A long way ... to the heart
23 Apr 2021Gregorio Cortez
It's beeen a long way since the last time I had the opportunity to talk to anyone. I left the D Scan Wll Soon B Over (V7X-88J) in the "New Zealand Cluster". It was a Hypoe Dryou OX-A b47-0 a system I've recently discovered, where I had to say that I'm leaving the expedition to go on my own, as I have planned in the first place.
The only... thing was that my next waypoint was almost 20 thousand light years away in the Soul Nebula.
It's been a long way. I found a whole bunch of undiscovered systems on my way. Some of them were discovered but not mapped, as the most significant example would be Aidoms OD-T d3-1, where I found 43 bodies, and mapped 20 High Metal Content Worlds and three Water Worlds ! A juicy piece for any explorer.
At some point the travel became a little bit terrifying. The star density around me especially in "Groeh" and "Eos Ain" sectors dropped so much that I had problems to plot any route to nearest neutron star. I had to make almost 1400Ly circumnavigation around to finally reach "Groeg" sector, and jump onto neutron highway again.
Any explorer at this place should be aware that automatic tools plotting jump path might have problems to map a direct route, and sometimes it is necessary to help yourself with non standard tools available.
Do never give up though. I was at the edge of panicking at some point, but after having some rest, calming down and changing available tools, finally made it.
And so after almost 20.000 Ly I made it to Soul Nebula and landed in the Base Camp asteroid station in Soul Sector EL-Y d7.
The facility looked even more neglected than any base I visited before.
It seemed that it had beeen intended as a logistic depot for some far deep space expeditions, but those plans were abandoned, the station changed ownership, and became a minor mining depot. I'ts also used as exploration base (that's where the name "Base camp" fits) to explore both Soul and Heart nebulas, and further into Formidine Rift.
The views are worth sightseeing. Both nebulas shine beautifully in the sky.
I made a quick detour to the other "Heart Nebula" where the second asteroid base is orbiting a gas giant.
The base is better equipped, and stocked. Some fleet carriers were spotted around, so it looks that it's a major exploration hub for further reaches. It's main official purpose is mining though. I wonder however how it is profitable this far from the bubble. The reserves in the nebula must be easily reachable, or the profits from stocking exploration ships must compensate.
I decided to do a one or two days research expedition from here to the bottommost part of the plane underneath the nebulas, and then I'm going to go of to Salome's world.