Stranger in a Strange Land
08 Apr 2023Rawnu
Curse that Vodka! Waking up after running into Sergei and Olha, two Tritium traders docked at the "Totoro" out here in the Norma Arm. Great people and stories, but damn that booze. But over 17k lightyears away from the bubble, you just don't turn down an invitation. Yesterday was a good day in the Black and I needed to celebrate my first Earth-like world, a beautiful blue and green pearl in the darkness. Lots of memories washed over me, the green hills and white mountains of my youth, the summers swimming in clear Alpine lakes on the good old Earth. I named this planet "Cortina Plenus Stellae". Cortina because of my youth and Plenus Stellae because it's night sky is filled with stars so dense, it takes your breath away.
Cortina was definitely my highlight, but the entire rest of the day wasn't in vain either. I logged some exobiology, mostly fungi and tubuli, with some interesting additions to my samples (and for Selene). There was however one moment, when I was both elated and depressed, standing on a desolate and beautiful small world with thin atmosphere and greenish-orange skies. I felt good and bad, an explorer and a stranger in a strange land. The Black gets to us all and forces you to readjust your understanding what it means to be human. The other day I wrote "I'm a creature of space", and while that is true, I'm also terrified by it. You can't have one thing (exhilaration and mind numbing beauty) without the other thing (existential fear and dread). This is what it means to be a true explorer, being able to hold these two feelings tight to your chest.
Anyway, as soon as my head clears, the journey is on again. Today it's off to Explorer's Anchorage and then Sag A*, the heart of the galaxy. This place has a magnetic pull on all explorers, it's the one place where everything is equally distant – or equally close. You can go to anywhere from there – or get lost in its infinite blackness. Chop, chop, Rawnu, off we pop!
