August 7th 3419 | Marcus Jones | USS Yorktown
Captain Stevensen invited Captain Flanagan and myself aboard his freighter in the Ektion system, so that we might warp to a new system in search of uranium. I stepped aboard very gingerly, remembering the fiasco of my last ride with him. Fortunately I was able to make it from the hangar to the bridge without incident. Captain Flanagan was not so lucky; he only made it halfway before he got ejected into the vacuum of space. I swear that monstrosity is held together with scotch tape and twist ties. Either that, or it's deliberately booby-trapped. (Frankly I wouldn't put it past Captain Stevensen.)
We eventually got Captain Flanagan back on board, and made it to the new system, Sionek, in one piece. (Miraculously.) The system had three planets, and we each chose one to explore first. My planet, Sabn Omega, was gorgeous: blue skies, lush green grass, and trees everywhere. You could almost take it for old Earth, except for the orange oceans. Shame the sentinels are so aggressive. In between dodging them, I was able to take a substantial number of Star Bulb cuttings before building a teleporter and heading home.
Back at home, my cactus was finally ripe, so my farmer deigned to teach me the art of Star Bulb cultivation. This soon sent me back out to the stars to mine more paraffinium. Well, almost: I'm actually searching for the blueprints to the Advanced Ion Battery, so I can build an Autonomous Mining Unit, so it can mine the paraffinium for me (I'm getting a little tired of mining by hand). Sadly, I haven't found it yet. On the other hand, I did find a gorgeous fighter at one of the space stations; after some haggling with its Vy'keen owner, the Javelin Red is now mine. Coincidentally, it wasn't long after that when I came across an abandoned craft on a planet surface. So now I'm up to three ships. This third is in very rough shape though, and I lack the resources to do proper repairs. I may keep it solely so I can get some trade-in value if I acquire a better ship later.