13:06:79

_We passed through the Oort Cloud belonging to Steingard this morning, which was more than a little spooky. At this distance, on the outer edge of Steingard's gravity, light from the star is pretty weak, so the asteroids and comets and stuff are all dark. It was like passing through a curtain of shadows set against the starry backdrop of the universe, a slowly shifting mass of darkness. The liner was very quiet, I could even hear the rattling of little bits of grit bouncing off the hull.
I swear I saw something, something that was there and then gone with a shadow.

_Someone came on board this afternoon, a pretty gold ship flew parralell to the liner for an hour or so and then docked. Then security came and cleared all of the public areas; half of them were nothing more than armor-plated wedges of muscle, rude bastards. One of them seems to have taken a liking to me, and thanks to todays events he knows where my quarters are.
Fantabby!

16:06:79

_Why the hell am I here? What was I thinking? What kind of moron goes to University without knowing what they want to do? I only went because Danni was going... that and I didn't want to get pulled into mummy's world. Funny, right now I like the idea of spending the next eighty years playing Bridge, wearing the latest Wouter dresses and gossiping about who is doinking their aerobics instructor.
Sad, social climbing, back stabbing, two faced, hypocritical vampires... they all hate each other you know.
_Forgot what I was saying now... oh yes, I was panicking because I'm floating in an ocean on some unknown world with bits of liner continually dinking and clanging against the sides. There is bumping too, soft bumping and brushing sounds caused by all of the-
_Don't want to think about it.

_Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap! You remember how the engines were half dead? Well the engine bay thing is full of water, so now the lifeboat is sort of slanting, with the screen pointing skywards. Don't worry, I'm not actually sinking, I'm not going to drown, but: Guess which end of the lifeboat the hatch lives? That's right, at the back, under water. Now guess what is programmed to stay locked unless I can breathe what is outside.
Genius.

_I have just realised the liner should have stopped over at Steingard two days ago, so they should be looking for it now. I wonder what's taking them so long? I mean, we're in their system, right? And Liners, even bits of Liners, are hard to miss, right? And lifeboats are designed to be found, they have beacons and radios and lights and stuff, don't they?

_It's night now and I can't sleep, I'm still on Liner time. You'd think they'd put something to do in here, something other than the radio I mean, something like... a game machine! Nothing complicated like HighQ, or violent like Blitz, but something everyone likes, like Tetris! Everyone likes Tetris. I once met a guy at College called Rijs, I think he was Quantam, and I swear he made it to level seventy one.
He was hot.
Ooh, I just thought of something to do!

18:06:79

_The ship is too heavy to reach orbit. The salvagers have been arguing all day about what to do. They can't leave the liner engine because the other salvagers, who noisily arrived last night, will doubtlessly ignore any claim they make and steal it, but they can't dump all of the other stuff either because that won't make us light enough.

_I went down to the hold again, after a dinner of what I'm told are surplus combat rations from some empire I've never heard of before; Corn or Kahn or something ike that. Anyway when I got there the door wouldn't open so I went to find an engineer... It's a long way to engineering when you can't go through the hold.
Anyway, when I got there the engineer, a Revalon can you believe it, told me that the hold had been sealed because of a leak from the liner engine. Then he showed me the radiation burn on his leg, nasty looking thing, looks like it hurts but he says that salvagers get used to it after a while, hazard of the job and all of that manly rubbish.
Nice leg though, he's kind of muscular for a Revalon.

_I was about to go to sleep as there's nothing happening, but then I had an idea: If the engine is leaking into the hold that means that there is still stuff in it right? And the engine is BIG so that means a lot of stuff, right? So why not drain it, open the hold and let the engine drain itself, making it and the ship much lighter, right?

_The captain liked my idea, especially as it meant making the rest of the salvage useless to their competitors by drowning it in highly radioactive and toxic engine stuff. You should have heard them when they realised what we were doing, I've never heard so many people swear so much! The communication officer just sat there laughing over the radio at them.

_They're going to sit here with the hold open for another day, they did tell me why but I didn't understand, so in the meantime we're getting drunk on the doctor's rather excessive supply of "medicinal" alcohol. The other salavgers have finished swearing at us and have left, gone to search the rest of the planet. I hope they find something, I feel kind of bad for them now.
Oh yeah, the engineer wants to show me his most favourite thing in the universe... not sure if I like the sound of that or not.

