It just keeps calling, you know? The black. Always there, always on the edge of my mind. Sure, I'll run some pax back and forth for a bit, or haul medicine to sick colonies, but there's just something about the deep dark that I can't shake.

She's my drug, my cure, my damnation and my salvation.

Last time I was out this way I had a load of scientists in tow. I'd run up into some hard times and it seemed like a quick way to make a buck. Stupid mistake, trying to go further than I'd ever been. I was about 25kLY out when I got sloppy charging up for a neutron jump. Sucked into the cone and next thing I know I'm dealing with the Pilots' Fed insurance man back at Haxel. Worst part is, those damn scientists I was hauling thought they'd be better off abandoning ship. Right before the hull popped I saw the telltale flashing lights informing me that the escape pods had been jettisoned.

I guess that's why I'm headed back these months later. It wasn't a conscious choice, I just bolted. One minute I'm hauling meds, then I get an itch to ask Arturo about this guardian tech he's been itching to get me to try. Next thing you know I've dusted off my pink Cobra III, The Drunken Miner, swapped out the refinery and limpet racks, and headed off to a fancy brickpile left by a long dead race of... something. I'm not quite clear on what.

I get out there, follow Arturo's instructions, get what I need and avoid getting dead (again), and head back to the bubble. I swear, I've never seen his pinched face so happy as when I uploaded the scan data from the ruins. Couple hours later, he's bolting some sort of contraption into one of my module bays. Claims it'll give me close to another ten light years of jump.

A short shakedown. Right.

Hell, I didn't even bother taking off the point defense.

Now, 8,700LY later I'm retracing my steps coreward. I don't expect I'll find anything when I get there, but I have to look. I let them die. Damn, I about murdered them. But I think that's just my brain tryin' to justify what it already knows... I belong out here. Me and my pink Cobra both.