Mariana Stuart:

Looking over the lab, I noticed Sally and Linda had finished testing the last of the drugs. There was a smile on their faces.

It was Sally that told me the results. “Around 80% of the drugs were fine. That ‘Good Doctor’ switched drugs. If you handed out pills for a diabetic to take, these substitute pills would have killed them.” There was a lot of anger in her voice. “I’m glad the Captain took care of him.”

Linda spoke up. “I’m just thankful Dave was able to piece together enough equipment and your husband was finally able to make it work.”

“Yes. Between Dave and Andy, we’ve got a functioning Level 2 + Lab.” Glancing at the two women, it was time to mention the next task. “Ladies, before anyone can touch this planet, we need to come up with a plan to make everyone give us a DNA sample.” I had an idea, but I wanted to see if they could come up with something different.

After several moments of concentration, Linda said, “I guess we could stick a gun to everyones head and get a sample, but I doubt the Captain would go along with that idea.”

Both Sally and I chuckled. That was my first thought, but I didn’t mention it. Another minute passed without comment. It was time for me to speak up.

“Probably the easiest way to get samples, is to come up with a lot of the truth, but also a fear factor.” I had four eyes giving me a very puzzled expression.

“Mariana. Have you lost your mind?” Linda gasped.

“Hey. It makes perfect sense to me. Before posting this requirement, we tell everyone that we don’t have a Level 3 Lab and have to treat viral infections the old fashioned way and that takes a lot of time. This time delay, could result in death or a mutation in the DNA. That might cause enough fear to get our samples.”

“Oh man. That should work.” Linda was all smiles.

For the next several minutes, we organized the lab for taking our future samples.

As we finished, Sally spoke up, “I sure wish my husband would get off his high-horse.”

That took Mariana by surprise. “Exactly what do you mean?”

“As a surgeon, that jerk believes he should be the ‘big cheese’ and everyone should be coming to him.”

“But we don’t need a surgeon at the moment.” Mariana said, “ Doesn’t he realize that?” At first I was stunned, but I knew this man could be a prick at times.

“Apparently not. I’ve tried talking to him, but he won’t listen.” Sally was exasperated.

“Guess he doesn’t know that he’s not the only one that can cut.” Mariana mumbled, loudly enough to be heard! This man was beginning to piss me off. Neither Sally nor Linda knew what I was referring to.

Linda chirped up and changed the subject. “I’m hungry. Let’s go to mom’s.”

Sounded like a great idea to all of us, and that is where we headed.

I was in the cryo room with Emily, as she raised herself shakily, overwhelmed with the situation. I held her. “Dearie, we’ll just take it one day at a time, and all of us will be at your side.”

Slowly, she said “Grandma, we had it all planned. At my 17th birthday party, Jace and I were going to announce that we’d been secretly married.” “I remember Jace from the barbeque. I liked him, and he took time to speak with your ol’ granny! That was nice.”

“Jace’s dad got suddenly transferred to Australia. So instead of waiting a couple years and being separated, we just upped our plan. Then everything happened so fast. I’m pregnant, and worlds apart from him …….. Will I ever see him again?”

“Well, what do you want to do first, Emily?”

“I want to talk to Mom and Dad as soon as possible.”

“I think your Dad’s in the Communications Center.  I’m not sure about Linda, but I’m sure she’s nearby.  And for some privacy, you could meet back at the family cabin.”

“Good idea, Gran.  I’ll track down Dad, and would you please find Mother.”  Emily went to the Comm Center and found JJ.  “Hi Dad.”

“Hi Honey.  What’s up?”

 ”I have a problem, er …situation, and want to talk it over with you and Mom.  Could we go to the cabin?  Gran is asking mom to go there too.”  Affectionately JJ put his arm around Emily, and they strolled down the corridor.

In the meanwhile, I went to the lounge and saw Linda. “Hi,” she said.

“Do you have time for a cup of coffee?”

“Sure, especially for you, Mom.” I always warmed when JJ’s wife called me ‘mom’. She quickly began, “My head’s swimming. … Finally, I get a chance to actually run a lab and I get to do it my way. All Mariana is interested in is results and as she says ‘Forget any political crap, there’s no government yet!’ So pulling all stops, we’re off and running. What a challenge, and opportunity - no rules, no boundaries!”

“Now Mom, what about you”

I was still numb from Emily’s announcement of her marriage and pregnancy.  How could I help prepare Linda, and my son, for yet another new dimension to life?  How could I ease into it?

