3307.01.29 - First Log - NYND Day 27
30 Jan 2021Kori5758
Date: 3307.01.29Universal Galactic Time: 0441
Shipboard Time: 2241
Location: Lunar Hyperlight, Dryeou Fleau EG-Y d3
Finally getting around to writing an entry in my logbook, I've been meaning to do this for a while but simply never got around to it. Today's a quiet day, mostly for mining, but we already mined a bit under 200 tons of tritium for LHL, so I'm giving the crew a day's rest and taking the chance to actually write for once. This area seems to be unusually explored for somewhere so far from the Bubble or Colonia, so we likely aren't missing out on much by not doing another patrol of the area. One of the constant thorns in our sides during our previous patrols of the area are these damned crystals.
Visually, they seem to be made of a similar material as the common ice crystals but have a higher spike density more akin to silicate crystals with a couple of the spikes being much longer than the others. They also drain heat from nearby objects much like an ordinary ice crystal and the colors match known varieties of other crystals. However, all of our instruments fail to provide any feedback about them. The sensors list them as "..." and the composition scanner returns no information at all. It's as if there's nothing there according to the ship. I've had Kex and Aleksandr both look over the systems and Aleks says nothing is broken yet Kex cannot explain what it is about these crystals that causes them to be unscannable. We've checked with Canonn and apparently a handful of others have reported similar crystals in these region but there's just something about them that causes all our current scientific equipment to not register anything but their presence. So far we have located them in the following systems:
Dryaei Flaae BT-U d2-2
Dryaei Flaae NR-N d6-1
Dryaei Flaae SG-Y d3
Dryeou Fleau XJ-A d0
Ood Fleau ZJ-I d9-0 (2 separate instances)
Kex believes that, as they seem only be found in the Tenebrae region, it is part due to the distance from the galactic core that these odd crystals have formed. But then why aren't there reports from the other arms of the galaxy? Interestingly, the majority of these were located in systems with an A class star as the primary star, the only exception being Magellan's Star (Ood Fleau ZJ-I d9-0) which was a step down at F class. Perhaps that also holds a clue? More data needs to be collected before we can make further conjectures.
We've had little success on the exploration front as it seems others have come this way many times before, many of the systems we've passed through have already been discovered. The low density of this area means Tsuki has been unable to find any high mass systems that would contain a notable star and, out of the systems that seemed like likely candidates to have an Earth-like world, we've only managed to find two ELWs, both of which were already discovered. The sight of an ELW surrounded by nothing but pitch black and with the entirety of the Milky Way hanging behind it makes for a nice view though, even if we aren't the first to see it. Tsuki managed to get this shot of the Raxxla Express and one of the ELWs at Void's Brink (Chanoa QK-C d14-0) using one of her camera drones:
There isn't much farther one can get down this arm (hence the system's name), so we decided to stop aboard the carrier that was conveniently parked in this system, the GSV Death and Gravity, in order to take a quick break and stretch our legs before making the 1,000 Ly hop back to LHL. Unfortunately, as nobody was on the bridge, we failed to notice that the carrier started the process of jumping until shortly after the lockdown went into effect. Luckily, it didn't strand us at a star farther down the arm only reachable by carrier but instead headed back down the arm at an angle from the way we came. It added about 5 jumps to our return trip but saved us the standard few jumps at a near perpendicular angle before heading back in order to avoid passing through the same systems, so it likely saved us a few jumps in the end.
Tsuki noticed an odd message in our system after we had left the carrier and it's unclear whether we somehow received it while in witchspace or if the carrier acted as a relay to transmit it to us. Either way, she says it seems to be a direct message for our ship based on what she can make out but the origin cannot be pinpointed at all. It's unclear as to whether it was meant for the entire ship or just one person in particular. It seems to be in some sort of code or possibly just corrupted as we're a long way from any proper communication relays. If it is encrypted, who was it for? I certainly don't have the key but there's plenty about the others' pasts that I don't know about. I know Kex was some sort of spook for the Feds before they grew disillusioned with their corporate governement. Aleks was fleeing some sort of political trouble in the Empire but to be honest, it seems more likely he's paranoid about there being a target on his back rather than there actually being one. Saorise was some sort of rebel before her cause got crushed and she had to flee into the stars. Only Tsuki seems to have a clean past but the rest of them all seem like they'd have people from their pasts trying to get in touch with them but need to keep it secret. The message simply reads:
muvdspimzzawotkzxlajzerpotlonllwsohtjzylkhjcolkifhjgrkoizklqhkst7matkzhbw
No clue what it means. Tsuki and Kex are working on decrypting it but haven't made much progress so far. Even Saorise has asked to take a look at it, I think being out in the black this long is starting to wear on her. There's not much call for a tactical officer out here, she's had nothing to do but shoot rocks since we cleared the Coalsack nebula. She's also asked me to allow her access to the simulators and to take the fighter out on flight exercises, which I've granted provided it doesn't interfere with our primary mission of exploration. She's likely hooked into CQC at the moment since we're docked for the day, there's no other way for her to really experience combat out here.
-END LOG-