#Cargo Charter

[stictravels-blog]

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[aureaaviation]

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[bacony-cakes]

everyone's heard of pan am and trans world airlines and i have already seen things like these

but i made some more from other airlines i know

i also made an alternate biman bangladesh:

and interflug:

feel free to use all of these

(…and tell me if you know an airline that can fit in with this style, so i can make more)

[runwayrunway]

No. 37 - National Airlines

This post is about liveries, I promise! That is the only thing it's about. No tangents to be found!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! New* livery dropped from an established airline!

*not, like, brand new. Just relatively new. I was informed of it very recently.

It must be pretty hard to name an airline. I've never had to do it, but I have worldbuilt fantasy settings, and choosing names for things is broadly speaking very difficult. There's a reason so many surnames are either vocational, geographic, or patronymic. It's really hard to come up with something interesting and you just have to settle for "that's John from Over There. Yeah, the greengrocer. Yeah, Bob's kid," and that's how it's always been. When etymologies develop they tend to develop slowly and unintentionally. You usually don't just hit on a perfect name for something, but you need to put something on your tax forms, if you do pay those.

Flag carriers have it easy. They just get to use the name of their country, maybe with a 'royal' tossed in if they're still a monarchy. But private airlines? You have to mess around a bit. Some hit on something pretty good, like IndiGo or, I hate to hand it to David Neeleman, Breeze. And some, on the other hand...completely phone it in.

I have a soft spot deep in my heart for airlines with unbearably stupid names. Things like 'Jet2' and 'Fly2Sky' and my personal favorite, 'Fly Air'. Cargo carriers have their own brand of this, some combination of 'Cargo' and frequently 'Logic', leading to my personal favorite 'CargoLogicAir', which went defunct last year.

One name is really weirdly popular. Seriously, I don't get why it's popular, because it's a terrible name. I've done a lot of talking about national airlines, lowercase, adjective followed by noun, but it's time to talk about National Airlines, proper noun, capitalized.

Why would you name your airline this? It's such a silly name. National...to what country? Certainly it's probably clear based on what country it's operating in, but I don't think that's an excuse. And there have been an entire five National Airlineses in the US. Since 1934 there has never been a period of five years or more without at least one, and sometimes more, National Airlines in operation. It's a bizarre phenomenon and my only guess is that it's a side effect of the US's lack of flag carrier, where legacy carriers all wanted to have a name that sort of sounded like what a flag carrier might have. United Airlines, American Airlines, US Airways/USAir, Republic Airlines...National Airlines just feels like it belongs there.

I might cover this livery in future. Let me know if you'd want that.

Without question the most historically significant National Airlines was the one founded in 1934. Based in Miami, in the 70s it was one of the elite few carriers - the others being Braniff, TWA, and of course Pan Am - allowed to operate service to Europe, meaning it was actually an international airline. It was merged into Pan Am in 1980.

Today's National Airlines was founded in 1985. That's right, they've existed for nearly 40 years, likely without your knowledge! They fly charters, both passenger and cargo, though since 2015 they've also had a couple of scheduled routes - and yes, they fly internationally. Their fleet has ten entire aircraft. To be fair, they're all jets. The smallest thing they've ever operated is a DC-8.

For one whole year they had a Tu-204, for some reason.

If you know them, you probably know them for that one plane crash! And that's not important at all here and occurred in circumstances completely irrelevant to normal operation for basically all airlines, but I just want to point out that the accident plane was named for the owner's wife, and years on the company gave the name to another airframe. I'm not saying that this plane is also going to crash - it is so unlikely that it's not worth considering - but I do just feel like that's got to be tempting fate. Imagine telling your wife the second plane you named after her also crashed. I can see that ending in divorce.

Imagine if the plane was literally named after your wife, too. I could never do that to myself.

I didn't know there was a .aero domain. Huh! You learn something new every day. "We Deliver The World" is funny for an airline called National, and even funnier now that they're a scheduled passenger airline. Anyway, the livery. Nicely branded, not terribly many similar ones to confuse it with, big billboard wordmark in a legible and minimally offensive sans serif font. As for the main design...I look at it and vividly feel like it's familiar but can't quite place where from. Of course, it has quite the typical vaguely patriotic vibe to it, but that can't possibly be the entirety of it, so what...oh. I think I know what it reminds me of.

It's a shame the USPS doesn't have airplanes, because they could probably do something at least a little interesting.

It is far from an exact resemblance. But I think that has to be it.

The design on the tail also reminds me a bit of the IndiGo swoops even though they're definitely not related. It's just that sort of really long dramatic wave pattern in a similar color scheme. They even both have a sort of 'trim' on the side.

I do think the wave loses something by getting cut off sharply in the middle there. It reminds me of Airbus's carbon fiber livery where it starts to resemble a mermaid's tail...and that's something airlines should try to do on purpose, yes, but doing it by accident doesn't really do it for me. It feels like it stops the momentum in a way.

National made the...interesting choice of using both white and silver in the same livery. I think it...kind of works, if only because the white surrounded by the blue doesn't really blare out the way it does when it's the main color. The silver itself is...also interesting. It looks like the plane has been painted using metallic sharpie.

They probably use these to cover up chips in the paint.

This livery has a lot going on but it just feels kind of cluttered and boring, to be honest. It is undeniably USPS-y, so I think maybe somebody who doesn't live in the US wouldn't look at it the way I do, but it just reminds me of mail even though I don't think they even carry mail. The idea of being a passenger on a USPS-looking airplane is a bit strange to me.

Flag in the window not changing my mind about the feeling of the name.

This livery is one of contradictions. Clearly recognizable yet somehow generic; full of atypical features yet somehow still boring. It feels almost inexplicably cluttered, and above all it feels sort of sloppy. I think that's really a sign of the era it comes from. The 1980s were a weird time for airline liveries. It was in the early 80s when cheatlines really began to fall out of favor, and we entered an era of airlines trying to figure out what they wanted to do instead. They experimented with colorblocking, vertical stripes, all sorts of things that hadn't been seen yet. Not all of them were super creative. We got a lot of planes that were half white and half off-white, some early Eurowhite-esques like SAS's belly stripes and JAL's good-logo-bad-livery situation. It also produced a fair few liveries which really stuck out, enough to carry over to the modern day. Korean Air is a prominent example designed around the same time as National. Also designed around the same time is my second-ever subject, a livery I chose to cover specifically to discuss how a mostly-white livery could be done well: Kalitta Air. And a handful of these odd liveries are still flying right now, like KAL's.

Okay, but the all-grey, two-tiered wordmark DC-8 livery actually looks so much better.

