JOURNEY OF A COMMANDER PART 26
11 Nov 2022Ni6h70wl
08.02.3308 - Novara Expedition Day 138---Ship signal detected---
"My lady, what do we have here?", I didn't expect such a message, especially not this far out. However, even my first officer was surprised and looked at the data.
"These are SNPX IDs, but that can't be," she admitted in amazement.
I checked the ship data myself and sure enough, the following ship ID's were displayed:
- The Blue Star - SNPX
- Big Mama - SNPX
- Snp-1312 Nimitz - SNPX
"What the hell are they doing out here?", I was so surprised that I had to say the thought out loud. These three ID's belong to Cmdrs Sciencekeeper2-Alara, LosSuppos and Major_Koenig, basically the leadership of the Stellanebula Project squadron.
The Blue Star, was a Krait MKII and the other two ships were, Type-10's? I don't think I'm seeing right. The position data of two ships could be determined, the ship of Major_Koenig should be in a system with strong interferences.
In the system Pro Briae XX-U d2-69, where we had jumped with the Novara, The Blue Star located on the planet 2 a.
---o7 Cmdr, this is Cmdr NI6H70WL, pilot of the Novara, requesting beacon signal---
---o7 Cmdr, beacon signal has been set, glad to see you again Cmdr NI6H70WL ---
Due to the set beacon signal, which can only be activated by the Wing/Team function, it is possible to approach the exact position optimally. The distance in supercruise was bridged quite quickly and the Novara set for approach.
Cmdr Sciencekeeper2-Alara is the female clone of the leader Sciencekeeper, the lady is sent quite gladly on breakneck missions and accomplishes also accordingly experiments, as it is now times so usual with Sciencekeeper.
The Blue Star was in a crater with several geological signals, apparently she is collecting materials for the FSA boost.
The correct term would be FSA injection, additional elements are injected and synthesized exclusively for the Frameshift Drive. Depending on the injections, you can get +25%; +50% or +100% range out of it for a single jump.
Apparently the three pilots, also want to get to Beagle Point.
After landing, I was greeted by Sciencekeeper2-Alara, yet the esteemed lady mistook my Beluga for the much smaller Dolphin. A retraining in ship lore would be urgently needed, I wonder if I should report this to the pilots association? Accidents can happen with wrong ship classification especially in the area of star ports. Two ships do not always fit through the "mailslot".
So be it, we say a quick hello and then fly on, I don't want to keep my first officer or crew waiting.
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21:30 evening
The meeting ended, very talkative the lady is not. I went back aboard the Novara, enjoyed another snack on deck 9 and returned to my cockpit seat.
"Let's keep flying..."
"What happened?" my officer wanted to know.
"The female clone of our squadron leader has been out too long. She seriously mistook the Novara for a Dolphin. How are we supposed to get 400 people into a Dolphin." I was still visibly offended.
There you are diligently transmitting data to HIP 117029 and this clone can't manage to keep two such different sized ships apart.
"Don't be upset, as you probably correctly guessed, she's been away from civilization too long."
"You're right, COVAS, initiate jump sequence, get us out of here."
09.02.3308 - Novara Expedition Day 139
The Novara is now in the system Byaa Chrea PS-B d13-29, the special thing here is the fact that Sol, the cradle of humanity, is now 55,000 light years away from us and Beagle Point is "only" 10,500 light years away. For a moment I paused to mentally process this and humbly marvel at the sheer size of our galaxy.
The data we had submitted to the Bubble had incorrect dates. It might be a combination of calculation errors and the time dilation due to the too close contact with the event horizons of black holes. Thus we were already 4 days longer than calculated. The data were corrected and should be correct now.
15.02.3308 - Novara Expedition Day 145
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On the way to Beagle Point was a point of interest of the Galactic Mapping Project, the system Chua Dryiae JU-S b51-0, called "Dhat-Badan".
It is a ternary system in the center of The Abyss galactic region. The system has an Earth-like world (very large polar caps, nice land masses) that has a terraformable water world twin planet. Furthermore, there is another terraformable water world and a terraformable world with high metal content in the system. In addition, there are two ringed ice planets with probable tritium deposits, which also makes the system interesting for fleet carriers.
If atmospheric landings above 0.1 atm are possible, this site could become a welcome resting place for explorers traveling to or returning from Beagle Point. The system was named after the ancient Yemeni and Ethiopian goddess of oases.
We took the opportunity to replenish our water supplies, a nice system to end the day.
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16.02.3308 - Novara Expedition Day 146
Due to the lower and lower star density, the filters for the star classes were suspended, now all star classes were considered in the route calculation. Therefore the Novara jumped already in the early morning into the system Ceeckia HX-X a0.
The Y0 star was a brown dwarf with just 42 Jupiter masses, sufficient for deuterium fusion but technically not yet a star. Still, this relatively small fellow should emit enough electromagnetic radiation, as VSS sensors detected a life form on Planet 2.
The planet has a thin helium atmosphere, helium is the most volatile element next to hydrogen and needs enough gravity to not escape. This icy world has a gravitational attraction of 0.5 G, which is sufficient, nevertheless, according to previous findings, the minimum limit is 0.39 G.
After the DOS probes were fired at the surface, the ship's computer also received the results. A Bacterium species lived on this planet.
"In a helium atmosphere? I have not encountered such a life form until now."
"Hey who knows, maybe we'll be the first to discover a new life form." my first officer was optimistic.
I contradicted her, "Don't be silly, most galactic regions are well explored as far as life forms go."
"Still, this far out, let's scan the little guys and see what happens."
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The Novara set down for landing, the surface, despite facing the star, was very dark. Which prompted me to activate the full illumination of the SRV to see better. After some searching the first sample could be collected. It was the bacterium Nebulus in the color variation magenta.
Nebulus is apparently a species of bacteria that feeds exclusively on atmospheric helium. They are characterized by a radial pattern that spreads out from the center of the colony.
After all three samples were collected and I returned to the ship, my first officer was already standing in front of me with a grin on her face. "Guess who got an entry in the codex?"
"No, us? Really? Because of that bacteria?" I was almost speechless.
"Exactly, the color variation magenta was still unknown in this galactic region and we made the first entry. Congratulations my dear." she was apparently really proud.
"Thank you, I think it's great that we have now also immortalized ourselves in the Codex, even if the region is at the ass end of the world, but we have immortalized ourselves."
After this wonderful event we continued our journey to Beagle Point, it is not far.
Noon 11:35
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We made it, on 16 February 3308 we reached Beagle Point.
CMDR Kamzel unofficially named the system "Beagle Point" on Jan. 18, 3301, after his ship, an Asp Explorer named DSS Beagle, which in turn was named after his late pet, Jack.
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After thoroughly scanning the system, we headed for the Fleet Carrier DSSA Distant Worlds. Even though I now have to give up 25% of the revenue of the exploration data, there are still some first discoveries which I wanted to have secured. For example, the ringed Earth-like world and some more treasures we had collected so far on this trip. It was also time to restore the ship's integrity and plating.
In the end, half a billion credits were earned, despite the 25% fee. In general, exploration is also a good way to earn enough credits, provided you know how to use the necessary scanners wisely. The Pilots Federation awarded us the rank Elite Explorer Level 4 for this great performance.
After the ship was refurbished, I flew to Salomé's Reach.
Oevasy SG-Y d0 is the northernmost and most distant system of Sol that can be reached with a normal ship. Nevertheless, this "short trip" cost us several premium FSA feeds. At the most distant celestial body, I looked back in the direction from which we came and thanked the "creators" for this wonderful world.
