Let’s face it; the galaxy is an unforgiving place. There is of course the sheer raw power of nature with black holes, neutron stars and closely formed binary systems which can toast your ship in a heartbeat. Then there is the human element; such as an impending war between great political factions or some scumbag pirate who would destroy your ship for kicks rather than succumb to the delicate negotiation of cargo exploitation.
Once you’re done with all of that, if it hasn’t killed you first, then you have the tedium of day to day life in the wonderful world of exploration and commodity hauling. That consists of arguing with the ship’s computer; drinking a warm dark brown liquid that passes for coffee in some parts of the galaxy; cataloging gas giants because at the end of day I need to get paid; as well as avoiding crashing into stars and not spilling your precious cargo all over the system. That’s a walk in the park in the grand scheme of things. I could have elected for a more action packed life in law enforcement or bounty hunting, but knowing my luck that would have been an express ticket to the bio waste reclamation plant (if you follow my meaning).
And then there’s days like today; micro jump after micro jump, desperately scanning around for undiscovered stars and planets with which I can turn a nice safe profit. System and system passes by with balls of rock and ice and a fair share of gas giants. I can hear the chimes of the old credit balance deposit counter thinking about those lovely gas giants. It becomes routine and out here routine can make you sloppy and get you killed. There are two types of hope for rescue when you’re 22 KLy from the Bubble: slim and none. So it’s always good when nature mixes things up a little such as toasting my ship with too many stars getting all friendly like when dropping from hyperspace. Been a while since that little evasive maneuver was executed by the navigation systems and I think I could have got us out of there quicker on manual. I’m getting lazy out here. Time to sharpen my edges and go back to being more hands on.
But when it’s all said and done the galaxy has a way of throwing you the odd curve ball to keep you interested, appreciating life and missing the feel of grass and soil between your toes. I’ve been pounding deck plating so much in the last 18 months I should at least set aside one bay in the hold for a synthetic lawn to keep me sane. (That’s for you folks back at HQ so you don’t worry your pretty little heads about Bow).
Today the galaxy coughed up an undiscovered Earth-like planet the likes of which I’d not seen in a good long while. It was at the closet edge of the Goldilocks zone to its star and the sun was just hovering over the horizon. Clouds, blues and greens the richness of which I have not seen in 5,000 Lys brought back a flurry of childhood memories of life planet side. I drop into normal space and spend a few hours appreciating the view and capturing a wealth of images and data which will hopefully fetch a pretty penny when I get back to inhabited space. But I can’t linger here all day otherwise I’ll never get back to the Bubble with over 2,000 jumps still to execute on this expedition. Otherwise I’d become another roamer, lost on the wind and the wonder of the galaxy, living without purpose and wandering aimlessly. That may be the life for some but for me I need to do, be seen doing and be helping others. I cast one last whimsical glance at the rearward monitor and instruction Eddie to make the jump to the next system and on to Sagittarius A.
