Journey's End

I'm sat in a mining colony in a hollowed out asteroid at a remote deep space outpost called Morgan's rock, watching a team of mechanics fix up the Heidegger. I made it back to civilisation. Sort of. I'm still over four thousand light years from Sol, but there was one point at which I might never make it back alive.

The Great Annihilator

 After leaving Sagittarius A*, I headed to The Great Annihilator, the largest black hole in the galaxy (besides the monster at the centre of course). From there I headed up to the very roof of the galaxy, Atlas II, some fifteen-hundred light years above the galactic plane. The views were spectacular, a black void above me and the glaring disc of the galaxy below. I felt like a king. As I headed for the Gru Hypai Stellar Remnant (a planetary nebula with a black hole at its centre), my mind started drifting back, thinking about the wonders I had seen since leaving Colonia. I started thinking how long it had been since I saw another human being.

The inside of the Gru Hypai Stellar Remnant was serenely beautiful

Not a bad way to spend the night

While drifting through the Gru Hypai Stellar Remnant system, I checked the distance to Sol - nearly fourteen thousand light years. I checked somne of the star chart data I'd picked up from the tourist office at Jaques Station in Colonia and skimmed over to find points of interest on the way back. There was another planetary nebula, this time surrounding a Wolf-Rayet star about three thousand light years away, deep below the galactic plane. I plotted a course and set off.

I named this system "Father and Son"

 The last twenty or so jumps were mostly neutron-boosted and heading mostly straight down. I supercharged my frame shift drive and hit the hyperspace engage to jump the 103 light years into the system. The system itself was eerily beautiful, everything within a few thousand lightseconds of the star bathed in a purple glow. I put down planetside and got some sleep.

The faint light from the distant star made sleep strangely restless.

 When I woke up I tried to plot a course for the pulsar PSR J1709-4429. "Cannot find route" said the ship's navigational computer. Huh? Weird. Try again. "Cannot find route". OK... Maybe it's too far away? I plotted a course for a closer star. "Cannot find route". OK this was getting beyond a joke now. I plotted a course for the next system along... And then realised with horror what was happening.

Trying to think rationally on this ghostly purple world was nigh impossible

I had neutron boosted into the system, a distance of a hundred and three light years. My maximum jump range is just over twenty five light years. The closest star was thirty one light years away. The nav computer couldn't play a route because I couldn't get out of the system. I was stranded.

Panic kicked in. I started frantically scouring the galaxy map, hoping to find a closer star, one I could reach. The only ones even remotely in range took me even further below the galactic plane. This was bad. This was very bad.

I was so far below the galactic plane there was virtually nothing below me

 I sat for a long time weighing up my options. I thoguht about the crazy spacehead explorers I'd met in bars around the bubble, the old cranks who had hit elite status and just kept on going, never satisfied with the sights they'd seen, always wanting to see more. Would I never get to be like them? At this rate I probably had a few days of power left, maybe a week if I shut down non-essential functions. But after that, I'd be dead. I'd never be that grizzled old guy I met in Hutton Orbital, handing out spacefaring tips in exchange for drinks.

"Never fly tired," he'd say, or "make sure you take more than one auto-field repair unit," or "never fly without Jumponium."

Wait! That was it! I had been gathering so much material from the planets surface, I MUST have enoguh to synthesize some Jumponium. "Jumponium" isn't a scientific term. It's something the spacers came up with. Basically, if you mix the right quantities of vernadium and germanium, and inject it into your frame shift drive, you can extend your jump range by twenty five percent. I wasn't sure of the specific amounts, but I had enough resources to try. I fed the materials into the synthesis module and whispered a silent prayer to the universe.

One of these was my only ticket out of here...

 I targeted the next system along, a main sequence star thirty one light years away. If this went ewrong, there was a good chance my ship would explode. But then if I didn't try, I was dead anyway. Hands shaking, I engaged the hyperdrive.

I made it to the next system in one piece. I scanned the galaxy map. There was a neutron star nearby! If I could get to that system, the jet cones might be able to boost me back up to an area more densely populated with stars. I checked the distances. Thirty eight light years. That was too far, even with the injected vanadium and germanium. Think, Karl, think! What had the old guy said? "If yer lucky, you can boost your output by fifty percent. You'll need some extra materials though."

On the hunt for materials

What were the materials I needed? Vanadium and germanium I remembered. Cadmium. That was another. What was the last one? Began with N... Nickel? No, too common. This was rare... NIOBIUM! YES! I checked the stores. I had enough for one injection. If this didn't work, I was a dead man. I injected the materials and hit the hyperdrive... And nothing happened! Panic gripped me again, before I realised I had not pliotted the route to the neutron star. Would have been just my luck to find a solution to this mess then die of a heart attack. I plotted the route, hit the hyperdrive, and jumped.

Once I arrived at the neutron star I tried plotting the course to PSR J1709-4429 and breathed a sigh of relief as the route appeared. I was back on the map.

The asteroid base of Morgan's Rock

After a long and fairly uneventful trip the rest of the way, I finally pulled into the dock at Morgan's Rock. I called the mechanics to service my ship and headed to the Universal Cartographics bulletin board to sell my exploration data. For the second time, I almost had a heart attack. one hundred million credits. That's how much they paid me. A hundred mil! I almost had enough in the bank to buy a bloody Anaconda! The icing on the cake was the message that pinged up from the Pilots' Federation, informing me that I'd been promoted to "Pioneer". I was one step away from Elite...

Safely back in civilization

 I flopped down onto a bench in the hangar bay, and wondered what my former self would say if I showed up a year ago and told him that in a year's time he'd have travelled sixty thousand light years and be worth a hundred and sixty million credits. I think he'd probably laugh. That's what I'm doing.

A just reward for the trials I've gone through.

Repairs on the ship will take a while. When she's ready to go I have plans to visit the Guardian Ruins and Crab Nebula. But right now, I'm going to have a shower.

Until next time, Fly safe.