Episode 101. Part 3

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Tuesday, 08 June 2518
Juniper Springs Settlement
Jiang Yin, Red Sun(Zhu Que)System
07:28 hrs, local time

We find the coordinates for the colonial seat easily and when we land there we find it's a mite more…fortress-y…than expected.

It's like a scene out of the pre-Exodus movie, The Road Warrior. Buildings huddle together closely, bristling with parapets, watch towers and barbed wire. No doubt the area around the fortified town is mined to hell and back.

Wonderful.

When we land, it's no real surprise nobody comes out to meet us initially. The fact that there was a beacon to guide us down, instead of an official port authority, is starting to make sense, now. Our LZ happens to be on one of the more rural continents and coupled with lack of port oversight, a ship could shake-n-bake to the surface anywhere it wants. Scuttlebutt for such places is that while it's been inhabited for a while, people have just found places where they want to live and have gone off into the wild, some have even gone native.

Perhaps this is what's happened to this outpost?

And here we are, landing into the middle of an armed camp…without our guns. The Captain still has them.

So, there being nothing for it, we start off-loading our cargo. In doing so, we find out that contrary to our belief, the Captain hadn't spaced the contents of the seed container. He had merely opened the hatches just long enough to vent the bodies and quickly shut them again, leaving the contents secured inside. Minus a few bags, the seeds made it to their final destination intact. At least we won't incur cargo-loss fees.

Christian tells the Captain he's leaving.

Christian: You can off-load all you want. I'll be packing my bags and going off, too.
Ivan: You'll be leaving?
Christian: Um-hm.

Rina is nearby and speaks up.

Rina: You really want to live here? Look at this place.

She throws her hands wide.

Christian: Are you planning on getting back on this ship?

Caught on the spot with the Captain looking on, Rina daren't say anything. Damn you, Christian. Nika stops and speaks for herself.

Nika: It could be months before another ship comes this way.
Christian: (to Nika) Are you planning on getting back on this ship?
Nika: I was, actually.

A group of colonists approach from the fortified …um, fortress…forestalling anything the Captain would say to this near-mutinous conversation. They want to book passage on our ship, amazingly enough.

Ivan wants to know what is going on. They fill us in on the skinny. It's short and sweet.

To wit: They don't want to be here any more. They want to leave.

Rina: (muttering) Mrs. Robinson is not going to be pleased to hear that.
Nika: It would make up for the profits you lost.
Colonists: We will have money when we get to wherever you take us.
Christian: What's wrong with the planet?
Nika: (continuing) Were you planning on an actual cargo returning, at all? Pure profit, if not.
Ivan: I have place to go.
Christian: Yes, remember he has to go salvage a—.
Nika: Yeah but they don't have a timetable.
Ivan: We have adequate food for more?
Christian: We wouldn't have, but granted that we're several mouths short...
Nika: I realize this isn't a regular spaceport, but we shouldn't have too much trouble to get provisions enough, wouldn't you think?
Christian: You would think, yes.
Nika: Fuel would be my primary concern, more so than food.
Christian: (to the colonists) Which one of you is the leader?

A man steps forward.

Leader: We've been dealing with bandits of some kind. They've made it impossible to live outside the walls. We had to build the walls to deal with the bandits. We haven't gotten any farming done. I can't live like this. This isn't what we've signed up for.
Christian: How many people are we looking at, right now?
Leader: About three dozen.
Christian: I don't think that a ship like this is going to be able to take that many people, sir.
Leader: It's a big ship. You can fit thirty people on that ship, no problem.
Christian: You could. But you're not going to have the food. Or the oxygen or the water to get them anywhere. If you want to take thirty people out and have half of them die on the way…
Leader: All right. We gotta do some kinda system like….(whispers) I got some money, I can buy my way on. (louder) Most of the people don't have any money, but they might say they do back home. They'd take anything.
Christian: Well, that's up to the Captain.
Ivan: We shall see. You have interesting idea.
Nika: Our primary concern will be consumables, both fuel, air…water….
Ivan: (thinking it through) We have one way back to spot. Four days from there to Burnadette…so, if each person can bring eleven days food…you can keep engines running to produce adequate oxygen, I assume?

