"Well this is interesting.. This chair is making my leg hurt.. What the hell is going on there? Ugh!.. "
*shifting around.. and a click noise*
Log 1
Estium Captians Log
"Who put razors on this thing? Oh there we go.. At HEM.."
*sniffling*
"New ship.. new back.. think I pinched a nerve in my right leg. Its gotta be the captians suite they installed... The helmsman is a kid... I dont know how I feel not driving the thing but this ships shakedown cruise is destined for Freeport 1 to meet Bret for some kinda reunion."
*the course is displayed the ship is taking jumpholes mostly staying out of checkpoints.*
"We dont want bretonian police authority loosing their cool over a vessel of peace flying through house space. The idiots use that war their loosing as an exscuise to shoot at anything. nevermind rule of law even the Hippocrates dont know their elbow from an ass."
A post from.. crying.mans blog pops up.
"My idiot younger half brother... leonard joined a damn cult. ... Speaking of outcasts Packie is working on malta.. doing what I dont know. But hes alright there. no more withdrawal. Packie told me they where after him to donate sperm for the sake of upping the birth rate research.. I advised him not to resist he is an immigrant after all."
"I have no idea what possessed Leo to give up his own philosophy for an obvious scheme.. Cult of Sirius as far as I've seen a group that gives our cardamine to hook people into getting more and the biggest problem is .. since Ihavent been able to get ahold of him. And its pissin me off."
After alot of humming and hawing.. I let Dr. Slaughter put me under the knife and use his former Cryer connections to do what he did best for pirates.. Smugglers.. conmen.. and int his case Old and fallin apart Hooptie.
And got work done.
appending a picture.. you will see quite frankly the miracle of modern technology and I finally look better then me younger half siblings an cousins.
ISNT HE A MAD SCIENTIST? Did this good a job on whats left o me im going to to have to insist he give me a list of sex changes hes performed.
Dont look at me like that there aint no way youd be able to tell either!
Looks like the congress is about out of scrap.. Whitch is a surprise teh me... though wed never run out. i guess people are slacking. Ill have to get a salvager built from material at the Smelter.
Which is where the Estium is docked at today. As a matter of honor and several bets long ago against me achieving said status other then "stain ont he arse of sirius". Ive come and parked my little hospital where the boys can enjoy full sized rooms and medical treatment.. On me. While me droids go through deck by deck scrubbing and fixing hazards that..junkers.. just.. tend to ignore.
The industrial centers are alright but thier living conditions? ... ive personally seem better slave pens.
Most of these boys sleep in thier ships for good reason.. So might as well let them enjoy the freash air and lamb I got on the Estium.
Got a call from Leonard. he needs me in Outcast space. I dont particularly like hanging out up there but he says the hospital could help a lot of the overworked and under cared for at a planetoid called Seguro Refugio.
Also he wanted to buy my Armor fittings for the Estium. The brat.
In exchange he promised id get some "recognition" yeah like that matters.. Im doing it cause there's people who need us and need the facilities and well... it would be nice to have a conversation longer then ten seconds.
All in all I had to fight that dock maters off with a stick at the smelter.. the little parasites where getting a little TOO cozy around here. Im glad most of my nurses are robotic.
treated 18 cases of dementia forced retired 2 of those old guys in there... they were kinda happy they are probably billionaires.
otherwise... that's all that fit to print. The face-lifts still holding but i have yet to try it on the wife or any other women of note. have to remember not to work so hard.
The first thing to break on this damn ship happened last night the double sink in my got damn kitchen clogged.
Which led me to my most hated activity EVER. Plumbing a star ship.
I hate it.. for I have plumbed some of the worst systems I can think. (why dont you just flush the waste out into space jim?) oh screw you pal.
That might be how rhienland gets its green colored hulls but most of us dont waste a thing. In my case. however it wasn't a Dublin weevle in the pipe or some osrt of assassination probe. Apperantly that sink cant take any food down it.
