Велимар Велимарович Каулбарс (Velimar Velimarovich Kaulbars) ______________________________________________________ General Information First name: Velimar Patronymic: Velimarovich Surname: Kaulbars Age: 20 Date of birth: 7 November Race: Human Gender: Male Sexuality: Heterosexual Current residence: none Relationship status: single Primary Language: Galactic Common, Berezan Slavic Patois, Some spacer Weight: 76kg Tattoos: none Piercings: none Birth country: Independent colony of Bereza Hometown: Yabloko History of family: Mother passed during early teenage years, father died fighting Piracy, brother from another mother who he's never met, but knows of. enemies (and why): none, so far. Weapons: Rifle, pistol, and cavalry sword. Style of fighting: modern human military, behind cover Occupation: N/A Favourite types of food: Berezan Russian Dishes, loves hamburgers, apples Favourite types of drink: Vodka, Tomato based anything Hobbies/past times: Farming, playing accordion, Dulcimer, and trumpet. Guilty pleasures: Drinking Pets: cat, named "Teeger". Talents: can play dulcimer, accordion, and trumpet Favourite colours: black, and green Favourite type of music: traditional Berezan folk songs Physical AppearanceVelimar is 1.76 meters tall, with black hair and dark brown eyes. He is very fair skinned with a roundness to his face. He usually wears his father's old set of armor, or farming clothes. He prefers simple dress to anything fancy but will dress up if the occasion demands it. He usually carries his father's pistol at his hip, and his cavalry sword at his side, depending on circumstance. Personality Personality Type: ESTJ Political Ideology: Velimar tends towards authority and authoritarianism in general. It shows as a deep respect for those in positions of power, and towards permanence. He's fairly easy going in most aspects however, and can be fairly social. He strongly values the discipline and strength of the military and considers the goals of the nation often beyond his own. He loves the idea of nationalism, despite having grown up completely without it. He is well versed in Anarchist ideals and generally detests them. Speech style: He speaks a strange dialect of reconstructed Uralic Russian from his homeworld of Bereza, he can largely understand written formal Russian, but would find much difficulty in speaking it. This comes across as very foreign to many, though he is largely a friendly person to most. He however learned how to speak largely from his mother who spoke Galactic Common fluently and in a common spacer dialect, so the accent has the character of Northern Russian accent from around St. Petersburg. He's very earnest in his speech, and at times fairly simple. His uncertainty about things usually comes across very strongly, as does his respect for things. Dreams and Ambitions: King of all desires of Velimar would be the want of joining the military, preferably ground forces, though he's not against the navy. He craves structures of power and has a lot of respect for governments, even in circumstances where even the most gullible would second guess. Nearly any sort of activity that requires discipline would be respected or interesting on some level to Velimar. He always has had a dream of owning an apple orchard, and growing cotton and tomatoes. He considers it what he'll do later in life, though does still farm in his off-time. He has a firm belief that a cool planet with an alpine climate and no radiation will be his future residence, though only after a long career of some sort of service. He wishes to entertain his friends with his Accordion, and learn many many songs. He's well versed in a collection of slavic tunes from Bereza. He can also play trumpet, Accordion, and the Hammered Dulcimer. He hopes to learn more instruments as the years pass. Likes: Velimar loves traveling, mechanical repair, and maintenance; he considers these important parts of order and likewise respects others who follow these paths. He has a close bond to the land and loves farming Dislikes: Velimar distrusts merchants, and those who would have want of power but not be involved in government. He is careful around aliens, and may not always know how to speak to them. He dislikes wasteage of material goods or circumstances, and hated people who have a disdain for farmers, or soldiers. He hates political diatribes and actively avoids them having lived through many on Bereza. He dislikes social climbers and those who engage in games of intrigue, feeling that they are a waste of time. Backstory It was quiet. Not that beautiful quiet that you got by the riverside on an ideal day, the kind of quiet you only got on the rad days. The ones where the storms from Boag would rain all the electrons, gamma rays, and alpha particles, a summer shower of a different sort, a far more miserable one. Velimar Kaulbars wanted the quiet you got near the stream, where the lapping of the water on the rocks was the chorus to the melody played by the birds in the trees above. The bream in the water jumping up and down the canals as they got caught on the dirt mounds that inevitably fell in. It was the kind of paradise that one could wish for, and Velimar had it all. ֎֎֎ His Crown, a ring of Cornhush flowers, His Throne, the granite rocks of the side of the creek, His Scepter, the wooden handle of his old fishing pole, His Kingdom, the stream and woods beyond, His Anthem, the whistling of old Russian songs, and lullabies, as Boag would meander towards the horizon. ֎֎֎ The Quiet right now, was the tension, the one you felt when the storms were at their worst, the rays would help the oceans evaporate, and it would rain, a lot, but outside was certain death, instead you stayed indoors under the lead or behind a shield, under the house. It had been this way for people living here for hundreds of years, but Velimar never stopped hating it. ֎֎֎ ֎֎֎ It wasn't the best place for a colony, but many many years ago in the late 