Entry 10 - Settling into the Groove
23 Aug 2022miamijuggler
It's been a while since I've updated this log, so while I'm not sure how much of interest has actually taken place, I figured I'd give an update anyway. Since my last entry, I arrived at Three of a Kind, and was fascinated by the gravitational lensing effect produced by the two black holes. This high above the galactic plane, it was sometimes challenging to track the location of the black holes, since for at least half of the sky, there was no light behind the black holes to refract. That made it a little unnerving to move around in the system, since I was always triple-checking that I wasn't about to unwittingly sail into the event horizon and be lost forever, squeezed first into the galaxy's longest strand of spaghetti before eventually being compacted into a miniscule atomic pellet.
I did take some photos, but I'm not convinced they turned out well enough to post here. Perhaps if I have some time to do some review and editing, I'll post a few.
Since I was a little uneasy hanging out in this system, it left me with the problem of where to go next. I felt that if I continued trending away from the galactic plane, the star density would eventually peter out and I'd risk getting stuck somewhere. I didn't want to be exactly on the galactic plane, either, since many of those systems would likely be discovered. So I settled on trying to track a path parallel to the galactic plane at a distance of roughly 1500 Ly, heading in the direction of Beagle Point. I'm still too far away to plot a direct course, so I'm having to plot several waypoints and make my way there in segments.
Since leaving Three of a Kind, I've made it another 8,000 Ly towards Beagle Point, and my galaxy map now indicates I am further "north" than the galactic center, which I suppose is a milestone of some kind. I've settled into the rhythm of jump-honk-scoop-scan-analyze. In cases where the Full System Scanner reveals something interesting, I'll go and map a particular planetary body, otherwise I'll spin up the FSD and jump to the next system. I can't be sure, but I think that I might be well into unexplored territory, based on the fact that my onboard cartographic database doesn't list any Commander names in the "First Discovered by" field.
The Galaxy Song itself is performing admirably, and so far I've noticed far less module degradation than I originally anticipated. Still, I find having an AFMU and repair limpets on hand to be a great comfort. Occasionally I experience moments where the intense solitude of being the only sentient being within several hundred (or thousand!) light years, but I've been trying to keep myself busy by reading or watching video feeds on Galnet, or occasionally gaming. I kind of wish I had thought to bring along a companion, even in the guise of a small dashboard plant like a cactus or succulent; a shipboard cat would also have been a good idea, but I'm so far from civilization that I'll just have to get comfortable with the solitude. I'm also wondering if I can make use of the currently empty space in the cargo hold. The hold is pressurized (even if not entirely warm, due to the insulation being mostly stripped out), so I could use the space for some as-of-yet undetermined function. Whatever I end up doing with the space, I'd like it to be temporary and moveable, in case I need to store something I find out in the black. I'll continue to think on this.
I'm trying to keep things from getting monotonous by giving myself permission to wander around each system whenever I feel like it, inspecting various features without the pressure to move on or make progress according to any given timetable. After all, it's not like anyone's waiting for me at Beagle Point. However, despite my best efforts, I fully expect space madness will set in sooner or later.
I look forward to logging my experiences here when it does.
Hm? What's that? ...oh hello, little kitty. When did you get here? Look at you, being all sweet and cuddly...
You've got such pretty purple eyes... filling the cabin with their light...