(Updated the units in the OP. Again, though, you don't have to worry too hard about those)
After a lengthy journey, the Aelius had arrived. The scientists and committees had spent so long negotiating the design. The ship had been constructed, every system checked and re-checked, boarded the crew, and launched on their long running-start. When it finally got up to speed, the FTL drive was engaged, and suddenly, there they were. From the distance of their shipyard, it hadn't looked too impressive: a slightly larger patch of blackness than that between the nearby stars (though the big telescope showed it as a more noticeable void). But now that they were near, looking out through the cameras, they could see the immense absence of the Dark Star, all the stars in the distance hidden behind its immense, curving gulf. At this point in their journey, many ships would unfurl their magnetic sails to aid in deceleration using the system's radiation pressure, but the Dark Star emitted no radiation.
It was impossible to be sure (without getting quite close), given the lack of such precisely measurable features as gravitational lensing or spiraling, high energy clouds of matter being pulled in, but its radius was estimated to be around 3200 spans. At their current trajectory, they would pass very near it but not strike the event horizon, reaching the closest point in about half a cycle before continuing at well over escape velocity out of the system. Thus, in the unlikely event the mission needed to be aborted, they needed only to maintain their path. However, as was more likely, now was the time to perform the insertion burn to deflect their ship into the horizon. At maximum thrust, and thus soonest time of entry, they could reach the event horizon in an estimated 5 days. The ship was also probably capable, if it flipped around, of burning to decelerate until it achieved orbit, but if such a thing were attempted it would consume most of the available fuel.
In any case, they would have some time to gather and relay some data. The ship's computer banks and the crew's minds already contained all the well-known information and data about the Dark Star, but perhaps, before the voyage, some of them had conducted additional research.
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Topic: The Dark Star (Space game) [Who are "Them?"] (Read 53961 times)