New Views and New Perspectives
31 May 2021Spark Chaser
- Personal Log -30 May 3307
This is my first time back in the cockpit in what feels like years. I needed some time away, alone after my encounter with the aftermath of a Thargoid attack. It took days to get the screams out of my head, the feeling of heat from the burning station, and the smell... the smell of.. whatever it was. I parked at a station in the Cubeo system got quarters for myself and didn't leave for days. After my alone time I feel... less traumatized. I've got my share of physical and mental scars now, courtesy of the galaxy we live in -- and Thargoids.
First stop on a journey I didn't even know I'd take was to see Barnard's Loop, close up. So I bounced around between stars in and around the loop, I lost count of how many and what they were named. I suppose that doesn't matter really, and it was my mistake to log this all after the journey was over. I realized why I came out here to begin with. The sights and new perspectives you can get when the stars change. As a young girl I sort of regarded the stars above Novas as static, a backdrop. Set dressing for the play of life. Obviously, every adult knows that they're anything but static. I knew that to when I started school, but I don't think it was until I set out on my own that I realized just how dynamic they are. How vast and varied they are. From about 1,000 Ly away from the bubble, you see a whole new set of stars, the ones you remember looking at sometimes just aren't there. Obviously they are, but they're often not visible. Certainly through the sea of crimson of Barnard's Loop the dimmer and smaller stars are very much obscured but even outside it. Out there it's difficult to find any familiarity. And when you're trying to get away from "familiar", that's what you need. I say "you" like anyone's going to read this, this is for me. For my own health and sense of self.
Whilst I was there I went out to Orion's Belt, the stars look very different indeed when some are merely 3Ly away. I realize the irony in adding "merely" to a distance humans were simply unable to fathom for thousands of years. I live in an amazing time, when crossing 3Ly or 3,000 Ly is almost as easy. I fully intend to make the most of it.
Since I was already outside the bubble, I set my course down, if there is such a thing in space. Below the plane of the galaxy and out of the Orion arm into the Sanguineous Rim. A good 2,500Ly from the bubble. For a new outlook, new perspective. I found some amazing sights in the Oochorrs region, icy and rocky planets with views of several nebulae from the same side. Other planets, including a few terraformable worlds, I'm sure had equally amazing views. I write this log from the surface of some obscure icy moon, orbiting a high-metal-content planet, orbiting a very ordinary M-dwarf star. But this obscure little moon has a view that keeps distracting me, mesmerizing me. I may not even sleep tonight because of this view. Maybe I'll fetch the bedding from my bed and just lay it out behind my chair in the cockpit. The massive windows up here sure do make for some glorious viewing opportunities. Maybe one day we'll colonize out this far. I, for one, would love to look at 4 nebulae and the galactic plane from outside my home. If I had a view like that, I might even trade in my ship and settle down. I shudder to think on it now, but one day I will. News from Galnet has the galaxy going to hell in a hand-cart so I can't say I'm in much of a rush to get back. It is trips like these that is the reason I named my ship "Far Horizons". I'm going to close out now and admire the view, for tomorrow I'm off to find more Far Horizons.