So ive been making alot of rice with meals lately. Result? the clog is in the bulkhead.. i got to use the pressurizer to clear it.. Nothin. Then I had to get the snake out of the.. wait.. NO SNAKE? Just an aerosol PLUNGER?
THIS IS BLASPHEMY... THIS IS MADNESS.
So there I sat on the floor just staring at the sink as tinny watches me..
The lil bastard actually checked me for a pulse.
The biggest issue is a device thats thousands of years old wasent stocked as a matter of simple tools and because I lost my tools when the Salvager split in two i realised i didnt stock anything on this boat.
Thats.. when I felt an itch... A terrible terrible itch. The junker itch.. the.. If I had moved this room into that room blah blah.. or rearranged the bulkheads on decks 5 and 4 and.. this mental process continued until I had literally made this prestine... beautiful ship into something more salvager or slave liner in nature.
On paper.. (dont panic nothings been done.) The ship looked real cozy.. And I figure ill have a professional look at it. A kind of junker cruiser something that can go out into the deep fields and bring back stuff without killing half the crew of radiation.
The Estiums hull is thinner then the liner and a little thicker then a salvage frigate, its the quality of hull and how all the bulkheads are wrapped together on this thing that makes it more of a Ship then something with a purpose.
I kinda like that because it makes her feel like a home then a work tool. Its also factors heavily in the recuperating and holistic environment... I mean those smelters where weeping with joy with the fact my bar served food too. Cause its a fully functional cafeteria not just a bench and bar to look like a bar.
But if a junker got his hands on the blueprints of this thing hed be trying to add outlets and power couplings and ever utility hookup possible to EVERY ROOM cause we (some junkers) don't trust exstention cords like its a damn religious taboo.
What does make them jelious however is the machine workshop... i got the smallest high capacity fordge tied into the reactor... Oh you shoulda saw the Zoner crew that put it in.. they were convinced i was going to blow up the ship by doing it. But the fusion drive on this thing is massive.. her single engine wastes heat. So i use it to melt down form shape refurnish a buncha stuff.
In this case however.. Im not fabricating plates or internal patches.. A snake is a woven tool of vary fine and precise threading... that makes a spring on a .. line that basically you shove in a drain to clear it. and i already tried making one from memory.. failed horribly. I was rather distraught to think id have to go to a home improvement store in house space in my dinky shuttle.
Thats when the bridge called.
We had entered sigma 13. Stopped the ship at yanagi. The place ... really lacks the personal touched rochester has... rochester has alot of art ont he wall.. metal art stuff junkers over the years put up to make it look homey.
Not here.. Yanagi suffered a lot of damage from attacks and what not and the guys here unless you know em are a business attitude. Even being a congressman sways vary little.
No snake.. no filament threader.. nothing.. its like the place has turned into a gas station.
Ge back aboard the Estium and see this HUGE line of people needing medical help. Nothing in my department but rattled nerves.. and a few cardimine withdraws that.. honestly I have to take with me to omicron 81.
Treatment of everyone took two days.
Apparently Dr. Slaughter has a father in law here. Though hes a group family person like I am.. hes definitely higher on the wife balance then I am.. hes got like 8 of em. To my One famous one with all her uhh.. activity.
We departed the Sigmas and saw something unusual in omicron beta.. debris from a rouge destroyer. No hulk or hull but it looked like one of her engine pods blew out everything from the compulsory flow to the exhaust. Estium took the radiation well.. the outcasts didnt stop me until I arrived in the cloud in Alpha.
Then we saw it...
This huge.. Sarissa battleship... and.. son..
It was covered i mean downright.. covered like it was in the middle of a school of fish.. with Nomads..
I was so distracted i was literally ignoring hails.
It was one of "their" ships... Leonard launched from it in a Sabre. Another unusual thing Ive never known the boy to trust anything under 150 feet long.
He asked me to follow him... I stayed quiet the whole time as i was dreading.. and dreading and worrying.
"They infected my god damn brother those sunsa bitches i KNEW this cult crap was bad news and NOW IM NEXT." I kept thinking.
