Dominiq nodded in the direction of both Wymp and MacKenzie and the corners of her mouth began to curl upward. "No trouble, I just thought that if we followed the money, we'd get at least something. It might be boring and all that, but I'll take a steady income over the ups and downs that come with risky cargoes. Not saying that we should stick only to tried and true all the time, but it's always good to have a backup plan."

   A small beep sounded on one of the thin gold bangles she wore on her right wrist. When she brought up her arm, the rings slid back and made a soft sound as they gathered together. Dominiq grasped one and looked at it for a moment before she lowered both hands, the rings making another jingling sound. "Sorry, work calls - no rest for the wicked ..." She turned on one sneakered heel and began to walk back to where their passengers were gathered.

As the one interacting with the passengers the most (of her own choosing), given the small size of the ship, the duration of the voyage, and the small number of passengers, Dominique gets to know them quite well.

She can even count one as an Ally, who would do a favor for her at some future time, although such a favor would be limited to one that could be provided by a pacifistic career counselor based in a quiet corner of Merlin.  One never knows, though, and those career counselors obviously get around.

Dominique learns things in depth and first hand, the others less directly.

Blaiseport, according to the passengers, is a fine place to set down.  It's more of a "Merlin" place with most off world visitors choosing other destinations, like Mageport.  It's also a central transport hub for them, very convenient.


Merlin, Dominique learns, is an unusual world in many ways beyond its physical characteristics.  It has three Governates but they cooperate in maintaining a unified and cohesive planetary society.  English is the standard language, and though the colonists were diverse (though heavily North American and European) their descendants somehow managed to acquire a slight accent akin to Scottish and Irish.  (The travelers say this is a result of the people who created the first language training programs for childhood education here).

It is the furthest world from Earth that has a real tourist industry.  There are travelers, generally wealthy and in search of adventure, or young and willing to be ship stewards, who go much further, even to the end of the Main Line at Zinderneuf, but they are much rarer and not expecting resorts and spas.  People come to Merlin to see it, and enjoy the tranquil society.

Merlin exports its people, on short work assignment contracts.  It is not the only planet to do so.  Alpha Mensae is constantly trying to find work for its educators off world, Poseidon has the best marine engineers in the 100 Worlds, and Deseret has its Mormon missionaries, but none come close to Merlin in terms of proportion of the work force finding off world jobs.  Like the missionaries, Merliners working offworld see it as a duty, though without the direct religious overtones.

Some of Merlin's reputation is more show than real.  It's true that there are lots of people who take all sorts of "new age folk spiritualism" very seriously on Merlin.  If you need someone to bring your chakras into balance with psychic crystal energy, Merlin is the place to find them.  But even though that has strongly influenced the culture, "true believers" are actually in the minority.  Some Merliners claim they can psychically communicate with local life forms, and even with the bright auroras.  Most Merliners don't believe this.

Merlin has never been touched by the war with the Carinans.  Not once, in the almost two centuries humans have lived here.  Naturally, many Merliners have spiritual theories to explain this.  Of course, there are other planets that have avoided the war, and they don't share the pacifistic, patient attitude.  That doesn't change things.  But Merlin is a frontier world. It cannot be left undefended, to trust its peaceful "consciousness emanations".  So, the Commonwealth Navy has a small squadron here, which is overworked guarding the planet and patrolling the whole sector coreward of Merlin.

Merliners understand that not everyone has the mental temperament to be "their" kind of citizen.  Some people simple won't have the right mindset even if they are born and raised into that.  Every Governate in the commonwealth must allow people who are not socially fit for a region’s lifestyle to leave.    Merlin is one of the rare planets where unfit people are “guided” to leave.  No one is forced, but councilors expertly steer the unfit towards wanting to leave.  Some other Governates have protested that Merlin should not be shipping its “problematic” citizens off to avoid social problems, and Merlin has become more subtle and careful about this.  Still, for a society many regard as near perfect, it has many emigrants.

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

The Albatross makes several pit stops at small frontier outposts for refueling.  The Back Road is a remote place.  One thing the crew quickly learns:  When traveling these frontier routes, ships often carry exotic goods in small quantities- trinkets, fresh food and alcoholic beverages, books, things like that- and pass them out to friends along the way.  Making friends at the little remote fuel and maintenance stations, they hear, is very big with frontier ship crews.  The Albatross has had it easy on its first run here, with a very peaceful, compliant and relaxed group of passengers, but when things are tougher, a good reputation is very handy.

