AESA expedition pt2 - Back again
10 Feb 2021Orion Blacksun
Well, we'd made it to the centre, and all too soon it was time to head back. I had my exploration technique refined by now, only visiting F, G and K type stars ment that I avoided the cold systems full of ice and focused on those suitable for life. This strategy paid off and I found several more high value worlds. I paced myself with the Shackleton and made good progress. During this period I came across an unusual ringed ammonia world. Quire a rarity, I'd never seen one before. I stopped for a closer look and scanned it more thoroughly than I would normally map a planet. I took a few pics then was about to leave when one of the sensors on my dolphin picked up a faint signal from the surface. I fired another probe at the location of the signal and viewed the feed as it hurtled through the clouds down towards the planet. The clouds were thick and low to the surface. As the altitude of the probe dropped I wondered if it was going to be clouds all the way down. Then with less than a kilometer to go it broke through. There were only two seconds before the probe crashed onto the surface but I've played those two seconds back dozens of times now and it's long enough to see the site. Shrouded in mist, a circle of upright stones. In the centre, something. A small building, or a statue, an altar perhaps? Not thargoid. Not guardian. But something else. The more I look at the recording the more convinced I am that these stones match the one that I saw at the guarduan site all that time ago when I was working for Ram Tah. The one that was out of place. My ship wasn't equipped for atmospheric landings so there wasn't anything more I could do here. Was this why universal cartographics pay so much for ammonia worlds? Was this what they are looking for? Unnerved I moved on.
Not long afterwards I decided to leave the Shakelton behind and continue on alone. The anniversary of my parent's disappearance (I still can't bring myself to say death) was approaching and I wanted to be back home for it.
Switching from my dolphin to my phantom, I sped through the galaxy, using neutron stars when I could and only stopping to map high value worlds. I made good time and discovered a few more systems of note, but all this paled into insignificance when I found a wonderous system.
The primary was a neurton star with a few rocky worlds orbiting it. But the neutron was in a binary orbit with an F class star around which orbited two terraformable HMCs, two water worlds and two earthlikes. It was the perfect system. Exactly the kind of system that we were looking for and an ideal place to set up a colony. I lingered here for a while marveling at my discovery, but time was against me and I continued on.
I eventually came to a famous system that holds the only known example of void hearts in the galaxy. This was a real highlight for me as these things were as fascinating as they were rare. I spent quite some time here taking photos and collecting samples. A reminder, if I needed it, that the galaxy is full of wonders.
I then made a slight detour to the DSSA Nova Blues which was stationed close by. It was good to get off my ship for a bit and patch up the fsd and hit the bar. I also uploaded all my data so that whatever happened next that system I found would be recorded.
I carried on sailing through the blackness. It all became a blur. There were fewer neutron stars as I headed away from the centre and the star density dropped off getting back to normal. I visited the waypoints on the expedition route and before I knew it I had left the last one behind and my next stop was Hixcarines, 9000LY away and the end of the expedition. I had not docked for a long time and was cariryng a lot of data. I decided to stop off at an asteroid base that was half way between where I was and where I was going to try to acclimatise before reaching the bubble. It was so strange being in a system with other ships buzzing around. I headed for the base hoping I wouldn't get into any trouble, and sure enough, interdiction. Luckily for me the guy was an amateur and I had lost none on my skills so was easily able to avoid a confrontation. Just as well, as when I docked and sold my data I had in the region of 150 million credits worth. I stayed here overnight and treated myself to a brief stay in the best hotel they had (which isn't saying much) before heading off for the final leg.
Neutron stars were very rare now and I was having to do this the old fashioned way, but still made good progress. Before long the systems I was arriving at had already been discovered. It was strange seeing all the contacts on my instruments rather than just a single star. The systems felt dirty somehow. Polluted.
I skimmed through the bubble in a handful of jumps and finally reached Hixcarines. I docked at Rzeppa briefly and thrn made my way back to Schmitt ring in Kuwema, finally completing the journey. It felt good to be back and I was looking forward to some comforts, starting with an irradiated coffee, and then a bath.
A week or so later I flew back to Hixcarines to greet the Shakelton as it arrived and say hello to the rest of the guys. It had served us well as a home away from home for well over a month. I went back aboard and collected all the stuff I'd left in my cabin while arranging to have my ships transferred to Schmitt.
I didn't really know what to do with all the skulls I'd collected (what was I thinking?). I ended up piling them in the foyer in Schmitt and telling the staff that they were a special memento of the expedition and they were not to be removed. A month later and they're still there. I can't believe it. Someone even put some tinsel on them at Christmas.
With the expedition now well and truly over I look back on it fondly. I saw a lot of amazing things and learned a lot about exploration. We achieved our aims having found lots of interesting new systems. It's nice to be back but it won't be long before I wonder where the next voyage will take me...