Our Galaxy, Day 2-3: Tripping The Light Fantastic
20 May 2018Gmanharmon
16 April 3304Aucopp JR-D d12-1 System
22:10
The witchspace tunnel evaporated around the Constitution, and with a tremendous bang, our Anaconda returned to its supercruise bubble. I set the throttle to zero, and the bridge filled with an otherworldly blue light. Directly afore was Brenna’s first neutron star, its beams of magnetospheric radiation being emitted from its poles and corkscrewing into space, creating two brilliant blue-white tunnels.
I selected the neutron star and the ship’s surface scanner soon resolved its makeup and composition, mass, and other details. Our supercruise heading displayed us at less than seven-tenths of a light-second from the object, with an estimated arrival time of three hours at our rest pace of thirty kilometers per second.
“There it is,” I said quietly, as Brenna leaned forward in her chair. “A tiny lil’ ball of weirdness; all that’s left of a big, dead star that weren’t fat enough to become a black hole. An’ she’s our ticket to ride.”
“Ride what?” Brenna replied, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
“The Highway.” I gestured with my finger towards the looping, undulating beams of radiation. “Whatever’s comin’ out of those things gets scooped into our FSD, an’ lets us eat up the light-years. In fact...” I keyed up my systems panel and the galaxy map, transferring the live feed to Brenna’s desk. “You can watch the telemetry change as I try an’ supercharge this ol’ gal here.” With a twist of my wrists, I brought the Constitution hard about, and accelerated towards the jet cone.
“And… and you’ve done this before, right?”
“Sure I have.” The jet cone grew larger and more menacing as I started leveling out, and COVAS began blaring an eerie howling through the ship speakers, simulating the sound of the radiation stream. “Granted, it’s been a while...” With measured movements of the stick, I sent the ship into a slow descent. “Uh, you may wanna hold on to someth–”
The Constitution lurched downward as the extreme gravitational interference took hold, tossing the 150-meter-long vessel like a bath toy in a roiling sea. Lights were flashing and klaxons were blaring, the lights flickered, and I bared my teeth as I attempted to normalize our flight path through the cone. COVAS was beside herself. The forces straining against us began taking their toll on my body, after being long out of practice.
Warning: Frame-shift drive operating beyond safety limits.
“John?” Brenna’s voice sounded tinny, distant, detached.
“Almost there,” I managed through clenched jaws, between deep jabs of breath and clenching muscles. I could feel myself blacking out. “Just hang on...” I was addressing all three of us with that remark. The ship nearly slid from my grasp as the tidal forces sloshed us around the cone. It felt like an eternity.
Frame-shift drive supercharged.
The cheery voice of COVAS making a new announcement contrasted with how Brenna and I felt as we slipped from the bottom of the jet cone, the Constitution beginning to stabilize as we escaped the star’s gravity anomalies. Adrenaline coursed through my body, leaving me shaking, imperceptibly. My vision had sharpened from 20/20 to 20/1, everything was in vibrant color, and I was keenly aware of every conceivable detail in the holographic displays, down to the micron.
“Are you okay, baby?” I asked, looking back to Brenna’s chair. One arm crossed her stomach, the other clasped her mouth. Her skin took on a sickly pallor, and her hair dangled haphazardly in front of her face. A tremor rocked her body, and another a second later. She rose from the chair quickly and ran to the head. As the door swished shut behind her, I turned around and smiled. “I remember my first supercharge, too,” I said aloud.
Brenna took several minutes to compose herself before returning to her seat. I glanced back at her, the same silly smile I wore while reminiscing.
“What’s that look supposed to mean?” she mumbled back with a dour expression, turning her eyes to a diagnostic screen on her right. The ship diagnostics now revealed that, instead of a flighty 57.5 light-year jump range, we could now travel 237 light-years and change in any direction. Her lower lip stuck out in the most adorable pout I’d ever seen as she hooked an errant strand of hair from in front of her, tucking it behind her ear.
