Are We There Yet?
19 Jan 2021Elkyri
NSC Boundless, Tir3307.01.17
I don't often get a chance to meet Hicks face-to-face. Even when two ships come together somewhere getting from one to the other is such an inconvenience that socializing between pilots is usually done over vid-comms. Chance encounters when passing through the same starport are about the only time you see someone in the flesh. So it was a pleasure to hear his voice as he came up Yalena's aft gangway after I got her docked aboard NSC Boundless.
"This thing's still wearing it's factory finish!" He was shouting from the aft end of the ship. "You do know the cool kids get their ships painted, right?"
"I can't afford the paint or the time to get it painted," I shouted back. "Besides, you know I've never been one of the cool kids."
"Good to see you again, Sis." He was smiling as he came into the cockpit and settled into the copilot's seat. "Okay, I give," a confused look crossed his face. "Why is there a bowl of water on the floor?"
"It's for the cat."
"What cat?" He glanced around. "I don't see a cat. Since when do you have a cat? "
"It stowed away while I was evacuating Hanna Enterprise. It's a stealth cat. Has its own cloaking device. You're not going to see it unless it wants to be seen."
"Yeah, alright," he gave me that sideways look of his. "I'll buy that as long as it's not an imaginary cat."
A warning klaxon announcing the carrier's first jump interrupted our conversation. We got in only a few more minutes of talking before the jump itself began. The noise of a carrier going into witch space is tremendous. The vibrations permeating the ship and everything aboard it are felt rather than heard -- any sounds they might make being completely drowned out by the noise that comes with ripping open a hole in the Space-Time Continuum large enough to admit the bulk of the carrier. Thinking during that process is nearly impossible, let alone trying to have a conversation.
We got caught up with each other in the fifteen minutes of silence that followed. I made coffee when the next jump began then we began discussing our plans for Colonia when the noise of that one had subsided. And so it was for hours -- five minutes of clangor followed by fifteen minutes of relative quiet. I was beginning to wonder how I was going to manage to sleep through the noise should it continue through the night when an announcement came over comms advising us the carrier's nav system had failed and the drives would be powered down until the system was again operational. Hicks took his leave and I turned in for the evening, secretly hoping it would take them at least a few hours to get the nav system operational again.
I've done the math and even with six hours of down-time caused by the failure of the carrier's nav system Boundless would have won the race. She covered in about twenty hours what it would have taken me at least twenty-four hours of non-stop jumping to cover if doing any scanning enroute. That isn't a fair comparison as I wouldn't have done it non-stop for twenty-four hours. Throw in at least eight hours for sleeping, meals, and so-on and from a perspective of time I clearly came out ahead by hitching the ride.
The downside, as Hicks and I discussed, is jumping over systems perhaps yet undiscovered we would have passed through if traveling on our own. It makes me feel more like a tourist than an explorer. I hope to change that now that we have arrived in Colonia. Hicks thinks most of the people coming to Colonia are tourists that don't get out too far on their own. That doesn't have to be me.