Took more than long enough to get her flyin'.
Took more than luck and every penny I had to my name when I took to the notion of striking out on my own just to own her.
Since then I reckon I've forgotten more about radion accelerator cores, acutators and compression seals than I ever had learned working the rim in a series of different jobs. Best of 'em was with the Skipper - Podwangler. Kind of a clean cut fella who played by his own rules. Exactly what they are I can't say I wholly know, even now, still his view on the 'verse where such that I could follow him.
They say you can really get the measure of a person when they're at their lowest. If'n that's true then the Skipper got a right good measure of me. Not long outta that gorramn Alliance interment camp and after the latest of string of jobs that payed enough just to keep moving had come an end.
Podwangler took me on. Far as the Feds were concerned it was a freelance shipping outfit and the less they knew about what we hauled an' who we hauled it from and to; the better it suited all concerned. 'Cept maybe the Feds that is, but I do believe the Skipper was fine with that arrangement. Can't say I lost too much sleep fretting 'bout it my own self.
Must've been then that I fell in love with the black.
Growing up on Shadow I got a goodly dose of schoolin' (both the respectable and the practical) but reallyI hadn't know anything but throwing rope and raising beef 'fore old man McCusker took just about anybody who'd wear a coat, take up arms and sit a horse to the war.
Can't just be a case of me getting spellbound by the black though... there's plenty who choose this life and they aint all grist raised ranch hands wanting to make their way in the 'verse. The flag might've went down in the valley, but I reckon I found the thing out here that we was supposed to be fighting for all along: freedom.
So it weren't no real surprise when the chance of running my own boat came up, I'd got my share of the takings from Podwangler and pressed them into the soft, moist palm of dealer on Whitefall.
She weren't the prettiest, to the causal onlooker, to me it'll always be one of the most beautiful sights I'll ever lay eyes to...
Raivenn
