A moment to breathe

I would like to be able to say that everything in the 'Verse is calm right now. That the colony is thriving. That peace is settling across the Rim worlds like a big fluffy afghan. That the Alliance has decided to leave the outer worlds to their way and is offering nothing but humanitarian support and anti-piracy patrols.

I can't.

While Hale's Moon is doing pretty well for a frontier mining colony, our food supplies are barely managing to stay ahead of our slowly growing population. The cargo transfer business is picking up, but it's still barely enough to keep a handful of people working full time. The mines are still in operation, but only just. With the Replicants recalled, never mind Weyland Yutani gave up any legal claim to them when they pulled out, there's barely enough Human miners left to keep the C tunnels going with the handful of mining drones we still have.

We're making it. The folk here are a hardy lot and they've always managed to see the bright side of things, even back when the Alliance was taking an undue interest in the colony. They even threw a little party when we finished the first stage of redecorating Fook Yoo's. Abandon a cargo here, and someone will find a use for it.

Belize has been keeping folks patched together between the Reaver attacks and our own recent actions out in the Baily. I think we get more medical supplies smuggled into Hale's than we get foodstuffs these days.

One advantage we've had out here for a long time is unlike a lot of Rim worlds, we've got enough spaceworthy boats to keep the supplies coming in and a top flight Mechanic keeping them that way. Don't have to deal with third hand smugglers or all the Gorram go-betweens that take their slice on the majority of worlds out here. Not a lot of organized crime here. At least not since the last time someone tried to set up a racket here and got sent home to his boss with a Haiku stapled to his forhead.

A criminal life
Wasted aspirations die
Stay off of our moon

I'm sure they got the message, since they haven't tried again. Fact is, there's not enough here to make it worth their effort. Oh, I know. Criminals don't really care about that. Profit is profit. But a gang leader who wakes up to find half his gang apparently reached the end of their span one night while he slept, won't be making trouble for anyone.

Sometimes though, I wished our problems were that simple. While we put a dent in the Reaver's little nest out in Beetle's Baily a good two thirds of their forces are still floating out there. Alliance command aboard Sun Tzu knows it, but their own policy will keep them from actually doing anything about it. Just like the bakabakashii Loyalists still camped out in the desert, or the tunnels, or wherever they've taken up residence this week. Won't accept amnesty. Won't just go off and die.

And then there's the warbots. Haven't heard anything from them in a while now, except the occassional flier - Wasp, they called them on Blackburne - but I know it's still down there somewhere in the tunnels. We don't have the forces to go in after it. Don't have the manpower Blackburne had to take on theirs, but we've got our own methods. Sabrina's got her virus, which may or may not work depending on how effective the ICE is, and I've got a couple crowbars ready. Doubt even Blue managed to get an inkling of that. Just not sure when that problem is going to rear up again, or how we'll finally deal with it when it does.

Maybe though, before things get worse, we'll get a chance to dash home to Ariel so Sabrina and I can officially get hitched. I'd like to bring Belize along to hit up the medical facility at the Yard, but I'll need to make sure 'Brina'll be up to sharing the boat for the ride. Kind of like having a chaperone.

We'll just have to see.