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

You also learn that this region is fairly cut off from news of the core worlds.  What they know here, you knew before.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:18, Sat 11 Apr 2020.

 Approaching Merlin, the ship begins to receive approach instructions from Merlin’s orbital control center.  This is the standard procedure at the major planets, as it ensures all the many ships are coordinated with each other and travel safely.  For a world like Merlin it would be borderline unusual- some worlds like this would, some wouldn’t, depending on the attitudes here.

But for seasoned Navy and Merchant shipping characters, it’s the nature of the instructions that is more unusual.  The Albatross is routed past the orbital terminal even though you are clearly not going to dock there.  The approach also passes the Navy warship “Baowei”.  It’s an elderly ship, very heavily armored but too slow to be a line warship these days, still effective as part of the orbital defenses of a planet.  Veteran spacers know this routine:  when there is some kind of security issue that makes the Navy start paying attention to ship traffic, but they don’t want to go to the extreme step of “stop and board”, they route ships past a warship with sensors that can take a good look.  Something has got the navy a little flustered.

Does it have something to do with the inflatable service dock nearby?  Larger vessels cannot land, and they tend to be too big to fit into hangars.  When they need extensive exterior service or repair work done, an inflatable balloon like structure will be set up around them.  This allows crews to work in zero gravity but in an atmosphere, which is much more productive than trying to get everything done wearing vacc suits.  Whatever the inflatable dock has inside is about the size of the Baowei:  typical medium warship sized.

"It appears they want to take a look at us captain."

"Something's got their undies in a bunch," Alwin says somewhat dismissively, from his pilot's chair.  "Some traveller did something or brought something in they shouldn't have, and now they're trying to do damage control after the fact."  After a pause, he adds, somewhat more fairly, "Or they got word that someone might be planning to do something they shouldn't.'  Another pause.  "Or absolutely nothing of note has occurred, and the brass is giving the crew busy work because they're bored."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:28, Thu 16 Apr 2020.

All of those are likely scenarios. I remember 'busy work' from my time in the service."

On the approach, you observe that it's not all ships being given this extra scrutiny.  A large liner is also entering the system, the Exuberance.  It is not diverted, it goes directly to it's "parking orbit".  It's a big ship, too big to land.  In fact, ships that big often do not even dock, because their mass throws the physics of the orbital stations off kilter.  They just pull into a convenient orbit, and the shuttles go back and forth.

You hear a few of the controllers from the Orbital Station.  They don't sound perturbed in the list, certainly not hostile.  Just people doing their job.  But there is a slight change in voice.. it's a good thing. A little more upbeat, it seems, after they confirm the identity of the Albatross.  One controller, once, uses the old name the ship, calling it the Montauk.

The Montauk... Albatross... is officially welcomed to Merlin.  And cleared to land at Blaiseport.

"Well I guess we know WHERE we're landing now, no choice on that matter. Get ready to sell us ladies, first the cargo then us as shippers for their cargo."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:39, Fri 17 Apr 2020.

"I'm quite ready. Let's meet some new contacts and make some money," Heather said with a smile as she picked up her tablet. This was what she loved--negotiating. This was when she felt truly alive.

"Take us in Alwin. Time to land this bird!"

The Albatross is limited to setting down in water, but many spaceports are convenient to seaports.  Waterways are natural transport routes, very convenient for any colony world to have, and expanses of water also provide for safe flight routes in the event of emergency.  Spaceports new colonies throughout the Hundred Worlds were built on the water's edge- safe, and easy to link up to surface transport.

But landing on water is rare feature for a starship.  The vast majority of surface-capable ships use traditional landing gear, and concrete.   The Albatross finds a dock near a few "tour boats", passenger ships that make mostly short range, relaxing recreational trips.
 According to your passengers, this isn't for tourists- locals book these trips all the time.
 An evening at sea, with the water glowing from the native life, is very popular local enjoyment.

The ship has now proven itself as a passenger ship- reputations of starships are made (or ruined) quickly, and undoubtedly, word of the unannounced contributions of Dominique will spread.

Here in Blaiseport there are many things to do, and the captain, Einar, quietly sees to the mundane, essential tasks, organizing maintenance and resupply.  But for everyone else, there are choices, and these include:

Look for new passengers and cargo.

