Short jaunt to Nebula DRYOOE PROU AA-A H131
03 Dec 2017Scubadog
I decided to take my brand new Python, The Ceti Zorro, out to do some exploring of a nebula near to Colonia. As sparsely populated as the Colonia bubble is, it didn't take long to reach a point where I would no longer run across even the odd miner in the asteroid belts. Since H131 is a little closer to the galactic core, it's not surprising to see a lot more gas giants than anything else...or neutron stars, white dwars and black holes. I have to say, those black holes always spike the pucker factor up to 12 when I see them. Heck, white dwarfs are bad enough--at least you can see them.The trip so far has been pretty leisurely, since I've been dropping down to replenish a few materials in the SRV along the way and do some sightseeing. I've had plenty of conversations with fellow explorers--ones with billions upon billions of light years on me--who don't even carry an SRV anymore. The grand beauty and mystery of the black seems to have departed them some time ago. But I still find something romantic, terrifying and humbling about standing in the very edge of a kilometers-deep canyon on some never-before-seen world. Sure, I make my credits by trucking all this data back to civilization, supporting future expansion and commerce. But that's just the practical side of the "why". The personal side of the "why" is knowing that I am a solitary man, sitting in this tiny ship shooting through the black, heading toward literally God-only-knows-where...because I can. I can imagine people of the 21st century, sitting in the comfort of their earthbound homes, wondering what it would be like to actually do this...to climb into a tin can, saying goodbye to everyone they knew (possibly for the very last time), and hurling themselves into the void. Alone. Utterly, completely alone. Not too many chances to make a mistake that you can come back from, which I came, oh, so close to finding out during my journey to Colonia.
So, here I am, jotting down some thoughts, warming up while sipping some coffee after grabbing some more materials on an almost nameless planet orbiting a neutron star on the edge of nebula DRYOOE PROU AA-A H131 (the heater in my SRV is acting up again, despite my most ingenious countermeasures). In a few minutes I'll run my checklist, like I've done countless times, and launch into the heart of the nebula. Eventually, I'll turn toward home, make my way back to Colonia Dream. I wonder if this is the trip that I'll finally make Elite Explorer? Perhaps.