Andrew Sandia

Earning

Sandia started out in his uncle’s two-ship interface line, Black Feather Exports, but washed out: Sandia just couldn’t handle the dull routine, the harsh discipline, and the strict rules he faced. He fell in with a group of miners wandering around Hebrin Subsector, and spent an exciting decade with them uncovering small-yield claims, fighting to keep them from other hungry miners. The find that changed his life 984 - the high-grade lanthanum find on the world of Salek, an outer system rockball in the Iridia (Empty Quarter 1830) system - took a good three years to finally cash in after defending it against all comers, in the courts, in the streets, and in the void. Now, seeing how bad things are - with the Imperial Navy gone, and the Shadow Cartel muscling in on everything they can - those tough days look like a gentle walk in the sunshine...

Spending

Sandia originally established himself in Hebrin (Empty Quarter 1930), living very low-profile for a man worth three billion credits. But, with the boom finished and the lanthanum strip mines practically exhausted - leaving only Grand Canyon-scale scars on the airless world - Sandia finally took the advice of his family and relocated to Lakea (Empty Quarter 1738). Encouraged by the local’s kindness and welcoming attitude, he joined a local church and married a local girl. Sandia looked for ways to make his money do good, by building an informal association with other socially-minded magnates, charities, activists, and philanthropists to push back on the pirates. Unlike most other groups in the Empty Quarter, Sandia’s Association of Hope (AoH) was not restricted by race or religion, or even Imperial nationality: “If you want to cross the stars without the fear of theft or murder, join us ”

The biggest public victory the AoH has won so far was the discovery of a prison camp on an isolated island on Rajan (Empty Quarter 2331), that fed a sex slavery ring. The evacuation and release of the women there raised the profile of AoH, bringing in more donations and making more influential friends. It’s now a full-time job, but Sandia is quickly bored by success, and is looking for someone to take AoH over and continue the struggle against the pirates and the Cartel, freeing the slaves and restoring stolen property to its rightful owners. Once this turnover is done, Sandia can completely switch his attention to a new project: upgrading and refreshing a group of three orbiting stations over Nulinad (Empty Quarter 0338), used to house and treat sophonts suffering from mental illnesses and retardation.

For fun, he likes to teach his kids - adopted and natural - more about Old American history, especially on the Second American Republic. He has a smattering of knowledge on the first ‘Washingtonian’ Republic, but has a weak grasp on certain important points. “Was the Civil War fought in the 1880s, or the 1780s?” Sandia’s understanding of 24th century Old American English is not too distant from that of the early 21st century: a time traveller from our world and time could do a lot worse than make Sandia his first contact in the Imperial Empty Quarter of 993 Imperial.

References and Contributors

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Alvin Plummer. "Personality Profiles." Stellar Reaches 21 (2013): 30.

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