[Ship Maintenance Hangar to Juno Terminal 'June': Derelict Light Transport 'Washington' logs heavily damaged due to age and neglect. Partial recovery follows]
Log of Captain Darren Long, Arrival: We are stranded in this system. Our resource tanker didn't arrive after the final jump. We don't have the resources necessary to make it back to one of the Midway deep space stations. But, we ARE adventurers and explorers! It may not be the way we envisioned it, and we may have had a rough beginning, but we're here. We're alive. We can do this. We've TRAINED to do this.----
---------------Darren Long, supplemental: Our star, PDSSp J153259.96−003944.1, doesn't have a name yet. Or, it has too many names. We haven't come to a consensus yet. Several expeditionists want to call it Cursed, after our harrowing journey here. Our unlucky star. Most of us aren't so doomsday gloomy. Hope, or Horizon, or Victory. To me it doesn't really matter what we call it. It's our new Sun, and it's going to be the only Sun our children ever see. The argument is currently ongoing.----
Log ---------------en Long, supplemental: The 'Washington' crew and I are trying to decide between Delta (the fourth planet) and Epsilon (the fifth). They are the only two planets in the habitable zone.
Ensign Chase suggested a third option: That we forego dropping into a gravity well, and just join our transport ships together into a makeshift space station. How, exactly, we would join any more than two ships when each ship has EXACTLY ONE AIRLOCK was not answered. Ensign Chase doesn't get to make suggestions anymore.
Delta is WAY TOO HOT. Epsilon is WAY --- COLD. The choices are not great.
Ensign Steven suggested we find a way to push Delta and Epsilon together to make one perfect planet that's JUST RIGHT. Ensign Steve and Ensign Chase are not allowed to sit next to each other anymore.
Between --- HOT and TOO COLD, I'd opt for too cold. If you're cold, you can put on a sweater. Your body is _generating HEAT!_ Still too cold? Put on another layer. Repeat until comfortable. If you're too *hot* on the other hand, what can you do? You're wearing a finite number of layers! And no matter what you do, your body is never _generating COLD_ now is it? This seems obvious to me.
Besides, we'll still have the transports providing shelter and power while we build our settlement. Ships designed to provide a comfortable interior even in the vast coldness of space. Ships NOT designed to weather the amount of heat that's happening on the surface of Delta. I think I can convince everyone that Epsilon is the way to go.----
Log of Captain Darren Long, supp--------: Only 32 ships opted for Epsilon. 45 ships for Delta. Madness.----
Log of -------------- Long, Landing Day: We're currently in orbit around Epsilon. It's so pretty.
Epsilon is about 1.7 times the size of homeworld, though its gravity is only 1.09 times as strong. That seems perfectly reasonable. If anything, our kids might be slightly more muscular naturally. And so much more real estate! There are 15 continents, which cover 47% of the planet's surface. Almost half! Compared to the 29% of homeworld, and again that's 29% of a smaller planet to begin with.
The rotation is a little slower though. A day here is almost 39 homeworld-hours long. And a year is 474 days. That's going to take some getting used to.
It's nearly time to head down. Soon, my beauty, soon!----
Log of Captain -----------, Post Landing, Day 1: Apparently "Habitable" is a WIDE SPECTRUM. Epsilon is COLD AS F---. Outer space is "cold", but doesn't _siphon_ the heat from the ship. There's no material in space, so there's nothing for heat to escape into. It's actually kind of an insulator, I guess? On Epsilon, there's lots of material, in the form of ice and snow and freezing wind. Any heat in your ship is SUCKED INTO THE NOTHINGNESS that is the wilds of Epsilon. We have power and heat for now, but resources ARE limited. The resource tanker isn't here refining materials for us. This is quite outside our calculations. We need to get our settlement built and _fast_. We need to be self-sufficient BEFORE the power runs out.----
Log of Captain Darren Long, supplemental: Eye of Heaven is one of the top contenders for star name. Not sure how I feel about that.----
Log of Captain D--------------- 23: The first constructions are up, temporary though they may be. 23 very long days, and this was the best we've been able to do so far. It's still possible. I've done the math. It IS still possible to live here. But the margins are tight, and getting tighter with every very long day. If only the rest of the ships had made it from homeworld. If only the resource tanker were here! This would be so much more manageable. It _is_ still possible with what we have, but man. This is not what I signed on for.----
Log of Captain Darren Long, supplemental: They named the star _Phoebus_. I ---- it.