[snip]

Moving towards the small group, Marlaa smiled and nodded to them. “Hi. I’m Marlaa. I’m from the Ark Angel.” She glanced from one to the other as she watched their reactions.

Marlaa CNS

With her sled loaded she got accompanied by an NE from the Ark Angel, his name escaping her at present. Their other two tag alongs were a native boy of about 11 years of age, while the other likely an older sister of the boy was roughly 17 or so.

She chatted with the small group and learned their names before they finally started wandering away from the shuttles and on their appointed route of deliveries.

Marlaa CNS

During her talk she learned the NE’s name from the ship was Ensign Steven Stevel, and he normally worked in the ship’s operations department doing mostly cargo management and organization, a task he seemed well suited for on this mission. She also learned that this was the first mission his skill set really stood out and let him get off the ship.

The boy’s name turned out to be Bill Rogers, and indeed the older girl was his sister Sally Rogers. They both it turned out were looking to help out here today because normally it would have meant cleaning out pig and cow and horse pens. Since this was ‘less smelly’ as the boy put it they jumped at the chance to help with the delivery.

After a while Mar asked. “So tell me about some of the other ships that have delivered your goods. Do they all try and help out like we do?” She hoped the answer was yes, but it was an inquisitive mind that made her ask.

Marlaa CNS

As they got down the road a bit of way their first stop on the list from their cart came into view, Sally pointed to it, “..That there is the Mayers homestead. Only Mrs. Myers is home right now though. Mr Myers is likely out hunting some rabbits for the stew pot.” she said. Then when Marlaa asked her question the girl gave a slight shrug, “..The last delivery was about 10 years ago. Least wise of anything major like this. We do some simple import and exporting once a year around harvest time but those are small cargo ships from the civilian sectors. They just stop in, load or unload what they got then leave. Starfleet doesn’t stop in here usually unless something of the newer tech breaks that we can’t fix ourselves, or needs some thing else. Last stop before you folks was about 6 years or so back. Mainly for our colonial evals for Federation membership.” Then seeming to consider the full answer she said, “..So no not really, most folks stopping in like you do don’t help out much. It’s a nice change of pace to be sure though I think..” she said.

”..Momma says our family once came from Earth generations ago, leading one of the first extra-Sol colonies here as part of a big wagon train to the stars! Is it still like that? Pete Bilkins says its boring out there now and not as exciting as our lives..” Bill asked.

As they were talking and approaching the fence line for the Mayer’s homestead the smell of baked bread whisked in on the wind from the double story home a few hundred feet ahead.

GM CockRoach