Sine waves

There are patterns to be found in almost everything if you look: from the changes of the seasons to the interactions with other people. Even combat tends to fall into discernible patterns because human beings simply aren't chaotic enough to generate true randomness.

I've gotten used to seeing patterns develop. Hale's Moon being a typical case. Excitement tends to come in waves, with peaks and valleys like waves at sea. The kind of waves Hale's will probably never have enough surface water to see. The last peak was spread out between Gallagher's departure and x0x0 extracting Ardra's personality matrix from Lily.

This current calm valley was a blessing in a way. With Gallagher off the job and no replacement in sight, except perhaps promoting Cody, the town was back to folk policing themselves. Not that they hadn't managed that for years before. With only 600 or so people total, spread across the surface of our little slice of Heaven, there wasn't much need for formal law enforcement. Folk could pretty much handle that on their own. If they needed a Magistrate, they'd come to me. Mayor. Magistrate. Same first letter. Must be the same job.

There's been noises about holding an election for Sheriff, as it's supposedly an elected position. Except, we've never had elections for Sheriff. Imrhien was the first. Appointed to the job after Genni shot me. There've been a series since, since no one seems to last too long in the job. But none of them were elected. Townsfolk want to hold an election for Sheriff, they're welcome to. Just can't imagine anyone running for the office.

Maybe we should change the title to Constable or something. Not like we're in need of a whole police department. Gallagher as Sheriff was using militia members for backup when he needed them, so it's not like there's not a precedent for regular folk doing the job.

For the time being, I'll have Genni put together a volunteer patrol. A bit of training and they should be able to handle whatever crops up. Except for that little Body Dump problem. That'd be a different matter.

Lily was a different issue. After this most recent reset she'd gone feral. Again. Reese had spoken to her and was concerned that she didn't recognize him. That wasn't a surprise. Her memories fragmented after a reset, and Reese, while a decent guy, didn't have that much exposure to her. I'd have been surprised if she had remembered him.

There was no real way to pin her down. A lot like her cub in that respect, really. Which meant Huey, Dewy, and Louie were going to have their work cut out for them. The little drones weren't especially bright as far as that went, but they'd done a good job of keeping an eye on AuroraBlue down in the mines. I'd probably have to add a couple more drones to the mix, but we had some to spare.

They really weren't much more than modified rescue-remotes. I'd upgraded the software to give them a bit more autonomy, patched in a better camera, and added some extra hardening to keep out undesirable elements. Like, say, Motherbot and her kin.

It would take a while for Lily to recover to her old self. In the meantime, I'd find a productive way to use this valley before the next crest comes along.