Freehold

Story so far

Freehold's three hundred colonists accept Payne Houston's return and listen when the Medina fugitives arrive as refugees and freedom fighters. The Rocinante hides in a narrow glacier valley six hours on foot from town, beneath pale-green rooted vines whose buoyant bladders spread a moving canopy. Local life irritates Naomi's skin, crawls toward warm gun housings, lights in the dark, and quickly recolonizes thruster burns.

The colony adopts a publicly compliant, anti-union stance toward Laconia while privately sheltering both the Roci and the captured Gathering Storm on a gas giant's moon. Alex trades reactor-charged batteries for beer and curried goat, making the visitors useful. The council's independence ideology favors harboring enemies of centralized power, but the arrangement remains practical rather than unconditional. Naomi and Alex expect betrayal eventually, just not soon or cheaply while the gunship, energy, and gate watch serve Freehold's interests.

Appearance

A low-gravity world of steep mountain valleys, glacier creeks, pale-green floating vines, dark arid settlement, three moons, glowing night life, and hidden ships on both planet and satellite.

Role

Freehold is the resistance's remote refuge, sustaining concealment through compatible politics, isolation, alien terrain, and mutual material advantage.

Relationships