The Distant Worlds Era
13 Jan 2019Disorganise
As I float in space, watching the planet slowly revolve and the endless stream of fellow commander's joining the fray, I remember the old days.The era of distant world's. Before FTL, the generation ships sought to get out there, into the depths. FTL changed our understanding of "depths". The black got a whole lot bigger, because it became a whole lot more possible.
We are human. And as such we strive to improve. And, my, have we improved. In just a few short years, we have doubled the possible FTL jump distance, as well as finding ways to temporarily "overboost" the technology which magic potions or exotic gases from Neutron stars and White Dwarfs.
So, bye old era. And welcome the new. Over 10,000 commander's have signed up this time around. Amazing. The air waves are full of chatter... Eagerly awaiting formal launch as well as the final goodbyes to loved ones.
Those that do, will come back. Those that don't..... Well.... Complacency has a habit of biting hard. Space is unforgiving of error. One screw not quite tightened enough, can lead to plate stresses that eventually rupture. It is oh so easy to die out there.
And that's why we're here. The challenge. The biggest "is that all you've got?" to the galaxy possible.
The old earth whisky is going down quite nicely. The 18 years is sat on oak, paling to insignificance to the 1200 years it spent a bottle.
To Raylene....I know you're watching. I couldn't bring myself to bring along anyone this time. Still feels too soon. I'll regret it is a few weeks of course, but... Meh.
The new ship has turned out to be fairly awesome. Functional, I think is the term. She certainly has an excellent jump range, and runs remarkably cool. But she's no Thunderstruck is the fitment stakes. Plenty of room for one though.
Will we make it? Getting to the other side of the Galaxy is remarkably straight forward nowadays. So long as you take the appropriate precautions. This time, though, we're building an outpost. Both at Sag A* and at Beagle Point. If we succeed, then the galaxy will have shrunk considerably.