The ship is officially yours, though the final details- name and armament- are still being worked out.



There is a patron who cannot wait, though.  The one to whom a favor is owned.  She arrives during the ship's official "handover", an elderly woman, short, very wrinkled, wearing a gray cloak and a collar marking as an official of the Roman Catholic Church.

She introduces herself as Monsignor Eustacia Saniez, and says she is an official of the one of the Archdioceses of Lyonesse.

"We have an urgent delivery for a colony site on St. Brendan," she explains, "but I think you already know that.  I think they must be at a critical point in their work, they've been begging for this equipment for a year but they have been hounding us, and now with this port shutdown it is stuck in a warehouse in Nanton...  I understand you can fly it out, direct from Nanton, without shipping it to a space port first.  That's important.  What's also important is that this is done quietly and without any provocation.  We do not have a side in this labor dispute, but we do not wish to be seen as disrespecting the port workers, even if, as I have been told, they have not blocked the movement of aircraft... or spacecraft."

"I do not know what all the issues are, but the directors of the settlement the shipment is for have become extremely impatient.  I am afraid that further delays... such as waiting for the end of the labor problems here... will cause them some difficulties."


Aside from their hundreds of millions of followers spread across Human space, the Roman Catholic Church has been the main force behind the colonization of St. Brendan's World, a young but Earthlike planet known for extreme seasons about 32 light years distant to coreward (straight line, it's further for starships following navigational paths between stars).  St Brendan is not an easy place to settle, and it is off the main line commerce route, but has attracted people who want a lifestyle and social system oriented around the Catholic Church.  People join colonies for many reasons, and for some, it is a personal search for belonging.

After many years of effort the colony is still under developed.  Sixteen million people may sound like a lot, but spread across the surface of a planet they are very thinly scattered.  There is a major city- Port Grace- and some secondary towns, and a variety of small settlements.  One of them is Mission San Lorenzo, in a region called the Rain Coast. It is only a few years old, and home to about seven thousand people.  The name conjures images of forest, but St. Brendan is such a young world that the native ecosystem has not produced anything like a tree.  In fact, the native ecosystem is largely a bright blue-green slime.  That is what the settlers on the Rain Coast have been working to change.

"We'll be ready to jump in a day or two, then off to St. Brendans. That is the best we can do as we have to make a few preparations for space."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:18, Tue 03 Dec 2019.

Florence listened in the background. She wasn't overly fond of religion - any of them - but thankfully they didn't amount to much of anything considering how few followers they had. And as long as they stayed out of politics and didn't try to shape a civilisation to better reflect whatever outdated values it had - even if those had somewhat evolved in the right direction 'recently' - she simply ignored it.

Not that who asked for their help really mattered of course: the only thing that did was the delivery. Admittedly, she was a bit suspicious about what was to be delivered, and the obviously poor planning on the part of the colonists to rely on imports so many years after its creation: they should have been able to produce everything they truly needed locally. It was fine to rely on outside trade for luxuries, but not for stuff you absolutely needed. That was shoddy at best, criminal at worst.

More importantly, as far as she was concerned at least, there was this ongoing issue with the port workers. According to Saniez, it shouldn't matter to them, but she felt she had better check that out to be sure of it first, and should it happen anyway, to not be taken by surprise and ready for it. To that effect, she took her laptop out and started to look for relevant information about the conflict, its roots and causes of course, but mostly its current state.

Sara stood back and took notes on her datapad as Eustacia spoke. She certainly didn't see herself as much of an expert on shipping, nor did she desire to speak to the specific politics of the situation. Being seen as a 'scab' was certainly the last thing she wanted on her list of things people attributed to her, so her brow wrinkled a bit when the church official mentioned the port worker's strike.

"Is there anything we can do to make sure that we aren't stepping on any toes?"

"Is the cargo secret? Or may we know what we're hauling?"

For Einar being Einar, he displayed an uncharacteristic humility before the older woman, addressed her as "Ma'am" and generally gave her his full attention.

"We're not lookin to rile anyone up." he assured her. "I get that's it's probably the principle of the thing, this strike, but it sounds like your people need this stuff pretty bad." He glanced to Horace as the XO moved onto the harder questions.

Hearing Horace's question, Florence shook her head.  "The only way for us to be able to insure secrecy, should it be required, is for the crates we transport to have been sealed by customs at the point of departure. Even then, it should be made clear that should we find if necessary, we reserve the right to open the crates. In case of leaks or alarming noises for example."

"However if the crates, or the goods in general, have not been sealed by customs, then we are to be legally held responsible by the authorities at any point in our journey for whatever we transport, hence the cargo cannot be a secret from us, simply because we would have to make sure that what we've been told matches what we're transporting. Even without talking about anything illegal, we have to make sure that the manifests match the load yet again for legal reasons."

Horace thought he made a good investment in Florence for a million credits, she was right on target.

"Ms. Pearce is quite correct in what she said." Said Reggie,as he walked up and nodded to the elderly clergywoman. "But we shall do what can be done, to ensure the cargo is delivered intact, Monsignor.”

Oh, if only things were that easy…   crates…  oh my.

If it were crates the Monsignor could simply have them trucked or flown out of Nanton, then repacked and shipped off.

No, instead, she has a bulldozer, a pair of robotic dump trucks, a pair of loaders, and some other equipment… some of which is in crates.  All waiting in a warehouse in a harbor.  Nanton, being an industrial hub in an otherwise rustic governate,  is home to a major producer of such machinery, Kerriwynn, so the equipment was purchased here.  And now it is stuck, with the ships not moving and the equipment too big to travel easily.  Driving… well the machines could be driven from Nanton to New Avalon, but that brings up problems of its own.  A parade of construction vehicles driving through a city wracked with labor strikes would draw even more attention than flying them out on the… okay, what is it?  Albatross? (I checked, an Albatross CAN set down on water and float, so that name would fit!)

