Jac5 Celestial Journey- log 25: Colonia
06 Nov 2020mariedess
Emotional outcries could be heard coming from the lobby of the market as I approached from the south entrance. Something was wrong on this day. Pilots had flooded in the market doors snatching and grabbing everything survival related they could get their hands on. People shoved eachother with the shoulder to shoulder traffic, as I approached a clearing. “What do you mean that is the last one?” the pilot complained as he shook his head and swiped the pack of cigars from the clerk.
“ Look around here buddy! It is madness!” The clerk threw her hands in the air and motioned to the crowd of pilots in the small confined space of her tobacco stand. “Come back another time!” She yelled as he shook his head and pushed his way out of the crowded area.
I looked at the little woman, wrinkled from her hairline to her hands, a good indicator for age and suddenly felt bad for the woman. She was flapping and flailing at a couple of scoundrels as they reached for her inventory sheet. She swung her clipboard and smacked their hands one time hard WHAM! “ Now get out of here you heathens!”
I wiggled my way between the crowd and closed the space between me and the woman selling tobacco products. “ Got anything left?” I asked as I tripped into the front of her stand, slamming my arm on her counter like a drunk fool although I hadn’t had anything to drink. I straitened back up and smiled, feeling the redness come in my cheeks.
“ Sure don’t! Now if you don’t mind. I would like to get out of here!” She snapped at me and glared with a frown as she engaged the metal frame gate to come down on her stand. With a quick motion to her keys, she had the stand locked up in a matter of seconds. For an elderly lady, she sure got around!
“Cmdr Meri! Cmdr Meri!” A young man shouted as he tapped me on the shoulder from behind. I turned to face the man and saw his badge of Sirius Corporation. Clearly he was an informant of Li Yong Rui. “I have this enclosed message for you sent over by Li Yong Rui himself. The matter is urgent, please don’t delay any longer than necessary!” The young man shoved the envelope in my hand and ran off in the other direction, holding his hand on his hat as he stumbled down the corridor and out of sight.
I took a glance at the stamped seal on the back of the envelope and cracked it open as I headed down the hall back towards the docking bay.
“ Commander Meri,
We need your help! (Li Yong-Rui does not have enough CC to maintain your current systems. Last week they were short by 491) Regards, (Sirius Corporation.) “
I folded the parchment up and began trying to stuff it in the pocket of my turncoat. “ man that is unfortunate” I said to myself right as---
SLAM!
And just like that, I smacked into another pilot in the intersection of the corridor sending all of his items tumbling across the ground next to us. People continued to rush by the busy intersection not even noticing the collision.
“ Are you okay?” Cmd Rob said as he stumbled to grab his commodities scattered across the floor. “ Guess I didn’t see you there Cmdr Meri!”
I quickly assessed the back of my head for any wetness, as the lump started to form. I was fine. I helped Cmdr Rob gather his things, and we headed down the busy hallways towards the docking bay. “ Yes, What is going on around here? What is the rush! Have you seen Cmdr Nico anywhere?” I shouted over the busy influx of pilots talking in the hallway.
“ I don’t know…. Something about the Federation being accused of assisting Nmla terrorists and the Empire seeking justice!” he shrugged his shoulders as he juggled the items in his hand and headed towards his Jumper01. “ I have been investigating the galnet news flooding in the system. I was thinking I better catch up on some of the news. I saw Cmdr Nico leave quite some time ago in the Pathfinder. I am not sure where he went, I didn’t think to ask.” I was parked in the bay next to him so I hurried to meet his hasty stride as he informed me.
“ We are in Colonia! More than 22000 light years from Sol! Do you really think all of these pilots are rallying to head back and aid the war? What are you thinking?” I questioned as another pilot cut between us and rushed into a mamba.
