Name: PanGalactic Travel Company Liner Far Horizons Class: SL-17 "Geisha" Kusari Luxury Transport Crew:
Captain Bob Majors
Navigator Artie Coombs
Engineer/Mechanic Kay Staite
Defensive Systems Operator John Mackintosh
Communications Officer Sally Dunn
Flight attendants: Carl Robertson, Marcus Goldberg, Geoffrey Morgan, Hans Eichmann, James Stern, Marilyn Cartwright, Jennifer Collins, Tomoko Nakajima, Nicole Westinghouse, Amanda Overton
Dave Sanders had always wanted to travel, and what better way than as the head of a travel company? He struck out in his Starflier from Manhattan to Yokohama Shipyards, after determining that the Kusari Cruise Liner was the best value passenger liner on the market, and soon he was the proud owner and captain of the PanGal liner Far Horizons. Sure, one cruise liner wasn't exactly much of a company, but hey, it was a start. He hand-picked his crew, taking care to have at least one person who could speak Kusari and Rheinlander, and, after the maiden voyage from Manhattan to New London went off flawlessly, things were looking up...
After a permanent corporate headquarters was established aboard the PGL Majestic, Dave resigned as captain and turned over the Far Horizons to Bob Majors, his navigator. The new captain is still finding his feet, but he's determined to live up to Dave's legacy.
BEGIN LOG
Location: Planet Hamburg, Hamburg System
Well, after our maiden voyage to New London, I decided to check out what the fares were to the Luxury Liner Shetland in Edinburgh. Turns out they're not worth the million credits some robot ripped off of me in Leeds. What does a tin can want with a million credits?
Anyway, we headed back to Manhattan and picked up a load of tourists, then took 'em to New Tokyo. Stunning place, Kusari. I can see why they wanted to go there. Decided to head down through Sigma-13 to scope out Rheinland for new destinations.
Yikes.
Turns out Nuremberg in Munich is a pretty hot destination. Don't see the charm of the place, myself: it's hella cold and the air makes you hallucinate. Actually, never mind, I just answered my own question. Take a breath in the right place and it's better than Cardamine, apparently. Don't know why the drug cartels aren't bottling the stuff.
Well, checked out most of Rheinland, nothing topped Nuremberg, so we set course for Manhattan to pick up some passengers to take there. Self-professed "Navy ace" Star_Buck helped us out, free of charge, which was good, though I think he might have been exaggerating the number of battlecruisers he took out on the way. Weird setup for a "Navy ace": LPI ID card, and a buncha Rogue guns. Suppose he might have pilfered the Rogue guns, but why would a Navy hotshot be flying around with a donut-muncher ID?
Anyway. Sensors picked up a huge ion storm building when we were in Hamburg on our way back, so we landed on Hamburg and called it a day. Managed to upgrade our shield with the profit from the Nuremberg run. What a gold mine. Nothing short of a sun exploding's going to get through this new graviton shield.
BEGIN LOG
Location: Planet New London, New London System
Set out from Hamburg and took a load of passengers from Manhattan up to Planet Honshu. Nice day for it, actually, made a good profit. After that, moseyed on down through the Taus to Planet New London for some maintenance. Might take some New Londoners through to Rheinland tomorrow, actually, could be interesting. Tomoko (not Takako, I must stop calling her that) is staying on board so she doesn't wind up in an alley with a knife in her back.
Headed from New London over to Augsburg with a load of passengers. Had some complaints that they were harassing Tomoko. I offered to drop anyone who didn't like being on the same ship as a Kusari woman off at Freeport 1, and they all politely shut up.
After dropping the passengers off at Augsburg, we mapped out a couple of clouds and headed for Nuremberg to rest up.
Captain Dave Sanders
Dave sits back and loads up his neural net account to check the day's profits...
Now that couldn't be right. He has less money than what he started with today. He double-checks, then runs every diagnostic he could, and a name comes up.
Oh dear...
"Tomoko?" he announces over the ship's intercom. "Please come up to the bridge."
Tomoko arrives, looking frightened. "Have a seat," Dave says, and she sits down. "Now, we've somehow lost five million credits. Your name came up. Please explain why you have stolen five million credits from us?"
Tomoko swallows. "I... I am very sorry, Sanders-sama. My sister, she is on Manhattan and badly needs money... I thought..."
"...that you could pinch five million credits and we wouldn't notice?"
Tomoko is on the verge of tears. "I..."
Dave exhales heavily. "Alright. I'll let this one slide, because it's family."
Tomoko looks up hopefully.
"But you have to promise it'll never happen again. You steal from us again, you're off my crew. We clear?"
"H...Hai. Thankyou, Captain..."
"Go on. Go see Nuremberg. Wrap up warm."
Tomoko bows gratefully and hurries out.
"Well, this place is a bit of a hole," Dave remarks, looking out at Hokkaido.
"It's pretty," Sally says.
"Pretty and not worth our time. Sapporo was the last base we passed. Nobody's going to want to come all the way out here."
"Back to New Tokyo?" Bob asks.