Try to sell existing cargo.

Check the news, see what's going on.

Look for some specific information.

Check out Blaiseport, maybe go sightseeing.

Look for local equipment that can be purchased for the ship.

"Sell the cargo and look for a patron Heather. Or a cargo. I need to find some cigars and brandy too, keep an eye out."

"Will do, XO. Any preference on brands or dates for your brandy?" She asked with a smile as she made a few notes in her tablet.

She also started looking to see if there was a need for the hygiene products they had on board given they were a ways off the beaten path.

"Just make sure they're high quality stuff." He says with a grin, "Maybe you'll take it up too!"

Different worlds and Governates, especially those that have some significant drift from "mainstream" Commonwealth culture, often have different takes on how commerce should be done.
Here on Merlin, where the people learn from childhood not to be "adversarial" with each other (they don't even do competitive sports, Merlin's athletes are judged subjectively, against their own "personal best") buying and selling can be a different kind of experience.  Haggling and pressuring is considered shameful.

In fact there is a whole profession of people who make it their business to help others negotiate prices in a calm and mutually friendly and helpful manner; Commercial Mediators.

Heather quickly gets invitations from a number of these people, who are always on the alert for newly arriving merchants, and especially those who don't have any known connections with Commercial Mediators.   They seem to be.. Broker-brokers.  They don't buy or sell themselves, but for a fixed percentage (generally half a percent to a full percent) of sales they make sure everyone keeps to the social and moral rules prevalent on Merlin.

These come in even ahead of any responses to her offers to buy and sell, apparently, Merliners don't jump on things, they take a little time to see what others are doing, first.  Don't want to appear to be too pushy!

Except... one offer comes in sounding a little different... maybe a little more hast and urgency in the voice.

And very oddly, it's not from a Commercial Mediator at all, nor is it from the other early respondent, "Emblem Distributing", which has made an offer on their cargo of skin care products that won't even pay the purchase costs.  No, this one is from the Institute for Consciousness Studies.  Someone named Armande Kotaki, who wants to know if the whole ship is available for charter to the ICS.  A few weeks at most, nothing more.  And also... would you be comfortable discussing it in person, rather than across the Net?  Armande adds that if they can work something out, the ICS will even have one of their "regular" Commercial Mediators help you with other cargo sales.

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

A quick search of Emblem Distributing reveals...
They are not native to Merlin.  It is a multi planet wholesaling corporation based on Epona.  Their business model is to throw out fast, cheap offers for everything.  Usually people say no, but sometimes a seller is desperate for immediate cash, or closing, or just needs to clear out old inventory or something like that.  Then, Emblem will divide the cargo up into smaller packages for resale to traders going to specific distant destinations so they don't compete with each other.   In this way, rather than a hundred tons of something going to one planet, 20 tons goes to each of five planets, and the smaller quantities have a better chance of being in demand.

Naturally, one or more characters might want to do a quick check on the "Institute for Consciousness Studies" before even talking to their representative.

The ICS has a very variable reputation, though it is well regarded here on Merlin where it is headquartered.  Since much of their work involves alien intelligences, or alien environments, or both, they can be found nearly everywhere- but generally in small numbers doing quiet field research.

In the view of others, they are (in no particular order)...

...asking some really big questions, and generating some fascinating ideas...

...but it's more speculation and philosophy than science...

...most of their ideas do not lend themselves to real scientific rigor...

...still some of their ideas about how certain aliens think has been useful...

...bunch of fringe theorists disconnected from reality...who else thinks panpsychism is a serious topic for research?...

...pure academics who seem to make up new terms every day.  Their books all contradict each other...

...one of the most interesting things about Merlin.  Their discussions are always fun....

They have tens of thousands of members, and operate in a diffused, often disorganized fashion with different departments have poorly defined areas of research which they change to suit themselves at a whim.  They publish a lot, and their work is popular, generally more in the "pop science" area than with other scientists.  But most of the mainstream scientific communities consider them to be somewhat "fringe".  Some of their work is very serious and highly regarded, though, especially their studies on how some of the aliens perceive things, and how they think.

After Alwin lands the ship at Blaiseport, Horace checks to see if there are any patrons to be found.

OOC-Who is still here?

