The Explorer
21 Oct 2022MdN
The explorer watched the data fly over his screen as the Asp's sensors scanned this latest star system. He had been away from any form of human contact for well over a year. How many months? He didn't even know any more. Out here in the blackness of deep space, days were nights, nights were days, and weeks were long days with no sleep. He had no clue. He was alone in the darkness of space.The data flew by, nothing of particular interest caught his eye.
The view from the Asp's cockpit was breathtaking though. A line of brightly coloured stars crossed his view. He'd already been staring at it for hours, lost in the wonder of its beauty and seemingly perfect geometric layout. Besides, he had very little else to do.
The largest star, a bright white class D illuminated the cockpit, but a glowing line of five yellow, orange, and red balls traced a path before him.
The scans would take a while longer to complete. He'd stopped joking to Geoffrey an hour ago that this was a galaxy packed in to a single solar system. Geoffrey hadn't agreed of course. Geoffrey never did.
But it was huge. Six stars, each with enough planets orbiting to be considered a solar system in its own right. Surely there must be something worthwhile here? His eyes scanned through the data as it continued to scroll down the screen.
He wasn't looking for monetary value anymore, it wouldn't help him now. A large mining company would snap off his hand for the data on the second star's third planet, but that data wouldn't reach them for a few thousand years, if at all. They'd never pay him, not now.
He'd got carried away, he knew that; travelled just that little bit too far. Like the gambler his father was, the next hand would be the winner; just one more star, the next one will be the big one. At first his provisions were just enough to return home with a 10% safety buffer. Then that safety buffer was sacrificed in the name of more. It wasn't really necessary was it? Besides, the next star will be the big money windfall.
When the next star had introduced him to nothing but rock and ice, he'd decided that one didn't count. So what, he'd go a little hungry on the return journey. No pain, no gain, right? And so it had continued until returning home was clearly impossible.
He was down to his last week's worth of food.
Out here, in the cold, harsh desert of space, he needed food. Geoffrey suggested docking at the local star port - he was a funny fella. Not surprisingly, the scan so far had failed to detect any star ports, and to think they were only 20,000 light years from Sol. Geoffrey was a comedian.
No, he needed an Earth-Like world. His last ELW had been a month or so ago, or so he'd guessed. He was due to find another, surely. They were rare, but not this rare. Somewhere around here, there would be one. He recognised the gambler's pattern once more. The next jump, he smiled and winked at Geoffrey.
A Water-World would suffice, although he'd always experienced problems "landing" on water worlds. Most contained something edible. But no, an ELW was due him. He'd long since given up kicking himself for leaving the last one. The gambler gambles, he realised, promising to break that habit if the Gods of Tellus would grant him one last treat.
Lots and lots of extremely valuable balls of metallic rock floated around the stars arrayed in front of him. The scan data being processed by the suite of computer hardware on board automatically calculated likely monetary values for each. He was a rich dead explorer, Geoffrey pointed out. The irony wasn't lost on him. This was the system he was looking for, this was pay day. He'd found his El Dorado, but was unable to cash-in.
All he needed to complete the joke was to find an ELW among this mineral wealth. A planet with enough food to keep him alive for the rest of his days, but with no means of preserving it for the year long trip he'd need to return home. That would be funny, Geoffrey would be in tears.
He returned to gazing at the majestic view of glowing fire balls in the distance and dozed off.
He awoke to an alarm from the data processing. In his dreamy state it took a while to realise what it was. The message was flashing at him on the console.
Likely ELW Detected.
The cosmic joke was complete. He heard Geoffrey laughing behind him. He was to be stranded on a cosmic desert island. A tropical paradise.
He found this place first, he could name it, but no one would ever know. It was probably the most valuable system ever found, but payment would never be his. No way to return home. Then he corrected himself: "this is home!"
He considered encrypting the data and transmitting it at light speed in the direction of Sol. The explorer guild might receive it, but from this distance it was likely to miss Sol by a long way, or the signal be too weak to be heard. Even if it was received, it would take 20,000 years to arrive.
He pointed the Asp towards the candidate planet. At least he'd won his bet. One more jump and he'd win big. Shame the bookmaker wouldn't pay out.
"I wonder what the next system hides," he stopped his train of thought, remembering his earlier promise to the Gods.
Geoffrey continued to laugh.