Week 29:
Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, though I have gotten a few looks from my only crew mate, one young, though less energetic these days, Sai Luna. Sai thought she'd been hired on as a fighter pilot, and she was right about that. She didn't realize I recognized her potential, and had begun to groom her as something more. We set out on a journey, to the edge of the galaxy, and we reached it. I opted to press onward, around the rim, to circumnavigate the galaxy. It was really a whim at first, but it's become so much more. I have not been simply exploring the galaxy, but also exploring myself, human nature, the very nature of reality.
I've also been exploring the limits of my ship, my equipment, my capacity to tolerate others, and their capacity to tolerate me. What I've found out here is both incredibly mundane and incredibly amazing. I've seen life forms like no others, worlds that boarder on the impossible, I've climbed the heights of elation, and stared into the depths of despair. I've found I am an insufferable, self-serving, irritable curmudgeon, and yet a deeply moving, motivation and compassionate "good person", or so I've been accused, all in a single breath.
Most of that I already knew.
I also know that no one else really cares and just want to see what I've seen.
Just a few highlights - mostly water worlds. I don't know why, but I find them very picturesque, and finding one in orbit of the neutron star that's helping me get back on course, well, I just take that as a good sign. It has been an extremely long 29 weeks out here, far from anything, including stars to lock onto to make frame shift jumps. At least three times my navigational computer has locked up completely, twice I swear I've smelled smoke, and at least once I've seen it. On more than a few occasions, it's taken hours to plot jump paths of just a few hundred light years, and I've been forced to double back just to reach an area with enough stellar density to press forward again, towards the next region.
So I've returned to the area known as Lyra's Song, as Tenebrae has proven impassible along the rim - at least for this ship. My trusty, faithful Beluga, the Naked Singularity, which has carried us this far, and will get us to where we're going, just not in anything resembling a circular path. I can't deny the thought of returning early for a ship with even greater jump capacity has crossed my mind, but it has become a matter of pride now - far too many times I've heard other pilots claim these ships aren't fit for anything more that blocking up station entrances or hauling the entitled on shopping sprees, but this trip will prove them wrong.
Besides, the beds are incredibly comfortable, and mine is calling me, even now.
Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, though I have gotten a few looks from my only crew mate, one young, though less energetic these days, Sai Luna. Sai thought she'd been hired on as a fighter pilot, and she was right about that. She didn't realize I recognized her potential, and had begun to groom her as something more. We set out on a journey, to the edge of the galaxy, and we reached it. I opted to press onward, around the rim, to circumnavigate the galaxy. It was really a whim at first, but it's become so much more. I have not been simply exploring the galaxy, but also exploring myself, human nature, the very nature of reality.
I've also been exploring the limits of my ship, my equipment, my capacity to tolerate others, and their capacity to tolerate me. What I've found out here is both incredibly mundane and incredibly amazing. I've seen life forms like no others, worlds that boarder on the impossible, I've climbed the heights of elation, and stared into the depths of despair. I've found I am an insufferable, self-serving, irritable curmudgeon, and yet a deeply moving, motivation and compassionate "good person", or so I've been accused, all in a single breath.
Most of that I already knew.
I also know that no one else really cares and just want to see what I've seen.
Just a few highlights - mostly water worlds. I don't know why, but I find them very picturesque, and finding one in orbit of the neutron star that's helping me get back on course, well, I just take that as a good sign. It has been an extremely long 29 weeks out here, far from anything, including stars to lock onto to make frame shift jumps. At least three times my navigational computer has locked up completely, twice I swear I've smelled smoke, and at least once I've seen it. On more than a few occasions, it's taken hours to plot jump paths of just a few hundred light years, and I've been forced to double back just to reach an area with enough stellar density to press forward again, towards the next region.
So I've returned to the area known as Lyra's Song, as Tenebrae has proven impassible along the rim - at least for this ship. My trusty, faithful Beluga, the Naked Singularity, which has carried us this far, and will get us to where we're going, just not in anything resembling a circular path. I can't deny the thought of returning early for a ship with even greater jump capacity has crossed my mind, but it has become a matter of pride now - far too many times I've heard other pilots claim these ships aren't fit for anything more that blocking up station entrances or hauling the entitled on shopping sprees, but this trip will prove them wrong.
Besides, the beds are incredibly comfortable, and mine is calling me, even now.