OOC: still here

After getting the Albatross settled in at Blaiseport, Alwin finds himself curious about the history of the Montauk on Merlin.  Should circumstances allow, he might see if he can find a bit more regarding that.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:36, Wed 06 May 2020.

Horace searches for Patrons, and realizes that the first inquiries reaching the ship haven't even been answered yet!

Obviously, not answering requests is not going to help the reputation with potential patrons!

Alwin sees what he can find in records about Albatross's days as the Montauk.

As luck would have it, Merlin has an Archive, being the Sector Archive for the Trans-Merlin Sector.  It's a barely settled frontier sector, and so this is a very low priority archive, but it is updated often enough to get historical data.

Some of it is Classified.  Alwin will have to do a little better than just "ask the system"!

But some things he learns:  The Montauk did not have a long military career.  The Navy does not use many "off the shelf" civilian designs and even then, the Montauk (and a pair of sisterships) had extensive sensor and counter-detection upgrades.

Apparently, the ship was controversial and provoked some hostile reactions.  It seems odd, as it wasn't even a warship.  But somehow, some people got the idea that the ship was made for activity against rebellious humans, not the Carinan enemy.  Exactly how this idea came to be is unclear- he finds a mention of the "Dawn Surge" exercises but they aren't described at the unclassified level.

Maybe it was because the Montauk would not have been a very useful ship to take into operation against Carinans.  It's not that the Carinans don't inhabit planets.  This is a common misconception.  Despite being entirely robotic, they very much do, and for a very obvious reason.  Atmospheres make wonderful cooling environments for robots, which otherwise can have a hard time shedding heat and cook themselves, unless they either operate at very low power, have very large radiators, or do both like the old space probes.  In an atmosphere, especially a non corrosive, fairly cool, fairly dense one, all it takes is a fan.    But while the Montauk could easily deliver people and equipment to oceanside locations throughout the Hundred Worlds, it simply does not have the armor or firepower to have had much of a chance landing on a world with a Carinan presence.  That's been done a few times, by specialized assault landers using Commonwealth marines.

Its service history indicates that it stayed in the Hundred Worlds area, never traveling to the front.  And at a fairly young age, it was phased out of service.

That seemed to have taken some political heat off.  Apparently, quite a few people, even some Governors, were not happy about the ship.

Einar, now with more questions than answers, returns to the Albatross to clear his head.  Whenever they are available, he will inform Einar and Horace of what he has learned.  Should any other of the crew be present, or later inquire as to what he had been up to, he will let them know as well.

Einar, being the captain but being primarily concerned with matters of engineering, calibrates the steering mechanisms and cleans the air and water filters.

They check on the "patron" situation.

Ships always get request inquiries.  The Albatross already has a couple (see message 29 above!) but more show up over time.  How many and what kind depend on a few things:

1. The reputation and local contacts of the ship.  (small but growing, as a frontier transport with "good service and a gracious hostess who is an entertainer!?)

2.  The ship's listed destination.  So far, none.

Still, a couple of additional inquiries come in, as well as some information on outgoing passenger and cargo opportunities:

A salvage and recovery company that wants to charter the ship for a small recovery operation.

A businesswoman who wants a good (but reasonably priced, and insured) ship for delivery of confidential documents.

A scientific expedition to Kayon, almost at the limit of colonization.  Passengers and Cargo.

"What do you think Heather? Nique? Alwin? Reggie? Do we continue to trade or rent ourselves out to a patron?"

In reply to Horace Wymp (msg # 36):

Horace checked into one of the potential patrons, A salvage and recovery company that wanted to charter the ship for a small recovery operation. That could be interesting. Heather could negotiate a nice contract.

Also A businesswoman wanted a good (but reasonably priced, and insured) ship for delivery of confidential documents. That could be potentially interesting too, or the research?

"Heather! Where are you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:00, Mon 25 May 2020.

"I'm in my quarters, XO. I was trying to line up a buyer for some of the cargo but this is not the place to sell. We'll barely cover what we put up for it or the fuel costs. Right now I'm going over some of the offers on the local boards," Heather said over the ship intercom.

"Want to grab some coffee and I'll run by the ones I'm taking a look at."

While Heather and Horace talk, Alwin will get in touch with the Institute for Consciousness Studies, while also sending a text to his fellow crew that someone should get in touch with Emblem Distributing, if only to politely decline their offer.

Once he does reach someone from the ICS, he will ask to speak to Armande Kotaki, at his convenience.