My AspX is due a serious refit; there has been a lot of work with the Guardian tech since I last left the bubble, and I think one of those FSD boosters would look very nice on here. Plus, I struck it rich with Void Opals a few weeks ago ... and the Federation have a Corvette with my name on it out there, waiting for me to come and pick it up. So now I'm on my way from Colonia back to the old worlds.

Of course, they'll be a little put out when I turn up in an Imperial Cutter to collect it, won't they? That's the sort of behaviour you get when you let just anyone wear the Admiral's bars, isn't it?

This time, I promised myself (again) that I would buy up a whole load of A-rated modules, and get them shipped out to Colonia to refit my ships out there. I even made sure I sold off the excess spare sets of things I had left lying around to make space. And made a list of my ships, so I wouldn't forget anything. And then what do you think happened? Yes, that's right ... a couple of days after I left, Jaques announced that they'd sealed a deal distributing A-rated gear in all sizes - shields, thrusters, FSDs, power plants and distributors ...

Still, I kept to my course. I like it out in the black ...

So now, many weeks later, I wake up in quarters in Jameson Memorial. In the floor are scattered the title deeds of 16 new ships - I now seem to own one of every vessel except that lumpy old Cobra IV that no-one will sell ... I have 500 million creds worth of modules in storage, and a data delivery mission to Hutton Orbital. Must have been a good night ...

On the other hand, those Guardian FSD boosters are humming away nicely in a bunch of vessels, and my exploration anaconda is pushing upwards of 68Ly per jump with a reasonable set of modules installed. So I'll be on my way back to Colonia soon!

Just because you've done something successfully for a long time, doesn't mean that it won't go wrong next time ...

I'd been coming back from the deep for quite a while now. When I finally hit the core of the galaxy I decided to speed up, take the internals damage, and hit up the neutron stars for boost - using the very helpful Pilots Federation recent navigation upgrades. This had really paid off, at the level I was flying through I could hit two or three neutrons in a row, not enough to worry fuel consumption but enough to really push up the Ly/hour value ...

I quickly ran through the core, and stopped in on the Great Annihilators for a look - very interesting intra-system gravitational dynamics there I must say! But nothing I couldn't cope with.

So, back to the route, coming out of the Near 3kpc Arm and heading towards the Sidereal Wall. Yet another neutron star, not too fast, not too slow. Quite unremarkable in so many ways, after more than 300 scoop-and-boosts you stop looking quite so hard at the details.

Except for that awful bug in the HUD, the one where the body exclusion zone rings don't show up if you're going too slowly - or if you're pointing away from an impact course. They claim it's a feature, no need to have the visual distraction if it isn't purposeful, or something like that. Except that the consequence of a bad experience here in a neutron star's jet cones is pretty rough ...

So I'd blame the copilot for knocking over their coffee at a critical moment, if that made any real excuse for me leaning forward and knocking the stick out of true. But, not only am I the Captain, and actively in control of the ship at the time ... but I did't actually have anyone else on-board for this trip. So that really limits my excuses, doesn't it?

I don't know how it happened. I shouldn't have been so close to the exclusion zone in the first place, I was skimming through the cone getting boosted, I should have been surfing outwards. But this time I think I slowed down too much - recently I'd been piercing right through the cones without completing boost, going too fast, having to turn around again, and this Anaconda isn't the lightest twirly beast it could be, I'd been saving weight on the thrusters again ... so, going slow there's no zone ring in the HUD, I must have become disoriented, and then all of a sudden the frameshift drive crashed me back into normal space ... right in the middle of a jet cone!

Now, I've been right in close to neutron stars before, damn hot places they are too, you don't have a huge amount of time to get oriented and away, and a heatsink or two helps if you can't turn quickly, but overall it's nothing to panic about. Just go through the checklist procedure, step by step - pull back on the stick, set throttle for maximum pitch, ramp up the FSD as soon as cooldown is completed, line up on the exit, boost up to max and pop a heatsink.

But that checklist doesn't work in the jet cone ...

For starters, the ship was being tossed around from side to side, with no pattern that I could see. Pitching up didn't seem to be stabilising anything, I wasn't even completely sure it was working at all (shame on me for cheaping out on the thrusters, perhaps). I spooled up the FSD, then had to twist around looking for the exit vector ... then got distracted as the canopy started to crack! That was unexpected! The exit vector swung past, I hit the Engage button ... and nothing happened. Just a continued urgent beep, telling me I wasn't aligned ... but the exit vector was right there!