21:06:79

_Meteor shower! Very spectacular, and in broad daylight too. We're waiting for it to clear so we can take off; most of the crew are watching. If Danni were here she'd bore me stupid with
Danni

_What the hell is wrong with me? It took me seven days to realise my best freind was dead! Seven bloody days! And not just her, a whole damn liner full of people, hundreds of people, and here I am giggling and flirting like I'm on a summer holiday... Seriously, what the hell?
Maybe I should just space myself, I feel like spacing myself, I really do.

_We're going to Beta 12 now. Ther's been some trouble getting through to the rescue people, it's almost like subspace itself is nerfed, but I don't think that is the problem: This ship is O L D.
I keep thinking about Danni, and the liner, and all of those people.
I have decided to be depressed for a while.

24:06:79

_So at wee small hour o clock I was awoken by a red alert (I didn't even know this old clunker had any alerts) which was soon followed by the Captain as he burst into his/my quarters and dragged me to one of the smaller cargo holds which held, amongst other rusting things, a lifepod. The Captain bundled me into it and told me not to get out, then ran out of the hold, the door sealing behind him.
The ship was hit twice, and then, for the brief moment that there was still air enough for it to thrive, there was fire.
I'm now still in the cargo hold, amongst all manner of scrap material, having just watched what must have been the crews lifepods being shot to pieces. I don't know who it is but I know it's not Raiders.

_Oh hell, I think they're looking for me.

27:06:79

_I have been having some fun with the pod now that I have gotten used to the controls, making it spin and roll and stuff. I can do a pretty quick 180 now.
Getting hungry. Still can't get the engines above half power. Beta 12 doesn't look much closer either, starting to wonder if the engines are more busted than I thought.

_I still can't figure it out.
That pretty gold ship docked, the decks were cleared. The next day there was that lifeboat drill that cleared the decks, and then the liner went boom. Some people who definitely aren't Raiders finish off the salvage people but not the rescue ship... because they knew the rescue ship found no survivors, then they found out the salvage people did. Boom! bye bye salvage people.
Except us, we're still on the planet draining that liner engine. That radioactive crap must have hidden us, they thought we'd already left for Beta 12, that's why we ran into them going there.
Hold on, should I be going to Beta 12?
Ha! Like I have a choice now.

_Can't sleep, this pod's getting uncomfortable despite the zero gravity. If I stay out here much longer I'll start to waste.

32:06:29

_Sorry it's been a while, but the funeral got to me. It was a little weird watching people cry over an empty coffin. Obviously the Undertakers had made an effort to make the coffin seem, erm, occupied, which worked quite well untill it came to bury it. I think the coffin got tilted slightly as they were lowering it into the ground, which is what caused the bricks inside to move. THUMP! After that Danni's mother couldn't keep it together anymore.
  Somewhere out there, between Arrahe and Seingard, is a fine mist, a rapidly expanding cloud of particles that used to be Danni. If she was lucky, it is far more likely that... shit, what a horrible way to go.

_Been talking to my parents about taking a year out before going to Uni. Daddy thinks it's a good idea, expand my horizons and discover myself and all of that type of stuff... he got this distant look on his face when he said that, makes me wonder what he did during his gap year. Mummy thinks I'm going to go on safari or go on a shopping tour of the capital worlds, or maybe she wants me to do something like that so she'll have something "good" to talk about when she's playing Bridge? That sounds most likely.

_Just been woken up by Daddy at like three in the morning, he gave me an old business card and a keycard and said, "That's my gap-year. You can have it if you want, just don't tell your mum." Then left.
I think he was drunk or high or something. Meh, sleep time now.

35:06:29

_I'll be setting off on the weekend. Daddy won't talk about the the ship in the lockup or the Camaar. I've not mentioned it in front of mother, I've thought about doing it but she'd probably freak at the scandal or something and Daddy don't deserve that.
Just been walking around town, sitting in a bar right now drinking that Quantam drink, Purity. It tastes like liquid fire. I've never really noticed how dull the town is, all grey, everywhere, no matter how old the building. I'm going to a Revalon world first, I want to see some real architecture with marble and arches and dangly crystal stuff and platinum stuff everywhere.