The bridge crew was silent too... I could feel how nervous they where..
I dont even think i spent any time watching the scenery.. We popped into omicron-81 expecting some other spectacle when we happened upon an observation post welcoming us tot he system in italian.
"Gratsi!" I replied.
Approaching a planet that had Massive radiation in orbit ... and a planetoid safely in orbit outside of the field.
whats interesting about the planetary radiation as my astronomer said was it seems to be from ions created by the systems sun interacting with a weird field emanating from the planet. prolonged exposure to the cruiser wouldn't be an issue however this type of radiation penetrates polarized plating.
The irony was a slave liner could probably live in it longer.
The planetoid was our stop however its landing bays and skyhook were vary new exstremely modern and fit Estium like a glove.
Thats when leonard came aboard..
Airlock bio scans were clear.. cept he had a lot of liquid cardamine in his system or rather his implants had it.
Still my annoying mooching brother. We had abit of a tense argument about that "temple". He invited me aboard it and i laughed in his face. "When hell freezes!" I think the word was.
he said that kind of reations was the problem in this system... most of the inhabitants are hard working engineers and farmers and working class folks who didnt like the "spirits" flying around Alpha.. so they come here.. but since the cult has so much money and charity.. being associated witht he spirits puts them off.
Im not surprised the normal junker is scared to death of wild and nomads. Ive met morphs... never anything impressive.. well on one occasion ive met a large puppydog that LOOKED like a nomad cruiser but that's for another log.
basicly i leveled with Leo.. "Son, ill help who needs it here but if the cult wants to sponsor it.. get me in touch with who handles the money.."
Apperantly this is Liam.
Talked to him.. something you dont see often outside the SCRA.. a Russian. Liam admitted he was of the communist faction but didn't say more then that i said i was from the imperial capitalist fascists in training and we made a few junker jokes.
We sobered up and got to business. Turns out there's a second project in this.. one i.. got volunteered for one LEO managed to get me into without asking a damn thing.
Apparently there is a breed of cardamine grass that's making Maltese sick... Im not a botanist but i am familiar with the micro biology of cardamine.
I promised Liam id look into it. So now.. Im going to have to con a botanist into coming up here.
So far 81 cases of hypertension (I hate stress related sickness) 99 cases of work related injury gone untreated (I hate stubborn workers) 2 cases of flu, 1 case of pneumonia.
and..ALL of them are vitamin and iron deficient. This is the first batch i admitted the flue cases and 4 of the stress cases.
The cult is acquiring medicine and or giving me the cash to get it myself.
So.. thats all thats fit to print.
P.s. The pneumonia case has a pipe snake. the universe still loves me.
"This is the last will and testiment of Jim Mckenna.. I leave everything to my wife... the.. second wife... cause the first ones richer then I am."
*coughs*
"I havent recorded a log an almost half a year.. most of that is because my logs are recorded on the Estium. Its mostly medical logs though. I wish i was there.. Dr. Slaughter would have quick-patched and doped me up a storm. But Here in O49... the zoner hospital thier real holistic, toughen you up or kill you kinda treatment.
I gotta admit it works real well in trying to avoid a gunfight... Which is why im here. Some Oracle Cronies shows up cause of me brother and probably wanted to ransom me for him.. I don't know what he did to those folks but.. If his moral heuristic programs or his brain implant busted anything possible..
Still.. *he takes several breaths..* Still... Im shooting his dick off when I see him again."
*sounds of a tray being moved into his room.. some muffled curses instructions....*
"Whens the new disc being put in... its .. hurting like it used to."
*muffled muffled "ill tell the doctor"*
"Alright... .. so.. instead of being dead.. I get shot a few times.. A bad call going up when I should have got out. This HUGE.. chick.. this BEHEMOTH dyke with red hair SHOOTS me in the back when im already down. Thank god Doc's handiwork took the shot. Then I guess after she figured I was dead my droid arrives late in the petrol and vaporizes her as she tried to take the lift down."
