Perseus Arm #2
05 Apr 2019Petrenus
After a fairly uneventful voyage I reached the Orion nebula just about 500 light years from the Witch Head nebula. As well as in the Witch Head nebula there is Station located in the system PMD2009 48. I used this station as basis and did head out from there to make some jumps into several systems of the Trapezium Cluster. The nebula as well as the incredibly dense cluster of stars lead to colourful backdrops and beautiful sights in the area.
Not only are the stars and systems very close together but there seem to be also a great amount of high mass stars of the classes O, B and A emitting enough light to lead to intense colours in the surrounding gas cloud. Low jump distances make it easy to go for some round trips in the nebula suggesting that we are in a galactic nursery as the stars have not dispersed yet.
However young the cluster of stars might be there is always something that reminds us of the fact that everything seems to come to an end.
Some of the stars in the Orion nebula have burned out and collapsed into a very dense ball of neutrons. In the process though the supernova has added further materials to the surrounding cloud providing the elements for new stars and systems.
I did not land in the area for I did not have the need to gather material and wanted to visit more of the system to take in the sights and visit famous historical locations like Theta Orionis. A star that was identified a long time ago by humans even before we left our home planet behind.
After a lot of interesting encounters and impressions however it was time to continue towards Barnards loop. After a last stop at the tourist centre in PMD2009 48 I moved on. I must say that these asteroid based stations make me a little nervous. Maybe it is the amount of asteroids I have seen crack and break up in my time as a miner but I do not really feel safe in on of those stations.
The flight between the Orion nebula, Barnards loop and the Running Man Sector is really a sight to behold. The colours from the various nebulae all around that seem to be just an arms reach away is phenomenal.
Thanks to the modern FSD technology and the guardian technology that I could afford the distance between the nebulae is merely a three jump voyage. As already mentioned I was not expecting to make new discoveries on these beaten paths. The path however led me an area that could well be the end of a line for now. Looking at the Horse Head nebula in front of me I stopped and will concentrate on the navigational systems to try to plot the route to my third waypoint.
Lets see if I can make my way through or around these mysteriously locked systems. Not only will my computer not logon to the locked systems but the navigation systems seem to have a hard time finding a way around them. So I will let the ship hover for now, brew a coffee and start my trial and error process with the route finding software. Maybe if I plot a lot of short legs...