Apologies for missing pictures

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…

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

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

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.