The “back roads” are lonely compared to the Main Line.  The stretches are long- getting to the next refueling point, Jehu, exhausts almost all of the ship’s fuel.

Jehu is a world that maybe, had things gone a little differently, could have been a habitable planet.  It has water and the right things in its atmosphere… but not in the right proportions.  Too little oxygen, too much carbon dioxide and monoxide, it is lethal for humans.  It is a naturally lifeless world.  It’s considered close enough for terra forming, but since Humanity doesn’t have such a demand for living space these days, no one is interested in supporting such a big project.

So, Jehu remains only a minor outpost, visited by the handful of ships that travel this route, and patrolling warships.  It has a military outpost, and a research camp, and a small town that supports these two, all in protected habitats, domes, or underground.  Small ships always stop here.  Not only is refueling essential for most small ships, but even an outpost as small as this is an opportunity to stretch legs and get out of the ship.

As every spacer knows, though, this is a terrible place to buy things.  They make nothing, everything is imported, and like hotel shops they only sell essentials that travelers have run out of.  It's a fair place to sell things, but the market is small.

You have a few days before getting here.

Barring anything that might pop up with the passengers requiring any sort of medical attention, Alwin will mostly recuse himself to his quarters, continuing his ongoing medical studies.

It doesn't take the passengers long to realize that there is a large open space, the cargo deck, with no gravity.

This is a novelty!  This is the second space journey for most of them, and the run from Merlin to St. Brendan didn't feature any such amenity.  They realize it's cargo space, not designed as a zero gee recreation area, but all the same, a few passengers petition to be allowed to try it.

****
Alwin studies.  Naturally, he peruses the medical information specific to Merlin, since that is where they are headed.


Heather, meanwhile, looks at the business end of Merlin.  It's known for it's exotic life, and it's easy going, tranquil, new-age-ish society, but it's a whole planet, it has a business end too.  Some of its exports are directly related to it's natural resources and its society.  Bioluminescent fabrics, living plants and animals... and such things as crystal wind chimes.  These wind chimes don't seem to be anything that any planet with a stone polisher could turn out, but like Tibetan Salt Bowls, something about their being From Merlin just makes them desirable to certain people.  But such trinkets are never exported in mass, their relative scarcity helps keep them valuable.

Merlin also has its "normal" economy.  Heather reads about advanced metal alloys, many agricultural products, and.. refrigerators?  Yes, Merlin is home to Kitchen Wizard, a leading maker of popular kitchen appliances.

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

Dominique, of course, is the one most closely involved with the passengers.  Almost by default... although she is very popular after they discover that they had the good fortune to book a journey with entertainment.  (A few passengers are curious- why didn't anyone let them know she would be here.  Ships don't generally keep such a thing secret!)

She's not quite in the role of purser... that's more financial and there's not much to be done and Heather is on it... but she seems to be the default Passenger Wrangler.  Passenger ships call this position the Host, or Hostess.  Passengers are more lucrative than cargo, but the reality is, cargo tends to be quiet and just sit there in the hold.  If it doesn't, something has gone very wrong.  Passengers, on the other hand, will find reasons to need professional management.  And Dominique seems more willing and able to interact with them.

 Reggie, usually very polite and correct in his manners, would pitch in, with acting as a steward, when he was not watching the ship's interior monitors, or doing random patrols.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:15, Thu 02 Apr 2020.

At some point when the crew us together (and no passengers present), probably during lunch, Alwin will speak to the others.

"I've been reading up on Merlin.  Interesting place.  While the residents themselves may be pleasant, the actual planet itself pretty much wants to kill you.  Don't be offended, I'm fairly certain it's nothing personal."

"The easiest part to deal with are the long days, which can run as high as nine Earth-standard.  Most people live in the planet's tropical area, of an already warmer-than-usual world.  That's because Merlin is actually a moon of another planet, Nimue, and when Merlin is blocked from the sun's rays by Nimue, temperatures drop, and drop fast.  We'll need to be prepared for both hot and frigid temperatures, with relatively little transition time between them."

"Also, the local native biology is pretty far afield from Earth-standard.  Eating any of the local flora and fauna would be a bad idea, as they're all poisonous to humans. If it's any consolation, we're also poisonous to the various local critters, although that may be small comfort as most of the local wildlife will still try to eat you anyways."

"Oh, and you fancy a swim in the ocean, don't.  Lots of microbes in the water that are, you guessed it, toxic to humans.  Just for good measure, spores from the local plant life can aggravate and irritate your lungs, especially during 'sporing' season."

"Like I said, this planet wants to kill you.  It's up to us to take all the necessary precautions to give it reason for disappointment."

"Sounds like wearing a hazard suit and mask might be called for on Merlin. Sounds downright inhospitable."

One of the key differences between different Governates is simply what each Governate chooses to stress as required education.  There is only so much human children can learn in a given span of time, no matter what the resources available, so every Governate must make choices and tradeoffs, while accommodating the basic social structure- the Charter- of the Governate.  The Commonwealth keeps some things universal, but after that, Governates differ.  For Merlin, it means a focus on social skills and things like “emotional management”.  They have their own vocabulary.  To a Merliner, a “Toxism” is a behavior or attitude that causes distress or discomfort in others, and “Bubbling” is to spout off ideas without fully considering the consequences.

As the journey progresses, the issue of the exact arrival point on Merlin arises.  Although the Albatross has plenty of options available on any planet with oceans, and that includes Merlin, there are two other considerations.  You will want to offload the passengers where they can get surface transport, and it will have been a month and a half since departing Lyonesse- some basic services are needed, and that is something a genuine starport is needed for.

