CMND Log 036: Mountain Signal Source
09 May 2019Switch Killington
May 05, 3305 3:19 --- Got drunk on Explorer's Anchorage at what they consider a commissary. It was Five-Four, the ancient holiday celebrating all things space, for some reason that no one remembers. Anyway, everyone buying drinks for commanders.I blacked out, as I do most Five-Fours, but I woke up in floating in deep space outside the Juenae WC-E et cetera system. It's the source for that strange Mountain Signal, I guess I bought a couple bottles of hooch and was gonna set out to find it. Passed out drifting out here with that signal, you can hear it quite clearly, but evidently my alcohol fueled inspiration didn't have much of a plan, and I could have swore I decided against chasing down this signal and heading back to bubble. Maybe I lost a bet. Ah, well, I'm out here with a headache might as well make the most of it.
Looking at what little information I have on it, (a little scrap of a text only data file that was passed around the fleet) I'm guessing whatever it is is in between Juenae WC-E C1-437 and Juenae JM-W c1-5825, I'll just call them 437 and 825. The signal seems to be coming from 825 when listening outside, but in 825 it's coming from 437, and some close systems kinda ping it coming from either or both. I've kinda tuned my ear to it out here and it seems to be coming from between then slightly off center. Ah, it's tough to explain with words. I'm going to go slightly past the halfway point, to where I should hear the signal from behind once I've 'passed' it.
Finding the source of this signal is super easy, just takes time. The real kicker will be if whatever is sending this signal can't be picked up on sensors. I haven't picked up any signal sources to lock on, and the FSS can hear the sound but it just thinks it's space noise. If it is a ship, it's wake has long gone cold, this signal has been our here for several weeks, maybe even longer we just didn't hear it. So no wake or emissions to lock on to. Additionally, I've had some strange glitches with my navigation, it's frozen up a couple times and the time to reach has been frozen or miscalculated. I'm hoping it isn't from some kinda interference this thing is giving off.
Discovery is running, so it will log any contacts or strange things that I might fly past, hopefully, if I am in the crapper or reading a romance novel or something while I fly past it. Been cruising for a few hours, I should have plenty of fuel to get 2/3rds of the way to 437. We will see where we are then. Pausing log.
6:27 --- I'm now a hair past the halfway point between 437 and 825, at a slight angle. The signal sounds stronger, but I'm certain its just my mind playing tricks on me. Placebo effect. I hear it because I want to hear it. It isn't true. Couple hours ago I turned my ears back on to listen again and I triangulated on a slightly different course. Maybe getting closer? I'm not confident I will find anything, but I've cruised for so long I might as well push on, but I'm officially pessimistic. I was before I came out here! A few drinks in me though, and its off to find Raxxla. The Scanners don't work well this far out from a system, something about how they load and track space objects, I don't know the technical aspects but the farther out we go the less reliable sensors and navigation is.
I'm dropping from supercruise and getting some sleep.
22:32 --- Couldn't sleep. I kept the ship pointed at the signal, it kept me up. I thought I would hear a new beep or change in the sound and would rush to the console and check my logs. It kept pulling me back to it, like it wanted me to see something. I'm setting out for just a little further, I'm a lil past halfway, if I go a little more I'll be sure to get definitive proof on where and if I can track it. Should be just a little further.
May 06, 3305 2:45 --- I am now more than two light years away from the 825 A, and past 437, its far to the side. The signal source hasn't moved, which should be impossible since you can hear it from 825 when you are in 437. Whatever is broadcasting the signal I should be behind me, but the sound is still in front of me, and not coming from 437 at all. I'm wondering how this is possible, I'm going to do a manual diagnostic of my computer and nav systems, might as well keep cruising while I'm at it. I'll go just a little further. Just be sure.
