Journey to Colonia - Day 8 - Flyiedge AQ-L b13-1
04 Nov 2019Smertkopf
Sitting on the surface of a planet I just mapped, designation in the title of this log entry. It's my third mapped planet. The first was in orbit around a ringed gas giant; landed on the surface and got a souvenir photo, as well as some rare minerals:
I'm about 40 jumps into a 108-jump run, and I should be putting my name on a number of new planets by the time I come to Sacaqawea Space Port, which still lies some 3k light-years ahead. Sitting in the cockpit and looking out over the surface of the remote and barren planet upon which I'm parked, I catch myself realizing just how far away I am from any other human being, and then I think of those who are even farther out, those crazy bastards who have flown to the edge of the intergalactic void to stare out into the abyss. Someday, I hope to join their illustrious ranks, although Midnight cautions me that I might think a bit differently after a few months out in the black without human contact. I reply that he is the only human contact I'll need out there, and despite his acerbic reply I know that he appreciated the compliment.
"You know, Commander," he said to me as we supercruised towards the planet on a course to enter orbit, "this journey would go faster if you were to use the Neutron Highway."
"Like hell," I said, shaking my head vigorously in negation. "I like my constituent atoms just as they are, Midnight, not disassociated and scattered into the black, thank you very much."
"Am I to understand that you've had a bad experience with neutron stars in the past?"
"You are to understand exactly that," I replied as the planet came into visual range. "I almost died trying to ride one of those damnable plumes, and I'll never try it again. Give me a solid Guardian FSD with a nice jump range, and I might not get to Colonia as fast as the jet-hoppers, but I'll get there in one piece."
"They say that God hates a coward, Commander."
"I say that God can afford to."
That gave the old man something to chew on, and we landed in pensive silence on the edge of a deep canyon with a geological site at its bottom and Blue Mars playing on the radio, the droning ambience a perfect couple for the desolate vista from out of my cockpit viewscreen. I tried my hardest to find a suitable landing zone at the bottom of the canyon, but my ship is too much woman for that, so we had to settle on landing up top, which still took some doing as the terrain was a bit rough. As I drifted off to sleep amidst strange stars, I wondered if somewhere in another Galaxy on a planet I will never see, there is a traveler such as I, looking up at the face of the black and wondering if I think of them as well.
78 jumps left...not sure if I will attempt to just get them all done in one run or take it a bit more leisurely and stretch it out over two days. I'm not in any great hurry, after all, and the continuous jump/scan/scoop cycle gets a bit wearisome after awhile, so perhaps we'll take in some scenery and smell the flowers, as it were. Until the next one, o7 Commanders.
CMDR Smertkopf