Traveling at an explorers pace
21 Jul 2020Korzhakov
The destination was only 178 jumps away from where I left the carrier. That's really not too many jumps to be managed in just two days if you wished to. But I am here for the exploration, and that slows the pace significantly. Every system with planets in it, I scan, if the planets have promise, I map them, if they have something I need I land and gather materials with my SRV. What could easily be 100 jumps in a day turns into 30 to 40 jumps a day. But the data I am gathering will help pilots, governments, corporations to make decisions, plans and profits from what I am discovering, and Universal Cartographics will pay me nicely to download this information when I land back on the Archangel.
I am down to just 99 jumps to my destination, and as I sit in my cabin, a nice dram of single malt in a rocks glass, documenting my travels today. I am sitting inside a crater, near some minerals that I plan on gathering tomorrow morning. It's a nice balmy temp on this planet so I will do some walking around in just my remlok tomorrow just to get out of the ship for a while.
Then again I will take to the black, to jump to the next system, to scan it, to map it, to explore it, and that exploration will take my time and my effort.
Just as we must be very careful when scooping fuel, we must be careful with all the other aspects of exploring. I am thousands of light years away from help. So I must take care of my ship, and she will take care of me. It's a symbiotic relationship in a way, and it feels quite natural out here in the middle of nowhere.
Soon I will arrive in the vast nebula that I have targeted for exploration. Maybe if I am lucky I will locate some phenomenon that is new or has maybe never been seen by humans before. Who knows, maybe I will find a new intelligent form of life. We shall see when this adventure takes flight again tomorrow.