Back to my roots
03 May 2020DrPillman
So, I did just vanish into deep space.Didn´t tell Florence in advance, just left, but left a note in the duty calendar "be back in 3 weeks the earliest", so she can a) figure it´s something urgent, not about her, and b) actually do something with her time, as she knows, she´s got a full 3 weeks.
I hope she does. I mean, I have no idea what she does off duty. It´s never a topic, and I am not really the outgoing type, what with all my responsibilities, no other employees, and stuff. Besides, what would a balding, glass-wearing accountant/flight mechanic in his 130´s do in a dim-lit, sweaty nightclub`? So hardly a chance I´d bump into her suddenly some night out. I don´t think she´s into my usual kind of watering hole.
I wonder sometimes, though. Wether she would rather spend 3 weeks in solemn meditation, solo travelling, or a self-indulgence spree among likeminded spirits...
Stop that Arkady, you´re getting as pathetic as repulsive.
So, yeah, I headed off towards the Guardian ruins to collect some data for Ram Tah, finally going exploring again, remind myself that I started all that trading only for the means to do some private science, my real ambition. Sigh.
Yeah, so, after I managed to get my Krait MkII busted without the funds to pay the full insurance co-payment, while I was doing the rounds to get it updated, I was left with an almost empty hull. Lost all weaponry , utilities and optional gadgets along with all the upgrades. Luckily, I could at least retain the core modules, and some sketches of what the ship should originally have looked like. I was too frustrated to set about that task (collect funds, collect materials, do the round AGAIN..blaarks!) immediately, I simply scratched just enough funds to pay the Phantoms insurance about 3 times over, and headed into the Void.
This time, I got the connection problems sorted, and could establish communication with Ram Tah (It was a real bummer last time, when I came back, confused by his silence, after 4 days only to get told he never received a single data transmission).
We established a nice workflow, I would send him data, and he would read what he found like a podcast while I scanned the next Guardian archives.
But after some time, it got tedious. I mean, sure, it went pretty well, we found a large stretch of Guardian data on a variety of subjects, and by listening to his daily podcast, diving into the strange ancient society, as it was, while driving around in their million year old ruins, is as captivating and fascinating as it is eerie. But I soon was reminded that science, for all its romantic heroism, really is 98% totally braindead, thoroughly boring data acquisition, just dust-dry mind numbing work. So I decided, the framework of my vessel needed some maintenance after all these jumps, to have an excuse to take a vacation from my vacation and head home in between, do some real exploring on the way, like, catalogue geological formations in hardly known star systems, or actually living alien lifeforms, you know, the stuff I was actually trained to do, rather than holding a scanner against some strange data port...
Of course the first sign of civilisation would be an interdiction attempt...but still: getting the landing clearance from New Chernobly flight control still felt like coming home.
But now, after seeing to the ship (the frame did fine, I did worry totally unneccessary), handing in the first swap of cartographical data and sorting through my mail to deal with the urgent stuff, I can´t wait to go out again, continue the research where I left it, out among the stars, 1000ly away from the bubbly and its daily trifles.