Dauntless....

[Velociryx]

OOC Note...old pic, forgot to take a new one after re-adjusting the production of my bases currently building E-Banks...with the beginning of the PEG, all bank construction was halted, and other Infrastructure was pursued (mostly research hospitals).

-V.

[Velociryx]

I should have known that land life wouldn’t suit me, and it figures, right?

So homesick and ready for a quiet, land-locked life while I was charting the coast of Goliath that I could barely stand each day toward the last, and three weeks after my return to Planning Authority, I was going out of my mind with boredom.

I remember badgering the Rover Exploration Group in southern Goliath on almost an hourly basis demanding status reports and upgrades with such frequency that they mysteriously developed problems with their Comm System and had no choice but to run radio silent.

Uh huh.

But, I didn’t blame them. I was horrible, and I knew it.

Clearly then, I needed to strike some sort of balance between my governorship duties and the life of exploration that ran so deeply in my blood (and hey, having been at it for more than a century, I can hardly be blamed for having it ingrained in me, can I?).

So….a bit of both. A compromise. That was what I needed, in order to be truly happy. No more decades-long commissions, but also, no desk job.

Not for me.

Not who I am.

First order of business though, was a total refit of my little Water Lily. She was a century and a half old…two centuries if you counted my time in the Unity’s freezers, and despite our constant care and attention, time had not been kind….taken it’s toll.

In order to get her refitted, I had only two choices….I could gather the crew and sail her round Goliath to the nearest port, either taking the long southern route (which would take decades, as mentioned previously), or I could try to navigate the “Horns of Goliath” in all their fungus choked madness.

Neither option sounded particularly appealing, and in the end, I hit upon a much simpler solution, ultimately making my own third choice.

If I could not get The Dauntless to a port, then I could arrange to get a port to her.

I was, after all, in charge of this whole continent, and Planning Authority was more than ready to begin shipping out a steady stream of colonists to drive into the heart of this vast, new land, so why not divert one to Goliath’s eastern coast, near where she was moored? There were ‘formers in that neighborhood, and it wouldn’t take much to prep a base site in that vicinity.

I smiled at that, and made a few calls.

UN Great Refuge, Docks
The docks were ready to receive ships almost before the base was up and running properly, and I rowed out in a skiff with two crewmen (the minimum needed to run the ship), and we brought The Dauntless into port at long last.

I reviewed the materials we had on hand. One and a half tons of Resonance Steel, a new Fission Drive, all new gears and rigging, an extension for the keel, reinforcement for the superstructure…the works.

The refit was slated to take a whole year, and that was with a crew of twenty-six working ‘round the clock….that’s how badly in need of it she was.

As for me, I spent an ungodly amount of time on the ‘node with my Trance Helmet on, learning how to properly defend the ship against a Psi attack.

Thus, when the refit was completed, we would have state-of-the-art defenses, and a Captain who could (theoretically) fend off an assault from even the most massive and determined Isle of the Deep.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about that, but the training was fascinating, and I took to it easily enough.

Maybe you really can teach an old dog new tricks.

Anyway, the refit.

The Rover Exploration Group was mightily glad for the reprieve that my new focus gave them (I’m certain of that!), and like an expectant father, I hovered…constantly demanding updates on the refit progress, and spending a fair bit of the time on site, and working directly with the construction team (or getting in the way, depending on who you asked).

I think the crew was motivated by a burning desire to get the hell away from me, and that’s why they finished the refit of The Dauntless a full two months ahead of schedule.

I had never been more proud….there she was…my girl…looking all sleek and trim and ready for a new era of exploration. Fifty percent faster than she had been in her prime, with a powerful new drive and an expanded cargo bay, a Trance-Trained Captain…we were ready to rock-n-roll, just like old times.

On the day the refit was completed, and we planned to take her out for sea trials, I got another surprise, too.

As I walked up the gangplank to inspect the crew, an amazing sight greeted my eyes.

Not the crew I had sailed ‘round Goliath with, but the original. Base Commanders or more now, and yet, they had taken leave from their various duties to come back and crew the old girl on her “second maiden voyage.”

