Stanley Geddes

**Stanley Geddes** is the uncle of Alasdair Geddes, and his employer in the interim period between Morag Geddes' death and Alasdair's joining the crew of the *Stellar Typhoon*.

## Stanley Geddes

### Relatives

* Hunter (Brother; Deceased)
* Alison (Wife)
* Alasdair (Nephew)
* Valerie (Niece)
* Morag (Sister in Law; Deceased)

## Persona

Stanley Geddes is the younger brother of
Hunter Geddes, and thus also the uncle of Alasdair Geddes. In the brief period
prior to Alasdair joining the crew of the *Stellar Typhoon,* Stanley was also his employer, frequently calling upon his
services as a technician onboard one of the freighters belonging to his
interstellar transport company.

While
not abusive by any means, Stanley can come across as rather strict, overbearing
and pushy. He will generally put the interests of himself and his company over
those of other people (sometimes even his wife).

Despite
his unpleasant external demeanour, in truth Stanley is rather insecure; Years
of living under the shadow of his older brother have caused him to *play himself up* in order for anyone to
take any notice of him; having taken sole charge of his transport company after
Hunter's death, he frequently worries about it going under; this devotion to
the interests of his company has driven a rift between him and several of his
friends and relatives.

Though
we've not as of yet seen the other half, Stanley is married to fellow raccoon
Alison. She handles most of his company's paperwork, and also serves to reign
him in whenever he goes too far. His devotion to his job has often meant
trouble for their marriage, but they always manage to pull through intact.

## Physical Description

Stanley is a raccoon, who stands at
about three feet, ten inches tall. He has brown eyes, and matching brown hair,
generally cut to about shoulder length.
Stanley
can generally be seen wearing a jacket fashioned from the top half of an old
boiler suit, with a maroon wool sweater underneath. To go with these, he has a
pair of old denim jeans, and an equally aged pair of red trainers. On the
jacket, Stanley has a tag with his name on it.

## Background

Stanley Geddes was born on September
14th 2961, in the City of Glenfalcons, on the planet Procyon VI. News of Stanley's
birth came as rather a surprise to friends of the Geddes family, as there was
now a sizeable age gap between him and his older brother Hunter, who'd been
born way back in 2946, and was now nearly 15 years old. By now, though, he was
just beginning his pursuit of a career as a freighter pilot, and so he was very
rarely in the house. Thus Stanley hardly saw his older brother for much of his
early life.

Stanley's
childhood was a decidedly average one, if a little lonely for him. Being
subjected to bullying at school left him often feeling insecure, and unsure of
what to do with himself. There wouldn't have been much more to Stanley's
childhood, if it weren't for one of the few friends he had: Finbar MacTaggart.

Finbar
was another raccoon, who lived in a tenement flat a few streets down from
Stanley's home. He was two years older, but that didn't make him more mature or
sensible. If anything, Finbar was very wild, unpredictable and off the wall, in
stark contrast to Stanley's meek, sensible personality. Stanley found Finbar's
behaviour a little unnerving, but he still chose to play with him, if only to
reign him in from doing anything drastic.

Stanley
and Finbar saw a lot of each other during their formative years, and Finbar
would often be the driving force behind Stanley trying out things he'd never
have dreamed of doing on his own.

One
notable such thing was in the mid-70s, when both Stanley and Finbar had just
left school. Finbar was dead set on enlisting as an officer in the Stellar Federation Military Police, and he successfully convinced Stanley to sign up as
well. Stanley wasn't so keen on military life, but luckily for him, he ended up
failing the entrance exam anyway, on medical grounds (the exact circumstances remain a
mystery). However, this left him with a dilemma: what career could he pursue
instead?

The
answer came a few weeks later, during a visit from both Hunter and his wife
Morag (who Stanley had briefly met during their wedding in 2966). At this time,
Hunter was beginning to get his transport company off the ground, but he was in
need of extra hands. During the visit, Stanley happened to mention the fact
that he'd got his stellar pilot's license almost immediately after leaving
school, and this prompted Hunter to suggest that he join his new company.
Figuring he had nothing to lose, Stanley accepted the suggestion, and began his
training in 2977, onboard Hunter's flagship freighter-cum-home, the *Clan Geddes*.

Then
in 2981, Hunter decided that as part of an expansion of his operation (and also
after one awkward moment too many onboard the *Clan Geddes*), Stanley should be entitled to his own freighter, and
the two brothers (with Finbar tagging along, since he was on leave at the time)
spent the better part of a week examining what could be offered by the best
dealerships in Glenfalcons. Which, as it first appeared, was very little.
However, Stanley persevered, and eventually came across a freighter he liked
that was a reasonable size and cost.

When
he went to inquire about purchasing the freighter, Stanley found his luck was
in for a second time (though he wouldn't admit it until several years later): working
at this particular dealership was a beautiful young lady raccoon, and after negotiating
a deal for the freighter, Stanley took it upon himself to introduce himself to
this young lady, who then introduced herself as Alison Balfour. After chatting
for a while, it transpired that Alison was interesting in a career change: she
didn't want to be just *selling* the
freighters; she wanted to *travel* on
them.

Afterwards,
Stanley happened to bring this up to both Finbar and Hunter, and while the
former took it as just an excuse for him to see more of Alison, the latter thought
that he was onto a winner with that idea, and persuaded Alison to quit her old
job and join his company (which by this stage had been named *H&S Geddes Transport Solutions*).

