North is the dullest of directions, from Chloe's point of view, but then she is only here to keep a visitor out of serious trouble.  North it is.

Life hasn't had so much time to work over St. Brendan.  The green mush hasn't evolved root systems.  Without root systems any small pieces of rock, dust, and organic matter which might become soil get washed away in the rain, instead, or backed into hard clays.  Either way it's not dirt beneath their feet, it's rock or gravel- Chloe steers Florence around some areas that look like flat clay because, as she says, sometimes those are actually deep mud pools with a thin dry surface.

"When people come out... sometimes they bring probes with them, long poles to test out.  I didn't think of that, I haven't done this often and never so far in this direction.  It won't suck you under, that's a myth, but you can get seriously stuck and half to call for help.  I think.  At least I heard it's a myth.  I don't want to find out."

Because of the constant possibility of rain, and to get a little better view when it's not raining, they keep to higher ground when possible.  Towards the end of their first day, Florence thinks she can see something.  Shapes ahead in the distance, a cluster of them, too regular to be natural features.

If all of that had really been about a "retreat" or worse, looking for some excitement, Florence would have been quite disappointed. The place seemed as exciting as an accounting office. Since she was here for something else however, Florence simply listened to what Chloe had to say, readily following her lead.

The least she could say was that for someone coming from Earth, this place was... Well, strange. In fact, as she mentioned to Chloe, it was a bit depressing: had it been merely rocks without any life, it would have been fine. A plain with grass, or abundant - and varied - local life, it would have been fine too. But here, it was in-between both worlds and worse, the local life was destined to disappear. Something that had taken billions of years to reach that point, with who knew what kind of potential, only to disappear in a few decades after humans settling in.

She wasn't accusing the settlers of anything of course - after all, the local life could very well have never evolved past that moss thing even with a few more billion years - it was more a sort of philosophical question about humanity's place among the stars and the impact it had, both on other sentient species and on life in general.

When she noticed the possible structures, Florence pointed them at Chloe, “Is it me, or there's something over there that's not natural?”

Chloe looks at the shapes in the distance.  They are the sort of thing someone might miss from a distance, were that someone not looking for them.  As Florence was.

"It does look like something," she says.  "It's a bit far to go tonight, but we can get there in the morning.   Maybe its a camp explorers left behind, or a test site, or something."

She ponders a while, trying to think of someone mentioning a place off the distance like this.

"There's a small starship that came in a few times, smaller than yours.  They talked about landing outside of town, but I didn't think... well no one thought it was this far out.  Why would they do that?  If this is their's, they picked a pretty far off spot!"

Chloe thinks this would be a good place to stop.  "High ground is good because if it rains we won't get flooded.  If we go further... well we could make it, but it would be getting dark by the time we get there and that would be spooky, and there might not be a good spot to stop in the middle.  It rains a lot at night, when the air chills."

She gives Florence a certain look that also explains, "And I'm tired, we've been walking a lot and I need a rest."

Florence grinned, amused, when Chloe pretty much admitted that she wanted to stop where they were more because she was tired than anything else. Still, she didn't make things difficult for the other girl. “Sure, here works for me, I don't mind if we get there tomorrow. Plus, you're the expert after all.” Florence put her backpack on the ground, apparently not that tired by the walk. Oh, it had been a decent workout for sure, but she seemed to be in a good enough shape that she didn't feel too tired herself.

As her gaze paused on the distance, she considered what was waiting there. “Well... I can imagine two possible answers for a ship coming this far out repeatedly. First, the ship belongs to explorers and they found something over there that they don't want to share. And there could be a lot of possibilities about what it could be.” She paused for some time before adding, “The second possibility I can imagine someone landing there repeatedly, is for some less than legal business, like contraband for example. Maybe a drop point or something? But who knows, I'm no expert at those kinds of things.”

The mention of Contraband gets a shocked look from Chloe.  The "What? Here?" kind of look.
Of course maybe there is smuggling going on... but that look says Chloe wouldn't believe it's possible.

"I think it's just a research station.  Maybe for mining or planting.  We'll see."

She was right about the night bringing rains, at least.  It's a common phenomenon here- the air cools, and cooler air can't hold as much water vapor... and down it comes.

