Around the galaxy in 80 days (with any luck)

Maia Posidana · Oct 31, 2015

Day 281 (17) ***Very Image Heavy***

Nowhere Fast

Just realized it's been 2 weeks since my last update, my apologies. Yes, Prometheus is still flying, and all is well.

Sadly, I was not able to make the rendezvous with the FGE fleet. I cleared almost 9000 LY in 2 days. Prometheus's engines protested at the strain, but she held true. In the end, I got to just under 3000 LY from our destination when the fleet disbanded and headed back to the bubble for the next 2 months. Sigh.... With any luck, I'll be able to travel out with the fleet to their next basecamp on my way back out after picking up my SRV.

Once, word reached me that the fleet had stood down, I stood down from sprint mode. The last week and a half has been quite leisurely. Given that I am on a temporary hiatus from my circumnavigation (Until my SRV is delivered), I have started to take the time to do some hardecore exploration, and quite a bit of time to just meander around and take in the phenomenal wonder and beauty that is our galaxy. Let me tell you, it has been a moving experience. I highly recommend it to any pilot. It will change the way you see yourself.

Skye has proven to be a worthy traveling companion. At one point I even parked Prometheus in the rings of a gorgeous red gas giant for 5 days and just spent the time getting to know him. He is an enigma, which is not something you expect in a loverbot. They are supposed to be pretty straight forward. He is an astounding cook; his cooking database is deeper than I will be able to exhaust in the duration of my mission. This alone makes him worth his extra mass on the voyage. But he has also proven himself to be a great conversationalist. We sit for hours and talk on many many subjects, ranging from history to starship technology (a subject on which he seems to be unusually knowledgeable and adept...more so than me in fact which is almost frightening...). These things are made more intriguing by the fact that I catch him at times looking at himself, or being strangely clumsy, in ways that almost make it seem like he is surprised to actually have a body, and he's not entirely certain how it is supposed to work. There are other times when I notice odd quirks about his personality that seem almost...feminine; as if somebody accidentally put the wrong AI in the body and it is trying to figure out what to do now.

Oh well, I will figure these things out in due time.

Together we saw many wonderful things on the way out, during the sprint. We did in fact actually take a LITTLE time to do some exploring, as there were a couple of DEFINITE points of interest I wanted to see on the way. One of the first striking views we came across was this simple metal rich world orbiting a class B star. As I dropped into high orbit, the view took my breath away.

I navigated most of the route out going from B star to B star. At one such stop, I let Skye take the helm for a few moments, which freed me up to control a camera drone for a couple of selfies.

A few jumps further on, we came across a class A8 star with a planet orbiting at a mere 14 LS. This world orbits so close that it will never totally cool, and will forever remain a magma planet. The view as I dropped out of supercruise into low orbit was almost soul changing, even Skye was moved to tears by it...a fact which surprised him as much as it did me. I've titled the second of these images "PHOTOGENESIS 2"

Finally we reached one of the points of interest that I had always wanted to visit. ETA CARINAE is every bit as awe inspiring as you would imagine it. Two things that confused me however, were firstly, the fact that Eta Carinae is NOT in fact INSIDE the ETA CARINA NEBULA, which every astronomical journal I have ever read says it is, but is in fact 1300 LY EARTHWARD of the nebula from which it takes its name. The second thing was the fact that Eta Carinae has a close companion, another (slightly smaller) class B star.

These next images were taken from low orbit of the ONLY planet in the Eta Carinae system. This small world orbits Eta Carinae at a distance of a little over 11,000 LS. The last of the images shows the Eta Carina nebula 1300 LY off in the distance. Eta Carinae is the brighter star top center.

1300 LY further on, we approached the ETA CARINA nebula. This is a gorgeous sight and well worth the trip if you are ever inclined to come out this way. The last jump before we entered the nebula I looked back to see the cluster of class B stars that lay between Eta Carinae and the Eta Carina Nebula.

Inside the Eta Carina Nebula was every bit as beautiful as it had promised. Sadly there wasn't much of value to find inside, but the view alone was worth it.

Some 1100 LY past Eta Carina Nebula I hit a jackpot. Prometheus's sensors picked up a ringed MIDAS type Ammonia world. This was one of the most beautiful worlds we came across on this leg of the trip. We actually spent several hours here just surveying this world. Curiously, this world was far closer to the sun than any other world of this type that I have seen before, being less than 1500 LS out. Sadly I can't think of a name for this one as I have already used all the names I can think of from the King Midas myth. Skye was particularly excited about this find. He said he'd never seen a golden planet before. While exploring the rings, we performed an asteroid landing, which made him strangely nervous. Sky visibly cringed when I touched down perhaps a little too hard, but he got extremely excited as I invited him to suit up and join me for an EVA on the roid. Once outside he seemed more comfortable than I have ever seen him before.

A few hundred light years further downrange, I was scanning a pure water world, part of a binary planet system, when I noticed something odd. At first I took it to be lights on the surface. As I got closer to the planet, it became obvious that what I was seeing was an archipelago of islands. Islands tall enough to be capped in snow.

The very next jump, we came across another magma planet in close orbit around a class A star. This one offered opportunities for a couple of great images. I have titled the second one of these PHOTOGENESIS 3

That was pretty much where the sprint ended. A few hours later, word came across the cortex that the FGE fleet was standing down. So, with nowhere to go fast, we slowed out pace and just started taking in the sights...sights such as this gorgeous class 3 Hot Saturn (a mere 253 LS from its parent star). Once again, It was time for some asteroid landings and EVA's.

The very next orbit out in that same system was this annoying little world. From the images shown on the system scan, I got my hopes up on this one. From a distance it looked like an Earth like, or at the very least a Water World. Sadly it turned out to be a metal rich world. Still, pretty to look at...

About a week ago we landed in a system with nothing but ringed gas giants. While most of them were pretty standard fare, we found this red gas giant to be so striking that we decided to stop there for a few days and basically camp in the rings. The last several days have been amazing, sitting in my quarters, talking and eating Skyes gormet meals while being dragged around and around this beautiful world in the rings. We did several space walks on the roids and checked out the furthest moon out, which was a large ringed ice world. I can't wait till I can actually set down on that world and watch that parent planet rise over the horizon.