2800's during the mechanization wars one of the many colonial ship fleets had landed here, with the idea to strengthen the sol system again against the "enemy". It was an interesting and unique undertaking, a mix of families and some military who wished to see the revival of a Russian culture and flee from the worst of the conflict, among the scholars were numerous people of Slavic decent, though not everyone. It was a small fleet, no more than 30 ships mostly corvettes, scows, and shuttles, though with two cruisers. Scans indicated that the system was as safe as could be expected, and they proceeded to land and create the first shelters. The military landed first, establishing a base: "Fort Ross" after an ancient Russian fort in the Americas. The planet was named "Bereza" after the Russian birch tree. The two cruisers landed after a few weeks, to cool their warp coils and transfer cargo. The soldier set about their work to prepare the landing site, then the tragedy struck. The Star Bereza orbits "Boag" a corruption of the ancient Slavic word Bog which means god, emitted its first recorded Radiation storm, the rads killed the soldiers on the surface, they couldn't raise their usual radiation shielding due to the gravity demanding too much energy from the now offline fusion coils in the cruisers. The colonists above suffered watching their fate as each comm-link with the ground crew slowly fried in the radiation. The soldiers on the ground absorbed many times more rads than any human could handle, they all fell one by one. Tears, and sadness, enveloped the ships above, the planet itself seeming to mourn as the aurora from it's poles reached a crescendo with the radiation lighting up the entire magnetosphere. "If they died, at least they died under the colors of the universe." The ships Chaplain solemnly said to the gathering held after the tragedy. They faced the windows of one of the colony ships, as the storm continued unabated over the surface of Bereza. ֎֎֎ The colonists in the ships above faced a desperate choice, this was a one way trip, they could attempt to find another planet, or make this one work. They did have Rad shielding in the ships which could aid them until they found the precious lead they needed to shield themselves. Thankfully scans came back true and thick with the metal veins of the planet, lead being in high concentrations was the first good news after a very long and now very sad trip. The colonists set about landing the ships as the first storm abated, and breaking down the engines, the fusion reactors which even now seem archaic compared to the Erchius reaction used in modern engines, were set about to power the shields until they themselves ran out of fuel. This gave the colonists nearly two years of shielding, they just had to find more fissile material, or lead before that time frame. Digging was another option that was repeatedly used when applicable, with nearly every settlement having nearly as much floorspace dug out, as was built above ground. This was done as a precaution until the frequency of the storms was established They set about the grim task of burying the dead, and building the first town on the planet: "Mir", or peace in Russian. There were a great many "Mir"s in the heavens. The first was a space station above earth a little over a thousand years ago, then many more, including the famous Mecha haven of Mir on Mars. (Or MOM, as many mecha designers would refer to it.) It was said that if Alexander the Great had named all his cities "Mir" instead of "Alexandria", it wouldn't nearly compare; there were as many Mir's as the stars visible in Earth's sky. It was determined around this time from one of the weather satellites that the radiation storm would be a near yearly feature of Bereza. With the remainder of the time being nearly radiation free. This allowed the first city and the many towns now around it to lift their shielding, which previously came from the landed ships. And began the tradition of "Rad Seasons" on Bereza. Like the Monsoon in India, the Rad Season comes twice a year, with the occasional skip. So depending on the year, the summer and winter would be spent sheltered, or depending if the season skipped just one of the two. Life was shaped by this flow, much like beaches followed the tides on earth, and it quickly became a fact and humdrum cog of life, a cog no machine had ever needed, but worked with all the same. Despite this Bereza was beautiful, and lush, the creatures who lived here had adapted to the rad storms, usually living underground, or being resilient and small. Very few posed any threat to human colonists. Streams and brooks dotted the landscape, and the wide open plains reminded many of what the Ukrainian plains looked like before Industry and war had taken it over on Earth. It was discovered later that due to the composition of the planets rocks, and weather conditions, and bad luck, the planet to all purposes would look like a normal world to the scanning methods of the day, the radiation tragedy only happening due to such a unique combination of factors. It was still nevertheless a strong lesson to the Human fleets of the day. ֎֎֎ The years passed, Bereza grew to a functional colony, independent of outside sources, most tech there was and remains old, due to much of the newer stuff being fried in Rad Storms, or simply not being affordable. Bereza very quickly lost contact and then governance from the Solar Federation from which it had sprung, and became like many colonies on the fringe. It's first 100 years were it's most isolated and where it developed it's culture, being heavily slavic in it's inception, this facade cracked as the planet became more and more contacted and more and more humans, and aliens came to trade, pirate, or otherwise influence the planet. Many still speak Berezan Russian dialects which were largely reconstructed or misconstrued from standard Russian, but more and more commonly