The Journal of Alan Ledford

Ulix Crossroads, Day 141

I'm entitling this little section here "The Cautionary Tale of Alan Ledford, or 'Why You Should Always Keep Your Nav Maps Up To Date'"

I haven't actually been awake for the hundred-plus days that this journey took. The navigational computer, seeing that the trip would take longer than I had supplies for, had put me into deep-sleep. It did this without warning, and of course as I've mentioned before it's more than a little work to refit the navigation computer, so I'd have to live with it until I got to my destination. Fortunately, that took very little subjective time.

My random button chooses from a list of common and popular trade hubs; places where I'd have to specifically not be looking for work, and even then be extremely persistent about it, if I didn't want a job. Of course, the whole reason I hit the button is to find a job, so they serve well in this capacity. As you can guess from the title of this section, however, it's important to keep this list up to date.

Now, if you're not a trader, you're likely in utter shock at this admission. Why wouldn't I keep my list up to date? Isn't such a list the lifeblood of any freelancer's career? The answer, quite simply, is "no". Newbies update their maps at every single opportunity, either buying them whole each time or acquiring them through one of the subscription services that are so popular. Experienced hands at this know that, fundamentally, nothing ever changes. A location is a trade route because said location is important, and regardless of empires warring, stations changing hands, riots on distant planets, etc, this is going to stay the same. Maps are expensive if you're buying them constantly and the subscription services are little better. If you're a traveler on a budget as I so often find myself being, it's easy to push them down the priority list. After all, it's rare that a true sector-changing event like the extinction of an entire empire takes place, and it's even rarer that nothing arises to fill the vacuum.

In other words, places like my current location are flukes.

Ulix Crossroads is, locationwise, extremely far away from damn near anything. It's on the edge of the galaxy but used to be, while their people still existed to staff it, one of the more popular crossroads. I'd visited it quite often, back in the day. Beyond it were the Galaxy-gates, which would - if you were patient and willing to undergo the dark-sleep - eventually take you to a completely different galaxy. Despite the risks, many people made fortunes ferrying colonists and goods there.

About thirty years ago, the entire Ulix empire vanished. The planets, the stations, even the ships for the most part remained, but every living Ulix disappeared utterly. Everyone who was there at the time - for as a bustling crossroads it had representatives from many species - could not describe the event in any more detail than for one moment the people had been there, and the next they had not. It was as though a giant cosmic switch had been turned off.

Survivors of the incident report that they then felt an overwhelmingly powerful need to leave the empire. Whether this feeling was imposed from some outside force as many believe or simply self-preservation in action is a topic that's argued loudly among historians, and until recently I couldn't care less on the matter. Suddenly, however, this particular bit of history seemed very relevant indeed.

Nobody had returned to re-start the empire for the same reason that people had left. Most people, upon traveling one of the many Lanes (still operational, strangely enough) that lead there, feel at some point a need to turn around and avoid the empire. Again, there is no explanation for this, but everyone eventually does. Those who have ventured closest to the borders report a vague blurring of their sensor returns right before they pass out. When they awaken, of course, they are heading away from the empire and, imposed feeling or not, do not want to return.

In short, the deserted remains of the Ulix empire were surrounded by one enormous anomaly. The largest one on record, in fact, and somehow I had flown through it with no ill effects whatsoever.

I did, of course, want to leave. The feeling didn't feel imposed; if there was some intelligence or machine out there whose task it was to ensure that people didn't enter the area, it's effect was either very very subtle - and according to reports there was nothing whatsoever subtle about the effect - or it had stopped working some time ago and nobody had tested it yet.

I docked with the crossroads and went on-board. Though I was suited up for the trip it turned out that not just the docking computers had remained online. Life support, lighting, gravity, even the job panels remained in perfect working order. The Ulix had long had a justified reputation for building things to last - many regard them to be one of the older species of the universe, though at some point nearly every species makes that claim about themselves - and it showed in this station.

Everyone had left in more or less a hurry. The station was packed with supplies - aged but usable - with which I could survive my return trip to civilization. It was also packed with artifacts of an extinct civilization. With these I could assuage my anguish over traveling with an empty cargo bay. It would also make up for the money I lost on the last contract. I'd also be preserving their culture, which is the excuse I'll give any patrol ships should I be stopped. I distinctly hope that won't happen, though, as they're likely to ask a lot of questions about how I got said artifacts, and I don't know the answers. I'd been in the deep-sleep when I passed through the border that usually turns everyone back, but that'd been tried before and didn't work except for this time, apparently, when it did. If the border's still intact when I get there I'm going to have a lot more questions with no answers myself, like whether or not I'll be able to get out the same way I got in.

First things first: I'm leaving this station.