After
Alison joined the company, Stanley's working relationship with her blossomed, though
he was still too shy to admit any further feelings for her. However, after a
little prodding from his peers, he finally plucked up the courage to tell
Alison what he truly thought about her. Alison then confessed that the feeling
was mutual, and after a few months they started dating.

In
2984, after a couple of years of going steady, Stanley finally decided to
propose to Alison. Naturally, she accepted, and so that he'd have no chance of
forgetting any future anniversaries, they timed their wedding day to coincide
with Hunter and Morag's 15th wedding anniversary. They spent their honeymoon
onboard Stanley's freighter, the *Midnight*
*Sun,* but as soon as it was over, it was a case of *back to work* for both of them, working alongside Hunter and Morag (who
had been joined in 2982 by daughter Valerie).

The
rest of the 80s, and the very early 90s, passed by very peacefully and
uneventfully for both the Geddes couples, but then in October 2992, a
devastating turn of events was to occur that would change Stanley's life
forever.

Apart
from the *Clan Geddes* and the *Midnight Sun*, H&S Geddes owned a
substantial number of other freighters, many of which were stored at the
company's premises in Glenfalcons. One day, Hunter happened to be sweeping out
the cargo hold of one of these freighters, when he accidentally dropped his
cigarette (it should be noted that Hunter was not a heavy smoker: at this point
he was merely a *one a day* man). Just
as he was bending down to pick it back up, the entire hold suddenly burst into
flames, and the freighter effectively *exploded*.
It was later determined that traces of gunpowder from a recent delivery to
Nant-Coed had permeated the walls and floors of the cargo hold, and been
ignited by Hunter's cigarette.

In
any case, Stanley happened to be working elsewhere on the premises, so he was
on hand to help avert the disaster. Sadly, despite Stanley's best efforts, the explosion
and the resulting fire saw the total destruction of the freighter, some severe
damage to a few others, and the death of Hunter Geddes. Stanley and Alison then
provided comfort to the devastated Morag (who had only recently given birth to
a second child, Alasdair).

Stanley
was also on hand to help Morag gain compensation for her husband's death, with
great difficulty (the company Hunter had delivered the gunpowder to was owned
by the Stellar Federation, who took a dim view on travellers like Morag).
Eventually, after threatening a crippling lawsuit against the company in
question, Stanley was able to claim the compensation Morag desperately needed,
and also managed to get the legislation changed so that vehicles and vessels
used to transport explosives could *only*
be used for that single purpose (incidentally, this new legislation became
known colloquially among freighter pilots as the *Hunter Act*, in his memory).

In
spite of the success Stanley had in helping Morag, he had another problem on
his hands: what would happen to H&S Geddes? The two brothers had held equal
ownership of the company, and after Hunter's death, Morag had inherited his
share of the deed. However, Morag had found it too emotionally painful to continue
her association with her late husband's company, so she had promptly sold her
share to Stanley, before disappearing into the stars in the *Clan Geddes* (now renamed the *Hunter*).

When
Stanley found himself with full ownership of the company, he bravely decided
that *someone* had to keep things
running, and that it might as well be *him*,
so with a reluctant Alison by his side he plunged headfirst into the business.
This was also the point when Stanley's marriage began to show its first,
slightest strains, as the headache following Hunter's death had put paid to
Alison's aspirations of them having children together.

Stanley,
Alison and their company struggled throughout the remainder of the 90s, and
through the turn of the 31st Century, but worse was to come for them. In late
3007, Stanley woke one day to the news that now Morag was dead as well, and that
the *Hunter* had been destroyed. This
shook up Stanley's life once again, especially when he discovered that his
niece Valerie-who'd been staying with him at the time-would now be staying
permanently with him and Alison. However, his nephew Alasdair had never gotten
on well with him, and so refused the home being offered to him. He went off to
stay with a friend who lived in Glenfalcons, while Valerie stayed with Stanley.

Stanley's
life carried on at a near nadir for him from this point on. Ever since Hunter's
death some years earlier, Stanley had found it hard to keep the transport
company from going under, especially since it was now one of the last truly
independent companies of its type left anywhere in the Procyon System (most of
his competitors had been bought up, and now operated as mere subsidiaries of
major interstellar corporations). Staff shortages had been steadily rising over
the last few years, and at one point things became so bad that Stanley had to force
both Valerie and Alasdair into joining the company: the former as another
freighter pilot, the latter as a technical engineer.

Things
seemed to pick up again for the next couple of years, but in mid-3009, the *Midnight Sun* was suddenly raided by a
pirate cruiser, the *Stellar Typhoon*. By
a strange coincidence, the ship's captain, one *Jaws* MacTaggart, happened to be the wife of Finbar, but that wasn't
to be the only surprise Stanley received. Suddenly, and seemingly out of the
blue, Alasdair decided that he'd finally had enough of his miserable life in
Glenfalcons, and begged Jaws to take him away from it. Jaws agreed, and Stanley
was forced to reluctantly follow suit.

It's
unknown what happened to Stanley after Alasdair's departure from Glenfalcons, but
it's most likely that he is still suffering the same problems, and getting into
the same old arguments with his peers and staff. It's also unclear just why
Alasdair hated him so much, and with a return to the planet seeming unlikely,
it seems we will never know for certain...