User: Reyna Hertz
Heart Rate: 62 BPM
FML Magellan, Day 1, A-403
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So I guess every crew member is required to complete these journal entries as a part of our mental health evaluations or something. I wouldn’t know, as I’ve never been in space before. I think it’s something to do with deep space travel? Are they expecting the time away from home to make us go crazy or something?
Anyway, it’s my first night onboard the ship. The mighty FML Magellan. I’ve heard about this ship before, and the scientific equipment onboard always interested me. So it’s weird to think that here I am, actually part of one of its missions. It’s surreal actually. A dream come true. I never thought I’d travel in space as part of my job and get paid for it. I mean, a month ago I was working in my lab (well, my boss’s lab) when the request was posted for a technician able to work with sensing equipment that uses low frequency radiation. I’d been building instruments like that for my research in chemistry, but the federation seems to think my skills were what they needed for their new cartography team. I’ve never done astro-chemistry before, but I am very familiar with the instruments. While they’re A LOT bigger than what I’m used to, the basic principles are the same.
I do feel a lot of pressure alongside my excitement, though. I’m the technician for these pieces of equipment now, and a consultant for analyzing the data. Who knew that mapping the galaxy required so much science? I thought it was as simple as “Hey, there’s a black hole. Don’t go there,” or “Hey, there’s some pretty space dust here, would be a nice spot to visit on a pleasure cruise.”
But the space mapping includes not only measuring the sizes of space stuff, but determining its composition to predict if it’s safe to travel near or through, or worth coming back for further research. It’s pretty crazy, and it’s gonna be a steep learning curve for me.
The rest of the team seems pretty cool so far. The lead on the team is a member of the military and it sounds like she’s done this before. I didn’t know the military had scientists as a specialty, but I guess it makes sense since mapping the universe has become a huge focus over the past decade. Maybe it’s a “we were here first, so this is ours” kind of thing? Who knows. But in terms of my team, pretty much everyone is new. There’s a physicist, geologist, atmospheric chemist, mathematician, and a programmer to plug all the data into the database.
Oh, the database is beyond cool. It’s this 3-D rendering of the galaxy. It’s kinda like those old school planetariums that had pictures of stars, except that this is a hologram that you can interact with and touch things. It’s crazy! I mean, we had basic holographic tech in the lab to help with data crunching and experiment set-up, but nothing like this. I felt huge, surrounded by planets and stars that were at my fingertips. And I’m excited to be part of the team that will add to that database and help expand the reach of other ships in the galaxy.
I’m not sure how long these things are supposed to be, but it is getting late and I still have to finish getting packed in to my room and figure out where everything is like the bathroom (which apparently is called a “head”, not sure why), and the cafeteria (called a “messdeck” or something – do they expect it to be messy all the time?). I do have a room to myself though, so that’s another positive of this trip. As the only cartography team member without an absurdly long CV, I was expecting at least a roommate or something. But I have a stateroom to myself.
But I guess that wraps everything up for today. Now I’m off to figure out my way around this ship and get settled so I can get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow is going to have a lot of indoctrination and space safety briefs and drills and whatnot, so it’s going to be pretty busy.
Until next time.
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