Sifu Blackirish
SOC-14 1K
START A7B7A9, BORN 2174
TEK GRAV-0 GUN-0 COMPUTER-0
CAREER ---MERCHANT
T1 -/1/2 .GUNNERY .VACC SUIT .MEDICAL .BRIBERY
E1 -96 SURVIVES MULTIPLE PIRATE ATTACKS
T2 -/- .GUN CBT
E2 -00 PRIVATE ENFORCER FOR CAPTAIN
T3 -/- .ELECTRONICS
E3 -04 SENSOR DUTY, DELTA SHIFT
T4 -/- (-1/-1/-1) ..GUNNERY
E4 -08 PIRATE KIDNAPPING ATTEMPT, THEIR CRAFT IS DESTROYED
T5 N/3 ( 0/ 0/-1) .STREETWISE .NAVIGATION
E5 -12 SEARCHING OUT SOURCE FOR SMUGGLING
T6 N/4 ( 0/ 0/ 0) .STEWARD ..BRIBERY
E6 -16 STEADY SUPPLY OF EXOTIC FOODSTUFFS
T7 N/5 ( 0/-1/-1) .JACK O T +1 DEXT .PILOT
E7 -20 WINS OLD SHIP ON A BET (SKILL CHECK)
T8 N/6 (-1/-1/-1) ..NAVIGATION ...BRIBERY
E8 -24 OWNER, ESTABLISHES CORPORATION [APPLY AS MUSTER OUT BONUS AT RANK 6 AND UP]
MUSTER OUT 1/3/1//1/5/2//4/6/1//6
[+1 INTEL +1 EDUC GUN MERCHANT X 3 Cm 4800]
Merethe Thorgilsdottir, Active Duty Merchant 7578B9 Age 50, 8 Terms
Bribery-3, Navigation-2, Gunnery-2, VaccSuit-1, Medical-1, GUN CBT(Body Pistol-1), Electronics-1, Streetwise-1, Steward-1, Jack-O-Trades-1, Pilot-1
18 BP [GUN MERCHANT SHIP X 3 Cm 4800]
[NEAR MISS = 'SPECIAL DUTY' QUAL FOR BP]
[from my third novel TALES OF A MAD SCIENTIST, from story WITHOUT A DOUBT]
(out of G-space enroute to Hastorr landfall, 2224 AD)
Senior Captain Merethe Thorgilsdottir relaxed on the bridge while command officers oversaw procedures that were by now routine. There was no need to perform any close supervision of hand picked personnel. Well trained crewmembers worked to bring stragglers into formation, and the reformed fleet efficiently refueled.
Merethe was in the twilight of an active and occasionally exciting career. She had never been tested for psionic ability, though it happened that she possessed an extremely high rating. Rather than a mundane skill in telepathy or even an exotic one like teleportation, her psionics manifested itself in what the uninformed called luck. [PSI-D, LUCK-3D]
After many struggles and quite a few years, she had begun to place greater trust in her luck and take more chances. As if surviving multiple pirate attacks in her first term of enlistment wasn't enough to prove she had unseen assistance? That certainly would have been the conclusion reached by an outside observer.
Actually, not all of her encounters involved a hazard to life and limb. More often it was simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. So went her later years. At a time when people of her age were considering retirement from a first career or had already done so, Merethe continued to advance in rank and occasionally prosper.
Now she was in the midst of what would be the capstone of her surprising career. With her crew in control of routine functions, she possessed the luxury of unencumbered time to recollect. She thought back on that last major lucky break. It happened the day after her forty sixth birthday.
At her age, Company policy specified at minimum a restriction from field activities. Mandatory retirement is a real possibility as well. Her streak of three straight enlistments with a promotion was about to come to a hard end.
It was just a hunch that she acted on, not a fully formed plan or as much as idle speculation. She put on her finest uniform, the one with all those service medals and commendations. Impress the passengers with this outfit, for sure. A short ride by an almost silent autogyro landed her at a penthouse helipad, and she went downstairs to check out that new upscale club.
Frequented by luxury liner captains and their crewmembers, it had recently been upgraded to three stars, as rated by the American Astrotravelers Association. New facilities for their ultra rich passengers meant that there should be plenty of juicy gossip floating around. Surely she would hear something worthwhile!
Her luck must be working on overdrive tonight. This must be the
VIP entrance. A few tables were occupied with enlisted personnel and low ranking officers, who seemed to be busy talking to each other or engaged in serious drinking. No one challenged her as she came in and silently walked over to the bar.
