Evangeline Anastasia McDowell

[Bazza]

Entry#: 134
Date: 29 - 01 - 819 AS @ 21:11 SUT
Title: Untitled.

Another hectic 48 hours pass and this time I find myself smack-bang in the middle of nowhere in the Kansas system. I managed to locate somewhere to hide myself and everything I own - a small, desolate moon in the system.

The lower gravity well and lack of atmosphere make it possible to bring the Alsatia and others down to the surface without any major dramas. In contrast to many of the smaller classes of ships and indeed the more... "esteemed" transport classes, none of my ships are capable of atmospheric "flight" as most people see the concept - that being using wings for lift alongside horizontal engines for thrust.

The Alsatia herself is able to clumsily manoeuvre around with the VTOL rockets - but that is tedious at best and consumes vast quantities of both time and fuel. I won't even go near the Maelstrom's capabilities. She'd fly about as well as a brick. The tug is the same.

But out here none of that matters. I can just glide down to the surface and with only minor adjustments to the throttle and engine directions everything landed safely. There may have been some paint traded between the tug and Maelstrom when they landed... the latter being dead-weight at the time - but that doesn't matter.

The important thing is I found a place to calm down and assess the situation I now find myself in. It has become apparent there are a large number of supporters of my apparent war effort against the Congress. A small swarm of not only other Junkers but also people I'd never even heard about before and of course some of my employees, all jumping up to say "I can help".

One stand-out follower, however, is the owner of my new pet Spyglass, a young fellow named Xii. His primary features are naivety and innocence - showing a complete lack of understanding when me and Rachel tried to assault him earlier.

That and he doesn't seem able to talk normally. He has some kind of voice box thingo which he carries around his neck; I guess he has something wrong with his throat or lungs. Not that it really matters, he can still get his point across and it's certainly not the worst modification to a human I've seen in my life.

He still reacts like a human to two young women trying to remove his pants, so I've no doubt underneath the slightly off persona he presents he's no different to anyone else.

A point which moves me on nicely to the next part of the recent events. Two young girls, apparently twin sisters, showed up literally at my door whilst in low orbit over my new home in of all things a Bretonian Shetland. After wondering what the hell something like that was doing out here and very nearly ordering its' termination we eventually drew the conclusion that it had been sent under directive of Bret - my old friend from Liberty.

Apparently he'd heard about my.... misconduct and immediately taken my side of the drama. The last known location the Congress has of me was flying off into the Kansas system; I suppose he used that information to track me down. The story from the sisters was that they'd been sent to the old Neo-Terran station in the asteroid belt, had gotten bored of waiting and gone exploring - finding us by blind luck.

They offered us a supply of materials which we accepted after a somewhat heated negotiation, sending the ship on its way with a guarantee of discretion. The cargo was transferred to the newest and undoubtedly shiniest abode in my lifetime - a DL-series Borderworlds Transport.

Despite my best efforts to hide over the past week, a number of high-profile people have managed to find me - the highest of these being Admiral Hale. This transport, which we're currently aboard, is my present for ensuring Remus got himself back home in one piece, among other things.

Hale somehow managed to sneak his way into Kansas and by pure chance stumbled into radio range of the Alsatia. A short conversation led us to an agreed meeting point in the open expanse of the sector where the ship was transferred to my control.

Hale, myself and my girls somehow ended up in the cargo bay together, all admiring the newness of the ship. Hale didn't want to outright admit it, but it was damned clear he'd put a mountain of effort into the thing. It was absolutely brand-new. The walls were all stainless steel... chequer-plate steel floors, hell, glass panels in the walls linking adjacent rooms for crying out loud. The thing looked like a abstract, futuristic mansion - something an art designer might come up with.

And don't even get me started on the mechanics.

Nuclear.

Fusion.

It has a freaking REACTOR on board. I nearly had a bloody heart attack. Then it dawned on me that this was a properly engineered craft and that it was unlikely to go into immediate meltdown upon startup...

After wiping my drool off the controls Hale lead me and my girls around the halls and corridors showing off the facilities he'd painstakingly procured. For a ransom payment it's pretty luxurious - full, variable level artificial gravity... leather seating, cruise control and fully-ducted air conditioning with enough beds to comfortably sleep 12 people - including a proper king-sized double bed in the captain's quarters.

I of course never minded sleeping buried in Misaka's boobs locked up in a teeny tiny little sleeping bag free to drift around in a weightless barracks-styled room, but this is just something else. A real bed....!

One final story to tell, a love-child of my avocation for juvenile day-dreaming; an underground facility blasted into the cliff face that currently buries my property in ice-cold shadow. It'd be fairly simple and basic - stores for resources and supplies, some small living space and a landing pad on the smooth base of the valley we're in now.

The more I think about it the less ridiculous it sounds. When one considers the amazing feats of construction that abound in humanities' part of Sirius already, a cave dug into a piece of rock isn't that far-fetched. With some fairly basic machinery and the skilled workers to build it...





I could have my very own secret evil lair.

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