Our Galaxy, Day 1: The Light at the End of the Universe
20 Apr 2018Gmanharmon
15 April 3304Uncharted Space
Near HIP 3188 System
23:07
“Where are we?” asked Brenna, curled up in the navigator’s chair on the Constitution’s bridge. Her face was tucked between her knees, feet hanging off the edge of the seat. She had perched her glasses atop her head for added comfort.
“Almost to our first waypoint, hon,” I replied, corkscrewing the Anaconda past the K-class star, taking on fuel as fast as my scoop allowed. Once the tank had been topped off, I flipped the switch and heard the frame-shift drive spool up again. Brenna hadn’t moved from her seat since we left, and I couldn’t blame her. Those were her first words all day, in fact. “We’re comin’ up on a big star, giant. Gonna drop in pretty far from it, I reckon.”
“Mhm.”
As it turns out, HIP 3188 wasn’t all that spectacular from the bridge. Our landing spot, however, was picturesque, if a bit heavy due to the 1.56G pull. When the ship’s pads sunk into the regolith, Brenna lifted her head slightly. “Are we on the ground?”
“Yep. Come on over, take a look.” I powered down the thrusters and unglued my hands from the controls, massaging them and shaking off the flight-hours. Brenna stumbled out of the chair, half-exhausted and half-hindered by her own body weight. I leapt out of my seat and offered my hand. She picked herself up with a bit of effort. Just as stubborn as ever.
“Why’s it so hard to walk?” she mumbled.
“We’re heavier here. Gravity on this rock’s 1.5G, so we gotta stomp around like elephants.” She gripped the ship’s paneling as she made her way towards the viewport, taking careful steps. When Brenna looked out over the planet’s surface, her mouth opened in awe.
“Nice little patch of purple, huh, baby?”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Let’s call it a night, Brenna. We can keep goin’ tomorrow.”
We were quite restless, in fact, so an hour-long catnap was shared between us. I couldn't drop myself back to sleep, so I decided to get a lay of the land and stretch out my legs. I went to the SRV bay and climbed into one. Brenna had never driven one, and I was in no position to train her, so instead I strapped a camera to my chest and broadcast my trip to her back in the Constitution. Even though the planet’s gravity was high it wasn’t uncomfortable, and I managed to get some impressive air out of the SRV as I blasted across the purplish regolith. I even heard the faintest gasp in my earpiece as Brenna watched the live feed.
“This here’s the borin’ part,” I told her as I cracked a rock open with the SRV’s repeaters, then collected the scattered chunks of germanium and polonium. “Good pickin’s here, though, I was runnin’ low on some of these.”
Eventually we were off, and I decided to meander a bit and explore below the galactic plane. The navicomputer struggled to resolve routes down as the number of stars dwindled, and the distances between them grew enormous.
“It’s so dark down here,” Brenna murmured, looking out above her knees in that cramped sitting position she favored. The bridge gave a slight shimmy as the frame-shift drive spooled up again.
16 April 3304
Screagi WM-H d11-0 System
05:20
“Yeah, we’re pretty far down now. In fact, I reckon this here star we’re jumpin’ to is the bottom floor.” Two seconds later, six tons of fuel was dumped instantly and we were off in witch-space. When we came out of the tunnel, our host was a humble G-class main-sequence star, and nothing else. I scooped up some hydrogen, then glided the Constitution away from the star.
When the viewport’s brightness returned to normal, the bridge was bathed in the light of the center of the Milky Way. “Brenna, take a gander at that.” I pointed out the front screen, tracing the edge of the galaxy, approximately 2,000 light-years above us. She straightened up in her seat and took in the view, her glasses reflecting the stars of the galaxy within them.
“Only a few dozen of us ever been crazy enough to drop this far down. I ain’t the first to find this star, but there ain’t nobody in the world I’d rather share this view with, hon.” Brenna slowly stands up from the chair and gets her dataslate, walks up to the forward viewport, and starts taking pictures. Her face still displayed the stoic features of a person hiding great loss, but the sparkle had returned to eyes. I smiled to myself and consulted the galaxy map to find a way back to a more navigable route. Very few options were available, but as I scrolled through the 3D space, I noticed a tiny blip just out of range to the port side, reachable by a bit of backtracking. The star class resolved itself, and my smile grew wider.
“Hey, Brenna?” I called out. “Do you like roller-coaster rides?”
“What?” She raises an eyebrow at me behind her glasses, half-surprised at such a strange question. “What’s that gotta do with anything?”
“How’d you like to ride the neutron highway, sugar?”
Next time...