Perspectives on calm

I'm not sure whether I should be happy with the calm right now or not. While for me, personally, things are somewhat calmer than in times past, for others in my family the case isn't so clear. And for the 'Verse? Nothing, it seems, has changed for the better.

I have a good idea why Lily went back into the Wastes after the Ball. She'd said she was going and, at least in part, why. But she'd taken Ben along with her. Something I could barely fathom. She'd asked us to not hurt him and we'd honor that request, but it didn't mean I had to like the kid or what he'd done to my eui jow di yan gong.

At least she was staying in touch as best she could. But even with a directional array and a good deal more signal processing power than most any other colony out here, it was hard to bring in the signal from her location. The hard part was resisting the urge to go get her.

I only wish that wasn't the only part of the family I could only watch putting themselves in Harm's Way, but couldn't do anything about it.

Imrhien had somehow gotten herself recruited by Podwangler and Duncan's crew to help them take on a gunboat and its escorts. The ships that had been leaving great gaping holes in local transports and scaring the wits out of a lot of local captains. I caught a good whiff of their plan and to say it wasn't the way I'd have done it would have been a royal understatement. Of course, Pod didn't know he had the resources to do it right.

They also didn't know they had an evac waiting in the wings whether they wanted it or not. Between the array on the boat and a tight beamed feed from the long range navtrak, I had a goodly idea of what they were into. Not sure Imrhien knew the only reason I hadn't been more insistent about her not going, just she'd insisted I put my undersuit on rather than walk around unarmored, was because I had her back. They may not have known it, and given the EW setup on my boat, chances were good they didn't, but I was there.

At least they managed to get the gunboat intact. Doubted the weapon it was built around was anything more than a reconfigured particle accelerator or something in that class, but it was in "our" hands now. One less weapon in the Loyalist arsenal.

Weird thing was the Alliance Colonel who'd showed up afterward. Said he was investigating the Loyalists and wanted to thank whoever it was for making a mess out of that little Loyalist flotilla. I got his name, where he was from, and his cortex ident, on the off chance I'd actually forward anything his way.

Given all the other things going on, a large faction in both Parliament and the Military itching to heat things out on the Rim wasn't a big surprise. The kind of thing I'd have sunk my teeth into in years past. But now? Now it was hard enough to deal with the menaces we had. Didn't have the bandwidth to add yet another crises to my plate.

Of course, the crisis I do want to put the effort into I can't. I'm a lot better at breaking things than I am at fixing them, especially when it's folks emotions that are broken. I'l make the effort, to be sure. Not sure it'll do any good though.

Really just wish I knew why people I love kept going into the Gorram wastes to try and mend their souls.