Ryan Chapman made his living importing to Pierogi. You wanted it, he could get it. He dabbled in a few shady deals, the most memorable of which involved an entire pharmecutical lab being quietly imported, but the vast majority of his dealings were completely legitimate. (note that this story very carefully fails to give any details which would implicate anyone living - it's more about the hoops the recipients went through to get it, than anything else, and dwells on this tale because it is interesting) There are also a few tales of things lost in translation: what the person asked for made sense on Pierogi, but what they received was... quite different. Additionally, there are anonymized discussions with offworlders who dealt with him, (courtesy of underworld plot).
Dylan Ellis is the peace officer who found the pharmecutical lab, from Ryan Chapman's story. He never managed to figure out how they got it. This story meshes in with Ryan Chapman's, giving another perspective and tying up some loose ends. Officer Ellis had a wife and kids, and while he was worried that he might get killed in the line of duty, had a strong sense duty fueled by the feeling that he was making the world a better place.
Anna Wright learned everything she knew about gambling on the Well. She supervisied one of the minor gambling establishments there, until she scraped enough together to leave. On Pierogi, she realized she knew tricks nobody here had heard of... and as long as she included some fortune randomizing psis (to stop the dishonest) and kept things honest (to appease the Farseer), she did quite well.
When the Sweet Chance made landfall, Sophia Cox was more than glad. She was grateful: the owner was unwilling to spend any more money than he had to, and it had finally caught up to him, and the Chance's luck had finally run out. It wasn't lifting until replacement parts were imported. Meanwhile, if she wanted to sleep off the ship, it would be on her own credit. In the city, though, she realized: Pierogi does import technology, and very few people knew as much about that technology as she did. Sophia terminated her contract, and set up a life on Pierogi.
Harrin, an explorer. His scout ship was in Perogi at the wrong time, and did not make it out. He loved the nebula; its ever changing views. While he never found a new planet, he did not mind. He wanted other things: the True Center, the Dust Wyrm, a Midnight Turb, or a Mirror Visitation.
Arkady Ilyavich. As an Armsman to the Farseer, he was getting close to retirement age, had trained dozens of successors personally. But Pierogi was, for the most part, a very peaceful place. He'd helped calm down minor domestic disputes and done his bit to move sandbags for a flooding river, but he'd never really felt that he was putting his life on the line for something he cared about. And that was important to him, somehow. Knowing that it wasn't just a job, that it was a commitment to put the lives of others above his own. One of those he trained was off-planet, on Crux, and we discussed his mentor.
Aquilus, a Nuller. He was meeting with Harrin, to talk about some nebula oddities he had found. He wanted to die in the freedom and blackness of space. I spent some time EVA, with the ship nowhere nearby; it was sobering and relaxing, and what he would have wanted. Near Crux, I found another Nuller named Cenrius, and had a long discussion about nuller philosophy.
Crop rotation is a fact of life. One in three plantings has to be less profitable, to fix nitrogen back into the soil. Autumn Hill was a scientist working on mutating Tritriticale (a wheat variant) into a nitrogen-fixing version, "Quadrotriticale". A test plot even existed in a greenhouse outside the city.
It's a living. Your own boss, and you can take a day off any time you want. Occasionally, it is hard to find a roof... but the freedom, to Anthony Cook, is worth the time spent begging credits from strangers.
Emma Palmer was a gemcutter. She had an uncanny knack for getting the best, most brilliant cuts out of diamonds. However, her true love was cutting opal; well aged, so that the cracks are established and won't grow, she could turn a hopeless piece into a wonder. Regrettably, Pierogi's lack of good opal mines meant that she had to import nearly all her stock.
Perijrin. They may just be gloves... but they are very special gloves. Used hunting, they are made from Bolosk skin (an animal once native to Perogi), have a specific texture, are specially treated to wick moisture out and not stain. The fingertips are thin enough to nock and shoot an arrow; the cuffs are thick enough to protect your forearms. And for some reason, they've recently become a fad in the 20-somethings in the inworlds. It isn't like they are used to hunt... they are used to say "I am macho, I could hunt." But people buy them, and so Perijrin exports them. Although the supply is gone, the highly durable gloves may still be available used in the inworlds.