9 March 3308, 1246 hrs:

While it is a nice diversion from mining, the effort to aid in the final steps of construction of the "bridge" from the core to Colonia is tedious. Having come to the news of the efforts during late stages I found it best to park the Heart of Gold and retrieve my old faithful T9, the Frost Shadow, from storage.

After a few dozen runs between other systems and ports, laden with Auto-Fabricators, a thought came to me; bordering on an epiphany I realized just how much dust and debris collects on the hull of this ship during even a single stage of any journey, dust that is no different than the elements that make up the hull, the paint, the electronics and is no different than me.

As it has been said so many times, we are all made of the stuff of stars. The very same stars we scoop fuel from without thought of just how much we can take before that star will be no more. The same stars we rely on for every bit of our existence.

It is enough to make a tired old pilot wonder if there won't come a day when we manage to reap all that the galaxy, perhaps even the universe, has sown and be left with a dark, empty nothingness.

7 April 3308, 0738 hrs:

I have located a metal rich terraforming candidate. During the process of mapping and exploring I discovered a rudimentary biological sign in the form of a bacteria.

The planet offers great amounts of natural resources in the form of metal and minerals, the termperature is manageable, the atmosphere as it currently exists is 100% sulphur dioxide.

But a question has come to my mind. While it's possible this bacteria will eventually die out on its own, isn't it also possible that this may be the very earliest stage of a new life form?

I doubt this world will be terraformed any time in the near future but I wonder if we would have the right to even do so?

9 April 3308, 15:31 hrs:

During a bit of private relaxation time with my co-pilot we experienced a minor malfunction with major results. Eris and I had just completed a training simulation and in need of some deep relaxation we headed for the galley.

We were, eh, sidetracked along the way. Unfortunately we chose the wrong console for our quiet moment. Unknown to us at the time we somehow caused a short in one of the holographic training simulation control panels.

We spent the next four hours thinking our ship had been invaded by pirates before, bruised (seriously) and bleeding (fortunately not seriously), we realized our situation and were able to force an override of the system.

The moral of this story? Commanders and your crew, always be very, very careful about where you choose to enjoy your recreational moments.

11 April 3308: 1142 hrs:

Even for a seasoned explorer there are moments when you find yourself so deep in blackness, with each star so far from the next that you wonder if there are any stars left, t hat you find a puckering of nearly destructive force in every orifice of your body.

Somehow there sets in a sudden and convincing belief that even trying to backtrack your previous course might not bring you back to some form of relative safety.

It feels like the irrational fear of being lost on a straight stretch of road. Even though you have made no turns, rounded no bends, attempted no shortcuts, you have a sudden and inexplicable fear that, should you turn around, you will find you can not get back to where you started.

As the light years stretch behind and ahead of me I find myself experiencing just such fears. It is completely unreasonable and makes absolutely no sense but I somehow absolutely am becoming convinced that I will soon be stranded, left to die a cold and terrifying death in the depths of the galaxy ... or out of it.

11 April 3308: 1542 hrs:

As it turns out my previous log entry was more prophetic than I would care to admit.

I'm chastising myself at this very moment as I stare into the blackness on all sides, blackness lit by only the sun of the system I find myself in. It is a lonely place with only a handful of bodies.

Finding myself in need of fuel I jumped to COERNT NX-K D8-0.

I made a terrible error in judgement, or more accurately an error in lack of judgement. This mistake is one I swore five years ago I would never repeat. Having forgotten I had already supercharged my FSD I jumped without being absolutely certain the system I was entering would be close enough to get back to where I departed from.

Unfortunately only after jumping did I realize that even with a tier 3 FSD injection I lacked just a few light years of jump capability to return. In so doing I ended up able to jump only between COERNT NX-K D8-0 and one nearby system.

I am stuck in the blackness of the void between two arms of our galaxy with no way back and no way forward.

On the bright side there is a lovely terraformable world here to scuttle the ship on. Unfortunately terraformable doesn't mean survivable. I can only hope for rescue as I set the timer on the self-destruct.

On a recent exploration expedition I found myself skirting the stars of the galactic arm in the Dryman's Point region.

As I made one jump after another I found myself in a position where the stars grew fewer and farther between.

In spite of knowing that as long as I was cautious about my jump distances, fuel load and ability to inject the FSD I would be perfectly safe I still developed an inescapable fear of becoming stranded.

A lesson I learned over five years ago became forgotten in that fear: the simple matter of checking to be sure I could return from my next jump if necessary.

As such I forgot I had just overcharged my FSD from a neutron star in the system I was in and jumped to the nearest star for fuel; this in spite of the fact there was a perfectly good K class star in my current system but it was over 100LS away and I wanted to not take the time to fly to it.

Upon arriving at the next system I refueled then prepared to jump back only discover I lacked 3 light years capability to jump even with a tier 3 FSD injection. I found myself trapped in an area where I could jump only around an area of about 30 systems, but each system near to the arm was not close enough for me to jump back.

The moral of the story is simple; always remember not to let fear overtake your better judgement. Never forget to think and plan.

While exploring the surface of BLUA HYPUAE IA-Q C21-125, 3A, I slipped into a large ravine. Unconcerned I examined the water vapor geysers and collected materials. Only upon attempting to return to the Black Dog for departure did I discover that the walls of the ravine were so steep and covered in ice I had no route out to be found initially. Fortunately after two and a half hours and several repairs to my SRV I was able to find an area with grades that I could leapfrog with the SRV's thrusters and escape. Note to self: look into tire chains for SRV!