“ Sure why not? It is a big deal! The accusations the Empire has outdone themselves this time! I figure, why rush back to the bubble now. There seems to be plenty of aid on the way! Hey, I would love to talk, but I really have to get these things in the bay. Let's meet later!” Cmdr Rob attempted to wave at me as he nearly dropped everything in his hands once more. Moments later he disappeared into the Jumper01.
I returned to the Celesta and engaged my pre flight checks. It was time to get out of this port before one of these panicky pilots crashed into my bay. I had a really bad feeling about today. I could feel it in my gut. I checked my systems, and sent out a brief message to both Cmdr Nico and Cmdr Rob.
Cmdr’s, Jaques Station is flooded with visitors scrambling forces to return to the bubble and aid in the war of Federation and Empire. I think today would be a good day to stay away from port and lay low for a while. We have some data on the notable stellar phenomena happening in the system. What do you say, let's go have a look before lunch hour? I am headed to one now. Let me know. 07 -Cmdr Meri.
Minutes later I dropped into a yellow glow with magnificent green crystals floating all around. They were so large, they made my Anaconda appear small in size. I no longer worried about the commotion happening in Jaques station.
This cloud was peaceful. I checked my messages and saw I had not received any responses yet. I flipped over to the Galnet news and began listening to the Imperial Internal Security Service. -”Thargoid caustic enzymes, mathing the payloads delivered during the starport bombings.” “ Micro-signage on cargo containers identified bulk deliveries of equipment from a Federal system in neutral space.-” I turned off the news.
“ What a pity” I thought to myself anytime the superpowers try to engage war with each other.
“Incoming Message” Archer my cockpit assistant recalled.
“ Cmdr Meri, I am just collecting resources on the moon for now. There is something bad happening over at Jaques Station. I was met with many bad glares as I headed out. I have been on the moon for some time now, Turns out it is jam packed with selenium. I received your coordinates and I am packing up now. I should be there in a jiffy! 07” Cmdr Rob stated as he returned to his Jumper01 and headed my way.
I examined the composition of the crystal, and stowed the information in my computer. I could see both of the Cmdr’s signals. I could also see an unusual amount of traffic on my sensors. It was as if the security had been increased in the system. It appeared Cmdr Rob had just engaged supercruise at the same time as Cmdr Nico. Factoring the distance, I decided now would be a good time to start doing an inventory check of the things I have, as well as the things I will need continuing forward on the quest to the center of the galaxy in case things get weird on us in the next few days.
“ Incoming message” Archer my assistant recalled
“ Cmdr Meri, I have returned to port and wow! The amount of traffic! You can forget grabbing some lunch from Jaques station. I am going to go find a nice place to set down for some lunch. I have received your coordinates, however my stomach is overriding this moment and I must take a break!” Cmdr Nico left a brief message of his intended destination as he pulled to the side of the port and canceled the docking procedure.
Moments later I heard the boom of Cmdr Rob’s engines as he popped into view within the crystals. I watched as he throttled down and began his scans.
“ Find anything interesting?” I called over to him as I reached over and tapped the log on my computer to analyze the data I was provided.
“ Hmm.. Well it’s mostly metal, and will cut straight through us!” Cmdr Rob replied back as he too began scanning his data. “ Do you see all this traffic on our sensors? What is going on out there?
“ I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this. My stomach is starting to hurt as well. I am thinking of maybe going to find Cmdr Nico’s picnic area and have some lunch. Do you wanna get out of here and go with me? “ I asked as I felt the grumble rise in my stomach again and watched my sensors pick up a few more contacts.
“ Sure, let's check out the other one while we are here though. That way we don’t have to come back to this.” Cmdr Rob suggested as he began to turn his ship away and head for another part of the cloud. He didn’t seem to be concerned with the unusual amount of traffic in the area. Not all commanders were paranoid like myself.
I swung around the crystal and punched the throttle. I was ready to get moving again, feeling my stomach control my mind. I thought the commander had meant to go to the next signal, I didn’t realise that we were in the process of splitting up until it had already happened.
