Yearly Duties

The Christmas Walk was successful. Lily did a nice job implementing my design. She added a few things here and there, but for the most part it's exactly as I pictured it. It reminds me of happier times.

Mindo's memory game seemed quite popular. I have to get it packed up and shipped back to him. I wonder if I will see him before the end of the year. In some ways I would like to see him, in other ways, I wish he would just disappear and stay gone. The last I heard he actually was infatuated with the doctor over on the Drift. I'm not surprised. She has red hair after all, and Mindo has his little fetishes.

Imrhien is still in absentia. Mindo won't tell me where he left her. I worry for her constantly, but am helpless to do anything to help her.

And, then there is Pepper. Major Pepper, of the Alliance Special Investigations Unit, to whom I must submit myself for a day. I wonder if that day will ever come, and if it will ever end.

Of course, it will never end.

Open House

The office move is completed, just waiting for the furniture.

The Compound is coming along nicely, and two of the units are rented.

The transportation system was delayed, due to some sort of problem with the Dharma folks needing to focus their efforts elsewhere, but I'm assured things will proceed and be completed without any further delays.

This is all good.

Not so good, Cody. Cody seems to be having some effect on Lily. I've warned him to stay away from her. With any luck, this will make him try to see her in secret, and I can observe her reactions without other complicating factors.

Everything is proceeding according to plan. Even Emma has joined Special Projects Division.

The only thing missing is a certain golden coin.

Where are you hiding, little one? Do the slavers know what they have?

I tracked them to Botany Bay and the intel I picked up there both spoken and unspoken was enough to indicate that while I likely could manage to get to her, and maybe even extricate her, this would happen again and again unless a strong signal was received by her "hosts".

It was not the sort of signal that benefit us all long term. So, I went to the best person for the job. Seana Kawanishi. Mayor of Hale's Moon. Lily's adopted "mother". Auroras....guardian.

Seana said she will deal with them. I have to wonder, does she have any idea what they have?

Somehow I think she does. Or she soon will.

Imrhien

She insisted she had to take Mindo to the institution.

She insisted.

Now she's missing, he's missing, and no one seems to give a damn - after all, he's not wanted and she's a free woman havin' taken her leave from the confines of MacLaren's.

My real question is, who took who?

Special Projects

Mindo did not make it to the institution.

He and the pilot are missing, and have been since the day they were supposed to arrive there.

No one told me because I was otherwise occupied trying to get Krenshar away from the Alliance.

Some deals you just have to make. One day of my life doesn't seem like such a price to pay for getting Krenshar out without them having the chance to look more closely at him. They had only managed to get the brain out. They hadn't made it to the core code. Even if they had, they wouldn't have had time to unravel it.

So he's safe.

Me, I'm waiting for Major Pepper Siamendes to tell me "we had a deal".

Speaking of Mindo...

...the Magnificient. A Legend in his own mind. That's not fair, actually. His mind is...complicated. I think a lot of the time he isn't even aware of who he is, or where he is. He appears to be almost driven, in some out of control desire to fix someone or something. It has always been this way.

Word has it he's been spotted on the Drift, hiding out in the hills. He's not been causing any trouble, so I've just put him out of my mind, until now.

But now, I need to bring him in. Lily has been disappearing a lot. I don't know if she's spending time with Mindo, or if she's just off on a hunt, or what. I just know she is not around very much at all. And, last night, Seana mentioned that when she *is* around, she seems to be digging, almost obsessively.

That is not good. That is not good at all.

Add to this mix of events my trip to Caliban. Krenshar has been "experimenting" with various organics, and finding them "messy". I asked him to show me his lab, and he did. It was more like a slaughterhouse. Caliban is a dangerous place. I went unarmed and unafraid. Fear has no place in my mind, not now. The replicant seems to be looking for something to 'fix' Lily and the cub.

Seems we have the same goal. Isn't that interesting.

Let's hope I don't have to resort to the same methods.

I did make Krenshar a little promise. Something that I think he might like to get ahold of. Someone actually. I don't know how I feel about that. Mostly I feel nothing.

But its time. Now I just have to find him.

Where are you hiding, Little Boy?

She's started digging

Last night I stopped in Fook's, just to check up on "things" in general. Sabrina was there with Seana. Seeing her took me a bit by surprise. I always forget the effect she has on me. There is something about her that is so mesmerizing, so ...I don't know what it is actually. It's just always been that way, since the first time I saw her sitting on a little round cushion at Firefly's, back in Blackburne.

