Meeting with the Demeter Cast (Patreon)

I don't remember who requested this, but after I posted the minutes from my meeting with the cast of Curses! someone wanted to see more meetings like that.

So here we go, minutes from my meeting with the cast of Daughters of Demeter. This meeting took place before I started writing book-5, and the goal of the meeting was to figure out why we were having so much trouble even getting started on the fifth installment. 

Enjoy!

-----

Daughters of Demeter Cast Meeting Minutes
Location: Demeter's mess / seated around the dining table.
Attendees: viola, Rebecca, Amanda, Sarah, Jenny, Cam, Gwen, Tanya.
Date: October 14th, 2023

-----

viola: hello everyone, thanks for coming out

Rebecca frowns: Mhmm.

viola: so i think the first thing we need to talk about is why is there so much reluctance to move forward? what's holding everyone back?

Rebecca: I still have mixed feelings about the princess thing. I don't want to go back to the Imperium, definitely don't want to be a monarch of some world I've never been to before. But I'm worried that might already be in motion & it might be too late to back out of it.

viola: Gwen that ball was left in your court. what's the word there?

Gwen: Princess Rebecca's claim seems valid and legitimate, but the other complications are a greater concern. If we keep our word and don't reveal any of the secrets that were shared with us, my family and the other noble families back home probably won't accept her claim. They might at first, if we lie about her age. But when the truth comes out there'll be too many questions. And if we break our promise and tell them the truth, including those secrets, I think that will actually make things worse. They'll want Princess Rebecca all right, but not for the right reasons. They'll want her and her ship and her secrets, so they can exploit them for their own benefit and/or profit.

Tanya: So lets go with option 1, tell them enough of the truth and lie for the rest. Rebecca's not going home regardless, so if they eventually reject her claim it might not be a big problem? What I'm saying is, take a step back and ask yourself what our actual objective is? Do we want Rebecca on the throne? She doesn't want that, so it's off the table. So what do we want? My understanding is we want justice. We want the regent to pay for his crimes. And you want to return home, right Gwen? If the rest of the Persephone crew can go home with all charges dropped that'd be nice too. After that, who cares?

Gwen: Unless they charge us all with treason for falsifying evidence of Rebecca's claim to the throne after we get back. Even if we don't falsify information, if we can't explain the discrepancies they might come to the conclusion that our evidence is invalid. Maybe we can see the regent face justice for his crimes, but we might end up being dragged down with him.

Tanya sighs: Well the only other thing I can think of is we give up and start getting used to our new lives out here. I don't know if you're willing to do that ma'am, but the rest of us have been prepared for it ever since we left home. As soon as the Persephone's patched up we can start looking for cargo or find some other work.

Gwen sighs.

viola: ok we've gone full circle there and haven't solved anything. does anyone else have input on that topic?

*silence*

viola: ok, put a pin in it and move on. next thing is Cam, what are we going to do with them? Rebecca said Cam's part of the family, but are they going to be truly happy on the Demeter? and what will they do? Cam what are your feelings?

Cam shrugs: I know there's not much call for me out here. Sarah's a much better mechanic, she's got all the experience with ships. I just take things apart & put them back together again. I don't have any formal training, I just figure it out as I go. I was useful back home, but you saw what it was like. It wasn't great for me, not since my ma and pa passed on. It'll be even harder for me now.

Rebecca: You don't have to go back there. You can stay with us as long as you like.

Cam: That's nice of you ma'am but I know you're only saying that because of what happened with that assassin. You're letting me stay to reward me on account of me pushing you out of the way, cos of my gift.

Rebecca grimaces: I won't deny that, but my offer stands. And we can teach you. You're obviously smart, you taught yourself a lot. We can teach you what you need to know to be part of the crew.

Sarah: There's also the shipyard option. Cam might be more comfortable working with Tamsin? Not that I want to see them leave us, but if they're not comfortable living on a ship that might be another option.

Rebecca: Yeah I haven't forgotten that. Next time we're at Rolandan-2 we'll meet up with Tamsin and have a chat. But again, I'm not in a hurry to see Cam go. I also don't want to keep them here if they're not happy.

viola: it feels like we've come full circle with this too. Cam are you happy or not happy staying on the Demeter?

Cam: I don't know yet. I guess I could try and learn more about being a spacer or shipper or whatever its called? I don't think I'd be comfortable being a passenger forever though. I need to do something, to keep busy and feel useful. And that's what worries me, because Sarah's already the ship's mechanic. I don't think y'all need me when you got her.

Sarah: Maybe I could take them on as an apprentice? Demeter's an old ship. She's in good shape, but she's old. I'm not saying we wouldn't need Tamsin and her shipyard anymore, but there's a lot more I could do with another set of trained hands.

