Thursday, April 23, 2015

Did you see this issue of Freelance Traveller?

The January 2013 issue of Freelance Traveller, the free online magazine supporting all Traveller rules, published an article that I wrote! A while back I put a post on the Citizens of the Imperium discussion board with a alternate career option of School. The editor of FT saw it and asked me to submit it for the magazine. I did, although I admit that I took a long time getting around to it, and the editor had to add & clarify a few things, but they still gave me all the credit for it.
A little 'color text' to introduce the idea (also mine):

Professor Moldova stormed out of the department meeting, fuming. Once again, the chair of his department had denied the funding to begin Moldova's big research project. Twelve years, Moldova thought, twelve years I've taught at this school, never less than full classes and consistent commendations from students and teachers alike. That fat-headed bureaucrat should never have been made department chair, but he was more adept at playing office politics than actual teaching. I think it's about time I got out of here, made some real money, and funded the research myself. He stopped mid-stride, and laughed aloud, a short barking laugh that caused several students to glance suspiciously his way. Why hadn't he thought of it before? He had taught hundreds of students the difference between a tritium injector and a thermal induction coil, and they were mostly out there working on actual starships, so why shouldn't he be? The large merchant lines paid well for talented engineers, and offered shares as well. With the economics lessons he'd picked up from dating the Investment professor he should be able to make enough to fund his research in a few years, and wouldn't it be nice to not have to wear a tie and grade exams and sit in pointless meetings like the one he'd just left? The first thing to do would be look up that Marketing professor whose family owned half of the Windegar line.

A month later, Mr. Moldova was assistant engineer aboard the Windegar liner Prospero, outbound for a six month tour of the coreward regions. No more stuffy suits, no more administrative meetings, travel, seeing new places and finally getting to test the Moldova process for eliminating contaminant buildup on the injector assembly.

Six months after that, frustrated with the bureaucratic regulations that covered every aspect of his job, reminding him of his former job, he left and signed on with the subsidized liner Glorious Venture as chief engineer, with the promise that as long as the engines kept running, he could run things how he liked. A month later, the pirates attacked . . .

1 comment:

  1. Cool. I wouldn't even know where to begin to write something like that. Congratulations. Of course this means we expect more.

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