Galactic Common as it asserted it's linguistic strength in the galaxy. It's not uncommon to hear of a parent complaining that the newer generations don't remember or bother to study Berezan Russian. Due to most of the learning material brought to the colony, being of Northern Russian or Uralic origin, Berezan Russian has a definite article postfixed usually to the end of nouns. If one were to speak more correct Russian from earth, it could be understood if read, much less so if spoken. This has fractured even further in the various villages and cities of Bereza, with the farthest cities and towns being nearly unintelligible to speakers of the cities. Notably, the first fleet wasn't the only settlers on the planet, with many local spacers and asteroid miners landing for trade and settling down. Due to this in the major cities the most common spoken language is Galactic Common, though a patois of Galactic Common and Berezan Russian is common amongst traders in the cities. Many non-human species live on Bereza and are generally welcomed in the cities, with smaller cities viewing the outsiders with hesitation. Bereza is a fringe world governed by a network of Oblasts or "states". Being very decentralized in nature, it is considered by some to be a near working example of Anarchy, with many states that exist in name only, and some who only elect leaders as necessary. A political map of the planet is nearly impossible to draw without it being changed of the course of just months. This is considered only possible by many due to the low population of Bereza, with many believing it won't last as the population grows. A variety of the Oblasts have as of the past 50 years centralized more and more, with the idea of nationalism between the areas and other planets a growing movement. Giving this outcome some merit. The Military of Bereza is largely a collection of militias that over the years changes from a professional standing army paid for by the various Oblasts coming together to a largely voluntary one, and back again depending on the state of the galaxy and nearby threats; Pirates, nations, and especially during the 15 year war under Mael Raedec. For this reason the military is usually very small, and seldom has a strong space presence and sometimes none at all. A central council convenes once a year, or in emergencies pending war against piracy groups or if the larger fringe area is facing an extreme threat. Operating on consensus decisions are made in regards to if the planet will participate in intergalactic trade, send troops, or create large scale construction projects. Not all council members will hold true to a decision though, so it's effectiveness varies to the popularity of its leaders. Notably one of the strongest councils ever formed in Berezan history was during Mael Raedec's unification of the fringe against the foreigners, with the Oblasts unanimously sending militia troops and supplies to aid in the war effort. The present day Bereza is still a largely peaceful alpine planet, where one can find pirates, asteroid miners, Russian priests, rolling hills, huge plains, and apples in abundance. ֎֎֎ ֎֎֎ It was quiet because this was the first rad season that Velimar didn't have Dad to talk too. It hurt, being in the community shelter with well meaning people, but no-one near his age, and few connections outside of long acquaintances. He had only moved back to Yabloko a year ago, having spent the majority of his life in Noviyy Alma-Ata. There were options, if you had money, or a successful farm, which effectively meant the same thing, you could afford a personally shielded suit. Old space suits were often put into service for maintenance workers to maintain the shields, or after especially bad storms during those days, repairing lead shielding. Velimar had neither, and didn't like maintenance duty, which was a nearly universal duty for all, due to it's crucial nature. Dad had once taught him what he knew about maintenance, many years before, and had always told him to be proud of where he came from. His father's accent drifted into his mind, he rarely spoke to him in Russian, but knew few well that if he did, it was serious. He wanted him to know Galactic Common and to be ready for a life outside of the villages. He had always volunteered with the militias and explained how it was their duty to keep people safe, both on the surface and in the stars. The Skies shown brilliant, an aurora that would last for months, only the equator wouldn't receive the auroras, as the magnetosphere was thickest there. Nearly everything north and south would receive the aurora every rad season. It lead to a few people's deaths every year who wished to see it up close, but didn't take the appropriate precautions. Velimar looked through the lead oxide windows, wishing he could fly amongst the weaves of the stars. Velimar had always felt sad, and lonely during these seasons, however at least in Noviyy Alma-Ata (Ata for short) he had the rad shields that covered large portions of the city, and he could go out and pretend to have a social life. Here in Yabloko, in the city there was some shielded portions, the rest too poor, would stay underground, and still farther out, here in his rural home there were very few options. The Community shelter's always offered as many activities as possible, but always with an eye towards the demographic. This area was elderly, and many games were available for them, for someone as young as Velimar, you may as well just offered a box to hide under, since that would have been about as fun. He wanted the outdoors, he wanted to try on his father's militia armor again, and fire his pistol, and swing the cavalry sword he carried about. He wanted to fish, to farm, and to explore the forests he hadn't seen in years. But most importantly, he wanted out, and this thought gnawed at him, day in, and day out. Old Veli, as the locals called Velimar's father, was in his late 40's, and