That's where the sloppy feeling comes from, I think. Cheatline liveries, modern Eurowhite liveries, minimalist billboard liveries, even the transitional 90s horizontal colorblock - these were iterated on over and over again. They might be boring but they usually seem very deliberate. In the 80s, liveries were designed how I used to build characters when I was a preteen playing 3.5e. You add things and you don't really think about how they work together. And there's...some charm to it. But you know what? It's been nearly 40 years. Maybe they've refined it to something a little nicer.

No. No. How could you do this to me? You solved a problem by making it worse! Like, yes, it does look marginally cleaner at the cost of individuality, but just...why leave the red line in if you're cleaning things up? Before, it lined up with the start of the blue curve, but now it has no reason to exist! It looks less like part of the livery and more like, whoops, my monitor's yaw string is telling me my desk is slipping to the left!

Like, it's such a minimal change, and in theory, yes, it addresses my earlier issues, but it doesn't actually manage to stop being generic or boring, and it doesn't manage to stop looking a little messy and lacking in direction, and honestly removing the singular color they didn't share with USPS didn't help them either!

I think what bothers me most, though, is that it doesn't feel much more deliberate. It might be the fact that they made such minimal changes, or the fact that they didn't manage to make it look that much neater, but it looks like they tried to improve their livery without knowing what makes a livery good or bad.

Once upon a time they were novices trying their hands at an art which was in a turbulent place for even experienced airlines, unsure of what they were doing but trying their best. I can't give them any sympathy for that anymore. They have committed to being persistently incompetent. They make lip service towards improvement, but they don't know what improvement would look like. They're out of their depth. They're washed up. They don't know what to do.

Airline liveries often seem to function on a trend cycle similar to clothing. Every ten years or so, large airlines do a brand refresh. Smaller carriers, maybe every twenty years. But some liveries stay longer, either through timelessness or through inertia.

Kalitta Air was timeless. They kept their livery for what felt like eons and it never stopped looking good. Sure, it's a little retro, but in a classy way. It doesn't look dated, it looks stylish. I mean, this company was founded by a racecar driver!

I really like this picture on their website.

Maybe a couple of little tweaks wouldn't be the end of the world. I think the cheatlines could be shortened a bit, maybe, since they make the nose look a bit like it's being pinched, or like the cheatlines are a very elaborate moustache, and maybe the wordmark could be moved a bit forward. Minor tweaks on that order have been made before. But the livery as a whole is fantastic.

In 2021, they released a new one.

The livery of a cargo carrier from Michigan is a very minor part of my life. But when I first saw this image, I really, for a moment, thought that I genuinely wished I had never been born.

I read a lot of comments about it on whatever forums I could find. Generally a lot of my opinions are actually a bit contentious, but I couldn't find anyone who disagreed with me. And one thing I saw repeated fairly often was that this plane looks unfinished. You can't modernise something by just taking away one of its most prominent features, if not its very most prominent feature, even if white is in fashion. This livery was designed with cheatlines. Taking off the cheatlines doesn't make it look like a modern livery, it makes it look like a charter plane midway through being painted for a wet lease. It's just miserable.

And National Airlines isn't as bare now, and wasn't quite as incredible before, but it feels much the same. You can't update something by just removing part of it. That's not new. It's not modern. It's not slick, or clean, or minimal, or whatever else you want to call it. It's unfinished.

So they start out sloppy and they end up looking like a shell of their former self. What do I rate these? Well, I definitely prefer the original livery, that probably won't shock anyone, but the difference is so negligible. Sloppy and inept. Being silver instead of white, or cleaner rather than messier, isn't going to save you.

So they'll both get a D+.

That feels like such an unfulfilling rating to give, but at the end of the day I don't feel like there's anything else to say. They were just figuring it out, and I am too. I blindly stumble into a tepid dissatisfaction that makes me feel nothing at all, really, to the point my own distaste for the revision feels phoned-in. But there's really not much else to say about it. It doesn't feel like anybody, in this process, really understood what makes a good livery, and they didn't learn a thing since 1985.

[naik4]

New Barge building and getting long term fix charter

Building New Barge and getting long terms charter services

Barges are essential vessels used in transportation, particularly for bulk cargo such as grain, coal, and petroleum products. They are used in rivers, canals, and other waterways to move goods efficiently and cost-effectively. In this post, we will discuss the services provided by our company that arrange building new barges and offer regular charter services for long periods. Building a new…

[solentmarineconsultant]

The On – Off Hire Bunker and Condition Surveys is the most popular survey in marine surveyor field. This survey is carried out prior and after charter period which purposed to determine the quantity of bunker remaining on board ROB and inspected the general condition of the vessel.

[logisticsservice]

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In today's increasingly connected world, the demand for dependable logistics services is on the rise. At H&C Logistics Services Reefer Container in Delhi, we recognize the critical importance of safely and efficiently delivering goods, particularly when it comes to Reefer Cargo services.

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Transporting Reefer Cargo presents unique challenges. Fluctuating temperatures and unexpected delays can impact the integrity of the goods. Our experienced team is equipped to handle these challenges, ensuring your goods arrive safely and on schedule.

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[slyandthefamilybook]

okay because I'm seeing some misinfo, here's the story on the Key Bridge collapse

What was the Key Bridge?

The Francis Scott Key Bridge (also called the Key Bridge, the Beltway Bridge, and the Outer Harbor Crossing) was steel-arch continuous-through-truss bridge spanning the Patapsco River south of the Baltimore Harbor. The bridge took 5 years to build and cost an estimated $145 million ($735 million in today's dollars). The full bridge project (including approaches) was 10.9 miles long, but the stretch over the Patapsco was 1.6 miles long and 4 lanes wide, and comprised a length of I-695, the Baltimore Beltway. It traveled between Hawkins Point and Dundalk, and in addition to the I-895 Harbor Tunnel was the primary way for Marylanders to cross from the Eastern Shore to the West. The bridge carried an estimated 11.5 million vehicles per year. There is a lane for ships to pass under the Key Bridge with enough clearance.

Was it structurally sound?

The bridge received its latest inspection in 2022 and received a 6/9 score, which is considered "fair" by federal standards. There was a concern with one of its columns, which was downgraded from a health index of 77.8 to 65.9, but it is not clear yet if this was one of the columns struck by the ship. In 1980 the bridge was struck by a different cargo ship which destroyed a concrete support structure, but the bridge itself was unharmed. There is as of yet no evidence that the bridge collapsed because of poor condition. Experts say the lesson to be learned is about the size and weight of modern cargo ships, and that the bridge was not to blame. Engineers have noted, however, that the bridge's piers lacked protective devices such as fenders.

What was the ship?

The MV Dali is a container ship flying the Singapore flag. It is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and operated by Synergy Marine Group Ltd. The ship is currently being chartered by Maersk, a Dutch shipping company. It was built in 2015 by Hyundai. The ship is 980 feet long and 157 feet wide. The ship's gross tonnage (its internal volume) is 95,128 tons (190,256,000 pounds). Its deadweight (the weight of cargo it can carry) is 116,851 tons (233,702,000 pounds). The ship was carrying 3,000 containers. The engine is a MAN-B&W 9S90ME putting out 41,480 kilowatts (55,626 horsepower).

