Logbook entry

Moonweb's Journal Part I

26 Nov 2019Moonweb
Few things can cause a woman to hate her home.
That infiltrate her life in every imaginable aspect and crush or omit everything that she tries to accomplish to the point she wants to scream.

Living for years behind the red tape of Alliance hypocrisy while one dictator after another ravaged the lands and seas of my ancestors took a toll on my faith in humanity, there can be no mistake. The ruling house of my home has always been known to be a weak pawn in a game only the Alliance can claim to understand. Indeed, at least two members are alleged to have been murdered and replaced at the behest of Alliance 'wisdom'.

That is why, when the forests of my childhood were finally gone, I gradually decided that my home existed now only in my memory and that the poison of this arid desert bereft of metal, mineral, organism and essence was not going to begin spreading to my soul. I had to leave.

It so happened one day that a flight of Alliance Chieftains came in to the port where I worked, unloading empty boxes and loading full ones, each packed full with the treasures of my world - more than likely used as payment to placate a local warlord, as a bribe to keep the Alliance command from looking at us too closely, or maybe something else. In any case the entire affair was a betrayal. If I had anywhere else to go or even food to eat I may have objected or quit.

I remember clearly, one of the Chieftain pilots dawdled over, picked up an ancient and priceless vase from a pallet, looked at the bottom and then casually tossed it over his shoulder, smiling to himself as the sound of shattered porcelain echoed around. I decided then that I was going to do anything I could to bring law and order to my world and somehow stop the rotting fungus that calls itself the Alliance from commissioning this kind of behaviour here or anywhere.

The rule of law is unwavering, and caters not to the greedy or the lazy, the oppressor or the dictator and considers the individual as capable as any huge corporation if they have the brains, and the nerve. It disallows exploitation and considers the wellbeing of every citizen. I knew from the first time I started questioning that the Federation had it right, and that I was currently doing the wrong job in the wrong port in the wrong end of the bubble.

I always believed in the integrity of law, and that's why when the SRV crews went out to prospect the surface near to the port (for anything that might be left untaken) I snuck into one of the Chieftain bays and started looking for the manifest. After bringing it up on the screen, I searched quickly for the SRV crews count and changed a particular numeral three into a numeral four.
After that I climbed up into the passenger cabins and sought out an Alliance Engineer's uniform. It wasn't too difficult since security was non-existent on this contemporary backwoods dustball.

I was standing near the pallets outside the bay when one of the pilots came down from the wildly-inaccurately named room dubbed 'Party-Lounge' - so called because all that ever happened there was that pilots would go in, drink a few beers, get merry or rowdy, or both and pass out, while the engineer scrubs would toil like ants to prepare the ship according to the manifest for the next jump. By having recalculated refuelling via a new mass curve to include myself I was able to answer the next question the bleary-eyed pilot asked : "Who the hell are you, and why are you near my ship?"

"I am the extra SRV driver reporting as requested sir'. It didn't take much to confirm what I was saying. It was in the manifest and seriously, what reason would I have to lie?
The pilot, in true Alliance form, shrugged, blew out his cheeks and said "Stay out of my way green. You bunk in the bay and you do what I say when I say, capiche?".

"Yes sir!" I replied, beaming.
The pilot squinted slightly, deciding whether I was stir crazy or just dumb.
He must have decided he didn't care, because he turned on his heel in a display of superiority, shooed me with his glove and walked off.

I was in.
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