about to retire from active militia duty. He had risen to become the local equivalent of a corporal. And would act as an organizer for group votes on training. Most things were run democratically, but very slowly, and young Veli knew it, and hated it. Old Veli would lecture him about how this was important, that every man had his voice heard, and that all were equal. Young Veli would snap back a retort about how, it would take them months to decide simple things, and no wonder they couldn't stop a lot of the pirate attacks on time. This was a truth, and it always stung both, when it was put this way. It was just such an argument that the two Veli's had had before Old Veli's last mission. The Militia (The 3rd black flag of Yabloko to be exact) had been sent orders from the Yablokan People's council, of which old Veli was seated, that a decision had been made to punish a local pirate gang that was being too hostile towards Bereza. A raid a month previous had burned down a town, and was at first seen to have been a series of unfortunate events; The shield of the town was not well maintained, and many fissile materials were there that had the potential to be exposed to large amounts of radiation that wouldn't remain stable. It was later found to be subterfuge by the pirate gang to get access to these materials to sell somewhere else on Bereza or to local star traders. The heist went off without a hitch, until some of the locals realized what was happening and fired back. The Shield which could in a fair state hold off kinetic impacts as much as radiation failed and most of the fissile material ignited. The result was seen miles away as the cloud it created reached for the heavens. A Mushroom of hell, death, and sorrow. The deaths caused turned most of the planet against the "Sons of Boag" gang as they were self-styled, who stubbornly refused to leave. The years would pass on Bereza always with a gang or a number of gangs opposing any centralization or action by the Berezan Central Council. Their actions opposed to it, would give the militias their primary reason for existence. This particular attack known as "Bloody Voskresenika" (bloody Sunday) would invite as swift a retaliation as any the Yablokan People's militia would and could undertake. A week after the attack old Veli was suiting up for combat. His armor out of date, and his helmet older still, it was about as good as the city had. They arrived aboard the asteroid they had taken as their base, disguised as a merchant vessel. While they had caught the "Sons of Boag" off guard they had not caught them disarmed, having just raided a military vessel from the core worlds, they had a surprising number of powerful plasma, kinetic, and laser weaponry. It tore through a large number of men, Old Veli, who had came down in the third wave into the Asteroid, fired over cover at the wrong time, taking a plasma round to his exposed hand, the burnt stump caused him to scream, and jump up, where he took another round to the neck, and then lastly to the chest, and for Old Veli, that was the end of the line. The Attack proved to be a costly success, with over 100 men wounded or dead, and the rest of the 400 involved shaken from the fight. The Sons had paid dearly, nearly being killed to the man, but the losses they inflicted cut to the bone. A city, and the men of the militia paying in blood, their families paying with sorrow. Old Veli was returned to Yabloko and buried, near the family farm that his father had owned, and his before that. The first palmful of dirt laid upon the small wooden casket by young Veli, who stayed outside long after the ground was righted and the tombstone placed, the stars unveiled themselves as the waves of sunset subsided to the horizon, and the trails of orbiting ships became fireflies high in the sky. ֎֎֎ A year past, and Veli was now 18. Though free to leave Bereza before, he had no means, and he spent the year gaining those means. He farmed, and helped with the harvests, and sold scrap metal from old shield installations, everything for just enough to get him food, and the money for passage out into the void. He lucked out, finding an old mining team who had a small and nearly derelict shuttle. The team haggled on the price with him, and demanded he get a different currency. (Bereza has no official currency, and uses several, none of which are minted on the planet itself.) The price they settled on was low, but once he boarded the ship he realized why. It had the strength to get out of the star system, perhaps, but probably not much farther, and this could only be counted on with extensive work. He set about the task with vigor, he was told that if he should fly it in it's current condition to take it out of the atmosphere only once, due to it's poor shielding not being able to handle a re-entry, and to be careful with it's atmospheric seal, as well as it's teleporter which would work only when it felt the need to. He sealed the holes as best as he could, fixed the teleporter with help from a friend in Ata, it could now effectively be targeted by ground based teleportation pads and would be able to target ground targets in return. From here on it would at least work semi-reliably. A huge pile of rusted parts remained in the base of the ship, rusted together and not shifting, even when a pick was liberally applied to the issue. It would stay for now, even though the weight was a problem. Despite this, the shuttle was now more or less ready for flight. Velimar counted out his last little bit of what he had earned. It was enough to pay for enough erchius to get him a few systems away. Erchius was expensive, and he would be literally burning his money. He laughed to himself as his internal joke became clear to him. He then set about saying goodbye to Yabloko, and taking a few apples on the journey. It was late fall, if he didn't leave soon, he'd be doing it during the Rad Season, which this year was predicted