We decided just this morning that it was time to move on, so I spun up the FSD and we were off again. We still intend to make it to NGC3199 Nebula and explore in that area before heading back to the bubble to pick up my promised SRV. We cleared 1250 LY today before standing down for the night. Sadly, most of what we passed was systems full of snowballs. However, I did come across some strikingly beautiful and close stellar binarys. The first of these was a Class B and a Class A, separated by a mere 5.8 LS.

Toward the end of the day we passed this class 4 gas giant that was curiously misshappen. This kind of bulge is usually encountered when the planet has an incredibly fast rate of spin. This is not the case in this one as it has a rotational period of 0.9 days. I would love to know that processes are at play in this planet.

Lastly, this is where we anchored up for the night. Just a lovely view to contemplate as we drift off to sleep, and dream the dreams of the deep range explorer...

Until next time
Fly safe, Fly smart.
Maia

Maia Posidana · Nov 2, 2015

Day 283 (19)

NGC 3199

Prometheus has finally arrived at the NGC 3199 Nebula. Unfortunately, most of the last 700 Lightyears of the trip was empty and boring. Normally this wouldn't be such a bad thing, however, if we do not see at least one remarkable sight each day, my companion tends to find himself unable so sleep (yes, robots do actually sleep, after a fashion, even lovebots). When this happens, he tends to pace up and down the halls of Prometheus all night. In the silence of deep space, this pacing reverberates throughout the ship and keeps ME awake.

Fortunately this was not to be the case this time as our day began and ended with such sights. The night before last, we landed in a type B star system in the GREOU EOP Sector that was FULL of ringed planets. Literally EVERY planet was ringed. This provided many such sights that were able to ease the mind of my quirky companion. We powered down for the night in low orbit around planet 1, shortly after entering the system and doing a D-scan. The next morning we spent a good couple of hours thoroughly exploring the rest of the system before making the final sprint to NGC 3199.

All of the below images were taken in that system. (sadly, I seem to be unable to transmit the highres images for some reason)

Curiously, nearly all of the planets were in pairs. Even more fascinatingly, the first two pairs SHARED THE SAME ORBIT! Though their barycenters were separated by about 120 LS, they shared the same orbital path.

About half way through the days run, we did come upon one more interesting system. A lovely RED, Hot jupiter. This giant (seriously, this mother was HUGE, easily half the size of it's parent) sat a mere 63 LS from its parent star. It was quite a sight to see.

Finally, after a 700 LY sprint, we reached our destination, NGC 3199 Nebula. The nebula itself is quite beautiful, though sadly there are very few stars actually inside the nebula itself, and most of those systems are pretty much devoid of interesting sights. So Skye and I, after spending an hour or so jumping around those stars, burned out a few hundred thousand LS from the centermost star, made dinner, and retired to my quarters to enjoy a fine meal and conversation in the lovely faint red glow of the nebula. We will spend the next week or two exploring the general vicinity before slowly making our way back to the bubble to pick up our SRV.

Until next time
Fly Safe, Fly Smart
Maia

Maia Posidana · Nov 10, 2015

Day 290 (26)

The slow path

Well, for the last week my quirky companion and I have explored the NGC 3199 Nebula and it's surrounding areas. The sheer wonderment exhibited by Skye has caused me to slow down and ENJOY taking the time to scan down every single rock in a system. Sadly, it has been more than a week since we came across a virgin system. Still, it has been a most unusual...and quite refreshing, experience to actually SHARE the exploration experience with someone.

This has not been without it's troubling moments however. The day before yesterday we did an asteroid landing at a system primary cluster, only 5.3 LS from the star. As it turned out, this particular asteroid had a moon. A moon about a decimeter across. This small rock was orbiting its partner asteroid at about head height and orbiting slow, so it was no trouble to reach out and simply catch it. At the conclusion of our excursion, I brought the rock on board as a souvenir. As we were unsuiting I noticed something oddly familiar about the shape and structure of the rock, it took me a few minutes to put my finger on just what it was that was tickling the back of my mind.

After we had secured the airlock and EVA suits, I took the rock to the cargo hold, found a hammer and managed to break it open. I had been correct, the rock had been a geode, meaning that the asteroid field had at one point been a planet that had broken up. The inside was filled with brilliant purple Amethyst crystals. I handed on half of the geode to Skye who stood there staring at, transfixed. Then the oddest thing happened. For a moment, I thought he may have blown a circuit because he seemed to just shut down. I immediately turned to look for my light to check his eyes for signs of life, but when I turned back around what I saw there simply floored me. Skye was, for lack of any other term, crying. I didn't even think that was possible. When he saw me staring he turned around and ran to the quarters I had given him and locked himself inside.

I didn't hear from him for the rest of the day, or the next. He wouldn't answer the door other than to confirm that he was in fact still alive when I threatened to cut the door open to see if he was Ok. He finally emerged from his room this morning as I was powering up Prometheus for the day. He came onto the bridge and simply told me the he would be ok, and would say nothing more on the matter, then went about the business of making breakfast.

We have begun the long slow stroll back toward inhabited space and expect to arrive in 4 or 5 weeks time.

Also, word has reached me that my hero Commander Erimus Kamzel (of the Distant Suns expedition fame) is mounting a SECOND expedition to Point Beagle, the farthest star. This time he intends to take people with him and intends to land on and survey as many worlds as he can along the way. If it weren't for my own ongoing mission I would join his expedition in a heartbeat.

Until next time
Fly Safe, Fly smart
Maia

Maia Posidana · Dec 2, 2015

Well I guess it has been some days since I've reported in.

since my last report, Skye and I have traversed the distance from the NGC 3199 nebula all the way back to the bubble. There were fantastic sites of stories along the way of which I will attempt to relate later. I took many images along the way and with any luck I should be able to upload many of those tomorrow. We are now safely back in the bubble comma at the FGE headquarters where we are training intensely in the simulators for planetary landings. Trust me, landing a 250 ton ASP even on a low gravity moon is not as easy as you might think. I cannot count how many times I have pancaked the ship in the simulator so far. And the surface recon vehicle is kind of touchy to boot.

All that said however, I find myself extraodinarily conflicted. A couple of events have unfolded in the last few days. First off, a personal hero of mine has announced the formation of a massive upcoming expedition, and has personally invited me along. That commander is none other than the illustrious CMDR Erimus, and the expedition, titled distant worlds, is no less than A fleet sized retracing of the steps of his original distant Suns expedition.

The second thing that has come up, is that it came out a few days ago that another pilot has already completed a galactic circumnavigation. That said, I don't know if anyone is even going to be interested in continuing to read my exploits in this particular endeavor.

