Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The Town of Salmo on Planet Lava

Welcome special readers. Thanks for being here.

This week we’ve been hanging out at Max’s Saloon. Yes, the place still stands. Old time friends of Max who knew her when she lived on planet Lava would recognize the town of Salmo. Even after almost eighty years have passed since Max owned a saloon on the dusty streets of a dirt bag back road town.  

Not much has changed in Salmo. Walker Street is still not paved. The SID science center at the Eastern edge of town is abandoned, it’s hydro-cyclon cooler now silent.

The Tarsan mission on the west side of town is still there and still operates as an ashram serving the Maausk peace movement. I doubt they get the visitors that the Gavaskar / Tarvas Center For Peace gets but it is a sanctuary.

The Salmo Hotel still operates but is not quite as busy as it was during Max’s time. There is still some mining in the area but not like it was. When the SID collapsed it was found that there were better resources available on other worlds. However, there are still some private mines operating in the Salmo vicinity. I understand that they are still pulling silver and some gold from the hills and rocky draws around Salmo.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Max's Saloon

Welcome quick readers. Thanks for being here.

Max’s Saloon. . .  I think it can be argued that Max’s Saloon launched the career of, perhaps, the greatest person in the Milky Way Galaxy.

I suppose that might be an over statement and a simplification, but it can certainly be said that there were moments in that bar that affected the history of the galaxy.

Max met Miles Sanderson there. Their friendship accomplished great things. Max learned some about her inner strength there and met Sierra her long term friend.

Max took the saloon over from David Green when he was killed by a stray bullet from a gunfight in the street in front of the place. At the time it was called “Mike’s”. Max changed the name to cut ties with the horrible incident that put her in charge of the saloon. Mike has been forgotten to history. It is not even known for sure if there was ever even a real “Mike”.

When Max left for Kusha with my friend Dorian Thain she left the place with Sierra. Sierra ran the place till very recently although she quit tending bar there many years ago. Sierra kept the name “Max’s” and it became something of a tourist destination. Individuals from all over the galaxy from all the different intelligent species can to see Max’s humble beginnings.

History is a funny thing. Historians certainly know and understand that Max came from planet Harappa, that she studied astrophysics at the University of Sandon but most people’s understanding of Max’s life only goes back to Max’s Saloon. The myth of Max Gavaskar begins at the saloon. Her dealings with the lowlifes and barflies there are the foundation that her myth is built upon.

When story tellers tell tall tales of Max’s early life they are invariably about Max’s Saloon and the patrons there.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Sierra Waters

Welcome real readers. Thanks for being here.

What every happened to Sierra Waters? A young Sierra met Max Gavaskar in Salmo on planet Lava. Sierra was a down on her luck Lavan native. Max offered her a job in Max’s Saloon and that act began a long term friendship.

Sierra worked the Saloon until Max left the planet tipped on it’s side with my friend Dorian Thain. Then Sierra took over the ownership of that saloon. Shortly after Max left Sierra met Dusty Water’s son and they established a relationship. Within a few months they were marries and shortly thereafter there were three kids. Melanie, Marvin and Jake.

Sierra sold the place just recently and she and her husband moved to a place near Colonial. She has never left her planet of birth. She has remained on planet Lava her entire life. 

These days it is fairly rare to fined someone who has never been to a second world or more. Sierra has never demonstrated any desire to travel beyond her personal homeworld. Curiosity has never been a marking trait for Sierra.

Tomorrow we will discuss how Max’s Saloon changed over the years.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Bubba the Science fan's Friday Rant: Civilization isn't free.

Welcome open readers. Thanks for being here.

I have over the past several weeks been pontificating about my belief that we are now more peaceful and civilized than we ever have been. 

Not many people agree with me. I find it distressing that so may people refuse to believe in peace. I understand that there are way too many examples of the opposite of peace in the news today. We certainly have not yet achieved world peace. There is still hatred.

I was just reading a comments thread on Youtube. Comments threads are most definitely not the place to look when seeking peace. But the hatred there sometimes surprises me. Why is it that our conservative friends hate us liberals so much?

What I see liberals offering up to conservatives is condescension and pity. Coming back from the conservatives . . . hate, definitely hate.

I assume it is because their media sources preach fear of liberals on a constant basis. Liberals are trying to take America (where I don’t know but supposedly we are taking it away from conservatives).

When I read conservative rants I keep reading over and over screeds that claim liberals are something that I an not. I consider myself very liberal. I don’t want to take guns away from law abiding citizens. I don’t want to destroy the economy. I love freedom. I love America.

