What I find is this:
My copilot has collapsed and can't be roused; I've run out of puncture repair kits, so she'll just have to wait till we get home to Lave. At least it means I don't have to scoop for Helium any more - getting that close to gas giants is not my idea of fun.
Welcome to the world of the long distance racer, the Galactic explorer, THE PIONEER! (I swear, if SynthBrian Blessed shouts at me one more time, I'm changing radio stations), the second Commander of an Orca to make it to Sagittarius A*: in short, an idiot.
It took me 36 days 17 hours at racing speed to get to Sag A*, and it's taken about the same amount of time to get half-way home. Since I was going so far in such an expensive ship, it seemed worth my while doing a bit of system scanning on the way back. I've scanned nearly 4,000 systems and I hear honking noises in my sleep. My control column pitch springs are worn out from scoop-honk-pullup-jump-repeat-4,000 times. I've been burned by neutron stars, nearly run into black holes, slammed into T-Tauris and my hull is at 83%. I don't dare look at Life Support lest it fail.
When I get home, buying an Asp and making sure it can jump as far as possible. 16ly per jump is driving me insane. More insane. Insaner. Insaniest.
The only thing keeping me from eating the upholstery of my red velour pilots chaise lounge (hey, 'The Spanish Inquisition' is an Orca, after all) is Galnet News. It's proof that the rest of the Universe is more insane than me. As if three political parties weren't bad enough, now there's.. what? Eight? Ten? all engaged in some Machiavellian 'Power-Play' to divide up the Bubble. My Navi-Scan sub-etha updates show me zones for crying out loud - ZONES! - in space! Like someone tried to build a wall around whole systems - actually claim kilo-cubic Parsecs as 'belonging' to factions! Like someone can own vacuum. On top of that, some doofus goes and perforates the Emp. Hey, I hate slavery as much as the next trader willing to make a quick and tidy profit on 200TCs "Farm Equipment - Caution Live Contents - This Way Up - Do Not Drop", but offing the Big D is not good for business. Unless your business is getting dead, or getting other people dead, or selling things that make other people dead.
I'm hoping that in among the political intrigue, murder, mayhem, war and Hedonistic Imperial Parties (mental note - remove 'Cole Terminal' from NaviComp listing. Anywhere that still resorts to gender inequality to attract customers deserves to be Energy-Bombed back into the Stone Age) someone has a sudden need for 4,000 systems worth of scan data from the Galactic Core. Fixing the paintwork on 'The Spanish Inquisition' isn't going to be cheap; nor is a complete vinyl-strata/neuro-comp overhaul for my poor suffering (deflated) copilot Eccentrica.
The thought has occurred to me (as I idly flick the St.ArthurDaley icon that dangles from my overhead comms panel) - are any of these Machiavellian 'Power-Playas' paying hard credits for Nav data? If so, I will certainly join up for at least as long as it takes to sell my data - a few days given how many systems I've scanned. I'm being totally honest guv, I didn't just fly in a circle scanning the same Neutron Star over and over again, fudging the Navi-Scan data with a procedural random-number generator while I relaxed in the spa with my copilot and a TCs worth of Bast Snake Gin. No, I really did scan all those systems myself, although I seem to have left the actual nav-data in my other RemLok suit; you know, the tasteful leopard-print one?
If someone could give me a starport location to sell at? Or better yet just wire the 100MCr directly to my account; I'll be sure to drop off the nav-data ROM-Tiddlywink ASAP.
- I'm 9,000Ly from Sol.
- The Indi Bourbon ran out nearly 4,000Ly ago; the dehydrated Cheez-N-Krakkas lasted another 1,000Ly.
- I'm reduced to drinking the spa water; at least the recycler is still working.
- I got lucky with my Cargo Bay - a single TC of Kippa-Snax jammed in the release mechanism. Kippa-Snax are slightly more edible than the emergency SpamAlgyCans, but it's a near thing.
My copilot has collapsed and can't be roused; I've run out of puncture repair kits, so she'll just have to wait till we get home to Lave. At least it means I don't have to scoop for Helium any more - getting that close to gas giants is not my idea of fun.
Welcome to the world of the long distance racer, the Galactic explorer, THE PIONEER! (I swear, if SynthBrian Blessed shouts at me one more time, I'm changing radio stations), the second Commander of an Orca to make it to Sagittarius A*: in short, an idiot.
It took me 36 days 17 hours at racing speed to get to Sag A*, and it's taken about the same amount of time to get half-way home. Since I was going so far in such an expensive ship, it seemed worth my while doing a bit of system scanning on the way back. I've scanned nearly 4,000 systems and I hear honking noises in my sleep. My control column pitch springs are worn out from scoop-honk-pullup-jump-repeat-4,000 times. I've been burned by neutron stars, nearly run into black holes, slammed into T-Tauris and my hull is at 83%. I don't dare look at Life Support lest it fail.
When I get home, buying an Asp and making sure it can jump as far as possible. 16ly per jump is driving me insane. More insane. Insaner. Insaniest.
The only thing keeping me from eating the upholstery of my red velour pilots chaise lounge (hey, 'The Spanish Inquisition' is an Orca, after all) is Galnet News. It's proof that the rest of the Universe is more insane than me. As if three political parties weren't bad enough, now there's.. what? Eight? Ten? all engaged in some Machiavellian 'Power-Play' to divide up the Bubble. My Navi-Scan sub-etha updates show me zones for crying out loud - ZONES! - in space! Like someone tried to build a wall around whole systems - actually claim kilo-cubic Parsecs as 'belonging' to factions! Like someone can own vacuum. On top of that, some doofus goes and perforates the Emp. Hey, I hate slavery as much as the next trader willing to make a quick and tidy profit on 200TCs "Farm Equipment - Caution Live Contents - This Way Up - Do Not Drop", but offing the Big D is not good for business. Unless your business is getting dead, or getting other people dead, or selling things that make other people dead.
I'm hoping that in among the political intrigue, murder, mayhem, war and Hedonistic Imperial Parties (mental note - remove 'Cole Terminal' from NaviComp listing. Anywhere that still resorts to gender inequality to attract customers deserves to be Energy-Bombed back into the Stone Age) someone has a sudden need for 4,000 systems worth of scan data from the Galactic Core. Fixing the paintwork on 'The Spanish Inquisition' isn't going to be cheap; nor is a complete vinyl-strata/neuro-comp overhaul for my poor suffering (deflated) copilot Eccentrica.
The thought has occurred to me (as I idly flick the St.ArthurDaley icon that dangles from my overhead comms panel) - are any of these Machiavellian 'Power-Playas' paying hard credits for Nav data? If so, I will certainly join up for at least as long as it takes to sell my data - a few days given how many systems I've scanned. I'm being totally honest guv, I didn't just fly in a circle scanning the same Neutron Star over and over again, fudging the Navi-Scan data with a procedural random-number generator while I relaxed in the spa with my copilot and a TCs worth of Bast Snake Gin. No, I really did scan all those systems myself, although I seem to have left the actual nav-data in my other RemLok suit; you know, the tasteful leopard-print one?
If someone could give me a starport location to sell at? Or better yet just wire the 100MCr directly to my account; I'll be sure to drop off the nav-data ROM-Tiddlywink ASAP.
