Leaders

I don't know which one to begin with.

Eva is standing down as leader of the Electus Matari and Jonny is running for president of the Gallente Federation. All I need now is for Ko Braya to develop a sudden interest in family life and the circle of change would be complete.

Eva's been weary for a long time. All work and far too little chance for play and study and things she enjoys for themselves. Maybe now we'll get her back as she was: sassy and footloose. I'm concerned about the Electus, though, and who will follow her as leader. I know the power of a figurehead, even an absent one.

Oh, and before this happened I finally got my EM forum settings fixed, so I can follow the discussions properly. Timing. Much discussion about the Great Wildlands and whether the arrangement the Thukker have as an autonomous state within the Republic means we should try to bring Republic law there. I think not, unless the Thukker ask us to. Others think otherwise. I'm still working out whether it's worth making the case.

Jonny, well...

From the time he first mentioned it it's been more than just another wild dream. He's been restless since the Freespace Summit. This seems exhilarating. A platform to present his ideas. A way to engage with people who aren't pilots. A way to do what he thinks the Fraction fails to do.

Even if they let him stand, they couldn't possibly let him win.

Could they?

And besides, our victory condition isn't winning the election, but getting the message out. Putting some life back in the freespace movement. Contesting the battleground of people's minds.

Our victory condition... ?

We talk about politics a lot, but largely from the position of trying to bridge a gap beween us. We both want people to be free to live the lives they choose. What that means, and how we should act to make it happen, are things we debate. Until now it's seemed largely an academic debate. I was unhappy with his RoE in Rote Kapelle. He'd like the Electus to be more active in our pursuit of our goals. I accept that CONCORD is corrupt and the Republic less efficient than it could be, but I still want my daughter to grow up in the relative safety of the clan on Matar. In a choice of life or freedom for other people, I guess I'd choose life. I guess Jonny would choose freedom.

But it has been mostly academic because things aren't perfect. We're not all podders. The dream of freespace isn't yet a practical dream, and the practical steps that are being taken towards it are largely by us, with information and community, in low security space.

Now... what will he say? What would he do if he did win? How many lives... ?

But as things are with the Federation, how many lives if something doesn't change?

Maybe this is what hope looks like.

I was looking at ships today with people from EM. When they heard about Jonny's campaign they suggested I hire security. I'm not yet ready for that. I think I have at least a few more days in the (relative) shadows.

As my belly grows my marks are stretching and changing. Is it my destiny to be a true peaceweaver and not just a pledge? How can I do that coupled with a trickster, a free spirit, a force of change and chaos? Can he also be an effective leader? A useful figurehead?

Are these just my old memes? How can I be me around the whirlwind that is Jonny? How can I be me except around him?

Mother would know what to do.

Plumbing

It seems I've spent the last month listening to reports about pressure valves and waste and pipes that don't quite meet.

Kargeen, Valher and Enki managed to get the modules for the medical centre down to Paiho. A big job, and one to be proud of. Since then the news has all been about assembling them, securing them to the foundations, lots of customising to set space modules up for use in atmosphere, cladding... and plumbing. The planetside plumbers wanted some station-based plumbers to explain the special features of the modules. They could have worked it out themselves, but this way I guess they get to learn from the experts and get contacts in space. Call it training and networking. I smiled and reminded them that Roimata is the project chief and can authorise payment. And that there will be external assessors checking the work.

Jonny and I have taken a station suite in Gulf. Our first place that's ours together, not a virtual dream or one of our hab modules or a numbered station room rented by the night. It has a window -- such a luxury here -- but it was completely bare except for a large steel bed frame welded to the wall. There were connectors for services, but everything else was up to us. Everything. I called it Pied en l'Air. Jonny called it Peed in Air. I told him if we didn't get a plumber soon he might be more accurate than he'd wish.

I've asked again to meet his parents so I can know our daughter's other kin. He's still delaying, although he has said he could maybe arrange a meeting with his mother on the sly. He and his father don't talk.

We're working on Jonny's sec status. That matters. I like flying with him when we do this: his voice calm on comms as we work together on things I understand.

Now that we have a place for them I've brought the puppies back from Hek, where Jonny had left them in care since... before he could no longer fly there. They're no longer puppies but not yet fully grown. Bouncy. Strong. Friday's taken to growling at strangers and Rico's spraying. They'll need some time and some rules and probably some trainers who are better with hounds than we are. Jonny's indulgent with them. I'm waiting to see how committed he is to their care now that they're with us. That matters, too. Jonny's planning a crib and change table in our new place.

Ulf thinks there's trouble there, and wants to help. He's looking for a way to pay back some support from when he was miserable about the break-up with Ciarente. More stompy music and a visit home. We went out on the lake and pulled in silver fish. It was grey and gusty. I had to clip my hair back to stop my hair-bead beating bruises into my cheek. My eyes ran, and even I don't know whether it was just the wind. Then Acacia's stew and Angel's teasing and quiet time with Auntie Mara in the workshop. And wishing Jonny were part of it all, so at the end of a day working with kin I could go home-within-home to a place we shared and have him rub oil into my stretching belly while we talked about politics and how I should take better care of my drones.

That's another thing: the more personal plumbing. Pregnancy squishes the space your bladder has to expand. There's a difference between knowing this and feeling it.

There's a difference between knowing and feeling so many things.

I hope we can get all the various connections working.