-From "The Travels of Martin Leftwick, Wanderer and Observer" a popular post-war biography: The Many Songs of the Callidus Viator Ships built at the Jupiter-orbit shipyards in the pre-war years all ended up getting semi-latin names. The shipyard seemed to think that a planet named after a Roman god deserved a "Roman" name as well. In this case the name evolved into the moniker for an extended family who never seemed willing to settle down. The idea of a sort of "space gypsy" naturally caught the public imagination in the post-war boom years, and several entertainment vids were created (of debatable quality, alas) around the myths and stories being told and often embellished across the settlements of humanity. The stories were ultimately most popular amongst the people still living on Earth, romanticizing and ultimately encouraging more people to venture into the dark that was beyond Earth's protective shell. The truth, however, is surprisingly far more interesting. While a good deal less romantic, it is difficult to overstate the family's importance in the post war expansion. They are possessed of an independent and restless practicality that was critical to establishing the viability of more than one station out on the frontier. They seemed to see through to the heart of a problem, and always found manageable solutions. Their mining discoveries alone made at least two stations self-sufficient after they sold their discovery to the local combines. This in particular is the main reason new stations out on the frontier are always willing to accommodate their vagabond ways. They built a reputation for focusing their dealings with the locally-based organizations, and rarely ever deal with the large interstellar corporations. Their wandering nature means that after developing a profitable operation, they then sell it to a local, and leave before the system became too heavily occupied, always pushing out with the frontier. ------- I like returning to a character and his stories of human space after a long hiatus, it feels a bit like putting on a comfortable shoe that had been almost forgotten about. The space ship is my own creation, made and rendered in Bryce 6.5, mostly using my own textures but I did use presets for the framework constructs. The background is a combination of a Bryce planet, the Photoshop filter called "Lunarcell" and a good deal of layers from other semi-randomized filters. The stars were also done in photoshop, the faint negula came from several pictures of clouds. All compositing and additional "Wear and Tear" effects on the ship were done in Photoshop as well. Thanks for taking a look, and as always comments and critiques are most welcome. Especially critiques. What works and what doesn't?