Freelance
TravellerPuulani Meagher
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2018 issue.
Puulani Meagher 33B697 Age 46 Cr34,000
7 terms Navy Lieutenant (Rank 2), Pension Cr14,000
Ship’s Boat-6, Laser Pistol-2, Laser Weapons-1, Mechanical-1, Ships
Tactics-1, Turret Weapons-1, Vacc Suit-1, Forward Observer-0,
Jack-of-all-Trades-0, Leader-0, Wheeled Vehicle-0
Laser Pistol, Mechanical Tools, MilStd Vacc Suit
Member, Travellers’ Aid Society
(Homeworld: StarPort C, Size=Med., Atmos=Thin, Hydro=Wet, Pop.=High,
Law=Mod., Tech 8)
Puulani is a small, dark woman with a mixture of a graceful appearance and a halting, tremulous manner. She wears her hair cropped close, from long shipboard habit. Being the oldest in a broken home led her to develop an almost fanatical work ethic early. She started as a Star Cadet in a poor community of a TL 8 system, but her initial aptitude, enthusiasm, and some good luck got her a place in the fighter squadrons of the sector navy. It was there that she married a slightly older naval pilot, who was killed not two years later. She was, because of her demonstrated ability as a fighter pilot, commissioned much later into the Imperial Navy. She was happy to make Lieutenant in her last few years in the IN, and to have flown dozens of combat missions in Ramparts.
She has a deadpan stare that is unnerving to some, and speaks very little. Indeed, she may go through an entire formal dinner without uttering a syllable. This manner and her nickname, “Diamond Butt”, belie her genuine concern for any subordinates, obvious through her actions but never speech or affect. She speaks very little because she is actually both shy and intellectually unsure of herself. She only truly came into her own in the pilot’s seat; in her Rampart, she flew like she was invulnerable and in total control of her battlespace. Though she was never able to inspire others in speech or larger leadership initiatives, her flight were dedicated to her, just because she was a flying virtuoso who worked harder than they or any of their superiors did. While not a risk-taker, Puulani was essentially fearless in the cockpit, but terrified by the prospect of small talk. Romance is completely out of the question in her mind, and she treats any suggestion of this or any social overture as distasteful distractions, like the flying parasitic insects of her homeworld.
She enjoys tinkering mechanically with ships, but will stick to the minor systems and knows she is no engineer. She will spend long hours on such minor tasks as servicing life support or working to find and fix the squeak in an older iris valve. Puulani has been spending the first six months of her mandatory retirement using up TAS middle passages, and taking the odd working passage. She is not a fish out of water, but rather stuck in the shallows; she longs to be back in the pilot’s chair again, and is hoping for a chance. She would ideally like to sign up with some mercenary force or private security concern. In the mean time, she is willing to take small boat piloting jobs.