It's possible. The oxy on board is primarily recycled before the incremental loss is renewed via the off-gassing from the algae tanks.

Nika: And we'll need to check the fuel.
Rina: (backing Nika) Yeah, definitely.
Nika: Fuel and water are my primary worries.
Ivan: There should be adequate fuel.
Nika: Even with the additional weight?
Ivan: One…two…three…four bursts…I don't think we have enough fuel. We'll have to stop on the way.

We'll have to stop at one of the Heinlein moons or St. Albans, maybe at Dandelion Station, to refuel. Now that's settled, Nika gets down to business.

Nika: So for the people who want to get on board, they'll have to pay at least half up front—.
Ivan: No. They pay full.
Nika: As you like, Captain. And the timetable is four days longer than it should be so we that we can detour back.
Christian: I'm curious, Captain. When you get to the …midpoint…
Ivan: Da.
Christian: How do you plan on getting what's there onto your ship?
Ivan: We talk and check to see if there's anyone.
Christian: Who?
Nika: Before we do that—.
Christian: No-no-no. Who?
Ivan: With crew.
Christian: Um…she's not crew. (He points to Rina.) And it's not in either of our contracts.
Ivan: You crew on ship. You do what I tell you. You wish to stay here with these people, you stay with these people. Are you continuing mutiny, too?
Christian: (drawing it out)…I'm thinking…That… it would be wise if you're taking on passengers, to go directly to where you're going. Without that…well. You do what you wish, sir.
Ivan: I'm not sure what you mean. It be wise for me to do what?
Christian: Well. You're going to take a bunch of people. You're going to stop and they're going to wonder why you're stopping in the middle of nowhere—
Ivan: We will leave them on one of those other planets we mentioned.
Nika: We can leave them at St. Albans.
Christian: True. I suppose that's true. We could do that.
Ivan: Or at station.
Nika: We could just tell them that "That's as far as we'll take you. You'll have to pick other passage from there.".
Ivan: They'll have to pay us first.
Nika: That will actually make the return trip profitable.
Christian: You might want to consider a trade in goods. The entire population of this city is…I'm sure…that there's nothing, that anything here that would be theirs to trade has been taken.
Ivan: Yes, but. What's here. Plows…
Christian: Well for one thing, they didn't get out the farm…all their seeds.
Nika: What kind of bandits are we talking about, anyway.
Rina: Yeah. How many?

Good old fashioned sorts. About a dozen or so. On horseback.

Rina: A dozen? They've got them outnumbered (meaning the colonists).

Yes, but they don't have very many guns and they aren't warriors. Remember, this is the Alliance. They've been dropped off with a shovel and a few tents. What few guns they have are used on animals for hunting and protection.

Rina: And are we taking the Robinsons back if they take one look outside this door and say `this isn't what we signed on for'?

She nods toward the Robinsons in a group huddle by the cargo bay doors, obviously having a family discussion about that very issue.

