Greetings From Aerick

Greetings strangers, and welcome to my journal of the tales of the fine starship Rubato. Allow me to introduce myself, Aerick MacKenzie is my name. I joined the Rubato awhile ago when the Capn made port in New Wellington, which had been my home up until then. After arranging for a number of supplies and due to his sudden lack of supply specialist, something to do with legal proceeding, beer and too many women I think on part of their last specialist, the Capn asked if I would fill in for awhile, or at least until their next port, promising a fair share of the profits and this enough money to get back should I wish it. That was many ports ago! It;s far more interesting here than New Wellington ever was so I think I will stick around for a bit.

A bit of background, me mum and da, Ula Marial and Chen MacKenzie were settlers on New Wellington from a mixed Anglo/Maori and Chinese family, they were both a bit elderly and had given up on having kids when the chance to adopt me came along. I am something of a orphan ya see, I was found abandoned apparently in a market in New Wellington and while rumors of a crashed space pod around that time seemed to indicate and off world origin nothing much came of the investigation, such as one was. The Dr's said I was healthy enough and was placed in an orphanage after quarantine. Ula, or mum, was the sister of a nurse there and she fell in love with me at first sight, so my stay in the state run facility was brief.

Mum and Da raised me right and I grew up in the relative isolation and comfort of a small coastal town of New Port just outside of the big city. It was nice enough and I enjoyed it and even stuck around to help run the family businesses, a small pub, seafood joint and sheep farm up in the hills. A few years ago the inevitable happened and I went over one Sunday to find them having died peacefully in their sleep, neither had been in great health for while so it was hardly unexpected, still it hurt and I grieved for a time, but as they would say, life goes on.

Before I knew it a couple years had passed and when the Spaceport opened a new hub near the New Port I started a business in delivering sandwiches and lunch to the workers and travelers. I was lucrative and I got my first look and heard my first tales from travelers to other worlds. Of course I knew about them but never thought I might go to see them. Still I was bored with the businesses in New Port and everywhere I looked I remembered Mum and Da. Moping around town was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I found myself hanging around more and more at the Spaceport. It was there that Capn and I hooked up and given my abilities and contacts he offered me a place on the ship, I have not looked back. Don't get me wrong, I have a nice place to retire too and a good, if quiet, life waiting for me back there should I want it, but for now its to the stars that my road takes me.