The Spirit of Fortune

[Genevieve]

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Genevieve Uihara's Personal Journal

11-AUG-830
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What a mess I've gotten us into.

The Spirit’s spent the better part of the past two weeks in drydock at Bethlehem Station after we blew out engine two’s cooling system in a mad dash through the Appalachian Asteroid Field, trying to find the jump hole to California that’s allegedly somewhere in there. Good news: We shook the Navy patrol that was chasing us. Bad news: We didn’t find the jump hole. So we had to limp back to Bethlehem and pray that we wouldn’t run into any more Libertonians. It’s a small miracle we didn’t.

Repairing the cooling system would have been easy enough … if we had the credits to pay for spare parts. But even with all of us pooling our cash together - even Gretsky, the stingy goon -, we’re all but broke. So that means we’ve spent the past week and a half doing odd jobs around the station, gambling, and selling our bodies. That last one’s a joke. Except maybe for Hunnigan. He’s into that.

The point is, we finally scrounged together just enough money to buy new used parts from the vendors and spent yesterday fixing up the Spirit. Stars know she needed a bit of love after what I’ve put her through these past two months.

Thinking about it, maybe coming to Pennsylvania wasn’t such a great idea, after all. We spent six weeks hauling goods to Pinnacle to keep those people from starving, dying of dehydration, or suffocating on the stench of their own crap, all the while evading patrols and teasing every last pound of thrust out of the Spirit’s aging afterburners. And for what? Nothing. Literally. It was all for charity. Out of the kindness of our own hearts and for the adoration of “our fellow Zoners.” Like that would pay for fuel, supplies, and maintenance.

Heck, I didn’t even find Tommy. Or anyone else from the old gang, for that matter. And finding them was the main reason I dragged us here in the first place.

And now Liberty’s gone and declared Zoners a criminal organization, to be apprehended or shot on sight, with us still in Liberty space. Good work, people. You’ve really made things better for all Zoners everywhere.

Even with the Spirit fixed up and running again, until I figure out where that damn jump hole into California actually is, we’re effectively stranded on Bethlehem. And from what I’ve seen and heard, Liberty doesn’t plan on respecting its no fire zone. Not that I can blame them, now that it has been labeled as a terrorist stronghold.

I should get a message off to Sis and Edgar before Bethlehem’s comm array gets jammed. I haven’t gotten around to it in weeks and they’ll be getting worried about me.