Entry 4 - Materials Gathering
15 Jul 2022miamijuggler
I've spent the past few days in HIP 36601 gathering raw materials for my engineering needs. It's taken me a little longer than anticipated, mainly due to the fact that I keep getting distracted by my ship. I'm enjoying the flight to my next materials location so much that I find myself wandering around the ship, checking up on everything, making sure things are working and reconfiguring or adjusting here and there.This is not necessarily a bad thing. I've tested various failsafe conditions that I would certainly prefer to happen now on this shorter trip outside the Bubble, rather than ten thousand light years past SagA*. One test even dropped me out of supercruise unexpectedly: I was trying out different power configurations for the onboard modules, and I must have tripped a breaker, because I was suddenly flung against the restraints by a hard deceleration. The hull groaned, shuddered, and spun viciously. The thrusters had cut out completely and the ship tumbled through the black until I was able to reset the breaker and get the thrusters powered on again. It had, of course, caused some minor damage to the onboard modules, but not enough to cause any major malfunctions. All in all, the entire event took about fourteen seconds, according to the flight recorder.
Once I was back in stable flight again, and the adrenaline had worn off, I tried to look at it as a good thing. I carefully labeled that particular switch with a big piece of tape that simply said "NO" on it, and used the opportunity to test my onboard repair capabilities. I landed at my next materials site, and powered up the AFMU (the tiny 2A power plant can't power both the power-hungry thrusters and the AFMU at the same time). Everything worked smoothly, and I quickly got my modules back up to 100% operational functionality. My only concern is the supply of active AFMU material on hand, but it should be easy enough to synthesize that with materials I find on the road.
All in all, things are working beautifully so far. The vehicle hangar and SRV are working exactly as intended, and in addition to all the materials that I'm gathering, I'm also gathering important data on how many supplies and of what kind I'll need. I should be done with gathering the primary materials in another day or two, and then it's back to the bubble to visit a materials trader.
I should probably also comment on the sleeping situation. That first night, after finishing my previous log entry, I slept like a stone. Mainly because I was so tired. I let myself sleep in a little that next morning, but since then I've been trying to keep to a more normal schedule. The wake up alarm sound was still on default; so I had to change it from that infernally cheerful song that seems to get stuck in my head even long after I've woken up. Also, the sheets were still too stiff and scratchy being fresh out of the package, but that should change after a wash or two. Speaking of, I did my first load of laundry on board last night, and it's good to know that those utilities are working fine. The water system seems to be working flawlessly so far.
Aside from that one leaking valve in the commander's head that sounds strangely like a mouse singing opera. I'll have to fix that as soon as I get back to port.
Until next time.