Sir Joseph Butler

Sir Joseph Butler, The General of the Starship Fleet

You are the General of the Starship Fleet. You have worked your way up to this lofty position from lowly beginnings and are very proud of the success you have made. It is a story that should inspire any good person to see the heights to which they can rise, and you recount it often.

You were lucky enough to be born on earth, in the center of things, but your parents were very poor, and even in high-school you needed to work to help your family. When you were a boy you worked as office boy for an attorney’s firm. You cleaned and swept and always gave special thought to polishing everything in the head partner’s office, even down to the door handle. You made such an impression that they gave you a position working as a junior clerk while you were in college. You served writs, took dictation and did filing.

You had such a good experience that you went into law school. While in law school, the firm gave you higher clerical positions, and when you left law school, you went directly into the firm. Your scores were so good that in very little time, they took you into the partnership. The junior partnership they gave you was the only ship of any kind you had seen.

In that partnership, you served well enough that you were sent to work for a senator of Precipice Technologies, who thought very highly of you. You always knew that the company was in the right, and started your work from there. When he was elected president of the corporate council, he appointed you General of the Starship Fleet. You know that space travel is a waste of time for anyone hoping to get promoted in this world: stay on earth, work hard and make connections! Do this and they too may become generals in the Starship Fleet.

In your time as a lawyer and general, you have accumulated many connections and a fair bit of money. Your law firm always carefully diversified its holdings in order to avoid being too tightly connected to any one corporation, and you have followed this formula. While your patron is a member of Precipice Technologies, you own enough stock from each company to avoid being beholden to any.

In your success there has been only one dark side. As a lawyer, you once represented the Agribusiness Mafia in its attempt to lay claim to a young girl. Her parents were heavily indebted to the corporation and died fleeing, so the corporation claimed the girl as their sole holding. She was 15 at the time, and already becoming beautiful. You gained her for the Agribusiness company, and she will be indentured to them for at least 25 years after her 21st birthday, trying to pay off her parents debt and her own.

After the court battle, the company hired you to help set up guardianship for her and handle her papers. You have worked with her on and off over the past seven years and have fallen in love with her. You can’t let anyone know how tied you are to the agribusiness by her, so you refer to her only by her pet name: Petunia. Her old name was something boring anyway: hear the beauty of it Petunia, Petunia. It fits her perfectly. At 18, you had her installed on the flagship that you had named for her, where she works as the ship’s navigator. You’re not entirely sure what she does in that capacity, but that’s ok, neither is she. You can’t marry her, but at least you can hold her in your arms when you are traveling.

After she turned 21, she would normally have been free if she could pay off her debts. You immediately prepared the money to pay her off and take her away. However, Don Donald Donson had since laid claim to her, and the rules of the Agribusiness mafia say that an indentured servant who is engaged can only be paid off by her own money or by her fiancé. The idea, supposedly, is to prevent someone from taking another’s lover as his slave. In this case, it allows Don Don to claim your beloved as his own, and prevents you from doing anything about it. You would do nearly anything (short of losing your coveted position, at least) to give her the freedom to marry you.

Corporate Allegiance: Interplanetary Association (No specific company)
Stock Owned: 20% of Precipice Technologies, 5% of each other Corporation

Who You Know

• Anish Patel: The engineer of your flagship. Anish is a good engineer. Anish is an alien from Gattpatt. They seem to produce great technologists.

• Avi Levenstein: The Doctor. You trust Dr. Levenstein with your life, or at least with your name. You have to. Avi has been providing you with Elixus for years. Elixus is a drug that gives you back your youthful fervor, and lets you be all you should for your young beloved. Without it you would have a hard time living up to her expectations, but you can't let anyone see you as anything but young and virile. It is vital that no one know.

• Dominique Buckley: A great media celebrity. You have been quite impressed by some of Dominique's work.

• Don Donald Donson: The evil Mafia Don who is using the company's terrible rules to steal your darling beloved Petunia away from you. He is taking her away against her will to his home planet to marry her. If it wasn't for Don Don, you would have bought her freedom already and been happily married.

• Dorcas Peterson: Your beautiful and beloved Petunia. She is indentured to the Agribusiness Mafia, and engaged to be married to Don Don against her will. Without your beloved Petunia, life would be but an empty shell. You cannot let the Don take her from you, but you see no way out without abandoning everything you have worked for. Only her fiance or she herself can pay her debt and free her from indentureship.

• The Red Family: The IA owes a great debt to the Red family. Without their many generations of selfless service the IA might not be where it is today.

• Jeff L. Pickett: The captain of the Petunia. A good captain and a good leader. Jeff leads boldly from the front, wherever the Petunia is sent.

• Jesus Rodriguez: The bartender. Jesus is a good and trustworthy man. Many times you have poured out your sorrows before him.

• Madison Wisconsin: The counselor. Without Madison's advice your life would be harder and more rocky. Madison's vibrant spirit buoys your own at times.

• RX-137: The Communications Officer. It's amazing the things they can do with robots these days. Rex really almost seems to show emotion sometimes.

• Wahad Th'nein: Number One is a good officer. Number One keeps the crew in line. Stern discipline is important.

Goals

• Find some way to rescue your beloved Petunia.

• Inspire others with your story.

• Maintain the pristine image necessary for your position.

• Seek new opportunities to advance the Interplanetary Association.