So, as I said, I find myself extremely conflicted. Do I continue on this journey however long it takes? Or do I join in on the distant worlds expedition?

nexxo · Dec 2, 2015

Whatever course you sail, I will continue to be avidly reading your reports. And so will many others, I reckon.

Maia Posidana · Dec 2, 2015

Thank you Nexxo.

Zulu Romeo · Dec 2, 2015

I'm still interested too. You're an inspiration to me to keep on going.

Keep going.

Navigare Necesse Est · Dec 2, 2015

I've been trying the exploration and it's not for me. It yields nice screenshots, though and yours definitely are. Good luck out there.

dreadspectre · Dec 3, 2015

Been reading since post #1, so will continue to read on whatever you choose to do.

Maia Posidana · Dec 3, 2015

Thank you all for your support. I will continue to be in training until the pilots Federation officially announces the legalization of planetary landings. In the meantime here is a replay of one of my better landings in the simulator. Trust me, there have been a few bad ones and a few godaweful pancake ones. Landing something the size and weight of an ASP is not particularly easy.

[video=youtube_share;Z5YGh-tdTo4]https://youtu.be/Z5YGh-tdTo4[/video]

Maia Posidana · Dec 5, 2015

The road home from NGC 3199 Nebula

Well, I did promise images from the trip home.

First however I'd like to pass on that word has reached me recently that the great chronicler of our time, none other that ObsidianAnt himself has recently signed on to the Distant Worlds Expedition. This news made me very happy. As for my self, I am still debating, but am beginning to lean towards continuing my voyage. If I do this, I will still actually be a part of that expedition with the goal of meeting the fleet at Point Beagle (Which had been a planned stop since I first launched this mission).

Picture time.

Just a couple of days out of NGC 3199 we came across a lovely ringed water world. The rings provided for a great view (especially right near the inner edge) of what turned out to be the only set of clouds on the entire planet.

My companionship bot Skye helped pick out as many of the locations as I did. Turns out, he has quite an eye for beauty. I must say, I've greatly enjoyed having him along. He has been quirky, with behavior seriously odd for a loverbot, but he has in fact been great company.

Ok, now where did I put those marshmallows?

We found this tiny little world only about 9 LS from the parent star. This was (at the time) the closest planet Id ever found to a star.

Like I said, Skye helped pick out many of the locations. I wouldn't have caught this one.

It is an awe inspiring sight when a star shines so brightly blue, that is ratiates as purple...

Believe it or not, both of these stars are the same stellar type and luminosity. Yet, they are different colors.

We found this gorgeous HMC world a mere 86 LS from the parent B star. I couldn't help my self. We dropped into the rings and found a couple of great places to step out. With Skye on the bridge, I was able to locate, for the first time in my piloting career, a belt asteroid that WASN'T TUMBLING! I was able to bring Prometheus down to within a meter of the roid and leave her there while Skye and I suited up and went out and surveyed the rock for more than an hour. In all, that was a great day.

Jumped in frighteningly close to this contact binary (which is part of a trinary). Fortunately, I landed NEXT to them, not BETWEEN them like I did on one of our last jumps of the voyage.

Looking back at the NGC 3199 Nebula as it recedes in the distance.

Just some random low orbit planetary shots.

I was actually going to pass this system up completely and keep going when I saw that all that was in it was a single gas giant. Usually that tends to mean that the gas giant is 8,000-20,000 LS out from the star and as such, visually uninteresting...at best. I aligned Prometheus out onto the next jump and began spooling up the FSD when Skye said "Hold". It turned out that this world was a ringed giant, and a mere 140 LS from the parent, making it, if not a HOT Saturn, at least a fairly WARM Saturn.

And some more planetaries

About half way back, we happened upon a string of type B stars, and I decided to slow down and do a survey of them. Skye had revealed (and proven) that he is quite a capable pilot, so I allowed him to take the helm of Prometheus during the survey while I operated the camera systems (so yes, the pilot selfie here is in fact my lovebot Skye, not me). The first system in the string was one of those phenominally bright blue stars that is so bringt blue that it's purple, with some 8 T-tauri stars strung out around it.

We found this beauty some 80 LS from the star. Kinda hot, don't you think...

This HMC magma planet was the only planet in this system of 2 type B stars, and it was nearly 12,000 LS out.

At one point late in the voyage, we were surveying a system that had a ringed T-tauri orbiting a ringed gas giant. I decided to do a landing at the T-tauri. At this point Skye started acting kind of weird. I got closer to the star than I've ever been (0.33LS) and let me tell you, it was HOT. Skye flatly refused to suit up and step out, saying he'd wait and watch how fast MY circuits melted in the heat. Then he went and locked himself in the most shielded room of the ship until we left.

The ringed gas giant turned out to be something of a beauty. I set Prometheus down for another asteroid walk and this time Skye came with me. At one point I looked back and could see him patting Prometheus's landing strut saying "There there, the bad lady wasn't trying to cook you. She's just bat

crazy is all."

Lastly, just a few jumps out from Exphiay, my FSD jump deceleration brought me THROUGH a star and landed me right between the two stars that were seperated by no more than 1 LS. Needless to say, it was a serious brown flightsuit moment. Pretty sure even Skye crapped himself. Fortunately I was already on high alert looking for pirates as I was only 6 jumps out, so my amped reflexes managed to get the ship turned out even before the heat began to spike...which it did...in a BIG way. Then I had to park the ship for a while while I went and showered and changed my flightsuit...

Well, that's it for the moment. While I wait for the opening of planetary landings, I am spending LOADS of time in the simulator. When Im not in the simulator, I am out bounty hunting.

Until next time
Fly safe, Fly smart
Maia

Horsma · Dec 6, 2015

To me this thread is by far the best in FD forums, keep going Maia and have fun out there

Maia Posidana · Dec 13, 2015

On the cusp

3 days. 3 days remaining until the pilots Federation officially sanctions planetary landings. 3 days until I set forth again on my great journey.

I have spent the last couple of weeks training diligently to learn how to land Prometheus safely on the surface of even high gravity worlds. My training has taught me some lessons, and unfortunately due to those lessons I have had to sacrifice a little bit of jump range. I have discovered that it is impossible to set an unfilled in ship down on even the lowest gravity moon without damage, and that's for the first time ever prometheus is sporting the shield. I have also sacrificed two of my AFM's in order to install 2 vehicle hangers. I felt that a second one would be a good idea in the event that the first is lost or too damaged to use for a while.