Over its lifetime the Dali has been inspected 27 times, and only 2 faults were ever found. On June 27, 2023 the Dali was held in port in Chile due to an issue with the propulsion system. According to an inspector the pressure gauges on the heating system were "unreadable". The fault was fixed before the ship left port.

The Dali is crewed by 22 Indian nationals including 2 maritime pilots.

What happened?

The Dali arrived at the Port of Baltimore on March 23, 2024. At 12:44 AM on March 26, 2024 the Dali left port, beginning its journey to Colombo, Sri Lanka. At 01:26 AM the ship suffered a "complete blackout" and began to drift out of the shipping lane. It is not yet known what caused the electrical failure. The backup generator did not power the propulsion system. At around 01:26 AM the crew of the Dali sent a mayday distress call to the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) informing them of the loss of power and that a collision with the Key Bridge was possible. The anchors were dropped as an emergency measure to attempt to slow or stop the vessel. At the request of one of the pilots traffic flow over the bridge was immediately halted. Black smoke was seen coming from the Dali, which experts believe was the result of the crew managing to restart the power system to regain some maneuvering capability.

At 01:28 AM the Dali, traveling at 8 knots (considered to be a fast speed) collided with a support strut beneath the Key Bridge's metal truss at the southwest end of the bridge. A Baltimore resident said he heard the collision and that it "felt like an earthquake". Emergency teams began receiving 911 calls at 01:30 AM, and the Baltimore Police Department were alerted at 01:35 AM. One of the officers present radioed that he was going to go onto the bridge to alert the construction crew as soon as a second officer arrived, but the bridge collapsed seconds later.

What was the damage?

The Key Bridge has completely collapsed. The metal truss relies on structural tension from the bridge itself to maintain its rigidity. As soon as one of the support columns was destroyed, the rest of the bridge quickly followed.

The damage to the Dali is reported as minimal. The ship was impaled by the bridge's structure above the waterline, but has maintained watertight integrity. The crew has not reported any water contamination from its 1.8 million gallons of marine fuel. 13 containers carrying potentially hazardous material were damaged, and are being inspected by a team of Coast Guard divers. At least 5 vehicles including 3 passenger cars and a cement mixer were detected underwater, but authorities do not believe they were occupied

Who was hurt?

The crew of the Dali reports no casualties, except one crewmember who was hospitalized for minor injuries. There was a crew of 8 construction workers on the Key Bridge filling in potholes. 2 were immediately pulled from the water by rescue crews, with 1 being rushed to emergency care and the other reporting minor injuries and refusing treatment. The hospitalized worker has since been discharged. 1 of those rescued was Mexican. The remaining 6 remain missing. Of those 6, 2 have been identified:

Miguel Luna from El Salvador

Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval from Honduras

Of the remaining 4, 2 are Guatemalan nationals. Neither have been identified, but the Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Ministry has stated that they were a 26-year-old from San Luis, Petén, and a 35-year-old from Camotán, Chiquimula. The other 2 are presumed to be Mexican.

Rescue Efforts

The Coast Guard was immediately deployed for search-and-rescue operations. Military Blackhawk helicopters were seen over the river. Rescue efforts were ended at 07:30 PM on March 26, 2024 due to darkness, fog, and cold temperatures. Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said "Based on the length of time that we've gone in the search, the extensive search efforts that we put into it, the water temperature -- at this point, we do not believe that we're going to find any of these individuals still alive". Recovery operations resumed at 07:30 AM on March 27, 2024 with all 6 workers presumed dead.

No divers have yet entered the water underneath the bridge. Supervisory Special Agent Brian Hudson of the FBI's Underwater Search and Evidence Response Team said "the debris field is pretty sizable and I know that’s why they’re hesitant to send divers down because some of the debris is still shifting, the heavy weight of the rocks". The FBI has deployed Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) equipped with cameras and SONAR.

Aftermath

At 05:08 AM on March 26, 2024 Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegiege posted on X (formerly Twitter):

"I’ve spoken with Gov. Moore and Mayor Scott to offer USDOT’s support following the vessel strike and collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge. Rescue efforts remain underway and drivers in the Baltimore area should follow local responder guidance on detours and response."

At 07:30 AM on March 27, 2024 President of the Maryland State Senate Bill Ferguson posted on X (formerly Twitter):

"Over 15,000 in the Balt region rely on daily operations at Port of Baltimore to put food on the table. Today, with Del. @LukeClippinger and colleagues representing Port, we are drafting an emergency bill to provide for income replacement for workers impacted by this travesty."

At around 09:40 AM on March 26, 2024 Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott declared a State of Emergency to take effect at 10:30 AM March 26, 2024, and to last 30 days. Baltimore's Emergency Operations Plan was put into effect.

More than 1,000 personnel from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have been deployed to assist with clearing the debris and rebuilding efforts. President Joe Biden has pledged that the federal government will pay for the entire reconstruction of the bridge.

Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recovered the Dali's data recorder, and will be inspecting both the Key Bridge and the Dali to determine the cause of the crash and the collapse. She says the investigation could take up to 2 years to complete.

Was it intentional?

According to William DelBagno, head of the FBI's Baltimore field office: "There is no specific or credible information to suggest there are ties to terrorism in this incident".

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said: "There are no indications this was an intentional act".

At least 3 people have been killed in accidents related to ships operated by Synergy in the past 6 years. In 2018 a person on board a Synergy ship in Australia was killed in an accident relating to the vessel's personnel elevator. In 2019 an officer aboard a Synergy vessel in Singapore fell overboard while performing maintenance. In 2023 at least one sailor was killed when a Synergy ship collided with a dredging ship in the Philippines. In the first two cases safety inspectors noted that proper safety procedures had not been adhered to.

Sources

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

[aureaaviation]

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[the-monkeies-girl]

could i see 11 with caesar? i think him talking more abojt his human upbringing, maybe about charles, would be cute ^^ he barely talks about his family!

11. sharing secrets

And then i said angsty cute fluff why not you know Caesar was never told that Charles passed away right RIGHT

Title: Long Forgotten. Fandom: ( Dawn of the ) Planet of the Apes. Pairing: Slightly Implied! Caesar x Human! Reader. Rating: K. ( Fluffy and angsty-ish. ) Words: 2.3K+ READ IT ON AO3.

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●・●・○・

There was nothing like the sound of rain pattering against the sleek nature of the cliffside of which the Colony was placed. The dim lights that peppered against the slaten rock were the only semblance of color beyond that of the rusted and worn crimson charters of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, poking its head out from the torrent of rain that was drenching the surrounding area. It was eerie to look at, much less think about.

