GOING OUT
13 Jun 2020Descartes
Is it really only two weeks since I left Descartes Gateway? I’ve looked back at my notes at the time. “Tired of mining, (boring). Tired of fighting, (dying, I'm a hopeless fighter). Tired of having half my cargo stolen. Tired of losing everything except my flightsuit. So, what to do? Time to leave.
Colonia, it has to be. How many jumps/weeks/months will it take? Will I see anyone on the way? Will there be places for R & R? What about my.... needs? So many questions. Only one way to find out. Do it, leave today. I have nothing to lose except my mind.
I want to take my beautiful Mamba, but she will not jump far enough without lots of legwork. I hear of people selling themselves for a Guardian drive: not me. I'll take my 35ly Red Lotus Phantom. Will take forever, who cares?”
I had some great ideas – Places to visit: HERSCHEL 36: Lagoon Nebula. Trifid Nebula. Eagle Sector PD-S B4-5: Eagle Head Nebula.
After the first week, so far, so good. I’m not so good at record-keeping, but it’s all in my memory banks, I hope.
E.G. System SMOJUE TM-V D2-22 Purpereum Metallic Crystals. New Life Form. New Earth-like planet.
That’s when things started to go wrong.
My ship is scorched and the widows are crazed after coming too close to yet another brown dwarf. Why does the FSD keep dropping me so close? And why are those things so hot? I’m bruised in places where you can only imagine after crashing into sidewinder-sized crystals. My AFMU doesn’t work, and my shields and hull are down to 85% already.
I’m tired and I’m lonely. Where are my friends, where are my lovers? (OK, I don’t have any lovers, and my second chakra is getting far too much attention, but i need the closeness of human touch).
OK. So my first long trip to Colonia and back didn't go well. I lost a fortune. Hope I've learned from the experience.
This time I'm just going to head out in the direction of Hawking's Gap, to see what's out there. No mining stops, just exploring. Widening my mind. Hopefully keeping in contact with others. Occasionally finding companions to join me in my Red Lotus for sections of my journey in space, and to accompany me in my spiritual journey, to explore some of the darker regions of my soul.
I love this ship my Phantom. I will take the bare minimum of equipment, leaving myself and my companions room to breathe. So much space.
Fuel tanks, Frame shift Drive, Shield generator, Scanners, Heat sinks and AFMU, and room to stretch out - what else would anyone need.Update: 2020-09-13
Uneventful describes the first leg perfectly. I decided on a 'less than direct' route, via Morgan's Rock in the NGC 6188 Sector, with a diversion to visit a nearby Nebula.
NGC6188 - doesn't seem to have a name.
And then I came across the Purpeum Crystals. Big ones, spectacular - somewhere in the a SMOJE System. You might think they would be hard to miss, bigger by far than my Python, but in the dark, tiny sparkles in the distance. Composition scanners out of range, ou1t of range, go a little faster, nothing to see, scanning, WHAM! Reverse thrust, crunch, scrape, taking hull damage (what, shields up, out here?), hull integrity 4%, yes four percent. Ouch. At last disentangled. Lesson learned. Shields up before investigating anything. Limp carefully back to Morgan's Rock for repairs..
The stars are becoming increasingly sparse as I approach the far reaches of the Inner Orion Spur. I wasn't expecting that! Travelling roughly in the direction of the milky-way towards the center of the galaxy. Just crossed over to Hawking's Gap. Discovered six astronomical bodies with a few jumps. Very low density of star systems within jump-range - as few as five or six at times, worrying
been out here in Hawking's Gap for days, finding little to see, and even less to discover. If nothing changes soon I'm either going to turn around and head for home or look elsewhere for new discoveries. So lonely I've developed third man syndrome. I have no choice but to keep going. I have become the ghost in my own machine. She has become my mistress. I can never go home - after so many lightyear jumps, I would be how old if I went back? Descartes Gateway maybe long gone.
To be continued.