Logbook entry

Like the sun, even without looking

Hey there,

Sorry for not sending a message in a while. I've just been a bit busy, you know how it gets out here. Late hours, messed up sleeping rhythms, the kibble tasting like kibble does.

I've lost count of the systems I combed. Days have been a little tedious for a while. Just jumping, honking, staring at the scanner output, hoping for the rarer blips. On a good day, I've got a few dozens high metals on short distances. On slower days, it feels like there's nothing but distant brown dwarves and cold dust, and I just skip right away to the next system. Haven't seen terraformables or water worlds in a while. Still, the payout should be nice in the end, even though many of these are just latest updates to known systems, doing patching up for someone in more hurry. Sometimes on the good days I get the "just one more", but I try to maintain the schedule, enough sleep and two hours of exercise.

The book's been good, thanks for the recommendation! I've been on and off depending how work goes. Sometimes the details of millenia old social structures can be as challenging to rummage through as the unknown signal sources here. I hope I don't dig up something that ought to lay unnoticed.

Last week I took two days off, collecting samples of these funny looking trees. It was like an apple orchard you see in the vids - hills rising around and a beautiful ring shimmering near the horizon. Almost makes you forget there's only a thin shell and roughly thirty minutes in the tank between you and asphyxiation. The last day scans showed several promising sites to check, but even after several trips up and down, I couldn't find anything but some base elements to refuel the rover with. Not the high note I was hoping to end the "weekend" with.

On the other hand, I've gotten used to the jumps again. Every drop starts to feel normal out here. No more white knuckles. Just deceleration and a slow swing around the star to top up. I haven't seen another square ping in weeks, let alone triangles or anyone trying an interdiction. Well, there was one, when I swung by this research station a while back, but the Firetruck's fast enough without cargo. And if I mess up, they're usually not even interested when they see I carry nothing they value.

And about that station jaunt: Yes, I finally invested in that bigger scoop! Such a good idea, I don't know why I kept it off as long as I did. It's so fast, there's been a couple of times the Space Brick's all fueled up again while I'm still just adjusting the swing radius. I have these notches I carved in the canopy frame on both sides; Lining the edge of a chromosphere along those is a pretty good quick and dirty estimate for trailing a steady swing around. Well, as long as the canopy filters don't botch up my eyesight and I keep my head still against the headrest. I was sooo proud of this low tech invention and now it's turning obsolete! I was even thinking of upgrading the notches to blobs of that bioluminescent chewing gum. You know - "Lumi-Chew! Why don't you?" Maybe get a proper adjustable scale design with attachment railings and a low-rate license deal, and just wait for the credits trickle in.

Ah, sorry. I'm rambling.

It's just that it's been a while. Don't get me wrong; It was so good to get out. I needed the time here, the distance between me and that stuff we talked about. The days here have their ups and downs, but in the sum total, it's definitely on the up.

But still... I just arrived to this place. The gasses of the nebula around are just lit up by this huge bright O-class. Feels unreal. I'm sitting quietly here in the dark on the ring of the second planet, canopy lights dimmed, just taking it all in. I was watching the sun rise and, well, thought of things. I decided to defrost my last box of Chen's Kung Pao. Though it ain't same as the real thing we had that night, I felt... I don't know what I felt. It's such a mix of things. Good, bad. At ease but then again not quite. I felt like saying sorry, but not really sure why. Maybe if I could just show this to you, and that would make it all lock into place, make sense and work out somehow. Meanwhile, all I got is this repair drone snapshot that looks too much like some Galnet resume pic.

Until then,
Nazanin



P.S. The solar flare took ages to frame up. Yeah, "snapshot". But I'd probably be honking along the next system if it weren't for this stuff. So you kinda owe me.