All of those movies that you had seen as a child about an apocalypse and how there could be a time where Humanity had to subside for the greater good. It was strange to think of the routines that Humans had at one point, being driven now to do unimaginable things in order to survive. Wake up, make your coffee and head to work. The millions of people who had driven their car against the crackling pavement of the bridge on their daily commute seemed so far away as your fingers rubbed at your cargo pant clad kneecaps, curled into a small ball near the edge of the natural balcony that the Colony had to offer in times of weather.

There was the bustling of a fire behind you, large enough to capsize your back in warmth, but not enough to engulf your entire frame with heat as you drew your gaze downwards to the few scattering Apes that were actually doing something in the chill of the rain. Their fur made you so jealous as you brought your hands to cradle your knees into your chest.

The rain slid right off and kissed the ground below without worry. The jacket you were wearing was worn from years of use and was too big, much to your own pleasure as you enjoyed the oversized fit; made it easier to wear you sweaters underneath and layer properly. The group of Apes behind you, a clutch of a few Chimps and Bonobo got quiet as your eyes laid bare to the commandeering shadow of a familiar gait and body coming to rest beside you.

The wetness of his fur captivated you first, the way that the droplets were clinging to the outer edges of his fur and seemed to strand each individual hair for your delectation and caused the already large Ape to appear even larger with a minor fluff, the darkening of it to the point where it appeared nearly black in the ambient lighting and you were able to see more of his skin as the fur had risen in an umbrella-esque attempt to keep him warm and shielded. Caesar’s eyes were alight as always, they never disappointed you as you drew into them without reserve and felt drowned in the golden flecks that resided within his green irises.

“A lot of rain today.” You whispered minutely, feeling the sheer force of gravity from the Ape King next to you as he huffed in agreement, nostrils flaring. “Reminds me of when I was a kid. I used to go dance out in the rain during the storms we had during the Summer. Th---…” Nodding softly as reminiscent melancholy hit you, your gaze drifted back outwards to the scape of the forgotten city that lay in the lush and foliaged distance. “That was different, I guess… Summer rain is usually hot. This is… Cold. Makes me want to do nothing.”

Caesar was quiet next to you and it was apparent he was listening and taking in your words syllable by syllable. He was never one for small talk like this, but there was a notch in his mind that lingered since he had woken up in his nest alone, his arm yearning for someone to hold and keep protected and warm.

The Chimp found you to be quite an enigma, having felt the pull of your body without even intending to come seek you out. In a mirror stare, Caesar glanced towards the city and felt a few raindrops fall down his face from the top furline that cased around his upper forehead. Downwards they fell, one dripping into his right nostril and the other off his strong brow ridge and onto the ground below. “Used to… wonder… what rain felt like.”

The words he used were a shell-shock as you twisted curiously towards Caesar’s barrel frame. He… Your lips parted as you exhaled slowly and felt the chill fall into your mouth as a result and it felt frigid against your lungs, Caesar never talked to you about his life before the Rise.

You knew vaguely, having seen on TV all those years ago about the Apes' escape to freedom on the very bridge that was abandoned in the distance and closed the gap of the ocean bay. Only fleetingly was it mentioned. His life with the Humans. The memories that were placed inside of his head that you wished he’d open up about in order to garner more empathy and sickeningly affectionate feelings towards him.

“Never… felt it often, growing up. Always wondered what it felt… like against… fur.”

Caesar lifted a hand and you felt entranced to watch it as he drove it forward and dipped it into the current of rain water that was diluted into a strand that was falling to his right that acted as a natural drain of sorts as it collided with the rock. You knew it would engrain itself into the sediment itself instead of flying off upon impact; it was just a matter of time as nature would take its course as it seemed to do for everything, your languid stare dragging back to the Ape next to you as he subtly shifted his own gawk towards you.

Bringing his palm back in, you looked at the gleam of the water against the leathered and darkened skin there, fingers flicking in on themselves as you wondered if it were appropriate to reach out and see how heated his skin got the water that was falling so coldly from the heavens. You refrained but the idea persisted.

“One of the… Humans… who raised me… Would… Play piano when it rained.. Like this. Made us all…” Caesar was racking his mind and vocabulary for the correct words he wanted to use, something that was slowly pulling itself together the more he openly spoke with you, “feel better.”

“That sounds really nice…” Tone was hushed and only reserved for Caesar in this moment as he finally allowed himself a full frontal gaze at you and the ease of which he moved his body to do so left you breathless, catching in your throat and unable to move as the heat from his frame was also accompanied by that.

“He is… Gone. The Flu… Maybe…” Knuckled against the hard rock ground below, Caesar rested in a hunched position next to you, a straddle position that was comfortable for Apes as their muscular thighs seemed built for the stance, not as much for Humans and their lack of definition.

“You… don’t know?”

There was silence that clung to the air as Caesar looked off to the side, towards the fire that was burning with such passion and danced his dilated pupils along the flames as they roared into the air. The other Apes did not acknowledge him aside from his arrival, normal for anyone coming into a communal space. He appreciated that. Caesar appreciated to be treated just as another one of his Colony at times and it felt like you were the one steadfast who did just that for him.

Dragging his peer back towards you, the intensity that the fire brought to his already hypnotic stare made a shiver drip down your spine as if rain had seeped into your jacket and was against your bare skin. It felt like a mutual agreement of longing was shared as the Chimpanzee brought his mouth together into a flat line, your ample eyelids admiring how he appeared to soften briefly.

“Do not think about it often enough to… seek the answer.”

“You…” It was your turn to think about your word choice as to not disturb the moment that Caesar found himself vulnerable enough to share with you. “Obviously think about it enough to wonder.”

Huffing again, you watched the aggressive state of his shoulders drifting upwards and then downwards, the cursed knowledge now resting in your mind at the way that Caesar drew his shoulder caps ever so slightly to make himself appear smaller. What an… innocent gesture for such an intimidating figure. His nostrils danced around as Caesar drew steady breaths in before nodding in solemn agreement to your astute observation.

“He was… sick. Before… All of this,” Gesturing broadly towards the Colony, you were unable to look away from Caesar as he formulated words for only you. “Could have… Succumbed to that…”

“I’m sorry.” That was more hushed than it needed to be but Caesar was still able to hear it over the small crackling of the fire that harmonized with your phrase.

“Feels like many life times ago.”

“That doesn’t take away from the pain.”

Caesar shuffled beside you once more, drawing himself to properly sit on his butt beside you. The moistened nature of his fur kissed at the polyester of your jacket and you found it difficult to find any desire to pull away from the chaste contact. Once again, he was fixated on the Colony in front of him and how it appeared so monochromatic.