to begin in the winter. The summer had been spared for the second year in a row. He boarded up the windows of the farm house, the animals of previous years already having been sold, or given away. He then grabbed his last beam, and boarded the front door closed. he placed a black char-rose on the beam, a sign of remembering good times, and at the same time leaving the building for another. It was a tradition for men who left for war on Bereza, and didn't expect to return. It wasn't done often, but was always a serious solemn occasion, though no-one was there to see it, it would eventually be found by other Yablokans. He then left after saying goodbye to his father, and mother, both laid to rest next to each other. She had passed many years before, and his father a year and a half before. After his goodbyes he took a little of the earth above their graves, this he put in a small bottle he would carry always. He started the shuttle AI, and began preparations for liftoff, the impulse began to hum and burn, the shuttle which had set upon a very makeshift landing pad lurched and creaked, and slowly left the ground. It hesitated as it aimed it's captain's chair towards the heavens and began it's ascent. This wasn't as hard as he thought it would be, though inside the hesitation of the spacecraft worried him. In town he'd played and practiced on the flight sims, he felt confident. He was heading to the stars he always looked at as a kid. He was so happy and so scared at the same time, and lonely, since he knew from the beginning this journey would be his alone come success or failure. The Digital Altimeter read: 100 meters, then shortly 1000 meters. The thrusters seemed to be coming into their own as they burned into a prime hum and powered the craft up through the sky, and then the clouds, and then once again the sky. At the top of the canopy of blue, the first stars became visible, and then Boag shining strongly, showing his white side, not his black side. The side Velimar only wanted to see. Shortly thereafter the computer alerted him to send in an orbit, and to register it with the space transit authority. There was no such thing on Bereza, so he instead requested the AI make a generic orbit and place the ship there. It rang out an alarm that there was no space transit authority to transmit the orbit coordinates to, but soon died down. Orbit was stabilized, and was met with a lighthearted beep from the AI. ֎֎֎ ֎֎֎ A diagnostic was run on the shuttle. It wasn't good. The impulse drive was damaged during the last phase burn through the atmosphere, the computer core had partially crashed and had resorted to the secondary computer with little warning as to why. The warp drive an old ESCH-2400 series seemed to be operating fine, and was probably the newest part of the ship, even though it was 70 years old, it looked as though it wasn't used much. The only good news of the ship. Hull integrity seemed fine, gravity generation seemed okay also, though Velimar could certainly feel the lightness of space pressing in from all around. He gazed out the window over Bereza. Possibly for the last time, he knew not where it would turn from here. Good or bad, he was moving on, he was going to see what the spacers and pirates he had met had told him about the galaxy. He was scared, and excited all at once. A minute later he heard a hail come from the comms on the computer dashboard. He answered in Yablokan Russian, "This is BSS Krepkaya ptitsa, who am I speaking to?" he had made the name up on the spot. The comm went dark, and lit up immediately with laughter and then in broken Yablokan Russian, "Hailed the wrong one sir, this one isn't worth the metal it's printed out of, lets go." A small armed Corvette passed and then two more following behind. They were clearly pirates, with small red sun insignia painted on. Velimar only pieced together later that the reason he wasn't simply shot out of orbit. This was because he was from Bereza, and most pirates in the surrounding systems held a soft spot for the planet that was easy for anyone to hide on or disappear into. Many Berezans were pirates, it was an easy society to be a pirate in, and to hide. He restarted the computer core, and found that part of it's solid storage was corrupt and removing the offending portion would return function, though at a loss of long range sensor accuracy. It was pulled as a chore, and Velimar cleared a portion of the ship's bay for a small bedroll, and his food, and water that would last the week. He was already tired from the excitement and sought to take a nap before continuing into the void. The dreams passed uneasily, him farming, his old riverside kingdom, and the face of his father and friends in Ata, many of which dispersed over the previous years. He floated through the distorted memories, as some looked away from him, and his father laughed, at first heartily, and then eerily, he wouldn't stop. Velimar woke up with a start, the computer relaying again the warning of a crash on the primary, but that the secondary was operating. At this point he was ready to give up on the primary, and operate solely on the secondary, which wasn't unusual, but only gave him manual controls, and a basic space computer (BSC) thereafter, he had played that part of the sims, and it scared him the most, since it didn't take much to warp a ship to it's death if the BSC was used incorrectly. He pulled up a Starmap, and overlayed sensor data over it to correct for drift and other phenomena, truthfully he had no idea how the AI achieved this, he just knew that it was what was supposed to be done. The Digital interface gave him a series of destinations, among them, Haven Federation space, it was quite far, but seemed the nearest good destination, he could go to the Sol system, but it would take a lot more money than he had, and a lot more pressure on the ship. He saw at least 10 different warps or a wormhole route to Haven. He knew the wormhole