Earth-That-Was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many. We found a new solar system. Dozens of planets and hundreds of moons. Each one terraformed, a process taking decades, to support human life. To be new Earths.

The central planets formed the Alliance. Ruled by an interplanetary parliament, the Alliance was a beacon of civilization. The savage outer planets were not so enlightened and refused Alliance control.

The war was devastating, but the Alliance's victory over the Independents ensured a safer universe.

But they meddle...


Character: Rajani Alleyne
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Background: Rajani came from a very wealthy family. She was a terrible child who disobeyed and rebelled at every turn. The only things Rajani ever showed a talent for was getting into trouble and petty crime. Rajani left her family after she stole enough money for a small ship. She put together a minimal crew and has been flying ever since

Character: Pan Fallon.
Age: 24.
Gender: Female.
Background: Pan was born on the Dyton Colony, but her parents moved her to Greenleaf when she was nine years old. As she grew older, she became familiar with the less-travelled roads through the lush jungles, and made a living offering her services to drug smugglers, leading them through the jungle away from the ever-watchful authorities. When she was 17, she stowed away on one of their ships, but was discovered and kicked out on Persephone. From then on she took on odd jobs from merchants and smugglers, and discovered an aptitude for piloting small vessels.

"Take you gorram self back to that mud-pit you crawled out of! You'll never fly my boat again, you stinking gao yang jong duh goo yang. If I catch you near my ship again, I'll make you less of a man that you already are, dong ma?"

Rajani finished screaming at the pilot she had picked up on Shadow and started to program the directory with her travel information. She'd had a run of bad luck, lately, starting with that useless pilot what didn't know the ass end of a RCS thruster. Then there had been the smuggling job that almost ended in getting pinched by the authorities on Haven. She punched the buttons on the console furiously and walked back towards the ship.

"I don't find a pilot, I'm humped." she mumbled to herself angrily.

There were few things worse than thinking you’d gotten away with stealing lunch, only to have some angry merchant reach out and grab you by the shoulder. As a general rule, if that happened you either bolted and hoped the authorities didn’t catch up, or you just handed it back and left with your tail between your legs.

Pan, however, freshly returned from a lengthy trip home, (Dyton Colony, of course—Greenleaf wasn’t home, it was hot and humid and terrible there!) prided herself on being an excellent liar. She turned to face the baker with wide eyes, clutching the loaf of bread she’d been trying to slink off with to her chest. The baker didn’t look impressed.

“I trust you were planning to pay for that?” he asked shortly. A moment of tense silence passed, and then Pan burst into tears.

“Look, mister, I ain’t got no money. I’m sorry, an’ all… I know you gotta make a livin’ like the rest of us, but I got kids an’ they ain’t gonna feed ‘emselves. Please… it’s just a bit o’bread, not like there ain’t plenty knockin’ around the docks these days. They’re so ‘ungry and I am lookin’ for a job, I am, but you know ‘ow it can be—”

“Okay!” the baker interrupted as Pan paused for breath, taken aback by how quickly she was talking. “Take it!” He threw his hands up in despair and turned back into his shop, muttering darkly. Pan’s expression brightened the instant his back was turned and she spun on her heel, breaking into a light jog towards the main run of the docks with her prize cradled in her arms.

It wasn’t that she was broke, not at all. Money rattled in her purse as she run. It was just that she didn’t believe in paying for what you could get for free… and there were very few things in the world that she couldn’t acquire free of charge, one way or another.

*

She had a mouth that was thoroughly full of fresh bread when she overheard someone yelling furiously at their pilot, and so when she announced her presence to the angry-looking woman (who looked a little older than Pan—but then, most people did) no real words came out, just muffled noises that sounded a bit like a sentence.

“Ingapwaa!” she said, spraying bits of bread down her front. Frowning, she swatted them aggressively away and chewed her mouthful down as quickly as she could, wiping the back of her wool-gloved hand across her lips when she was done. “I’m a pilot,” she repeated, making a great deal more sense this time.

Rajani glared at the crust-covered girl as she made horrific noises. She seemed intent on conveying something to Rajani, but it wasn't terrible clear. She chewed like someone who hadn't seen the inside of any structure but a barn and then spoke.

Rajani needed a pilot but this was a girl, not even old enough to buy a drink. She looked like she could handle a shuttle not the big bird Rajani had sitting there.

"You might be a pilot, but you're a sight younger and more, uh female, than my usual crew. You ever flown an 80-10, girl? Cause they're real particular and they'll throw if you're not damn apt."

Pan busied herself finishing off the stolen bread while the woman spoke, aware of the deprecating look she was being surveyed with but not really paying it any mind. She had the build of a sixteen year old and she knew it; people generally looked at her like she was mad or stupid when she told them that actually she was a more than half-decent pilot.

“80-10’ll throw you whether you’re apt or otherwise,” she pointed out. “’Sides, you’re a sight younger’n more female than most captains I usually pilot for.” Poking at the ground with one of her shoes, she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her skirt and shrugged. “Maybe you had oughta call goatboy back,” she suggested, nodding after the recently out-of-work pilot.

Rajani watched the girl as she spoke and then bellowed a laugh that made people in the next system stare.

"You're right 'bout my bird, she'd be a handful for Shiva, but she'll fly forever. And I don't think that 'goat-boy' could fly an Alliance cruiser in open space."

She surveyed the girl again, sizing up more than her appearance.

"How's your moral up-rightness these days? 'Cause this boat and crew ain't exactly the place for someone with, say... a conscious. You won't be no good to me if you're all upright, moralizing and hygienic."

Rajani snickered remembering the last passenger she had booked. He was a prissy little man, likely sly, who'd washed every twenty minutes.

“That depends on you, don’t it,” Pan replied. “I’m as morally upright as you do or don’t please, for the right price.” She grinned and rested her hands on her hips to assert her confidence, in a gesture that said she knew it was bold to be discussing payment already, but that she was more than willing to take her services elsewhere if it was an issue. She pushed her flat cap up a little, too, so there was less shadow on her pointed, determined features and her eyes were more visible.

Eye contact was, after all, the mark of a good businessperson, and she couldn’t have people thinking she was a fool when it came to exchanging money.

The haggling right off the bat was just what Rajani was hoping for. She wanted someone straightforward.

"Well, you'll fit right in. Every crew member on my boat gets a eleven percent cut of whatever business we do."

Rajani looked at the girl, a smile forming at the corners of her mouth. "Don't know that you'll find better here among these ships."

“I’m sure I can,” Pan replied self-assuredly, with a careless shrug of her shoulders. “Twenty-five percent, easy, if I find a small enough crew,” she went on, which was a blatant lie but one that she carried off well. “Still… call it twenty, and maybe we’ve got a deal.” Both of them knew that twenty percent was far too high, but that how Pan did it. She started off high and worked her way down in the hopes that the other party would get bored of haggling before she did. It didn’t always work, but when it did, it paid off.

Rajani barked a short disbelieving laugh. She liked the girl's gall.

"I'm not some muddled-brain prairie dweller girl. This place here, best you'll do is eight percent. I'll offer you twelve and if you're as good as you think you are, we'll go thirteen."

Rajani hated the haggling part of life. She was better at shooting people and getting away than discussing.

"So, how's that taste to ya?" Rajani looked around nonchalant, knowing that if she didn't sign this girl, she may not find another pilot.

[[I've got to run for today, but I'll post either tomorrow or Monday.]]