All Glory To The Fuel Rats
21 Feb 2020Rogue II
I have spent years in the bubble now. Flying around aimlessly chasing credits working random jobs. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so I decided it was time for some change. Do something new, have a goal in life. Something to grow into. And thus, without any real preparations I picked up a passenger heading for Colonia. This was kind of exciting, and somewhat stupid.22kly along the way, it all went well. Dropped off the passenger, and while I was "in the neighborhood", I might as well visit ol' Sagittarius A*.
Three weeks later, wondering and pondering behind the wheel, I somehow became aware of the Fuel Rats. A wonderful organization rescuing pilots running on empty. Who would run out of fuel in the middle of space? It would never happen to me. And some more rhetoric I asked myself. Which got me thinking. It's a noble cause. Nice way to put whatever experience I have to the test, supporting the community and what not. It got me thinking in such a frenzy, I forgot to remain focused on the journey at hand.
Now I have some experience on running on fumes, but running empty was not one of them. All of the previous times I was able to travel some odd light seconds to the nearest scoopable star, but in this case it was too far away. And then the panic sets in. Sweat breaks out and you remember you have spent the last month collecting valuable data for Universal Cartographics, spanning over a 1000 systems. Oh and dying of course. But in the face of such a loss, death seams more of a relief than a problem.
However, I regained control and I remembered why I was in this situation to begin with. Thinking about the money I would spend on the perfect search and rescue vessel and train to become a Fuel Rat. In the space of an hour I went from never ever having heard of the Fuel Rats, to aspiring to become one and not much later being rescued by one.
What a relief. And help was there within the hour, mind you, I was 3000 light years from the bubble. Quite shaken by the ordeal, I quickly navigated to the scoopable star and went to business with it, not as much forgetting about the service which was provided to me, but being totally flabbergasted I failed to ask about payment or gratification otherwise.
Which only makes me want to be a part of the Fuel Rats even more.
My regards to cmdr Falcon JSDF for rescuing me, and all glory to the Fuel Rats for being such a noble, and efficient organization.
https://inara.cz/squadron/144/