All of this has had the unfortunate affect of reducing my maximum jump range to slightly over 33 light years, as opposed to the slightly under 38 light years that I have enjoyed since this mission began. Hopefully it will not be too much of a handicap when I try to cross the inter arm gaps.

I have fully provisioned prometheus with a solid years worth of food and water and entertainment. Most of the ships spaces are full to bursting with supplies. Even my old quarters are packed floor to ceiling. It's a good thing that I still have the observation deck below the main bridge to sleep in.

It is with great sadness that I report that my companion bot Skye has met with an unfortunate end. We were top side in the station a week ago doing some tests on the heat dissipation system, when a large piece of debris from a recently destroyed trespasser slammed into prometheus crushing Skye against the hull. Sadly the damage was irreparable, and his AI was lost. I was able to recover a small amount of his secondary programming, such as his cooking skills. I have contacted the manufacturer and purchased a replacement, which should arrive tomorrow. I was given quite a few very odd looks as this model of bot cost approximately 5 million credits and is normally only sold to high end brothels, not individuals. I got even more strange looks when I sent them the data package of extra skills that I wanted installed. Needless to say as a general rule they don't expect love bots to be able to cook or discuss philosophy. With any luck by the end of the voyage I will be able to turn him into something other than a mere mechanical gigolo.

I have already purchased my first SRV, but I'm still waiting for a communication from Mr. Kidder. with any luck he will pull through on the second one as he promised.

That is where the mission stands at the moment, on the cusp of a new era. I expect to be fully ready and be spaceborn again within minutes if not seconds of the time that the pilots Federation makes the announcement official.

Till then
Fly safe, Fly smart
Maia

Maia Posidana · Dec 16, 2015

Day 325 (1)

A new horizon

Prometheus is amongst the stars again. After collecting my SRV's (mr. Kidder did in fact come through) And some last minute materials (including a new AI for my companion bot) I set out again. I made first for the Coalsack Nebula just a short distance away. Sadly, due to an error during landing there, I was forced to return to the nearest colony outpost for repairs. On the way there I came across a system with 14 suns in it!! I decided to do a landing at the nearest planet. While on the surface, I happened to look up and noticed that the primary sun was rising, so I started up an exterior camera and recorded the lovely sunrise. The video clip is accelerated nearly 100x as this sunrise lasted nearly an hour. This star was 1989 LS away and was still a significant body in the sky (not to mention a whole lot brighter than the dwarf sitting 2.3 ls directly above my head.

<font size="4"><font size="2">[video=youtube;L3k1oGG8-JM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3k1oGG8-JM[/video]

nexxo · Dec 17, 2015

Sorry to hear about Skye, commander. Another harsh reminder that space is dangerous. Sometimes most so when you think you're safe.

Unfortunately that's the trade-off for androids: with humanity comes mortality. The more sophisticated their neural nets becomes, the less possible it becomes to back up the matrix without compression degradation. We have the opposite problem: the more our biological brains are augmented with AI implants, the less human we seem to become. You'll have seen them around; those hardcore mercenaries and bounty hunters who have augmented their piloting and combat skills with enhanced senses and reflexes, knowledge modules, motor routines, neural net ship interfaces... in the end talking to those guys is just creepy. You look into their golden eyes set in emotionless faces and see nothing left of the human at all... I don't know, perhaps it's just the job. You can't do what they do and see what they see and not lose something along the way. I hear they have suppressors for that too. Until one day the brain decompensates and the suppressor flakes out and it all comes... out. I hear one pilot massacred an entire settlement in a paranoid psychotic breakdown. Took an entire military team to corner him, until he blew himself up.

But I ramble. What I'm saying is, becoming human is tricky for an android. It's the neural net, see? This is why most of them don't function much past seven years before falling apart. Mentally, that is. Those who survive --with a lot of careful maintenance-- then face their second crisis four years later when they seem to go through some sort of existential despair --which, given the insignificant meaninglessness of our fragile, short little lives and in a cold, dark, vast and callous void you can't exactly blame them for, right? At least we can get drunk... Anyway, if they survive that, and don't go into terminal breakdown or suicide (or in a few rumoured cases, a murder spree), then they can become very human. I mean, freakily so. I hear there's this insanely rich baron on Lave somewhere who owns this high-end expensive android for a companion, a rare classic van Rijn model I've heard, that's been running for over fifty years. She's, like, indistinguishable from human. People would spend days in her presence and not realise. Until someone attacks the baron and she breathes fire on them as if she were a dragon, that is.

So, yeah, I guess I'm saying: I'm sorry for your loss, commander. People may say it was just an android, but they're a bit out of touch with their own humanity, if you ask me. He was a man and a friend. Flesh and blood or silicone colloids, what difference does it make what we're made of? The void is dark, and every pinprick light of consciousness extinguished is a loss.

Maia Posidana · Dec 18, 2015

A new Horizon, A new direction.

Day 1

Genesis

A new day has dawned, and with it a new decision, a new destination. Some very good people have told me that the Distant Worlds Expedition is the opportunity of a lifetime; and that I would be a fool to miss it. Well my friends, if there is one thing that is certain in this universe it is that...I AM THAT FOOL!

But in all honesty, they are absolutely right, and with that in mind, I have decided to throw my full support and participation behind this project. The galaxy will still be there for me to continue my circumnavigation when we return; but the chance to make this historic journey...and with more than 300 other pilots, well, that sort of think isn't like to ever happen again. This will be history in the making. For those so inclined I encourage you to also undergo this great pilgrimage with us. For those unable, or not so inclined; this blog will serve as a documentation of that great voyage. I will continue with a video log as well when I am able (Ill have to think of a different name for the series, since we won't be anywhere near "the edge" till we are on the far side of the galaxy).

Fortunately I hadn't gone more than a day out when I came to that decision.

I have spent a couple of hours each night in the painfully slow process of integrating new skills programming and then finally the AI to my new "companionship" bot. When he first powered up, he introduced himself as Aaron. Aaron will spend the next couple of days sitting in the secondary lavatory (I told you the ship was packed to the gills with supplies didn't I?), while his consciousness fully integrates with his body. I'll have people to talk to some of the time on this trip, but at least It'll be nice to have a cook (I just hope he's even a shadow of the cook Skye was).

