DISTANT WORLDS 2 - DAY 21 - SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
02 Feb 2019Zak Starfall
Galactic stardate 02FEB3305Having camped last night on an ice world in a system a short hop from Quantum World, we awoke to a deep frost on Star Reaper’s canopy having shut all non essential systems down as we usually do to save power and fuel overnight.
First task of the day was to bring the systems back online, defrost everything and run a diagnostics check. All checks were green, so Cathy fired up the Galmap systems and loaded our destination, PRU AESCS NC-M D7-192. The Conflux Delta settlement, the fleet meet up point, was 21 jumps away, so after a quick final systems checked, we lifted off, hit boost on Star Reaper’s thrusters and launched ourselves towards our next destination.
The 21 jumps passed swiftly, with only a couple of pauses to map some waterworlds. In no time at all, we were dropping into PRU AESCS NC-M D7-192 and running the discovery scan routine that has now become second nature. 2 signals caught our eye, a stellar phenomena and an unregistered comm beacon. As the stellar phenomena was 57,000 Ly away, we decided to check out the beacon first.
There were several other ships in SC with us, so the fleet was obviously beginning to congregate. After having so many systems to ourselves it felt odd to be sharing this one with other commanders. How will we feel when we finally get to Beagle Point?
The comms beacon was orbiting close to the rings of a gas giant, and when we dropped it we found that it was actually orbiting fast enough that it’s movement was clearly visible from a stationary ship. We clocked it moving away from us at about 1 m/s.
We approached the beacon, but it wasn’t transmitting anything and appeared dead. Then I remembered that I’d been out at the Conflux settlements way back in 3303. I pulled up my log archives and did a data search, and found the relevant log entry. Turns out this beacon transmits a coded message at 45 minutes past every hour giving out the location of the Delta settlement site. We had missed the signal by 8 minutes!
As I had already recorded this signal in my previous trip out here, we locked the nav system on to the stellar phenomena, hit SC and settled in for a 57kls wait.
On approach we could see that the phenomena was located in the rings of another gas giant, and that two other commanders were also heading in the same direction, an Orca and a DIamondback Explorer.
We dropped into the ring at the destination lock, but could see nothing as the light levels were so low. Switching to nightvision, we could suddenly clearly see a large cluster of crystal structures, which the composition scanner revealed to be of the purpureum and flavum varieties.
There were several other commanders already surveying the phenomena, an Anaconda, a Type-10 and a DBX. We were just drifting and running some science scans when Cathy spotted an unusual signal signature on the radar.
We manoeuvred Star Reaper to lock onto the signal and get a better reception, and saw that it was indeed a new signal type, a P01-Type Anomaly!
Inching closer, we got into composition scan range and did a full scan. The records stated that this was a high-energy phenomenon comprised of a dark core with a bright halo and ring of clouds. It resembled that description but was far too small to visually record unfortunately, appearing as a bright point of light, like an extremely tiny star. Further searching of the area revealed quite a cluster of these P01 anomalies. The first either of us had ever seen.
Scans completed, we left the phenomena and headed for Delta settlement on planet A3A.
We followed an Orca in, and soon picked up the settlement’s beacon.
The settlement was on the night side of the planet and had a suitably eerie atmosphere, having been abandoned over 30 years ago for unknown reasons.
The whole ‘Dynasty Expedition’ that came out this way in 3270 was cloaked in secrecy, and I don’t know if we’ll ever find out the reasons for the expedition or it’s failure, or what happened to the crew of the ships that built this settlement and then abandoned it. It’ll feel a bit strange tomorrow as the fleet’s ships assemble here and bring life and noise to a place so long silent under the gaze of the void.
Settling down for a slightly uneasy night next to this monument of humanity’s bravery/naivety.
o7