“Incoming message” Archer recorded.
“ Cmdr Meri, here are my coordinates… See you soon 07” Cmdr Nico. The message was brief but also made it much easier for me to locate him. I sent the information over Cmdr Rob’s dash, as I continued to dodge large crystals trying to get out of the cloud.
Cmdr Nico went to go investigate the geological signals up ahead while he received a message similar from me along the lines of “ On my way! And see you soon!” I kept to myself the queasy feeling I was starting to have as I watched contacts flood into the system.
I dashed through the cloud that seemed to be endless compared to when it had begun. “ How large is this space? “ I thought to myself as I continued to think I was nearing the end of the cloud. Cmdr Rob’s signal was fading from my sensors and eventually displayed no more, by the time I reached the very edge of the cloud and saw a clearing to escape.
I had to be flying more than five minutes in a straight line. Relieved of the crystal density disappearing as I neared the edge, confirmed it was safe for me to engage my supercruise and get out of there. The signals of contacts were also fading on my sensors.
No sooner had I left the long trek through the cloud, did I receive a transmission from Cmdr Rob stating that I had missed the space jellyfish. Apparently if I would have gone the opposite way to leave this cloud, the travel would not have been so long, but also would have revealed these strange jellyfish he was describing he saw.
I didn’t turn around at the time due to my angry stomach starting to think about my actions and the rising paranoia of the influx of pilots in the system. I just wanted to take a break and make some lunch. Cmdr Rob did his analysis and submitted the report, and we headed on our way towards Cmdr Nico’s signal.
No sooner had I jumped into supercruise than I pulled right back out! What in the world happened? I thought I had been far enough away from the Notable Stellar Phenomena. Internal Security had interdicted me so fast I didn’t even have a notification or chance to see what happened. I looked down at my navigation panel, and I was smack between the one I had just left, and another one I didn’t realise was there. The cloud was so black and rich in variants of red, that I had no choice but to go through the cloud. I didn’t know why they were trying to scan my Celesta. I dived into the darkness, sure to lose them. I was struck by the sheer difference of the two scenes.
“ This is going to be a major setback” I said to myself as I noted that I had to go through this cloud to reach Cmdr Nico’s signal and regroup with the pair of them while evading scans from security. I approached the cloud with caution, not sure what I would find in the dense black fog. The only thing I was sure of, is that this security was on my tail, and just as daring as myself. He chased me into the dark.
Immediately my ship started to misbehave, and I lost the signal connection of both commanders as I headed into the cloud. Interference of some sort was preventing my sensors from getting a reading on any contacts. Panic started to set in as I realised I would not only be flying through this dense cloud, but also doing it blind, with no sensors, and no way to call for assistance if this guy tries to take me down. Nerves were on the soar.
I proceeded with the utmost caution, noting that anything could be lurking in this dense cloud, even pirates perhaps lost in here. The security could easily become the least of my worries. I wouldn’t want to be the unlucky commander who stumbled upon someone in this region of Colonia. It was as if I were in a different part of the galaxy entirely. I was shocked to think that some part of Colonia had such a dark side.
A flicker of light caught my eye and suddenly I deployed my hardpoints and turned up my high beams. I was seeing contacts on my screen but they were unknown. I looked behind me and I couldn’t catch sight of the security service. I must have lost him. As I continued forward into this dreary cloud, I discovered I was all alone for the most part. I looked at my contacts window just one more time, and---
WHAM!
I crashed right in the center of one rubeum crystal! Sparks went flying on my celesta as the metal crystal cut into the exterior of my hull. I immediately reversed backwards and to my surprise there was another! “ Oh no, this isn’t going to be good” I thought as I attempted to maneuver away from the large crystals, only this time with no light to tell where they were and no sensors to pick up their signal. This was not going as I expected.