Not a stormy kind of rain.  Just the annoyingly steady and very wet kind.  The donkeys have their shelter next to the two young women, and the snuffle and snort and settle in to rest, fairly unbothered.  Donkeys have a high tolerance for just about everything, compared to horses.  One reason they are popular here.

Night is also long here.  On St. Brendan it's not just time to sleep.  It's dinner.  Sleep.  Long leisurely breakfast. And then finally, finally watch dawn come up over the east, the start of another long day.

Chloe assures Florence that she will adapt to it.  Everyone does, sooner or later.

Florence hadn't insisted on the topic of contraband: she didn't think it would be worth it. Sure, the place was pretty much as far away from anything as you could think, but that also meant there was no market. And since it wasn't even situated on the way between two heavily populated world... No, she didn't really think it was contraband. And the worse options she could think of were even more unlikely so she wasn't particularly worried.

As the sun rose, Florence finished her Tai Chi exercises, having been used to wake up early since a long time ago. She grinned when Chloe mentioned how everyone got used to the local rhythm, but couldn't help but comment, “Oh, it's not the rhythm I'm worried about, it's the lack of shower. I didn't think of that...” The girl wrinkled her nose for a second, then shrugged, “I guess we'll survive. Plus, worst case scenario, the weather will provide.” As long as it didn't get cold anyway. With no one around but Chloe, she didn't mind standing naked under the rain for a bit after all.

With the tents stored on the donkeys and the beasts fed and ready, Florence turned towards their destination “Alright, let's go see what's over there then!”

They have a long pre-dawn morning.  Chloe says nothing about Florence's "rain shower", though she herself just washes with a wet towel.  Even though San Lorenzo is only seven years old, Chloe came to St. Brendan five years before that, as a young child, and has been raised to believe that Good girls don't do things like that even if no one else is around.

Offworlders and their strange ways...

They walk towards their destination.

As they get closer, they can see, quite clearly, these are structures.  Small prefabs, and a small expandable hangar tent.  There are awnings above them.

A little closer and they can see... the prefabs are on one side of a flat... runway?  It is a runway, but the strange thing is the way its painted.  It's camouflaged, so that someone flying overhead, looking down, might see just more rocks and green muck.

With all that effort made to hide the place from above, though, there hasn't been effort to hide the place from someone just walking up to it.  Maybe that just doesn't happen around here.

Florence observed the compound for a moment. “Uh...” For pretty much a whole minute, that was all she said until she finally added, “Well, I don't know what this is used for... Or was used for, but it doesn't look like a simple explorers' camp...”

The girl took her communicator out, activated the video function and zoomed in, to try and see if she could find something, anything, that would tell her what the compound was for or if there was any obvious dangers. Or people. Distractedly, she added, “Well, unless that's the find of the century and they really don't want to share...”

After a minute, she rubbed her lips pensive, then looking at Chloe she asked, “Sooo... Do you want to wait here or go see what's inside?”

Chloe weighs following along with Florence, or waiting out here in the middle of... nowhere.

"We should take the donkeys too," she says, making up her mind quickly.  "It looks more innocent.  I mean, we are innocent, right?"

Chloe may not have the broad background and specialized education Florence does, but she's smart enough to recognize that maybe the fact that they are here is not accidental.  Florence set off directly into untraveled wilderness, after all, and came straight here.  Was it luck?

"Do you know anything about this place?" she asks.  "If we're going to get in trouble, can you at least tell me why?"

Florence didn't hesitate for long before saying, “They have a nav' buoy active over there, probably to guide whatever ships are supposed to come. It's programmed in such a way that ship sensors ignore it unless you know what you're looking for... Or are curious and can look at the stuff a ship's systems are programmed to ignore.”

“So yes, I was pretty sure there was something here, I just didn't know what and I didn't want to say anything for fear of being thought of as a fool. Well, even more of a fool.” Florence smiled ruefully and after a second spent looking at the compound, she added, “Truth be told, I was thinking that I'd find a wreck or something like that.” Something she'd have been able to claim for herself in fact, but it was probably best to not say anything about this.

After that, she nodded, “Anyway, sure, let's take the donkeys. If nothing else we don't want them getting lost.” After a brief pause, she added, “And can you program your communicator to contact someone and explain where we are and what we're doing if you don't cancel that order periodically?”

Packed up, and accompanied by their donkeys who embrace the "whatever, as long as we're fed" spirit of their breed, Florence and Chloe walk towards the assemblage of prefab shelters, now clearly belonging to a small remote airstrip.

