A look back by Lucy Fontaine; December, 2947 Previously, in the first part of this story, I returned to one of my earlier interviews with the enigmatic leader of the Carnival, a trade fleet that only lasted a short time, but had quite an impact during its brief time. Nowadays, most of the interest in the Carnival centers around Wyatt Kolde, a former war hero and billionaire who gathered together the trade fleet, and his mysterious disappearance. While little has turned up since, as my story about the Carnival was one of my earlier pieces and we are approaching the fourth anniversary of his disappearance, I felt it was as good a time as any to return to it. Once my interview with Wyatt Kolde had completed, I was given the opportunity to speak with a few other members of the Carnival. What follows are those series of interviews. THE CARNIVAL RETURNS TO GOSS (Continued) A story by Lucy Fontaine; May, 2943 I spent the trip back to the Fury in communication with Stephanie Ives, the captain of the Idris. After being put through to the Junior Comms Officer, and then a senior one, the captain agreed to speak to me herself (I can only assume she did so after speaking to Wyatt herself). Captain Ives told me she would meet me on the deck when I arrived. I agreed and enjoyed the view of the Olympus Pool while I could. Looking now, I could only assume that the Carnival was out there, as well, trading and doing who-knows-what else. As promised, the captain of the Fury met me at the base of the MPUV’s ramp, bowing slightly. In nearly every way, she seemed to be the opposite of Captain Kolde. Whereas Wyatt had been outwardly warm, Captain Ives was stilted and formal - about what you’d expect from the commander of the Enforcers: the security and fighting arm of the Carnival. We maneuvered through the maze of corridors, dodging crew going about their daily jobs, everything sped because, I assumed, the Carnival was moving on shortly. We traveled up through the mostly empty bridge and into the captain’s office beyond. Captain Ives took the seat behind the desk and gestured for me to sit across from her. I decided to start with a softball question: “What are your thoughts on Captain Wyatt Kolde?” “He’s an egotistical bastard.” There was no hesitation whatsoever. “And yes: that’s on the record. I’ve certainly said it enough times to his face.” She must have read the shocked looked on my face because she leaned forward, reached down below the desk, and flipped a small, flat disk on the surface of the desk. I reached over and picked up, and saw it was a ship patch: the kind that crew wore on their suits to designate which ship they were from. I recognized this one easily enough. It was a white, five-petaled flower on black field, three spikes pointing out below, surrounded by a white rim. “Do you know what that patch represents?” I nodded: “It’s the patch for the Carnival.” She shook hher head. “No - that flower,” she tapped the patch, “ is a snapdragon: Wyatt just decided that the entire Carnival should use his ship’s patch, rather than adopt a separate one for the fleet.” She leaned back, fingers laced across her chest, but somehow still maintaining that military posture. “See? Egotistical bastard.” “Then why stay?” She grinned: “Because he’s good at what he does - he’s a talented egotistical bastard, Ms. Fontaine. Or at least a charismatic and lucky one. He keeps the credits rolling in: as long as he does that, what do I care about some flower patch? I can still wear my own on my other shoulder.” She tapped at the blood-dripping fist patch that adorned her right shoulder. I asked her about the Carnival, how it worked and how it was organized. I had often been told by other traders how dominating and daunting the Carnival was when it arrived in a system, but they could never quite explain why. Captain Ives had a better way of explaining it. She took the patch back from me and spun it so it was facing me. “Five petals: five groups.” She tapped the leftmost one. “Scouts. They enter the system first and spread out, looking for resources, contacts, information. If there’s trouble, they send that information back to us and the fleet doesn’t make the jump. Once the rest of the fleet arrives, what they do mostly depends on the system and the team involved. Some go off on their own, some team up with the miners and hunt for rich deposits, others head out and begin pinging the void for anything that might be interesting. A few stick behind with the fleet and act as early warning systems, if we’re in a less patrolled system or area; they double up with the Enforcers.” “This petal represents transport,” she tapped the upper left petal. “Cargo, people, ore, whatever - that’s Wyatt’s main interest, which probably doesn’t surprise you.” she reached under his desk, dragged out a small glass, and then pulled out a quarter-full bottle and poured herself a finger. She took a sip and then went back to his explanation. “You’ll start to pick up on the theme here, but the Transport group will also spread out. The little guys will take the lighter trade lanes, where the bigs wouldn’t make a profit, and the bigs take the longer trade lines. This is also the group that has our politicians - Wyatt and a handful other captains. They make trade deals and alliances, grease the wheels. Others team up - Hulls can go out with miners and multiply how much they bring back. You get the idea: we don’t really care what they do as long as we travel as a group and can rely on each other if someone gets...prickly.” “Industry is this petal.” Top right. “Simply put, they build stuff. They build stuff for the Carnival, keep it running. They research things the scouts find, and of course have things they’re developing on their own. Probably not as much as the other groups, they can split off on their own, but most of those folks stick with the main cluster. You should probably talk to Captain Vargas about them - he’s the Captain of the Flame of Knowledge. Anyways…” “Mining is this one.” Rightmost petal. “They’re probably the most independent: as soon as the fleet enters a system, they scuttle off to the corners or to the hotspots the Scouts have found. They rarely stick around with the main cluster unless we’re hanging out in a system solely devoted to mining, but that’s rare. A lot of the others will team up with the Miners because it’s typically the most guaranteed money-maker. Transport is a force multiplier for them, as are Scouts. Support, I’ll get to them next, keep them running. You get the idea.” “And this middle one is Support,” another tap at the patch. “Tankers will team up with Enforcers and miners and start dipping into the gas pockets or giants. We have a couple medical ships. A few of the gang do pro-bono work, but that’s rare. Others run SAR missions, rescuing stranded people on moons, or floating in the space. Things like that. The bigger hospital ships usually stick with the main group.”