Jac5 Celestial Journey- Log 24: Colonia
05 Nov 2020mariedess
I woke up with a pounding headache and a kink in my neck from falling asleep in the cockpit again. The events of the night started to rush back into my mind. “ Ohh man” I thought as I rubbed the temple of my forehead and headed to the cabinet for some Void Extract Coffee. “ Kiwi lime squeeze… I don’t recommend that again.” I choked back my spit in my mouth as I felt my stomach a bit queasy. “ Incoming message” Archer, my cockpit voice assistant, called over the intercom. I grabbed my coffee and headed back to the chair. Before I could sit down “ Incoming hail” Archer called out.
“ Okay, okay, I am coming.” I spoke to Archer as if he were really listening to me. Shifting back into my seat, I answered the call from Cmdr Nico.
“ Hey Cmdr! Good morning how are you feeling now?” Cmdr Nico sounded very chipper. I glared at him through the screen, not fully ready to explain that thought.
“ Hangover. You?” I took a drink of my coffee and sat it down, popping my knuckles of my hands while stretching my arms to release some of the tension forming in my neck.
“ I feel great! You know, maybe you should think about cutting back on that drinking habit of yours! You don’t look so good.” he teased as the video feed started to seem different to me.
Okay, so I was listening and paying attention to him.. But what happened to his ship? His entire backdrop of the video was completely different for some reason. “ Umm…. where are you transmitting from?”
He laughed and waved his arms up in the air and looked around as if he was oblivious to what I was saying. “ What, this?” he smiled as if he didn’t know what I meant.
“ Yes that! Where is your ship commander? You didn’t go out there did you?” My heart dropped. Oh no.. he lost his ship.. I knew I shouldn’t have told him those coordinates. “ What happened to the Pathfinder Cmdr?”
“Parked in the bay. .. What.. don’t look at me like that! I am not the one having vivid dreams of a crash and mayhem thank you very much! I bought this little guy to take a spin through Colonia. Collect some materials, maybe encounter your fabled pirates. Who knows…” He joked in his tone with every word, as if he was fully aware of my initial concern.
“Umm okay… “ I was not awake enough for this conversation. I picked up my coffee and took a few more sips of it. “ Hey, that dream seemed really real! You would have considered the same had you been in my shoes!” I started to rebuttal his jokes. “ What are you in over there?” I peered out my window in his direction.
“Krait,” he stated.
“ Well, I guess if that’s what you’re doing. I can at least accompany you. I have nothing better going on right now. I will go down to the shipyard and put together something small and fast.” I was beginning to think that maybe it would be a good idea to step away from the Celesta, at least while I was still in a place where I could.
“ Ok sounds good, See ya out there!” He said as the transmission ended I watched him disengage the landing clamps and fly out of the port in his new little ship.
I walked down to the shipyard and located a krait for sale. “This is going to be different.” I thought to myself as I made the purchase. I began upgrading it the best I could, starting with the name change of Duke. I finished filling out the registration paperwork and boarded the Duke. It was still a decent size ship, but much smaller than my Celesta. I laughed at all the miniaturized compartments. Even the drawers of the mess area were half the width. “ Look at this little area!” I laughed as I peeked into the cabin quarters.
By the time I made my way to the cockpit of this Duke, I decided to give it a thorough inspection. Wires were tucked away in corners, not fully secure behind panels. I had no place to instal my detailed surface scanner, so I set it on the table, and the wire hung loose next to me by the floor. This ship was much smaller than I had remembered. It had been a few years since I had flown a krait. I used to be skilled with it. I still have Margo sitting back at home. However, for convenience now I had Duke. I ran through the pre flight checks and started up the engines.
“ What is that noise?” I said to myself as I listened to the different sounds of these particular engines. I had almost forgotten what the ship sounded like. Only a few minutes out of the port and I was already missing the Celesta. I looked down at my navigation panel and pinged Cmdr Nico’s location. “ Here goes nothing.” I engaged my thrusters towards his signal.
“Boom!”