And then the thrusters went offline. And the FSD too ... the cargo hatch popped as well, but there's nothing in there anyway. I quickly switched the AFMUs on, and set them to work on the engines ... but the whole time the ship was pitching around like a fish flopping on a boat deck. The canopy was beginning to show spiderwebs of cracks, but I don't have three AFMUs ... I threw out a heatsink by reflex, but there wasn't so much heat load in the first place.

I hit the emergency comms, and got through to the exploration wings of Radio Sidewinder and Mobius, as well as a friend in the Browncoats based out in Colonia. RSC advised a 'swing' manoeuver, pitching back and forward with the jet cone rather than against it. And Mobius quickly dragged out a similar scenario where a heavy ship like a Cutter can't engage FSD because inertia means it might be pointed in the right direction, but it isn't actually moving that way yet. The Browncoat was sympathetic and said that he "knew someone that might be able to help" but didn't elaborate.

Time really felt like it was standing still for me; I let the ship drift and watched the module status screen for a while, as the AFMUs brought up the thrusters and FSD to a better working condition, wondering if this was the end. And then I noticed an incoming message, which was unexpected. It came from a CMDR Vulcan, from something called "FDev CS Wing", and contained a firmware package for the ship's systems. No explanation, just the text "install this now!" ... and a link to the Browncoats.

That's all the verification I needed, nothing to lose ... so I executed the package. Life support went offline, shields dropped off ... the whole HUD flickered and changed colour, and a hologram co-pilot appeared in the next seat; my controls went offline completely and the copilot's seat suddenly claimed full control over the ship! I'd never heard of that before, I thought the control systems were hard-wired to the Captain's chair!

The copilot cancelled the AFMUs, ran all pips to the reactivated engines - and I swear he assigned everything to the engine too, there were no pips showing on any other subsystem at all, nothing at all ... he swung the ship around so violently that I thought I was going to fall out of my seat ... and as the exit vector showed up he hit boost ... and I must have hit my head on the inside of my helmet, because that's all I know.

Eventually I came to, with one of those nasty oxygen headaches and blood in my mouth. But the ship, my ship ... all was calm and peaceful. Temperature normal, no alarms, the hum of the engines running life support and nothing else. A steady sky outside the canopy. Nothing wrong at all ...

As I turned to the systems screens, I jumped in surprise - there was someone in the copilot's seat! Well, wait ... a hologram in the seat ... well, yes, of course ...

"What ... what happened?" I asked. "Who are you?"

"CMDR Vulcan, at your service" came the reply. "We got a callout from our mutual friend in Colonia. He said you were in trouble, so I decided to try out some ... modified ships firmware we've been working on. Just in time, too, I see!" He gestured around the cabin. "I've been running the AFMUs flat out for the last half hour. You're completely out of Tellurium now, by the way, but I think everything's back close to spec. Well, not the powerplant though, can't do much about that without a dry dock."

"But what did you do?"

"You mean, besides saving your ship?" he answered. I couldn't see his face but I could hear the good-natured intent. "I sort of overloaded your engines to get you out of that jet cone. You were being pulled backwards faster than these tiny thrusters could deal with. Had to violate quite a few manufacturer's warranties pretty quickly for that. Luckily Faulcon DeLacy aren't quite so hot on finishing up the details as the other yards are, there are quite a few unhardened subsystems in here. It's still using the original OBD from RimLiner, can you believe it? I mean they've upgraded the protocols several times since then, but the interfaces are ... well ... ". He tailed off at my uncomprehending gaze.

"Look, the important thing is, you and your ship are fine, there's no lasting damage. And we've had a very successful field-run of our work, which is valuable for us. Lots of nice data to analyse."

He settled back in his seat, and paused, looking at me. "You don't need to tell anyone the details of all this, by the way. Our work isn't ... well, lets just say that it isn't only Faulcon DeLacy who would get a little distracted by all this. I'm here because we were told you could be trusted, know what I mean? We're not wrong about that, are we ... ?"

That was a little chilling, but I understood where he was coming from.

"Don't you worry about me, I know how this works. Thanks for your help, if you need something done, you know what I have here, you can call on me - as long as you don't ask me to go through that bloody jet cone again!"

He relaxed a bit. "Right. No problem. My downloads are completed, the firmware are all back to stock, I wasn't here, nothing happened, it's all over. Don't call us, don't go looking for us." Then he flipped a small salute. "o7 commander. Fly safe out there" ... and the hologram abruptly terminated.

