It is the fourth day of the E.H.A.M. expedition. Current date is 11 July 3309. I haven't stepped out of my quarters yet aboard the Aleksander to start my day, so I thought to start it by talking to you, my trusty logbook.

In the past days I've used my camera more than ever before, commemorating all the beautiful places I have seen. We're still not even there yet. Right now we're parked at Byeia Ain IG-Y e2986, a planetary nebula with a neutron star in its center. On my landing pad, that beautiful star looks close enough to touch, even without the aid of supercruise. It would take hours to reach it unaided, but it strikes fear into me all the same.

It might not look like much from my camera suite but within the cockpit of the Sanity's Retort, it dominates the landscape. If there is one thing this trip has done to me, it has made me feel small. Over your time as a member of the Pilot's Federation, you gain a mastery over scale, shifting your sense of it to suit your needs. Nothing feels truly massive, not even the largest gas giants. That notion has been challenged for me more than once in the past 3 days.

I discovered this view the hard way. Unlike the rest of the occupants of the Aleksander, I did not peacefully glide into the system on a hundred billion ton steed. I had elected to shake off the Space Madness and hop into the Sanity's Retort and race the Aleksander. I immediately realized that my systems were not in order after the Aleksander had jumped and I was left with an almost empty fuel tank. One alert from Verity about my temperature rising, my shields dropping, my hull being compromised, and the jolt of dropping from supercruise while next to a star, and some fiddling with my powerplant later, I was back on the road. When I arrived in system with the Aleksander, I did not comprehend the size of the star we orbited. In fact, I was baffled that I could not find the carrier. Only when I flew out a bit and looked back at the supergiant did I realize that the Aleksander was close to it. Very close. It was, in fact, within scooping range of the star. My ship was starting to overheat by the time I made it aboard, where I then took the below picture.

That's not all that makes me feel small though. Recently, I picked up my Artemis and began hunting for exobiologicals. After consulting the members of my guild at length, I began to get the hang of things and now have a handful of discoveries to my name. The samples themselves don't make me feel small, but the search for them does. For so long, a planet has been a small thing to me, easily navigable by ship and SRV in minutes. Despite what others tell me, I cannot perform the hunt of exobiology from my ship, nor my SRV. I have found myself hiking across never-before-seen worlds for kilometers upon kilometers. Those desert plains and deep canyons have never seemed seemed so large, so unaccommodating.

At times I would look back at how far I had walked and jogged and jumped and see it had only been 2 or 3 or 5 kilometers, a distance the Sanity could cover in seconds and top speed. It made me feel so, so miniscule and, once again, filled me with the same wonder I thought I had thought I had lost. Quickly, the tedium of exobiology is becoming a slog that I hold near and dear to my heart. And as far as profits go, I'd much rather do this than mine and haul platinum. In the past 3 days, I have made more money than I ever have before, and I'm subpar compared to the other commanders.

This entry is dragging on, my dear logbook. I can see you weary to listen to me further. I'll be brief.

These past few days have made me quite a few friends. I've never been so excited to be in the presence of other Commanders. But these ones? They feel like family. Especially those that insist on taking photoshoots to commend our journey or those that simply fill my comms with life rather than the static that they have been clogged with for so long.

Ever yours, my dear logbook.

Commander Ashlynn Gray, captain of the Sanity's Retort, signing off. Stay curious, fly Dangerous

I've putted around the bubble and taken short jaunts through the galaxy. I'm a second-rate explorer with only a couple dozen systems to my name. I'm a small, small fish in a big, big pond. But today? I'm no longer so small.

I've been rushing around the bubble, dear logbook, snagging materials, mining for creds, and talking to engineers. I've gone from 55lys to 71lys per jump in a week, all so I can be that much more ready for what comes next. I'm hitching a ride out to nowhere on the Aleksander for the E.H.A.M. expedition. It's the farthest I'll have ever been from home. This time, no cold feet, no giving in to the Space Madness. I'm seeing it through to the end

Ever yours, my dear logbook.

Commander Ashlynn Gray, captain of the Sanity's Retort, signing off.