Stretching Legs and Wings (Journey to Beagle Point #1)
15 Jul 2023Rawnu
Leaving the bubble and its squabbles behind. I'm off to Beagle Point, more than 65k LY from Sol, even more along my route – and hopefully also back. The first landfalls are always a joy, standing on desolate little worlds, the first human, the first sentient being ever to walk on them. I'm very happy so far with my "Hypatia", the Imperial Clipper turned Explorer. The Clipper isn't a natural long-range explorer like the Anaconda, the Phantom or the Orca. But its huge class 7 fuel scoop and the marvellous agility both in and out of supercruise are a sight to behold. And despite its largeness – or should I say: grandeur – it can even land in a tight spot. Out here, the beauty of the ship reminds me of the beauty elsewhere. The beauty, the strange and quirky beauty, of Selene, who sent me on this trip to realise what I truly want.
To my surprise, it didn't take that long to find the first Earth-like world on this trip, a world nobody has found before me. Blue-greenish orb in the black, a home away from home. Strange how we pilots are drawn to the Black, yet always seem to search for the things we already have. Next to to this world, a string of Ammonia and Water worlds have been in my flight path, firsts on all accounts. There is elegance in these shiny marbles in the vast void, elegance in dancing between them in this etheral piece of hardware.
One thing that stopped me almost dead in the water though was a bug in my COVAS, my trusted Alix. Had to reboot the system, shut down everything, and wait for over an hour in the dark. Everything is fine now, don't know what that was. The only sad thing is, that I had Alix to almost be nice to me, now it's back to its usual snarky self. Oh well, otherwise this long trip might've turned out boring anyway. So off we pop, with starlight on our tail!