Chloe processes the fact that Florence *knew* about this.  It takes her train of thought in some disturbing directions.  She has to ignore the instinct to run off screaming.  That's probably more dangerous than anything else right now.

"A wreck?  Why would there be a wreck, we'd have heard about a wreck."

Then Chloe's face scrunches up, as she realizes they'd have heard about a nearby port as well.

"They have to know," Chloe says as they get closer.  "There's no way this would be here without the people in charge knowing.  But they didn't tell anyone."

There a dozen prefab modules here.  A few are of the expandable type, and they are all expanded, roofs and walls pushed up and out, flexible accordion wall stretching in the gaps.  A few are not.  About half of them are connected up in one large structure, the others are on their own, although cables connect them.  Each has an awning screening it above.  Now that they are closer, they can see that the awnings are solar panels, but... they are all upside down, with the solar panel down and the wrong side up.

"I lived in prefabs for a few years when we first got to St. Brendan," Chloe says.  "Things like this were home. But not here, in Campo Savana outside of Port Grace, on the other side of the planet.  Ours were... homier."

It does look... shut down.  The lights are off, at least... but there is a quiet hum they can hear when the air is still.  Something is still on, in the big cluster of prefabs.

There is something else that is a little unusual.  Next to that cluster is a row of  unkempt looking shrubs.  Thick, ropy branches.

“Hmm.” Florence considered Chloe's opinion about the 'people in charge' having to know about this place. “It's likely, but not assured. I mean, if there's indeed no one coming around here and considering how the field is likely invisible from the air all it'd take would be for traffic control to ignore ships coming to the surface around here. That could be achieved either by someone working there or simply a digital virus in their systems.” Granted, it would work even better if traffic control was told to not ask questions and not report whatever ships were coming here. “Right now there's no way to know though.”

As the two girls walked in, Florence kept her communicator out to film everything they were seeing. “This feels abandoned but... It has to be reasonably recent. If it had existed before the town had been established, the explorers would have found out about it, right?” She cocked her head to the side, “Maybe it's a temporary base someone set up here and it's not used often. I don't know who would need that kind of things though.” Maybe it was some kind of training grounds for the military? Why place it so close to the town though?

As she noticed the hum, Florence cocked her head to the side. “Do you hear that? There's something on somewhere over there.” As she walked in that direction though, she noticed the branches and stopped, puzzled. “What's this? It doesn't look like it's local...”

It seems quiet other than the one mechanical hum.  The two walk among the prefabs and stop near the plants.

"Nothing's native here, nothing at all," Chloe says.  "It wouldn't be possible, the evolution hasn't got that far.  I've seen these plants before though.  We have a lot of imported plants, in test plots.  They're trying to see what can grow, and what help it might need.  I don't know what this is, but there is a small test plot with it.  I wonder why they decided to plant some here, too.  That's strange."

On a sudden whim, Chloe takes a small green twig from a bush.

"When we get back we can identify it," she says.

She looks around at the prefabs, especially the large cluster, with the sound.  There is a louver with a steady flow of air coming out.

"The ventilation is on.  Florence, maybe there's no one here, but this place is still used.  Should we be here?  What if we're doing something wrong?"

Florence nodded, silently agreeing to Chloe taking a sample. She didn't know if it would lead to anything, but better that than ignoring something that could explain everything. “Maybe it's not a standard variety or something. This place doesn't really look like what I imagine a test farm to be though... Why would you only grow one type of plant only, and like that?” On the other hand, the whole thing was baffling Florence, so at that point...


“Wrong?” Florence shook her head. “Why would it be wrong? We're not trespassing, we didn't go over any fence, there are no signs anywhere... The girl smiled, amused “Are we doing something someone would rather we did not? Almost certainly, but for all we know, they are in the wrong.” After a small pause she added, “In fact, it's the most likely right now.”

She didn't hesitate to continue then, looking around and heading to the large cluster where the noise was coming from.

The two girls explore the camp.  Some of the prefabs they check are locked.  The big, important looking complex is locked.  It might be possible to break in anyway, but Chloe would advise against it- it definitely crosses the line between innocent exploration and burglary.

They come across one prefab which is unlocked.

Chloe says it's typical that a camp would always leave at least one shelter unlocked.  In case of emergency, you don't want to be locked out of everything.

