Scattered Diary Entries of Iwakura Reiko

[Amba]

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Planet Cambridge, Cambridge System, Bretonia
27/01/834 AS

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It took a good bit longer than I had hoped, going to useless social events and shaking hands with the Sirius sector's finest bargain bin military industrialists. It was clear they were looking for easy marks. Now I have the contacts for their suppliers and soon, they will be buying from me.

The family would much rather I return to the keiretsu, but they know better than to try to dissuade me by now. Surprisingly, Father even spared some of his assistants to provide support during this phase. Thanks to them studies for the optimal location and suppliers are now underway. I can't tell if the old man is being nice or trying to keep an eye on me. Knowing him, it's both. I should get him something extra nice for New Years.

Even when we sort out our logistics there is something I would like to do. An extra step that is quite difficult to take within the keiretsu. I need a vessel that can take me directly to the source, all the way to the Edge Worlds if need be. I want to be able to talk to my trade partners eye to eye.

To that effect I have acquired the assets of Selwyn Exospace, a recently defunct Bretonian deep space exploration company going through liquidation. They were a small Cambridge-based outfit who won the grant lottery and failed to turn it into a proper business. Typical of academics.

Most of their equipment can be easily reused elsewhere, but the real reason I spent those credits was something else in their catalog: an Oasis liner, converted into a deep space exploration and research vessel. Personally I would have preferred something a bit more luxurious, but when an opportunity falls fully-formed into your lap like this it would be downright criminal not to take it!

I have started reaching out to close associates to assemble a team to crew this "Paracelsus" liner. Commandeering the ship will be easy enough, but I intend to be able to test material strength and purity as well as run advanced equipment diagnostics on-board the ship. The more data we can collect, the more solid the foundation for our future endeavors will be.

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