The call of deep space has become a siren to Commander Altsain. Her ship, the Cosmic Flipper, has engaged in a handful of deep space (the longest an 8,000-odd light year trip) sightseeing tours, and they provide a nice break from the bustle of the core systems. Just the commander, a few hundred billion stars – and needy passengers in the cabins behind the cockpit.

Another trip was in order, but the commander did not want to take a bunch of too-rich passengers to another tourist trap. She wanted to go somewhere truly new. But where?

There were several candidates but, in the end, she opted to find out what was at the very end of the Orion Spur (the spiral arm where the core systems – including Earth – sit). So, she plotted a journey.

The tip of the spur had to be eyeballed (what would a couple of hundred light years be among friends?) but it was still a longer distance than Commander Altsain had ever travelled – over 13,600 light years. That is a fair distance in anyone’s book, and it would be another 13,600 light years back to civilisation.

Before embarking on this voyage, some preparation needed to be done, both for the ship and Commander Altsain’s various businesses.

First off, a needy (but wealthy) CEO called Mervin Banks wanted to be shunted around the core systems on a sightseeing tour, and so the Cosmic Dolphin was brought out of the hangar and flew down canyons on a lonely ice world to see its famous ice geysers…

… before stopping over at a tourist-based space station that orbited very close to a massive gas giant to witness a huge storm cloud.

The Type-10 Heffalump was also called upon to engage in some heavy haulage around Rhea, but soon Commander Altsain was free to start prepping her ship – and immediately hit a problem.

Which ship to take?

You see, every long-ranged expedition so far had been in first class on board the Cosmic Flipper. However, the commander had also been putting together a dedicated long-ranged exploration ship, the Longreach, an Asp-class Explorer. It could jump further than the Cosmic Flipper, had a Surface Reconnaissance Vehicle in its bay, and was altogether a better ship for this kind of mission.

But the Cosmic Flipper was so sweet to fly…

In the end, Commander Altsain decided to take both the Longreach and Cosmic Flipper to her friendly engineers to see how they could be tuned for exploration. Principally, she was hoping the engineers could lighten both ships (especially the Cosmic Flipper) so their jump range was extended, but Selene Jean took one look at the Dolphin-class and stated flatly that it could not have its mass reduced any further. Instead, the ship’s hull was strengthened without any mass gain (because… why not?), and Commander Altsain concentrated on the Longreach.

The combined efforts of both Elvira and Ms. Farseer were applied to the Asp, and the scanners and frame shift drive were tuned almost to perfection. With great reluctance, Commander Altsain de-mounted the two beam lasers the Longreach had been sporting to gain just a little more distance in jumps, and the docking computer was substituted for an auto-field maintenance unit (no space stations to dock with in deep space – though this turned out not to be quite true…).

The result? A maximum jump range of 47.30 light years, a far cry from the Cosmic Flipper’s now paltry 30 light years.

As much as Commander Altsain was pained to admit, the Longreach was a better ship for this expedition so, reluctantly, the Cosmic Flipper was sent back to the hangar.

With the ship ready and course plotted (331 jumps to reach the projected destination), there was just time for a quick coffee in the Ito Orbital starport bar.

And then the Longreach launched. Its aim – to find the tip of the Orion Spur…