They simply must peek inside.

Sure enough, there is emergency survival and first aid equipment here.  All the things you might need if truly stuck.

There are rolls of cloth on shipping pallets.  And more boxes, all of which come from a place on the distant planet Kayon, out towards the end of the Main Line, according to the shipping labels. Also, boxes of... soil?  These come from the same place on Kayon.   And a cargo handling robot.

Shipping information on the boxes indicate that these came via two different ships.  They must both be small freighters, because nothing else could land here.

There's a map on the wall, which shows a future road, coming out to this place from the town.  One would need trucks and maybe a bulldozer to make something like that.

And then... there is the sound of the approaching aircraft.

Florence grumbled a bit about most of the buildings being closed - and Chloe's insistence that they don't touch. Not that she had any nefarious goals, she was just displeased that anything would prevent her from satisfying her curiosity...and the only building they could enter didn't do much for that.

Oh, she scanned the rolls, pallets and shipping information - maybe she'd be able to find something about it later - and the map. At least that was a bit interesting. Though when she thought about it, a bit depressing. Well, sort of. “If they - whoever they are - plan on building a road between here and the town, it's probably not something illegal. Maybe just a private lab doing some research and who didn't want to advertise it? Though... I'd have expected to find logos all over the place.”

Her thoughts however were drawn away from that particular mystery when she heard the aircraft's noise. “Do you hear that?” Once sure that there was indeed something coming, she walked outside to look at what was coming. As she did so though, she looked around: had they tripped some kind of alarm?

"I didn't hear an alarm," Chloe admits.  "But no one ever thought to come out here, so maybe it was only a sensor of some kind?"

The aircraft noise gets closer, and when they look outside they can see that it is one of Mission Saint Lorenzo's municipal aircraft.  According to Chloe, they have a few, mostly for quick official visits and rescues.

But of course this means...

"They know about this place," she says quietly.  "But they don't mention it.  Please don't get us in trouble!"

It is a small advanced tilt-rotor: relatively inexpensive, as it doesn't dabble in any costly "gravitic" technology.  But with a carrying capacity no more than a typical sedan.  And it is landing at the field.

“Well... At least this explains why no one in town said anything about the ships coming here...” Florence commented about the arriving vehicle. She cocked an eyebrow at Chloe's admonition to avoid trouble. “They'll probably just ask you to keep quiet and me to leave yesterday, don't worry.”

Her head tilted to the side, she added, “In fact, if this is a legitimate entreprise, but one they'd rather kept quiet for the time being, they may ask for you to work on it.” The only thing she could think of though was that things hadn't gone exactly as planned about the establishment of the colony - or maybe just the city - and someone was trying to fix it before panic settled in. Now that she thought about it... Could the stuff they had brought here from Lyonesse fit in that particular equation?

Shaking her head, she just decided to wait and see. “Come, let's go meet them near the field. And you're welcome to blame me if you want.” It wasn't like they could do much to her after all, so if it could help Chloe...

The aircraft lands on the field.   There is a pilot, whom Chloe recognizes but Florence does not, and a passenger they both recognize:  Kurtiss Ferro, Works Director of Mission San Lorenzo.

Not a law enforcement official... Kurtiss Ferro the Works Director.  The guy in charge of building things.

Mission San Lorenzo is a small enough town for mutual recognition of any two random people is a good possibility.  The pilot is an older man.  He and Chloe exchange looks.

"Chloe, do your parents know you're here?"

"Well not this place specifically," she says.  "I didn't know we'd find it.  She wanted to see the wilderness, so we went in a direction nothing else was.  What is it?"

"It belongs to our benefactor," Kurtiss says.  "For whatever reasons he has, he's asked that we don't officially list this place.  And with all the good he's done us, unless there's a reason to suspect something wrong is going on here, we're going to keep it that way while we can."

And then his eyes go to Florence.

"Well?"

“Hello Mr. Ferro.” Florence smiled. For a moment, it seemed that she wasn't going to answer, but in the end she simply shrugged, “You'll have to tell your 'benefactor' that they should turn off the beacon they have in there. Anyone paying attention can see it's there.” Granted, pretty much no one was going to bother looking at it. “I was curious and decided to come have a look while I was around.”

