Finding Eden - Part 3
10 Oct 2017LongDistanceClara
Finding Eden - Part 3: Days 4-9
It's been about five days since my last log entry and a lot has happened! Or not much. Depends on what tickles your fancy
We headed out from the east-side of the galaxy, roughly parallel with Tenebris, on the Sagittarius-Carina arm; if you're not that familiar with the galaxy, that's roughly 3 o'clock on the good ol' Milky Way. The plan was to cling onto the outer edge of the arm all the way up to the top, then rest up for a day or two before starting back.
By this point, the Cass had jumped about fifty thousand light years, given our meanderings back and forth between the inner and outer arms, and despite being a tough old boot, it was beginning to show. The friendship drive was hurting some after having neutronic steroids shovelled down its throat and as always happens, that beautiful immaculate white coat was starting to wear.
Nothing for it - dropped her out of supercruise and took her systems offline, fired up the AFM and after a few minutes work, we were back in business (sorry Cass, nothing I can do about your skin! Maybe once Remlok sort out their EVA gear I can bring a paintbrush along...).
Groovy bears, off we head again.
There was the odd bit of eye candy interspersed with the usual tedium of exploring. Don't get me wrong, I love being out here - it's both exciting and relaxing at the same time and every now and then, the universe will put on a show that just makes your jaw drop. You'll see systems rammed with the most beautiful gas giants; ringed bodies in close orbits that take your breath away as light filters through the dust; neutron stars that look like stellar angels and black holes that look like the entrance to hell!
But show me an explorer who gets hyper about A.N.Other M-class with five inert dustballs drifting around it and I'll show you someone who's made one jump too many. Still, to find the pretty, you've got to endure the dull
And over the course of the next few days, whilst enduring the dull, we ran into a whole lot more pretty, including a bunch of ELWs. They're always a welcome sight, bringing with them that little buzz - is this the one? It's kinda like being a kid at christmas again
You see the little blue jewel hanging there, race towards it to bring it in scanner range, the system map flashes up and your eyes greedily flick through its stats. And even the ones that aren't ideal have their own uniqueness - we ran into one that would have been pretty miserable to live in - low 02 and very high atmospheric water; but from orbit it has some spectacular storm systems.
I have a confession to make though - late on the third day of this leg, the space crazy hit when we dropped in on two stars in an incredibly tight binary. It had been a pretty boring stretch of mudball after mudball and I just had to drop the Cass out and check them out up close - what can I say, I like shiny things! These guys were so close to each other that the flares and CMEs from one would arc across the gap and mingle with its twin.
I guess I'd had my quota of sensible for the day and decided I was owed some silly, so I brought the Cass back into supercruise, swung her nose round for the thin strip of black between the two and jammed the throttle to the stops. Pretty incredible view and hell of a good giggle, but felt immediately guilty for the Cassandra as warning lights and beeps announced that being the filling of an M-class sandwich was cooking her systems! First heatsink fired off in anger since leaving the bubble, but totally worth it - sorry Cassie!
Morning of the fourth day on this leg; we'd laid up overnight above the rings of a class 3 giant and the "dawn" view was amazing - so amazing that a certain idiot completely forgot to take any snaps! >.< The galaxy took pity on me shortly after we got underway with a few compensatory ELWs, nothing ideal but a nice consolation prize.
Nearing the top of the galaxy, I began scanning the map for a good halfway rest stop and it looked like Beagle Point wouldn't be too much of a detour. I'd been there a couple of times before in other ships, stopping off on the way to the outer rim, but never in the Cass. Seemed only right to drop by and it was only a couple of k off our route.
Beagle Point as most folks know is a bit of a tourist destination, a long distance mecca for explorers and tourers alike. It's one of the furthest locations achievable from Sol, back in the good/bad old days of exploration, pre-engineering and all those nav QOL advances. While it's now possible to get a good way beyond it thanks to the advances, Beagle Point still has a big draw on many and as you get closer to it, system after system shows the scans of many passing visitors.
Which is why I was blown away to find this little gem just 1400ly out:
Atmosphere, perfect. Temperature, perfect. Days lasting 36 hours, year was just over two earth, doable - dammit, 1.6g. I still had yet to find something to beat that binary from my prior logs! Nevertheless, a nice little find given how heavily beaten the trail to Beagle was getting - literally the previous system and the following one were littered with random scans from various folks. I tucked this one away in the nav computer and we headed on.
It felt a bit funny, dropping into a system sixty-five k from Sol and seeing the nav panel flash up with all the star/planet names from previous visits
We took the obligatory postcard pics, Yari (my slf pilot) was pretty buzzed, having never been outta the bubble before!; but there was one pic I had to take:
A little homage to Cassie
A big old boot, she doesn't exactly "dance" in supercruise and won't make the crazy jumps that other ships will; I've seen enough comments from other commanders that echo all the above and scoff at using a retired Cutter for long distance travel. And I'll admit, it was a breeze bringing the Clair (my conda) out here before; but this was just so much more fun, loved every minute (well almost). Thanks Cass for looking after my worthless bum, you're a star Half an hour later, we were touching down on the surface of Beagle 2. Systems off and I quickly fired up the AFM - everything was within a few percent of optimal, but I felt the Cutter deserved a bit of TLC, so I set the module to work. I don't know why, they've never let me down, but switching off life support and the canopy is always a bit scary while the AFM does its thing, especially on the other side of the galaxy! But then there's the reassuring buzz as they fire back up and you can relax again.
So! A hundred thousand light-years down, about three thousand three hundred odd jumps gone; countless wonders seen and just over twenty earth-likes "in the bag"; two happy pilots and one sleeping ship.
It's been a good couple of weeks
