An Explorer's Life For Me!
19 Jul 2019Elderrook
THE EXPLORER'S LOG OF RYAN ELDERSDay Twenty-Seven
I've discovered my first terrestrial world today. In fact, there were two of them in the same system along with several metal-rich bodies as well. The most unusual thing about this discovery is the fact that they're orbiting the second star in a binary system where the primary is a neutron star!
The amount of radiation expelled by the neutron star is staggering, yet the vast distance between the two stars is enough to allow for plant and animal life to thrive. It's a shame the system lies over nine thousand light years away from the bubble. This would make an incredibly rich area to settle. Ah, well. Maybe it still will someday. If so, the settlers will see my name attached to their new home.
Day Thirty-Two
I'm still a few days behind schedule. At over twenty-two thousand light years from where I started, I'm getting close to the halfway point. My first destination is less than a few hundred light years away. In a few days, I'll be visiting the system known as Sagittarius A, which is something of a right of passage for most explorers. A supermassive black hole that is the center of our galaxy is located there. I look forward to adding my name to a growing lost of people who've visited that place.
Day Thirty-Seven
I've reached Sagittarius A. It wasn't what I expected. There was neither a hole, nor was it exactly black. Looking into it was one of the oddest things I've ever done, or probably ever will do. It somehow seems to distort your vision making it impossible to focus on it. While looking into it, I had the strangest sensation that it was somehow looking back at me.
And it was hungry.
For the first time in over a month of solitude, I find myself longing for the comfort of another living being. I've decided to head back today. I had planned to spend the night cycle here in front of the black hole, admiring the beauty. But there's no beauty to be found here.
Day Forty-One
I've recovered from the funk after visiting Sagittarius A. I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm not planning a return trip any time soon. The truth is that I'm enjoying myself immensely on this trip. Aside from the work that takes up much of my day, I've made sure there's plenty of things to keep me occupied during my downtime. I make sure to allow myself some free time, plus there's the time while flying in-system that I can usually squeeze in a little leisure activity.
The Covas, or Computerized Voice Assistant, has turned out to be a great source of entertainment. The ship's computer utilizes a limited form of AI software in order to allow you to use voice commands. I've discovered that it can also keep you company. It plays games with you, reads to you, provides you with a wealth of information about a large variety of topics. It even forms opinions if you enable it to do so, and I've enjoyed several debates with it. I can't quite call them arguments since the one thing the Covas lacks is emotion. It never really seems to get passionate about anything even if it doesn't always agree with you.
I'm careful not to allow myself to get emotionally attached to it. I've heard about those who suffer from that particular problem. But I must admit that it's nice to hear another human voice, even if it is just simulated.
Day Forty-Nine
It won't be long until I leave the core region of the galaxy and head back into the Orion-Cygnus Arm. I'll miss the view from here. Closer to the core, stars are much denser than the part of the galaxy where humanity resides. When traveling through space close to the core, the stars are incredibly dense. Most times there are usually several other stars within 5 light years of one another.
Planetside, it's never darker than what most would think of as dusk. I can't imagine what it would be like to settle here and never know a truly dark night. Or what it would have been like to grow up here and then travel to our bubble, and wonder how hard it would have been to live in such darkness?
Day Sixty-Three
I experienced my first real danger today. I've re-entered explorer space now, and am no longer just making short jumps in order to explore as many systems as possible. Now I'm pushing the Leif Erikson for all she'll do, trying to maximize each jump. One of the ways I've learned to do this is by utilizing the power of neutron stars and white dwarf stars.
The theory is simpler than execution and I'd advise anyone attempting to do this to utilize a good simulator a few times first. By flying into the high energy relativistic jet of either a neutron star or a white dwarf star while operating in supercruise you simply open your fuel scoops. The energy they bring in will 'supercharge' your Frame Shift Drive on the following jump. I've been able to exceed eighty light years this way.
The boost from a white dwarf is much less significant than a neutron star as well as being far more dangerous. I suppose I should admit that I got greedy. I'm getting anxious to return home now that I'm close and attempted to boost from a white dwarf. The turbulence from doing this can be pretty rough. I lost control and instead of powering out of the jet stream, I ended up moving too close to the star itself. This caused an emergency shutdown of my Frame Shift drive, throwing me back into normal space while the drive underwent the slow process of resetting itself.
All while I was still sitting inside the jet stream.
Yeah, that's actually a lot worse than it sounds. The jet stream causes damage. Just sitting there for the minute that it takes to reset the drive causes a LOT of damage. I started repairing the thrusters immediately, which is probably what saved my life. The Auto Field Maintenance Unit kept trying to repair them while the jet stream was trying to tear them apart and the jet stream was winning the fight.
I knew I was in real trouble when the canopy blew out and my Remlok spacesuit's helmet automatically engaged. In five minutes, I'd be dead. By the time the drive reset, the ship had suffered so much damage that I was certain I'd never get clear of the jet stream. My Remlok was reporting dangerously high radiation levels and would soon fail as well.
I engaged the Frame Shift drive and got an error message. System status was intermittent by that point, but briefly indicated the drive was down to 30% integrity. I tried again. On the third try, I got lucky and the system began the countdown. I'd been fighting with the dying thrusters to properly orient the ship but with the HUD gone, I wasn't sure I'd gotten it right. If not, it was going to be a very short trip.
My instincts had been spot on. The Leif Erikson wallowed like a drunk enlisted man on an overnight pass, but it got me clear of the killer star. Now I had to find a way to survive the next few minutes. I launched the repair drones to repair the canopy while I fought with the damaged fabricator to construct an additional life support unit. Without that, the drones might finish the canopy but I'd have suffocated before then.
I crossed those hurdles before trying to decide what to repair next. The damage had ruined a good big of the materials that the AFMU needed for repairs as well as the fabrication stock. I recalled that there were two worlds in this system rated as metal-rich with surface deposits, and set priority to repairing life support, thrusters, and the SRV bay. If I was lucky again, this would pay off.
The Leif Erikson set down on the first world with only minor difficulty and I emerged moments later in the SRV. Several trips back and forth netted me the materials I needed to facilitate repairs, and I had the fabricator and repair drones going full tilt.
A few tense hours later and my ship was repaired. I went EVA to make sure everything was okay but might as well have not bothered. The AMFU had fixed every system to better than 95% function except for the main power reactor. That was still in poor shape but there wasn't much I could do about it. Besides, I had plenty of power for everything even with the diminished output.
Sadly, the fabrication bay and the auto repair drones were pretty much finished. I was out of spares again and wasn't going to waste more time trying to replenish them in this radioactive system. I lifted off and was soon on my way home once more.
I'd survived to tell the tale, and what a story it was!