I popped out of supercruise into a war zone! Cmdr Nico was engaged with two pirates from the looks of them. His beam lasers and multicannons locked onto the cobra mk II in front of him, while another cobra mk II shot missiles at the back of him. In a flash he vaporised the powerplant and thrusters, sending the cobra adrift in space. With one swift motion Cmdr Nico spun a 180 and layed in on the other cobra mk II. Within seconds it went spinning out of control and poofed in a flash of fire and debris. “ Looks like you missed all the fun!” Cmdr Nico laughed as he picked up salvageable wreckage.
“ Oh you know me! Couldn’t decide on the paint job.” I cruised towards him, and no sooner had I reached him, did two more contacts appear, this time, they were in python and eagle. “ Oh great, heads up Cmdr, troubles on the way!”
“ What do you have in your holds?” Maria Evans began scanning my ship as she deployed her hardpoints of the eagle and whipped circles around my krait. “ Ufff, My kids are not going to eat tonight.” she turned to start heading towards Cmdr Nico.
At that exact moment I was already engaging my kill warrant scanner on her, and deploying my hardpoints. I knew she was wanted, and a scoundrel of the Colonia Council. I targeted her frame shift drive and unloaded everything I had all at once sending missiles and lasers, and small caliber ammunition her way.
“ Looks like you're not going to eat tonight either!” I hissed as I watched her eagle begin to dodge the incoming missiles I was launching at her canopy. I was missing terribly! “ What the…” I yelled in frustration as missile after missile exploded into thin air, not even coming close to her ship.
I glanced over at Cmdr Nico and saw that he had engaged in combat with the elite rated pilot Anthony Picard. The python dodged and dived through oncoming caliber rounds, and from my vantage point, it looked like we were in a losing fight if we weren’t careful.
“ Im hit! I’m hit! We must go!” Cmdr Nico called to me as he began to swirl out of control, boosting as much as he could trying to escape the mass lock of the python.
“ I’m gonna boil you!” Anthony Picard yelled over local comms as he unleashed several torpedoes all at once.
Cmdr Nico dodged the incoming torpedoes quite easily, and flashed into supercruise leaving only a wake behind. Immediately Anthony Picard turned around and faced me but it was already too late. I zipped into supercruise right behind Cmdr Nico, leaving both Anthony Picard and Maria Evans behind in open space.
I tried to hail Cmdr Nico, but the signal was interrupted by the internal damage from the missiles hitting the Duke. Just about every module across the board was fried in fact. Sparks flashed from the cables in the corner of the cockpit, and I knew I was in for a hefty repair fee. “ Where did he go?” There was no way for me to tell which way he had gone because my sensors were completely fried and I couldn’t get a signal or a lock on. I quickly defaulted back to Jaques station for repairs.
“ Man, I hope he is okay and got out of there safely.” I looked out the window leery as I prepared to drop into Jaques Station from supercruise. I knew there was no way I could help him with the condition this ship was quickly becoming.
“ Interdiction detected. Submitting throttle to Zero.” Archer my cockpit assistant recalled.
“ No no not again!” and there I went once more, just as I had remembered in my dream, only this time I was not in the Phoenix with a haul of diamonds. I was in the krait. And there she was. Maria Evans in the lightning fast eagle.
There were no words this time. I knew I was in too bad of shape to take on her maneuvers so I quickly released my chaff launchers and boosted away, not wasting a second longer than I had to on the frame shift drive activation. I glared with anticipation as I watched the frame shift drive charge. 3..2...1… engage.
Moments later I dropped into Jaques Station and requested docking. Maria Evans came right in behind me, but didn’t engage, due to the protection of the port. I watched from my window as I let the autodocking procedure perform. Maria Evans disappeared into the black.
I immediately repaired the Duke, and hailed Cmdr Nico. “ Hey where are you? Did you make it?”
“ Yea, I am at the station here, pulling up now. Where are you? I have some stolen goods in my cargo, I don’t exactly want to dump it here in space, but I really don’t want an issue with the port. Are you here?” He asked as he made the decision to start removing some of the stolen goods from his cargo.
“ I am at Jaques Station. I just landed. My communications were fried and I had no sensors remaining. Maria Evans did a number on me. Those little eagles are hard to get a lock on! I had to repair before I could even locate you. “ I began to explain the situation as I did the last bit of pre flight checks on Duke.
