Summary
Welcome home Captain.
That’s the first thing I heard after my long deep-freeze. The next was the sound of the alert sirens.
The Commander stood ready with a report.
LOG1:EMERGENCY Commander Hoshi
Arrived in the Maniawus System
-kzkzzt- warp engines shut down mid jump, reactor critically damaged -kzzt- They’re starting to run out of parts now, we can’t continue like this -kzkzzt- at least the Captain’s cryopod is beginning to thaw.
Multiple Freighter systems are down. The air was thin. Repairing the atmospheric control unit is top priority.
ALL HANDS ON DECK
The crew needed direction. Things had not gone as planned. Our escape from our collapsing home was narrow. It was imperative that the crew get focused on the tasks at hand. Initiating operation STARDUST. Sending the crew to mine 30 asteroids nearby for resources. I am taking a starship and heading PLANETSIDE.
Now that I have landed, my basic training has kicked in. I have become a PROSPECTOR as I analyze minerals, looking for raw materials. Plants are essential. THE ENGINE OF LIFE is what they are as they feed the crew. The animals here have A LIFE BENEATH THE SKY and they are also vital in sustaining the health and well-being of the crew. I think I will adopt a few to take aboard.
Having analyzed enough to begin repairs and restock supplies, I have returned to the Freighter and begun to focus on some HOME COMFORTS. I am installing a Galactic Trade Room and then a Refiner Room. Having left our world in such haste, this Freighter was not fully prepared for a journey such as ours. But with the materials the crew has gathered and the hard work they have put into their tasks, the Freighter is becoming A WELL-OILED MACHINE. The crew has done such a good job of gathering that SUPERCARGO will soon be needed. More Storage Rooms. A GALACTIC CATALOGUE would be a very useful addition as well. We will need an Interstellar Scanner.
I am feeling much better now about our circumstances. It is time to ENGAGE ENGINES and move on with the plans we all agreed upon before fleeing our home. Time to head for the first Rendezvous
RENDEZVOUS 1…my heart sank as the broken ends of the Freighter came into view. I landed and checked the ship logs. Sentinels. In overwhelming numbers. Rotten luck. Fleeing one disaster just to end up in another.
I returned to the crew to find out just how hard at work they have been. They have turned such a profit on items scavenged that GOLD LIKE SAND is flowing into the coffers. I have decided to see how much I can add by scrapping my starship. It wasn’t much to look at anyway. There was a small ship in the back of the hangar that can fill my needs.
The flight to the Space Station was a nice diversion. A helpful local directed me to the correct platform. I started the RECYCLING process and it brought in more units than expected. So much more that I was able to expand MISSION CONTROL by expanding my frigates to 5 and hiring 2 fighter pilots. With all the loot on board, we could use the extra fire power.
By the time all the new crew was briefed and away missions were assigned, we had arrived at RENDEZVOUS 2.
The disappointment was gut-wrenching. The beacon was coming from the bottom of the sea. Again, logs showed sentinel activity.
LOG 2 Commander Hoshi
Arrived in the Instas System
The computer tells us it has been over a decade since we left. Perhaps it is right. The tiredness is all consuming and we struggle to keep the memories fresh. There is at least rhythm to life again, with the Captain awake. But where are we going? Once more INTO THE BLACK, once more to disappointment
The air on the Freighter seemed thinner than needed. The extra crew are straining the old atmospheric control unit. I ordered the building of a Double Cultivation Room. It has done much to improve THE AIR WE BREATHE. The gravitinos one of the crew planted in it, will bring in even more units. We have also installed an Orbital Exo Materializer and I enacted the DROP PROTOCOL. This will speed up planetary missions. The new Teleporter Chamber installed by the techs will be handy as we move further ACROSS INFINITY. The FREEDOM OF THE SEAS will help the crew’s mood so we we have made the submarine top priority in our drop missions.
The crew has found a few starships they love too much to scrap so I approved RECLAMATION for a number of them. They improve the looks of the hangar at least.
RENDEZVOUS 3 is coming up soon. We stopped on Matag 58/A1 to gather some uranium and had to engage pirates who dared to attack us. So rude.
