Events take an unexpected turn...
02 Jul 2017NickTheGrey
Our return journey to the Bubble is not following the exact route we took to the Heart and Soul Nebulae. Consequently, we were more than likely to run into any number of SNAFUs on the way back.I'll confess to the Rookie mistake of believing a Class C Frame Shift Drive would be sufficient for our needs. The fact that it served our purposes and got us to where we wanted to go is unfortunately not relevant. After clearing two thousand light years in a matter of days, the area of space we were traversing contained fewer and fewer stars, scoop-able or otherwise.
I spent about an hour trying to figure out where the computer was having problems in plotting a route and determined that almost immediately Bubble-ward of our position was a gap between stars of just over the maximum limit of the FSD. I was about to turn back and find a longer and less direct route when I remembered that it was possible given some of the materials I had on board to push the FSD beyond its standard range.
Luckily the system we had entered had a number of land-able planets with fairly good minerals available. After another couple of hours I had enough for several jumps. I made the changes to the route plotter and engaged the drive...
... Which promptly failed. The extended jump would use up more fuel than the drive itself would allow. Back to the original problem.
While at the Farsight Expedition Base in the Heart Nebula, a list of all of the other currently-known Asteroid Bases was made available to me. Many of them were nowhere near our location and would require crossing the gulf we now found ourselves stumped by. In fact, only one of the thirty-two listed stood out - Hell Port, located in the Seagull Sector DL-Y D3 system. It was just over 5000LY from where we were, almost exactly perpendicular to our present course. If it remains our destination, we should be able to make it there in about a week.
That said, after each 1000LY leg is complete, I will test the navigation computer and attempt to plot a direct route back to the Bubble. If I can do it, we'll head straight back. If not, it'll be on to the next 1000LY checkpoint and I'll try again.
Also, while searching for the minerals necessary to boost the FSD, I came across two occupied escape pods on one of the land-able moons of a Class IV gas giant. While I've encountered many wrecked vessels in space, this is the first time I have seen one on a planet. There are no clues to indicate just how long they've been on that moon - nor to the state of the occupants - but they have been loaded aboard and will be taken with us.