“Was it fun for you, too?” I asked.
“No. That was dangerous an’ scary an’ I almost peed myself.”
“Aw, c’mon, Brenna.”
She tosses her view downward and pouts again. “It was really fun, though.”
I release a great hearty laugh that echoes across the bridge. “Atta girl!”
Since I had last explored beyond the bubble, a new firmware update pushed through our plotters via Universal Cartographics allowed us to plot routes using the jet-cone boosts natively, instead of relying exclusively on third-party services and good old-fashioned math. Within seconds our new route resolved itself, and we were well and truly on the Neutron Highway. The rest of our day was spent flying through the Milky Way several hundred light-years at a time, touching no less than eight neutron stars and scooping fuel at M-class pit stops every now and then. In less than six hours, Brenna and I had put 2,000 light-years behind us, and we were well and truly in the black. Between scoops and supercharges, I watched as she found herself standing closer and closer to the canopy, snapping pictures with her dataslate and grinning from ear to ear as we passed by several weird and wonderful planets with vibrant colors and deep striations, gas giants that looked like gumdrops, and tiny Y-class dwarves with cold blue moons.
It wasn’t long before our last neutron jump for the night approached. I felt a presence next to me as I started to bring the Constitution about, and Brenna looked out at the star, her hand resting on my shoulder.
“They’re so beautiful,” she said as I reached up and squeezed her hand softly. “I love this.”
I looked up at her and smiled. “How would you like to scoop this one?” She tilted her head up and let out a single laugh.
“Ha! Yeah, right.” Brenna’s expression changed when I got out of the captain’s chair and gestured for her to have a seat. “You’re… you’re serious abut this?”
I nodded. “It’s only fair. I mean, it’s our ship, ain’t it?” Brenna made to speak, but the realization of it began to sink in. She gripped the control arm to steady herself as she sunk into position.
“But I… I ain’t never… I ain’t never flown a ship bigger’n an Eagle… Darling, are you sure about this?” Her bust rose and fell with deeper breaths, her eyes darting between the throttle and stick, central scopes, holodisplays, diagnostic panels, and the deLacy ship computer.
“Hey.” I waited for Brenna to turn towards me, and placed my hands on her cheeks. “I believe in you. And I’m right here in case I need to take control.” She smiles, and I plant a kiss on her mouth.
“Now bring her about an’ I’ll show you how to get in the cone.”
With my guidance, Brenna inched the Constitution towards the neutron star, slowly gliding down and away to meet with the leading edge of the jet cone. Once gravity took over, she began to falter, and I placed my hands on the throttle and stick over hers, but she regained full control and supercharged FSD without a hitch. As the Anaconda drifted down from the pulsar, we whooped and hollered as she read out 240 light-years on the diagnostic panel.
“Now flip that switch down, under the throttle there,” I said as I pressed a button to pull up our destination. “That’ll spool up the drive!” She followed suit, and COVAS chimed out Frame-shift Drive charging, to more excited whoops. Brenna leapt from the captain’s chair and threw herself around me, pressing her mouth to mine, and we celebrated for the precious few seconds we had until the jump to witchspace.
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Our landing zone was on an icy planet in the Aucopp FG-P b48-0 system, with a view of its moon and the galactic core to our starboard. We made love under the celestial vista in our quarters, consigning our worries and stresses to the void and enjoying the touch of one another. It hadn’t been long since we left civilization, but it felt like an eternity between us, wrapped up in our own self-made cocoons since her father’s passing. I opened my eyes and saw her looking back as she lay astride me, a satisfied smile on her face as her fingers intertwined with mine. I made to speak, but she placed a finger upon my lips; nothing more needed to be said tonight. We shared one more passionate kiss before succumbing to slumber.
Darling, Brenna said as we prepared to make way the next day, extending her hand to help me up out of the engineering deck.
Grab my hand and never let go, okay?