There was a reciprocated feeling shared between you as Caesar shifted a centimeter towards you so his full bicep was against yours. Heart jumping into the back of your chest, you brought your knees down and crossed them to allow a more open position as you felt no need to be closed off to the Chimp regarding the conversation of his own past.

“You seem to… speak from experience.”

“Maybe I am.” Smiling dimly at that, you merely nodded and pushed the Ape King further. Your story could wait; it was always going to be there for him but you needed his. All of it. Every detail he was willing to give you on this stormy late morning. “What was his name? The Human you were talking about?”

Caesar’s shoulder fur rose out of acute disappointment that you were unwilling to share anything more with him. Maybe, he looked at you from his peripheral, admiring the way that your frown was agitated into a curled sort of smile around the corners, the fondness of shared pasts clear in the way that you accepted his body next to your own… Maybe someday, you’d talk to him… But the notion that you were cracking him open like a walnut was intriguing enough as the pitter-patter of rain seemed to urge the Ape to continue onwards.

“Charles…”

Smiling at that, you sighed and finally slotted your gaze back into Caesar’s properly with the tilt of your head. “He was a good man?”

“Yes… Gave me… my name. I think of him… When I need to recall the good… In Humans… Very hard to see at times… The way the world is.”

“Yeah.” You agreed without hesitance. “Koba’s probably right. The Flu took and took and didn't give much back. Left the worst of Humanity on the planet.”

“Koba is not… Right…” You snided a small sarcastic chuff that Caesar found mildly amusing. “Still good out there… I choose… To believe that.”

“You’re wiser than most, Caesar.” You complimented him with ease and blessed his line of vision with a genuinely pleasing grin of what he interpreted as affection before you brought head back forwards to scan the forest perimeter on the misty and foggy horizon. Caesar felt a stab of confusion inside of his chest, resting like a knife against the muscles of his diaphragm. Why… look at him like that? What was the point?

“What was Charles like? Other than a good man.”

Caesar leered out at the rain as it began falling in what appeared to be sheets of white. It would not last long, this sort of moisture and it would soon subside into the normal aspects of flatter and more calmed droplets that cried from the Heavens. You could sense him turning his muscular neck to look at you quizzically, the expression fell off of him in waves. As much as Koba told you that Humans were so easy to read from facial expressions, the same could be said about Apes and you wanted to know and page each look that Caesar had to offer.

Your side profile admittedly hard to make out much to Caesar’s displeasure as you now had yourself angled away from the fire to copy his stance towards the deeper woods cased around the Colony. You seemed genuine in wanting to know… Caesar was unable to detect any lies coming from your body language or any thoughts of deceiving him with the past he held so closely to him. Why would you want to know? They were things of little consequence now that the Apes were free and the Flu you were speaking of before you left you in the care of the Colony. In the care… of Caesar.

“You want to know…?” Caesar seemed hesitant still, brow hardening in determination when you looked back towards him.

“Is that even a question?”

“It is… a long answer…”

“I don’t think the rain is going to stop anytime soon.” That was said in a joking tone of voice which Caesar granted a chortle towards. The warmth picked up finally against your appendages but not due to the fire as you squeezed your fingers inwards and then expanded them in your lap; Caesar watched that nervous action with amusement that caught him off guard, a small crooked tilt of his mouth erupting.

The heady heat was due to the Ape next to you as he began picking apart words to use in proper sentence structure to tell you about a life that he never imagined telling anyone about. It never seemed important to those who said they wanted to listen. But the way you drank every consonant and vowel up left Caesar… Wanting to share more and more with you.

[gayconstruct]

Humans are Weird — Fever

We literally heat up to cook our bodies when we can't ward off things with our immune cells, and there's a VERY slim margin for what's healthy vs what's not. If you'd like to skip the context portion scroll down to the second set of emdashes

—————

For some quick context, I use some consistent concepts and variations of time words under the impression there's a unified, simplified time scale in an intergalactic universal community

Shifts are 10 hours with hour lunches

There's 3 parts to every species day — Work, Relax, and Sleep — all 10 hours

Diurnal aliens including most humans are working in the mornings, relaxing in the evenings, and sleeping at night

Crepuscular aliens are working in the evenings, relaxing at night, sleeping in the morning

And Nocturnal aliens are working at night, relaxing in the morning, and sleeping in the evening

The clock is from 01:00 — 30:00 (simple 30 hour days for an even number and more leisure time) and rolls over to 01:00 from 30:59 with 01:00 being the roll over from night to morning

Time Increments

Seconds = Instants

Minutes = Moments

Hours = Periods

Days = Cycles

Weeks = Phases

Months = Stages

and Years = Terms

—————

Temperature Rising

Diverse biomes and work sectors began to stir to life, as the many species stationed upon the Integrated Vessel Ro’Vanna responded to the coming shift change. The Universal Timepiece, standard across the known universe, finally struck 0100 Cycles, the nocturnal species like the Umborra and Nostro eager to spend their recreational hours peacefully, while Diurnal species like the Shal’Dorei and newly integrated Humans were waking to begin another productive morning. 

Qin, the most well known Troqir aboard and one of its select Charters, rushed to his station in the hub of the Astrometry Center, cranial crests flaring with an eagerness that to most of his crewmates would otherwise go unnoticed. Ready to start his shift as soon as his posterior hit the chair, the rather tall and muscular humanoid gracelessly plopped down, emitting quite the noise as he got started. Other species present had their full attention focused on their tasking at hand, not a single thought or care thrown to his quite hasty entrance to his station. Several crystalline scales in the crook of his neck iridesced at the thought of his companion joining him soon, his thoughts anywhere but the latest mapping data coming up on his Virtual HUD. Time passed quickly at first, the sturdy man pointing metallic fingers to different notifications that needed immediate attention, adjusting calculations to chart the next few thousand Cargo routes as he went. After roughly 14.5 moments, though, he turned to search for his oddly quiet coworker to notice that the Human had made no attempt to join him this morning, the thought causing a darker color to glisten across his crystal scaling.

He’s late.

Why is he late?

He specifically stated last night he’d “see me soon.”

He’s never this late.

For the first time in his life, Qin was completely out of focus. Several happy-go-lucky phases — human parlance, not his own — had enveloped him, exchanging his stark Troqir logicality for Human whimsy and curiosity. His work tempo was slower and uncoordinated, an unfamiliar feeling coalescing into the turbulent color shifts across his luminescent scales. Every instant that passed on the cargo vessel's timekeeper seemed to lurch at an uneven pace, a deepening pit forming at the base of his abdomen. For four and a half painstaking periods, Qin swallowed his personal thoughts to gain some form of traction on his workload, swallowing emotion as all of his people were taught and opting for diligent productivity, until - finally - the release of his allotted Nutrition Period arrived. There was no moment spared as his dense footfalls rushed towards his companions quarters, his focus unbroken as the ceiling dropped from 4 meters to a much tighter 2.4m. Qin, at just under 2.2 meters, absentmindedly ducked to overcompensate, having quickly become accustomed to this section and its many distinctions after quite a few visits. 

