Freelance TravellerLost Diaries #4 - The Personal Diary of Andres Braun
This article originally appeared in Issue #001 of the downloadable PDF magazine.
The provenance of this diary segment is unknown. The dates were removed before we obtained it.
#### - Rhylanor Naval Yards
I was sent a message from Imperial Fleet Command to appear at the Naval Yard Offices today. This comes at a poor time: A ship is about to come off the line, and I wanted to inspect it. The message told me something about a re-assignment. I wonder if they're sending me off to Mora or someplace.
#### - Rhylanor Naval Yards
So, the reporting was to recieve orders for reassignment. They called us all into a big room, and gave a 5 second briefing, then gave us all folders of information and orders. Evidently, I've been assigned to be the XO of the INS 89692 Hyperion - The ship that was about to come off the line! Something interesting is happening here. This will be my first cruise as XO. I thought I was retired from active ship duty, but whatever this trip is, I welcome it. Office work, even designing starships, gets boring.
Oh, I also ran into my good buddy Taran. I haven't seen him since we flunked out of Naval Collage together. Evidently, he is assigned to the Hyperion too, as the First Helmsman. At least I know SOMEONE on this ship.
#### - Rhylanor Naval Yards
So, reading over my orders more carefully, a good portion of the crew is listed as *Pickup*. My orders state to take the Hyperion to Mora, for refit. Refit? It is brand new... I wonder what they are refitting it with. The ship did have an odd open spot in the design, with power feeds going to it. Anyways, looking at this list, I have some 15 people to crew it, AND NO CAPTAIN! Evidently, the person who was supposed to be Captain is no longer among the living, and They're supposed to find a replacement by the time I reach Mora. But I mean, come on: I've got 3 other bridge crew, 2 engineers, and 10 gunners to take a 1000 ton ship to Mora. I'm going to have to split them into 2 watches. There is going to be some serious crew fatigue here. I hope everything goes smoothly.
#### - INS Hyperion, Rhylanor Naval Yards
Looking over the ship, almost everything is ready. The XO's chair is comfy, at the very least. The dock crew is still loading everything on. I wish they would get done faster. I think I'll go take a couple gunners and put them to work assisting the dock workers.
Oh. My. God.
The cargo bay was in zero-g for loading, and evidently my gunners do NOT know how to handle zero-g. One of them stepped off the grav plates into zero-g, and went flying off into the bay. I pushed myself off and went after him, and put him on a course back towards the door, where he promptly failed to recover himself, and fell down in the grav section. Useless.
Then, I talked to the dockmaster. Evidently, the problem isn't manpower to load the ship, it is manpower to bring cargo up from Rhylanor Downport. I offered to send the Pinnace down to pick some of it up, but he told me it was in the final stages of getting up here now. I guess I'll just have to wait. The construction crew is still painting on the identification markings anyways.
#### - Jump Space betw. Rhylanor and Jae Tellona
Jump Space. So boring.
So we finally got out of Rhylanor Yards, and headed for the jump limit. Everything is working well, and I've put the crew on 12 hour shifts. It really pains me to do so, but I can't really see another way. At least they'll have a week or so in Jump Space to get used to it. Sometimes the Navy is a drag. It is interesting: In the absense of a captain, I am in command of the ship. This is my first command, and I am a little nervous, but I should be okay.
#### - Jump Limit, Jae Tellona
We came out of jump space, and encountered a pirate vessel disguised as a freighter. They did some minor damage to the engine and some paint, and we pounded them into submission. Then they launched an escape pod, so we boarded that and took it. Engineering told me they could fix it up, no problem. We're going to go land to refuel, and then get going back on course for Mora.
#### - Jump Limit, Mora
The past few weeks since we encountered the pirate have been pretty uneventful. We just came out of Jump at Mora, and everything appears normal. The helmsman is taking us in now. Mora Command told us we had a payraise, and a decent chunk of cash waiting for us at the base, so I think I'll go on a spending spree when we get there. Maybe I'll take Taran with me.