"Brandy Alexander Ven'aii."
Sullenly he brought her drink and accepted a cashcard.
"Keep the change."
That was an unmarked card, backed by eDinars and untraceable to its origin. Her drink cost two hundred fifty, and it was a thousand mercred cashcard. Subtle enough?
Retreating to a spot where he could observe a section of tables and her, the bartender glared at her while she tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. That is, if she could do so in her dress whites. This might be a problem.
Goddess! This tastes so good!
She had to stop drinking and catch her breath. Though the brandy was added by eyedropper, it was still incredibly strong. She can only handle one of those, once in a while.
A door slid open and someone performed an 'eliza crossing the ice' act, deftly maneuvering through the crew performance lounge area. He met another man who had just debarked from the lift shaft.
"Hamblin! You golden brown Chef Ramsey stunt double, you! Getting tired of that Terra to Tau Ceti milk run?"
"Rossington, that run never gets old. Now I'm on the gold crew, so we get fresh consumables instead of the leftovers. It would be nice if my subordinates could cook, though. Passenger loads are up twenty percent this year, due to my cuisine."
They moved to the bar, just a couple of seats away from Merethe.
"Congratulations on your exotic sealife certification, Hamblin. You are the only person in the Urban Zone who is qualified to prepare Hastorr spineballs. I heard you had two casualties during final exams."
"Yes, preparing sushi from poisonous sea urchins is not for everyone. Making the chef eat his own preparations separates the skilled from those who are merely brave or foolish."
"Yet you still insist on living here, on Terra. All the real action is offworld."
"Big R, you shouldn't be so proud. Sirius is just a few parsecs away, so you aren't a frontier explorer, either."
"Want to be one?"
"No way I'm leaving my cushy job behind. Sounds more like your sort of deal."
"I have some eyes and ears inside ConFederation Planning. They are making a big push beyond the Urban Zone. New Scout bases and mines are already all over the place. Now its our turn. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor."
A shadow suddenly came over Merethe. It was the bartender.
"You don't belong. Time to leave and don't come back, 'Captain.' We don't like free trader scum here."
What was it that gave me away? Must have been the hat. I never could resist that sideways slide. Oh well, it was worth it...
With that nugget of information, she quickly developed an action plan. She was one of the first to apply for colony convoy duty.
TEK GRAV-0 GUN-0 COMPUTER-0
CAREER ---MERCHANT
T1 -/1/2 .GUNNERY .VACC SUIT .MEDICAL .BRIBERY
E1 -96 SURVIVES MULTIPLE PIRATE ATTACKS
T2 -/- .GUN CBT
E2 -00 PRIVATE ENFORCER FOR CAPTAIN
T3 -/- .ELECTRONICS
E3 -04 SENSOR DUTY, DELTA SHIFT
T4 -/- (-1/-1/-1) ..GUNNERY
E4 -08 PIRATE KIDNAPPING ATTEMPT, THEIR CRAFT IS DESTROYED
T5 N/3 ( 0/ 0/-1) .STREETWISE .NAVIGATION
E5 -12 SEARCHING OUT SOURCE FOR SMUGGLING
T6 N/4 ( 0/ 0/ 0) .STEWARD ..BRIBERY
E6 -16 STEADY SUPPLY OF EXOTIC FOODSTUFFS
T7 N/5 ( 0/-1/-1) .JACK O T +1 DEXT .PILOT
E7 -20 WINS OLD SHIP ON A BET (SKILL CHECK)
T8 N/6 (-1/-1/-1) ..NAVIGATION ...BRIBERY
E8 -24 OWNER, ESTABLISHES CORPORATION [APPLY AS MUSTER OUT BONUS AT RANK 6 AND UP]
MUSTER OUT 1/3/1//1/5/2//4/6/1//6
[+1 INTEL +1 EDUC GUN MERCHANT X 3 Cm 4800]
Merethe Thorgilsdottir, Active Duty Merchant 7578B9 Age 50, 8 Terms
Bribery-3, Navigation-2, Gunnery-2, VaccSuit-1, Medical-1, GUN CBT(Body Pistol-1), Electronics-1, Streetwise-1, Steward-1, Jack-O-Trades-1, Pilot-1
18 BP [GUN MERCHANT SHIP X 3 Cm 4800]
[NEAR MISS = 'SPECIAL DUTY' QUAL FOR BP]
[from my third novel TALES OF A MAD SCIENTIST, from story WITHOUT A DOUBT]
(out of G-space enroute to Hastorr landfall, 2224 AD)
Senior Captain Merethe Thorgilsdottir relaxed on the bridge while command officers oversaw procedures that were by now routine. There was no need to perform any close supervision of hand picked personnel. Well trained crewmembers worked to bring stragglers into formation, and the reformed fleet efficiently refueled.
