Sprinting Across the Black

Imperial Cutter "Temeraire"

Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15 (Omega Mining Operation)

5,513 light years from Sol

The last two days has been hectic to say the least.

I was meandering along, picking up exploration data and totally unconcerned about how time was passing when I suddenly realised I was thousands of light years away from Waypoint 2 with the clock ticking… and panic set in. I didn’t realise – yet – that there was no need to rush, and I was convinced that I would miss the arrival and meet-up at Omega mining.

As it happens, I needn’t have worried. On thursday the details of the community goal were released – gathering materials to build the new spaceport at Sag A* – and it’s a week-long mission so i’ll have plenty of time to make my contribution. Anyway, in the light of this I slowed down a little again and started taking a little more notice of my surroundings.

After the Mug meet I had resolved to follow the course of the points of interest posted for the trip, and took in a few sights. I skipped “The View” at HR 6164 on the 16th Jan and didn’t attempt a landing there – so many commanders have come to grief on the high-g world and i’d already had some nasty encounters with some of those when prepping Temeraire back in the bubble. Sometimes it pays to be cautious.

I did make the tricky approach to the tourist station near the Neutron star. This is particularly finicky as the station is tucked in close to the star and with the additional pair of black holes, manoevering in supercruise needs a careful and light touch. I stayed long enough to take the obligatory tourist snaps of the station and star, then headed back out to the black.

I also skipped Labirinto, my eyes on the other waypoints and to be honest I was still very aware of how slow i’d been progressing previously. Thor’s eye, the Lagoon nebula and the Cinnabar Moth nebula flew by, with just a brief pause at each to take some images and pause for sleep.

By the time the PW2010 Supercluster expanded into my view, I had completely calmed down, realising that there would be a pause at Omega. There was no longer need to push myself or the ship so hard.

And so, here I was at last, at Omega mining operation. My arrival in-system was less than auspicious – I found out rather abruptly that the pirates and n’eer-do-wells are out in force as I was interdicted virtually seconds after my FTL spooled down. I out-manoevered them, easily slipping the interdiction tether and making my way in-system.

I arrived at the station ready to rest and recuperate. I surrendered Temeraire to the tender ministrations of the maintenance crews and went to pick up some provisions, then get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll go look at the rocks.