The cloud was so dark that no stars could be seen. The thickness of the cloud was so great that the star in Colonia even seemed non existent, unless you were looking right at it. I had a bad feeling about this cloud. I started to maneuver with caution around the crystals, and luckily there were much less this time. I looked at my sensors and tapped on the screen. “ Still no communication.” I said as I strained my eyes to see out of the window into literally nothing. I didn’t want to wind up on life support with a metal crystal hanging from my cockpit window, so I took things very cautiously as I continued in a straight line. I thought that would be my best way out of this place.
The crystals faded and then there was a long stretch of nothing before I started to see the sun appear again. “Yes! Finally gonna get out of this mess!” I screeched as I continued forward. I could finally catch a glimpse of the sun but that was not the only thing I could see. These small organisms that appeared to be similar to Cmdr Rob’s findings were all bunched up together in random pockets. To me they looked like mushrooms. I slowly approached a set and got a good data scan for later analysis.
My stomach groaned loudly as I thought of food. “How could I think of food at a time like this? I need to stop looking at mirages and get on with the regroup on the planet!” I smacked my forehead as I thought to myself about how the objects reminded me of mushrooms from Sol, oversized.
As soon as I was through the clearing my sensors picked up the signals again. Cmdr Rob was apparently no further than I, and Cmdr Nico appeared to still be camping out on the moon. I plotted for the moon that was just beyond my current position. I scanned my logs for any missed communications and headed on my way. The security seemed to be nowhere near my position.
I caught a lock on Cmdr Nico’s position and engaged a glide maneuver into the moon. The whole time I looked at the craters and thought of peanut butter cookies. I was starving for food!
I was caught off guard by the food topics in my mind that I completely overshot my destination at first. I had to take another flyby of the planet to re-align with the destination. At this point I began my landing procedure and attempted to hail cmdr Rob and find out where he was. Food was the only thing on my mind..
“ Cmdr what is your location? My stomach screams for food right now!” I groaned as I disengaged my engines on the planet.
“ Well I am not actually hungry at this time. If you want to go ahead. I think I am going to check out another notable stellar phenomena that's on the way! There seems to be an unusually high amount of traffic today. I am going to skirt across the system undetected mostly. I don’t know what is going on yet.” Cmdr Rob was brief as usual.
“ I am not going to wait on a person that isn’t hungry! Be safe cmdr, keep your eyes in the sky. I'll see you soon!” I stared outside my window and looked at the large snowball in the sky, and thought of chocolate snow cones in summertime on Earth.
“ I am heading into the phenomena now cmdr..-” Cmdr Rob was in mid speech when the transmission disconnected from the static. I was aware of the interference already caused by the last one I had come from. A part of me was concerned that he was interdicted by security, but there was no way for me to tell. I decided to not worry, but instead take a stroll and see if I could locate Cmdr Nico’s lunch spot.
I followed his trail in the dirt and came to a geological signal. Cmd Nico was just driving like a madman through the area. When I got in range of his srv, I hailed him.
“ Cmdr, What's for lunch!?” I teased as I slid in front of him and slammed on my parking brake.
“ Baked Greebles! You want some?” He laughed as he held up a bag of leftovers.
I was hungry enough to eat the very dirt we were driving on, so I gladly accepted his offer. We pulled off to the side and shared the remaining Greebles. They were gritty, and the equivalence of eating cardboard and sandpaper. I felt like I was filing my teeth on the carcass remains. By far one of the worst meals I had ever consumed, but I couldn’t complain, simply due to the fact that I had not made it to my inventory reviews and obtained more easy meals for the Celesta. I originally had intended to take lunch at the local diner while finishing off my reports. Somehow I had ended up here on a cookie colored planet eating limpet-like creatures with Cmdr Nico instead. Something was clearly wrong with Jaques Station and it made for some pretty interesting conversation.
Cmdr Rob trekked through the phenomena until communications returned. “Cmdr Meri, are you guys still on the planet? I am all wrapped up here, saw some pretty large crystals in the red cloud.There is a lot of traffic up here though, definitely some commotion. I must say, it was by far the prettier one of the three.” Cmdr Rob finished saying as he engaged his frameshift drive.
