From Heroes of the Great Tree
| Dandelion Station
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| First Episode | Episode 1.5
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| Type | Space Station
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| Profile
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| Planet | Orbits a blackrock
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| System | None
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| Section | Rim, Empty Black
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Dandelion Station, the shops aboard her, and the people who man those shops were all created by Lynn LeFay. Many thanks to her for letting us use her work.
Description
The Dandelion is a Ferris 7 class self-mobile space station. It can move under its own power to a given location and once there, be assembled into operational configuration. The Ferris 7 stations are small (10,000 ton) stations intended to be used to fuel very small vessels, such as Wren transports and shuttles. The station was designed on the idea of a ‘truckstop in space’ and grew to be a little village in space. It can handle docking with four ships the size of a firefly, and 34 additional ships the size of a Wren or shuttle.
Commercial Ventures
- Waterin’ Hole Saloon (3 employees): Tommy Benson Proprietor. Nice guy, easy smile, carries a sawed off shotgun lowslung so’s ya can’t see it under the bar. The Watering Hole has a reasonable selection of good booze. It’s got a good music system, and occasionally Tommy manages to get in live music passing through. You can occasionally find a game of chance going on, but Tommy is respectful of Cards and Bones, down the way.
- Kitties in Kages (dancing girls, 5 employees): Yan Mei, Proprietor. Yan is an evil ice queen with a bright smile. If you touch one of her girls, you will find out exactly how fast she is with the many blades she carries. Kitties in Kages is just about what it sounds like. Yan has five very pretty dancing girls, all securely inside cages. It is possible that KiK is the biggest revenue generator on the station, so the Chief of Security usually isn’t far away. But, I mean, can ya blame him?
- Cards and Bones (serious gambling establishment, 5 employees): Hon Fung, Proprietor. Hon is a well dressed, well mannered, respectful, and corpulent man. He has a firm, reassuring handshake, and great enthusiasm. He is also well connected with a major Tong. Screw him and you will disappear. Cards and Bones is a nicely appointed gambling establishment. Near to both The Watering Hole, and Kitties in Kages, it is ideally located for an evening’s fun. Hon will occasionally host a card shark tournament, supplying the purse himself. You can’t buy better advertisement.
- SideIron (gun shop, 1 employee): Leroy McMasters, Proprietor. Leroy don’t expect much business, but his sister runs the freight office, so he retired to the station and sells the occasional sidearm. Leroy isn’t too booksmart, but he knows his guns. Loves ‘em. Can quote muzzle velocity on everything from derringers to railguns. He has cargo space in the spindle where he keeps his machine shop. He can custom make pretty much any piece up to a 200 pound gun, given time and raw material. SideIron is a small shop, but offers a good supply of weapons and ammo. As mentioned above, more might be available, if he was asked real nice (and particularly if the owner, Victoria, puts in a good word for ya).
- Shave and Haircut (1 employee): Bevy Henderson: Proprietor. Bevy’s got a single chair shop, where you can get all gussied up. Bevy is a master of conversation, him doing most of it. If you want information, plop down in Bevy’s chair and sit a spell.
- Pieces and Parts (ship parts, 2 employees): Henenesa Monafonahayu, Proprietor. ‘Ness’ is a very big Simoan. He’s kind of quiet speaking, and has a huge toothy grin that brightens up the room. Pieces and Parts is a well-organized area mostly full of scrapware. The shop stocks basic necessities, filters, fluids, etc. Larger pieces are available and stored in the cargo area in the spindle. Most days, one can find Ness working on a small engine right smack dab in the middle of the shop.
- Irv’s General Store (1 employee): Irv Stylish, Proprietor. Irv is old, and rather wrinkled. If a sense of humor could be surgically removed, you’d swear it happened to this man. Still, he’s good hearted and dependable. Irv’s General Store has a little of everything. Like Irv, it ain’t fancy, but prices are low, and he’s likely to have what you need.
- Garden Patch (hydroponics Garden, including fresh herbs, 1 employee): Melissa Moonbeam, Proprietor. Melissa is a spiritualist, an herbalist, and something of a shaman. She looks about thirty, when in fact she is nearly fifty. Some find her flaky, but she knows plants. Garden Patch supplies a reasonably high yield of fresh vegetables and herbs to the station. Most of the hydroponics are in the cargo area, but she keeps a fine selection of fragrant herbs growing right in the shop. Much of her produce goes to Koi and Hot Plate, but a good deal is still available for sale direct.
- Uduri’s Market (general food and supplies market, 2 employees): Oshi Uduri, proprietor. Oshi is a small, frantic man, perpetually on the verge of a long-winded rant in Japanese. While he can be pleasant to his customers, he is a task-master to his employees. Uduri’s market stocks all manner of foodstuffs and household items. With more than a hundred people on-station, he has a reasonable business supplying his little community.
- McMasters’ Freight (offices of freight hauler, 2 employees): Audrey McMasters, Proprietor. Audrey runs the freight office aboard the station, acting as primary dispatcher. She is mellow, and doesn’t get flustered over just about anything. She runs a decent business running small loads to various places nearby. She has several employees who run Wren-class small freighters, and will also employ other freelance haulers as need be.