“ I am at a facility, I don’t quite have a name on it yet. “ He began to laugh and then continued “ It was 3 light seconds from us. I felt maybe a good place to go. Yea the eagles are a damn good ship. Even better with a good pilot.”
“ I was aiming for the protection of the port, Maria Evans trailed me all the way to Jaques. I don’t think I would have made it anywhere else. Have you landed yet?” I paused in my speech.
“ Just about to. Hey what did you say that woman’s name was again? Maria Evans?” He asked with a leery tone in his voice. A new contact appeared on his screen and he became aware that a specific eagle could be Maria approaching.
“ Yea I believe that’s the one. Driving an eagle” I stated flatly. “ Let me know when you have landed cmdr.”
There was a pause in the transmission, but the connection remained. I sat with anticipation as I waited for him to reply back. “ Any minute now,” I thought to myself as I waited. One minute turned to five minutes, and then static started to sound through the speaker.
“ Well I have landed, but this place isn’t going to work for me. Apparently there is no security service and Maria Evans is now shooting hatch breaker limpets at me! Radio Silent…” he said before suddenly ending the transmission.
I sat and stared at my contacts window for several minutes before making the decision to stow away in the hanger. “ He’s a good pilot. He should be fine. “ I told myself as I anxiously waited for a response. Several minutes later Cmdr Nico came pulling in the port with his krait and set down on the hangar bay. I looked out my window as he made his landing nearly flawlessly.
“ Pheww, that was a close call.” Cmdr Nico reported back to me. “ I think I have had my fill for today’s adventures. Some of these pirates will live to see another day but not Maria Evans. Lets go turn in these bonds before we forget.”
“ Good Idea, but Cmdr, what did you have in your holds that they wanted so bad? I am curious.” I asked, intrigued by his determination to keep the goods and suffer the troublesome pirates.
“ Just a couple sacks of tea. Nothing big.” He smiled as we walked down the corridor to the bonds officer.
I didn’t question him further simply because I know how he likes his tea and I don’t blame him for choosing to keep it. We turned in our bonds and he asked if I was up for some dinner, but I turned it down this time due to the queasy stomach I was feeling from the night before.
“ No thanks Cmdr. Maybe next time, What an expensive day. Buy a krait, and go claiming bounties. What a refreshing shift in our journey! Hey, I will catch you later, take care cmdr.” We exchanged a couple glances and I finished with a quick pat on the back as he went left down the fork of the corridor headed to the local diner, and I went to the right fork of the corridor headed back to the docking bays.
I was walking past Cmdr Nico’s ship when Cmdr Troop pulled into Jaques Station, returning from a few exploration spots nearby. “ Cmdr Meri! What a surprise! He was peering out his window and waving at me as I returned to the Celesta.
“ Good Day Cmdr!” I called and waved back in return. I entered my ship, and hailed Cmdr Troop. “ How are you doing! It’s been a while!”
“ I am great! Actually thinking about heading north up towards Beagle Point. I have already seen Sagittarius A and I can check out a couple nebulas on my way to Beagle! What do you say?” Cmdr Troop could not contain his excitement. The energy of his words as he explained of a nearby black hole, the opposite way of the center.
“ Well, Cmdr, that is great! I am happy for you! Go check out those locations and nebula’s and we will meet you in Beagle Point in a few months! Cmdr Nico, Cmdr Rob and myself are going to head for the center first! Sounds like an excellent plan! Pursue your dreams!” I beamed with excitement for Cmdr Troop. “ Hey Cmdr, Be safe out there. If you can get transmissions back to us, please keep in touch. I will see you soon!”
“ Sure thing Cmdr Meri! Don’t forget to fly way above the galactic plane and get a good view of the galaxy! It is a sight to see!” Cmdr Troop disengaged his landing gear and began to exit the keyhole of the port. “ See you later Cmdr! “ and just like that he was gone again, off exploring celestial sites, and making his way through black holes, headed towards Beagle Point.
I looked around the cabin of my Celesta, and immediately felt at home. “ Yes, that's my baby. I even missed this seat.” I smiled and thought to myself as I rubbed the leather interior of the booth while I sat down at the table. I gazed out the window and watched as pilots filed in and out of the station. Exhaustion setting in, I called it a night, and went to lay in my bed.
-Mariedess