_Back at the lockup, just tried to stock up the ship. It ate my food. Seems it's been in hibernation for ages and me poking about woke it up. It's a fast thing, agile for its size, although for a ship it's admittedly tiny, and it eats with a tube thing that, when it wants to crack open something hard like a tin, turns black and rigid and spears the thing. It eats fast too.
  I told it about my travel plans, it wanted to go now. I agreed to let it take me for a spin around town instead, let it warm up a little, and chaos ensued.
  The first thing it did was scream along the main road fast enough to tip a truck with its wake, then it howled over the roundabout fast enough to get the attention of several traffic cops in their nice pursuit vehicles which only made the ship go faster.  We sonic boomed as we passed under a bridge, I think it was Victoria bridge, I don't know what happened to it but we lost the cops. I think this ship just does everything fast.

_Told the ship to not go anywhere without me, it said it can't anyway, and it needs food. I'll feed it base blocks for makers for now, it probably won't like the lack of taste but they will do the job. And they're all I can afford in such large quantities. When I leave I think I'll skip the last look around and just go straight up, very quickly.

02:07:29

_Decided to be brave and visit Danni's mother today, poor woman. She's coping well, I guess, but even when she smiles she looks haunted. Sitting in Danni's room right now... it smells llike her. I told Helen, that's Danni's mum's name, about my gap year, about me leaving this week, and she said nothing, just nodded and made a quiet noise.

_Nothing much to do now, not untill I leave, so I'm talking to the ship. It doesn't know how old it is but it knows there are more older ships than younger ships, but I figure it to be at least 40 if dad used it when he says he did. It can't tell me about where daddy went, it can't remember. When I asked why it said "The pilot completes"... I think I understand. I think. It's hard to be sure if what you understand about the ship is correct because you can't ask it... well, you can but it understands and replies differently... it's hard to explain...
  I'm talking to ship about visiting a Revalon world first, it hates the idea, it says travelling in the major spacelanes is boring. I asked it how it knew, it said instinct. I think it just doesn't want to travel at a normal cruising speed.

_Hello, daddy's here!

04:07:29

_I'm getting kind of nervous now. I went to check the ship soon after I woke up, it's excited, it keeps... shivering. I don't know why I went to check the ship it's not like I know what to check, apart from how hungry it is. It still won't tell me what it likes to eat. That worries me a little.

_I just realised I didn't tell you about my night in. We watched mostly Primo movies, Out of the Pit, Darkness Consumes, Arnor the Zombie Killer, that sort of thing. Mother genuinely didn't know he was gay, I thought everyone knew that!

_Getting ready to leave, just said bye to mother and Daddy and Helen. I wasn't expecting Helen.
  Wow, that was cool! I've never actually thought about the hole in the side of the ship before, I mean, I've walked through it and used it like it's a door, but I've never wondered how it worked, it just looked like it was supposed to be there, this round, smooth, seamless hole in the body of the ship. Well anyway, it closes like a... well, like a bum hole, and then where it meets in the middle sort of heals over.

_"When I leave I think I'll skip the last look around and just go straight up, very quickly." Remember me saying that? The ship did. I felt like i was being squished into jam the whole way up, and then it suddenly turned as it left the atmosphere, which felt like my stomach was being pulled out through my side. If Daddy used to fly about in this psychopath it is no wonder he is built so big.
  I swear I heard it laughing.

06:07:29

_Starting to reach the lanes now, the traffic is still fairly thin, but I don't think that will last for very long. I've been thinking about how common it is to see a Camaar ship this far from the rim, wondering if flying about in this thing could attract some unwanted attention or something like that.
  We've been stuck behind a big commercial transport for an hour now, one of the huge oil ones that refine the crude en-route. I'd tell the ship to overtake but we have a patrol ship behind us, a Quantum patrol ship, and I don't want to risk this thing "racing" again.
  We've just passed a small moon, the oil transport eclipsed the sun, sending it into darkness. Business must be good for the Revalons.

_Still stuck behind the oil transport, been six hours now, surely we should have hit a bigger lane by now? That patrol ship has been replaced with a Peregrine, a Revalon police vehicle. Getting a little paranoid now.