Adjustment period
05 Sep 2021Aylin Ouyang
The Pilots Federation is having us newly-licensed pilots start out by letting us perform some simple missions in the handful of their administrated systems. It doesn't pay much, but it's better than nothing. I guess they wanted to make sure we know what we're doing before they let us loose out in the galaxy (and having some cheap labour is also a bonus for them, no doubt). We were given the instructions during registration for using the trade networking terminals. I read through them pretty quickly yesterday, since I worked on maintaining those way back home, they were quite familiar to me, but interfacing them as a pilot makes it feel different somehow.Speaking of different: I thought I was quite secure in piloting a ship, but flying in your own system just doesn't prepare you for the varied conditions out there in the galaxy. Today I docked in an asteroid base for the first time, and I fumbled the approach. I knew that being close to an asteroid belt will trigger the safeties in the FSD, but I got the angle wrong and dropped out prematurely. Not exactly my best moment.
That one screw-up aside, I am getting quite used to handling all this time out in space. I've never been in out in a ship for more than a couple of hours every time, so being out in space for so long and switching between in and out of zero-g is still a little weird. Won't be long before the Pilots Federation ejects me out from their little playground, though, so I'm hoping those weird feelings go away soon.