Cmdr's Log, 14July22: Flew Through a Sun(Icarus Ain't Got Nothing On Me)
14 Jul 2022Agoristl
I thought I would have nothing much to say on this leg. How wrong I was. Nearly two jumps from my initial waypoint, I flew through a sun. It was a trinary system, Nyeajee NT-O d7-89. Two of the suns were orbiting so close together, I don't know how they weren't tearing the each other apart. The target sun was on the far side of the one closest to my exit point. I went right through its twin and nearly needed to use the my suit's evac pump. But, somehow, I landed firmly between the two and wasn't turn to ash right there. My DBX actually managed to keep a cool 60 despite being in, what I assume to be, the narrowest path between them.I quickly turned and maneuvered my way out of their shared space and went on my way after getting some basic scan data.
But the fun wasn't to end there. Reaching my target system, I found no planets suitable for parking. It wasn't for two more blind jump before I found a system with a body I could set down on, Nyeajee PD-A b34-7 A 1. I did as I always do when I get ready to land, and probed the body for its data. Another surprise, one that didn't cause my bowels to twinge in reaction.
Biological signals. Two of them.
As I began my final descent from 100m, I could see there was a patch of what could only be some sort of simple plant life directly beneath me. I quickly set down in a potential target area and donned my Artemis suit.
The plants looked like they came from a page of an book on Earth's ocean life. Certainly alien from the trees and flowers you'd expect to find on Earth's landmasses. I quickly sampled it.
I was honestly shocked to find multi-cellular life on the surface of this body. Though it obviously had atmosphere as indicated by the unusual sounds I was hearing as I rode out my Glide and as I manually flew to its surface, and evidenced by the green hues of the daylight sky, it was less than 200ls from the star it circled. Less than half of what Earth is from Sol. If I had been at one of the poles, maybe it would have been less surprising, but I landed nearly right at a 'noon' position on the dayside. I suppose a thin atmosphere due to, I would assume, a lack of core activity and low gravity, could allow enough heat to escape to account for the low temps. But that life would not only exist, but be active rather than dormant, and multicellular. Incredible.
Before I leave for my next hop, I will see if I can find that second life form. It doesn't seem to grow where this particular one seems to be thriving. I wish I had arrived at a time when the two had already met and evolution had begun taking course in response to the pressures of competition. And if only I could live long enough to see how that would unfold.