Intergalactic Summit

first off, call me shae. taam doesnt even know if 'sharminderae' is my real name... yeah, yeah, it might be, but it sure doesnt match my gene i.d. and thats the one im most comfortable with. and its shorter.

second, tell my sister to go get stuffed. spirits save us all from melodramatic vherokiors!

third... well, yeah, everything she just said is true. look, i try hard not to dwell on this too much, but my memory's not the greatest. probably has something to do with having my skull popped open like a bad can of roes and half my implants being pulled out by their sockets. add on top of that all the ways my body had been used and abused before she got to me in that can. most of the time i consider it a blessing i cant remember so well.

my first memory is waking up in station medical in Eldulf and seeing a very surprised med-tech staring down at me. a lot that followed is a blur, but the surprise on his face has stuck for some reason. research over the last few years has turned up very little. my gene-code is on record graduating RUN and joining B-REP in early YC111. from that point, there there is no record of combat, no log of arriving at headquarters, just my gene-code tagged with an admin discharge for 'failure to appear.'

and its not even my 'real' name attached to all these events. its shae mataar. taam found the name 'sharminderae dharkan' in a scope fluff piece about a group of grads leaving RUN and joining B-REP all at the same time. and, yeah, the holo-pic sure looks like me...

and then, four months later, im found floating in a can outside gelf...

okay, okay, so im not looking for hauler loads of pity or anything. taam just said it would go a long way to explaining things if i gave a bit of history. there it is. hope it helps.

so, my reason for asking taam to contact you guys here at DSTON is two-fold. ill go into them separately, for reasons youll get here in a few minutes...

the second reason is a bit more relevant to your interest, i think.

my sister's been keeping herself busy for a while now. rescuing slaves. doing her own patrols. taking missions that she knew would put her in direct confrontation with slave caravans. first she tried to keep it from me, like it'd bring back bad memories or something. bless it all, her heart's in the right place, but her lines of logistics are all kinds of screwy. resources and people scattered all over the place.

so, after a lot of convincing, ive taken over her operation. she's got too much on her mind to devote the necessary time to this. on top of that, she's got a rep with the authorities that would definitely take a hit if she were caught 'running slaves.' me? im a non-entity. and ive got a head for this, it seems. i cant drive a combat frigate any longer, but sure as hell can put a prowler through its paces.

i know she had the intention of delivering all of these former-slaves to DSTON for inclusion in your matriculation program, so i started by consolidating what she had started. ive spent a sizeable chunk of time pulling together all the people my sister has rescued, all the resources she's mustered, and got them all in one place. then i found out almost immediately that the hardest working group in this endeavor are the former-slaves themselves. the living quarters went up in a matter of hours. many of the ag workers have started farm plots. im not a religious woman, but a small handful of elders have started building, by hand, what looks like a chapel. there are plans in the works for building a training center of some kind.

its pretty amazing to watch what had been a bunch of scattered refugees come together and build a community. they're even trying to come up with a name for themselves!

which brings me to my final point. many of these people have expressed an interest in staying, to continue building something here, to see if there is something to find for themselves here. i can personally understand that and will be honoring their wishes. there are others, a great many, who do not feel that this could be anything more than a fine place to stay for a while. some want to find family. some want to find a way home, wherever that may be.

this is where you might come in. were i to ask, could i ask DSTON to take in some of these people? your facilities are older, your elders wiser in their ways, your contacts more diverse and mature. i will not turn away those who do not want to go, but discovering the safe places and ways for those who do... that may be a bit of a stretch for me. could i ask this of you?

in return, i would like to make myself available to help DSTON in any way i possibly can.

i will message misters momaki, todako, and nalthkh shortly after posting here on the i.g.s. i look forward to talking to one or all of you soon...

fly safe