photos.

We cosumed up and got ready to roll.

We were late I suppose, a lot had already been dismantled and we met with no resistance. A sentinel drone guarded the main entrance to the warehouse, but it was not a lot of trouble.

We checked out the warehouse, then a genetics lab and a cryogenics lab.

Searching thru the warehouse and labs, we found very little of real interest, mostly just got a feel for what they were doing. Gabe, Emma and Gallagher each found some scraps of notes. We were late, but they hadn't cleaned up enough yet.

As Gallagher and his Dharma sources suspected, a weaponized version of the Pax. Planning to experiment on Shadow. Our tax dollars hard at work keeping us safe.

We thought the mission was over, then we found the tank field. Storage tanks, dozens of them, scores.

We gathered samples and set charges and sealed our vacc suits.

Making sure the site was cleaned, we took off for Hale's...

... and debriefed in a manner particular to Hale's Moon.

Busy Day

2009-08-07T17:46:00.000+04:00

Busy Day

Zeno told me that the analysis from the Bihar Antiquities confirmed that the Relics of St. Zenobius is a crime. They are deciding on suspects. It was either switched out during the settlement of the planet in 2308, during the war or during the setup of the exhibit.

Arriving back at Hale, x0x0 (as I later learned) hired Doc Boozehound to bring Mindo back to the boarding house. I arrived on the scene as Doc was bringing Mindo, shortly thereafter x0x0 left wearing her danger outfit and Doc left also. He really has no idea who or what Mindo is.

Gabe and I went and remarkably, the door was unlocked. We didn't go in, instead set up about 60 claymore mines. We tried to talk with Mindo. He said he was sick and needed help, but not desperate enough to give me the information I wanted. He sucked, loser. Left him to his fate, since he was unwilling to help himself by helping us.

Aurora Blue came and tried to extract information from him. He was unwilling. AuroraBlue said that she didn't need the key and was going to end Lily. She asked for a ride, I refused. Gabe and I rushed to Mindo's Reaver Ship and waited. AuroraBlue tried to solicit rides. She promised to kill me last as a kindness if I helped her. I warned on the open channel not to and Mayor Seana grounded all outbound traffic. While I was waiting, I set up the claymores that I had previously set up at the boarding house. Madame Mayor Seana told me to stop AuroraBlue, but not kill her. I got my pillow and dolly ready.

Krenshar came up and while I was trying to convince him not to sacrifice his life, AuroraBlue launched missiles from a stolen/borrowed ship and then presumably stole the ship. I managed to get on my turbine surfer and brought an unconscious Krenshar up to the asteroid (Koozbane) where I moor my ship. Emma and I then confirmed that the ship was gone.

I lost track of things for a while. Gallagher had a new secret Dharma tape. Gallagher, Emma and I watched it. In the Herald Office, someone left me a classified file named "Operation Pax Dust."

Met up with Gabe and Zade and danced with some droids.

Oh, and the Mayor asked me the find the warbot, Raids, and bring her in to have her power core stripped. I found where it was kept, but someone bombed the place to bits. Quite a scorcher.

Oh, and Doc Boozehound got stranded in MacLaren's Drift, and I had to bring him back to Hale's Moon.

Oh, and I met the new Doctor, Doctor Lina Footpad, she seemed nice. From the rim, educated in the Core.

On a related note, Zade says that he does not require a prostate examination.

So, the usual. Just another day.