Due to the aforementioned creative blockage, I had to come up with 5
captains' names in reasonably short order.  This is a bit of an infodump.

Larsen Whipsnade and Fred Ramen are my small tributes to the TMLers of
those names/aliases.

Whether either are even related (beyond gender and species) to the
similarly-named Golden Age reprobates are matters entirely for Bill
Cameron and Fred Ramen, respectively.

By the expiry of Nikov's deadline, the following ships had signed on,
along with some particulars:

_Butcher's Paradise_

200 dton far trader, Lyman powered

Skipper: Drake Milford

_Like A Record_

400 dton lab ship, Miller powered

Skipper: Zhou Tai An

_Caerbannog Rabbit Fancy_

1,000 dton training ship, Miller powered

Skipper: Commander Larsen Whipsnade, RCN (ret)

_Echo Papa 507_

400 dton ship wot Whipsnade et al nicked, Miller powered

Skipper: Lt. Commander Fred Ramen, USN (ret)

_Stacey Thomson_

800 dton AgroVation mining support ship, Miller powered

Skipper: Ahluvda "Guru" Hudugurusinha

_Batteries Not Included_

800 dton depot ship, Lyman powered

Skipper: Reginald Hightower

_Obsidian Sky_

400 dton testbed, Lyman powered

Skipper: Will de Ness

With contracts drawn up and signed (with some Nikovian grumbling about
the Riders ships being subcontracted), the next step was pre-emptive
annual maintenance.  With the TCN signing the chit, space to do such
maintenance mysteriously opened up in Phoenix Orbital.

While annual maintenance was underway, people got busy.

Nikov assembled teams from:

Smutny Associates Ltd (planetary survey, for some reason reluctant to
board the _Paradise_);

Hasegawa KK

Kminiak Astrosurveys AG (remote sensing expertise, including astronomy)

Tealvo-Richards Inc

TCN Navy Scouts (turret/missile gunners, dirtside types)

Dan Hurd Prospecting (mineral/resource prospecting)

"Collision" Collinson worked closely with each ship's cargomaster to
stuff a massive amount and variety of kit aboard all 7 ships.

Extra crew turned up to flesh each ship out as needed - Das Boot ended
up with all its staterooms occupied (1 with tucker, other 9 with people).

Extra crew in their case turned out to be:

     - Johannes van Wijand, astrogation/comms

     - Jim Ladone, engineer

     - Piotr Yakunin, pilot

     - Beverly Skeete, air/raft pilot

     - Priss Dehasse, air/raft mechanic

     - Nugget, cook

     - Chunky, cook

     - Trinh (never figured out a last name), turret gunnery instructor
with the TCN Scouts, veteran of two earlier misjumps aboard the _Paradise_

     - Five dirtside specialist types from the TCN Scouts

Old Joe commandeered and converted one stateroom into a pantry, loading
nearly 2 years' worth of preserved grub for the newly-expanded crew.  He
wasn't involved in the original Goofy Holler, but he's seen his
captain's "luck" firsthand.  He still wasn't sure he'd loaded enough
grub for a nominal 12-month charter.

Alex

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