Entry 12 - Pit Stop
06 Sep 2022miamijuggler
Okay, so I'm doing a little better this time around. It helps that literally the day after my previous log entry, I discovered, scanned, and mapped my first Earth-Like World. Once that happened, though, I started becoming anxious about accidentally lithobraking or losing focus and supercruising into a star and losing all of my data. I tried to suppress this anxiety, but that can only take you so far.
In my browsing of the various maps and charts at my disposal, I noticed that the DSSA had a carrier stationed not too far from me: about a thousand light years (albeit in the wrong direction). After some deliberation, I made the decision to detour to the carrier and turn in the cartographic data I'd collected so far. We can blame that on space madness, right? .... Right?
A few hours later and I dropped out of supercruise near the DSSA Galactic Unity: the first human construction I'd seen in weeks. Without a docking computer onboard, I quickly had to dust off my manual landing skills and while a bit awkward, I managed to get the Galaxy Song set down without too much drama. I was intent on keeping my visit short so I could get back to making progress towards Beagle Point, so I submitted my work order to the ground crews, which felt infinitely luxurious after weeks of maintaining every last subsystem and module myself.
The SRV got refueled, repaired, and resupplied; the thermal core was reconditioned, the AFMU was restocked, and the hull trusses were readjusted for tensioning and alignment after so many heat cycles. They even managed to refresh the dry, cracked, peeling paint. It felt like a spa day, even though all of the work was being done on the ship and not on me. While the work was being done, I took the opportunity to stretch my legs a bit and wander the carrier's concourse, but since it was being run by a skeleton crew, most of the services were shut down for the time being. It was still nice to walk around a bit; I tried engaging some of the off-duty crew in conversation, but they didn't seem too interested in chatting, so I left them to their own plans. I guess being stationed this far out in the galaxy makes for a rather close-knit crew.
I also did my business with Universal Cartographics, and winced visibly at the 25% fee that is charged for handing in data on a fleet carrier, rather than an official office at a registered station. However, it felt good to have that data off my books and my name finally attached to all those "first discovered by" systems and planets. I know there are likely some carriers stationed out at Beagle Point, but I'm going to try to resist the urge to sell my data there, and hopefully make my final data sale when I reach Explorer's Anchorage near Sagittarius A* on the way back to the Bubble.
After all that was complete, I (somewhat reluctantly) took off from the Galactic Unity and reset my heading towards Beagle Point, settling back into the exploration groove. Here are a few pics from the past few weeks.
There were a few interesting geological formations on a few of the planets that I took pictures of on approach. I'm hoping the images might be useful or interesting to a planetary geologist at some point.
I also found a shockingly lime-green planet that orbits just outside the rings of a gas giant, which made for some spectacular views.
Well I think that's all for now. The journey continues, and I'll keep this log updated along the way.