LOG 3: HOMESICK Commander Hoshi
Arrived in the Enmika III System. A ship is a poor imitation of a planet, even the best ship. You begin to see it for what it is: a vast metal skeleton. We miss the warm earth, the embrace of the soil, the soft changing light to dark. The stars are beautiful, but they are cold and unforgiving. It is no life to float endlessly through the expanse. It is not life, but it is life
The installation of a Stellar Extractor Room has really boosted our POWER AND INDUSTRY. The new Scanner Room has been given a name by the crew: FARSEER. It has sped up the search for others considerably. Anything to help the crew hang onto hope. Our reason for all we are doing tries to fade with time. Dims with heartbreak. But we must keep moving forward.
LOG 4: NO GOING BACK Commander Hoshi
Arrived in the Anggiefro System.
As we cross another sector boundary, we permit ourselves to reflect on our very first departure. Our own home turned against us. We had learned what it could not. Its gravity, its molten core, its slow decay towards impersonal doom. Our makeshift fleet was incomplete, so few of the pods loaded. The shockwave consumed those in low orbit, scattered the rest of us. The fire, the chaos, the -kzzt-
Hired our 3rd WING COMMANDER. I was feeling better about our security so I decided to take a bounty hunting job in the local system. Things were a bit dicey. Attacked by pirates en route to the target, I sustained heavy damage, depleted my supplies and fled to the closest Space Station but not before taking down 8 pirates. The crew surprised me with a plaque-GALACTIC DEFENDER. There were many laughs and good drinks passed all around.
The laughs did not last long. RENDEZVOUS 4, another beacon at the bottom of a world of water. I did not stay long. The filters in my suit were clogging fast. Noted the coordinates and headed back to the Freighter.
LOG 5: HORIZONS Commander Hoshi
Arrived in the Nornyussko System
So we sail on, still we search. There is an infinity of worlds, but there is only one home. We are scattered, but we are not destroyed. The others are out there, somewhere. Each warp, each scan, each signal analysed- the odds are low, but they are not zero
I set up a 2nd Fleet Command Room. With 2 away missions in progress, I turned my attention towards some R&R. This voyage is nearing its conclusion. It would be best if all crew is back before proceeding. None of our people made it alive to any of the Rendezvous points. I have one card left to play. It might be best to take off before first shift. Not sure the crew can take much more disappointment.
The hangar is empty before first shift. I slipped into my starship and eased it into the blackness outside. Setting my comms to the emergency signal used by the pods, I pulsed across the system. All the Freighters had failed. Perhaps, maybe, hopefully, at least one pod had survived. Not all had made it to their intended Freighters but they were built to work as life rafts.
Suddenly, a signal. And it is getting stronger.
The LIFE RAFT was impressive as it floated ahead of me.
The signal had led me to this huge ship, an interstellar life raft drifting away from the cataclysm that consumed our home world.
I attempted to make contact.
There was no reply.
I cycled across the channels, searching for some signs of life.
Eventually, there is a signal in the static.
Gravity divided us and gravity will reunite us. There is a path
The message repeats, looping mindlessly. this was their final broadcast. Alongside the words the message appears to contain plans for some sort of technology
I don’t know what fate befell this Life Raft, how long or how far they made it. Whatever this device is, it was their torch, their beacon, the thing that kept them going.
I am not sure what to tell the crew.
Calling the techs into a meeting, I lay the plans for the Singularity Engine out for them to see. After studying them for some time, they attempted to describe how it works. An extreme gravity device that generates a wormhole deep within the Freighter’s reactor core, inverting the entire vessel and transporting it across the universe.
Unstable and highly experimental was their conclusion.
Is this the only route left to us? The only hope left at finding our people?
Gravity divided us and gravity will reunite us. We must trust in those words.
I give the order.
Build it!
It took several months but it is done. The moment of truth is here. We are all in agreement. This is the only option left. We are willing to take the outcome, whatever it may be.
I look at Commander Hoshi and give the order
Let’s go…SUPERLUMINAL!
