Love this candle holder

Now we need to replace the blue holder in Kiri's rainbow stack, and we'll be ready for cold winter nights.

Just wrote this.

Needs work, I know.

The Wreck of the Free Trader Beowulf

by Douglas Berry

ttto “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Vilani on down,

of the perils to be found when flying.

The gray, it is said, never surrenders the dead,

when the lanthanum grid is misfiring.

With a hard-purchased load filling her cargo hold,

the Free Trader Beowulf broke orbit,

That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed,

when they made for the gas giant's orbit.

Beowulf was the pride of old Jamison's eye,

working worlds in the Regina subsector.

As the free traders go, it was more successful than most,

with a crew and good captain well seasoned,

Concluding affairs with suspected Corsairs,

when they boosted for the distant gas giant.

And later that flight when the ship's sensors called,

could it be Corsairs they'd been fleeing?

The fuel run was done and the ship clawed back up,

seeking the safety of orbit.

But there dead ahead, filling the crew full of dread

'twas three Corsairs tracking with them.

Without a word of command the Beowulf's crew to a man,

took the ship to General Quarters

When the pirate came in range the gunners opened fire,

this ship's no prize for the taking.

When the return fire came, Jamison grabbed the com, sayin'.

"Turret one, it's not responding"

A few salvos more, when the main drive cutout; he said,

"Fellas, there's one shot to save us!"

The captain sent out he was losing air fast,

and the good ship and crew needed saving.

And later in the fight when his jump grid flared,

came the wreck of the Free Trader Beowulf

Does any one know where the souls of men go

when they're lost in the vastness of jumpspace?

The Navy men say he was just three diameters away,

from the giant when he pushed the jump button

They might have blown up or they might have misjumped;

they may still be traveling forever.

And all you can see is some orbital debris,

the remains of a forgotten battle..

Jewell stands strong, Regina plots,

in the halls of the archducal mansion.

The Sword Worlds steam with impossible dreams;

of empires and domination.

And farther to rim we have Lunion,

a crossroads for who would travel.

Free traders still search for a way to get rich,

with the Free Trader Beowulf remembered.

In startown halls across the Spinward Main,

you hear the old spacers remember.

They drink Moran wine, every man seven times.

for each soul on the Free Trader Beowulf.

The legend lives on from the Vilani on down,

of the perils to be found when flying.

The gray, it is said, never surrenders the dead,

when the lanthanum grid is misfiring.