Distant Worlds Reflections
20 Jan 2019PhoenixBlue0
I've been to Beagle Point before, but I wanted to do it again as part of this expedition. I got a bit of practice in before the expedition start, a bit like a runner might do before a marathon. I made two trips: one to the Seagull Nebula by way of VY Canis Majoris, and one to the Trifid Nebula.My choice of exploration vessel is a Krait Mk. II: It doesn’t have quite the range of an Anaconda or Krait Phantom, but it can carry a ship-launched fighter bay, which I knew would come in handy for my astrophotographer and scientist roles. I took a couple of stops off the beaten path, including a return to the Trifid Nebula, where I made friends with a family of rubicundum collared pods.
After reaching the Omega Mining Corporation, I split my time between mining and exploration. I actually arrived a couple of days ahead of most of the pilots, which unfortunately meant I got here before they were ready for us. I ended up flying 2,500 light-years out to Rohini and paying to have my Python moved from Shinrarta Dezhra. I made a tidy sum in exploration data for the round trip, though, so I can’t complain.
The expedition included several points of interest I hadn’t visited before, like The View and Thor’s Eye. The route from Pallaeni to the Omega Mining Operation didn’t go so smoothly for many commanders, however, as dozens of pilots met grisly fates near The View due to its high-gravity environment. Accidents like these are a mixed blessing, in that they teach hard lessons to new explorers early in the journey. Recovering from a mistake in the first week is easy, the trip short.
In a sense, the galaxy is more forgiving than it was when the original Distant Worlds left the core systems in 3302. When those few hundred explorers left Pallaeni, there were no bases to greet them from one waypoint to the next, no route to Colonia – indeed, no Colonia at all. There were no options to call in a backup ship or a friend with repair limpets if one wasn’t prepared for the circumstances at hand. An accident for an explorer on our expedition might mean limping to a station some 1,500 light-years away, in the Lagoon or Trifid nebulae. An accident then meant making a much tougher choice: continue on the expedition, or try to make it home in one piece?
Part of me misses the quiet of an empty galaxy. I wonder whether we’re losing something important in spreading human civilization to all parts of the Milky Way. Does building a space station near the galaxy’s core cheapen the value of a pilgrimage to Sagittarius A*? Do I simply envy the explorers who will come later because their pilgrimage will be easier? I don’t have an easy answer, though I do think it’s good for any explorer to make the journey at some point in their career.
I enjoy the journey now, three years after the original trip to Beagle Point, but I also reflect on those first few hundred explorers who helped make this expedition possible, and I wonder what the galaxy will look like for the next Distant Worlds expedition when they take off from the core worlds in search of adventure.