I do believe it is an absurd notion that the richest nation in the world can’t educate and care for our own people. I further believe that most people are honest and hard working and given the opportunity will contribute to society.

If you are a conservative, understand this . . . liberals are not your enemy. We want the same things you do, peace and security. We want the opportunity to succeed. We want clean air and water. We don’t want to pay any more taxes than necessary, but we do understand the civilization isn’t free and paying taxes is every American’s patriotic duty.

If you are a liberal, have some compassion for our conservative friends. They have run society for a very long time and are being asked to share control of our world with people they once considered marginal. We have to understand that when our conservative friends see that people of color, gay people and people fighting to protect the environment want many of the same things they want, that we want prosperity for all, that we want peace and stability, they will come around, eventually.

All sides have to give up hate and distrust of the “other”.

Never mix red wine with Oodo, but cider is fine.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Max Gavaskar's Close Calls

Welcome precious readers. Thanks for being here.

Yesterday we told the tale of history without Max Gavaskar. I’m sure there were several times that we actually came close to that really happening. She had several close calls. 

Escaping Planet Harappa was the first one. If she had gone to her professor’s house minutes earlier she would have been arrested by the SID. They could have easily scooped her up while she travelled in their starship to Planet Lava.

Agent Drew almost caught Max several times. The SID agent was closing in on Max when she was re-assigned to security in the ice mines. She came close to nabbing Max when Max went to the ice mines to hide and meet up with her then boy friend Connor Holt. Annika Drew almost caught Max when she was on the run with my friend Dorian Thain just before they got off Lava and headed to Planet Kusha,

She experienced a few close calls there too. Twice she was charged by a Kushan Kabear. She could have been captured or injured several times when she went after the Tarsan rogues.

Then when Gary Meyer went after her in earnest she had several close shaves with him, culminating in their conflict in Estonia.

Some how Max Gavaskar survived all those close calls to become the ambassador to all peoples in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Galactic History Without Max Gavaskar

Welcome open readers. Thanks for being here.

Today, my speculation about a Galaxy where Max Gavaskar did not save us all. . .

Brilliant young physics student, Max Gavaskar discovers a problem with the SID’s faster than light spaceships. She goes to them with her data and she is never heard from again.

Dorian Thain is abducted while on Earth for a peace conference. The conference fails but Dorian escapes and makes his way to Lava by stowing away on an SID starship. While there he makes contact with several resistance groups but is captured and arrested by SID agent Gary Meyer.

In Dorian’s absence his Sister-in-law, Lanice Thain continues to manage the government and makes strong ties with the Tarsan missionaries. They steal an SID starship and head off to proselytize to the developing worlds around the Milky Way. Mary Carmini drives this expansion and builds a great army of primitive cultures armed with modern weapons.

When the Fordians come to stop the SID space program and remove the humans from Kusha the Tarsan Army intervenes and destroy the Fordian starship. This ignites the Galactic War which brings in all the advanced species to aid the Fordians. Humans on Earth, Lava and Kusha are wiped out. Harappa is assaulted by a force led by the Tax and Fordians. When the SID is destroyed the Tarsan army is the only human group left and the rest of the galactic nations hunt them, eventually killing them off after several long years of conflict.

No one solves the problem with FTL for another few centuries.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: What drives Max Gavaskar?

Welcome nice readers. Thanks for being here.

What drives Max Gavaskar?

I’ve met her. I knew her before she became known as “The Mother of the Galaxy”. I don’t know her well enough to understand her inner desires and motivations. She is the only one who can truly know this information and even then who among us really understands our true nature.

I’ve had enough conversations with her, over the years, that I can better than only a few offer up a reasoning about what motivates her.

She is a logic driven individual. Her passion is a quest for knowledge. Anything that hinders this quest is an issue that needs to be dealt with in a dispassionate and logical way. Define the problem and design a solution based on all the information available.

When she first came to understand the underlying problem with FTL travel her first reaction was to go directly to the SID with the facts. Had she done so, history would have turned out very differently. If she had turned to them she would have surely been arrested and who knows if she would have ever come to her insight? The Fordians were already on their way by then. How would have First Contact turned out if Dorian Thain had not had Max’s insight in his back pocket? I’m guessing not well for the humans. How would the Galactic War have ended had Max not been in Estonia at just right time to confront Gary Meyer?

There was an ancient Earth movie called “A Wonderful Life” it was about how things would turn out different if one person were not there. I can imagine a very different scenario had Max Gavaskar not followed the path she chose.

So tomorrow, I’ll write my version of what would have happened if Max had not escaped the SID and how the Galactic War would have been a very different thing.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480