“ Nice! Yes we are here, you got the coordinates?” I asked him as I finished up my meal.
“ Yes, on my way!” he said and then the transmission ended.
I spent some time discussing with Cmdr Nico the current galnet news, and we collected materials from the geological site as we waited for cmdr Rob to arrive. Almost 10 minutes later we heard the sound of his engines as he engaged his glide above our position.
“ I’m coming in hot!” Cmdr Rob called excitedly on the local channel as he dived towards our location.
“ Oh man, “ I thought in terror as I watched his steep approach to the planet. I thought he was going to lose control and slide right into our ships. I think Cmdr Nico had the same thought because he released his parking brake and took off as fast as he could to board the Pathfinder and await the next few moments. Just in case, I headed back to the Celesta to get a better look. It didn’t seem like Cmdr Rob was going to crash his ship, because he had slowed down exponentially as he neared our position..
I watched from the window of my Celesta the scene fall out before me. Cmdr Rob was coming in from the right, and Cmdr Nico was parked at the center of the and I was in the corner, getting a good look at the landing. It was a bit nail biting, because I was trusting him to slow down in time, and I became concerned that he was going to miss that window.
“ How is it going, Cmdr Rob” I said to him as he engaged his landing gear and set down.
“Pretty good overall, just finally catching up with you guys! I have this Waters of Shintara on board still, do you want to take it off my hands?” Cmdr Rob was enthusiastic as he landed and engaged his srv.
“ Sure sounds good! I almost forgot about that!” I was completely caught off guard by the commodity, and vaguely remembered the radiation sun back in the beginning of our journey. “ Yea I will pay you for it. Let's exchange at the port.” I finished saying.
“ Well, that makes sense. So what do you think we should do about this war?” He asked me as cmdr Nico pulled up beside us.
“ War?” Cmdr Nico questioned.
“ Ummm… I was planning on sticking with our mission to the center. I don’t think we should deviate from the original plan. The galaxy awaits!.” I genuinely felt bad about the current war going on in the bubble, but I wasn’t about to turn around and go back, not now that I was all the way out here.
“ I don’t want to fight any wars. I am down for going to the center, what about you cmdr? “ Cmdr Nico asked Cmdr Rob as two loud sonic boom noises happened at the end of his sentence.
“ I am along for the expedition. I was just wondering what the plan was. Just in case you have changed your mind. Who are they?” Cmdr Rob said. We all looked up in the sky and saw the view of two ships approaching our location in formation.
The ships were driving too fast to be stealthy, and they seemed to not care that we noticed them. Cmdr Nico, Cmdr Rob, and myself all headed back to our ships and prepared ourselves for the intrusion.
“ Were you followed here?” I immediately asked Cmdr Rob, suspicious of the timing of the two strangers and the unusually high amount of traffic today. They could be anyone from security to scoundrels. Cmdr Rob was carrying the rare commodity Waters of Shintara in his hold.
“ Not that I know of… I don’t think so.. I mean I do still have the Waters of Shintara in my holds, but I didn’t think anyone was following.” Cmdr Rob began to explain as Cmdr Nico prepared himself to launch and go investigate the fast approaching strangers.
“I will be right back” Cmdr Nico said flatly as he launched his Pathfinder up in the sky.
Cmdr Rob and myself decided now would be a good time to exchange the materials, and I paid him handsomely for the Waters. If we were going to suffer today, I sure didn’t want to be indebted or have him taking an unnecessary risk. I loaded the cargo in my bay, and rushed back to my cockpit. Cmdr Nico was still in the sky, I looked out my window up at him, to see if I could figure out what was happening above my head.
The strangers were nowhere to be found! Surely he had diffused the situation and just sent them on their way. I hailed Cmdr Nico.