Stalling a bit, I started off on another tangent, “Well, I’ve got myself a new career – I’ll be running the lounge and diner! Right now, I’ve more questions than answers. I’m trying to imagine it all: floor plan; furniture and hard goods; supplies: current and how to replenish; barter system. Hmmm, I’ll have to come up with a good name for my robot staff too. All I know for sure is that I don’t want a leaky roof, the ice to run dry, or to run out of toilet paper. But, how to begin?”

Linda stared at the roof, “Well, I could ask Dave. He’s great at putting things in place! You should see how he has the whole Lab in racks, and ready to go down to the planet, but still running where they’re at. He has nothing to do at the moment, and says he needs “Mr. Dr. Stuart”, whatever that means?

Hanna laughed, “It means, my dear, that you have a great deal to learn about our resident Commando Couple. Capt. Travis told me about the portion of their classified files that Mr. Hamilton obtained. You may be surprised, as will many other people. Let’s just say that they live by the phrase ‘Those who can, Do!’ to the max.”

Linda laughed, leaned forward and gave her mother-in-law a quick peck on the cheek. “Right Mom, but gotta run to the Lab, check on a few things, and then be back to finish that coffee.”  And she was off before I could tell her of the real priority.

Entering the Lab, Linda was able to hear the end of a conversation between Dave and Andy.

“Don’t beat yourself up, Dave. You’ve done great here, there is just no common protocol in this marvelous lash-up you built. The fun part is that it will only take me about 2 hours (Earth) to have this thing up and humming. So find yourself something constructive to do!”

Dave just shook his head, “I was so sure I had done something wrong!”

Andy laughed, “Wrong, are you kidding? This place is one step short of a miracle, now go; I really do have to think to do this.”

As he turned away, Linda saw her chance! “Dave, Mom’s got a problem about how to ship the consumables down to the planet. Think you can give her a hand?

He looked puzzled, “Like what do you mean?”

Linda was surprised at his genuine confusion, “You know like bottles, frozen goods, refrigerated foods, fragile containers and bulk stuff like TP.”

He slapped his forehead, “Oh yeah, there are about a zillion empty ore containers that I can rack up and pad in a couple of hours. I’ll find somebody that has a robot up and get them toted to your Mom’s place by lunch!”

“Great,” she grinned, “ask Bartlett, it will get his mind off Janie for at least 10 Min.”

Dave Looked Confused Again!

“Never mind,” Linda laughed, “just go solve Mom’s problem!”

She turned and asked, “How are things going, Andy?

He grinned, “A whole lot easier than it’s going to go when you and Mariana breech your pet plan to get DNA samples from everyone before we land!”

Linda grimaced, “I know, but we really do need that database. Good grief, that’s going to be one hard sell! But if you don’t mind, let me tell Hanna that Dave can handle the transport problem.”

Returning to her cold cup of coffee, Linda said, “Mom, good news! Just spoke with Dave Webber and he said he could organize it all for you. He’ll stagger, if you pardon the term, the stores. Leave enough here as things wind down, another for commodities waiting, and a third segment for start up.

“That’s great, Linda. Thanks!  Sure takes a load off my mind. Now I can organize this lounge, the Last Stop, here on board, and the First Inn on planet!”

“On another note though, Linda, there’s something else.  Emily’s troubled.  We abruptly yanked her out of her life, away from her friends, without warning. She needs your ear, yours and JJ’s.”  Linda listened attentively as I continued, “Emily and Junior are back in the cabin, waiting to talk with you……  I’ll keep an eye on Karyn before she hides again!”

 Linda turned to leave.  Would our trust be breached?  Then she turned around, gave me a hug, and said, “Thanks, Mom.  We’re family.  We’ll do fine, whatever the problem is.  Together.  ‘love you.”  And, head held high, Linda went …..

Wearily, I had returned to our temporary Data Center. The talk with Capt. Travis had been encouraging and we had Ash on the wake up schedule! The command computer was asking for a new cube which meant we were making progress. The 3 Ice Cube array I was writing as an index was coming along well. Well, if Ash could make sense of half of this stuff. I had just slumped in my chair when Mariana came equally as wearily into the room and slumped into another Chair.

“Well sweetheart,” she said, “I am here to talk you out of one of your babies there to run our Lab and fast!”

I looked confused, “This fast, why?”

