Personal Log 5
14 Oct 2019Alexander Rozhenko
30 September 3305So the Lin Shu Hollow was just that...hollow.
I've entered my next waypoint into the Nav computer and I'm off to visit the Leviathan's Lair a bit more than 12,000 light years from the bubble. Along the way I'll stop off at four archaeological sites that I've heard about on the edge of the Hawking's Gap.
8 October 3305
The Hawking's Gap abandoned settlements are remarkably well preserved...but then without any atmosphere that's hardly surprising. Looks like they were growing vegetables using some sort of hydroponic system although there's not a great deal of sunlight at any of the four sites. I managed to hack into some communications ports and download a few personal logs. It seems there was some kind of highly secretive mission to deliver electronic equipment (maybe satellite tech) to the area more than 30 years ago. One of the logs suggested very vaguely something about people seeing ghosts! Another talked about a bunch of guys being killed in a mysterious airlock 'accident'. There's nothing to indicate what was really going on or even when or why these sites were abandoned.
A mystery for sure, but not one I'm hanging around to solve...there's so very little in the way of clues. I'll move on. Next stop Leviathan's Lair nebula...now that's what I call sight seeing!
10 October 3305
Wow! Now that was a trip. I've just spent the last few days putting the light years behind me but still managed to discover some new systems and worlds along the way. 17 new systems to my name bringing a total for this trip to well over 130 newly discovered star systems. I've just arrived at a system that I feel compelled to name. Rozhenko's Furnace is a binary system consisting of Class B and Class A stars. There are 11 planets (3 are more likely brown dwarfs) and all but four have ring systems. They're all hot worlds although one in particular I've named New Reykjavik because it has ice floating on oceans of lava. Mustafar is another planet which is basically a ball of boiling magma. Even the furthest planet has magma bubbling up through a crust of metal rich rock.
Rozhenko's Furnace
New Reykjavik
New Reykjavik close up. That's Leviathan's Lair nebula to the left
Mustafar
13 October 3305
I've spent a few days exploring and photographing Rozhenko's Furnace and moved on to Leviathan's Lair nebula. I could see it from Rozhenko's Furnace as it was only 12 light years away.
Leviathan's Lair as seen from Rozhenko's Furnace (12 ly)
Further analysis of the nebula tells me that the core of it is actually a black hole. Problem is that the jump-in point is right at the black hole. I've never done that before. Usually when you encounter a black hole it's a companion to the main star in the system, so you don't tend to arrive in system right at the black hole. This made me a little nervous as I jumped in, finger on the heat sink button, throttled right back and ready to turn away immediately on entry. Turned out there was nothing to worry about. I arrived in system pretty close to the black hole but far enough away that it gave me no problems at all.
And...as black holes go, this one was pretty ordinary. Sure I cruised around a bit checking it out but the nebulosity around it tends to diffuse the light so the gravitational lensing effects are minimal and not all that spectacular. The only exciting bit was when I got distracted by the ship's cat and nearly flew right into the black hole. I managed to pull out only a little more than 3km from the event horizon. That would have been the end of me (and the cat) for sure!
So, I'm off to my next target. There's an x-ray nova only about 1,500 light years away. I might even drop my jump range and see how many systems I can discover along the way.
Close personal log