Behind the 8 ball....and through it
10 Oct 2020Eagle 5
The jump to hyperspace sequence is perhaps one of the most unsettling things humans can ever experience in their lifetime. Had nature had its way we'd be perfectly content to mob about the surface of Earth, generation after generation, until an asteroid or the Sun's red giant phase would retire us all to the history books.... but our stubborness to surrender to the natural order of things made it so that, after some time, we took flight and finally reached distant stars.
To this day I still don't really know how hyperspace works, other than it's based on the theory that the universe is made of more than 3 dimensions and that some are parallel while others secant, and that with some convincing (via advanced hardware) you can change which one of those you're on.
Imagine, if you will, that you live in a warehouse with several floors. The first floor is where you walk and is very much restrictive in that you can't get places very quickly. The second floor is an ice skating rink and you can glide along the ice at a much greater rate of speed than the ground floor but at a significantly reduced effort, which leaves the third floor (that we know of so far) to be a trampoline park where one quick bounce flings you effortlessly to the next trampoline unless you decide to go down a floor. This is effectively how hyperspace works with our three dimensions making up the ground floor and higher ones making the upper floors.
Make no mistake, we were never meant to see this: the frightening roar of the jump sequence, the streams of plasma, dark matter and who knows what else as they speed by you.
We can now travel the distance that would have taken centuries in just a handful of seconds this way.
This strange place between realities used to be called witchspace, it's a shadowy realm where some have been lost and never returned. It's terrifying to all who don't grow used to it.... and a delight to the Thargoids who some say call it "home".
But for as terrifying witchspace can be.... reality can be an even bigger bitch..
BANG
*** CONDITION RED *** TAKING HEAT DAMAGE!!!***
Before I had a chance to realize what was happening my sight went completely white, then a dark shade of purple than bright yellow as sparks and debris rained down on me from overhead bulkheads... The cabin was filling with smoke the temperature was nearing 150% of tolerance...
> LEO! WHAT THE FAAACK!!!!!
"A slight navigation mishap"
> DID YOU JUST PUT US THROUGH A DAMN BROWN DWARF?!?
"It would appear so. We're now grazing the exclusion zone of the main star"
> SHIEEEET!!!!
Even with my Remlock suit on, my hands still burned from gripping the smoldering controls trying to wrestle the Liberty away from the spiral that had placed us directly on the path to being vaporized by the star's lower atmosphere.. but I didn't spend years behind the controls of a ship to become nothing but vapor and ash and, pain or not, muscle memory took over and Liberty nosed up and away from the twin suns taking bets on who would roast me first.
ICZ KH-V b2-2... I better work my way around this place It's a small M star with an even smaller L class brown dwarf orbiting within a few handful of light seconds between them.
Hyperspace can be like that... having nothing more than a main gravity point to anchor itself for a jump, It's virtually impossible (that I know of) to pick an exact exit point that is safe and convenient. In this particular case since the L type was so small and barely bigger than a very large gas giant it was wholly ignored by the navigation system. The end result was that I was flung directly through it and out the other side as I exited witchspace. I should county my lucky stars.... 2 of them in this case... for not having exited sooner or I would have been a goner my atoms trapped inside the brown dwarf forever.
> Behind the 8 ball again Leo. This IS NOT how I wanted to start this mission.
Let's see... first finely veiled threats from the Empire, now stellar shenanigans.
What's next?
I better head for the repair dock as soon as I reach Kamitra... I wouldn't want those cigars to smoke themselves in the cargo hold.