News Items:

PicoV Released Atlas Computer has release the PicoV computer, with twice the power of the PicoStar line of main computers. One industry analyst commented: "The new PicoV's make me horny."

See More Colors! Life Chain Biomedics has released an eye biomod that allows people to see infrared, ultraviolet, and determine more subtle gradations of color than unaided people can see. Starting at about 5000 scrip.

Allea May Not Speak The NIS has refused to allow the NRM leader Allea to speak in their Simushir colony. Allea remains in Simushir in an attempt to reverse the ruling, but the NIS hints that he may be deported.

Run Linda Run! Mind of the Deep: Eyes of the Deep 2 has been released on Poseidon. The familiar heroine returns with new friends to the lair of the aborigine queen she thought she had defeated ten years before.

Wormhole Collapsing Professor Man-Li Hawkins of HIST claims that the wormhole is being weakened by each transit of a ship. Data is available on request.

Village Site Discovered A HIST survey team has found a native village site on Ina that appears to have been destroyed with advanced weaponry about a standard decade ago. There is no previous record of the settlement.

The team decides to take the Big Biogene Job, getting the success payment prorated on the number of plants. They get the down payment of 10K Biogene and start outfitting for a trip beginning on 038.101. Regina and Jenny visit Crazy Sam's Guns in Atlantis and buy some rifles and a shotgun. They almost buy survival grenades, but are dissuaded by Crazy Sam who sells them some flash-stun grenades instead. They also buy an excellent medikit from Sam. However, they have to go to the Hole to find a remote installable pistol, high caliber, and some headphone communicators.

Meanwhile, Whitney, Dive, and Pilot take a young rich woman on a boat tour around Maui. Her name is Benita Muncie, and she is willing to pay 2000 Hydrospan scrip for two days of looking at scenic beaches and waterfalls and such. The trip quickly turns into Benita hanging on Dive with Pilot and Whitney along for the ride. Whitney does discover a new species related to the nightcrawler at their first campsite, and three are brought back for Regina to play with. They also endure a stick-monkey attack in the morning which leaves Dive covered with dung and both Dive and Pilot bitten.

However, all is not what it seems with Ms. Muncie. Pilot, a bit suspicious, digs up a picture of the same young woman identified as a celebrity journalist (Rita Macondo). This explains her hanging on Dive and her hovering camera remote. She specializes in "where are they now" stories about prior celebrities, often fairly nasty ones, though not always. Jenny hacks the protocol between Benita and her camera and reprograms the camera to blur everything that it records into uselessness. They let Benita keep recording none the wiser, only filling in Dive when the trip returns.

After dissecting one of the little nighcrawler things, Regina keeps the other two in a crate of sand and seawater and names them Heeby and Jeeby. They don't appear to have generative organs - maybe they're sub-adults, or drones, or mutants.

On 037.101 Aloha Jack brings someone even more Aloha than he is (with an all over Hawaiian print wetsuit) to charter the team's plane. The charter's name is Samo Chirruchi, and he wants them to fly him to Simushir where he will pick up Allea, and then back to Atlantis. With a major storm brewing in that part of New Hawaii, Samo implies that it would be too easy for the NIS to arrange a plane crash and get rid of Allea.

"You know, there are particular places where a man should not have hibiscus flowers on his person." - Whitney, about Samo's wetsuit.

On the flight over Samo talks a lot and only Pilot recognizes his continual gossip as a pretty good information gathering routine. Samo seems particularly interested in the recent shootout in Atlantis and in Buckman Charter's mechanic. On the way back, after a takeoff in pretty rough weather, the team mostly listens to Samo discuss politics with Allea, with specific attention to who is good and who is bad in the NRM. Allea seems to think that much of the NRM has been corrupted by Babylon and is misguided and thuggish.