Pegasus Run 3305 - Day 84 (Proof of Life)
22 Dec 2019Flemish Jack
00:26:14 12-22-05As you may have realized it’s been 22 days, nearly a month, since my last broadcast from the blind. Not much to tell up to this point, but this missive is more or less to let anyone listening know that we did not self-detonate…yet. Almost got smoked dropping into a binary system inside a class M sandwich, but what's a little hull damage among friends. PP is still 100 so no big deal, right?
So there we were….
Since last entry: 12,037.7 light years traveled, 259 jumps, 259 systems scanned, and we’re no closer to finding what we’re looking for. The rum maker is still making and there’s plenty of coffee so at least that’s something. No one has been stabbed - also something.
Up until a few days ago, with little or nothing to go on, we’ve been jinking (at a cosmic scale) left, right, up, and down somewhat randomly. Using this method we have had found zero ELWs nor any signs of human habitation - quite a few xeno non-sentient lifeforms, but no human contact beyond the odd comms chatter with members of the expedition. Clearly this approach is not working. We recently elected to plot a different tack based on discussion with other expedition members and analysis of similarly sourced comms chatter. We are now adjusting course plotting parameters to include only K, G, and F type stars as rumor has it this combination has the highest probability of ELW contacts. We shall see.
To that end we’ve dropped closer to the central plane close to zero plus or minus 10 or thereabouts. The density of stars is significantly higher here. The primary input to change our way of doing business was, in conjunction with star type shift, a suggestion from Vel as she was already tracking the gooderness of the increased star density. In order to avoid stepping on each other however I’ve ignored her recommendation to run coreward as she has done. I’ve nosed the boat out rimward thinking that this will have a higher likelihood of finding folks that don’t want to be found. Frankly, it’s really a crap shoot either way. We’ll keep our ears to the radio should any of our fellows discover potential human life way the hell out here.
With all of this being said we’ve been pulling shifts 24/7 and the day-to-day routine is getting horrifically boring. May need to pull over and find a planet to rest on for a bit. Gravity is good sometimes. Helps the bones and other bits function properly. I picked up a decent bottle of scotch and some cigars when we were in Colonia perhaps I’ll set up the smoker in cargo bay 2 and smoke some meat to ring in the new year. Decent scotch, moist tobacco, and smoked barbecue should improve morale, at least for a little while. We can take some time to reflect and come up with a better plan – anything has to better than our current one. Did I mention we haven’t found squat? Quite a few WWs and AWs so at least the payout will be phenomenal (assuming we survive long enough to make in to port), but the Chief is getting more-and-more frustrated the longer we’re out here.
Example: A short 220k ls from the drop point (for the uninitiated that's almost 200k ls farther than the run to Hutton Orbital), dual water worlds within close proximity of each other (System: Phraifaae ZL-P C5-5). What you see here is 6.2M credits worth of scans before crew shares. Payout for this trip will be bananas.
Last burst traffic from Gates, before we got too far out of range, says we’ll have an encrypted message in a cloaked data pod waiting for us when we get to Beagle Point. We’re just under 50k ly as the space crow flies from Beagle, so if hope were a course of action we may receive some concrete information regarding Chief’s brother’s whereabouts. So what the hell, here’s to hoping.
In the event you don’t hear from us again until 3306, from our crew to yours, enjoy the holidays and fly safe commanders.
Flemish Jack - OUT