Chapter 2: The Wayward Wind

After passing through customs, Alerio, Fallon, and Zuni enter the impressive (by frontier standards) Elixabethan starport and begin exploring for beverages, pineapple flavoured or otherwise.

A few features stand out. First, the station's gravity is significantly below Terran norms, maybe 50%. This is to match Elixabeth's gravity itself. It's quite amusing to watch Zuzu attempt to adjust to it as he chases after droids. As a result, the station has a lot more of a vertical design. There are even zero-g shafts, studded with hand-holds, that replace some of the stairs and lifts.

Second, the walls are crawling with creeping vines and other folliage, which likely provide a good deal of the station's life support, given the air lacks that recycled flavour.

Third, you see sophonts of all kinds walking these verdant halls. You spot groups of Aslan, Vargr, Hivers, and Droyne. In addition, there are many minor sophonts species that you don't recognize.



The first bar you find is a dive bar called The Drunken Droi, boasting cheap drinks from across the galaxy. An imposing but unbalanced droid bouncer with four arms admits you into the hazy interior - you figure it's mostly a mascot.


Once inside, it's not hard to find a table as the night is young and the place is under half capacity. Exotic drinks seem to be its specialty, as well as digital hallucinations for those clientele with a wafer jack implant in their head. Small, floating droids ferry drinks to and from a central brewing computer that is built into the back wall, an ancient Terran Buddha wrapped in a mass of hydraulic pumps and hundreds of tubes of libations. AI-generated music drones in the background.

There are a number of spacers of all stripes here, swapping tales and making deals.You meet a crew lead by Simon Siew who are part of something called the Joint Security Initiative, a grass-roots anti-piracy organization made up of concerned spacers that are converting rusketbuckets into warships.

Simon speaks like a true believer. "With piracy on the rise and Imperial membership nowhere in sight, we're taking matters into our own hands!"

He's looking to recruit experienced (skill level 1 or higher) spacers who are on layover while getting their ships repaired to teach and practice space combat with his crews. Simulated fire exercises. Cr5000 per teacher.

"And who knows," Simon adds. "Maybe the folks you help train will be help you out of a bind one day."

You also overhear a different crew, greasy-haired and loudmouthed, talking about the return of the Wayward Wind. "Never thought I'd see the day they'd haul that black-hearted ship into this port. End of a fuckin' era!" And to that, they toast.