would be a tollway and looked up the cost, it was about what he had left. If the warp route was taken, the erchius he had left would neatly cover the trip, with only a little bit more in reserve. He ordered the AI to plot a course, and prepared for the first jump. The ship began it's calculations and warned 5 minutes would be needed as the warp engine was warmed up, and the shields powered up for warp flight. They passed uneasily, as Bereza passed below, the great Lazurney ocean passing as a great blue blanket over the globe, Boag glimmering off it's surface sparkling up to the little shuttle. This was the moment it all became very real for Velimar, as the shuttle powered up, and executed it's first warp to the Oneroi Waste system, where he could dock with a trade station. The Roar began behind him, and traveled the length of the ship, as the orbit with Bereza was broken and the stars became streaks against the cockpit window, and then lines, he was traveling faster now than even light itself, it seemed unreal. The jump would last approximately 10 minutes. Boag was visible at first and was then lost to the many other lights, all the different Boags shining and all the different Berezas orbiting around them silently through space. ֎֎֎ The ship jerked briefly out of warp, and in front of the ship was the Oneroi Waste Merchant starbase hanging lazily over a gas giant. It was a midway trading hub between larger hubs, so wasn't very busy. The AI handled transferring the flight plan and docking intent, and thankfully waived the docking fee due to this being the shuttle's first visit and from a nearby system. The shuttle approached and landed in one of the larger bays, where a pier met the craft, allowing Velimar into the station. An Avian guard met him at the pier end, and asked him for ID. Velimar was impressed seeing one of the bird people. A Kluex pendant hanging over his armored chest. "I don't have any, I don't know how all this works." Velimar replied slightly shaken at first and then more confident as he found his footing. "That's allowable here from a Berezan and I can see you haven't docked before at least with this craft, I'll allow it this time, but you cannot bring in weapons, and you will be screened further before you go in. Will you be bringing cargo?" "No, I don't have any." Velimar replied with a little too much oomph. The Avian gave him a sideways glance, and allowed him to pass, directing him to a nearby screening line. There Velimar was frisked and scanned and asked a few questions about being there. He caught most of the screeners attention through his strange accent alone, until one realized he was Berezan. They then lost interest and he was passed through. Past the checking area, was a scanner for all incoming ships, a device that would scan the ship for problems and then list them on quite a few displays, it was labeled: "for our trader's courtesy, a quick ship checkup." Velimar read through the panels, joined by a group of Hylotl, a few human merchants, and the Avian Guard from previously. He found his ship, the list of problems was very very long. Immediately one of the human merchants turned to him. "Your ship is in desperate need of repair! Why would you fly that thing? For only 4500 Osidan or 8500 Haven Pixels." he grinned "I can also except Caliph Riyal!" "No, thanks" Velimar said, straight to the point. "oh, but you must care about your wellbeing!?" The Merchant intoned, without repair that ship could literally fall apart in warp!" He said stepping in Velimar's way. "No, I'm serious, I don't have any money, and I'm not interested." Velimar grew angrier, he hadn't yet met a non berezan salesman in his life, so this was new, and he didn't like it. The Docking Guard stepped out from behind Velimar. "Lay off the kid, Kallen, if he flew up here in that thing, what makes you think he's got money to get it fixed here and not planetside?" The Avian from before stated looking at him, setting his hand on his pistol. "Let him off, sides, you're letting everyone else get away." The avian pointed out the others walking past from the customs line, as the hylotl walked past looking on at the strange kid and Kallen's attempt to sell him repairs. "I can loan you the repairs, on a service contract?" Kallen made one last attempt. Though by now, Velimar had had enough and walked away. The Avian tagged along, and stopped him. "so kid, what are you doing here? This is pretty unusual even by this stations standards, I don't see many your age flying here, and less who don't seem to have any idea what they are doing." He seemed to care about the odd young man, Velimar told him the truth. "I'm off to see the galaxy, I want to find something, and I want to do it in an actual place with opportunity." he paused. "Thanks for telling that guy off, is that how all merchants talk? I've never dealt with station merchants before." Velimar offered, unconfidently. The avian chuckled, this kid really did have no idea. "He's a station merchant, if you came off the ship on fire, they'd try to sell you a fire extinguisher. Even more so if you were a novakid." he beckoned him to follow him. "Here kid I'll buy you a drink, you drink right? I'm off shift anyway you were my last gate tally for today." Velimar appreciated the thought, and agreed, he followed the avian to a fairly busy bar off to the side of the dock, there really wasn't much more to the station than the repair bays, and a 500 meter by 500 meter square of small shops, business warehouses, and a selection of bars. To Velimar it was very new and exciting, he had kept up with the Avian only barely, his eyes occupied staring at all the new things, similar to Bereza but at the same time not at all. The Avian ordered Beakseed schnapps of some variety, and a glass of Avesmingo vodka for Velimar. "Ever had avesmingo vodka? Kid?" The Avian offered. Velimar looked at the drink and downed it. "Tastes like corn and vodka." "Next time it'll be