Entry 111 - 11.15.3303
15 Nov 2017MBaldelli
Note: this was last week. I'm only just getting caught up now... I made it back to Crook Port, Tchehen in an expedient manner; much to the explorer ire I might have been feeling doing all those scan & runs from the 5,000+ LY mark back to the Bubble. I did catch a few ELW and Water Worlds along the way, but most of them were HMCs that really were nothing more than false positives in the system maps.
Getting into Crook Port, I arranged for the proper removal of the Occupied Escape Pods I collected out in the butt-end of nowhere as well as turn in the small explorer data caches I also collected. The cryopods were passengers of a missing Beluga that apparently was heading to Eta Carinae. Didn't find the Captain of the liner or the crew, but at least some lives were saved. Strange that the data caches I found could only be traded on the Black Market. Makes little sense to me, but at least it wasn't marked as illicit cargo this time around.
I had a moment to chat with the ground crew, telling them that I would be making arrangements for my ships and modules to be moved to another sector within the Bubble. I remember getting a few attaboys and congratulations thinking that I had received some sort of promotion within the Federation and that I needed to be closer to where all the Federation activity was. I let them assume that and wished them all well and headed back to the Dock Manager's Office to requisition a change of ships.
I swapped out from the Zheng He to the Eiriksson which I then headed to Janes Horizon at best possible speed for Abraham Lincoln Station, Sol so that I could turn in my Exploration Data. Most of the reason why I did this was because I wanted to reinforce my relations with Mother Gaia and the Federation which I'll be doing more missions for them in the near future.
Overall, I was satisfied with the net results: 134+ million credits (60 million more than I was expecting) although I'm about 8% short of my Elite pins. Pity that... It means I'm going to need to go back out into the Deep Black one more time to finish that up. Pity still I wasn't able to head over the Pilot Guild's Offices and give the Captain there the smug look of satisfaction I practiced in the mirror during the expedition. Next time, for sure though.
After that I headed over to Janes Horizons, Arexe to make arrangements for all my ships to be transported there. While there, I went down to the ground crew area to introduce myself and get to meet with some of the crew that I would acquainting myself with when I was in port.
I was met with strange looks, reservations and standoffishness. When talking with the Dock Manager, he tells me that most Commanders that made their way here would hardly ever meet with the ground crews, and when they did it was usually to complain about something not done for their precious ships.
I explained to him my background on my home world, and how I was more blue collar than most Commanders I've met in the Pilot's Guild and felt more at home with dock workers than I did at Pilot Functions.
The Dock Manager explained that they'll come around. They did the same with him when he got transferred to Janes.
After that, I headed toward Farseer's Lab in Deciat to see if I can't increase the FSD range on the Eiriksson. When I landed there and was greeted by Farseer, I realized instantly I was missing the necessary data components for the Grade 4 FSD boost (let alone the data requirements for the Grade 5), so it was nothing more than a social visit for the likes of me.
Farseer greeted me with the warm attitude of the Oracle of Delphi and congratulated me with the return from this 5,000 LY run. While I had considered sharing my exploration data with her -- it seemed that I didn't have to as she was more than ready to explain some of my findings when I stopped by her salon for tea.
Seems that I might have been onto something about Water and Ammonia microbial life on the gas giants. At least for that sector. She suggested that the next time I head out, I should head toward the spin-ward part of the Milky Way to verify if it's galactic and not regional.
Leaving Farseer's Lab, I contacted family on my home world -- BD-01 3500 3 -- to inform them I would be coming directly home instead of booking passage as I typically do. My mother answered and told me that they would be meeting us at the docks at the estimated time and offered that I stay at the homestead while I performed my traditions at the gravesite.
Signing off, it was just a matter of making all the jumps home...