Back at Colonia
26 May 2019Kissamies
Hipparque - Cartographers' University, PytheasSo here ends my most ambitious expedition yet. It Started from Explorer's Anchorage exactly one month ago, first heading North, then to North-East cutting through the Scutum-Centaurus Arm. Then it followed the Sagittarius-Carina Arm to Beagle Point and Salomé's Reach. From there back the route was through a very dangerous Abyssal Crossing far to the West, which I shouldn't have chosen, and slighty roundabout way back to Colonia. It sounds so trivial when described like that. Should I, instead, tell how the exploration data sold made me nearly 800 million credits richer even after the deduction of the crew shares and maintenance cost? No, I think not. I'm not in to it for money, though I will now certainly purchase that Beluga once I get back to the Bubble.
I am writing this on these comfortable quarters the university has kindly given to me, the valued contributor of astrometric data - there has even been talk of a honorary doctorate. My engineer has driven everybody out of the ship as he supervises the extensive maintenance the ship needs after such an expedition, and frankly I'm happy to be out of that chair. I'm surprised I hadn't grown roots. It will do a world of good for the crew if we don't have to see each others' stupid faces for a while, as my co-pilot put it. She has already dissappeared into the nightlife, such as it is around here. I wish a certain other crewmember would dissappear too and stop sending me his increasingly insulting and incoherent comm messages. I suppose he'll pass out soon at this rate.
I hope they'll be fit for duty in a few days once the maintenance is finished, stress fractures in the frame fixed and the jumponium residue scraped out from the FSD manifolds. We still have to get back to the Bubble. Meanwhile I think I'll do some administrative stuff, sort out my overflowing raw materials storage with a trader and schmooze the local engineers. I have a Dolphin docked here I can manage all by myself for local stuff like that. Still, maybe it would't hurt to take one day off and enjoy all these credits I have earned...
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