All In the Name of a Good Night's Sleep
16 Sep 2016IsraelZulu
"They say it's bad luck to fly a ship without a name." I muttered to myself. I was nursing an ale, and the remnants of my latest wounds, as I watched another patron regale Jaques with the tales of his own scars - tales which were certainly more glorious than mine.Yeah, it might have been bad luck. Then again, it might have been my own foolishness too. I should have known to check the gravimetrics before trying to land on a planet in the middle of nowhere, with the under-rated thrusters I'd fitted to save weight and add that little extra to my jump range. Instead, I came out of Orbital Cruise way too hot and barely had time to punch out before my ship became just another crater on that accursed rock.
"Heh." I chuckled a bit as I talked to myself some more. "At least those two had something in common. Neither of them had a name."
As if the crash itself wasn't stupid enough, I really didn't have any particularly special reason to be landing in the first place. It's not like I was about to take a tour in my SRV - that was something else I'd done away with to boost the ship's range just a little more. No, I'd just felt like settling down on something solid for the night.
Of course, I could have simply cut engines and left myself adrift in orbit while I caught a few Zs. I've done it plenty often enough. Once in awhile though, after you've spent enough time in the black, it's nice to be on firm ground. Some place you can settle the ship down on and actually stop moving for awhile.
I know motion is all relative - especially in space. So I can really consider myself "not moving" just about anywhere I am, so long as I've got nothing in view that tells me otherwise. But being landed on a planet - physically linked to something that's big enough to keep you there - brings with it a feeling of stillness that you just can't match in freefall. Plus, there's the added benefit of not having to strap yourself into the bed for that night.
Once in awhile, you even get lucky enough to find a planet that has just the right amount of light exposure to maintain a comfortable surface temperature. These are usually in what the Astrobiologists call the "Goldilocks Zone". Then, you can really shut the ship down - even cut off the HVAC - for some serious peace and quiet. If your O2 tanks are big enough, you could go further and kill off Life Support for a nap in total silence. (Not me though - air has weight too, you know.)
But whatever you do, no matter how much you really want that dead silence so you can get the best sleep you'll ever have away from home, check the friggin' gravimetrics before you try to land!