//------------------------------// // Day 20: Gone Swimming // Story: Through the Darkness of Space // by Lt Rainbow Slash //------------------------------// 2 December, 3603 Day 20 5,140LY from Cel Today was...Interesting. Not least of which was because of how much space I was able to cover today. Where to begin? At the beginning I suppose. I found a tiny little planet in the third system I visited. Only 360km in diameter. I was a bit bored, so I went down and landed on the thing (safely of course). My main reason? It's gravity. 0.04 G. I got out the SRV. Did some sampling and such. Then I hopped out and had some fun in just my spacesuit. Let my inner little filly go nuts. Just bouncing around like it was a bouncy castle. Goofing off in low gravity is a ridiculous amount of fun. I ended up taking the SRV aways out just messing around, ramping off of stuff. I eventually had the autopilot fly the ship over to pick me up. After that little aside I carried on. It was a ten or so systems later I came across three water worlds. One had a breathable atmosphere while the other two were terraformable. The inhabitable one had some interesting readings though so I decided to investigate. I went flying down and found a small island near the equator to land on. Only maybe ten square kilometres, so a decent size. There were plants all over, like a tropical island back home. Dunno if there were any animals. If there were I didn't see any. I took a few leaves and samples from the plants, as well as a myriad of scans. I was even able to take off my helmet and breath normally. But there was nothing anomalous. What my scans had picked up was in the ocean, just off the beach. Luckily for me my spacesuit is also functional as a diving suit. Nice little design perk of the exploration version I got in explorer school. So, making sure I was armed (I wasn't taking any chances incase there was something akin to a Equis Shark. Wouldn't that be a sad end), and carrying several waterproof scanners I waded into the surf. I swam on the surface for a few hundred meters, and a quick look told me what my ship had picked up. The alien equivalent of a coral reef. Obviously it isn't coral, but it was something similar and equally as colourful. And like a Equis reef, there was life. So much life. All kinds of these vaguely fish like creatures, in all the colours of the rainbow. Oh how I wish my holoimager was waterproof. You should have seen it. And then there was the...well I'm not sure what to name it, as I'm definitely the first pony to see one. Hmmm...the best way I can describe it is that it was like a cross between a shark and a manta ray. A 'Shark-Ray?' Nah that's not good. I'll come up with something later. It was kinda creepy, very predatory and super cool. It saw me as I dove among the reef and came over to have a look. I almost fried it when I first saw it, but it jut seemed curious. It circled me and just had a look before it swam off. I got detailed scans of it and a ton of the other aquatic species. As well as the plant like...I'm just gonna call it coral. I know it's not coral but I don't know what else to call it. I spent two hours swimming around, it was just so cool to see call of this alien life. I need to do this more often. I eventually dragged myself out of the surf with a huge grin on my face. I dried off and threw my suit in the washer. It was Lunch by then so I had a beach picnic. Did I mention it was a beautiful day? Not a cloud in the sky. I went for a flight after I ate too. Just stretching my wings. After that it was time to go. I took off and headed back off into space. The last system I visited today had a ringed terraforming candidate. Me being me, I just had to be an idiot and go flying through the rings. Managed to avoid smashing Curiosity into anything so that's good. All in all...That was the best day yet I think. In a really good mood, -Con Today's Discoveries: Chraufao HA-T b3-4: Inhabitable Water World, tf, Balina Water World, tf, Uron Water World, tf, Jord Aucoths VP-A c3-6: Water World, tf, Krosi 3 High Metal, tf Chraufao IZ-S c3-17: Water World, Ilal Chraufao TX-L c7-13: High Metal, tf Chraufao WY-S d3-13 High Metal ,tf