The Journal of Caius Oakley

[Coin]

Apparently that small, defenceless transport was completely outgunned in the Tanusfeld of Frankfurt, and not enough debris was ever found to be able to identify the guns that did it: Unioner, Bundschuh or Red Hessian Army, they're all scum-sucking malcontents as far as I'm concerned, and anyone that shoots 'em down is doing the universe a favour. That idiot captain probably had a rush of blood to the head, and instead of paying the damn tax, was showing off to my red-headed sister about how brave he was. To go trading without an escort, in a flimsy transport, and then start mouthing off to pirates...

After that, the fight seemed to go out of Dad. Overnight, he seemed to age, his mind would wander; he could sit and stare at the wall for hours, and then he'd stand up and walk aimlessly through the ship, mumbling Camila's name. Each audit would take longer than the last, and we started falling behind on our itinerary, and it was looking like we'd lose the audit franchise.

We sat down one evening, and I told them to stop - stop running themselves into the ground, destroying themselves and everything they'd worked for. They knew I didn't want the accountancy franchise, so they sold it to a young couple from Pittsburgh, bought themselves a Spatial with the proceeds, and flew off to explore the borderworlds. They're having a fine old time; with no cargo, pirates leave them alone, and the only things they have to avoid are the assorted terrorists of the omicrons and you have to be either mad or seriously tooled up to go in there.

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