"Absolutely."
Bob turns the ship around and heads back towards the New Tokyo gate.
"Damn shame there's nothing here worth seeing. We could really-"
Dave's words are cut short by a disruptor missile slamming into the ship's shields, cutting the engines.
"TOMATTE!" a female voice commands. "Halt!"
Dave swears. "Bob, get us out of here."
Bob tries to power up the engines, but another missile stops him, followed by a barrage of weapons fire against the shield.
"That was warning! Next time, I destroy you!" the woman says again.
"Who is this?" Sally asks.
Tomoko bursts into the bridge, shocked. "My sister!"
Everyone stares as Tomoko pushes Sally aside and depresses the comm button. "Takako-chan! Nani suru yo?!"
"T-Tomoko-chan?"
There is a frantic exchange in Kusari between the two Nakajima sisters.
"What are they saying?" Dave whispers to Sally.
"I don't speak Kusari."
"Who does?"
"Tomoko."
"Figures."
The sensors suddenly indicate that the hostile ship is leaving quickly.
"Tomoko?" Dave asks. "What was that about?"
"My sister. Takako. One I sent money to. She used money to join Kinsei no Kiku!"
"Join what?"
"Eeto. Golden... I not know English word. Like... kind of flower..."
"Golden Chrysanthemums?"
"Hai." She looked upset, her grammar slipping in her distress. "I sorry, Dave-sama. If I know, I would not have give her money..."
Dave held up a hand. "It's alright, Tomoko. You weren't to know."
"She... she say she tell rest of Kinsei no Kiku not to attack us. We have no more problem from them."
Dave nodded. "That's good news... Jenny?"
A female flight attendant pokes her head in. "Yes sir?"
"Tomoko is pretty upset, see if you can comfort her a bit."
Jenny nods. "Come on, hon." She and Tomoko leave the bridge.
The bridge is silent for a moment, then Dave clears his throat. "Right. Let's pick up some passengers at New Tokyo and take them to Nuremberg."
"Roger that. Setting course." Bob engages cruise and they head for the gate.
When we get up and running, we should really consider investing in a scout division to scope out new destinations so our liners don't have to traipse all over Sirius empty.
Mucked around in the Sigmas today. 13, 19 and 17. Turns out the Hawaii and planet Kurile are reasonably hot tickets. The Hawaii is a no-brainer, but I don't know what the deal is with Kurile. It's dark, it's wet and it smells unpleasant, plus it's in the middle of a radioactive gas cloud. Still, suppose it could be "extreme tourism" or something.
Headed back for Honshu and landed there for refuelling. Tomoko's staying on board. Smart girl- if I had an identical twin in the Golden C, I wouldn't want to show my face to the Kusari police.
Well, if I had an identical twin in the Golden C, my name would probably be Dave-ko or something, but you get the idea.
BEGIN LOG
Location: Planet Manhattan, New York System
*yawn* What a day. Headed back from Honshu to Manhattan. There was an ADMIN in Manhattan orbit, so when we launched with some Manhattanites to Curacao, I invited them to take a few pictures. Once in a lifetime thing, you know?
Anyway, we got back to Manhattan and decided to take a few adventurous types out to Kurile. Met up with a Neil Raymond or something like that in Colorado, and he escorted us out to Kurile for 500,000 credits, so that was nice of him.
On the long slog back to Manhattan, checked out Fuchu Prison in Shikoku. Who knows, we might get a prisoner transport division in the future.
We're on Manhattan now for maintenance, the crew's on rec leave. I'm gonna turn in for the night.
Aaaah... This is the life. I love this planet, I really do.
Anyway, took some Manhattanites over here, but my main purpose was to grease a few palms. I made a bit of a "donation" to the "Orbital Spa and Cruise retirement fund", and long story short, I managed to get in their good books enough to get an Orbital Spa ID card, which makes us an Orbital Spa affiliate, sorta.
From what I've heard, the new guy is doing quite nicely. With any luck, the Coral Star will be the first PanGal Armored Transport of many.
And now... another foot massage, I think. *sips margarita*
Begin Log
Location: Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh System
Well, the Far Horizons is moored on top of the Shetland like something i'd rather not contemplate, and the crew's off getting some R&R on the Shetland's many recreation decks while I'm here filing the log. Sigh.
Two decent runs. Passengers from Manhattan to New London, then some VIPs over to the Shetland. Made a tidy profit. Sally tried to get a trade ship by the imaginative name of "Tradeship" to join our PanGal family, but I don't think she had much luck.
Haven't heard from the Coral Star in ages. Where the hell has Verde got to?
Captain Dave Sanders
BEGIN LOG
Location: Augsburg Orbital Colony, Munich System
Noticed Mon'Star was out and about upon undocking from the Shetland today. I've heard nasty stories about him, so we gave him a wide berth as we headed for Manhattan, and then on to Augsburg. Managed to pay off the marketing company we hired to design a logo for us. I think it looks pretty snazzy.
Put an ad on the neural-net bulletin boards for new pilots. I have no goddamn clue what's happened to Verde.
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