*coughs*
"The other two with her were junkies.. but she.. she was dangerous.. not like the nice folks I met when I was helping them out in Omicron 81. Perhaps she was rouge.."
"Six god damn months in the hospital, Docs grounded me the whole time on account of my nerves are stressed beyond repair. I got some kind of nervous shakes, so the robot does all my driving now.
Lifes gone to hell and my brother is nowhere, not like I haven't seen him disappear for years at a time but I think the only reason I got hit so bad was cause he got away from them.
Pain is in my arms and legs i feel so damned old... tried putting a gun in my mouth tinny kept "saving me" ...turned the bastard off .. still didn't have the stones.
So they released me a week ago. My fortunes down to a few hundred. Still plenty to live on here in 49 but.. I ended up letting the Estium go to a Zoner family that needed a second hand ship. Thier paying me in payments, and that was my good deed for the year.
Guess Ill wait to die some more. mail the Congress tell them where the hell I've been.
*Log stops*
ps-
The wife put something in my pudding... made all the pain go away.. and then gave me this "cardi cola" stuff.
Bleedin ****s got real cardamine in it! ... Felt great for the first time all year... I dont think im gunna stop takin it.
ive had a hell of a time past couple of years ill tell ya. Lets see.
Last log entry I was in traction ..again.. but instead of bothering Doc Holiday or James or Hawk or pretty much anyone in my professional life I kinda retreated.
Canaria is sort of hard to get ahold of Cardamine... its real exspansive and buying it from anyone near here would taddle up and down.
When I got out of the hospidal i looked like a corpse, I felt like a corpse and tinny was abused ot he point of no repair. The wife who was still working my assets in Trafalgar told me that the hysteria about Gallia was reaching an all time high.
So I told her I was going to Visit Paul on Malta. And let me tell you... Culture shock wasent big enough of a word to justify the difference between "civilised" space and Malta.
I opened up a small practice for psychology and furthered my study of the clinical applications and changes Cardamine has on the body and mind.
Another thing... was the fact that while there are medical professionals, theres vary little government, its still vary much guilds, families, and organizations here. There is no.. single families your a patron of a larger group and many of these groups resent independant operators of any kind.
Thankfully I wasn't really a target. Seems that while many "familia" have their own holistic knowledge few have in depth scientific understanding.
Thats was until I encountered... well... The Church.
one of the members of the cult of sirius... the same group of wackos that put holes in me turned out to be not that bad... at least the group I met there. My spanish has not suffered over the years so working with various patients and patrons i learned that the "terrorist" group that the Oracles were billed as seemingly vanished.
To learn about how people regarded the Cult, turns out many of the old monasteries abandoned because of a lack of catholic tradition were being restored and maintained as "temples" and sanctuaries strictly for the working class.
The oracle compounds were gone, scooped from the ground and missing their "spirit" art and artifacts. Apparently the only one to survive is on planet Soledad and the temple on Seguro Refugio were the only ones that knew where it was.
Some treasure hunters have gone looking for it... Either not finding anything or completely disappeared. That alone left me not so curious... A rumored cult of infected maltese on soledad apparently didn't want to be bothered... on a world that has radiation so bad itll rip your bulkheads into rice cookies.
Not favorable, and not profitable.. The only hint of interest is that supposedly the Order Agent... my half brother that went to hunting down these Oracles went there never to be seen again.
So thats weighed on my mind for awhile... It would not be out of the realm of possibility that leonard went down there thinking he could handle anything... Got shot.. or worse.. converted... again..
Anyway. That was two years ago.
Time went on. Theres was a small civil war... and to pass the time I found the book of cataclysm. Having read the majority of Discordian dogma and literature I came to find the Old cults literature was more promises and prophecy then actual religion. But in the time since the Oracles have left or were banished a simple animus "new age" mentality has arisen.
They believe the the plentiful signs and diversity in the universe and their own situation as maltese gives an obligation to consider the divinity around them.