Cordell should be on Mora. In fact, his name is listed as one of the *Pickup* names. I haven't seen him for years, and the last time I did was... weird. We've been in correspondance, since, but... Well anyways, he should have that powersuit he was working on pretty much done. That'll be interesting to see. I think we can even take it along, since he is listed as on crew. It'll be nice to get all this crew and be able to switch back to 8 hour rotations. I also hope we have a decent captain.
#### - Mora, Planetside
I took Taran with me to go shopping. We got anagathic treatments together. I got some elective surgery done, and got a neurojack installed. A lot of the officers I've talked to have had similar things installed, and it really seems to help them out. I also got a shiny new Data Display device. In fact, I am writing this journal entry with my head. Neat, huh? Well, I suppose it is time to report back to the ship, see if our Captain has shown up yet. Haven't gotten in touch with Cordell yet either: Mostly cause I wasn't trying.
#### - Mora, Shipboard
Met the Captain. They're installing some kind of experimental drive in the ship. Captain won’t give out orders yet. I don't know why. It is strange, I always want to be where I am not. Right now, I want to be in space. When I am in space, I want to be planetside. Or maybe it is more that I just hate waiting.
#### - Mora System, Insystem Transit
So we're supposed to head for a gas giant with a bunch of Research Ships around it. I have no clue what for, but I've ordered the crew to be suited up when we get there. I wish the Captain would tell me something.
#### - Unknown
So, the captain ordered us to dive into the gas giant. We went in deeper and deeper until finally we hit some strange gravitic disturbance, and then we went through a gutwrenching transit. And when I say gutwrenching, I mean GUTWRENCHING! I still feel sick, even a few minutes later. Taran and I are the only ones on the bridge right now, everyone else is getting treated for radiation, and recovering from a sickening transition.
#### - Still Unknown
I did some experimenting, and almost got myself killed. We're in some type of space that just glows blue. Nothing else. I released a shotgun shell from the airlock, and it floated away from the ship safely, so I went and started up a shuttle. Just as I was about to detach from the Hyperion, the shotgun shell I left fly exploded suddenly. So I went back and delved into the records for our new drive, now that the Captain finally let me read them. Turns out we're in some sort of bubble. We've just gotta wait another 2 hours or so to come out of it. I hate waiting.
#### - Unknown Star System
Well, we finally came out of the bubble. It was another horrible transition, but we appeared in an area of high radiation in the middle of a planetary system. We headed for the 3rd planet, where our target ship, The IISS Discovery, is supposed to be. Sure enough, it is there. We're gunna go check it out.
#### - 3rd Planetary Orbit, Unknown Star System
Well, there has been a battle here, is all I can really tell. The Discovery is shot up, and there is a debri field trailing it in orbit. I am going over there in the boarding craft with a group of gunnery privates and a few of my officers to examine the ship, and see if it can be brought online.
#### - 3rd Planetary Orbit, Unknown Star System
We were exploring. Lost one gunner. We found some mutated humans, and some monkies. Not sure where they came from. One tried to steal the boarding craft, and the Captain had the craft shot. It is now in millions of little pieces. then we had a jump signature, so I had Cordell blow a hole in the wall, and we all crossed back to the Hyperion in Suits. We are laying in a pursuit course right now, for the jump signature. It appears to be one of the Type S ships the Discovery was carrying.
#### - Unknown Star System
We took out the Scout's power systems and boarded them, where a simple punch one of the mutants threw at me, while wearing battledress, knocked me right out. I woke up in medbay. We're going back to the 3rd Planet now, to resume our exploration of the Discovery. We're going to go wipe several foreign AIs out of its computer banks, and install the backup copy we have. My head feels a little fuzzy still, but the docs couldn't find anything wrong with me.
#### - Aboard the Discovery
Reinstalling and initializing an AI takes forever. We've had to do it twice now, because we followed the instructions for clearing the enemy AIs out wrong. It is all my own fault. I think I will leave Mister Tatsuuchi here to do it on his own, while I go clear the memory banks in the Engineering Bay.