She smiled, “It turns out that Dave Webber is a better tech than he claims and Linda is better than she gives herself credit for! We have a fully functional Lab, transportable no less; ripping ready to go except for one little problem. No high speed, high capacity, non purpose built computer!”

Laughing I replied, “I can spare one as I have the Commo thru the Wormhole problem solved. But I do not have the software to run a Bio Lab!”

She actually laughed as she pulled a small case from her pocket containing 2 Ice Cubes, “Do you still think you are the only one who can run smart? Full Protocols for up to Level 5 and even tailored for those little brutes of yours!”

I just sat stunned, “Wow, you did come ready. But, again why the rush?”

She grimaced, “Because every drug and treatment on this vessel that Dr. Van Vogt had a chance to touch has to be tested and verified before it can be used! The only exception is the stuff in Cyro as he refused to enter there!”

“My God woman, a crooked Doc is scarier than a whole squad of Force Recon armed to the teeth. He could have sabotaged everything on this vessel thinking no one could figure it out!”

She stared at the roof for a moment, “And what if I had not found a Dave and a Linda. Where would we be if He had done something and people just started dieing?”

I replied, “It would simply have destroyed any hope this colony attempt would have had. Which if you think about it, was his job!”

She grinned, “Right and it’s my job to make sure it don’t happen. I got a miracle when those two people found me and we need to throw it over the whole colony. Right now this group has no need for Magic and the Reaper; they need Dr. and Dr. Stuart. So gimme my Command and Control unit and let me get started.”

“OK, give me five and you got it.” This said as I began breaking #5 out of the end-link. “By the way I am waking up Ash.”

She grunted, “Are you sure you are not crazy?”

I replied, “One, I need him to have any hope of this project making any sense. Two, Bart and the Capt. want him to answer some questions for them. Three, Ash know now’s both of us are crazy. Remember he finally had to stare right into the face of those MPD alter egos of ours. I betting that may have shaken him up worse than you believe.”

As I handed her the unit she said simply, “I hope so I am tired of getting his behind out of trouble!”

I have always been a bit of a loner. OK, so not ‘a bit’. Since waking I have been keeping mostly to myself, waiting to see what I can do to bring up the issue of the ‘execution’, as well as what kind of organization we will set up to govern ourselves. Constitutions and such being a minor study of mine. I seriously want to be in on that discussion.

I was asked to see what we could do about the time difference. Since timekeeping is set up in the hardware of every computer, run by oscillating crystals, it is near impossible to change once manufactured. But software programs can correct for that. So I set up a rudimentary time-server on the main computer using a twenty hour day, based on Alchibah seconds and minutes, using the new 1118+ day year, numbering the days rather than naming them. It reads the system time from the main computer, which reports it down to the thousandth, and uses it to calculate the Alchibah time using a simple algorithm. It reports the Alchibah time when queried by another device, reporting it as YYYY.MM.DDDD.hh.mm.sstthh, where Y=Year, M=Month, D=Day, all numeric, and h=hours, m=minutes, s=seconds, t=tenths/second and h=hundredths/second. I can not get closer than hundredths, since the rounding errors are too much for accuracy at that level. But hundredths are good enough for damn near everything, and internally each device will still run on Earth time, just getting it reset a lot. This is for Human convenience. Plus, we can all check Earth time easily, since each device will now have both times. Might be nice for those that want to remember certain anniversaries or other dates.

We can set most dumb devices to query the server daily or more often if need be, and the robots we can just instruct to do so. I suggested hourly for most devices, at least initially.

No months or seasons yet, since the proposed 93 day month seems silly to me. It needs discussion. Why keep a 12 month calendar? heck, why keep anything from Earth that we do not need to? This trying to match up an Alchibah week with an Earth week is like those old stories of when the old North American USA tried to convert from the ancient English Imperial system of measurements to the world standard Metric System. They totally screwed it up by trying to get everyone to convert and use both systems at the same time. Better to just change all at once and get used to it.

So whatever day we decide to start our calendar from will, at least at first, be known as 0001.01.0001, year.month.day. Poetic, eh?

Yes, I made an assumption that there would be 99 or less months, but I think it is a safe one. We can backfill names for days and months after we decide on them, or just see what people come up with themselves. I think we should wait and see how people adjust to the new day length, and see what kind of work schedule they choose to maintain. This is going to be stressful, so better let folks sort it out each as they need. And trying to impose an 80 hour week is damn near suicidal. Assign tasks and due dates and let folks work it out. Some may get done faster and be able to help others, some may not. Some won’t be able to. I can not imagine Hist out in a field for 80 hours, supervising robots while sitting under an umbrella or not.