Hugs ran through the entire group, as many of the men had not seen each other in decades, but then it really was just like old times, and we all fell into that comfortable rhythm of people who have worked so seamlessly together in the past that it’s nearly second nature.

With no prompting from me, and almost as if he had read my mind, Tiny cranked up “Susie-Q” as we steamed out of Refuge, and you could tell on the faces of the crowd that lined the dock to watch us go that they were digging it. In fact, when the music started, a spontaneous round of applause broke out on the shore.

I had my new and improved water lily, I had a rover tucked into her belly for exploration (one of our early prototypes), and I had a whole continent at my disposal. I watched the shore recede as we opened up the engines of The Dauntless, and felt it all clicking suddenly together.

Definitely one of the best days in my whole, long life.

OoO

Much as I would have liked to have commandeered the original crew, I had no firm grasp on how long it would take me to accomplish the new tasks set before me, and so, had to release them back to their regular duties not long after our brief sea trials tour (which The Dauntless passed with flying colors, going so far even as to beat Intrepid’s speed record by a nose).

As it turned out though, I got about half the crew from the Goliath Expedition, with the rest being raw recruits. Not bad, and I was not expecting any particular trouble. By comparison, this new assignment was a piece of cake.

Because Goliath required near-constant attention, I was unable to be away for an extended period, and yet, there were new lands to be charted and explored for possible future settlement, so, I had been charged with charting and mapping the landmasses in the vicinity of mighty Goliath…close enough to scoot back to Refuge if needed, and far enough away to satisfy my own wanderlust.

A perfect blend, and I was in heaven!

So off we went, in a completely redone ship, a new rover tucked in the cargo hold, and a new commission.

All the while, my plans for expansion on Goliath were being dutifully executed, and our presence there was growing.

It was a beautiful thing…the land was beginning to come to life under our constant attention. Of course, my settlement plan had raised a few eyebrows back in the High Council, but nobody really pressed the issue. This was my baby, all the way.

On Hope Islands and Unity, space had been at a premium, and so we had been forced to cram as many bases as would comfortably fit onto what real estate we had to work with, but that wasn’t the case (at all) on Goliath. We had room. Plenty of room, and I intended to make the most of it.

Frankly, having seen live vid feeds of our two starting islands, they were….just hideous.

Every scrap of land had to be used meticulously to support the burgeoning populations there, but again, Goliath was different, and I resolved to treat her differently because of it.

Not that I have anything in particular against condenser farms and the like, but honestly, to be the architect of a sea of green as a vast forest of Chironian Oaks spread out all over Goliath….yeah. That’s what I wanted to see.

And space. A place where people had room to spread out.

A place I’d be honored to call home.

OoO

So…there was that. Lots to do, and nominally at war with two of the surviving groups of humans who had made Chiron their new home.

Sister Miriam’s Believers, for all their bluster (and there was certainly no shortage of that), were, quite simply, too far away to be much of a threat to us and ours. Besides, they seemed intent on crushing the last of the life out of Lady Deirdre and the Noble Gaian Federation, and were, frankly, far too busy with that to give us much more than a passing sneer.

It pained me.

Miriam had already crushed one faction utterly, and now seemed to be repeating that basic pattern with a second. One two occasions, she had clashed with Colonel Santiago’s Spartan Federation, and it mystified me that, with hostilities running high between the two women, why Santiago would want to sail so far north to pester us again.

Then again, it had been years since her proclamation against us, and we had not seen the first sign of Spartan warships, so perhaps the Lady wasn’t quite as brash as I had originally thought.

I wondered….might it be possible to set aside a “Gaian Preserve” on some of the smaller landmasses east of Goliath? True, it would take some of the momentum away from our own colonization efforts, but it would also mark the first time in our history on Planet that we had been in a position to do something utterly selfless, and the Gaians were friends….if we could stop The Lord’s Believers from overrunning them entirely, then there was value in that, because as misguided as the Gaians might be, they had a right to their views…they had a right to exist…a thing Miriam seemed to have great difficulty wrapping her fundamentalist mind around.

And even as much bad blood as there was between us and Sparta, I had to admit to being worried for Santiago, too.

