The pilot struggled with the controls. On Earth, shrapnel had scarred her right leg, though her body no longer bore that damage.

She limped the craft away from the fireball, balancing it between RCS thrust and a single functional main drive cone.

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 14: Asymmetry

> i still feel bad. i knew several of these people.

"Theta needs the parts a lot more than the old crew, especially this far from home."

He paused. "...We can bring them back and put them to rest, if that would make you feel better."

> it would.

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 13: Bandits

"I fucking love this part."

Nchọ and obi-me braced as the catapult initialized. The electromagnets in their hands and feet were suddenly dwarfed by the magnetic field of the rails in the cargo launcher.

> 3
> 2
> 1
> HAVE A NICE FLIGHT

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 12: Slender/Thin

> PEER TO PEER NETWORK ESTABLISHED

"We'll hit the zone of high primion flux in 5 minutes. I know it increases mental latency, but make sure your personality is running twice for redundancy. We get in, we get the downed team, and we get out."

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 11: Dropship

The shuttle opened its cargo door. It displayed an alert on its team's HUD, "213 seconds to impact".

The battered survivors maneuvered in freefall, aligning with the opening. The shuttle burned hard retrograde, and the team crashed into the hold.

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 10

Tlaltecuhtli team had repurposed a freighter deep within sector 7-E, and embedded the ship in an ancient vertical tunnel. The behemoth laid surrounded by similar corpses.

Explorers knew to bring broken things, including people, here.

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 9: Space Station/Scavenger

The shuttle came to a stop at the end of the tunnel, suspended upon jets of steam, and for a moment, it appeared as though the source of the primion radiation was a massive, unassuming icosahedron.

Switching sensors to infrared told a different story.

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 8: Red

Ògún's materials scientist skittered up to the freighter's bridge, clasping its forward manipulators. "This vein has much higher conductivity than Khepri's readings suggested. Is there room in the power budget for more power to the main cutting beam?"

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 7: Mining

Once the Antikythera authorized exploration of the Slumbering Empyrean, Nysa's Wake found itself swarmed with exiting craft.

Many not in the vanguard sat together on the carrier’s icy hull, watching their friends descend atop pale drive plumes.

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 6: Carrier

The parrots reconfigured. This was the 7,243rd virtual antenna the probes had tried. They listened for 24 hours, and then rearranged once more.

The router which the relay drones had unknowingly navigated through wouldn't reopen for 6 decades.

#exegesis #Spaceshiptember #SST26 day 5: Probe/Drone