Hey, we can get rid of Mondays!

I have never had a hangover.

Yes, I have had alcohol before, all too much at times. But in my younger years I was also an amateur bike racer. Body fat percentage in the single digits. Resting heart rate somewhere around 40.

Terminally aerobic is a good description.

So I could always burn it off before it hit. The worst ‘morning after’’s I ever had were either due to just plain staying up until dawn and being dog tired, or seeing who I woke up with. (Like I said, all too much alcohol at times…)
But this was something new.

Ever stayed up for two days straight, then slept too little before you had to get up again? Multiply that by about 10 and add a head full of fuzzy fluff and you are in the ballpark.

Lot’s going on. Robots being issued to those that need them immediately, talk of how we set up our group once we disembark.

And apparently an execution that troubles me deeply. We need to fix that. I do not care if it was the captain that issued judgment, that guy should have been judged in a public trial. Then executed, otherwise it is vigilantism, and not a good start to our legal system. How much would it have taken to put him in a pod until we all woke up? And as unlikely as it seems, what if he WAS innocent? Are we running from one murderous tyranny just to create another?
I am not the only one that has bad feelings about that.

There are far too few of us with guns. Thanks UNWG. Wish I had that old shotgun right about now.

I maintained the straight face with which I had greeted Janie until I had rounded two corners and several hundred feet of corridor. Then and only then did I collapse against the wall and begin laughing!

Bartlett had it bad and it showed! The last time I had seen a face like that was in the mirror the day after Mariana and I had gone pub crawling in Brisbane after the first Belt Mission! The stories of how we had stopped and switched ranks in every airlock had the whole unit rolling in the floor and totally blitzed! That night was when I knew was hooked. I wonder how long it’s going to take Bartlett to realize that He had chased Her till She had Him right were She wanted?

Just as I was getting my breath back, who walked up but Capt. Travis?

“Well Mr. Stuart are you having a seizure or did I miss the joke?”

“Sorry Capt., but have you seen Bartlett around Cantarubias lately?”

He stared at me quizzically and said “No, can not say that I have.”

I just laughed again, “Oh you should, it’s the worst case of hooked I have seen in a long time!”

Laughing, he asked “Bad?”

“Oh, first class Tuna on the hook! But, to change the subject I was looking for you when I chanced on the humor of the Day!”

He chocked down his grin and asked “And what could be of import to get that out of your mind?”

I grinned back, “I have to admit it’s time to eat some humble pie and say I need to unfreeze Ash. I know, my reasons to keep him down are still valid; but, my need of his skills overrides those constraints!”

He stared at me for a moment and said, “I think I need him also but, you first!”

Grinning I said, “I am overwhelmed. Bartlett presented me with more data than I can handle. I am an Engineer with a bunch of patents true! But, I do not have a true Research and Development mentality. Wading through googols after googols of data chasing patterns is not my forte. On the other hand, that is Ash’s forte. I need him!”

Travis grinned back and said, “I need him and his Plans & Training background to answer specifics about the UNWG’s development programs to come after us. So, we really have a common cause!”

I sighed, “Glad to hear that; just, let me break it to him my way! I need to keep control of the Hound Dog Capt.”

He gave me a strange look and said, “The name is Travis and if you are buying its Glen.”

I grinned and said, “And when we are on the ground at whatever Hanna’s place is gonna be called, it will be Travis. If I am buying it might even be Glen. But as long as you are the Captain of a Ship under Way and the Commander having High, Middle and Low Justice; you will be to LTC Stuart, Capt. Travis!”

He grinned, “So you gave me the winning bet?”

“Nope but, I will now. Always ask for a date or a place. We swapped the ranks as mission or humor required! They were cover stories. The real ranks are COL and COL Stuart. We just never forgot where we came from!”

I had never seen such a stunned face!

He gave a wry grimace and said, “I guess I do not have as much of your classified files as I thought. Wake up Ash up by all means. I assure you there are some stories I want to hear!”

I grinned, “Thank you, and I hope we get a chance to tell them!”

“Ok Jeep listen up.”

“I am in ambient teach mode Boss.”

“Now listen cause this is important! Whenever Janie Cantarubias is around you will call her Miss Janie. Got it?

“Yes Boss.”

“Even if she asks you to call her anything else you call her Miss Janie.”

“Yes Boss.”

“Don’t you want to know why?”