Hers was an island nation, like ours in many ways, but where we had set our minds to relentless expansion, the Spartans had been content to drift in quiet (and well-armed) isolationism, and now, it was coming back to haunt them, for the Believers were a massive nation to the south of them, more populous and more productive by far. If war came for them again from the south, I was not at all certain that Spartan courage would be enough to carry the day.

Provost Zakharov, our nearest neighbor, had already adequately demonstrated that he was no great threat to us and ours, and he did not seem particularly interested in expansion, content to sit on his smallish continent and keep the network nodes humming at full capacity, and that was well and good with us. I only hoped that our sometimes frosty relations warmed, and that perhaps we could

And lastly, we had found a kindred spirit in gentle Morgan. He had the good fortune to land upon a continent that rivaled, and perhaps even surpassed even mighty Goliath in sheer size and magnificence, and his gilded halls and sparkling cities thrust up like diamonds from the harsh Chironian ground. The wealthiest among us, and with research facilities on par with our own, Morgan was simply an indispensable ally. A bastion in the south, where all the rest of humanity seemed to be congregated.

In my review of the psych profiles of the faction leaders, I came to the realization that Yang had been a bit of a monster, and part of me was glad that we had not had to face his wrath as well as the rest, for he surely would have hated us for our democratic ideals. Nonetheless, I often wondered if it might be possible to try and mount a rescue mission….pull him from the interrogation chamber that Miriam had him locked away in.

A monster yes, but if we succeeded there, would that not make him our monster?

An intriguing thought, that, and I determined to at least bring it up to Gavin….let him feel the council out a bit and see where they stood on the notion. A goodish reason to buy peace with Miriam and then sneak a covert ops team in to see if we could perform a good old fashioned jail break. For that matter, I mused as my mind wandered down this strange new path, it might behoove us to wait until the Gaians had been squeezed a bit further, and Deidre was also in Miriam’s custody before rescuing her…for the same reasons…she would then be our little eco-terrorist, and that was (generally) a good thing, right?

I dunno…I hate that I’m getting more political in my old age.

Anyway, lots to ponder while I was out on the deep blue-green, doing what I had more than a century’s worth of experience doing.

That realization really hit me hard.

I was, I reckoned, the oldest, most seasoned explorer on the entire planet…not to mention being the only explorer worth a damn who had a fantastic collection of classic rock…that had to count for at least a few bonus points.

There was a certain comfort and surety in my position and station. In control of the largest (albeit largely undeveloped) landmass that the Peace Keeping forces had laid claim to, father of the Unity project, and first among explorers. Yeah, there were some things I could not do, and I was by no means above the law, but…I could also pretty well write my own ticket, and if I really wanted something, I didn’t have a whole lot of difficulty in getting it.

It was the kind of power that a great many young and hungry politicians dreamed of having…just downright salivate over. For me though, it was….a convenience.

At best.

I never really exercised that power, and had not needed to since the birth of the Unity project. A part of me wondered how far I might go if someone tried to block me from achieving a cherished goal.

Honestly, I had no answer to that, and it made me uncomfortable to think long on it.

I didn’t see myself as the sort who’d get terribly bent out of shape or anything. ****e happens, you know?

But then, I had the luxury of having never been so tested.

Hopefully, that would hold, because I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to know the answer to those weighty mostly-unasked questions that my mind was flitting at the edges of.

Back to work then.

Another two new landmasses to explore, and this time, I was in control from top to bottom. Discovered the Great Dunes and Pholus Ridge…two more landmarks under my belt. Good thing I didn’t have a fetish for naming everything after myself, right?

Dauntless Douglas Dunes, Fossilized Fairbanks Ridge…nah. I’ll leave the self aggrandizement to Morgan. Nice guy, all in all, but boy is he proud of himself!

During all that, the Rover team had one close encounter with a mid-sized boil (light damage in a savage fight that ended in victory for our side), and The Dauntless had another close encounter with an IoD. She sailed right by us, and we never had to test our new defenses, but I was sorely glad we had them, and kept my Trance Helm close at hand for nearly six hours after she passed us by.

Just in case, you know?