Say hello to Aaron (actually, the same model Skye was as well)

Let me tell you people; Planetary landings adds a mindbogglingly huge element to galactic exploration. All those things I've been wanting to do since the day I got my pilots license and rank...every time I've sat up in orbit looking down, thinking "Someday. Someday I will set this ship down on that". And I was not disappointed by the sheer beauty of what I saw there in those stark landscapes.

The day before yesterday, I landed on the first planet of HIP 63835, a system with 14 suns! I sat on the surface and watched the Primary star rise. Keep in mind that from this world, the primary star is 1989 LS away. This should give you an idea how big this B star was.

I took these yesterday from a world just 2 jumps from the Coalsack Nebula. The first one is from the surface, the second was as I was boosting back into orbit.

And lastly, last night I found the most GORGEOUS place to set down yet. This system (HR 4220) has so many beautiful places to land it isn't funny. The primary star is a medium size type B star that itself was extremely active.

The first world, at a mere 90 LS is actually a dual planet system of ringed HMC planets. Both are relatively high-gravity (2.98G for planet 2 which was the one I landed on) and very much shaded by the light of the very close, blue sun.

I formally invite you friends, each and every one of you, to follow along with me on this adventure of a lifetime. Come along as our great fleet, this Argosy, as we explore our way across the deep, and across the shores of Distant Worlds to Point Beagle and beyond...on the far side of the galaxy.

Maia Posidana

Maia Posidana · Dec 18, 2015

***OOC WARNING!***

I have had several PM's asking what the story behind Skye was (and a couple offering condolances

)

Skye was my part of a 3 way story on the EDC Loreweavers Facebook page, involving CMDR Elenar, CMDR Tallyne Star and myself. Skye was actually a ships soul as well as it's AI (From an Eagle). belonging to CMDR Star. Skye was also actually female. Her hull had been blown up in port and she had been downloaded and kidnapped by an outside faction intent on gaining control of all vessels thus endowed with souls. She is very much alive and reunited with her owner via ingame interactions and RP

What follows is part of my part of the story and covers how she came to be in MY posession and in the body of a MALE lovebot...

Myles Kidder

Will I dream...

Phaedra Caralon was not happy.

The heist had not gone off quite as planned. The Shadow Core agent had been easy enough to neutralize, as had his contact. What she hadn't counted on was that the contact would bring back-up. She had barely gotten to her ship and out of the station with her life, but at least she had managed to get out with the package, a small black rectangular box. Her shoulder seared in pain from a plasma burn that went clean through, but her flight suits pain management system dosed her with enough morpha that she could concentrate, but not so much that she couldn't fly.

The reprisal came swiftly. Much too swiftly for her comfort. Before she could make the jump, she found her eagle mass-locked by a larger vessel coming up from behind at high speed. A heartbeat later an impact rocked the ship and system alarms began blaring, telling her that the shields were down.

Phaedra pulled the ship hard about in 90 degree high-energy-turn and boosted away in an attempt to try and get some distance while the shields came back online. Checking her scanners, she could see that the other ship, a viper, had quickly responded to the unexpected maneuver and was going to easily close the gap before she could spin up the FSD again. Another plasma bolt and her freshly onlined shields were gone again, along with a goodly amount of the eagles structural integrity.

“well;” she thought grimly, “I can't outrun this

, but I can sure as hell outfly him.”

With the flip of a button and a word of command to the ships computer, Phaedra turned off the flight assist, transferred all power to weapons, deployed said weapons, flipped the eagle end for end and brought it arcing hard over the top of the viper at a range of less than thirty feet.

With her shoulder screaming in agony at the violent G-forces, she opened up on the viper from near collision range without even waiting for a weapons lock. Her aim held true as the eagle arced over, behind, and under the viper in less than 3 seconds. At this range her beam laser brought down the vipers shield almost instantly, while her auto-cannons tore ragged holes in its hull. It was over before her arc brought her back around into the vipers weapons. At this range, the explosion rocked the eagle and momentarily blinded her, but not so much that she missed seeing the pilot eject. A short burst from her beam laser made sure that he at least, would pursue her no further.

Unfortunately, the system police were now responding to the disturbance and were unlikely to care who fired first, only who fired last. Boosting for as much distance as she could get, she managed to spin up her FSD and make the jump just as the police fighters were coming into weapons range.

As the eagle found the relative safety of witch-space, Pheadra took a moment to properly secure her percious cargo. Father would be pleased with her success. The AI stored in the black box could be the salvation of her people; but first it would have to be well hidden and protected from the Shadow Core until it could be safely reunited with the one person capable of influencing it.

She made a dozen more rapid and random jumps to throw off any pursuers, then set course for Guayambaan. Three hours later, after dodging several half-hearted interdiction attempts by less-than-proficient pirates, she set the eagle gently down on pad 4 in Willis Station.

Climbing out of the eagle with her cargo safely tucked inside her flightsuit; Phaedra spoke briefly with the deck crew about repairs to the ship. Paying for the repairs in advance, she told the Deck Chief that she would return for departure in three hours time.

Five levels down, she found a recycling chute and dumped the fake I.D. And credit chit she had been using, along with her disguise, all identifying her as Camron Allinen, an alliance pilot who had died a week ago. It took another 20 minutes in the station transit system to reach her destination, a storage hangar housing a deceptively ratty looking sidewinder. Another 20 minutes of start-up procedures while having the ship transferred to an active hangar and she was spaceborn again.

“Comms,” she said after the sidewinder had entered the jump. “Person to person link, voice and vid, narrow band, Kepler encryption protocols.”

“Destination?” came the query from the ships computer.

“Myles Kidder. I.D. Number Fornax846221Alpha.”

It seemed to take an eternity for the connection to be made. When the screen finally blinked on, it was filled with the round face of a man in his mid 40's with short black hair and a 3 day growth of beard on his face. His soft, yet gravely voice; rich with an old Earth, Londoner accent which had always
irritated Phaedra to no end, came over the speakers.

“Phaedra my love, how good to hear your voice again,” he said. Phaedra could here the sarcasm positively dripping from every syllable. “What, pray tell, occasions the wave? Wanting to get back into the business are you?”

“In your dreams,” she retorted. “I require your assistance. Something's come up that requires your particular...talents.”

“Sorry dearie, kind of busy at the moment,” came his casual dismissal.

