Editing TNE:GreatExpedition (section)

==== Background ====
Homeworld C-000342A
Haven is “Living History” space colony cylinder, 10KM long, operating with solar mirrors and spin gravity instead of fusion and gravitics. Haven orbited the rockball world closer to the sun than the main of the system, (a high tech boneyard in the Wilds). The first clue there was an emergency was when all the high tech emergency equipment blew out thanks to Virus. There was dead silence from the mainworld. They were all alone in the night. Haven was able to sustain its population of tourists-turned-refugees and became a trading hub for Free Traders... the rustic but still functioning class C spaceport facilities helped a great deal. 

With a low, dense population, Haven was able to govern mainly by direct democracy, with a "Colonial Administrator" who acted as the voice in carrying out the people's decisions. Emily was the daughter of the person who served for the last 20 years in that capacity, Martin Tomlinson. 

When Emily was in her late teens, the Guild started aggressively trying to bring Haven under its influence. It was too good for them to pass up. After laying down a great deal of money and goods among the populace, Martin suffered an accident, opening an airlock after a gun he was cleaning went off. Emily was due for an accident of her own, but was taken off-colony by a sympathetic Free Trader crew, that of the Empress Marava. With nowhere else to go and a probably Guild bounty on her head, she signed on as a crewmember. Her wits, charm and education served her well and she rapidly rose up through the officer hierarchy, working out profitable courses and profitable deals (and every deal a free trader made was one cargo the Guild wouldn't get). A lifetime staring up at the stars gave her a knack for navigation and watching how disputes get resolved when there's literally no choice but to talk through them helps a lot in dealing with people.

The Wilds are a harsh place, the graveyard of a great civilization, thrown away like garbage.  God-kings, technologically elevated dictators and pocket empires were everywhere... but so were uncounted numbers of decent people, trying to put a decent life back together with whatever crude tools remain.  She met a lot of them and learned that a little trade can go a long way in helping people like that out.  Being a Free Trader was something truly worth doing... and the Guild wanted to snuff out that one bit of decency in favor of slaving and worse.

Hearing rumors about the Dawn League, she managed to get the Empress exploring trade in that direction. There was some unpleasantness... moving artifact cargo across the border was a new experience, with a lot more regulations than in the Wilds and it was a near thing avoiding having the Marava seized by the government and nationalized.   The whole mess was tied up in court, and it's there someone from an RC operations office tried to recruit her for the Dawn League Academy.    "One ship could make a different... a lot of ships could make a bigger difference, if they knew were to go" was his argument, and it was hard to refute.  While well-meaning and advanced, the Dawn League had no idea how savage the Wilds really were.  Going out blind would get them eaten alive... but she could tell them that.  Not without reservations, she cashed out her ship shares and went to school.

She was giving a Teaching Assistant position, helping out with astrogation and Wilds Culture and Contact classes, learning a lot on the former subject as well as how to handle several other positions.  Now she's been given a mission... not to fix the mistakes the League made with their initial expeditions, but something important... and clearly, they need someone with real-life experience to get them there and back again.

Emily is articulate and well-read, confident in her abilities and cautious about new people.  She's had a few people try to get the price on her head and always keeps a body pistol on her person.  She's optimistic about the future... as long as ships are flying and planets talking to each other, things can get better.  Some need a helping hand, some a kick in the ass... the latter was beyond what a Free Trader can deliver, but a big, armed warship could dish out some well-deserved... it's a good thing she's not in the Combat Arms.  The chance to hit back when all you could do was run is tempting.