Merlin has a few.  There is the usual High Port.  Nimue Space Terminal does not orbit Merlin, it actually orbits Nimue, but in an orbit synched with Merlin.  It’s partly a naval base; Merlin has a small Naval squadron that patrols the coreward region beyond it. Nimue Space Terminal is a moderate, utilitarian kind of place.  It has a fleet of long range shuttles that keep a constant flow to the cities on the surface.

Mageport is the oldest city, the site of the first colonization landings 185 years ago and obviously named with a whimsical reference to the name of the planet.  It’s one of the planet’s main industrial areas, as well as having the largest surface starport.  It’s considered more commercial than some of the other cities.

Rainbow River is a secondary city but has a very good starport nonetheless, as it is a major tourist center.  Rainbow River has the highest concentration of the planet’s signature bioluminescent life, people come just to see river glowing.  It's also in Merlin's "Photogenic" zone:  with Nimue closer to the horizon than it is in other cities here, it is easier to get it into landscape scenes.  Everybody wants pictures with Nimue in the background, not so easy when it's directly above.

Ambrose has a secondary starport, though it is the home of the Institute for Consciousness Studies, and has many of the planet’s government functions.  Merlin is divided into three Governates, and the Eastern Governate, with Ambrose as the capital, is the first and most populous.

Blaiseport is the second most important commercial center, and capital of the Central Governate of Merlin.  It is home to Kitchen Wizard and a few other important industries.  It’s central location makes it the hub of ocean surface and air transport.  Blaiseport has the University of Merlin Main Campus.  Graphite mining and carbon filament are important businesses.   It has the an excellent starport for freight handling, the second busiest on the planet after Mageport.  It is the destination of choice for many small transports, as passengers can easily find transport to the other towns and cities of Merlin.

Merakadun is the capital of the Western Governate, the most isolated of the three and the smallest in population.    It is surrounded by extensive farmland and plantations, using Earth plants that have been carefully adapted to conditions here.  This has meant taking drastic steps to eradicate native life from within the agricultural areas, a very necessary operation, but very unwelcome by much of the population.  It has the newest starport, and it is used as a base for the Merlin Rescue Patrol, which is in charge of search and rescue on the planet surface, but is spread very thin.

From his pilot's seat, Alwin contacts Einar and gives him the rundown of the different 'ports on Merlin.  "Where do you want us to dock?" he asks.

Alwin hadn't kept up so much with what Einar, Horace, and Heather were planning in terms of the cargo they hoped to buy, but it was easy enough to deduce that whatever their hopes were in that regard would decide which starport on the planet they would head to.

For her part Heather made herself available to crew and passengers by doing her work on her PAD in common areas. She was looking at places they could sell their cargo and make a tidy profit as well as looking for any shipments of goods that might be leaving Merlin.

When Alwin gave his briefing she nodded, having been to Merlin more than once over the course of her career. "It's pretty much Pandora except for the giant blue aliens."

She looked around, seeing some of the blank looks some of the others undoubtedly gave her and shook her head. "Really? None of you have seen that old movie? We have got to have a movie night one night."

In reply to Heather MacKenzie (msg # 9):

"What was the title of the movie? My vote is for the major port, Mageport."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:10, Sat 04 Apr 2020.

   When the passengers came aboard and realised that the voyage would have entertainment, it gave Dominiq a small wave of relief. She'd been worried, on account of the number of people they'd be transporting, that tempers might flare and things might get out of hand. But the Merlinians didn't seem to be bothered with such things, and the impromptu "concerts" proved to be both fun and a chance to work off some stress through music.

   When she'd heard Alwin talking about Merlin and its plant and animal life, she'd smirked at the mention of the wildlife wanting to kill you. "Not the first time I've heard that," she'd remarked after she'd let out a short giggle. "I heard the same thing on a visit to Australia when I was younger. Found out it wasn't *all* true, but some of the things Zara - the BPF* girl we talked to - mentioned were enough to make your hair stand on end.

  "Still, thanks for the warning, Alwin. I'll have to run some checks on my vacc suit, in case we've got to leave the safety of the ship."

  During most of the journey, she spent most of her time attending to their passengers; answering questions, providing what they needed - if it was possible, and offering suggestions and alternatives if it wasn't. With Reggie's occasional help, they both prevented the occasional wandering traveller from going where they weren't supposed to be or dealing with the occasional trouble that popped up on the voyage. Fortunately, the Merlinians were model customers, and it proved next to impossible for any troubles to bubble to the surface.

   "I'd vote for Blaiseport; it's a main commercial hub with transportation to just about everywhere else on the moon. Kitchen Wizard's there, and if we can get to ship something specific with them, it'll put in the running for bigger things. It'd be good to have something like that as a back-up plan if one of our runs goes south."

---

*BPF - Border Protection Force: Australia's frontline border law enforcement agency and customs service. (I assume there's something similar game-wise, perhaps on a more worldwide/Governate level

"Kitchen Wizard? In that case I'll change my vote. A steady supply source might come in handy some day."

"Avatar is the name of the movie. Good instincts, Dominique. I've already begun putting together a proposal for Kitchen Wizard to run by the CO and XO," Heather said as she typed some things in her tablet. "As well as getting some of the more exotic goods from Merlin for our journey out."

Horace spends time in engineering learning how to run the Jump drives, he needed to know how things ran too.