Rebecca: Ok we'll keep that in mind. What do you think Cam?

Cam: I'm willing to give it a try.

Rebecca: Good stuff

viola: all right it sounds like maybe that's one issue we can check off the list. that still leaves the Gwen / princess thing. what else? Fuminja Epsilon and the mind control project?

Rebecca: We have a plan, it's just a matter of putting it into action. Get a case of that expensive booze, get Doc Linnz to contact the woman at Fuminja Epsilon and let her know its coming. Then the Demeter docks to deliver the shipment, Jenny hits their secure computer, and we hope for the best.

viola: so why is that holding back the story?

Rebecca: If Jenny gets it wrong we all die. If Jenny gets it right we might still all die, just later on, after they figure out what happened.

Jenny: Unfortunately I can't really say with any certainty how it will go. It depends on how secure their secure system is. I've been fairly successful getting into other so-called secure systems around this sector, but they're all different.

Amanda: We all agree it needs to be done though. And now that we know they're continuing the project, and continuing the human testing on miners at Regulon-4, that makes it even more critical. The information we intercepted made it sound like they expected to be in final testing soon, that means the product might be ready for live use. And if that gets into Imperium hands I don't think any planet or sector will be safe.

Sarah: Do you think the Kennington is involved?

Rebecca: They probably have the same sealed orders that the Hammersmith had. And so far nobody but us know what those orders are.

Amanda: So if the project is a success the Kennington might hand over a pile of ecks and head back to deliver a mind control weapon to Imperium Intelligence. We have to stop the whole thing before it gets any further.

Rebecca: All right. Step one is get our hands on the expensive hooch, odds are we can find it at Port Ecclestone. I also found us a salvage job, so we need to take care of that.

Sarah: We need to patch up the Persephone before we ship out.

Gwen: And I suppose I need to decide what we're going to do before that. Do we proceed with my family and the proof of Princess Rebecca's claim? Or do we abandon it?

viola: so we're full circle on that again. that seems to be the question that's holding back the whole show. Gwen needs an answer, or needs to make up her mind. 

option 1 - proceed as planned, don't worry about discrepancies, deal with them later.

option 2 - give up, accept that the monarchy of Vysalis-4 is gone forever, and get used to life on the frontier.

option 3 - find something to do on the frontier for now, put the princess project on the back burner.

and you know, even if you go with option 1 you could still be using the Persephone to make some money or do something in the meantime. instead of just sitting in port burning cash. pick up a cargo, take on a job, do something more than sit around drinking

Tanya: I like that idea. Having some work would give us focus. Doing nothing has been taking a real toll on my crew.

viola: it seems to me that regardless of which option we still need to patch up the Persephone. and Rebecca needs to get her hands on that imported liquor. then the Demeter can ship out and work on their next job while the Persephone does its own thing. so we're waiting on Gwen to make a choice. in the meantime here's what has to happen:

1 - Cam gets added to the Demeter's roster as engineer's apprentice

2 - patch up the Persephone

3 - acquire or order the expensive liquor 

4 - Demeter goes on its mission / job / whatever

5 - Cam gets some on the job training 

6 - Persephone should find work too

7 - Doc Linnz makes arrangements with his contact

8 - Demeter docks @ Fuminja Epsilon & Jenny does crimes

viola: curveball, can the Demeter swing by Deveron-8 again? just to see how Jace is doing? and the rest of Ganvis Station? i feel bad about leaving Jace planetbound there after he had a few years of freedom and adventure.

Rebecca glares at the author.

Amanda: They have an FTL set at Ganvis, right? We could at least try and contact Jace. Or I suppose they could contact us if they needed us again.

viola: yeah. anyways it was just a suggestion. maybe after all the other stuff is done

viola: ok i guess that's it for now? we need Gwen to make a decision

Gwen: Fine, it's not really a decision but let's go with your third option. There's no reason to leave everybody else in limbo waiting for me to make a decision. So Tanya and the Persephone can start looking for work while I figure out what to do about saving our homeworld's monarchy.

viola: thanks Gwen!

Gwen: I'll try and make an actual choice before we get too far into book 5.

Rebecca: I'm still not going back to the Imperium. I'll do the princess in exile thing if I have to, since I already agreed to it. But that's it. The Demeter is my home and we're not leaving the Gorath Sector. 

Amanda: What if we get chased away by a bunch of angry bad guys after Jenny fries their computer?

Rebecca sighs: We'll address that scenario if it comes up. There's other frontier sectors we could try, if we have to.

viola: ok folks, thanks for all the feedback. go enjoy some BBQ at Gilly's or something, you've all earned it!