Lee's Diary - Pilot of The Narcotic

[Narcotic]

Date: 18 September 819
System: Dauphine
Location: Deck 6, bedroom.
Topic: Gallia Exploration

Twenty-four hours, flying non-stop through Dauphine, searching for the needle in the haystack. And it was just less than a quarter of the system, that I've mapped. But I just had to explore the southern and eastern space anyways, and I've got to say, that I'm fairly satisfied, although I haven't found anything of much interest. At least nothing concerning my job. The environment there was breathtaking!

"Gallia, as beatiful as lonely."

Entering Gallia wasn't as difficult, as I've expected. I had visions of multiple navy patrols disrupting my engines and military outposts, as large as battleships. Nothing. Just a ludicrous minefield guarded by a few weapon platforms, nothing else. I was disappointed to be honest. But still, it couldn't have come any better for me. Comparable with a simple space walk, I jumped to Dauphine, my destination.

Docking at gallic lanes.

Finally. On my right side, an impressive gallic battleship was obstructing my to the east. Instead of taking the direct route to the south-east, where I had to discover space, I took the exotic trade lane two times to the Briancon Station, and behind... an impossibility! A cluster of five planets, squeezed together in the smallest of space. My nav map gave me a short explanation about that so-called "Privas Planetary Cluster":

Code:

The Privas planetary cluster is a rare astronomical phenomenon never before seen in Sirius. Five planets are located within the gravity well of each other, with one ring surrounding them all. Four of the planets are similar medium-sized gas giants, most probably sharing the same origin, whilst the fifth planet, Privas V, is a small moon that might have once been the core of another gas giant before its atmosphere was lost either to the gravity of the other worlds, or to a massive cataclysm of an unknown nature. All five planets share one rarified outer atmosphere comprised mainly of methane and inert gases.

Briancon near the Privas.

What a phenomenon. However, I've rented a room at Briacon Station and stayed for a night. Next day will be a long one for sure and my crew, Melosa and me had to rest. The next day, my navigator showed me a few examples of routes, we could take, to cover the largest possible area in less time. After picking one, which seemed to be reasonable for me, we launched from the bay, filled with supplies and fuel.

Our exploration route for Dauphine.

Estimated time to reach waypoint #7: 20 hours. More than I've expected. Maybe it was because of several asteroid fields we're going to pass. The hours passed by slowly as hell. I nearly went nuts. There was absolutely nothing to see, most of the time. At least, nothing, which my eyes could have seen. But I remained patient.

Panorama from the systems edge.

Soon, we came upon a space graveyard in one of the asteroid fields. Mainly police vessels whose pilots might got killed by pirates or unlawfuls. Fortunately I hadn't the pleasure to face one of those. But in the end, I've looted quite some stuff from those wrecks. They might come in handy as extra income. Hour for hour, minute for minute, we cruised through asteroid fields, nebulas and scrapyards, when we finally found something uncommon. A jumphole. At once, I've checked the nav map, for its up-to-dateness. And unfortunately, it was already listed as connection between Dauphine and Provence. Well, better than nothing. I'm pretty sure, that my search will continue there. But not this day. I'm almost feeling like a rusty wreck, after sitting the whole day, watching rocks and scrap. So we decided to stay in open space for the night. After writing this entry, I gave our bed a hug and even before Melosa could have given me a good-night kiss, I felt asleep.

"Wrecks, I really do feel like one now."