Valiant knight with a survey log
03 Jul 2024Armagne
Now that I was an official member of Constellation, we needed to prioritize some things. Argos was reporting a withdrawal of their operation on Vectera but s not a word about or from Barrett. The Eye - our station in orbit - had caught a lead to another Artifact (and it was high time I finally met Vladimir anyway) and Sam Coe (funny, imagine if he was related to the infamous Solomon Coe) wanted to talk to me about something. I decided to check up on Barrett first, and Sarah agreed this was probably the best course of action. She would be coming with me, and had come to terms with her presence. Though she reminds me of Elena, Sarah being around doesn't tear open the wound of missing her and Luca, but rather soothes it. I'm not saying she's filling the void left by the deaths of my wife and child, but she is softening the edges of the tear.
Once Sarah and I arrived on Vectera, Lin spilled the beans: the Crimson Fleet had returned, they had killed some of the miners (including the one with a daughter on Mars) and taken Heller and Barrett captive. The bastards would pay for this. They had fried the communication systems, but I know my way around digital security systems and I was able to extract an emergency transmission sent by Barrett while they were still in orbit, which led us to Hyperia - another moon in the Narion system. Before we left, I asked Lin if she wanted to join my crew and she immediately agreed, so our merry little band is growing even more. We scanned for a ship while in orbit around the moon, and quickly found a recently crashed one instead. Sarah and I went to investigate and found a pretty beat up Heller, who divulged that Barrett had been taken to another system by someone called Matsura the Grim, possibly for ransom.
Thankfully, good ol' Barrett had been able to transmit the coordinates to their next destination in another emergency transmission, and after getting Heller on the Frontier we set course for Bessel. Sarah let me know that Constellation had some kind of insurance for ransom, but I wasn't about to just pay up and let the Crimson Fleet get away with this. We found the Crimson Fleet holed up in an old research outpost (what is it with these pirates and research facilities) and after dispatching the pirates outside, we made our way inside - only to see Barrett casually conversing with the pirates. Though I remembered Sarah saying we could just pay up, I decided to try and convince Matsura to let him go without further ado - and succeeded. One successful interstellar rescue operation done, and Barrett was back where he belonged - with Constellation.
Barrett asked if he could tag alog and Sarah agreed - though she had thoroughy enjoyed our daring liberation mission, it was time for her to go back to her duties at the Lodge. I found myself conflicted again, but this time because I didn't want to be away from her. Barrett was quick to distract me though, he's got an inquisitive and bright mind, a wonderful sense of humor and he's the only person I know who's had the same experience when touching an Artifact, which makes us equally determined to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Barrett and I make good exploration buddies. Back at the Lodge, Noel talked about exploration missions - specific planets or systems of interest to get a sense of the bigger picture - and Barrett and I have been tackling them together. So far we've gotten full survey data of a dozen planets and moons, and even rescued some survivalists who thought they could make it on their own.
While we weren't planning on stopping anytime soon, duty called: Vladimir and Sam were still waiting for me to appear and make their acquaintance, so perhaps I shouldn't keep them waiting much longer... though one more survey mission won't hurt. Besides, whatever the other Constellation members need my help with can probably be done with Barrett too. It's decided then, Barrett and I are going on our fifteenth survey mission together, then I'll go talk with Vladimir Sall on the Eye.
Additional entry
I dreamt about Sarah Morgan last night. At first, I thought it was Elena, getting ready in front of the mirror of our NA apartment where we lived before we had Luca. As I got closer, though, I saw Sarah's face in the mirror - then I woke up sweating. What could this mean? Is this Elena telling me to move on? Am I just going nuts? Maybe that celebratory bottle of red with Barrett was a bad idea after not having touched any alcohol for so long...