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.
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