150
20 Jul 2020BooleanBrisket
150 Jumps Remaining.
We've been inside the Inner Scutum Centaurus arm for days now. The first indication we were on the boundary was a denser region of stars in space. At first I thought it was an open cluster, but checking the navigation data showed it to be a vast expanse of stellar forms.
The research data we're gaining is formidable. Every system, it seems, holds a new discovery. Non-terraformable planets, new Brown Dwarf types, Standard Gas Giants. No life, besides the very rare basic single cellular building blocks.
We'd been in awe of our sensor data, excited by each new system we jumped into.
And we almost died. SKAUDE FV-U B36. We jumped into orbit inside the orbit of a tight yellow binary pair. Running my usual discovery scan and beginning fuel scooping, I failed to noticed the heat readouts. I felt it before I realized we'd crept north of 70% then 80, 100. The temperature was still climbing as I slammed the throttle forward and flew between the two stars. I think the gauge topped out at 170% as we sustained heat damage. The cockpit's ventilation system sucking the air out of the volume and pumping in cooler compressed air. We got out, but only just. We can't afford another encounter like that.
My head wounds have healed. Another round with the autodoc cleared up the wounded skin. After some initial muzziness, my senses feel returned to normal again. I'm ready to try a test flight in the fighter to try out the upgrade.