CMDR Eldrich Thames Logbook, Entry #37, May 02, 3306
02 May 2020Eldrich Thames
Colonia Galleon Project Progress Report #11
After setting out from Birkeland City a month and a half ago, yesterday the Urca de Lima finally reached the Colonia System and docked safely at Jaques Station.
The last stage of the journey was by far the most eventful one, in the tragic sense of the word at least. After leaving the orbit of the ELW I was orbiting on Thursday at 18:34, we only managed to make 13 jumps before an unusually strong Quantum anomaly not only disabled my Twitch broadcast beacon, but the ship’s main computer as well, dropping me out of supercruise in the Dryo Flyuae FL-W d2-81 system, after just one hour of flight time.
Fortunately the backup computer - based on classical electronics rather than quantum technology and thus unaffected by the anomaly - kicked in and kept the life support and other critical systems operational until the main computer rebooted and self-diagnosed. Despite the severity of the incident the computer only suffered minor damage, which didn’t jeopardize the safety of the ship and could be easily fixed once the Urca had the chance to spend at least a day in Jaques’ hangar.
Still determined to reach my destination this week, I decided to schedule an impromptu transmission yesterday. This time everything went smoothly, departing from my emergency stopover point at 18:34, and arriving at Jaques Station when the clock marked 22:26, for a total of 3 hours and 52 minutes flight time.
So the complete statistics for the final leg of the journey are as follows: from Polo Harbour to Jaques Station I made a total of 128 hyperspace jumps totaling 4,824 LY. The overall flight time was 10 hours and 8 minutes. No interdictions against my ship were attempted.
With the journey to Colonia complete, and all 608 tons of cargo onboard the Urca sold at Jaques’ Commodities Market, Phase 2 of the Colonia Galleon Project is now officially over.
The overall statistics of the CGP currently stand as follows:
- Gross Trading Revenue: 11,644,114 Credits
- Cargo Investment: 1,870,418 Credits
- Net Trading Revenue: 9,773,696 Credits
- Exploration Revenue: 207,703,439 Credits
- Overall Project Revenue: 217,477,135 Credits
- Operational Costs (ship repairs, refueling and restocking): 2,907,901 Credits
- Miscellaneous Costs (fines and/or bounties issued against ship): 0 Credits
- Total Project Costs: 2,907,901 Credits
- Overall CGP Profit: 214,569,234 Credits
I find it extremely ironic that, while the stated main purpose of the CGP is Rare Goods trading - exploration being a secondary concern, even though I did a FSS scan of every system I visited and probed several unmapped worlds of special interest - the bulk of the project’s profits are coming from the selling of exploration data. If we take that revenue out and focus on pure trading, then the project’s overall profit so far is just 6,865,795 Credits.
I knew I wouldn’t become insanely rich from this journey, but I definitely wish that the Pilots Federation reconsiders its asinine stance on capping Rare Goods trading the way they currently do it, as it makes no sense whatsoever. I don’t regret doing this, however, as it has been quite the adventure, one I’m dying to tell everyone about back home!
Now, for the overall Phase 2 journey stats:
- Total Hyperspace Distance: 24,132 LY
- Total Hyperspace Jumps: 684
- Overall Flight Time (pad-to-pad time): 1 day 17 hours 48 minutes
- Total Interdictions: 3
So the big question of the moment: Is this the end of the CGP? Absolutely not! In fact, with Phase 2 over, the project is only 50% complete. Now we need to do exactly the same thing we just did, in the opposite direction!
We’ve just brought in the riches of the Bubble to Colonia. Now we need to bring the treasures of Colonia back to the Bubble! Unfortunately the only Rare Commodity available in this region of space, Jaques Quinential Still, won’t be enough to completely fill the Urca’s hold, even if I buy the max allocation of the aforementioned item.
Thus I’ve decided to fill the rest of the cargo space with high-value ordinary goods sold in the region at the lowest buying prices available. I will dedicate the next few days to do just that, hoping to be ready to depart Colonia as soon as next Tuesday.
Before that, though, I will indulge a bit on my explorer side and survey all systems that appear on my navigation tab!
These two activities will be Phase 3 of the CGP, with the return journey being Phase 4, naturally.
I’ve already set up my return journey’s route. The intention is to traverse as much unvisited space as I can, so I chose different stations - except two - as waypoints.
Before signing out this rather large progress report, I want to mention that this morning I received a comm from a high-ranking representative of the Colonia Council on which, besides congratulating me for this extraordinary trading achievement, also came with a very nice gift! I’ll reproduce its text here:
Greetings, CMDR Thames,
I hope this message finds you well.
We received word that your ship docked at Jaques last night, and our financial records show that you sold a total of 608 tons of cargo, distributed among 112 of the rarest items available for sale in the galaxy.
The Council has kept track of your progress ever since you first docked at Hillary Depot, and at every other station you visited along the Colonia Highway - all of them owned and operated by the Colonia Council. While this is certainly not the first time any of these high-value merchandises have been transported all the way to Colonia, seldom has a single pilot brought such a broad display of unique items in a single journey.
Though I cannot personally attest to this, it is very likely that several of the items you brought in your ship have been sold at our markets for the very first time since colonization of this region began.
In the name of the Colonia Council, and my own, I wish to congratulate you on the remarkable drive and determination you’ve shown by carrying on with your “Colonia Galleon Project” initiative. I take it it was quite an ordeal to get all that cargo you brought in, not to mention the journey itself! We can only hope that your example serves to inspire fellow traders to emulate your actions - maybe even surpassing them in the process.
As a token of the Council’s appreciation for your efforts, we have commissioned a local artist to make your portrait, using any archival imagery of your persona we could find on the Galnet for reference; thankfully your own public logbooks were a wonderful source.
I understand that the artist is well-versed in the Japanese Manga style that was in vogue in the early 21st Century - I’m no art connoisseur, I’m afraid - but we wanted something unique that showed you in the best possible light. We sincerely hope that you find it to your liking.
Once more, thank you for your efforts, and we wish you Godspeed in all of your future space travels.
Best Regards,
Progenitor Cedrick Roman
Colonia Council
Well, this was totally unexpected! And I definitely love it!
So much, in fact, that I’m going to use it as my official portrait from now on. In case any of you guys are interested in getting something this cool, the artist goes by Peccosa, and you can check her amazing work out at https://linktr.ee/peccosa.
CMDR Thames signing out!