A goodbye to Yellow, my Elite: Dangerous “copawlot”
This is the text I didn’t want to write but I knew was coming since the start of the Distant Legacy Expedition: my “copawlot” Yellow crossed the Rainbow Bridge December 26, leaving an empty Diamondback Explorer behind.
For the 9th Waypoint of the Distant Legacy Expedition 3308 organizers decided to jump to Waypoint 11, Explorer’s Anchorage, to spend there the Christmas and New Year period. I am glad they did because that’s a reachable point in the galaxy, what is not the case for Waypoint 9, where the expedition arrived yesterday.
It’s important for me to be able to reach the Stuemeae FG-Y d7561 system, where Explorer’s Anchorage, an Ocellus Starport constructed by the Distant Worlds II expedition, is situated, because what I feared most happened while we were there: my seven year old copawlot Yellow, with whom I shared seven years of adventures and many hours of Elite: Dangerous, fell asleep in my arms on December 26th, at 13.26. I last flew in Elite: Dangerous on December 24, as her health deteriorated on that day and the next, leaving us no other option than to put her to sleep, as I did to her sister seven years ago.
Me and Yellow (a “copawlot” is a copilot with paws…) had seven years of adventures in Elite: Dangerous. While I played on a flatscreen I could see how she glanced at the screen, curious about all those flashes and colors and things moving. When I moved into VR, although I could not see her I could feel her moving across my desk, her fur against my hands on the HOTAS. Sometimes she would jump to my lap, time to stop for some cuddling. Yellow slept many times right besides my working — and playing — desk so she was always present. Seven years of adventures cut short by a silent killer: PKD.
As I wrote before on this diary of the journey, I had my doubts about participating in the expedition because of Yellow’s illness, which was diagnosed last August and in five months took my dear calico cat from me. For a series of reasons, one of them being that the Distant Legacy Expedition is also about celebrating a cat and “copawlot”, Toby, who died in 2018, leaving his Commander behind, I decided it made sense to participate in what is my first big adventure in Elite, despite being playing it since early beta stage.
My dear calico memory lives at the heart of the galaxy
The pain of having to put Yellow to sleep is going to be felt for a long time, but I am glad I was close to Sagittarius A* at the heart of the Milky Way, because now the memory of my cat will live — at least for me — whenever I look at the night sky towards the teapot shape that marks the place for this supermassive black hole, situated approximately 23,000 light years away. What’s more, I can travel there in Elite: Dangerous and visit what I’ve named as Yellow’s Den.
The Distant Legacy Expedition is travelling to visit a star that is now named as Toby’s Rest by the Commander that organized the voyage. When I decided to join and fully aware that Yellow would probably not make it until the end of the journey, I decided I would pick a place wherever I would be when she departed. On December 24, the last day I played Elite: Dangerous, I stopped my Diamondback Explorer in orbit around the planet Stuemeae YJ-A c1875 B 5, a small orb not far from Explorer’s Anchorage.
On December 27, with tears in my eyes, I returned to the cockpit in Elite: Dangerous and landed on the planet in front of me. Part of the Stuemeae YJ-A c1875 system, the planet Stuemeae YJ-A c1875 B 5 was never before visited and I had the “First Footfall Confirmed” warning on my screen as soon as I stepped out from my spaceship. That and the yellowish color of the terrain were good signs that I had found Yellow’s Den. I then found a range of mountains almost encircling a spot where I landed that looks like a good reference in visual terms. Anyways, the whole planet is Yellow’s Den, and I drove the SRV to the top of one of the mountains from where I claimed the planet as Yellow’s Den.
Stuemeae YJ-A c1875 B 5 revealed itself as a good place for exobiology, despite only having two specimens to analyze. More than that, though, it’s a place I will return to, just to be closer to the memory of my copawlot Yellow. The ship’s cat is dead, and my Diamondback Explorer feels empty.