May 07, 3305 5:26 --- Just completed complete manual diagnostic of the sound board. To those uninitiated pilots out there, a bit of a science lesson. There is no sound in space. The sounds we hear are generated by a computer that watches, analyzes, and creates sound effects based off its input. When it detects lazer fire, it goes pew pew, so you know someone is shooting at you without reading a radar screen. When your engine is running it plays the vroom sound so you know how if and how fast you are moving without having to read a readout, you just hear it. It's why when you canopy blows, the sound goes with it, it's because the sound you hear is inside your ship on the air, not outside your ship in space. It's probably the most ingenious thing they did for space faring, and is also why Thargoids sound like a garbled mess of computer sounds, its because it doesn't have a properly translated sound profile for the Thargoids, but.... well that's my theory anyway. I digress.
I was hoping the soundboard would show me that the Mountain Signal is bugged. Like, the computer hears the sound from this deep space source, but has it cached as general space noise so it doesn't update the source location or move it in real time. During the diagnostic I isolated the sound and boosted it, ran it through the spectrometer. It could hear it so much more clearly, the underlying subtle beeps and boops that sculpted that landscape out of raw data. It was breathtaking how it all worked. This signal wanted to share this mountain with me, this mountain is important. I did a few hard boots of the computer so it could re-assess sound trajectories. It takes a long time, and you have to crack open the casings and fiddle with wires, very careful stuff, during which its just you and the actual, bald-faced reality of the silence of space. I found myself humming the signal's little song to fill the air of the ship, I could hear it clearly in my memory. When the computer came back online, it reported the signal coming from the same stretch of empty space. So, nothing new to report, except now my ship is well beyond system 437. Fuel is halfway gone. Going to do a little thinking and try to figure this out. Pushing on a little further in the meantime, it couldn't hurt.
8:35 --- Can't think straight with all the noise. I opened the soundboard back up and isolated the Landscape Signal to play, but switched off all other sounds. Nothing is out here, just me and the signal. No need to hear the drum of the engines. Just the signal. Now I can think.
May 08, 22:34 --- I figured it out. Bad news is my fuel is starting to dip dangerously low from the constant cruising. I've switched off all systems I can spare, and have started cycling my life support. Switching it off, breathing emergency oxygen for a a few minutes then switching it back on long enough to replenish the emergency supply. This should buy me a few more hours of flight time. Of course, it might buy me a cold, lonely death, so I'm going to keep this log open until I find the source.
Anyway, the good news. So, the saying goes when you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, is the truth. This signal when observed from outside the systems place it between 825 and 437. That is not disputed. But when I travel between systems and reach where the signal should be, it now can be observed in a different location. So, how can something emanate a signal from one place, but when you go to the location have it emanate from somewhere else? The source is mobile. Whatever is out here can detect a ship looking for it and then moves. It's leading me somewhere. There is something out here that it wants me to see. This mountain.
May 09, 00:11 --- Whatever this is I'm chasing it doesn't show on sensors, I have faith that it will show itself to me when we get where we are going. Switch sensors off, cockpit dark. Conserve more fuel.
I think I see something in the distance, among the gray haze of the galactic core.
00:25 --- Dozed off for a second. I'm thinking whatever this is has to be guardian, right? It's gotta be automated. Is Raxxla a guardian site? I thought it was suppose to be a gate, maybe that's where the guardians all went. I think I still have some of that guardian porn on my datadrives from the research all those months ago. That would be great, make first contact with a species long dead and I show them their choice porn as proof that I come in peace. I'd probably get probed. I'm gonna be probed, maybe I should back out while I've got a sliver of fuel left, I don't wanna be probed. I still got some 'breathing' room with my fuel reserves, so I'll go just a little further.
00:43 --- This must be a rogue planet right? Something hurtling through space, all the gravity wells of these stars bouncing it around. Something secret. Maybe this is a nav buoy showing the way. Not too further now.
01:12 --- A planet with this mountain on it. Only got a little bit of fuel left, I think I got one more hour of flight time before I only have enough left to jump to a star and scoop. If I'm going to find something its now or never.
01:24 --- Hard to hear the signal through my helmet. I think it changed.
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