The Blog of Roon

Hannah just had to (metaphorically) spank one of her crewmates for calling her an American. (She isn’t, any more; she’s a French citizen and proud to be so.) She did, however, take the hint and switch from English to French.

Which has sent me scurrying frantically into some of my mind’s mustier closets looking for the French I never learned to write to begin with. (I can read French. I can’t speak it, and I can’t write it.)

Perhaps not the ideal (re)learning environment, but I’ll take what I can get.

Not only has the British Lunar Ellipse team named its craft the Victory, which is arrogant enough—their shuttle is the Nike.

Damn, y’all. Didn’t anybody tell you it’s dangerous to tempt fate?

(The latest Ellipse news is up. Keep an eye on Senator Dalby. We may expect things of him.)

Hannah, on hearing of the explosion of the Dutch Lunar Ellipse craft: “Eh, bien. Personne nous a dit que dans l’espace on trouve la securité.”

Which, aside from my lousy French, strikes me as a pretty good motto for the whole mad enterprise.

I dunno why my characters seem to be followed around by murders lately, but so it is… there’s been a shocking incident shortly before blastoff in the Lunar Ellipse.

There is a very good chance that my character is about to get framed for this. And if she is, I have a very good idea who framed her. I have an even better idea if the murder weapon turns out to be what I think it is.

But, damn it, she’ll never prove it.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Lunar Ellipse is underway.

I could, if I chose, comment on the sudden departure of a certain USSA engineer. But I don’t so choose.

Tell y’all other competitors what, though. Vive la France. Y’all are goin’ down.

Shirley and Margaret are putting their family back together, after Shirley’s obsessive self-doubt threatened to tear it (and him) apart. Nice to see him get his sense of humo(u)r back. It looks as though there will not be an interview with the Addams posted to the Times from Irkutsk, as Gospodin Karlov has yet to approach them for one; so you will have to be content with the oblivious Col. Davis.

(In my meaner moments, I hope that obliviousness catches up with him.)

Shirley had another conversation with the Duck, which cannot, alas! be posted because the Duck is well-acquainted with Shirley’s MacGuffin, which rather colo(u)red the interview. (Back-rubs are occasionally dangerous. Verbum sapientibus.)

At the request of M. Fontaine, Hannah and her fiancé Richard will be hosting “Gibbs” O’Neil and his moderately faithful sidekick Gabriel Rhys-Williams at dinner in one of the finest restaurants in Paris.

Hannah is desperately nervous about the whole thing, and wishes M. Fontaine had chosen someone else. Even though she thinks she understands his reasoning—she wishes he had chosen someone else.

And I still don’t know what poor Tamasi is going to do, assuming she can successfully play for time. (May not even be possible. Hoo boy. She doesn’t like having to make snap decisions.) She is in a right pickle.

My Lunar Ellipse character is outlined, though I have yet to do up her stats. Unlike Shirley, this character is designed to win. Lunar Ellipsoids beware.