Formidine Expedition: Entry 006
07 Jun 2016Alexia Zyxx
Charting the Rift is a slow and tedious task.The Minerva crossed the Formidine Rift at the Heisenberg Bridge -- a passageway of stars bridging the gap that allows for explorers to make their way behind the Rift with relatively little difficulty. We veered sharply off course before the end of the bridge, plunging directly into the far side of the expanse and working our way through the sparse back end of the Rift.
It's been very slow going. The great distance between each star combined with the lack of easily navigable routes effectively neuters our plotting software. Universal Cartographic's navigational computing is top of the line, but it's all geared towards the local Orion Hub and works best in dense, well-mapped space. The premium exploration suite affords us some leeway out away from civilization and we can manage routes of a Kylie or more when in the middle of a galactic arm. But here, in the inter-arm gap, we're lucky to manage three hundred light years before the computing program throws out an error and gives up. Even then, we must be careful -- the majority of stars out here are too dim and cold to allow refueling. The last thing we want is to end up stranded over 12KLYs from home, no hope of rescue while we wait for the life support to fail as our fuel dwindles.
So far, our findings are sparse. Putting it bluntly, there's a whole lot of nothing out here. The stars at the edge of the void are old and cold -- dieing dwarfs, desolate ice planets circling like hungry sharks. Wisps of fog and particulate cling to their surfaces as if fearing that massive, overwhelming void overhead. I can't really blame them. So far, we've only skirted the rim of the Formidine Rift, dipping our proverbial toes in the black water, and already the crew of the Minerva is on edge.
Nothing is out here. We have found no signs of life, no other explorers, no radio signals, no lingering wreckage. The Rift has been the center of dozens of rumors on the GalNet. It's supposedly become a hot-bed of activity in recent months, and before the Minerva departed we heard hints of a massive expedition along the lines of Distant Worlds being planned. While that hasn't embarked yet, surely it would require a great effort of planning and preliminary exploration. And yet -- the Rift is eerily and oppressively silent. Where is everyone?
CMDR Alexia Zyxx
Minerva
out.