Rina: You may have to deal with them all the way back.
Nika: You have two options here, Captain. We can make the return trip somewhat profitable. If we were traveling back with an empty ship, anyway, there's pure bonus there. Bearing in mind, we will have to drop them off somewhere along the way because your little illegal salvage operation—.
Ivan: There is nothing illegal about it.
Nika: (not buying it) Mm-hm.
Christian: Really. I didn't realize you worked for United Salvage.
Ivan: I am not talking about any salvaging. I have business—.
Christian: With a bunch of dead people.
Ivan: Well, if they are dead—
Christian: —then it would be salvage—
Ivan: —but if they have goods I have already purchased, then it won't.
Christian: Well. I'm not a lawyer.
Nika: In any case, the derelict vessel sitting out there that might have your goods on it—
Ivan: Yes.
Nika: That's between you and…whatever….when we get back. The other option you have here is to be potentially make a little money, help out the colonists and figure out what the heck the stupid bandits are doing and get them off this planet.
Ivan: We aren't at war, here.
Nika: Meh! We have a ship.
Ivan: An unarmed ship.
Christian: I'm certain if you land this ship on top of a bandit, he'll go squish.
Nika: There you go.
Christian: I'm fairly certain a rifle won't penetrate the hull.
Ivan: If we did this….don't like sound of it. We take paying customers with us, if they wish to come, and we go about our own business. Make this profitable. You help me, may get some profit from this yourselves. You play ball. But then, it is between me and you.
Nika: In the future, however, when we schedule such jaunts, if you have stoppage along the way, we schedule it in…so your brother stops climbing people's backs trying to figure out what you're doing.
Ivan: (sighing) My brother thinks he knows much of what goes on. He thinks we not know of transmissions and responses to transmissions.
Nika: You saw them. They're in the public logs. I told you your brother hired me to watch out for you.
Ivan: Yes, I remember this. So…you are interested in helping out the colonists. You talk to them, find out who can pay the most, we bring on, what? twelve? We can manage twelve?
Nika: So long as they bring nothing but clothing and food, yes.
Ivan: All right…we bring in twelve, maybe fifteen if they pay more….we can take as far as…we have to check charts to see if either Dandelion Station or if one of the Heinlein moons is closer…whichever one is closer, and it is likely going to be Dandelion Station, since it's stationed in apogee…
Nika: We'll just haul them as far as we can take them and drop them off there. Go about the rest of the business from there and…
Ivan: Is very good. So you handle that?
Nika: All right.
Ivan: I suppose we not off-load compartments until we are there… unless they need space for sleeping and such…(to Christian) to you, I will hand off them.
Christian: Actually, unless you take them all, I'm taking my rifle and staying here.
Ivan: Take all of them. And where do you suppose we put all of them?
Christian: I don't. That's the problem. But I'm not going to leave these people here totally defenseless. If I can help I will. You're free to go.
Ivan: Well, that's one more space.
Nika: How many can we fit in a cargo compartment. We put up a family of five in one of them.
Ivan: We can put hundreds of people on ship.
Nika: But air consumption becomes a problem. Water consumption becomes a problem.
Ivan: We stay few days. You figure out all kinds of plan. figure out way to get more oxygen, whatever we need…
Nika: We'll see. If we absolutely can't—
Ivan: There are settlements on Jiang Yin. Perhaps we can drop them off at another city.
Nika: There's an idea.
Ivan: For a small fee.
Nika: A little transport fee as opposed to a big ticket fee.
Christian: That's actually a good question. Do they have a radio? Have they tried to contact the other settlements
Nika: If it's broken, could they?

They have, but the response has been unfavorable. They've even appealed to the Alliance military and the response has been the standard "We'll get to you on the return trip in our rounds…"

Nika: Let's see if any of the other settlements are willing to take them and if the colonists are willing to go. That may cut our numbers, too.
Ivan: You will burn much fuel through atmo. So you figure out what you need to do. You have two days.
Rina: Yeah, and I figure you can offer not only mouths to feed, but equipment they can bring with them and supplies—
Nika: And we have our cargo hold full of stuff that—
Ivan: But if there are bandits, the airlock stays closed, so none of them on board.
Rina: Well of course, no going off the ship to take a piss and let the aliens on board behind your back. Yes, definitely. We'll have them pee in a can.

All right. We're agreed. We've got two days of hauling ass. We will call around, shuffle the settlers and their supplies to the whatever settlements will take them in and burn atmo with the rest to dump elsewhere. All for cashy money, making the return trip pure profit.

Under a possibly unstable Captain and unruly load of passengers.

Oh yeah. This is going to go well.

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