Merethe was in the twilight of an active and occasionally exciting career. She had never been tested for psionic ability, though it happened that she possessed an extremely high rating. Rather than a mundane skill in telepathy or even an exotic one like teleportation, her psionics manifested itself in what the uninformed called luck. [PSI-D, LUCK-3D]
After many struggles and quite a few years, she had begun to place greater trust in her luck and take more chances. As if surviving multiple pirate attacks in her first term of enlistment wasn't enough to prove she had unseen assistance? That certainly would have been the conclusion reached by an outside observer.
Actually, not all of her encounters involved a hazard to life and limb. More often it was simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. So went her later years. At a time when people of her age were considering retirement from a first career or had already done so, Merethe continued to advance in rank and occasionally prosper.
Now she was in the midst of what would be the capstone of her surprising career. With her crew in control of routine functions, she possessed the luxury of unencumbered time to recollect. She thought back on that last major lucky break. It happened the day after her forty sixth birthday.
At her age, Company policy specified at minimum a restriction from field activities. Mandatory retirement is a real possibility as well. Her streak of three straight enlistments with a promotion was about to come to a hard end.
It was just a hunch that she acted on, not a fully formed plan or as much as idle speculation. She put on her finest uniform, the one with all those service medals and commendations. Impress the passengers with this outfit, for sure. A short ride by an almost silent autogyro landed her at a penthouse helipad, and she went downstairs to check out that new upscale club.
Frequented by luxury liner captains and their crewmembers, it had recently been upgraded to three stars, as rated by the American Astrotravelers Association. New facilities for their ultra rich passengers meant that there should be plenty of juicy gossip floating around. Surely she would hear something worthwhile!
Her luck must be working on overdrive tonight. This must be the
VIP entrance. A few tables were occupied with enlisted personnel and low ranking officers, who seemed to be busy talking to each other or engaged in serious drinking. No one challenged her as she came in and silently walked over to the bar.
"Brandy Alexander Ven'aii."
Sullenly he brought her drink and accepted a cashcard.
"Keep the change."
That was an unmarked card, backed by eDinars and untraceable to its origin. Her drink cost two hundred fifty, and it was a thousand mercred cashcard. Subtle enough?
Retreating to a spot where he could observe a section of tables and her, the bartender glared at her while she tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. That is, if she could do so in her dress whites. This might be a problem.
Goddess! This tastes so good!
She had to stop drinking and catch her breath. Though the brandy was added by eyedropper, it was still incredibly strong. She can only handle one of those, once in a while.
A door slid open and someone performed an 'eliza crossing the ice' act, deftly maneuvering through the crew performance lounge area. He met another man who had just debarked from the lift shaft.
"Hamblin! You golden brown Chef Ramsey stunt double, you! Getting tired of that Terra to Tau Ceti milk run?"
"Rossington, that run never gets old. Now I'm on the gold crew, so we get fresh consumables instead of the leftovers. It would be nice if my subordinates could cook, though. Passenger loads are up twenty percent this year, due to my cuisine."
They moved to the bar, just a couple of seats away from Merethe.
"Congratulations on your exotic sealife certification, Hamblin. You are the only person in the Urban Zone who is qualified to prepare Hastorr spineballs. I heard you had two casualties during final exams."
"Yes, preparing sushi from poisonous sea urchins is not for everyone. Making the chef eat his own preparations separates the skilled from those who are merely brave or foolish."
"Yet you still insist on living here, on Terra. All the real action is offworld."
"Big R, you shouldn't be so proud. Sirius is just a few parsecs away, so you aren't a frontier explorer, either."
"Want to be one?"
"No way I'm leaving my cushy job behind. Sounds more like your sort of deal."
"I have some eyes and ears inside ConFederation Planning. They are making a big push beyond the Urban Zone. New Scout bases and mines are already all over the place. Now its our turn. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor."
A shadow suddenly came over Merethe. It was the bartender.
"You don't belong. Time to leave and don't come back, 'Captain.' We don't like free trader scum here."
What was it that gave me away? Must have been the hat. I never could resist that sideways slide. Oh well, it was worth it...
With that nugget of information, she quickly developed an action plan. She was one of the first to apply for colony convoy duty.
