THE QUEST FOR 1,000,000LY - LOG #7
14 Nov 2020Stellas Incola
After leaving the Fleet Carrier Deus Vult! I made my way down the inside of the Perseus Arm to cross to the Sagittarius-Carina Arm. On leaving I had only around 135kly to go before I hit one million light years total distance travelled and I wondered where that milestone would occur. After a very rough calculation from where I was, I estimated it was about 90kly to Beagle Point, which meant the million light year milestone would potentially be in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm around the 10 o'clock position on the galactic disc, with still around 100kly after that before I reached the southern meridian, then 15kly or so home....Roughly 250kly in total...
At that point I'd covered 110kly in around six weeks and I was barely a third of the way around.
The enormity of the trip really started to sink in. After the enthusiasm and sense of achievement in reaching the ends of both the Outer Arm and Perseus Arm, I felt the next chapter would really begin to test my resolve. Time to knuckle down.
I was brightened by the discovery of an Earth-like World shortly afterwards, prompting my thoughts to consider what some of my friends and colleagues were up to back home. I checked for their locations on my computer, friendly green icons like islands among the sea of stars. One in particular caught my attention.
A relatively new admission to the Pilot's Federation, I'd been mentoring him for a couple of months over the summer and noticed he was quite far out of the Bubble. I sent him a message, wondering where he was going although it looked suspiciously like after initially wandering aimlessly, he was now heading straight for Colonia.
I received a response after a few hours and he said he was indeed heading there, with plans to visit Sagittarius A* after that.
I wonder....
The latter half of the circumnavigation would be much better with a friend....
I quickly estimated that if he went directly to Colonia, Sag A* and then joined me at Beagle Point, from his current position he'd have about 70kly to travel. He was in his Diamondback Explorer I'd helped him engineer to a healthy 65ly range, only 5ly behind my fully kitted out Anaconda. The star density through the core is obviously massively higher than the edge systems too, which would allow him to jump closer to his maximum range more consistently than me....
It was very definitely something I thought we could co-ordinate. I had targeted the week before Christmas to get to BP, given my current pace and excitedly fired him another message suggesting I'd buy him a beer at the DSSA Distant Worlds 'Endeavour' stationed there. He could never resist a free drink.
Then I waited.
And waited...
And 18 hours later, he said yes! The lure of free alcohol must have been too strong. He was ex-Federation ground troop after all... We agreed to keep an eye on each other's progress over the coming weeks and keep our fingers crossed that no mishaps befell either of us.
I thumbed a button on my throttle control. The familiar low, vibrating hum throughout the ship started, followed by the countdown as the disrupted space surrounding the ship crackled with untold energy, preparing my entry into witchspace.
To Beagle Point!
Time and date of journey start: 13:10 UTC, September 27th 3306.
Total hyperspace distance travelled at journey start: ~749,000ly
Total hyperspace distance travelled to date: 885,309ly