Twice past the planet and home in time for tea
29 Jun 2020The Presence
So it's actually happened! We are into the second week of our trip to the mystery sector in the Formadine Rift and safely berthed in The Heart Nebula for a few days R&R. It hasn't all been "Shits and giggles", Cmdr Knudaholic, one of the original three searching the Rift is unable to join us as he's doing a circumnavigation of the Milky Way. I did tell him he could do it in 10 minutes at SAG A but no, the lengths an ape will go to to avoid a paternity test, hat's off to him and God's speed cmdr. We had other issues too like a couple of young apes loading all their ships onto The Nebuchadnezzar then drinking Banana Wine . We left on Sunday, the alarm finally woke them up on Thursday. By this time, the rest of us were frollicking about the NGC 663 Open Cluster. I'm still hoping they will make the effort to join us as we are docked for another 24 hours, fingers crossed. The expedition itself so far has gone very well, we've seen some fantastic sights, several nebulae (the IC 289, the Little Dumbell, Cupids Arrow and The Bow Tie) and an amazing Red Giant at Phrio Phoe AA-A b17-0 A. What made it more amazing, nay astounding even, was the fact it must be the smallest Red Giant in the galaxy. Everybody was so impressed nobody spoke for ages, just rolled their eyes in awe and managed a couple of sideways nods in my direction. I'm even sure I heard Skipper mutter "Wow, all this way for this". It was that good even the fact that later in the day when I found a turd on the Captains Chair with a note saying "The Real Captain's Log" on it, (still wondering what it means) it still didn't put a downer on it.
Exploration isn't all we've done so far. We challenged Cmdr Junagu and his crew on the "Blodeuwedds Branch" to a race at The Racetrack at Slegou LU-N B21-0. Unfortunately his crew were that fast we never even saw their exhaust ports! My crew mates though (Cmdrs Kireth, Toberius (Skipper) and Poole) did a sterling job of not reading the rules, doing no prep or practise and initially going in any direction except the right one. We finally managed to get them to leave my carrier, do a lap of the 1st planet passing the small moon twice whilst staying within the planetary ring and then land on Junagu's FC. Despite their initial anarchy they all actually did very well as can be seen here
(Only Cmdr Poole's navigation was a tad off but he is an Imperial and was probably drinking from his Stirrup Cup so we forgave him). We even managed to wake Cmdr Kirky007 in time for a final race which ended with Cmdr Kireth taking Gold, Elton Poole with Silver (According to his concubine it's the first time he's ever come second), Skipper got Bronze and Kirky would still be going. Here are the gallant racers.
At the Heart Nebula , the crew again suffered mixed fortunes. Cmdr Kirky007 got involved in a fight in the bar at Far Expedition Base and woke up in jail. Nobody told him though that the nearest prison was in the California Nebula a mere 5,000 ly+ away. I'll give him his due though, he's back onboard now, having chugged away for a day to get back. I don't have the heart to tell him I got a call from the Clink saying he's left his wallet there....
Another calamity was the game of SRV Football being rained off! (Incredible! I didn't think we were getting atmospheric planets until 3307!) But whilst we were looking for a pitch myself and
Skipper did discover where baby SRV's come from..
. The Bark mounds must have put them "In the mood"
The next week should see us heading to the Formadine proper with about 7,000 more ly to go. Until then dear diary, until then....