Don't Mess with Neutron Stars
03 Nov 2016Evoflash
For me, your last week was my yesterday, and what a day it was. Truth is I’m lucky to be alive. The rescue crew at FDev saved my ass and I truly owe them more than a strong coffee. My ship is scarred, a little broken and it’ll be a long time before I fly to a Neutron star again. I’ll explain it all, but you’ll need to concentrate because I sure as hell will need to in order to correctly relay it.Time is all relative so I’ll tell it in your timeline else it won’t make sense. Hell it doesn’t really make sense to me. There I was, Neutron hopping on the way to Sagittarius A*. I jumped from Phua Aub MC-V e2-1621 in to Neutron system Phua Aub CL-O d6-9490, and right there all hell broke loose. The ship slammed off to the left, system damage warnings blared. The goddamn nav computer had dropped me out of hyperspace straight into the flare of a Neutron. I’ve ridden these things before as I’ve written down previously, but that was on my terms at my pace and most importantly under my control.
Not this time.
I’ve never moved so fast and done so many things at once. I sent up a mayday beacon to the FDev galactic rescue while wrestling the ship controls to pull up and away. My coffee went everywhere and the cup smashed but I couldn’t really hear it above the sirens. I shut down all non-essential systems, targeted the star and tried to steer away. Next thing I know – with a thundering, juddering slam – I’m dumped out of witchspace. I must have gotten too close to the star (you can’t really see much when you’re in a flare). Honestly, right there I thought I was screwed. Systems were failing, my canopy was cracking – my time had come all because of some heap of junk nav computer. As I span out of control I readied myself for whatever may be – would the escape pod work here? Who knows. I’ve not met anyone who came back from something like this….
That’s when I blacked out.
I came to in a nearby Phua Aub CL-O d6-3736 system, I was still in my chair – harnesses might be old school but damn it they work. My ship was badly damaged, it had every goddamn type of leak and there were new noises coming from just about every module. Myself, I was ok. My mouth felt dry and I had a pounding head but all fingers and limbs were intact. Scanners indicated nearby FDev rescue ship – how in the hell did they get here so quick? I must be the luckiest guy alive. I got on the radio and whooped them for being so near, and here is the screwy part. They tell me I’ve been gone five days, not a couple of hours. My watch says couple of hours. Theirs says five days. Turns out I got so close to the Neutron star that time slowed down for me. While time for me passed maybe half an hour, they had five days to get near me and send across a remote-FSD to get me the hell to safety. Don’t ask me why time slowed... It’s to do with large localised mass. The tech guy started explaining, I went and made coffee. When I got back he was still going. It’s great – really great – that we have people like that, but I’m not one of them. They went on to explain that the Nav Computer system software is glitching at Neutron Stars and White Dwarves, with pilots landing similar to me in a world of trouble at the star flares. Better pilots than me are getting out of trouble, but it’s mayhem right now. They got whizzkids back at base working hard to fix it and galactic comms will carry a patch as soon as it’s ready. Until then I’m staying the hell away from Neutrons and White Dwarves. It’s KGB FOAM all the way for me.
We said our goodbyes (I said thanks for the hundredth time) and they headed off, presumably to help some other chump like me.
Compared to that, the Sagittarius A* visit was pretty hum-drum. It’s a big, chunky black hole. All the surrounding systems are already explored, there were tourists everywhere, and I didn’t really give a damn so I got the hell out of dodge. 58Ly later and I was back home...
Uncharted Space.
CMDR Evoflash
Myrielk AI-F b39-41
Distance to Sol: 25,386.70 Ly