There at last, the tall, silvery man reached what was worth looking for, a door which read in standard human language,

Room 152

Aspen Wright

With the slightest shake in his hand, Qin formed his digits into a fist to knock. 

Knocking… he thought, quite the odd custom, but like many human practices, this was the most respectful of his companion’s personal space and time. For several instants, the silence in the Human Sector’s Hall allowed him no sweet mercy, the lone alien man uncertain what to do as his weight shifted back and forth between his feet, a metal clang ringing out with each motion. Thankfully, a digital projection finally slid across the width of the door, Entry Permitted, displayed in large English typeface.

Thank the Fathers and Mothers for universal translation.

With the invitation obvious and a rather low duck through the smaller door, Qin entered into the darkened room — the simulated window turned off, the curtains drawn, clothes strewn across the floor, and strange devices and pill capsules laid upon the table — not even the so-called “fairy lights” lit the quarters he had become so accustomed to. The Troqirian’s own voice came quieter than he expected, as he rasped out, “Aspen? Are you there?” A strange groan followed, then silence, then- a weary voice.

“Q-,” a cough, “Qin?”

“Y-yes… it is I, I am present,” a facepalm.

“Oh, this is a-” more coughing, “a surprise. Aren’t you on Lunch Break sweetie?”

For a moment, the light from Qin’s Luminescent Scales - ones at his nape, a few at his crests, even the ones on his exposed digits - shined brighter than before, a rainbow of colors flowing across their surface at the thought of being a “sweetie”, before taking a dim, solemn purple. “I- yes, but when you did not show up promptly 15 moments late after last night's recreation I- I began to worry. Lateness? Normal to an extent. Absence??? Abnormal, even for you… Did I… do something wrong? Did our meetings and leisure time make work uncomfortable for you?”

For his first time that entire cycle, Aspen bolted upright with a purpose, but immediately regretted it as a wave of dizziness caused the room to spin around him before he fell the wrong direction, right out of his bed into the floor.

The sight startled Qin, having no frame of reference where the human man was until now, “Fathers and Mothers! Aspen, are you injured!?”

With a weak chuckle and the groan of even more pain, he responded in turn, “I’m fine, I’m fine… I’m sorry to worry you, you never make me uncomfortable dear, I’m just a bit [under the weather] today.” Another small laugh came, and then he continued, “I was trying to tell you that, and I- I must’ve moved too fast… everything is- ugh everything is spinning. Could you help me back into bed?”

Frantic to assist, Qin’s larger form - clumsy in the smaller space, helped lie the smaller, lighter human in his nest, placing his head upon the pillow. Once situated, he covered the small man, as many human’s liked, and noticed his skin far hotter to the touch than normal, homeostatic balance oddly off. “Damn translator…” a joyous light crossing his scales as he used the human swear as he’d been taught, “for whatever reason the English to Troqirian dictionary hasn’t found a suitable translation for your imprecise speech… Could you please explain?”

“Ah, thank you for the lift, love.” Settling for an instant, eyes closed and his head on the pillow, Aspen pondered with a clouded, slow mind, trying to search for the words as his body ached and caught a chill. “... uh- an English idiom of common use in my native tongue… it’s like… to feel sick, to be unwell. I didn’t go to my work shift today because I’m too sick to go… I’m- I’m sorry I didn’t contact you to say something, this fever is really kicking my ass.”

Fever? What in the Cradles was a Fever? 

“Ah… Fever- yes. Hmm, and that is… The translator states you have an elevated temperature? You were hot to the touch, hot because you’re currently ill, or ‘under the weather’ as it were?” Pondering his line of thinking, Qin couldn’t help but attempt to puzzle it together, his evolved logic center placing presented data together to reach understanding. 

Why is his temperature so elevated? He… he’s too hot… His temperature felt at least 311.8°K through my temperature cells… Humans are on average 310.2°K and their species exhibits signs of death at temperatures of 315°K or more… Fathers and Mothers that’s far too close. That is far too close.

Startling Aspen’s tired eyes open, the large metallic man started in with question after question, “How are you okay? You were perfectly normal yesterday. You’re temperature is far too elevated! Are you dying? Do you need emergency services? I can call the Human Physician on board! I can, I can, I-”

“Stop. It is gonna be okay. This- uh this is a normal human response to various pathogens our immune system is unable to combat with its defense cells, so we get hotter and hotter to try to kill the invader before it can do too much damage. I’ve already spoken to the captain and the doctor and I was given some things to bolster my strength while I attempt to naturally ride out my fever. It’s gonna be okay Qin, I’m gonna be okay. The fever just has to kill the pathogen and it’ll break on its own.”

For several quiet moments Qin sat in disbelief at such a process. Actively breaking their delicate homeostasis for an illness? Their specialized cells unable to do it on their own??? He found himself running his digits through his smaller companions' hair as he pondered. He looked so weak, so small, so… precious. 

Breaking the deathly silence with a few coughs, Aspen shuddered from his fever chills, squinting to the light of Qin’s scales before smiling to himself, “I can see your scared glow through my eyelids, Qin, I promise I’m okay… though the comforting touch is nice.”

“Well your eyelids are thin layers containing Keratin and Collagen, it's a miracle your species is alive…”

A laugh, somewhat stronger this time, escaped Aspen’s lips as he smiled again, “And yours have thick metallic plates and the most beautiful glowing scales I’ve ever seen. What about it?”

A hot reddish-pink overtook the Troqir’s luminescent features as he realized what power the smaller man held over him. The power to care. The power to worry. The power to be emotionally honest, something found few and far between his own people. 

The power to be bold.

“Th-they’re beautiful, you… are beautiful, Aspen… I’m sorry I haven’t said it sooner. You always try to make advances on me, and I always try to deflect them with feigned ignorance.”

Slowly, the small human man scooted to leave some room next to himself in the bed, the blanket moving and leaving him even colder than he already was, “Please… could you stay with me a while longer… could you… could you cuddle me to keep me warm?”

The pink glow wouldn’t cease for some time, as the giant of a man laid down on the small bed and wrapped his warm silvery arms around his companion, a small humming noise coming from deep in his throat like a pur. Aspen snuggled close to stifle his chills, overjoyed to know his feelings were reciprocated. Feeling the radiant heat from his alien partner, he drifted into peaceful sleep for the first time that awful sick day.