“I really don’t know why they are so insistent on having them now,” the Monsignor Eustacia Saniez explains.  “You would think a seven year old colony site would not have such an urgent time table.  Nevertheless, the Works director at Mission San Lorenzo has been nagging us relentlessly, so something must be a problem there, and a personal friend of mine said that he could arrange a ship.  I’ve actually never been to Mission San Lorenzo, it’s really the most remote settlement on the planet.  Maybe they have a problem they need to solve.  I’d like to accompany you to Nanton, but I can’t make the journey out to St. Brendan.  The Works director will take things from there. “

*** **** *** ***

A quick check of the colonies on St. Brendan confirms what she meant by “most remote”.  New colony worlds tend to follow a pattern of development:  a spaceport is established in whatever is deemed the “best” part of the planet.  A few other stations are then scattered elsewhere, mostly for communications, research and planning, and when necessary, security and emergency response.  Mission San Lorenzo is on the far side of the planet from the only large city and spaceport; Port Grace.  There is a minor city but it’s over two thousand kilometers away, with no roads.  St Brendan’s surface is young and rocky in most areas, so outside of the spaceport it is hard to land a conventional lander.  All of the settlements on St. Brendan are near the equator, along or near the sea, where the planet’s seasonal weather extremes are the weakest.  Mission San Lorenzo is at the head of an inlet, so the ship can reach it directly.   Normally very heavy cargo would arrive at Port Grace and then make a very long journey over the sea, but your ship can go right there.   The head of sales at New Avalon Starship Sales knew this and knew that your ship was the *right* ship for the job… as long as he could make the cost of the journey disappear into the finances of the ship.

"Never been a colonist, but I can think of of'a few things I'd like to have sooner than later. Especially if I had a family out there with me." Einar replied. "And we'd be glad to have you along for the ride, you'll probably even get your own room."

Einar looked around to the crew. "We'll aim to load up in the early morning hours, I'd say four or so before dawn. I can load the Dozer myself, and the loaders if it'll help keep our heads down. That is if we can get those turrets popped on and op checked before then?" he glanced to Wymp and Gain.

"The Lord helps those who can operate a bulldozer I guess," Noah Brooks said to no one in particular as he listened to the conversation.  Like Einar, Noah could operate any manner of heavy equipment, mostly due to his belter experience - not that he was interested in being stuck on dozer duty.  Brooks would be happy to let the Cap receive the blessings of St. Komatsu or John Deere for this run.  Noah would instead spend a bit of time with his handcomp doing some research:

Roman Catholic Church, St. Brendan
Enemies of the Roman Catholic Church
St. Brendan, Unrest
St. Brendan, Protests
St. Brendan, Violence
This message was last edited by the player at 05:37, Fri 06 Dec 2019.

"Ahh, that's good! Construction equipment needed to build the infrastructure for them. Nothing odd about it at all."

Florence didn't seem disturbed at all that the shipment didn't mostly consist of crates. Sure, it seemed that her explanation became superfluous...except that she had been mostly talking for the crew's benefit for future contracts, not the client's.

She quickly nodded when the woman mentioned the assumption that a colony of that age shouldn't need anything in a hurry. In fact, she more than agreed, especially regarding construction stuff. Either something had happened to those they had...or someone didn't want someone else to have access to the local machines for some reason. None of them good. One way or the other, they would have to keep their eyes open.

As such, she cocked a surprised eyebrow at Horace's intervention, not quite sure how to interpret it. "I guess we'll see what's what when we get there."

"And if you want to leave that early, I need to go get my own stuff." Not that she had all that much obviously, but she couldn't exactly fly away only with what she had on her at this time after all.

"Two days, long enough to get on board, stock up, and fill the turrets with goodies for Reggie."

Reginald does some research on security on St Brendan..


And meanwhile, the bridge crew checks out how they are going to fly into Nanton.

The work stoppage at the port actually has a very positive side effect for them:  ships are not moving in and out of the harbor.  Normally, flying into an urban area, a ship like this would either be assigned a time slot by the authorities controlling the port, or require a possibly delicate landing maneuver by the pilot, setting down without hitting a ship or boat in the water below.  (or flipping a boat over, the ship can displace a lot of water when it sets down).

There is the matter of when, meaning, what time of day.

On many planets, the local rhythm does not match well with human schedules.  Lyonesse is more comfortable than most planets in many ways, but the days, each a little under 20 hours long,  are just too short for humans easily adapt to.  So a standard calendar day on Lyonesse, called a Date to avoid confusion with a Day (which is the rotation of the planet), is one and a quarter local Days, for a total of about twenty four and a half hours.  Of course, this means that the Days and the Dates are out of sync.   Every Date, the sunrise is six hours earlier.  As crazy as it sounds, this was easier for people to adapt to than 19 and a half hour days.

But it also means that time of day for the arrival is entirely up to the party.  The Day/Date problem means that ship arrival times are not planned to coincide with daylight, they happen at any time. Ten in the morning can be daylight one day, the middle of night the next, and people here are used to it.  So... if one intends to arrive before dawn, the question really means, here on Lyonesse: 1)Before the regular work Date begins.    2) While the area is still dark    or 3)  One of those times when the two are together, it is dark AND the work day has yet to begin?
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:14, Mon 09 Dec 2019.

"Great job Reginald.  Wish I had thought of doing research on St Brendan," Noah said, rolling his eyes before mic dropping his handcomp.