Ship's Holog: June 2078, fragment #23

As soon as our shore party returned from provisioning in New Brandon, we set sail to continue up the lake to our first major destination, the great port of Burlington. We were going to have to abandon our original plan to sail Lake Champlain under one of the dozen false ship name registrations we will be constantly changing so the authorities won't be able to trace our movements by interviewing people who have seen us. To accomplish this we have been carrying false identification signs for the rear of our vessel, as well as corresponding false registration papers in case we are boarded by the authorities. We even have paint and other materials on board to change the appearance of the ship if we suspect that our movements are being traced.

However, due to Noah’s unfortunate interaction at the Coop, we now can't risk using a false name in case the Coop has alerted the Coast Guard to our suspicious purchases. If stopped by the Coast Guard, it would be far too easy for them to quickly determine that our ship name is counterfeit. Then, we’ll really be in the soup, probably even charged with suspicion of intent to carry out subversive activities.

So we have no choice but to use the real name and registration papers for our ship. Of course. there's a big risk of doing this, as well, bit it's more of a long term risk: if the Coast Guard should stop us now, they would know exactly who we are, which could enable them later to put two and two together and realize that it was our family who had been on a ship that disappeared from their surveillance somewhere north of the lake. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed.