I wrote this up in the week between the final beta phase and gamma. Unfortunately I didnt manage to write down some of the station or sysem details before my account was reset and I started gamma out on the edge of populated space. If anyone can help fill the details I will add those missing names.
As it goes I did manage to break the pill by a pretty good distance.
Anyways enjoy the read, and creative advice is very welcome.
If you are out around HD113451 thats where I am currently heading in my cobra as I make my first big core circuit.
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Escaping the Pill
Commander Aziraphale woke with a start to the soul piercing shriek of the alarm clock on his bedside. He turned and glared at the ice blue display flashing 04:30. A human or dog would have seen the mixture of anger, hate and apathy in his stare and stopped their noise. Aziraphale lofted a groggy hand and brought it down heavily on the clock. The small room fell silent once more. Aware that other residents in the block were still sleeping Aziraphale went through his early morning routine with practiced efficiency and stealth. He left his room and made his way to the docks and his ship that would already have been prepared by the station technicians.
0817 : Aziraphale had cleared security swiftly and was onboard his sidewinder. Belting himself into the small single man craft he started the system computer and logged onto the station services to begin scouring the bulletin boards for the first jobs for the week.
Last week had been a rotten one. Aziraphale had lost money across the week, it was all his own fault, he had allowed himself to loose focus and been pulled into a loss chasing run. Every attempt to recoup the previous loss making things worse. The plan was simple enough. In order to improve the jump range and speed of the sidewinder he was on the hunt for an upgraded frameshift drive module. Ideally this would be accompanied by a more upto date power plant that would allow Aziraphale to improve the handling of the sidewinder by beefing up the ships thrusters. In this day and age the whole process should be simple. Aziraphale was able to speak to family members on the station and planet side via any number of means, voice com, video, electronic text and for a premium he could even arrange delivery of a physical letter to arrive within 3 days, even down to a planet side location. Amazon could advise of stock levels of pretty much any house hold or entertainment goods within a system station or planet side, they would arrange delivery that could be predicted to the minute and within 5 days of the order being placed. Yet when it came to star ship modules Fer De Lance were un contactable and unable to confirm where or when Aziraphale would be able to buy the modules he was looking for. Nor could he place an order through them, or any other retailer to have them ready for delivery. It was maddening.
Last weeks run of bad luck had begun after Aziraphale had heard a rumour a system out side his regular flight runs had the upgrades he was looking for. He had taken some jobs which offered a limited return in terms of the time and risk involved. He had taken some flack in a few low security systems that meant repairs. To offset the costs and low returns he suffered he had gambled on the commodities market. A few of the trades had come through but he had not made enough to break even on his losses.
To cap it off the rumoured module seller had fallen through. So here he was, a week later and ten thousand credits further form the price of his Cobra mk III. Joy.
This week Aziraphale had promised himself took stick with those jobs and systems he knew. No flights of fantasy off in search of mythical supply depos. As exciting as last weeks jaunt had been, this week he would be running small deliveries around the core systems for the well-to-do that weren’t inclined to leave the luxury of the high level residential sectors. If he was fortunate to stubble on the parts he wanted, well so be it.
Back on the bulletins Aziraphale noticed a couple of jobs where the timing and destinations were aligned, one to Eranin and a second to I Bottis, a good start. From Asellus Prime he would head through I Bootis and then an extra hop to Eranin. The later seemed to have become more stable in recent weeks after the brouhaha over the anniversary celebrations.
Delivery details transferred to the transactions manager on board his side winder set his course to I Bootis. Aziraphale was able way mark a journey on his watch to plan a run round the numerous stations he stopped at, his seven year old niece could do similar journey planning in some of the computer games on the entertainment system back at the apartment. Unfortunately the nav computer on his sidewinder was locked into a 30 year old technology bubble and unable to handle even a single way point on his first two hop journey of the week. Aziraphale would need to plan the second leg of his journey once he arrived at I Bootis.
0900 : Aziraphale ran through the pre flight checks, he wasn’t forced to do this but even now he found it helped to awaken the muscle memory needed to fly this old dog. With the final check of the ships weapon systems he requested clearance to leave the station, the station docking lift lurched and grumbled as it elevated him onto the station dock surface, ablaze with activity, harsh lights and the haze of untold ships engine the docking clamps release with a thud as the station computer encourages him to leave in a timely manner. Aziraphale did not need a second prompt in a manoeuvre he had practiced a hundred times he applied the vertical thrusters powered up the main drives aligned himself with the ships exit port and hit the main boost button to launch his side winder at high speed out into the vacuum of space.
It took Aziraphale moments to align the nose of the sidewinder to his first destination of the week, power away from the station to break mass lock and engage the frame shift drive to be flung away from home and begin another journey around the core systems.
Wednesday: Aziraphale had settled into a good routine hoping packages, data and a little cargo back and forth along a well trodden route of six or seven core systems. He had made back the losses incurred by last weeks dandyish exuberance and was well on his way to making a pretty sizeable profit. As he sat and scrolled through the bulletins at XXXXX station in the Styx system a job popped in that would take him to a system he had not visited previously. He switched to the ships galaxy map to do some reconnaissance of the system security levels in the area. It was workable. Aziraphale tried to convince himself that the conversation he had overheard in the bar the night before was not influencing his decision when he accepted the contract. He would have to go out that way now. If it turned out that a run to G 180-18 came up and he fell upon the wealth of modules the other commanders in the bar were suggesting, well then that would simply be a happy coincidence.
Friday: Aziraphale was sweaty palmed as he rounded the star port at Hale Port having been given landing clearance. He aligned himself with the docking entrance and glided into the dock. Landing was completed with a scuff and a hop, in part due to his excitement. The slow journey down into the depths of the station seemed to take forever. He closed of the delivery job with plenty of time on the clock and selected to see the inventory list for the ship outfitters. Aziraphale was close to tears as he saw listed the C2 Frame shift drive and the C2 Power plants. after weeks of searching to find the darn things it took literally no time to have the old units taken out and the new units fitted. Within moments Aziraphale was back into the outfitters catalogue and arranging for his thrusters to be upgraded and a more effective power distributer to be fitted. While the work on his ship was completed his fingers danced across the console a blur as he scrolled and zoomed through the galaxy map marvelling in the new systems he could reach with the improved range the drive upgrade had provided him with.
Sunday: Aziraphale had not slept or eaten since leaving Hale port in G 180-18, he was exhausted and hungry. He had long ago lost track of the places he had stopped to refuel. The stations and outposts had all blurred into a single set of flight operations and docking requests. Bending space and traveling as far as fast as he had over the last 3 days had warped all sense of priorities. The further he had gone the slimmer the pickings on jobs to do. He had began gambling the markets in order to refuel and service his ship. Some of the trades had worked in his favour, but not many. He didn’t want to admit it, but he there was only one option. This time, he had gone to far, he would have too go back. He needed more fuel, the cartographic data he had would cover the cost to refuel, maybe it was time to head home. Reluctantly Aziraphale punched in the coordinates to head back to HaspinXXXX. Hours later he was docking once more at the outpost and being taken into the hull of the structure. Aziraphale scrolled through to the cartographic data he had collected and began to sell. Suddenly the realisation registered, XXXX 1700cr, XXXXX 4635cr, XXXX 6035cr. These were not the baseline payments for updating existing system data. These were new data prices, newly discover systems, possibly only a few commanders had been out to where he had been flying! This far out he had a new means of income, one that might pay as well as the bulletin board that now remain ominously blank.
With new found enthusiasm, and a bundle of credits to make use of Aziraphale returned to the outfitters catalogue, with a silent prayer to the stars that they would have the equipment he wanted Aziraphale was amazed to see that the planets and stars of the systems he had spun through over the last 3 days seemed to have aligned. A C2 class fuel scoop. In moments he was removing the cargo units to fit the new equipment. After 5 hours sleep, a hot shower and a decent breakfast and Cmdr Aziraphale was once again aligning his ship with a far flung star system.
There was one rumour Aziraphale had heard that he had to prove for himself. Since gaining his pilots licence and beginning to work the shipping lanes, Aziraphale had assumed that the glowing blue pill on his nav computer was the limit of where his sidewinder would take him. Then a few weeks ago he had heard tell that was not the case, that it was a limit only in theory. He had later even seen a photo that seemed to show one intrepid explorer had already ‘broken the pill’. Other commanders had dismissed the photo as a glitch in the navigation computer, or a fault in the galaxy map renderer. They said it should be reported as a bug to the starship engineers. Aziraphale had to know, for sure, how far could he go, how far would the stars let him travel in his little sidewinder, what wonders would he find before the whole universe wound itself up and returned him back to the core and the gnawing nagging grind of the life as a delivery boy. The silky tones of the ships computer purred seductively, “Frame shift drive engaged”.
As it goes I did manage to break the pill by a pretty good distance.
Anyways enjoy the read, and creative advice is very welcome.
If you are out around HD113451 thats where I am currently heading in my cobra as I make my first big core circuit.
----------
Escaping the Pill
Commander Aziraphale woke with a start to the soul piercing shriek of the alarm clock on his bedside. He turned and glared at the ice blue display flashing 04:30. A human or dog would have seen the mixture of anger, hate and apathy in his stare and stopped their noise. Aziraphale lofted a groggy hand and brought it down heavily on the clock. The small room fell silent once more. Aware that other residents in the block were still sleeping Aziraphale went through his early morning routine with practiced efficiency and stealth. He left his room and made his way to the docks and his ship that would already have been prepared by the station technicians.
0817 : Aziraphale had cleared security swiftly and was onboard his sidewinder. Belting himself into the small single man craft he started the system computer and logged onto the station services to begin scouring the bulletin boards for the first jobs for the week.
Last week had been a rotten one. Aziraphale had lost money across the week, it was all his own fault, he had allowed himself to loose focus and been pulled into a loss chasing run. Every attempt to recoup the previous loss making things worse. The plan was simple enough. In order to improve the jump range and speed of the sidewinder he was on the hunt for an upgraded frameshift drive module. Ideally this would be accompanied by a more upto date power plant that would allow Aziraphale to improve the handling of the sidewinder by beefing up the ships thrusters. In this day and age the whole process should be simple. Aziraphale was able to speak to family members on the station and planet side via any number of means, voice com, video, electronic text and for a premium he could even arrange delivery of a physical letter to arrive within 3 days, even down to a planet side location. Amazon could advise of stock levels of pretty much any house hold or entertainment goods within a system station or planet side, they would arrange delivery that could be predicted to the minute and within 5 days of the order being placed. Yet when it came to star ship modules Fer De Lance were un contactable and unable to confirm where or when Aziraphale would be able to buy the modules he was looking for. Nor could he place an order through them, or any other retailer to have them ready for delivery. It was maddening.
Last weeks run of bad luck had begun after Aziraphale had heard a rumour a system out side his regular flight runs had the upgrades he was looking for. He had taken some jobs which offered a limited return in terms of the time and risk involved. He had taken some flack in a few low security systems that meant repairs. To offset the costs and low returns he suffered he had gambled on the commodities market. A few of the trades had come through but he had not made enough to break even on his losses.
To cap it off the rumoured module seller had fallen through. So here he was, a week later and ten thousand credits further form the price of his Cobra mk III. Joy.
This week Aziraphale had promised himself took stick with those jobs and systems he knew. No flights of fantasy off in search of mythical supply depos. As exciting as last weeks jaunt had been, this week he would be running small deliveries around the core systems for the well-to-do that weren’t inclined to leave the luxury of the high level residential sectors. If he was fortunate to stubble on the parts he wanted, well so be it.
Back on the bulletins Aziraphale noticed a couple of jobs where the timing and destinations were aligned, one to Eranin and a second to I Bottis, a good start. From Asellus Prime he would head through I Bootis and then an extra hop to Eranin. The later seemed to have become more stable in recent weeks after the brouhaha over the anniversary celebrations.
Delivery details transferred to the transactions manager on board his side winder set his course to I Bootis. Aziraphale was able way mark a journey on his watch to plan a run round the numerous stations he stopped at, his seven year old niece could do similar journey planning in some of the computer games on the entertainment system back at the apartment. Unfortunately the nav computer on his sidewinder was locked into a 30 year old technology bubble and unable to handle even a single way point on his first two hop journey of the week. Aziraphale would need to plan the second leg of his journey once he arrived at I Bootis.
0900 : Aziraphale ran through the pre flight checks, he wasn’t forced to do this but even now he found it helped to awaken the muscle memory needed to fly this old dog. With the final check of the ships weapon systems he requested clearance to leave the station, the station docking lift lurched and grumbled as it elevated him onto the station dock surface, ablaze with activity, harsh lights and the haze of untold ships engine the docking clamps release with a thud as the station computer encourages him to leave in a timely manner. Aziraphale did not need a second prompt in a manoeuvre he had practiced a hundred times he applied the vertical thrusters powered up the main drives aligned himself with the ships exit port and hit the main boost button to launch his side winder at high speed out into the vacuum of space.
It took Aziraphale moments to align the nose of the sidewinder to his first destination of the week, power away from the station to break mass lock and engage the frame shift drive to be flung away from home and begin another journey around the core systems.
Wednesday: Aziraphale had settled into a good routine hoping packages, data and a little cargo back and forth along a well trodden route of six or seven core systems. He had made back the losses incurred by last weeks dandyish exuberance and was well on his way to making a pretty sizeable profit. As he sat and scrolled through the bulletins at XXXXX station in the Styx system a job popped in that would take him to a system he had not visited previously. He switched to the ships galaxy map to do some reconnaissance of the system security levels in the area. It was workable. Aziraphale tried to convince himself that the conversation he had overheard in the bar the night before was not influencing his decision when he accepted the contract. He would have to go out that way now. If it turned out that a run to G 180-18 came up and he fell upon the wealth of modules the other commanders in the bar were suggesting, well then that would simply be a happy coincidence.
Friday: Aziraphale was sweaty palmed as he rounded the star port at Hale Port having been given landing clearance. He aligned himself with the docking entrance and glided into the dock. Landing was completed with a scuff and a hop, in part due to his excitement. The slow journey down into the depths of the station seemed to take forever. He closed of the delivery job with plenty of time on the clock and selected to see the inventory list for the ship outfitters. Aziraphale was close to tears as he saw listed the C2 Frame shift drive and the C2 Power plants. after weeks of searching to find the darn things it took literally no time to have the old units taken out and the new units fitted. Within moments Aziraphale was back into the outfitters catalogue and arranging for his thrusters to be upgraded and a more effective power distributer to be fitted. While the work on his ship was completed his fingers danced across the console a blur as he scrolled and zoomed through the galaxy map marvelling in the new systems he could reach with the improved range the drive upgrade had provided him with.
Sunday: Aziraphale had not slept or eaten since leaving Hale port in G 180-18, he was exhausted and hungry. He had long ago lost track of the places he had stopped to refuel. The stations and outposts had all blurred into a single set of flight operations and docking requests. Bending space and traveling as far as fast as he had over the last 3 days had warped all sense of priorities. The further he had gone the slimmer the pickings on jobs to do. He had began gambling the markets in order to refuel and service his ship. Some of the trades had worked in his favour, but not many. He didn’t want to admit it, but he there was only one option. This time, he had gone to far, he would have too go back. He needed more fuel, the cartographic data he had would cover the cost to refuel, maybe it was time to head home. Reluctantly Aziraphale punched in the coordinates to head back to HaspinXXXX. Hours later he was docking once more at the outpost and being taken into the hull of the structure. Aziraphale scrolled through to the cartographic data he had collected and began to sell. Suddenly the realisation registered, XXXX 1700cr, XXXXX 4635cr, XXXX 6035cr. These were not the baseline payments for updating existing system data. These were new data prices, newly discover systems, possibly only a few commanders had been out to where he had been flying! This far out he had a new means of income, one that might pay as well as the bulletin board that now remain ominously blank.
With new found enthusiasm, and a bundle of credits to make use of Aziraphale returned to the outfitters catalogue, with a silent prayer to the stars that they would have the equipment he wanted Aziraphale was amazed to see that the planets and stars of the systems he had spun through over the last 3 days seemed to have aligned. A C2 class fuel scoop. In moments he was removing the cargo units to fit the new equipment. After 5 hours sleep, a hot shower and a decent breakfast and Cmdr Aziraphale was once again aligning his ship with a far flung star system.
There was one rumour Aziraphale had heard that he had to prove for himself. Since gaining his pilots licence and beginning to work the shipping lanes, Aziraphale had assumed that the glowing blue pill on his nav computer was the limit of where his sidewinder would take him. Then a few weeks ago he had heard tell that was not the case, that it was a limit only in theory. He had later even seen a photo that seemed to show one intrepid explorer had already ‘broken the pill’. Other commanders had dismissed the photo as a glitch in the navigation computer, or a fault in the galaxy map renderer. They said it should be reported as a bug to the starship engineers. Aziraphale had to know, for sure, how far could he go, how far would the stars let him travel in his little sidewinder, what wonders would he find before the whole universe wound itself up and returned him back to the core and the gnawing nagging grind of the life as a delivery boy. The silky tones of the ships computer purred seductively, “Frame shift drive engaged”.
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