“ What happened? Where did they go? Did you get a look at them?” I questioned as fast as I could with curious anticipation.
“ Slow down for a minute! Not everyone is out to kill us you know… “ Cmdr Nico swooped back down in his condor and hovered above our ships. I looked at him through my window attempting to calm down from the rush I felt when I had just thought we were going to be attacked by pirates.
“ What was it then?” Cmdr Rob chimed in.
I waited casually for Cmdr Nico to return a statement. My nerves were starting to calm down when Cmdr Nico replied.
“ Internal Security Services. Apparently we are to report to Jaques Station. Sounds like they are rounding up all Feds.-” Cmdr Nico started to report.
“ What? That is us!” I tried to maintain my composure. “ There is no way that the Empire has jurisdiction out here! This is an outrage!” Panic began to set in. I couldn’t believe it. “ You must be joking right?” I questioned.
Cmdr Rob sat in silence waiting to hear the verdict, unsure of how to diffuse this situation, knowing that he too was Federation. I looked out the window at Cmdr Nico and he simply said,
“ Maybe you are wanted, but I am not Federation. Those guys were looking for Federation and by luck, they were met by my Empire vessel. I explained that my friends were also loyal to the Empire, and that is how I got them off your back for now.” Cmdr Nico continued.
“ So now what? Cmdr Meri, what do you propose?” Cmdr Rob finally spoke for the first time since the incident began.
“ Well, clearly we will have some resistance with Jaques. Umm.. I am about ready to get out of this system. Looks like we are going to have to cut our vacation in Colonia short. There are a few supplies I still need to obtain before I can truly leave this place. Any suggestions? I am all ears” I was beginning to look through my inventory and jot down a small list of essentials that I must acquire before leaving Colonia.
“ What sort of things? Maybe I could sneak in and grab them up.” Cmdr Rob suggested, as he prepared his ship.
“ I could go right through the front door and experience no resistance.” Cmdr Nico had a valid point. Afterall he was not Federation.
“ All I wanted was some tobacco supplies, but I was down there earlier this morning and she was all sold out. The entire place was practically picked clean. Other than that, I really wanted to get my hands on a Duradrive.” I felt kind of silly mentioning the tobacco to them, because I knew that neither one valued it as an essential, not quite the way I did.
“ Sounds like you are out of luck on that!” Cmdr Rob cut in “ However, I happened to have this Duradrive. It is stolen. I don’t know who it was, but I found it drifting in the open space of Rhea on my way out of the bubble a few weeks back. I saw the condition and decided to stow it away just in case. They don’t make those the same anymore. Not like they used to. You are welcome to have it, if you don’t mind carrying stolen goods.” Cmdr Rob offered.
“ That sounds like a good plan!” Cmdr Nico began to line back up with his Pathfinder and get the condor secured in his fighter bay.
“ Thanks Cmdr Rob. I wouldn’t need to go back to Jaques station, especially if you had one of those. Although, I might get a little moody without my cigars, it is much better than spending my time in a shuttle shipped back to the bubble for prosecution.” I agreed to the device and Cmdr Rob delivered the stolen Duradrive to my holds.
“ Alright, so we have it settled, Cmdrs. Prepare to go to bookmark 1. I have updated your maps. We need to get out of here!” I finished saying as we all prepared to take off.
On that note, the three of us left Colonia, from the back side of the planet, far from security services. Unfortunately I left without a restock of my supplied recreational uses, and apparently now I am wanted for simply being Federation tied. To my understanding, both commanders were well stocked in their supplies, and we were all ready to go.
Once we were cleared of the planet, the three of us engaged our hyperdrives and slipped into witch-space unnoticed.
Later on that same night, I drifted off into deep space, resting in the comfort of the black, and thinking on the current news. I wondered if that Duradrive had anything useful on it other than sending out long distance transmissions. I plugged the device into an outlet by my bed to begin the charging process, and fell asleep for the night.
-Mariedess