strawberries, or spit, you never know with that fruit." the Avian pointed at the glass, and the bar tender poured another. Velimar didn't get it what the Avian meant. The Guard continued: "Where you from kid? You very clearly aren't from around here." "I'm Berezan, I'm looking to get to Haven space, if that answers your question earlier a little better." Velimar was warming up to him, and beginning to trust the Avian guard. "Don't you Avians usually not like humans?" The Avian Chortled, "Aren't you Humans, just shaved Apexes?, I'm still not sure you aren't just a huge miniknog conspiracy." The Avian looked at him daring him to return fire on his insult, he was enjoying this. "You are Berezan? Your planet is like a microcosm of this entire sector, except peaceful and wierd I don't know how you do it, maybe it's all the radiation going to your heads. I mean aren't you just living proof of that right now?" The Avian seemed to love his own jokes. Velimar couldn't keep up. "I didn't know that chickens guarded the fox houses around here, but it seems normal as long as the fox house is in space apparently." Velimar looked back at the Avian trying what he thought was wit. "I dealt with a fox once, one bullet between the eyes seemed to have the disagreement solved awfully quick. Don't know why humans keep the damned things as pets, they get out and fuck up planets." The Avian sipped more of his Beakseed. "You sound like a kid alright, no idea what he wants to do, and apparently with stars in his eyes about how this all works. You need to be careful, or you'll wind up dead, that little scow you fly only needs two holes in it to cause it to fly apart." Velimar looked at the Avian, it's not like he wasn't right, but he didn't want to believe it. He had focused so solely on the task of bringing the shuttle up to standards to launch, and on the idea of getting off the planet, that now that he had it, he had no idea what to do with all the freedom. It was all so big, and so new. He was taking this in stride, but never stopped to think where he was striding too. Velimar stopped to think about what he liked in life, since he hadn't for sometime now, he only thought about what he wanted, whether he liked the end result or not. "I like the furrows with seeds in them waiting to sprout, I like the leaping of the fish in the canals. I never had those for long because no-one could ever decide long enough best how to protect them, which meant that no matter what it would always go away." Velimar thought as he wrestled with hard question. It always lasted only awhile, it was never permanent. He wanted something permanent, he wanted the power to make something permanent, and he wanted to help with the process. To Berezan humans, ambition is often seen as a nasty word, one that leads men to leave their tranquil lives to do something stupid. It was seen as the breaker of societies, and a poor character to have morally. The colony existed because of people coming together, never one above the rest. This was how they survived. After all, during the ancient tragedy, didn't the military get cocky and arrogant? Not being prepared for the first landing on Berezan? And hadn't they all paid the price for that arrogance? Velimar felt that pressure lift off his chest, here was a station chock full of the opposite example, people getting rich, and selling and buying and doing what it took to get to the top, it was inspiring, and each was only accountable to themselves. He had been taught to hate it, but now he felt that ambition, and it felt pretty good. He wanted to make something permanent, and it would take resources, he wouldn't have to consult with anyone, he'd just do it, himself. Old Veli would never have stood for it. "Avian, what is your name?" Velimar asked, realizing he had been staring at the guard for what seemed like a few minutes now without saying anything. "Rafel,.... of Aviran Prima." he smiled at the human. "and you?" "the names' Velimar, and Thanks for everything, I think I know where I'm going now." Velimar said to him as he left the barside, and began to head back to the ship. "Here, I'll walk you back kid." The Avian offered getting off the bar stool he was leaning against, then matching Velimar's stride. The walk wasn't far, and Velimar asked him one last thing before he left for the guard quarters. "Why did you help me?" Velimar looked at him, as he prepared to go back through the checkpoints to his ship. "Kluex." was all Rafel replied, waving at him, and leaving him at the guard point. ֎֎֎ Velimar donned the only spacesuit on the shuttle and left the airlock, the spacesuit was an older bulkier model that didn't allow much movement of the hands, but it was with this that Velimar began to try to tackle the problems of his shuttle. It would take a little bit of work, and if he stayed longer than six hours, he'd have to pay to store his shuttle. He didn't want that and proceeded to tackle the list of problems he had sort of memorized from earlier. The merchants looking on at the odd sight from the viewing windows onstation. ֎֎֎ It was hard to describe for Velimar how it felt doing this, and he felt he was doing good for never having been off the planet before. He knew immediately to go with the flow, and pretend he looked like he knew what he was doing. Even though he was the only man repairing his shuttle, he had no clue that it was quite common to do this in open hangars. He thought that this probably wasn't normal, but kept working, after all he didn't need to worry about looking silly, especially since this shuttle would kill him without these repairs. After just shy of the six hours the shuttle was as ready to go as one could hope for, and had just a few of the issues from before handled. It was obvious as this point that unless a lot of money was spent, this ship was never going into atmospheric flight again, and that it would be best to stop off at every other system at least to check on