Jamie should have a friend but a friend who doesn't 'count' for some reason; dumpy, unglamorous, unappreciated.

lichen could be the key to what motivates the Authority – mines everyone knows about, produce various minerals, crystals, but it’s the lichen they scrape off the buildings, what everyone thinks is waste, that actually make the Authority’s corrupt pseudo-aristocracy it’s wealth.

The shiny kit in the waste-disposal centre is what tips the revolutionaries off to what they are up to.

Open with Shelley having tried, and failed, to get a hangover, having drunk all her ration of alcohol for, ooh, a month. Like half a bottle of vodka or something. She’s quit college, again, and she’s got serious writer’s block. She tries over and over to write the opening line of a new Detective X novel, and fails. She only answers her aunt’s summons because she figures the day is already lost. She thinks things can get no worse; of course they get a LOT worse. Hehe.

If the Puritan movement (or similar fundies) founded this colony, they would have to rewrite the Bible to allow for there being more than one planet. They would think of themselves as Chosen for salvation, and would vehemently deny the spiritual validity of any alien races. If they met any other races coming here, they wouldn't want to admit to their existence later... I don't want to get bogged down in religious details but I do need to understand these people.

ACTION?

set the whole thing between halloween and bonfire night