“I was sure you would tell me”

“It’s a term of endearment and that’s all I’ll say.”

“Yes Boss.”

“Now Janie hasn’t got her robot yet. But when she does I want you to make sure you watch over it and make sure the training is done right. Got that?”

“Yes Boss.”

“Now here’s something else forget all the farming stuff.”

“You wish me to erase all the hydroponic and animal husbandry data?”

“That’s it Jeep. No farming for us.”

“Data erased Boss.”

“What’s a chicken?”

“A life form which needs a reason to cross a road.”

“Exactly right and keep it that way.”

“Yes Boss.”

From the Log Files of William Bartlett

     I was watching from the control room when the Captain gave his “Colonist Welcoming Speech” and went down for breakfast after Arte relieved me. We were serving ourselves buffet style from the breakfast bar and I grabbed a tray then headed towards the tables. The room was packed but I scanned back and forth and finally saw Janie Cantarubias sitting at a full table in animated conversation with a guy I didn’t really recognize who was sitting next to her. Joe Fortson was seated across from her on the other side of the table. There were a few seats open near to me but I had been waiting almost four years to talk to and see Janie again and so I headed that way.

     She didn’t notice me as I approached from the right and slightly behind. I paused waiting for a lull in the conversation when Joe noticed me and said in a voice cutting through the chatter, “Hey Bart, good to se ya!”

     Janie spun around and a smile which could have launched a thousand ships lit her face as she said “Bart grab a seat.” Janie glanced around the table, saw it was full, and the smile began to fade.

     Just then Fortson stood up and said, “Here take mine I was just leaving.” His tray wasn’t empty yet but I was not about to argue.

     I went around and sat down and couldn’t think of a thing to say and so just stared at her with a goofy look on my face. She was looking back, smile once more in place, when the guy who had been talking to her interrupted my reverie by saying, “Hello Bart, I’m Frank Turner, tell us about the new planet. Captain Travis didn‘t say much.”

     “Oh yes Please do”, Janie piped in. This wasn’t the conversation I had been hoping to have. But in a crowded room at a full table what else could I expect. You see I think I had fallen in love.

     Everyone else at the table had just gone to sleep and gotten up the next day. For me near four years had passed and Janie was always with me someplace in the back of my mind. But her command “Please do”, sent me to marching.

     I began, “Well the details are all in the Encyclopedia.”, and continued on between bites of breakfast, though never tasting a thing. I think just seeing her again put me into sensory overload. It probably seemed I was talking to everyone but I was really just taking to Janie. Anyway all too soon the meal was done and hearing a background chime I knew I was due back on the bridge in ten minutes. “Sorry folks gotta go.” and then to Janie, “I’ll be off duty in four hours can I catch you then?”

     “Sure, why don’t I walk with you to the control room?”

     “Best offer I’ve had all year.”

     We both stood, said goodbye to the rest, and headed out into the corridor. “Gee it’s good to see you Janie. I really missed you.” Just then I noticed Andy Stewart walking our way.

     Andy saw me at about the same time and immediately said, “Yo Bartlett, Got any idea where Capt. Travis is?”

     I replied, wondering at his hurry, “Hey Andy good to see you. If you need something fast that I can help with, I’m on my way to the Bridge right now.”

     Andy smiled crookedly and said, “Thanks for the offer but, this really needs a Command Decision. I need to wake up my worst headache, I’m sure you know who I mean, in a really bad way.”

     I could not help laughing, “God I can see how that might hurt but, I’ll tell you true, I need to talk to Ash too.”

     Andy’s face went half-way cold, “Bart, you are not going to go for his throat again are you?”

     Not sure if that was a question or a statement and I laughed, “You know that’s over Andy. At least for now. But Travis did mention that the data we pulled from his ship along with your cousin’s “ Plans & Training” background might help in figuring out what the Goonies might be able to send after us. And we did find a few things which could use some explanation.”

      Andy’s look softened a bit and he said, “You don’t know the half of it. That hot shot is a trained spaceflight engineer and I do mean design type stuff. So, if the Capt. Lets me get him up I’ll be sure to let you know where he’s at!”

     Amazed at that potential goldmine, though wondering if I could ever get along with Ash, I said I would like to see him when he got out of the freezer and then told Andy where I suspected Travis might be found.

     Andy said thanks, and then with a small bow, “Pleasure Ms. Cantarubias!” He then moved briskly around the corner. Ignoring Janie like that he must have had an awful lot on his mind.

