Journey #3 - The Growing Nebula
24 Aug 2022FiveStringJeff
I've been jumping, scanning, fueling, jumping again for hours. I'm reaching the northern edge of the Norma Expanse. It's been about 1100 jumps since I left the familiar views of LP 849-20. The routine is... well, routine.I've gone about 50 jumps from the disappointing black hole that served as my last waypoint. When I aim for the next star to jump to, I rub my eyes. Am I really that tired, or does that star look... fuzzy?
I take a few more jumps. No, that's no fuzz, that's my destination - the Hawking Nebula. I'm 1100 years away and it's beginning to show up as a purple cloud in the sky.
This is the reason I made this journey, and now I can actually begin to make it out with my own eyes. The routine suddenly takes on a new purpose.
I go to make another jump, and my HUD alerts me that I'm jumping into the Trojan Belt. As I begin to scan the next few systems, my codex alerts are going crazy, telling me of all the bodies I've found in this new region. One very fortunate find was a terraformable water world with a terraformable rocky moon - although I'm not sure who will be doing much terraforming 30,000 light years from the Bubble.
My nebula is getting closer and closer, but I'm still human, and weariness overtakes me. I find a strking ice planet to land on for the night.
Hawking Nebula, here I come!