- Mail franchise (1 employee): Standard mail franchise
- Hot Plate (diner, 4 employees): Phil Adams, Proprietor. Phil is a mid-aged man, rather soft in the middle. He loves engaging in arguments while slinging hash behind the counter. Hot Plate serves good, hot food. It ain’t fancy, but usually a sight better than canned food, and heaven compared to protein paste. This is the default eatery onboard the station, and sees a lot of traffic.
- Koi (good Restaurant, fresh fish specialty, 2 employees): Aosha Uduri, proprietor. Wife if Oshi (owner of Uduri’s Market), Aosha is an exceedingly polite woman. She is also a classically trained chef, and has managed to make a reasonably good restaurant aboard Dandelion. Koi (so named for the several large fish tanks of koi which can be seen from the mall floor) is a surprisingly upscale restaurant for such a small station. Because it has low traffic, meals must be arranged in advance (sometimes as little as 2 hours in advance, though). The restaurant stocks a supply of livestock (chickens, fish, and a few other small animals), so real fresh meat can be prepared. With fresh vegetables supplied by Garden Spot, Koi boasts the best food you’ll find between here and the core.
- Ling/Mitchell Tailors (2 employees): Fung Ling and Leonard Mitchell, proprietors. Misters Ling and Mitchell as exceedingly well-dressed men. They have impeccable taste and style. And for the right price, can make anyone look just as sharp. These two life partners bring an air of sophistication to the place, and more than once, people have wondered what these two cultured individuals are doing aboard a micro-station out in the middle of God’s Country.
- Download (Cortex hub, and info/entertainment store with good coffee, 1 employee): Terry Skylor, proprietor. Terry runs his shop with all the business skill of a five year old. He’s not interested in a streamlined model of efficiency. He’s interested in running a shop he loves. He could be considered the hero to most of the early teens aboard the station. Download has all the newest shiny from the cortex, all the hottest personal game systems, the newest noise, and hands-down, the best coffee. He’s got such serious java hookup, that he can get kopi luwak (but it’d cost you a small fortune).
- Sweet Treat (ice cream… sort of…, 1 employee): Lisa Muriam, Proprietor. Lisa is a sweet girl, and optimistic. She has big dreams and boundless entrepreneurial spirit. She’s a little chunky, but still manages to be attractive, mostly due to her bright demeanor. Sweet Treat is not terribly busy, but is a favored pre-teen and teen hangout, for the small crowd of kids on-station. It will most likely fail eventually as a business, but it’s currently welcome warmly.
- Fashion Now! (Women’s apparel, 2 employees): Kristina Lahita, Proprietor. Kristina seems very sweet, and is very kind to her customers, but she is a first class gossip, and rather catty. She is one of the few pretty, single women aboard, and knows it. Fashion Now caters to the lady folk, and stocks all manner of apparel. Kristina works with Ling and Mitchell when serious alterations need to be done. She and Ling in particular are close friends. The shop doesn’t do much business, and may or may not survive. Time will tell.
- Live in the Lord Chapel (energetic ‘revival’ kind of church, 1 employee): James Johnson, Proprietor. James Johnson comes from a long line of farmers, and early on discovered that he had the Lord in him something fierce! James is not a properly schooled theologian but is a charismatic. He takes a fairly literal interpretation of the Bible, and can be a bit ‘Fire and Brimstone’ about people’s evil ways, but if nothing else, his Sunday morning services are entertaining. While narrow-minded in some ways, he can have an uncommon amount of common sense and good advice in general.
- Dandies and Lions (Bookstore, 2 employees): Barbie Huang, Proprietor Barbie loves books and loves introducing people to the worlds within the pages. That is why it is no surprise her store is a member of the Spacer Loan Library where members join by donating books to the library and then they can trade for books at any participating bookstore.
Other Services
- Both rooms and cargo space may be rented on Dandelion Station.
- The station offers standard docking services (water refill and septic flush).
- The station offers fuel at slightly higher than normal prices.
Staff
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Victoria Saunders: Victoria is a middle aged woman, of no-nonsense appearance who runs her station with almost startling strength and effeciency. She is congenial and business-like. Victoria is an obvious former soldier for the Independents. Her prefered color for clothing is brown and the walls of her office are covered in maps showing the major battles of the war. Victoria has been known to offer jobs to crews passing through Dandelion Station.
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Russell Jones: Older fella, late fifties. Looks like he been through some rough miles, but nice enough if you’re behaving. He might seem a might slow, but his gears are all turnin’. He just don’t show it. He is old-school, brass knuckles and sawed-off jimmy kinds of fun. He’s usually in or near The Waterin’ Hole or Kitties in Kages, since that’s where trouble usually commences. He’s got six men under him, mostly young strapping fellas. Russell's weapon of choice is Mary Sue, his trusty sawed-off. He's had her since his days as a young wanderer.
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Doctor Alice Emory: Alice is an introspective, quiet, thoughtful woman in her late forties. The passing of her husband of twenty five years, a man she truly and deeply loved, left her emotionally stunned. She closed her practice, and went where the wind took her, ending up aboard the Dandelion. Alice was trained in a reasonably respectable medical school, and was a good general practitioner. She is more than up to the task of handling the needs of the people aboard station, including all but the most delicate surgeries. Certainly, she can pull a bullet out of a body, and has done so many times over. She maintains a small office in the mall, as well as a infirmary in the cargo area (to decrease transport time for people coming in from ships).
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