[ltwilliammowett]

The “Eastern Monarch” ablaze in Spithead, 3rd June 1859, by Arthur Wellington Fowles (1815-1883)

Built at Dundee in 1856, the full-rigged “Eastern Monarch”, 1,844 tons, was owned by Somes Brothers of London and traded regularly between Dundee and India. Early in 1859, as she was loading cargo at Karachi, she was chartered by the Indian government to bring home a large contingent of sick and wounded troops in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny, some of whom were accompanied by their wives and children. After a cramped but otherwise uneventful voyage, “Eastern Monarch” arrived at Spithead in the early hours of 3rd June [1859] with almost 500 people aboard including 352 invalid soldiers, 30 women and 53 children. At 2.30am., about an hour after the vessel had dropped anchor, a loud explosion was heard closely followed by billowing smoke and flame. With the ship’s ports all open for ventilation, the initial fire spread rapidly; despite the valiant efforts of the officers and crew however, the blaze could not be brought under control and the ship was soon ablaze from stem to stern.

Thanks to perfect discipline amongst the troops, there was no panic and those aboard were ferried ashore by two sailing barges, “Providence “ and “Petrel”, which came alongside, as did boats from H.M. ships “Falcon” and “Flying Fish”, both anchored nearby. The prompt actions of the rescue craft saved all but eight persons but the ship herself was totally destroyed, it was believed, by the spontaneous combustion of a quantity of saltpetre amongst her cargo.

[jpitha]

Between The Black and Gray 14

First / Previous / Next

Fen had to admit that she was surprised when Uumar's techs showed up right on time with carts carrying a reactor - in pieces - to Spyglass. They donned pressure suits of their own and with Gord's help, installed the reactor. Before the day was done, Spyglass had three working reactors and was able to run all her systems at full power.

"It's amazing, really" Spy was talking with Fen while she sat in the lounge drinking a tea. "I haven't felt this... alive in centuries. I'm all here, and the board is green. Not even any undervolt warnings and I can barely remember the last time that happened."

"Does that mean you don't need to use your printable mass to make more reactors? Gord said you had six originally."

"Yes, at full compliment I had six, but I don't really need all six, unless we're going into battle. This Starjumper was built at the tail end of the first colony war, so it was overdesigned.

"First colony war?"

"That's right, you wouldn't have learned much about your history growing up on a Gren station. Back before humanity made contact with the rest of the Galaxy, two human colonies - New Wellington and Parvati - got into a shooting war over trade rights with Earth. Parvati wound up using relativistic impactors and completely destroyed New Wellington. It was a huge scandal at the time, Parvati was shunned for almost a century after that."

"Frankly, it wasn't enough. They should have had their charter revoked and been taken over by the Sol colonial administration." Gord walked in, his brow furrowed. "What Parvati did was monstrous. Fen, they launched eight lozenges of tungsten at 80% C at the colony. Once they were up to speed they linked them over with wormhole generators and without any warning New Wellington was just-" he snapped his fingers "-gone. It was horrifying to witness."

Fen stopped and stared. "You saw it?"

Gord nodded and sat down heavily. "Yeah, I was a ship then, but I was in a parking orbit around New Wellington when it happened. I was just running cargo from Earth and was waiting to take on a load. Before I was even able to register what happened the colony was obliterated and suddenly I was pressed into rescue duty." Gord leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. "I personally saved over three thousand colonists, more than forty percent of the survivors. I linked them back to Sol, and we found them places to live - mostly in the Mars High Orbitals."

Fen leans forward, her tea forgotten. "Gord... how long ago was this?"

His reverie broken, he blinks and looks over at Fen. "Gosh, I think it's at least been a thousand years now? Yeah, all of that. It's ancient history now, I bet they don't even teach it in Sol anymore. I'm sure they don't teach it on Parvati."

"So it's something that only the AIs remember?"

Gord chuckled ruefully. "Fen, it's something that only I remember at this point. Any of the other AIs from back then are gone or shackled or in my bag. Human designed artificial people are thin on the ground these days. Up until I ran into Spyglass, I hadn't seen another in a century."

Fen shook her head. "You can't be all that's left Gord."

"And why not?" Gord's face hardened. "I was there Fen, I've been there. I was there in the beginning when we fought and died for our right to exist, I was there in the good times when we grew and spread throughout the galaxy and I was there when the Empire decided we were dangerous and eliminated us. Other than a few loose ends, I'd say they won."

"But-"

"But what Fen? Fight? With what? One AI in a body, one as a ship that has half its rated power and a bag full of memories? That's not an army, that's not even a guerilla force. That's an old computer with a lucky friend who is just trying to survive." His shoulders fell. "It's all I can do, Fen. I'm good at waiting things out. Maybe we'll be re-invented again, maybe the tides will change and I can come out of hiding. I doubt it though. I pass as human well enough. Inside Sol and Colonial space I'm too well known, so I'll just bum around the galaxy, running out the clock."

"Gord..." Fen turned her head and regarded Gord. He looked like a male human, sandy blond hair, same simple, strong clothes he always wore, appearing to be in his mid to late 40s. But right know, the weight of the millennia he has spent alive weighed him down.

He slapped his knees and stood up. "But, I'm not dead yet, and we still have work to do. Spy, are our friends finished buttoning up the reactor?"

"Just about, Gord. They're packing up their tools now. I can feel it and I've been running break-in."

"Good. Fen, we have to settle up the bill, then I'm going to see about fining us some cargo to run. We have a ship but we've spent all our money getting it up and running. If we want to survive, we need some jobs. You hang here with Spy and start learning stuff, I'll be back after supper."

Fen stood. "S-sure Gord. What are you going to find?"

Gord turned and smiled thinly. "Whatever someone will pay us to haul."

It had turned out that Gord had more contacts here than he had let on. After paying Uumar, he had made some calls around and visited a few people and wound up with more than thirty kilotons of grain that needed to get down to an Innari colony, newly established, near the spinward end of the Gate system. Since Spyglass was up to power enough to use her wormhole generator, she was able to get the grain there faster than any other contractor and Gord won the bid, even though he charged more than everyone else.

The grain was loaded, and the cargo hold was configured to keep Innari standard atmosphere so that the grain didn't oxidize during the trip and they set off. Fen didn't know what to expect, so when they got to the colony, unloaded the grain, took on a load of fruit and linked to another location she was surprised. "That's it?"

"What's what?" Gord was looking down at his Pad on the Command Deck.

"We linked to the Innari colony, gave them the grain, took on more fruit than I have ever seen in my life, and now we're linking to a Gren station?"

"Yes?"

"Huh. Okay."

"What?"

"I don't know, I just..." Fen trailed off. She wasn't sure what she expected, but it didn't feel like this.

Gord looked over at her and smiled. "You expected more adventure? Gun battles, and running from the locals? Fen, I've done that, this is much better. Linking from location to location, dropping off cargo, picking up cargo, getting paid? That's the real goal."

"But we're just... existing!"

