23rd April 1893
Construction of our ninth Research Facility has been completed. Work begins on increasing our mining capacity. As the automated mining complexes can be transported to other worlds without the need for supporting population, they will be the priority, despite the fact they cost twice as much as the normal manned mines.
25th April 1893
Agincourt reports that the gravitational survey of Stevenage is complete, revealing two new jump points. She is ordered to investigate and report back.
4th May 1893
As both new jump points were relatively close to the star, Agincourt does not take long to complete her mission. The two new systems connected to Stevenage are named Belfast and Birmingham. The former has a G7-V primary, a single Venusian world and a small asteroid belt. The latter has an orange K9-V primary, six planets, two of them gas giants, and half a dozen large comets. Sir William has predicted that certain comets will contain the new minerals and their parameters have been programmed into the sensors of all our ships so that they may be identified. In this case, the comets are all at least ten billion kilometers from the system primary. Its been two years since I began this journal and am I still getting used to the concepts of programming and sensors, not to mention space travel, although it already seems difficult to remember a time when we relied mainly on steam ships and horse-drawn carriages. The younger generation in particular have taken to the new technology enthusiastically and it will not be many years before our old lives on Earth are little more than fading memories.
As the gravitational survey ships are already in Stevenage and the Belfast jump point is close to the Britannia jump point, Agincourt is ordered to escort the Newtons into that system to begin a new survey.
3rd June 1893
The Wave Knight class tanker is completed. Queen Victoria has decreed that is she is not prepared to name a ship with such a strange name so the class has been renamed the Minotaur class, with the first ship taking the class name. Minotaur