She paused then, considering if she wanted to say more: she didn't know what that benefactor wanted, but you didn't go to all that trouble if you didn't fear the consequences of what someone learning about it would say or do. And this, whatever this was, taking place within the territory controlled by the town, made them responsible for it too. At the very least Kurtiss should have demanded to know what was going on here: as things were, if something went wrong, he would be held responsible. In fact, it was even likely that he would be the only one responsible if the benefactor denied everything.

But she couldn't really come out and say that: she was just a nineteen years old girl, who had disembarked from a ship just the day before... So instead, she asked, “You know, I've heard a lot about that 'benefactor' of yours but I don't think I've ever heard its name... Who is it exactly?”

The two people from the aircraft look at each other with a slightly exasperated look, and a look is also exchanged with Chloe.

"You don't know?" the pilot asked.  "You came with a ship load of stuff he bought for us.  Henry Flynn."

Kurtiss explains.  Henry Flynn is a small frontier freighter owner with a big dream- build an alliance and network of small ship owners so they can cooperate, and pursue their mutual interests collectively.  Part of his plan:  Each ship owner must own a landing site somewhere, build it up, and make it available to the others in the alliance.

No one really knows why Captain Flynn chose this place- he says he likes it, he likes the people, and he likes the idea behind it.  But he was supportive of San Lorenzo from the start, and his funding has supplied a lot of the town's resources.

"Everyone knows we wouldn't have come so far without him," Kurtiss Ferro says.

Kurtiss and the pilot both insist the two girls return home, and not come out here.  Florence sees a barely noticeable dynamic here:  they might be much angrier, but it's Chloe, and it's a small town, and while Florence is a stranger, Chloe's presence creates some breathing space.  It may be that the real challenge ahead for Kurtiss isn't what Florence might have found, but "guess where I found your daughter".

“Oh.” Florence seemed disappointed: she had expected something a lot more exciting than this even if it had been perfectly legal. Instead, all she found was the result of an eccentric's actions. Not that it was stupid, far from it: it could very well give huge dividends at some point in the future, assuming everyone played ball of course. Maybe it would in fact be quite interesting to talk to him, who knew: she was looking for unconventional answers maybe that Henry Flynn would have one for her?

Florence readily agreed to return to San Lorenzo, “Oh sure, don't worry about it, we'll take the donkeys and be on our way. We should be back by noon tomorrow. I was curious, nothing more. Could you tell me how to contact Mr. Henry Flynn though? I would like to ask him a few questions if possible.”

Henry Flynn can normally be found with his ship, the Razzle Dazzle, which is small but seems to do pretty well.  They run a "coreward side" route, generally staying off the Main Line.

Clearly they are not here now, something evident by the lack of starship on the landing field.

"It's been a while, so he might be back any time," Kurtiss says.  "Or not, you never know."

As part of the alliance he's working on, other ships are permitted to use this place too, but so far there has been a lack of interest.  Maybe once a year or so.  That is why the Albatross's visit was such a big deal.

With things settled out and Chloe giving her word that they won't poke around the private property of Mr. Flynn, it is time to return back to San Lorenzo and return the donkeys.

“Alright, thank you.” After that, Florence didn't make things complicated for anyone, she was perfectly content to go back to San Lorenzo. Her goals had been reached anyway, and maybe more importantly, she didn't want to miss an opportunity to accompany Marlo to his ship.

---

A few days later back in Port Loretta after a nice two days boat trip, Florence sat in a small restaurant with Marlo. She had inquired about any news about the last leg of his trip, then started talking with him about her experiences on the ground - though she didn't talk about the hidden compound - while continuing to learn his language.

Inevitably, Florence and, for the moment Marlo, both find the Nellie Bly's Help Wanted Call.  The computer networks, even on St. Brendan, have their ways of matching people with what they are looking for.

Marlo thinks it is a wonderful opportunity for both of them.

"I need a ship to take me to my Home Ship, and that is exactly where they are going,"  Marlo says.  "Very good luck.  You need to trade your services for money.  Did you know that of the known intelligences, only approximately half developed the concept of money?  To us it is so basic and so essential, yet the Mimosans never created it, and it is completely alien to the Ecosentiences.  Please understand my good intentions, I have already requested an interview to explore this.  I have specified that you are my partner.  I believe it strengthens both our positions.  I have observed that Humans of your young age are not given preferential treatment in these negotiations."


Florence goes from here to the Nellie Bly Job Interview thread.