The nomads in maltas culture have risen and fallen with different groups... Finding that those who unquestioningly support them are spacefaring and a different aspect of maltas culture... and those groups directly affected to space faring smugglers and other captains win their faith too.
However... A few that seem to know better or have excessive scientific resource are more skeptical. I call into this category as well. and Despite this the Church has accepted me as an important member.
Around.. say three months ago... the elder fathers of the Church approached me with a project... The "books" of faith for the church were scattered and mutated from many years of misinterpretation. I was asked to assist in the bringing together of these texts and in biblical fashion create a Bible of the Sirius Dream.
I found the Book of Cataclysm to be short and to the point..and commented as such.. just... When a man in a suit entered..
He was in one of the older EVA suits.. the atmosphere within was green and murky.. and the men around me went white as sheets.. as he got closer I saw the telltale signs of infection, and that smell... the ozone smell of their psionics.
It stopped and looked at me a moment. "You are Balors brother" it said.
"His name was Leonard, hes my half brother." I replied.
"I am Thomas Aquinas... I and two others are the three remaining.. These followers refer to me as Three-winds." the electronic voice scratched.
The other men seemed fearful and vary much ill at ease. one of them managed to squeak out a greeting that I can't remember.
"Do not be afraid... this is the way of the new Epoch... its obvious many of my trusted have fallen to corruption... lack of guidance.. sloth and other sins... if this is what is left... and the half blood of our greatest enemy is welcome here... then this is the way things are." Thomas said.
"From what I hear many of the old membership went into hiding as directed by you years ago... i've only found a few of them here most seem to have emigrated to Soledad or have left for other families." I said.
"Not completely true... senior.. many had so much debt that the oracles kept collectors at bay... when they left many were bought. Many went to Contari and many died in the recent aggression." Father Castro said.
There was an uncomfortable silence... Three winds seemed to either be contemplating or in trance... but he broke the silence.
"I have seen the stream ahead... James McKenna will return to the system of Puerto Rico and will recive a grant to get back in bueiness from a college, shortly after he will be Deputy Arbiter... A position we can use." Thomas looked to me.
I laughed in his damn face! "Yeah and ill turn pink and shart pineapple sherbert." Couldn't help it.
"If I am wrong... Then you don't have to do it... but If I am right we require a Jump drive... and Slaves. We will sell the slaves for capital and to buy back our brethren. once this is done I will agree the Cult... should renovate and revamp. We will need the guidance of science... We will need you." he pointed directly at me.
"Dont get me wrong, i like the philosophy I like seeing divinity in what most people wouldn't but your infected your working for a subversive alien force that might have killed my dear brother. I would need assurances that i'm not paving myself a path pointing directly to hell!" I replied.
he looked at me.. I could almost make out his face.. a flood of images begain to peek into my mind.. a trickle at first.. but then.. ..so many.. words... feelings..
I was somewhat prepared for it i can only blame the cardamine..
The exchange was different... Thomas.. was telling me.. as best he could he no longer trusted or "revered" his "creators" ... and that he knew there was an older intellect out there. Seen vast grave yards filled with entire species.. Daam K'vosh grave yards.. and even dead Nomad hives.. Something happened long ago that he knows that makes the Nomads, thier creators, and us more in common with self destruction then any would admit.
I came out of it.. and he used these words to convince me..
"We are on the raggedy edge, life sentient life requires a faith in itself that needs no judgement and only promise of the light it holds. We cannot afford slaves, only fellow gods.." Thomas said.
" I dont know If Cardamine is the spiritual answer, but Ill help." I couldn't believe I just said that.
"Cardamine is the doorway the first steps back to innocence... The new bible will help the rest." Father Castro Remarked.
Three winds went to leave and one of the other men.. I don't remember asked where he was going..
"I will not vanish again... if I do then I have passed from this dimension.. But I go to the plantations... The owners of our fields must be... punished for selling the faithful." Thomas said and left.
Ill be god damned... if his prediction didn't happen.