     Just minutes later, all too soon, Janie and I reached the control room with Arte standing in the door.

     “Glad you could make it Bart.” he remarked.

     I turned to Janie and said. “Four hours in the lounge, ok?”

     “Sure thing.”

Mariana entered the room to see Andy slumped back in the chair massaging his temples with the obvious pain of a headache etched on his face.

“So what’s got you killing brain cells?” she asked.

“The fact that I am in about 10 miles over my head,” He replied.  “I can handle the Captains request about communications but, the rest of this stuff is way out of my specialty.  Astronavigation, I know just enough of that stuff to pass my Pilots Boards.  All of this Gravity Field stuff yeah, I know how it affects signals propagation; little else!  Deep range scans of the planets, it’s all chemical stuff.  I do not even know how to catalog this stuff!”

“OK, so why the headache; yell for help and get some sleep!” Her questioning tone very clear!

He just grimaced “Because I know the perfect person for this Augean Stables job.  The very thought of which is in and of itself my worst headache”!

She stared for a long moment, “Oh My God, you gotta mean Ash?”

He moaned into His cupped hands, “Aeronautical Engineer, Atmosphere and Orbital; Physicist, Propulsion Systems Endorsed and a Masters in Computer Sciences.  Got anybody better qualified?  Remember that’s why they had him in Plans & Training while he was grounded!”

Mariana returned the groan, “Question is, do you have a big enough problem to keep him task fixated?  Remember that high octane brain is what always causes the problem with the Hound Dog!”

Andy grinned at last, “Oh, only about 5 or 6 years worth I would guess! But, changing subjects; how did the equipment search go?”

This evoked a return grin from Mariana, “Not as well as I hoped but, better than we could reasonably expect.  R. J.’s manifests reflected that he had planned for a full Level 4 Bio lab.  The problem is most all of the high end Level 3 and Level 4 gear was supposed to be on the ship carrying the perishable supplies.  What we have is a high end Level 2, call it a 2+.  My worry is that I have nothing to do viral isolation.  The only thing I can do for virus infections is the old fashioned way; blood samples from infected victims and try to develop a vaccine!   But, I can do DNA and Micro-Bio no problem.  Most pleasant news is that Linda seems to know her stuff.  She can run the joint procedure wise, while I concentrate on the real elbow work”

Andy grunted,”Yeah, Dave Webber dropped by while you were searching.  He and Sandy Kellerman have an idea for a Central Communications Center to funnel data and samples from exploration teams into your Lab.  I told him to find me a power source and an antenna.”

Mariana grinned again, “So, what are you going to do?”

Andy smiled ruefully, “Set this rig on Auto, take a shower and find Capt. Travis.  Then I am going eat a big helping of humble pie and get Ash up.”

Walking out the door Mariana tossed over her shoulder, “As the Chinese said, “May you live in interesting times.”

She actually got the door shut before the coffee cup hit it!

How did it all come to this? Bombings, shooting, mayhem of all kinds in what should have been an amicable parting of the ways.

In one of the proscribed texts, it was said that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”

Well, we’re certainly up to our necks in manure, anyway.

I look around me, and I see people who are excellent arguments for both the Gun Control and Mandatory Retroactive Abortion laws. Yet they didn’t fire first, the “Good Guys” did. Well, what I used to think were the Good Guys, anyway, a long, long time ago. There were just a few bugs in the system, Human Nature being what it is. The corruption was a small price to pay for the good works that were being done. But the corruption grew, and the good works were strangled. Not all of them. Some of us fooled ourselves because of that for far too long.

So I raise my glass in a toast: To all those misguided soldiers who did their professional duty in trying to kill us all, and sacrificed their lives for what they believed in. And to those cowboys and gun-nuts who turned out to be right after all, and gave their lives so that Freedom May Prevail!. Yeah, Right.

Shedding a few tears for both. I’m getting too old for this. Probably an effect of the cryosleep, my weird hormone levels never did conform to the norm. Not The Average Mutant.

I wonder how many moles there are on board? And will they “go native”? We’re going to need all the people we can get, and there’s strength in diversity of opinion. It’s only when opinions and thoughts - rather than actions - become proscribed that a dangerous intellectual monoculture grows. Even a monoculture such as the Chaos of Radical Libertarianism can become Rank and Corrupt without an opposing view to strengthen it.

Enough of the maudlin musing. We have a colony to build, and a generalist like me is going to be valuable, so I better go and start valuing.