The Empire of Sorrow

It has been fifteen since the war ended. I was so young I barely remember it at all. I do remember the hardships I faced after the war. I still remember the rationed food, system malfunctions due to attacks and at times they ran the ships on low power to save energy. Walking through black halls with only one hand held lamp is frightful when your that young. I don't ever remember life as a spacer being easy.

I look back sometimes at the events of the past that lead up to where I am now, back before the war. I hear the stories from the old timers aboard. They talked about the early days in space exploration. Transport between the colonies use to take several years per trip. The spacers used to be gone for five or six years and in that time, new laws and governments were in office. Returning frieghters often found it tough because after every trip there was a new tax or a regulation that made there business that much harder to balance. Sometimes leaving them bankrupt on return and subJect to labor camps to pay there debts. Years of strikes and protests did nothing but escalate tensions. There never was a good system of communication between earth, the planetary colonies and the frieghters. They weren't citizens in the normal sense, they had no voting rights in space. They face taxes that others did not. They were required to fullfil contracts for material that often was in such low demand on return they sold for next to nothing. This happened even when a nearby source was in desperate need for such goods. Often times cheap materials were bought and shipped of again to the next colony and seldomly did the frieghters get any profit. Years of rationed food, poor living conditions and being disenfranchized let to the war.

The war lasted eleven years. If it weren't for sympathetic scientists on a deserted colony often shafted for other's profit margin, we might have lost. They discovery a new subspacial drive engine and a atomic plasma cannon that gave us the advantage. We had ships that traveled ten to fifteen times the distance as there's and had a weapon that punctured and disabled sheilds. The war persisted until certain unfavorable demands were met. I can even admit they seemed unreasonable.

They asked for independance. They asked for exclusive rights to the prime shipping lanes between lucrative colonies. They asked for key mining planets for fuel and metals. They demanded a couple space stations and shipping yards. The details I am not sure of, but I know our demands were met.

The debate that followed involved a new government. They fought over who would lead, who had power and how they would deal with distance. A network of communication stations were setup. A system of localized and centralized goverments was also established. It was never perfect, and things often descent into conflict. But this is to be expected in a new and young system. This was the birth of the Interspace Union of Alterfleet or also known as Alterfleet to landwalkers.

As for me, I was still little during the conflict, born only twenty years ago. I could see improvements everyday. I spent all my years about this ship, also known as The Starduster. It was an old ship. It was commissioned about 45 years before the war making it about seventy-one years old now. It was the one of the last of the omega-gamma 3 class ships. It was retrofitted with new engines and weapons at the start of the war and those too are becoming out of date. The quick comprimises they made in installation and the way the ship was manufactured make repairs alittle confusing at times. Those concerned the engineers mostly though.

The halls where narrow, almost single file. The hallways incircled the ship, so clockwise traveled eventually developed. The bunks where space savers as well. My single room was two and a half meters tall and the floor was four and a half by three meters. The beds and the chairs folded out of the walls and inflated. The toilet and shower folded out as well only with a small curtain for privacy. Half of one wall was filled with drawers and a fridge for storing clothes and food. The walls were harded plastic and had some graffiti that I mostly covered. It seems cramped to most landwalkers and even to the station dwellers, but it feels like home to me.

Its not all small on the inside. The mess hall was spacious and even had a bar and a stage for a special performance. The top deck had exercise areas for Jogging and all sorts of sports. Part of it was converted to a small garden at the request of some of the crew. It didn't grow any food, Just there for relaxation. The food was grown on tiered platforms barely large enought to crawl through and it was all automated by the ships computer. It served the two hundred fifty six people well. I even had school. There was two classes, a young and old school. There are only twenty seven kids aboard and you don't need much more.

Our main shipment is the transport of iron and other mineral resources from a mining planet named Delga Chronus to a selection of three close systems that are heavily developed, the Dobar system, the Tranzeria system, and The Colvin Ray colony located on the planet sized asteroid in the great belt of the Trioga Star. In return we sent nessecary supplies and food that kept the mines and the miners productive. It wasn't the best assignment, but it was an easy run at least.

Life had gotten pretty routine. I wondered how things could be different. I will have to be contempt for the moment where I am. I work in the kitchen and I'm a partime apprendice engineer to assist in repairs. The ship is like a family, but I really have one really close friend Orion Tillianu. He was the only one my age aboard the ship and was a training pilot. I am Malen Trasdoran, and I dream of something bigger then this ship.

At the moment, I can do nothing. I am on the ship on my way to the mining station with a couple days travel ahead of me. I have a few days left on the ship before the visit and then I'll get some leave time to explore the tiny outpost. It doesn't seem like much, but its good to get out sometimes. Its been an exceptionally long Journey due to malfunctions and breakdowns so alittle away time has been scheduled to relieve some stress.

Delga Chronus is a larger planet that is mostly uninhabitable outside the installation. There are ten to fifteen mines and perhaps more under construction. The main section is devided into three seperate facilities. The command post is in charge of opperations, labor and shipping. The stock yard is where they store all there transportable goods. Large space worthy containers are loaded on the ground and picked up and clamped to the ship. All we need to do is load and unload containers and they take care of the rest. They are by right property of The Interspace Union of Alterfleet. The other section though is my favorite. Prime central is offically the residential district, but its also known to us and the intertainment hub of the colony. This is where the shops, bars and social places are located. The station numbers many thousands citizens and they have all forms of entertainment meant to keep them there.

I will mark this the first entry in my portable Journal. I plan to illustrate the life we live in the early days of The Union for future generations to see. I must end log here, its late and I'm scheduled for maintance duty in the morning.

Malen log end.