Call of the Void
30 Mar 2016Conuvus
Tuesday? No, Wednesday. Yes, today was Wednesday, at least according to my ships Universal Cartographics it was. Time takes on a different meaning out in the black... Figuratively that is as even now the light of Bernard's Loop illuminates the interior of the flight deck in a soft glow. Still one can't help the mind from wandering when so far from human space. These weeks long expeditions take their toll, you can't help keep things from tugging at your psyche. Even now my mind wanders to to things that may or may not exist. The Formidine Rift. A place only spoken of in hushed voices in noisy taverns where only grizzled explorers go.At first, I didn't believe anything about it, took it with a grain of salt. This one felt different though, at first it seemed like all the other tall tales they tell, I myself am guilty of embellishing a few details for a good story. This time though, it was not the over abundance of details, rather the lack of any useful ones. I have only heard whispers of it since.
I first heard about it from an old man going on about old adventures, close calls, and the sights he's seen to the barkeep. I always liked hearing the old timers stories. I sat next to him as he sipped on his drink. I asked him what was the craziest thing he had ever seen. He set his drink down and turned to me, looked me over. I explained I was an explorer and had done much of the same as he was describing. In a lowered voice, he begins to go on about how he saw some 'thing' out beyond the 'rift' he called it. Ghost. Monsters. Fantasy things, that made me think he was messing with me. However, he had that thousand mile stare in his eyes that he was either crazy, or dead serious, maybe a bit of both. I finished my drink and left him to his ramblings.
Still I decided to look into it that night. Given what little I had to go on, I searched the net for hours to no avail. It wasn't until late I got a hit. A discussion board calling it the 'Formidine Rift.' It had similar wording to what the man had. It was going on about something out beyond-yada-yada and the governments were all keeping it a secret by erasing people's memory. Conspiracy stuff. The users were all anonymous, go figure. It was all speculative anyway: something about Raxxla, something worse than Thargoids, and mentions of some lady Kahina. It was late so I downloaded the files to my holopad, might make for some interesting reading later, and went to sleep.
That was months ago, and I had forgotten all about it until a few days ago. I was browsing GalNet as I lowered my fuel scoop, as it had been a long journey to the Orion Nebula. Then I saw it. A story was published mentioning some commander Salomé. The connection was instant. I dug out my holopad and found the discussion thread. There it was. A bio on this Kahina. The last mention of this Kahina was when she disappeared and she had left behind a medallion with the word 'salome' on it. Could there be something to this conspiracy? I mean I know there's things that never get published on GalNet, we've all seen footage of the wreck where the capital ships used to be, but actively suppressing anyone who finds this elusive place is another thing. And yet, I can't fight this urge to go and investigate.
So here I sit, on the wrong side of Sol, not even halfway through my trip, with the urge to abandon everything, and fly right to what might be the most dangerous part of the galaxy, if the rumors are to be believed. I had planned on visiting Sag A after a rotation back home, it is a right of passage for any true explorer after all. Something big is just waiting to be discovered. Adventure is out there, what to do...