Burning Bridges

After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system

and hundreds of new Earths were terraformed and colonized.

The central planets formed the Alliance and decided

all the planets had to join under their rule.

 

There was some disagreement on that point.

 

After the War, many of the Independents who had

fought and lost drifted to the edges of the system,

far from Alliance control.

Out here, people struggled to get by with the most

basic technologies; a ship would bring you work,

a gun would help you keep it.

 

A captain’s goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.

 

-Joss Whedon’s Firefly

Burning Bridges

 

 

It’s been a year since the War ended, the flames of independence stamped out by the mailed purple boot of the Alliance. As time passes, the emergency prohibitions and wartime restrictions have begun to relax. Here on Anubis Station, things are getting back to normal. Traffic is picking up, travelers are lookin’ a bit less nervous, and the Alliance hasn’t pulled a lockdown in months.

 

For Dorian Lo, who won ownership of the station in a card game a few months back, it’s a time to settle in and contemplate the future. For the hard-workin’ Anubis crew, it’s a time to relax from the eternal struggle to keep ahead of the maintenance and housekeeping. And for those in dock, it’s a chance to relax, contemplate the majesty of the nearby asteroid belt, and blow off a little steam.

 

Savannah, and the Scorpion have been happily docked at the station all day. The Honeybee just towed the Fortune, victim of an unfortunate engineering mishap, safely into dock, and Uriel is docking now. So now there’s five ships’ worth of crew on a 4000 square-foot space station.

It’s a nice, quiet day out in the Black. What could go wrong?