She blinked at him for a few seconds then calmly said, “Antaries colony.”

Kidder leaned in toward the camera. “Why must you always bring that up?” He said, visibly irritated. “You're like a dog with it's favorite bone”

He stared at her for a moment, but Phaedra showed no sign of letting up. Finally, with a sigh he said, “Fine. When and where? And please make this one quick, I really am very busy.”

“Oh, I bet you are;” She said as she transmitted the information. “But your next masterpiece is going to have to wait. Hopefully this won't take too long.”

Kidder looked at the coordinates he was receiving, then plugged them into his nav computer. “Slipher Hub in Faust 68 eh? That's actually in the direction I'm heading. I can be there within the hour.” He said.

“I'll see you there in two;” Phaedra replied. “Meet me at the A-Ring lounge. Get us a quiet booth.”

With that, she closed the connection and set a route for Faust 68. As she began spinning up the FSD for the next jump, she began processing another call. It was time to update Father on her progress.

An hour and a half later Phaedra dropped the sidewinder out of supercruise in front of a giant Coriolis station orbiting just above the rings of a white gas giant. She was always awed by the beauty of this station, but the main reason for choosing it was the system population of more than 14 million people. With that many people in system, no one, not even air traffic control, was going to take notice of, or even remember a random run-down sidewinder stopping through.

A half hour later, with her ship secured Phaedra walked into the A-Ring lounge. A-Ring, though well appointed and clearly set up for the higher echelon of customers was among one of the least frequented of the stations bars owing to its location deep inside the station, well away from any windows. This, however, was exactly why she had chosen this location. She immediately spotted Kidders brooding form sitting in a corner booth, well away from the next nearest customer. However, he was not alone. Next to him sat a tall very attractive young man, probably in his late 20's who appeared to be every bit the businessman from the look of his suit.

“How good of you to join us” Kidder said, a hint of irritation in his voice.

“Who the hell is he?” Phaedra almost hissed back. “You know better than to bring someone to these meetings.”

Kidder gave her a momentary confused look. “Oh HIM,” he said at last. “No need to worry about him. Let me introduce you to Skye. Skye here is the latest and greatest model in loverbot technology.

She gave him a pained look and said; “I'm not sure I want to know why you, of all people, have a sexbot...and a male one at that.”

Kidder chuckled grimly and said, gesturing toward Skye, “This is the studios idea of a joke. The recent resurgence in popularity of 'Lust in Space' after all these years means an influx of royalty fees. Skye here, was the studios idea of m share of those fees.”

“Still, it's not a total waste. I yanked out most of his AI and all of his “Performance Programming”, and loaded him up with programming of my own. He may not have a personality to speak of, but he makes a great butler. Cleans without complaint, and can cook like a master chef. Not to mention his musculature and skeletal strength and agility make him ideal for personal defense.”

Phaedra turned almost physically green. “You discarded most of his...”

“Lobotomized him like a pumpkin,” Kidder said. “Sorry love; I know how you feel about that sort of thing, but I have no use for a Gigolo doll, and you know as well as I do that once an AI is programed for a task it is nigh on impossible to teach it to think differently.”

“Now if you don't mind; what was so goddam important that you and your father had to so rudely divert me from my own missions to bail you out?”

“Bail ME out?!” Phaedra retorted with indignation. “Need I remind you that if it weren't for Father and I, you'd still be rotting in a Federal prison?”

Before he could respond, Phaedra set a briefcase on the table and spun it around towards him. Kidder looked to her with a mildly amused expression, and expression that quickly turned to alertness tinged with fear when he opened the case and saw its contents.

“This is Shadow Core technology,” he said quietly, but in a deadly serious tone. “What in the HELL have you gotten yourself into?!”

“It's an AI,” she responded matter of factly. “A very special AI. The Core stole it by making it's owner think that it had been destroyed. I...intercepted it, before they could make it disappear. Now WE need to make it disappear, until they think that it is truly gone and beyond their reach.”

“Okay,” he said, pinching his forehead. “Let's pretend for a second that I have no idea what you are talking about...because I don't. What do you mean by a 'very special AI'?”

“Do you know what separates the human mind from that of an AI?” she asked after a moment of thought.

Kidder thought for a bit before answering. “A soul,” he replied at last, looking at Skye. “True self motivation and self determination. A machine can be programmed to be self aware, but it can't be programmed with desire. It can't be programmed to do what it wants to do simply because it WANTS to do it.”

“A+ Myles,” she replied. “There's a bit more to it, but that is pretty much the heart of the issue. This AI however, is a quantum leap forward. It has displayed traits never before seen in an AI, including love. These things pose a threat to the Shadow Core, and for that, they are determined to possess it, or destroy it if they can't.”

“And where do I fit into this story of Gods and Devils?” Kidder asked.

“Your skill in relocations,” she said. “You have a talent for making things and people disappear until they are needed again. We need this AI well hidden until we can make contact with the original owner AND convince the Core that it is either dead or permanently beyond their reach.”

Kidder stroked his stubbly face for a few moments, then a look slowly crossed his face that could only be described as an evil grin.

“I just may have an idea on that, and it ties right in with my own mission,” he said, casting a glance at Skye. “Does this thing need to be kept in the box?”

“Nooo,” she said slowly. “Myles, please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking.”

Kidder gave her a disapproving look and said; “You wanted this thing hidden dearie. This is what I do. If this works out right, I may be able to get it off the radar and beyond ANYBODIES reach for a year or more.”

Phaedra's voice took on a dangerous edge, “We are talking about a truly sentient AI, a SOUL, and a fragile one at that. I do NOT want it traumatized by being forced into sexual slavery just so it can hide. And on top of that, this particular soul happens to be a SHE!”

“Well no, that DOES add an interesting twist then, doesn't it,” Kidder said with a grin. “but that's neither here nor there. Skye's AI was removed, as I've said. Once I download your little friend there into the unit, her drives and motivations will be Skyes. I'll simply pass him off to the mark as a companionship or butler bot.”

Phaedra looked unconvinced, but continued, to see where this would lead. “So who is the mark, and what makes you think you can get them to take the bot...and as a companion/butler no less, rather than a sex bot?”

“Because I HAVE to,” he said. “You and I BOTH have a vested interest in this that goes above and beyond your current problem.”

“I'm listening,” she said.

“You are aware of course of the sudden newfound popularity of 'LIS'?” he asked.

“I may have heard something about it,” she replied flatly.