There she was, all by herself, wearing jeans and a shirt, not all dressed up by any means. Yet she was the most beautiful woman in the place. She had an intensity in her eyes that her big glasses didn't even begin to hide, rather they magnified. She was so...thoughtful. I could almost watch her mind working. Well, truth be told, I could, but I did not allow myself to do it.

Last night was the same. Seeing her triggers a lot of memories of Blackburne. But they are my memories. I can't take in all of the rest. It's just too much. For now.

People think because I have a good intuition or can "read" that its just something I do all the time. Truth be told, I rarely do it intentionally. It took years for me to be able to do it intentionally. Initially, it would come as flashes of just knowing things. It wasn't until I was halfway through my time under Neutrino's command that I began to have more control over the "knowing".

Maybe such things are just not supposed to happen until you need them to. And there is no doubt I needed to know, to survive. If I hadn't read what was going to happen in the next seven days before I was released from my Alliance internship, I would have stayed right there on that ship. If I would have stayed, I would not be here today. I'd be under the glass , with her, or I'd be not here at all.

I wouldn't be here today to try to find out what it is that drives them to the things they do to us. What do they want? Who *are* they? It's not just Grandfather and the company. Yes, he co-founded the company. And yes, they do all of these experiments. But there is more to it than that. Why is a replicant - one that supposedly has nothing to do with us - so concerned with Blue Sun projects. Why did Mindo select Seana Kawanishi's DNA to be the human female DNA for AuroraBlue?

And speaking of Mindo. ...

Too many cooks

..spoil the soup they say. In the case of the soup over in Fook Yoo's, they must have had at least a dozen or more cooks. It is the most awful thing I have ever tasted in my entire life. And, I made the mistake of saying so to the cook - LilyBell Snoodle - who looked more angry than hurt. If she only knew how it is for me to look at her, and just continue about business as if everything is the same. Nothing is the same. Nothing will ever be the same.

Mindo is on the loose, who knows where, but last I heard he was seen on a freighter heading for Prosperity. What he thinks he will do there I have no idea. True, he's not wanted for anything. He's broken no law. He's got no warrants out for him. Even if he did, I'm sure he'd manage to get them "taken care of". He seems to always manage, somehow. But just the fact that he's out there, planning and scheming some way to "fix" ...well. it just makes my blood run cold, and it takes a lot to accomplish that.

Aurora, minus Blue, made it safetly to Ariel. I plan to visit her right soon, as I need to make sure everything is working right. She's carrying a very important piece of technology, although to her its just a shiny pretty thing with her baby picture engraved on it. She's only what...maybe six years old physiologically now, and psychologically probably about the same. The coin only ranges to somewhere in early puberty, so there is time....if nothing happens to push things in a bad direction. All the biotech experiments in the world couldn't have anticipated what's happened here. Aurora is actually "loved".

That has the potential to change everything.

I've hired Emma, a local girl, to keep an eye on things for me. I've got Lily digging - mostly just to keep her busy and out of trouble and stop her sneaking around and spying on me - and building some rail track which I'll likely replace before the train is even completed. She's strong, and never tires, so something that keeps her good and busy is a good thing. I saw her walking through the town with a young Alliance officer last week. That concerns me. But, she's not really my concern. She's Seana's. Thats just the way it is.

Nack has put a pleasure bot chip in his warbot, which brings to mind images I could just as well do without. He's a stubborn one, Mister Barnes, a very stubborn one. Good thing he's got his girls to keep him in line. That does remind me, I saw the old scavenger Tarlek was camped back outside Firefly's. Something about him troubles me. I don't think he's a bad man, but I don't think he's the most stable man and for some reason, Lily has taken to inviting him to come over for "tea parties". So far he hasn't come, but what if he does? Next thing you know he will be piling his "scraps" outside BlueSun, and won't that just be peachy.

I need to talk with the local doctor, Gallagher, about Dharma's continued involvement in the Rail project. I need some actual physical labour, and seems a lot of local folks don't really want to work over here on the BlueSun Corporate Holdings. Maybe that will change as we expand into the main town. The recreational area is on hold, because I simply can't find anyone to work here. I suppose I can bring people in, but I really didn't want to do that.

Personal life ways, Nene and me ain't no closer to resolving our differences now than we were before I took up residence here. I ain't even shown him the house I had put up. My girl Emma is living in it mostly, I'm spending most nights in my office. She seems like a good sort, so I've put in a few things I would have waited on - hot water for the bath, special medically equipped soft cozy bed. Just hope she doesn't have occasion to use it.