#Lore 24 – Entry #112 – Sci-Fi Month II #21 – The Most Depressing Place in the Demon Sector (So Far)
From the Personal Journal of Seiko Kajira, Galactic News Gazette reporter, assigned UEF-04 Maharani Morgiana
No, it’s not my cabin on the Morgiana, surprisingly enough. After two weeks in hyperspace, I was more than ready to do something besides talk to other unfortunates aboard the ship and come up with ideas on exactly which rumors to spread to who, so of course I hopped aboard a transport to the first of the “colony” worlds we’ve encountered to see what life on the frontier was like. You know, my actual job out here. Planet looked nice enough from orbit, Charvis VII they called it, outside a big asteroid belt, far away from a very hot sun. Or at least I think that’s what the nerd I spoke to meant. I don’t know astrophysics, so whatever, I’ll take the scientist’s word on this or that; it’s in the official report I filed, part of the official interview.
It’s a gods-forsaken shithole is what it is. They called it a colony, but it’s like a collection of mud huts on some primitive backwater. Okay, maybe it’s not that bad, just a lot of haphazardly thrown together prefab shelters that are starting to show their age. Must’ve been maybe two-hundred people there, if that, mostly humans. I mean, who else would be that stupid, amiright? No diseases running rampant, thankfully. They were friendly enough, though, seemed happy working their farms and being away from the rest of the civilized galaxy. Got a few people to tell me all about it while we were there; it’s in the report. Reckon the techies from the Morgiana installed some kind of communications equipment on the surface and on one of the moons, some kind of hyperspace relays I think, to help boost transmission quality and relay time back to Aphelion Station. For the really important communications, the Morgiana uses some kind of “courier missiles” as they called them. Basically, just hyperspace-capable pods that get shot back to Aphelion ever so often, packed with sensor data and reports and the like. Much more reliable, apparently.
Anyway, first stop in the depths of the Demon Sector was terrible. Was I really expecting anything more, though? I don’t know, I just figured it would be more exciting, I guess. Like gunfights on the street like in Paradise City on Valefar V or rampaging monsters against the plucky colonists, that kind of thing. Spent a few days there while some teams from the Morgiana did some proper scans of the system and set up for some resource collection operations in the near future. Really boring stuff, unless you’re that druid who was really excited about the local wildlife; never seen someone get so excited over what looked like a mutated cow. Didn’t even seem to be anything too exciting happening within the colony, just “living the good life”, away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities and the megacorps. Good for them, I guess? Not the kind of life for me.
FUCK! I hate this fucking place! I honestly thought about jumping ship, staying at the colony until the next corpo team comes along and hitching a ride back to Aphelion. That lasted about two seconds, though. Who knows how long that’d take? Just have to stay focused on what I can do here, I guess. Maybe it’s just going to take me a while to find my grove here. I mean, I’ve got my burgeoning career as a fiction writer, after all. Already starting to see a little excitement starting up though; saw a fight break out at VV’s place the other night after one of the rumors I’d started got some tempers fired up. Maybe I should pace myself a bit, not get things too hot too soon? It’s a long damn trip after all.
Think I’ve sniffed out a few prospective interesting subjects aboard to focus on next. Mizutani’s still fun to mess with; he really does get off on being spoken down to. Makes him squirmy; I can tell he’s getting a hard-on and trying to hide it. That feradogian he’s taken up with seems a bit intimidating, though; he’s friendly enough, but always has this hungry look on his face when he looks at me. Positively predatory. Might try to get to know that female ferakatian scout who was part of the crew who visited the colony, just to see if I can get something stirred up. Heard fights between ferians are intense; might be fun to watch. Don’t think security would take too well to it; that security chief doesn’t like me already. Not that I care, though; can’t stop the free press!