First Neutron Star
07 Nov 2015Ardatirion
Yesterday, the crew of the Company of Fools encountered their first neutron star. We've spent the last few weeks traveling spinward along the spiral arm of the Milky Way, waiting to reach a denser part of space before turning towards the core. The majority of the system's we've encountered since leaving occupied space have been M class red dwarf stars, peppered with a liberal mix of K class and a handful of bright A class stars. While plotting the next 1000 ly jump earlier this week, our navigator followed usual procedure and hid all but Carbon, Wolf-Rayet, and non-sequence stars from the map. To our surprise, something actually showed up, a mere 20 ly off our original route. The anticipation mounted as we traveled towards the new star class. The usual routine of scanning gas giants and high-metal content planets seemed exceptionally tedious with a neutron star just a few stops ahead. Yet that anticipation soon mixed with fear, as the crew thought back to the tales they'd heard from other explorers. Neutrons are small, incredibly dense, and incredibly dangerous, delivering cracked canopies and hull damages along with their impressive credit payout.
Finally, the moment came. The ship screeched to a stop just outside the exclusion zone. With throttles at zero, we began the system discovery scan. Three objects revealed. We began the detailed scan on the neutron while checking the system map. Two high metals, one with an atmosphere and possibly terriformable. After the surface scan completed, the captain carefully rotated the Company away from the star and accelerated out towards the next body. The two planets turned out to be nothing special, but we were at least the first ship to enter this system.
An exiting day for us, indeed.