it, since the problems seemed to be growing more problems of their own. A merchant had stopped and offered a hand and helped get a few small things under control. Most ship operators however laughed at the rough shuttle who's operator seemed to have fallen very far down on his luck. He thanked the merchant and prepared to leave, telling the AI to commence undocking. The AI followed the commands, the pier unhooked, and the ship was away. It had only been half a day, but yet it felt like half a year, so many new things, so many worries he'd never had before. Velimar felt freer than he'd ever been. He grabbed two apples as he told the AI to recommence the flight plan. The impulse guide plates were damaged from leaving Bereza's atmosphere, but thankfully a small amount of welding and two patches got them back into shape. He believed for all the work, he'd done just fine. He took a bite of apple. The next jump would be nearly 20 hours and would actually tax the Erchius he had, as well as the warp drive, 10 minutes was nothing, 20 hours was the real test. His small shuttle passed the incoming merchant freighters, most just refueling before passing through the system. The size of the ships awed him, some were so large. He'd seen some land on Bereza that were to him gigantic, though truthfully they were only some of the mid size destroyers of the biggest pirate gangs or a freighter or two, these were on a whole different scale. The small BSS "Krepkaya ptitsa" dodged between the group of them around the station and using the gas giant as an orbital slingshot, orbited once, and then passed near the star "Oneroi", before warp once again kicked in, and the ship was again humming through the streaks of light. ֎֎֎ The Avians words wouldn't leave his head: "Kid, what are you doing here?" the Avian's gaze stuck in his head. Truthfully Velimar had almost no idea, it had all happened so fast at this point, he wanted to leave the radiation shielding, and see the skies, and now here was, just another point of light from Bereza, a space traveler. But what did he want? He knew he wasn't the most intelligent at most things, but knew he could work on mechanical things with some fluency, he wanted structure, something that Bereza didn't have. His father was a militiaman, and Velimar always loved that aspect of his father the most, gallant and dashing, strong and fearless with the bad pirates. This was how Velimar remembered him. Then the clouds gathered on the memories. What if his father didn't have to negotiate for more resources for equipment? He was avenging that poor town for Bog sakes! Why was that even something that had to happen? Velimar knew of the military from earth, and those on mars, with strong androids, and men who had nothing but discipline, and obedience to one above who had their goodwill in mind. This seemed like strength to Velimar. Velimar had first fired old Veli's pistol ten years prior, into an apple wood barrel that promptly split. Velimar always marveled over the power it possessed, even though it was an older magnum. The barrel gave way to the superior power of the pistol. It was merely a target, the weapon merely the hangman. His father had been a barrel, the "Sons of Boag" the hangman. Velimar knew this wasn't right, his father deserved a better way to die, he should of lived, his soldiers he lead should have had the iron discipline the Sons had, they should have triumphed. It was here that Velimar began to feel what he wanted. He wanted obedience and iron discipline, he wanted to show that discipline to one above him, and wanted to command it from those below. This power would be used to make something lasting. He could create and destroy with this power, though he'd be wise enough to know when and how to do that. He could create permanence with it. He could leave his mark. He could show the world, no, the galaxy that his father died because he believed in everyone participating, whether or not they deserved it. After all, did the old men and merchants who ran the Yabloko people's council, did they care? A candlelight vigil doesn't replace a father. The following weeks were tough, there was no money, so Velimar ate what was available, free samples of food, and took what water he could find. He was amazed at how wasteful a lot of the station folk were, leaving half eaten meals, and sometimes entire bottles of water behind. He collected these and made do. Erchius was becoming an issue however, he was running lower than he anticipated, and he knew it was because the engine wasn't performing efficiently. He however lacked the knowledge to tune it, and figured that he'd tell the AI to jump only if there was enough left in the tank. It became harder to see the needle on the tank as the stations passed. ֎֎֎ 10 jumps had become nearly 20 smaller ones, but the end was in sight. The Stellar charts read out "Haven Space" and it excited Velimar. Here was his chance. He asked the AI to plot out it's last store of Erchius, and surely it would get him into the system, with enough power left to impulse the rest of the way to orbit over haven, it would be his last jump, if the calculations held. He had enough now to turn back, get to another merchant station and possibly work for money to make it later. But he knew deep down that this was it, it was time. It was time to find the structure he wanted, it was time to fire a weapon straight, and leave a mark on the galaxy. It was time to know discipline and live a life of it. He played his accordion, a few notes of a few songs, all marches that he loved. Velimar was laying down the first bricks of his future, though on unsteady sand, he played his accordion, planning out what Haven would be like. He commanded the AI to set course and warp to the system. The jump would only be 6 minutes this time. Enough time to play two songs, and Velimar smiled knowing just the ones, as the warp drives hummed into action, and sent him to his future. ֎֎֎ ֎֎֎