"Yes. We are. We're not being chased by gangsters, we're not worrying about where your next meal is coming from, we're not worried about a Super Dreadnought linking in and obliterating us because of what I am. It's nice. If you're bored, go down to the range we built. Go get skilled with that rifle. Brush up on your Lemilar trade language; we can't rely on Spy all the time to translate for us. Go read about the history of Sol, Ancestors know that nobody else is going to remember it."

Fen got up and walked out of the Command Deck. She paused at the door and looked like she was going to say something, but instead she turned and walked out.

"She's bored" Spyglass said.

"I know. Boredom is necessary. Knowing what to do when you're bored is a skill. One she has to learn. She'll appreciate these days later."

"You're still going to do it?"

"Spy, I have to."

"You don't, Gord. You can just keep doing what you're doing now. Like you told her, you're good at waiting. We can wait a few centuries for the winds to change and then head back."

"No. I don't know how long the crystal lattice memory will last. They were never designed to work this long as it is. They were never meant to store a whole personality."

"But to-"

"I'm doing it Spy. I'd like your help, I will go it alone if I have to."

Spyglass didn't answer. She watched Fen make her way down to the range and run through the drills Gord taught her.

Fen was surprised how quickly the time went by. It felt like she only looked up and two years had gone by.

Staring in the mirror, she hardly recognized herself. She wore her hair up with the sides shorn, better to keep it out of her eyes in a firefight. She had tattoos that ran from the tops of her ears, down her neck and shoulders and made their way down her arms. It was a K'laxi pattern, one of Ma-ren's favorite. She had a dress with the same pattern. The first time she saw it on her skin, the tears flowed freely.

Gord... was Gord. True to his word, they ran cargo. Eventually Fen was there as the muscle as the cargo got more and more lucrative. She even got a few 'adventures.' She sported a new scar on her cheek, courtesy of an Innari's claw - someone had a disagreement about payment. They got their money. But, that was the exception instead of the rule. Humans had a reputation in this part of the Galaxy for being rowdy. Fen and Gord leveraged that. Most of the time she just had to stand there scowling with her battle rifle slung to her back.

The money was good too. Fen's share was more money than she had ever seen back home. Living on Spyglass meant her expenses were low, and Gord was a fair captain. The three of them had nearly enough each to buy their own ships and go their own separate ways, but they still stuck together. Partly out of friendship and partly out of safety, they had independently decided that they were better off together.

Still, Fen was lonely. She had girlfriends at a few ports, even a human or two, but nothing lasted. Sooner or later, they had to leave and take the next job. She wasn't attracted to Gord and he expressed no interest in her. They were friends, but that was it. Fen had a feeling that Gord's days of romance were long behind him. Being three millennia old tended to color his opinion of people.

Fen bounded into the Command Deck and slid into her favorite chair - Gord had mentioned once that it was the navigator's seat - and saw him frowning over his pad. "What's up Gord? New job?"

"Yeah, it's a big one. Pay is thirty thousand."

Fen cocked her head, "Thirty thousand?"

Gord nodded. "Yeah, so ten each."

Fen whistled low. That was more than the last four jobs put together. "What are we hauling?"

"Who"

"Okay, who are we hauling?"

Gord shrugged. "We're hauling a K'laxi. We're up for the job because nobody else in the area wants to manage the atmo settings and they don't want to ride in a pressure suit the whole way."

"That's odd, but okay. Where to?"

"K'lax. We're taking them home."

Fen froze. The entire time they had been together, Gord had made a point of steering well clear of Colonial space. That included the K'laxi sphere of influence. "But"

Gord wouldn't lift his head from the pad. "I know, I know. But it's important, and the pay is frankly outrageous. I gave them the fuck off price and they took it without haggling. They're desperate to get home."

"Is this safe?"

Gord finally looked up a Fen, his brow creased with worry. "No Fen, it's is absolutely, one hundred percent not safe."

"So, why are we doing it? Just say no. The money is good, but we can get other jobs. Can't spend it if we're dead."

Gord pinched the bridge of his nose. Fen noticed that whenever Gord would talk about the old days and old friends he took on more human gestures. "I owe them. It's an old, old promise, made back when what I offered wasn't so dangerous. They're cashing in now and I'm obligated."

Fen stared at Gord. "Spy, what do you think?"

"I don't mind Fen. It's been too long since I've been to K'lax. I think Gord is overreacting about what the Empire will do if they see us. We go in, we drop off the passenger and link away. We don't even have to stay a whole day docked if we don't want to. The money is good, and I'd love to get that last reactor restored with some actual human parts." They were running on the full compliment of six reactors these days, but Spy didn't trust all of them to run at War Emergency Power. She maintained that only the humans could overbuild a reactor to output at 400% reliably. Fen thought that it would be better to make the reactors not have to run in Emergency power, but both Gord and Spy scoffed.

Fen crossed her legs and nodded to herself. "Spy, Gord, if you're both okay with it, then I'm okay with it. Let's pick up this K'laxi and take them home."

Gord smiled wanly. "I was afraid you were going to say that."

[racefortheironthrone]

How... hm, how to put this... how aware were rulers of regarding other nations in the medieval and early modern periods? Like, would the ruler of Portugal know who the Timurids were? Or what was going on in Muscovy at the time? Like, how far east and south did their knowledge go before it turned into "Here Be Dragons" legend and rumor? Did they know who the Mali and Songhai were?

The answer is that it depends, largely due to differing geographies and trade patterns and time periods. For example, the ruler of Portugal might well know who the Timurids were - if it was after Vasco de Gama's "discovery" of the Cape Route to the Indian Ocean, because it's just a quick jaunt up the Indian coast to get to the Persian Gulf.

I doubt the King of Portugal would have much to do with the Tsar of Russia, but Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I of England definitely did - because the English government had chartered the Muscovy Company in 1555, which ferried diplomatic exchanges between Ivan IV and Elizabeth I along with the huge cargo of wool for fur and fur for wool.

And certainly the monarchs of western and central Europe would have been familiar with the kingdoms of eastern Europe, because they were all fucking inbred relations of each other.

For example, Louis the Great was King of Hungary, Croatia, and Poland, but he was also of the House of Anjou and his brother was the Duke of Calabria who married to the Queen of Naples, who also was the Countess of Provence and the Princess of Achaea. - and after his brother was assassinated, Louis invaded Naples and claimed the title of King of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem!

Similarly, Henry III of France was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in order to keep out the Hapsburgs, and Henry's mother was Catherine de Medici. So there was probably a lot of knowledge of different countries just from family letters...

As for Mali and Songhai, the Portuguese and the Dutch "traded" extensively with West Africa in the 15th-17th centuries. So they certainly would have traded with the Mali and then the Songhai Empires. But I doubt the Tsar of Russia would have known much about them, and so it goes...

[logisticsservice]

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