“Didn't it occur to you to wonder how a forgotten B-Rated skin flick like that experiences such a resurgence?”

“Not really,” she said. “I've been trying to forget that whole experience.”

Kidder gave her a disapproving look, then passed her his data pad. Phaedra looked at the picture staring back at her. After contemplating it for a few moments she looked back to Kidder and said, “If this CHILD is your mark, they will stuff you in a cell so deep in the mines that God himself won't be able to find you.”

Kidder pinched his forehead again in disgust. “This CHILD as you call her, is 29 according to her pilots license...”

Phaedra sputtered on her drink at that statement and interrupted, “...29 my butt. If she's 29 I'm a vestal Virgin. That girl is 15 if she's a day...”

“If you will allow me to continue,” Kidder said, annoyed by the interruption. “This child, as you call her, is a Deep Range explorer of some renown, who, for the last 5 months, has been the sole owner and pilot of 'Jupiter Two'.”

Kidder sat back for a moment and let that information sink it. He watched with satisfaction as her face nearly fell off.

Phaedra stammered “You mean it's still...”

“Oh, very much so, apparently,” Kidder answered her unfinished question. “This pilot, one CMDR Maia Posidana, apparently discovered the data disc hidden inside a bulkhead...right where I stashed it when we were boarded all those years ago.”

“Needless to say, I don't think I need to remind you what that particular film making excursion was actually a cover for, and what information is hidden on that disc. I also shouldn't need to remind you what would happen to the BOTH of us, AND your father, if that information ever fell into the wrong hands.”

Phaedra had paled visibly, but managed to regain her composure. “Does she know?” she asked.

“Not as far as I can tell,” he replied. “She found the disc a couple of months ago while out near the end of the Perseus Arm. She has a public log on the Pilots Federation Cortex. She apparently watched the movie, then gave a 'critique' of it on her log,” he said with a wry grin. “Had some amusing things to say about your performance as well.”

“Apparently her log is fairly well read, because as soon as she posted about it, scads of people began scouring the cortex for copies of the video. And the rest is history.”

“At any rate, she just returned to the bubble for repairs yesterday, and she's due to head back out tomorrow evening. I've sent her a message saying I'd like to meet with her before she departs.”

“So how much do we know about her?” Phaedra asked. “Can she be trusted in any way?”

“That, my dear, is the 64,000 credit question,” he said with an amused expression. “What we know about her, outside of her public log and her pilots license (which is obviously fake, I agree with you on her age) is...absolutely nothing...”

“She's an enigma, a phantom. It's like she doesn't even exist. Her name doesn't show up ANYWHERE, on ANY network, in ANY database, and neither does her face. What's really strange, and no small amount frightening, is that and biometric information on her is classified at a higher security level than I've ever even SEEN!”

“Classified?!” Phaedra asked, clearly shocked.

“Like nothing I've ever seen before!” he said. “As soon as I entered a biometric query, a security firewall slammed down so hard it literally wiped my entire system. I lost everything.”

Phaedras' eyes grew wide as he continued; “The only reference I was even able to find on the name Posidana comes from over 500 years ago. One Amana Posidana, who was the founder of NovaTech Space Industries.”

“Who” she asked, clearly confused.

“HEH! Some agent you are,” he laughed. “NovaTech space industries was the co-developer of the Frame Shift Drive and the inventor and sole proprietor of the Wayfarer Astronavigation system; the same Astronavigation module that is still used on every starship built even to this day.”

“And what happened to NovaTech?” she asked. “I never studied corporate history.”

“NovaTech was ultimately bought out by the upstart Tikae Astronomics, which, some 90 years later, was purchased by Quantum Dreamliners Inc., which in turn was ultimately purchased by another upstart company – Lakon Spaceways.”

“All of this still leaves us with nothing of course, other than the name of a possible ancestor more than 500 years ago.”

Phaedra thought for a moment, “So, this really begs the question; can we trust her?”

“The simple truth is, I don't know,” Kidder said with a shrug. “I've read her log from end to end, several times. She does seem to have an unusual talent for astronavigation and its assorted tech. In fact, a discovery she made about a year ago is responsible for the sudden upgrade in jump-plotting ability from 150 light years to 1000.”

“That was HER?!” Phaedra asked, incredulous.

“Yep,” Kidder continued. “She also seems to have the devils own luck. She seems to have survived several accidents that rightly SHOULD have killed her. But I can't find anything in her logs to even HINT that she is connected to any organization, other than the Pilots Federation of course, but clearly she has connections higher than I ever really want to know about.”

“That said, tomorrow night she is supposed to be setting off to continue on her voyage to circumnavigate the galaxy. In other words, she's going to be beyond ANYBODIES reach for at least a year.”

With that, Kidder sat back and sipped his drink. Phaedra followed suit, lost in concentration for a while. After several minutes she looked from Kidder to Skye and back.

“I'm taking an awful risk your realize,” she said. “Ok, I'll help you install her in that...thing, and explain the situation to her. But if she winds up being abused or traumatized by this, Father will have your head on a plate.”

5 hours later Phaedra undocked, followed by Kidder and Skye in a modified hauler. She watched as Kidder made his first jump on his way to Exphiay, then aligned on her own jump, heading in the opposite direction.

12 jumps later she looked at her comms screen and found the wing invite she had been expecting to find there. Accepting it, she followed the beacon some 9000 lightseconds to where her target sat in an insanely low orbit around a class 3 gas giant.

Phaedra dropped out of supercruise a mere 500 meters from the giant, obsidian black shape of an Annaconda. She could see the name 'ANUBIS' stenciled in gold along its side. Her sidewinder felt like a toy in comparison.

With the push of a button, the docking bay doors slid open, and she carefully sideslipped her small craft into the bay. Even with quarters this tight, she would never trust a docking computer. As she secured the smaller ship and climbed out onto the deck she felt happy for the first time in months. It was good to be home.

It took her several long minutes to navigate her way through the long and narrow corridors of the giant ship to the bridge. She approached it with a growing uncertainty about how Father would respond to her report.

As she stepped onto the bridge, she was reminded once again just how truly large Anubis was. The expansive bridge was larger than the ship she had just flown here in. The forward windows gave an awe inspiring view over the front of the ship, more than a hundred meters distant.

“Hello Father,” she said as she took a seat in the command chair.

“Welcome home child,” came Fathers almost impossibly deep voice.