The ship settled back into silence, only the murmuring of Radio Sidewinder playing in the back of the cabin as usual. Still dazed by the whole experience, I looked around.

"I'm still flying."

"It isn't much."

"But it's enough."

I've been to Beagle Point ... and beyond. I've clocked up almost 400 thousand LY, and I've never had to call for help. I've got friends in the Fuel Rats, and I'll happily stand them a round or two as thanks in advance, but I don't want to be having to buy the drinks as thanks after the fact, if you know what I mean.

But it's been close. Right now I'm heading out of the Bleak Lands, trying to cross the Styx to get back into the core. Route plotting has been improved recently, thanks to the Pilot's Federation I guess, but it still needs a human touch. So I've found a vein of Neutron stars, something to help me get back quickly. I didn't use FSD supercharge all the way out here, I've got repair capacity but I didn't want to use it un-necessarily. But I'm itching to get back now ...

It's so empty up here, up high above the Bleak Lands. I can still sniff out Water worlds (even when the liquid in question isn't good old H2O ... that last one was 6 Earth masses, and argon has liquified) but there isn't much else.

So it's been a while since I used a Neutron FSD boost. And all of a sudden out here I could string together jumps of three or four at a time! I don't suppose you would blame me for getting a little carried away ...

You know, once you've been out here on your own for a while (and isn't it amazing that a ship as big as the Anaconda can actually be flown by just one person, by the way? I mean, it's handy having crew to handle fighter escorts back in 'civilised' space, but I really don't want to be sharing my personal space for all the time I'd spend in the deep), you have to listen to those little nagging doubts. If you don't, well I guess you'll never make it back.

So I'd just skimmed through a Neutron star's jet cone, the FSD supercharged and glowing blue, and everything was looking great. No damage that the AFMUs couldn't cope with, and a juicy big jump all lined up. 180Ly straight towards my final destination, from here to a glowing scoopable ball of fuel, what fun!

But as I flipped the galactic map screen off, and brought the ship around to ready for the jump, there it was, that little nagging feeling in the back of the neck. What was I missing?

What indeed ...

So I could have hit that jump button and tried to worry it out on the way. Sure, why not? I've made over 12 thousand jumps, I've been caught in some hot arrivals, I've even fallen asleep and had the ships emergency systems crash me into normal space just above a star a few times (it's the heat that wakes you up), but I've been able to get away again. So what's the problem?

(I can hear you all thinking from here, by the way. It's different when you're just reading about it, isn't it? You have time to realise, there's no temptation to kick back and see what happens ...)

So I was lucky. I didn't hit the button - I mean, there really isn't anything to hurry about out here anyway. I checked the map again. There was my target, and yes it was scoopable. Anyway, I don't mess around with empty fuel tanks, I scoop scoop scoop and scoop some more, this ship jumps full almost every time. So what was the problem?

I zoomed out a bit, looking at the area. And then I realised the problem ...

I can boost from a Neutron star and jump 188Ly. That means my base range is just about 47Ly. With a synthesised boost, I can get up to half the neutron boost, just under 100Ly. But I'm not carrying materials for that sort of boost. Best I can manage right now is 70ish. And my target, that lovely scoopable ... that's a hell of a long way from its nearest neighbour. There's nothing else visible on the map at all!

Well, I might have gotten lucky, I have all the non-scoopables left off the map, what a waste of hydrogen they all are. So perhaps there was a way out of there, a series of short granny jumps that might have gotten me to some more ... useful stars. But I'm not taking that chance! And perhaps there were some land-able metallic planets or rings there, it's only arsenic I needed, but what if there wasn't? I've visited enough singleton stars to know that planets aren't guaranteed. And what if even that wasn't enough? No way the Fuel Rats can bring you a new FSD, is there?

So, no. I cancelled that jump, dropped the map target way down towards the central plane, and headed myself to a denser patch of space. I have to remember, it isn't only the rim that's dangerously sparse - hell, there's no way I'd take a neutron jump out off the edge of the galaxy without knowing exactly was out there! I'm not that sort of explorer! But you all have to remember, the rims aren't the only dangerous places. This gap isn't called the Styx for nothing ...

So here I sit, listening to Radio Sidewinder, writing my journal. It's a warning to me, and I hope a warning to you. Fly safe, commanders.

And oh! Hey! Another ringed water world! There are some fun things out here still!