John Blackwood grew up on Earth, on the continent of Australia. Born in 3423 in Old Sydney, A.G.W (After the Great War), he was a pirate like his father during childhood but changed his ways in his early thirties, leaving a life of crime to become a traveller.

***

I boarded the Warron Express Train to Old Sydney Harbour, where my ship, the Cross-sword, and my crew awaited me. The train is currently passing through the Old Bourne City, off the coast of the Malayian Empire capital, Chwise-Worth. The time and date as of my writing this is 8:32 Universal Time, Yule 10th, year 3476.

Having arrived at Old Sydney Harbour, I am now on my ship with my crew of five: Augustine, the cook; Whirley, the steerer; Goodsmen, the sails-man; and the two twins, Farley and Bariley.

Our ship is 40 Universal Meters tall and 30 wide, and its highest peak is 50 Universal Meters. We await clearance to depart to the first station before exiting the Sol system, our solar system, to distant ones. It is the first station ever built on the moon, called the Lunar Shwultz Station, named after the man who built its first facilities. We expect to take off in a day, or on the 15th.

Our ship has been cleared to depart on the 18th, and today is the 20th. While accompanied by the Sol Commission Police, we are only 15 hours from arriving.

While the stay at the Lunar Shwultz Station is always delightful, and we were assigned to depart on the 24th, the Marisian Kingdoms Police stopped us for searches. Although we have some history with them, it never reached this point. They questioned us many times about our luggage, our destination, and so on, as if they wanted to find something, either as evidence or smuggled items.

We were cleared to go on the 27th of Yule, and now it is the 32nd. We have been watched by the Marisian Police until Mars, and now we are crossing the asteroid belt. In no short time, we will be crossing into the Aros Pleptine links, claimed by four Kingdoms and twelve bandit groups. These include the Marisian Kingdom, the Xinq dynasty, the Duchies, and the new Welsh kingdom, the Arthurians. The bandits, though, claim to be the descendants of Pleptine, the man who first claimed this part of space. This area has been contested since the year 3105, exactly after the man himself died in 3104. From there, we will only be protected by the Universal Law, which had not had a centralized court since 3234, when it was blown up in the Gringian Federation while taking over one of the supposed sons of Pleptine. This is why there are now 12 of them, not the 13 spoken of in literature. Writing from here on out will be difficult, not only because we will be monitored but also because we need to stay on high alert.

We hopefully will be out of this zone at the edge of Saturn’s orbit lines, where the Duce Space Harbour is. It is owned by the Empire of Ouise, founded in 2347 by Francis Ouise Langdon, a Frenchman who was in the French Parliament and an imperialist. This adventure will take twenty days, and we will arrive at the harbour on the 20th of Frae, if we are alive by that time.

Blackwood,
Library of Sinqk, Book 29013.


By Rakan Bani Ahmad