“Where are Dinah and Silas?” she asked. She had expected to be greeted by them in the landing bay.

“Your brother and sister are off on tasks of their own,” came Fathers gentle reply.

“Father, you know we don't like to see you left alone, with noone on board,” she said chidingly.

“Why?” he laughed. “So you can fly me? I haven't needed a pilot in over a hundred years. Besides, I still hear from my brothers and sisters, so I'm not exactly lonely.”

“Let me hear your report,” he continued.

Phaedra took a long, deep breath and reported all that had transpired since her last communication. When at long last she finished, she sat silently, expecting Father to be furious at her for dealing with Kidder again. Instead, he sounded almost pleased.

“It is as good of an outcome as We could have hoped for under the circumstances,” he said. “We are satisfied. With any luck, in the fullness of time, she and her bond-pilot can be convinced to join our cause. For now, it is enough to know that she is safe for the moment.”

“I truly hope so Father,” Phaedra said. “I went through a lot of trouble to get her out of the hands of the Shadow Core. I can only hope that that in itself can convince her that we are friends.”

“And speaking of this 'trouble' you went through,” Father said, his tone much changed now, almost sad. “There has been a hitch.”

“A hitch?” she asked.

“You left a survivor,” Father said. “That survivor was able to identify you. The Shadow Core now knows what you look like.”

Phaedra hung her head. This was pretty high on the list of “worst possible outcomes”.

“You know what has to happen, don't you?” Father asked.

“Yes Father,” she said sadly. “If I may have just a few minutes.”

“Take all the time you need,” he replied.

Phaedra stood and walked around the bridge, taking it all in. Then spent an hour walking the halls of the ship, where she had been born and raised. Finally, resigned, she went to the med bay.

As she undressed and laid herself on the procedure table she asked, “Will you at least find a good looking body for me? I've become rather fond of this one and I'd really hate to downgrade.”

“Of course dear,” Father said with a chuckle. “It may take some time though. Unused bodies don't exactly grown on trees you know.”

“Of course Father,” she smiled.

A cold shiver went down her spine as the neural interface loop slid in place around her head.

“Father,” she said, suddenly afraid of what was to come.

“Yes dear?”

“Will I dream?”

“Of course you will. All living things dream when they sleep. We just usually can't remember it when we wake.”

A moment later she felt the long forgotten sensation of her consciousness being sucked down a drain...then oblivion.

As Anubis jumped out of orbit of the gas giant, its jump-wake gently nudged the drifting body of an attractive young woman into a rapidly decaying orbit.

Maia Posidana · Dec 26, 2015

On behalf of the crew of the Prometheus, I would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas. And as we move into the new year of 3302 I would like to remind everybody to fly safe and be careful out there.

Maia

Lightspeed · Dec 26, 2015

Same to you, Maia .... amazing work you are producing.

Maia Posidana · Dec 28, 2015

Day T-minus 19

The slow mobilization

Well, the date has been set. On January 14, 3302 the great fleet of the Distant Worlds Expedition will leave Basecamp 0 on PALLAENI A 1 with more than 300 ships (there is a betting pool for final numbers, some are betting on more than 400), and begin to slowly make our way to Point Beagle on the far side of the galaxy. This great argosy has pilots from all three major factions in the galaxy, and most of the minor ones. FGE has officially thrown their weight behind the expedition as cartographers. As for me, I will be going along as both a cartographer and a chronicler. I will be uploading news, stories, images and video from the expedition here and on my video feed channel.

In preparation for this voyage I have fully refitted Prometheus. The ship is still more or less fully stocked, with replacements for what I've used on order. With slightly over 2 weeks till departure I have spent more time in an SRV than in the cockpit. As one of the goals of this expedition will be to actually get PAST Beagle Point, we will need to be fully stocked on FSD injection materials; as such, I am spending as much time as I am able in the next couple of weeks prospecting for them. If I can fully stock on them before we leave, I can spend more time on the voyage enjoying the scenery, and less time mining.

One thing is for certain, my new companion Aaron is definitely no Skye. While he isn't a COMPLETE loss while in space he just doesn't have the personality or self confidence that Skye did. Of course it's also possible the this is only a result of him only effectively being a month old. Flight does seem to make him a little nervous (I haven't even asked him to join me on an EVA yet), and he seems generally confused (not to mention, almost put out) with the fact that I seem to have little if any use for the, umm...services...for which he was originally built and programmed. With any luck he will grow into himself and his role aboard ship with time.

Here is Prometheus's new loadout:

Lightweight Alloy bulkheads
Power Plant A2
Thrusters D4
Frame Shift Drive A5
Life Support D4
Power Distributer D3
Sensors D5
Fuel Tank (cap 32) C5
Fuel Scoop C6
Planetary Vehicle Hangar G4
Scarab SRV
Scarab SRV
Advanced Discovery Scanner C1
Shield Generator E3
Cargo Rack (cap 8) E3
Detailed Surface Scanner C1
AFMU B2
Planetary Approach Suite

Due to the addition of shields, cargo hold and SRV's, I have sadly had to sacrifice some 4 LY of jump range. Prometheus can now hit a maximum of 33.62 LY on fumes, and just over 32 fully laden. I have given up 2 of my AFMU's with the knowledge that we can now resupply them insitu from the SRV's.

In the last couple of days I have set up operations in Pallaeni while scouting the area for materials. In the process I have seen some very exciting sights. On Pallaeni B 1 I came across the most insane crater I have ever seen. Instead of being bowl shaped, this was more cook-pot shaped. Due to its features I have named this crater The Sea of Insanity (given that I'm not aware of anybody else having named it). The walls of this crater are sheer cliffs, some 6 Km tall on the inside (making them The Cliffs Of Insanity) and about a Km tall on the outside. The rim was so narrow that I couldn't even properly land Prometheus on it.

PALLAENI A 1 (Basecamp 0 )
A gorgeous reddish metal rich world, also rich with some great canyons. This world is just under 7 LS from the parent star, as such, driving around in the SRV tends to get rather...warm...really, somebody should have thought to at least put a dam air conditioner in the things instead of relying solely on the cooling of our flight suits.

Well, that's pretty much all there is for now. I will try to be a little more timely in my updates, though there normally isn't all that much to tell about the preperation. Mostly just constant landing practice, prospecting, ordering new supplies, and pouring over star charts for the mission to come.

Until next time
Fly safe, Fly smart
Maia